Digital data helps with farm transition

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Chris Walter is a fifth generation farmer. He said they have been using Clearview (formerly Climate Fieldview) for more than five years to collect a wide variety of data. 

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“The thing I like about FieldView is it creates a digital history of every field, and that’s passed over multiple years and to me, that’s power,” Walter said. “It turns that knowledge into something that’s transferable, not just verbal, not just on a piece of paper, and that can be passed on to the next generation.”

Walter said the vegetation map is an important tool for their operation.

“Whoever’s going to be scouting, it isn’t necessarily one or the same person. Taking that another step would be seeding maps, and harvest maps,” he said. “One of the nice things that FieldView added, I believe, along the way at some point is a hail notification. Tying it back to the original one with the rainfall notifications, now I get a notification if there’s been a potential hail event on some of my land in specific areas.”  

Walter said the benefit is he can go within 24 hours and check the field himself and then contact the insurance companies.  

Bayer Digital Solutions Justin Grattin said field data gathered now can also be used by future generations.  

“You can record your seeding data, you can record your application data, your harvest data, your soil samples all in one place. If a farm has done a trial on changing different populations in their seeds or changing which chemical they’re using, while collecting all of this data, what helps the younger generation take over is that now you’re no longer having to replicate the trials that the older generation did,” Grattin said “So, now you have a clear line of sight of what has worked and what will work on that farm.”   

Grattin said the digital platforms allow older farmers to manage acreages efficiently while younger farmers inherit a detailed digital record that accelerates their learning curve and competitive footing. 

“My biggest thing with FieldView is being able to analyze it further. So, we’re really tying the agronomics of what’s happening in field, as well as the analytical part of what’s happened,” Grattin said.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com