How does connected agriculture concretely work on a farm?

In order to meet new environmental challenges and to face the evolution of consumption patterns based more on healthy food and respectful of nature, while ensuring mass production to meet population growth, the agricultural sector is evolving and is currently undergoing important innovation.

Driven by the development of new technologies, made possible by the Internet and connected objects, connected agriculture already has a predominant place in France, and its use is taking on a real dimension in the daily management by farmers. To meet the growing demand for innovation, the various players in the sector are constantly coming up with new and more efficient solutions.

As a real assistant in the daily life of farmers, she not only optimizes your yield, but also saves you a considerable amount of time while making your work easier. If you would like to know what connected agriculture can concretely bring you, let’s take stock of its possible applications together.

Automatic remote monitoring of your operation in real-time

Because you can’t survey your entire farm every day, connected agriculture provides you with essential information thanks to its sensors, allowing you to know precisely the state of your farm or your livestock in real-time: moisture content of the soil, presence of pests, etc..

The sensors can be easily placed on the existing installation in just a few minutes. We recommend the sensors to be installed directly outside the silo, because internal radars or probes are sensitive to dust, which can cause a malfunction. The collected data is then digitally transmitted directly to your mobile application.

Thanks to the application, you can also record all the interventions you carry out on your farm for a regular and serious follow-up of your data, but also, to analyze the effects of your actions and optimize your agricultural processes for precision farming, for example by integrating sensors indicating the quantity harvested in weighing and volume, or recording the production volumes of your milking robots and checking their quality automatically.

Better supply chain management

The management of stocks (fertilizers, chemicals, animal feed, production, etc.), is a real challenge for farmers in order not to run out or to avoid excess material, which in the long run, generates a real economic loss. The use of connected farming allows an optimal management of your stocks with the help of sensors installed on your tanks, cisterns or other containers.

The sensors transmit your stock data in real-time to a so-called intelligent application. This interface is fully adjustable and allows you to define an alert threshold to inform you of a risk of breakage. You can also see the level of filling required directly from a distance in order to place an order. In addition, as you can integrate all the data collected from your operation, the application is able to calculate the working capital required for your activity in order to better anticipate your needs and avoid any shortages, especially at weekends when deliveries are more difficult to organize.

Be aware that some solutions can automatically make the order for you, and even group them together to limit delivery times and costs.

Finally, because some of your products, such as grain, need to be stored in optimal conditions, the sensor can also send you an alert as soon as a condition no longer meets the criteria, for example, an increase in temperature or humidity in the silo. The use of the connected agriculture adapts to each sector (livestock farming, viticulture, agriculture, aquaculture, etc.).

Automatic management of your time-consuming tasks

A true personal assistant in your daily life, the connected agriculture and its mobile application saves you time and facilitates your work by automating certain tasks, allowing you to focus on your core business. Among other things, connected farming allows you to :

• to carry out automatically your phytosanitary inventories;
• to benefit from a precision weather forecast;
• remotely manage sowing and harvesting tasks ;
• to remotely trigger, or by setting alert thresholds on your application, the irrigation of your farm;
• to automatically place and group orders for agricultural equipment without any intervention on your part;
• to be alerted of technical malfunctions.

In this way, connected agriculture allows you to stay in line with regulations that are constantly evolving and to automatically send the required administrative documents: spreading plan, manure, grazing book, phytosanitary register, etc.

Greater security of your operation thanks to remote control

Because no one is safe from a malicious act, such as theft for example, or more simply a technical problem, connected farming allows you to be informed of everything that happens on your farm in real-time:

• technical malfunction on your tanks or silos ;
• agricultural tools that go outside the defined area ;
• follow-up of your breeding ;
• detection of human errors ;
• etc.

A self-help community of connected farmers

The use of connected agriculture has a collaborative space between farmers and agricultural agents. This private network allows you to :

• to exchange with your peers on current events, a problem encountered or simply to maintain a link, because the farming profession is a solitary one;
• to obtain advice or feedback;
• to benefit from advantageous prices thanks to the group purchase of the network of products or agricultural tools ;
• the loan of agricultural equipment ;
• of online training services;
• etc.

Reducing your carbon footprint and impact on the environment

From an environmental point of view, one of the main applications of connected farming is to optimize the performance and efficiency of a farm by promoting short circuits, facilitating the connection between farmers and customers. Today, consumers are more interested in healthy food and its origin, and connected farming allows farmers to communicate more easily about the crops they grow.

In addition, improved management of your supply and production chain, localized treatments of your plots (allowing you to reduce preventive and regular spraying), better evaluation of fertilizer use, or better control of your livestock’s feed, will allow you to considerably reduce your carbon footprint and consequently the impact of your activity on the environment.