How Satellite Imagery Can Improve Crop Production

/in

Are you trying to figure out where your crop production acres are struggling? Satellite imagery might be the answer you are looking for. With satellite imagery, you can narrow down the areas where crop health is lower than your better areas. Satellite imagery goes hand in hand with variable rate fertility programs because you can sample those lower-yielding areas based on your satellite images and see if there is a fertility issue. Yield data also plays part in satellite imagery because there will be similar results regarding low-yield areas and low NDVI ratings.

Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used in precision agriculture to identify crop health, such as biomass, fertility, vigor, etc. NDVI uses near-infrared and visible red reflectance captured by sensors on Landsat satellite imagery. These images are useful because you can compare them throughout the growing season.

Satamap Vegetation Index (SVI) is similar to NDVI as it uses near-infrared and visible red reflectance. The scoring for SVI ranges on a 0-1 scale. Zero represents the least vulnerable (healthy area of your field). One represents the most vulnerable (unhealthy area of your field). It benefits you as a farmer because it represents variability to the acre so you can get an accurate representation of growth and biomass in your fields.

Canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) uses satellite remote sensing technology to evaluate the chlorophyll content in crops. CCC will benefit you because it can help detect deficiencies, crop growth and health, and disease pressure. VRAFY has plenty of options that give great comparisons to fertility, yield monitor data, etc.

Here at VRAFY, we are dedicated to giving you the opportunity to raise the best crop you can. With our satellite imagery data, you can compare different images created through NDVI, SVI, and CCC. These three, along with other satellite imagery options will allow you to see how your crop is going throughout the season. When comparing the data, you can make agronomic decisions that will lead to a healthier crop. Consult with your local VRAFY dealer today to learn about the benefits that satellite imagery can give to you and your farm.

How Valuable is Your Planting Data?

/in

Have you uploaded your planter data yet?

You may have heard that the planting pass is the most important of the year, but have you considered how important the data from the planting pass has become as well? Now that many of you have put away the planter for the year, it is time to start looking at your planting data.

The first thing we need to do is get the planting data off the monitor. There is not much value to storing it on a monitor, on a bookshelf, or in a tractor. Luckily, many monitors automatically upload to cloud-based software platforms. If yours does not, export the data off the monitor and import it to the John Deere Operations Center or FieldView. If you are a VRAFY Plus or Complete customer, you can contact us, and we will help you use our simple file uploading tool, and we can take care of loading it for you.

Now that it has been uploaded, we need to look at it and make sure it is correct. Did you remember to change the varieties? Now would be the time to make any changes to varieties while they are still fresh in your mind. Also, check if the field names are correct. It is easy to correct both within the John Deere Operations Center.

Once you are done cleaning, it becomes easy to find ways to use it. For example, as you are out walking your fields, you can leverage the John Deere Operations Center Mobile App to bring up the planting maps to observe how varieties and seed treatments are affecting emergence. You could also bring up the planting speed map to compare the emergence and spacing at different planting speeds.

Having clean planting data will make yield analysis much easier at the end of the year. Comparing yield to variety, planting speed, population, and planting date all require accurate data entry.

If you are a VRAFY customer and need help uploading your planting data or using the John Deere Operations Center mobile app, please contact us.

How to Scout Using Satellite Imagery

/in

On the farm, every decision you make is to either try to improve economically or efficiently. Why would crop scouting be any different? You’ve already made the decision to scout your fields, so why not do it in the most efficient way possible?

Satellite Imagery can cut your crop scouting time down drastically by showing you where you need to look in the field to find your potential problems. Using Satellite Imagery, you can typically see crop disease, weed pressure, weather damage, or nutrient deficiencies sometimes even before the naked eye.

Find out how you can use John Deere Operations Center Mobile with VRAFY to increase your crop scouting efficiency today!

How To Decide the Right Planting Population for Your Farm

/in

Iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) is a yield-limiting factor on millions of acres per year. If you have been having issues with IDC, changing plant population might be for you. Various factors play into planting population. Moisture, nutrient availability, and disease pressure are examples of the difficulties you face when determining planting population.

Research done by universities has shown that bumping up the population in your weedy areas, as well as your iron deficiency chlorosis areas will help reduce the issue. Furthermore, reducing your population in low-ground areas where you have had white mold issues in the past will allow for the canopy to be open longer. This allows for more air-flow to get into the lower parts of the plant, reducing white mold pressure.

The general rule of thumb to consider when thinking about bumping corn population is 10 bushels per thousand. Until you are harvesting 10 bushels per thousand, you should be dropping your population, not bumping it. For example, if you are planting 28,000 plants per acre, your yield potential is 280 bushels per acre. Once you have reached that threshold, you can bump your population. Before doing this, you need to make sure your fertility is in the right place, especially potassium (6-8% base saturation).

When determining planting population, VRAFY can make your life as a farmer easier. Satellite imagery and yield monitor data can play a massive part in determining what populations you should run. For example, if you have been in a drought the past couple of years, you can use your uploaded data in VRAFY to see where you had issues. With this technology, you would find it applicable to cut back the population in those areas.

Uploading Data to Ops Center From Displays Other Than John Deere

/in

If you have field data from planting, spraying, tillage, or harvest; chances are good that Operations Center can process this for you. You can upload data from most common ag displays, not just John Deere displays. If you’re not already signed up with Operations Center, don’t worry, it’s free and our team can help you get started!

Visit our Knowledge Base, then select Customer/Grower, then Operations Center Supported Monitors and File types.

If you need help getting your data uploaded, our data experts at VRAFY are happy to help. We can show you how to upload your data in the best way for your farm to set you up for future success. Whether you measure success in tracking varieties from planting to harvest, or using your soil data to track which nutrients affect your yield.

Get Started with VRAFY Today!

Transferring Your Farm’s Data into Ops Center

/in

How do I move my farm’s data from Climate FieldView or another software company into John Deere Operations Center?

If you’re already using a farm data system that sends data to the cloud, can we just use that same data? Yes! Part of the reason VRAFY decided to use the Operations Center as our customer facing software is because it’s easy to use and easier to bring data in from any farm.

VRAFY has a team of data experts ready to help you create the software connections to easily move your data from your existing software into the Operations Center. We can also help to make sure that any prescriptions made with VRAFY can be ready for you to use, no matter what display it’s going into.

What does a Software Connection Do? A Data connection is an easy route to move data from one software to another. For instance, there is a connection for data retrieval from Climate FieldView. This connection then looks at your FieldView account every night, and if there has been new data added, it will then pull that data to Operations Center. This helps simplify your farm’s data management labor.

If you’re interested in getting started with VRAFY, we can help you get set up with your FREE John Deere Operations Center account.

How to Write Formulas in Ops Center

/in

Earlier this year, VRAFY introduced the ability to run Formula-Based variable rate fertilizer prescriptions from within the John Deere Operations Center Field Analyzer tool. You no longer need another tool to run advanced prescriptions and manually upload them. The basic process to follow is below. For additional details for each step, check out our knowledge base!

 

1. Start by bringing up a Soil Test Results layer within your John Deere Operations Center. If you don’t have these, please get in touch with VRAFY so we can discuss how to add them to your Operations Center Account. Click on the link “Create Formula Rx” from here to start the process.

2. A popup will appear with a menu of formulas. Choose your formula and adjust your preferences based on your needs. (The default preferences will work for most growers) Then click on the green “Create Rx for 1 Formula” button at the bottom of the screen.

3. At this point, VRAFY will run the formulas, send a shapefile to the Files tool in your Operations Center, and load a preview map into your Field Analyzer. The preview screen also allows you to download the shapefiles and a report, or close the preview to return to your Operations Center. You can also scroll up to adjust your preferences, then rerun your formula if you want to tweak it further. You can adjust formulas and rerun them as many times as you need.

4. When you return to the Operations Center, your new prescription, including the minimum, maximum, and total product needed, will appear in the Field Analyzer Tool. The Prescription will be automatically loaded to the Files Page and can be downloaded, sent over the air to connected equipment, or shared with a partner’s Operations Center account.  If you want to download the prescription using your phone, watch our video below.

 

Running prescriptions that factor in soil test results and yield information doesn’t have to be daunting. VRAFY’s new Formula Rx button, built into the John Deere Operations Center, makes it easy for anyone with access to the internet.

Adding Agronomy to Operations Center using VRAFY

/in

In 2015 John Deere released its web-based data management platform called Operations Center. Since then, it has seen many software updates and has become one of the most popular and user-friendly data management tools available to a producer.

A farmer can use John Deere Operations Center to actively monitor their equipment fleet, plan work in the fields, analyze yield, report acres, create guidance lines and much more. Seemingly, the only digital hole in Operations Center is the lack of agronomic data.

With VRAFY, a customer can view their soil nutrient levels mapped on each field to help understand more of the variability. Whether a field’s pH needs to be balanced or soil phosphorus levels need to be built, there is now a lens that empowers producers to make better agronomic decisions.

At VRAFY, we’ve worked with farmers across the United States, and we’ve concluded that simply viewing soil nutrient layers in Operations Center isn’t enough. We now offer the ability to create a Variable Rate prescription using agronomic formulas that are populated in each customer’s account and tailored to their region. To learn more about this exciting new feature, contact a VRAFY representative at (507) 800-0898 or click here to schedule a call.

Embracing the VRAFY Technology: Tutorial Videos

/in

In the ever-evolving world of agriculture, standing at the forefront of innovation has never been more crucial. As a farmer, you understand the importance of efficiency and precision in all aspects of farm management. Enter VRAFY, a cutting-edge solution that promises to revolutionize the way you write prescriptions for your farm’s needs.

Gone are the days when prescription writing for your farm was a time-consuming and often error-prone task. VRAFY leverages advanced automation to streamline this process, ensuring that your farm operates at peak efficiency. With its unique features and benefits, VRAFY not only saves you precious time but also helps increase your yields through precision farming practices.

But VRAFY isn’t just about saving time. By automating the prescription-writing process, it greatly reduces the chances of human error, which means that the right amount of resources is always utilized in the right place. Precision agriculture is the future, and with VRAFY, you’re not just keeping up; you’re leading the charge.

Are you ready to take your farm’s productivity to the next level? Embrace the technology that VRAFY provides, and join the ranks of those who have witnessed tangible improvements in their farming operations. The benefits are undeniable, and the return on your investment speaks for itself. Check out these tutorials to see VRAFY in action.

Create field boundaries.
These boundaries can then be used by VRAFY to Automate your farm’s prescription writing.

Using John Deere’s MyTransfer App
This Video will explain how to push data to, and pull prescriptions from Operations Center using John Deere’s MyTransfer App.

How do I get my Field Data into Operations Center?
This video will explain how you can get your farm’s field data into your Operations Center account.You can either use John Deere’s Data Transfer app, or if you’ve got your data on an iExpand Flashdrive you can use your phone to push your data!

Introducing Soil Test Results: Revolutionizing Farming Practices

/in

In today’s ever-evolving agricultural landscape, staying one step ahead is crucial for farmers. With the increasing emphasis on sustainable and efficient farming practices, it has become imperative to understand the unique composition of soils to optimize crop growth and productivity. Today’s soil testing practices creates a groundbreaking innovation that empowers farmers with comprehensive insights into their soil’s characteristics, enabling them to make informed decisions and take their farming endeavors to new heights. Powered by the latest scientific advancements and innovative technologies, the system delivers highly precise and reliable soil analysis. Through a seamless process, it analyzes multiple soil parameters, including nutrient content, pH levels, organic matter, and microbial activity. This comprehensive analysis forms the foundation for targeted farm management, paving the way for increased crop yields and reduced input costs.

But accuracy is just the beginning. Soil test results can take convenience to the next level. With an intuitive online platform, farmers can easily access and interpret their test results anytime, anywhere from their computer or smartphone. Gone are the days of waiting weeks for lab results or deciphering complex analysis reports. With this groundbreaking solution, farmers can save valuable time and make instant decisions, leading to more efficient resource allocation and streamlined farming operations.

Soil test analysis is a game-changer for modern-day farmers. Its unrivaled accuracy, convenience, and track record of success make it an indispensable tool for those seeking to enhance their farming practices. By harnessing the power of data-driven decision-making, farmers can optimize their resources, increase crop yields, and embrace a sustainable future.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to take your farming endeavors to new heights. Contact us today to learn more the VRAFY Agriculture platform today!