INSERO founder Greg Guyette is another technology provider who believes one of agriculture’s biggest challenges continues to be change.
The US-based precision agriculture advocate was in Australia for the Australian Almond Conference in Adelaide this month and was targeting growers in the Sunraysia and Mallee to get on board with next generation strategies “so they know exactly where they are going”.
Mr Guyette said he never gets over seeing the expression on the faces of people who assure him their spraying programs, for example, are working perfectly.
But he said when you ask them how they know “it turns out they rarely do”.
“We have spoken to so many people who tell us ‘we knew we needed X litres for the job and when the sprayer came back it was all gone, so it was a job well done’,” Mr Guyette explained.
“But when you probe just a little bit they really cannot prove to us – or themselves for that matter – that the spray was distributed evenly each side, or if it was turned on or off at the headlands or if the operator was in a hurry to get home and sped things up a bit.
“Once you involve humans there are so many things which can go wrong.
“In all honesty, if you don’t have a benchmark as a starting point, and if you don’t have reliable, accurate data, what do you have?”
Insero designs global positioning system/global navigation satellite system and machine control products, designed to deliver vital, real-time data from any internet-connected device.
Features such as active calibration, GPS guidance and tracking, rate control, email notifications, live-tracking and compliance tracking examples of our powerful features – each product has a dedicated support line and a cadre of dedicated dealers.
Mr Guyette said Insero products were Apple-based and had integrations with agriculture businesses such as Agrian, Conservis, Chem-Man Online, Surety, MVP, and more.
As an ag-engineering company with a history based on tech support and experience, he said Insero had a major focus on bringing better training and knowledge to people.
“But understanding the customer’s needs is paramount, it is our vision is to bring solutions to users,” Mr Guyette said.
“And believe me, a solution is always required when there are multiple options or approaches to a job.
“The user’s path will be unique, requiring knowledge and understanding of all the moving parts – hardware, software and cloud or data related – and while that path can be complex, it is not complicated.
“At Insero, we do not make decisions for you, we inform you of the options and then help find the best path to accomplish the task – basic or complex.”
Tracking, Mr Guyette said, was everything.
“No tracking, no history; you have to be able to compare with what you are doing next season, and all the seasons after that,” he said.
“If you see a bad patch, the best you can do without data is simply say ‘I wonder how that happened?’ With no history, no context you’ve really got no plans.
“With no data you can’t really make accurate and timely decisions, you can’t go back and look at the issues you are faced with.
“We are finding the younger generation is more open to accepting the absolute importance of a genuine database – it can tell you if all your nozzles are working, it can tell you if half an orchard is only getting half a pass and half is getting twice what it needs.
“Farming cannot be about hypothetical agriculture, that’s why at Insero we are about precision agriculture – it doesn’t matter whether you have humans running your programs, or you are using autonomous technology, you still need tracking, you still need a baseline on which to build a more successful business.”
