Variable rate prescriptions from Nutrien Ag Solutions’ Digital Hub can now be automatically loaded into John Deere’s Operations Center.
Cameron Holbrook, vice-president of Digital Transformation at Nutrien Ag Solutions, said this advanced connectivity between the two platforms will simplify logistics, and enable variable rate agronomic recommendations to be more easily sent to Deere equipment.
The Nutrien Ag Solutions’ Digital Hub could previously be connected to Deere’s Operation Centre through an open application programing interface, or API.
“What we’ve been working with them on is sharing with them (Deere) the needs of what we need to make the John Deere Operations Center and that AgLogic platform integrated into one solution, because AgLogic historically was not integrated into the John Deere Operations Center,” Holbrook said.
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AgLogic is a logistics and operations tool for fleets. It helps retailers manage custom application jobs.
The name of that system was recently changed to Operations Center Pro Dispatch.
It’s designed as a mixed-fleet solution, allowing a retailer to dispatch a work order and have it sent to applicators.
“This was the ability to combine those two systems together and then for us to be a first mover in leveraging those capabilities that are integrated into our Nutrient Solutions Digital Hub, and to be able to connect that data into the recommendations that we make for growers,” Holbrook said.
He said the Nutrien Ag Solutions Digital hub was launched in 2018, and by 2020 US$1.2 billion worth of sales flowed through the platform.
“In 2021, we were about $2.2 billion U.S. of revenue that flowed through the Nutrient Ag Solutions Digital Hub. And then this past year, 2022, we ended out just shy of $3 billion. So, it’s been a big area of focus for us, to make transactions simple and easy for growers to make payments,” Holbrook said.
Nutrien’s Echelon program is the company’s precision agriculture and farm management platform. It includes weather and rainfall updates; processing of yield data and data from seeding, spreading and spraying applications; a full-season (normalized difference vegetation index) biomass imagery subscription.
“It (Echelon) gives the ability for our crop consultants to write variable rate planting prescriptions and variable rate fertilizer application prescriptions that we can send wirelessly to growers,” Holbrook said.
“Then we have the ability to then view as applied data that comes back, and so that’s where the partnership and collaboration with John Deere has been critical, is to be able to enable that data to flow from the Nutrient Solutions Digital Hub, Echelon into the John Deere Operations Center and to the machinery and then to get that information back.”
He said Nutrien’s sustainability digital-platform, Agrible, helps growers enrol in sustainability programs, and that the advanced connectivity with Deere’s Operation Centre will help growers improve operational efficiency and generate new revenue streams from sustainability programs.
