Ag-Hub is ‘best of the best’

25 July 2011

Ag-Hub is ‘best of the best’

Agriculture web portal for farmers, Ag-Hub, has scooped up the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) ‘best of the best’ prize at its 2011 Innovations Awards.

TUANZ says with its scope to go international, Ag-Hub shows New Zealand is continuing to take the lead in the farming sector.

Farmworks Systems Ltd, the company that created Ag-Hub, is 51% owned by Ballance Agri-Nutrients whose Chief Executive Larry Bilodeau says the major win, awarded last week, goes to confirm the co-operative’s confidence in the power of the product.

“Ag-Hub is the farmers’ answer to their diverse information needs, especially those running multiple properties. It enables farmers to get as much information as possible from a very wide range of sources and use it in a way that’s best for their operation, their management systems and their production goals. It’s all about farming smarter, not harder and operating safely within the tighter environmental boundaries being imposed in agriculture,” said Mr Bilodeau.

Farmworks Director Colin McFadzean says that one of Ag-Hub's key development principals has been to achieve simplicity but present powerful information with an uncluttered interface.

“Our standards incorporate easy to understand and consistent terminology that can be easily related to the subject. Using dashboards to communicate complex information quickly, the system translates information from various farming systems and data into visual presentations using gauges, maps, charts, and other graphical elements to show multiple results together.

“Instead of multiple systems and data on standalone PCs, Ag-Hub enables a farm manager managing multiple farms to manage from a single point anywhere in the world.”

Ag-Hub captures information from on-farm recording devices such as feed readers, effluent irrigators, moisture tapes and weather stations This information is transmitted to Ag-Hub through their wireless farm network, FarmNet.

Farmers can use the tool to generate reports on things such as pasture cover, yield mapping, fertiliser requirements, water use, soil moisture and temperature, effluent nutrients, application rates, weather and animal weights. Future applications include measuring fertiliser performance against soil test information and fertiliser recommendations.

In addition to capturing information on-farm, Ag-Hub enables information to be fed into other online tools, such as the industry recognised nutrient management tool Overseer.

Operating as an open-industry portal, Ag-Hub enables other companies to build and host their applications, as well as link to other sites, so that the farmer does not have to go into multiple sites to view information relevant to that industry. Ag-Hub also deliver information to other users such as consultants, authorised by the farm owner. They can view in real time what is happening on the property from anywhere with internet access.

Mr Bilodeau said Ballance saw the potential of Ag-Hub when it invested in the company in March and the high level of interest from farmers confirmed the company’s view that it was a winner.

ENDS

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