Efficiency and Precision in Agriculture
By Jeff Simoneaux
LSU Ag Leadership Class XVIII
Our first stop upon returning to The Netherlands was Imants BV. They are a manufacturer of tillage equipment and have customers around the world.
We were given details of how their equipment can improve soil health. Leadership of the company takes particular pride in how they work with customers to understand their needs and helps determine what products would be the best solution. Of particular interest was the different designs they have available for pulverizing heavy clay soils that we have so much of in Louisiana.
The factory produces about 900 units a year with a staff of about 50 employees and builds each unit in the order in which they are received. We were taken through the factory and were able to get up close to all aspects of their manufacturing processes... steel cutting, bending, heat treatment, welding, paint, assembly.
To be competitive on a global scale, Imants puts top priority on factory efficiency improvements to enable their employees to be highly productive. It was evident during our factory tour that significant effort goes into keeping things well planned, organized, and clean to prevent waste. The biggest improvements were reorganizing the factory to have a more efficient layout and initiating a strong 5S policy to keep the factory clean and organized.
One challenge they continuously face is getting their products in front of the right customers to demonstrate performance. They feel they have the right product for many farmers, but it takes boots on the ground to find those customers and show how their products can improve tillage needs.
Its clear that Imants puts customers first. When a customer orders a part for service and it is not in stock, they immediately start to manufacture that part in their factory to get it shipped out that same day.
Thank you Imants BV for a fantastic tour of your factory!
We visited Jacob Van den Borne with VDBorne Farms and VDBorne Campus. Jacob gave us an excellent presentation on Precision Agriculture.
First he simplified the complex world of Precision Ag by describing it as ‘doing the right thing, in the right place, at the right time, with the right amount’. These few words brilliantly explain what Precision Ag really offers through complex applications of sensors, electronics, large data collection and complicated data analysis that is possible on almost every aspect of a working farm.
To further de-mystify Precision Ag, he compared it to doing exactly what his grandfather did, but with advanced tools and equipment. Showing his grandfather’s field logs from the 1950’s, there were daily observations on field and crop conditions and the reasons he felt contributed to the state of these conditions. These notes were used year after year to look back on what happened in the past, and why, to make better decisions moving into the future. For his grandfather to compile this data required daily walks through the entire farm with a keen attention to detail. Today, this data and more can be collected and analyzed with every pass of equipment through the field. Even drones or satellite images can be used to deeply understand what has been done on every square inch of the farm and the results of those actions.
Beyond using Precision Ag to continuously improve profit of his farm, Jacob’s vision is to use his expertise in this area for persuading government officials to support important farm issues by providing solid data to support farmers requests. He is also building a world-class campus where he will teach others from around the world on the how to adopt Precision Ag practices. Exhibition fields will show ‘farming in 100 years from now’. This will be a showcase for the latest and greatest technology in agriculture with a demonstration of their benefits and training on how to use it. Jacob wrapped up with saying… “The first question you have to ask yourself is ‘what problem am I trying to solve’”. Once you define the important questions, the technology can be applied to answer it.
Thank you Jacob! I very much look forward to seeing Precision Ag increase farm profits around the world!