The Scoop Podcast: Correlate Infield Observations, Tools in the Toolbox, Yield Outcomes
Erich Eller, of Forefront Ag Solutions details how he got hooked on digital agriculture—and using precision ag tools to make in-field decisions.
He traces it back to the late 80s when his uncle bought the family farm’s first planter with a monitor.
“At 15 or 16 years old, I was hooked,” he says recalling how the Computer Trak 100 seemed like something out of the space shuttle with its blinking lights. “That was my first experience with understanding what now become digital agriculture.”
Today, Eller is founder of Forefront Ag Solutions an agronomic consulting business in northern Indiana.
He shares how his consulting business helps farmers agronomically and economically do better.
“I am really passionate about how to understand technology and make it agronomically and economically feasible for our customers to get benefits from it,” he says.
With his services of soil sampling, soil mapping, tissue sampling, scouting and drone-based sensing, Eller asks these core questions about the data collected:
- How do we use it?
- How do we analyze it?
- How do we make it profitable?
- How do we make it actionable?
With software, his team assigns profitability by management zone and tie back input use to yield outcome.
“We’re creating a digital file cabinet,” he says. “Field by field, management zone by management zone we can pull out what happened with a test strip—a nitrogen strip for example—take it to yield and measure results.”
He says this analysis is incredibly valuable to farmers as they are offered new products.
He’s bullish on the potential of remote sensing and drone-based imagery. He says nothing shows a farmer what’s possible with those technologies like seeing it for themselves.
Hear more from Eller on The Scoop podcast.
