The implementation of digital technology in farming is more an encroaching tide, rather than a crashing wave sweeping all before it – a scenario that many manufacturers had envisaged as they packed their tractors with gadgets and reduced them to the status of mere network nodes.
One major feature of this crashing wave, was that it consisted of such a multitude of systems and apps that it defied anyone’s ability to assimilate the various elements and functions that were on offer.
This is now being recognised by the major manufacturers who are starting to consolidate the technology and render it more digestible to the mortals expected to work with it in the field.
Free technology for all
New Holland is the latest company to show that it appreciates the need for greater simplicity by developing and launching its new FieldOps’ platform at Agrishow 2024, a major agricultural event held in Brazil.
The company describes it as “an easy-to-use and free platform available for mobile and web for customers worldwide to manage their machines and operation data from anywhere at any time”.
New Holland then gets to the heart of the matter by noting that it enables users to view and monitor all their machines in one place, instead of using multiple apps to manage their mixed fleet.
It is this bringing of all machines into one piece of software, without the need to swap between apps, that should prove to be a particularly attractive feature of the new platform.
Useable anywhere
Another aspect that should help with its adoption, is that through a collaborative effort with the satellite communications company, Intelsat, Case New Holland (CNH) is claiming that it will be the first to market with a system that works in regions that have poor internet access.
While this may not seem relevant here in Europe, CNH has chosen Brazil to introduce the system – a recognition that the west may slip from its position as being the primary market to be focussed on in the coming years.
Bringing real-time monitoring, remote display viewing and what is claimed to be an intuitive user interface, together into one package may well prove to be just the sort of action that needs to be taken to accelerate the adoption of digital technology in farming operations.