The use of precision technology and data in agriculture has been steadily growing for the past decade or so. The amount of data that can be collected seems endless. Many of us ask ourselves, now that I have this data what can I do with it? How can I utilize it to make my operation more efficient? The data collected by this technology can be very useful for producers. It can be used for many things, from tractor diagnostics, variable rate planting and fertilizer application, to getting instant yield data from a combine during harvest. These practices can make operations more efficient and increase yields which can bring real value to an operation.
Here at Gibson Insurance Group—Acrisure, we are wanting to bring you more value from your precision agriculture equipment by allowing you to use that data for crop insurance. We are working hard to be at the forefront with the relationship between these industries to help make your operation more efficient. With that said, we are thrilled to see the commitment that our partners have made and the progress that we have already seen.
In the past few years we have been asking producers to report their planted acres using their monitor from their tractor. Using this data will save you time filling out your acreage report. It will also ensure that your acreage report is more accurate. For example: If the FSA CLU data says that your field is 40 acres, but you only plant 37.9 acres in that field, you will only take out insurance on those 37.9 acres. This will also make your yields more accurate because you are dividing your bushels over the 37.9 bushels that were planted and not the 40 acres your FSA CLU data says the field is.
Collecting these planted acres for crop insurance can be done in multiple ways. We have the technology to connect to both John Deere Operations Center, AgLeader and Climate Field View to pull plantings from the cloud and insert those plantings into our mapping systems. If you do not subscribe to the cloud-based programs, we can also pull the planting information off the monitor using a flash drive. The most simplistic way is to record the planted acres from the monitor in some type of planting book once each field is completed and use those planted acres to fill out your acreage report. There are many options to accurately report planted acres. We highly encourage you to report the number of acres you believe are planted in each field rather than the estimated FSA acres. These options are just the start of the tools available to provide us with more accurate information to give you the best coverage this upcoming year.
If you are interested in utilizing your precision equipment or want more information on accurately reporting your planted acres for crop insurance but are not sure where to start, please give our office a call. We will be happy to assist you through the process to get your actual planted acres into our systems.
