Track and Manage Grain Carts
Libra Cart is a data management system that automatically records the date, time, weight and GPS location of each grain cart unload — providing tracking info from the field to its final destination. “It is very accurate, and the data includes fields, trucks, bin locations and, of course, weights of the crop,” says Brian Watkins of Watkins Farms in Kenton, Ohio, and CEO of CropZilla, a farm software provider. “We combine this data with truck telemetry to have a fully digital picture of our crop production and logistics.”
Sense Your Soil’s Needs
At Hebert Grain Ventures, a 30,000-acre grain and oilseed operation, a network of 12 soil probes with soil and weather sensors provide nearly real-time data on soil moisture. The sensors are connected to the Crop Intelligence platform and app, which also pulls in data from local John Deere weather stations.
“We typically keep the probes in from April to October but, this winter, we’ve decided to keep two probes in through the winter freeze to be better prepared for spring,” says Kristjan Hebert, managing partner of the farm. “The system is able to make general yield predictions based on those variables.”
Hebert says what they like about the platform is during the growing season they can actually “see” the plants wicking moisture down into their roots.
“I can pull up this data on my phone while out in the field and see projected yields changing day to day, and sometimes by the hour, depending on the weather,” he says.
Track Time by Profit Center
At Malecha Enterprises in Villard, Minn., five enterprises (including a dairy, row crops and custom manure pumping) keep 28 full-time and 16 seasonal employees busy year round. They use the BusyBusy Time Tracking System, which is an app-based software that allows them to track time, projects and location of employees and crews.
“Every employee has the app on their phone, and they punch in and out based on where and on what they are working,” says William Malecha, integrator and operations manager of the farm. “Then we pull up a report every two weeks for payroll.”
