Ag Leader Technology Blog

A few months ago, we posted our first guest blog about the Value of Data from John McGuire. Today, Adam Gittins shares his thoughts on the topic.
Adam is a Precision Ag Sales Manager with HTS Precision Ag. He developed a love for agriculture at an early age while helping out on the family farm in Neola.  [...]

Across the nation this year, many areas were challenged with “off” weather. From the drought in Texas, to the record rainfall in the northeast, and wind through the corn belt, yield maps across the country likely have a different look than they have in previous years.
It is years like this that a new feature in [...]

Product Manager Aaron Frieldein discusses the new releases of SMS Desktop Software version 11.5 and SMS Mobile Software version 5.5.

I’m excited to announce the release of SMS Basic/Advanced Version 11.5 and SMS Mobile Version 5.5 Software today. The software updates include many enhancements and new features to ensure that it works with the market’s latest display firmware, make the software more user-friendly, and the ability to add new layers of information to your data collection.

Earlier this year, we introduced you to several members of the Ag Leader Software Support team (see Part 1 and Part 2 of this series). Today, meet two more members of our team that you may be speaking with when calling Ag Leader.
Adam Walters
Adam started with Ag Leader in May of 2011 as a full-time [...]

With fall upon us, another management decision that may be on your list is whether you are going to soil sample your fields. Soil sampling your fields can help you do several things. The first item that comes to people’s mind is the ability to create variable rate prescriptions based off of the lab results you receive after sampling. Another benefit to soil sampling that may not be quite as obvious is that this provides an extra layer of data for analysis. For example, you can overlay a grain harvest map with a soil sampling map and then compare the soil test value for high and low yielding areas. How much yield difference do you notice between areas that have different soil test results?

In past blog posts, we have talked about universities putting an emphasis on precision ag education. The Alabama Precision Ag Extension team is another example of an educational institution working with precision ag. This summer, they held a Management Zones/AgGIS Workshop with the goal of educating Alabama farmers on the basics of generating and properly [...]

Now that the training season has come to an end, it’s time to start thinking about crawling back into the driver’s seat of your combine.  As you are preparing for your journey to the field, I thought it might be good to share some common questions from customer training and the pre-harvest checklist to ensure [...]

At Ag Leader we believe the data you collect has a lot to teach all of us about improvements that can be made on the farm. Some of the problems on the farm will be addressed by the next generation that enters the agricultural fields. Thus, we continue to collaborate with colleges, assisting them with hardware, [...]

As many of us prepare for harvest, the list of tasks seem to increase, ranging from lining up workers, vehicle maintenance, grain handling system maintenance, and… oh yeah, setting up your precision ag equipment! Your precision ag desktop software can be used to export things like Field and Product Names, Boundaries, Guidance Lines, Prescriptions, Crop [...]

We are always looking for ways to offer more SMS trainings in different locations, during varying seasons and even in different training environments. In addition to the classroom and online trainings we’ve been offering for several years, in July we started offering a free Introduction to SMS Webinar. We’ve had great turnouts for these sessions and are proud to announce that starting in September we will begin offering Introduction to SMS Advanced and SMS Mobile Webinars.

It’s that time of year again when we start to discuss the new features coming out with the next release of SMS software from Ag Leader.  We have been working all summer on updates to SMS and SMS Mobile to add new tools and improve existing functions to maximize your time.  We hope you’ll take [...]

On August 9th and 10th, we hosted our first SMS Certified II Training Session at Ag Leader Academy.  We’ve been offering the SMS Certified I class for several years, but with the constant advances in the precision ag industry we recognize the need to provide ongoing education.
The SMS Certified II course focused on the tools [...]

There are several SMS users that are realizing the value of data on their own operation or through their business, and I’ve asked some of these users to share their stories. Today, John McGuire shares some of the ways SMS software benefits his business and the value it brings.

We are excited to announce the second annual Educators’ Training at Ag Leader Academy to be held August 3-4. This training is especially geared for colleges who are equipping students to work in precision agriculture. We have been partnering with educational institutions for many years, assisting with curriculum, software and hardware needs, and training for [...]

In one of Aaron’s more recent posts, he talked about the value of crop scouting. Scouting your crop will help you identity problem spots in your fields and help you decide if any action should or can be taken to address those areas.  Documenting information collected during scouting will help you after harvest to evaluate why [...]

I was working with a local Ag Leader dealer on a technical issue this spring, and when we had solved the matter I told the dealer we had a Knowledgebase document dealing with the specific topic in case it happened again.  I offered to email it to him so he would have it handy in [...]

In a past blog post, I recalled a story from my years working at a co-op where I was given directions to a field based on a tree and explained the importance of satellite imagery in SMS.  In version 11.0 of SMS, we have expanded on that even more and now have the capability to display [...]

There is a wealth of knowledge that can be gained from the data you are collecting in the field.   Questions can range from the simple questions of “How many acres did I plant of each hybrid? or “What days was I in the field planting?”, to the more complex ones of “How much of a [...]

Nick Ohrtman and I attended the AGRISHOW in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil during the first week of May. AGRISHOW is a large outdoor farm show similar in size to Farm Progress Show here in the US. The major OEM’s (both international and domestic) have elaborate booths showcasing their new products, and customers have an opportunity to talk with factory representatives about equipment they are interested in.