“You have to know what you want to improve and keep an eye on where your company has potential. When farmers start doing precision farming, they often choose machinery first, but don’t look at added value. It should be the other way around,” he says. Jacob van den Born.
Van den Born farms at Reusel in Brabant and took his first steps in precision farming and farming using his company data over ten years ago. In addition, he is a member of the National Laboratory for Precision Agriculture (Nppl) and the founder of the Practical Center for Precision Agriculture in Reusel.
According to the entrepreneur, much is already technically possible, and precision farming is becoming more and more applicable. “Each brand has its own data structure. The Agrirouter information platform allows farmers to exchange data between machines and software applications from different manufacturers. Great progress. Data expansion used to be a problem with USB sticks, now everything is in the cloud. Agrirouter and isobus make it much easier data processing.’
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Webinar cultivation using data, these are the latest developments
In agriculture, more and more work is being done with digital tools. Reliable data helps farmers and gardeners make more informed decisions. But are the solutions consistent with practice, what solutions are under development and what pitfalls does the sector face? In the Nieuwe Oogst and Bayer webinar, experts answer these questions. One of the panellists is Cindy Van Rijsvik. She is a global strategist in the vegetable, fruit and floriculture sector, as well as in the agricultural supply sector at RaboResearch Food. Ook Venture Leader Roel van Summeren van Beyer Plant science Vegetable seeds schuift aan. This company grows vegetables and develops digital growing tools. Van Summeren leads the APH project, which develops and markets digital decision support tools for high-tech crop management. In addition, the farmer Jacob van den Born from Reusel will speak. He is a member of the National Laboratory for Precision Agriculture (Nppl) and the founder of the Practical Center for Precision Agriculture in Reusel. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, January 25, from 19.30 to 21.00. You can sign up here: Data Driven Growth: These are the Latest Developments
Van den Born believes that precision farming should also be easily applicable to older non-isobus tractors. It is a communication protocol that allows different agricultural machines to communicate with each other in a common language. “It would make growing with data more attractive to farmers. Not everyone has a modern tractor. Older tractors should be easier to assemble for data collection,” he says.
If precision engineering doesn’t add anything to your business, it won’t do you any good.
JACOB VAN DEN BORN, FARMER IN REUSEL
Knowledge of precision farming and the motivation to start it is still a challenge, says the arable farmer. “As a grower, you need to know what you want to improve, where your farm has the most potential, and whether you can improve it with precision farming,” he says.
“Farmers often choose technology first and only then look at added value. It should be the other way around,” continues Van den Born. “If technology doesn’t add anything to your business, it won’t do you any good.”
Control method
The Van den Born area in the Brabant de Kempen region covers 600 hectares of arable land, grown mainly in potatoes and sugar beets, corn and cereals. “For me, precision farming is a way of managing. I take all the measures that you can think of. Without precision farming, my business with three hundred plots with an average area of 3 hectares cannot be launched,” he explains.
