Senior Vice President of Strategy & Business Development, LINDSAY CORP
Chuck Powell And Brian Magnusson At The Potato Expo 2018
Chuck Powell And Brian Magnusson how Lindsay Irrigation is optimizing irrigation management through FieldNET.
About Brian Magnusson
At the 2018 Potato Expo, Brian Magnusson, then Vice President of Technology Solutions for Lindsay Irrigation, presented on optimized irrigation management. He discussed the company's FieldNET platform and the new FieldNET Advisor product, which he said automates best practices developed over the past 50 years. Magnusson stated that the tool allows growers to remotely monitor which fields need irrigation, how much water to apply, and to start pivots from a dashboard. Regional sales manager Chuck Powell, who appeared alongside Magnusson, said the economic benefit is the most appealing feature for growers, citing reductions in labor, water consumption, and energy use. Powell added that the platform integrates irrigation scheduling, soil moisture monitoring, and weather data into a single system, and that the company planned to introduce FieldNET Advisor to potato growers that spring and summer.
Transcript (9 segments)
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Interviewer0:01
Hi, we are back at the I Live on Facebook at the Potato Expo. I am here with Brian Magnusson, Vice President of Technology Solutions for Lindsay Irrigation, and Chuck Powell, who is the Regional Sales Manager for Lindsay Irrigation. Brian presented a session today on 'Optimize Irrigation Management Made Simple.' So tell us about your presentation and about why irrigation is so important.
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Brian Magnusson0:34
Yeah, well, thanks Ali, appreciate you having Chuck and I here today. So the presentation was on optimized irrigation management. I think irrigation management is a topic that virtually any grower would agree is critical to maximize their yields and maximize the production of their operation. In the past, this has always been a complex and challenging task that requires a lot of work to get right. So what we've done with FieldNet and through the new FieldNet Advisor product that we've launched is we've actually automated all of those best practices that have been developed around irrigation management over the past 50 years and built it into the FieldNet platform. These are things that growers have, for the past 20 or 30 years, been doing manually in spreadsheets and tracking, and then having to manually drive out to their pivot, enter how much water they want to apply, and actually start the pivot. Well, now all of that can be done remotely. A grower can be sitting in his office, look at FieldNet, and see exactly which fields need irrigation, how much water needs to be applied to each of those fields. Then, once he's comfortable with the recommendations generated by FieldNet Advisor, he can just click 'run' right there on his dashboard and remotely start and control those pivots, and then monitor the status from virtually anywhere.
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Interviewer2:07
That's amazing. There's so much incredible technology happening right now in agriculture. And what I'm wondering, Chuck, since you're a sales manager and you're working and communicating with the customers, what I'm wondering is how the customers are responding to this technology. Does it feel intuitive to them? What's the feedback?
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Chuck Powell2:28
Yes, Ali, excellent question that we appreciate. Like Brian said, the opportunity to be here today. I've been with Lindsay 20 years, and I tell you, I've seen technology adapt over quite a long period of time. This product has really exploded for us as a company and has helped a lot of growers. We're reducing labor, we're increasing yields, we're optimizing our natural resources, which is very critical. We're not wasting and abusing chemical applications. We're adapting to a new level of record-keeping that the farmer has never had the opportunity available to them other than manual. So we've integrated all these products—record keeping, irrigation scheduling, soil moisture monitoring, weather—all this data into one platform, which is really going to be awesome and has been. We're also coming out with FieldNet Advisor, which we presented on today, and we have multiple fields already in check, ready to go in and introduce that product to the potato growers this spring and summer. So yeah, we're pretty excited.
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Interviewer3:35
So it's ready for potatoes and other crops?
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Chuck Powell3:40
We're ready. We want to make sure that we've got everything in place. We don't want to just blast it, but yes, we're ready to go to the field with that product, and it's really taking us to the next level, and the growers for that matter, for their businesses.
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Interviewer3:51
What would you say for the growers is the most appealing, the number one appealing feature?
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Chuck Powell3:58
I think it's probably more or less the economic benefit, because they're reducing labor. And when you reduce water consumption, you're reducing a lot of power. You're not only saving water, but you're saving electricity and energy. So to me, it's the economic benefit, and it's across the board. You can't just put your finger on one part of it; it's a vast degree of benefit for their business.
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Interviewer4:26
Right. Well, thank you so much for being here and talking with us at the I. This is Brian Magnusson and Chuck Powell from Lindsay Irrigation. We're going to take a little break, and we'll be right back.