Agrimetrics shows Data Combine benchmarking app at Royal Norfolk Show

Agrimetrics is developing a benchmarking app that uses industry data to compare performance. It will be demonstrated at the Royal Norfolk Show’s ‘Innovation Hub’ on 28-29 June.

What could I have done differently? Farmers often contemplate this question – a gap exists between theorised maximum crop yield and the result in reality. To narrow this distance, big data centre Agrimetrics is developing ‘Data Combine‘ a benchmarking app that uses industry data to compare performance. It will be demonstrated at the Royal Norfolk Show’s ‘Innovation Hub‘.

Agrimetrics has defined the core datasets that are essential for different agri-food applications – including soil maps, meteorology (historic and forecast), field parameters, land use and environmental surveys – and has captured this data in a consistent format on its data platform. This allows diverse datasets to be used together to reveal new information.When farmers were asked what they would find most useful, benchmarking performance proved to be at the top of the list.

Agrimetrics Data Combine

David Flanders, CEO of Agrimetrics, explains: “Farmers said they wanted the app to be compatible with other industry benchmarking schemes; to offer a high degree of security and anonymity for farm data. It provides a transparent source of industry data, so its credibility and relevance can be easily assessed.

“Agrimetrics Data Combine, is our new app that includes all these elements and also allows users to define their own parameters. By demonstrating the app in the Innovation Hub we aim to gain more opinions from the industry to improve the functionality further.”

Benchmarking performance

Although potential yield can be calculated using factors such as crop variety, soil type, available light and water, actual yield is influenced by other factors such as date of crop emergence and disease threat. Allowing the farmer to select the elements most relevant to him or her provides a much more powerful tool.

Aggregating real world input and making it anonymous, enables farmers to compare their performance against others. The more farmers that use the system the more representative it will be of actual farming practice and the opportunities for on farm improvement will become apparent.

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Agrimetrics is developing a benchmarking app that uses industry data to compare performance. It will be demonstrated at the Royal Norfolk Show’s ‘Innovation Hub’ on 28-29 June.

Input from farmers

Agrimetrics has held several workshops to gain input from farmers. For instance, a recent feature is the ability to create a report with options to use results obtained for a particular field, part of a field or the average yield across all the fields.

By creating a prototype Andy Jenkinson, Head of Technology at Agrimetrics says that more people will see the potential for developing their own devices: “The data platform is designed to be open so, just like Lego, the components can be used to build new applications. Our Agrimetrics Data Combine app is like a Lego car set: you can build the car, but software developers are not limited by our imagination – they can also use the bricks to build something else entirely.”

The Royal Norfolk Show

The app, influenced by farmers’ direct recommendations, can be viewed at the Innovation Hub’, hosted by Agri-Tech East and the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association (RNAA) on 28-29 June, at Stand 271. The Hub will showcase emerging agri-tech, from players such as NIAB, Smartbell and Crop Angel.

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