Internet brings farm
management alive
This agronomic consultant outlines how his clients
use the Web to make more money.
Ask Rob Saik to name the most challenging
part of farming today, and his answer
comes fast: resource allocation.
With all the complex variables at work,
he believes the toughest job is how to
decide where to invest time and money
in order to maximize financial returns.
To come to grips with these crucial
decisions, many Canadian farmers work
with Saik’s firm, Agri-Trend Agrology,
a network of 90 professional, independent
agrologists operating from B.C. to Ontario
and into Washington State.
“The purpose of our network is to provide
leadership to farmers in the area of
resource allocation,” says Saik. “We are an
organization with a great deal of scientific
and practical background, and we use the
Internet to put this information to work
for the farmers who are our members.”
From data collection to benchmarking
Agri-Trend’s main analytical tool for
resource allocation, the Strategic Crop
Plan (SCP), is delivered to farmers through
the firm’s agrologists, known as Agri-
Coaches. These consultants provide
individual recommendations on fertility,
seed selection, pest control, field
operations and other agronomic matters.
Beyond the flesh-and-blood expertise of
these consultants, Agri-Trend provides
members with a range of electronic tools
for data gathering and analysis. One is
called MySCP Netware, a fully integrated,
encrypted data management system.
This system generates unique
identification numbers for each field.
These ID numbers can be attached to
any type of activity, from soil tests to
planting to harvest. In the case of a soil
test, for example, a bar code unique to
each field allows for the instant exchange
of soil fertility information between the
lab and farmer.
Agri-Trend’s field-by-field system can
be used to track the impact of different
actions on the production and
profitability of each field. Significantly,
it calculates a unit cost of production
for each field, by crop. Farmer-members
can track these costs over time and see
how they are influenced by changes in
crop management recommended by
their Agri-Coach.
“By and large, people don't have a great
grasp of their unit cost of production,”
says Saik. “Rather than look at cost of
production as just accounting figures,
we look at it from the ground up, on a
field-by-field basis. Growers find this to
be a very fresh approach and they can
easily see how management changes
influence their cost of production and
profitability.”
Other Agri-Trend tools include a Pocket
PC application that allows producers
to capture information in the field and
synchronize it with their MySCP Netware.
The firm also uses the Internet to provide
just-in-time member service. Suppose a
member has an urgent question about,
for example, corn damaged by a 2,4-D
application. Using Agri-Trend’s internal
network, up to 90 agrologists can look at
the question simultaneously, and get an
answer to the farmer in minutes.
With its members farming a total of more
than 2 million acres, Saik believes that
Agri-Trend is one of Canada’s largest
agronomic consulting companies.
Over the years, the firm has developed
a substantial database on the production
and economics of key crops. This allows
Agri-Trend to benchmark economic
and production patterns based on the
characteristics of certain soils or
production systems.
According to Saik, when key resource
decisions need to be made, this is the
kind of information today’s farmers want
and will pay for.
“Our members tend to be aggressive,
independent-minded and normally have
multiple farming or business operations,”
says Saik. “They are asking the hard
questions about their crops, and looking
for science and experience to improve
their profitability.”
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