Grain Growers : announces Australian AgTech first

Grain Growers Limited has today announced the availability of a digital agriculture first with a major software project to enhance the decision support capabilities of its online cropping platform ProductionWise.

For the first time, Australian growers will have the ability to use one online platform to access normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) imagery in combination with powerful yield forecasting, weather analysis, farm planning, record keeping and crop adviser interaction services.

'The new feature enhancement is part of a strategic push by GrainGrowers to capture the core value of our digital platform and establish it as a leading provider of decision support tools that benefit Australian grain growers and their business partners' GrainGrowers Commercial Manager Nick Bryant said.

The NDVI feature integration will be available inside ProductionWise accounts as of Tuesday December 13. The feature will be powered by the software capabilities of PASource, a precision agriculture business that was co-founded by grain grower and researcher Dr Ben Jones whose business was acquired by GrainGrowers in June 2016.

The integration of NDVI imagery into ProductionWise will allow Australian grain growers and their business partners to make faster, more effective farming decisions, all from the one digital service and all from the convenience of mobile app based devices.

Specific features will include:
• Timely set-and-forget image delivery
• Paddock zoning - targeted input application
• More efficient crop inspections
• More informed decision-making
• Identify potential areas of frost and hail damage
• The ability to build an image library for historical comparisons

As part of the initial product rollout, GrainGrowers is offering all existing and new ProductionWise users access to 1000 ha of 2016 season imagery for no charge.

ProductionWise is a multi-featured, cloud based tool that allows users to record on-farm activities, plan operations, forecast yields for a range of crops and assess crop performance more efficiently.

Mr Bryant said the integration of PASource into ProductionWise was an important step forward for the GrainGrowers digital platform and was one of a number of planned enhancements for the AgTech product in 2017.

'Recent digital technology advancements have moved global agriculture into an era of rapid and unprecedented change. Our view is that continuing to improve our suite of farm business decision support products should be an important area of focus for GrainGrowers in the foreseeable future. We are currently working on a set of product level improvements, re-structuring the way our services are priced and we are partnering with agribusinesses that see the value in our crop level decision support products' Mr Bryant said.

Visit www.productionwise.com.au

MEDIA CONTACTNick Bryant
P 0431 086 246
E [e-mail]