AGCO Fuse and DuPont Encirca: Helping Farmers Transfer and Use Data Seamlessly

“Farmers have a lot of data coming from many directions,” says Scott Shearer, professor and chair of food, agricultural and biological engineering at The Ohio State University. “We need to continue to make it easier for that data to be put to good use … to help producers make more informed decisions about their specific operation.”

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What doesn’t make it easier to use that data are roadblocks put in place by proprietary software and extra steps required to download and translate the information. That’s why AGCO is developing its Fuse Technologies open-architecture platform, says Matt Rushing, of AGCO Advanced Technology Solutions (ATS).

“Fuse is an open approach to decision support software,” says Rushing, the vice president, product line at ATS. “That enables growers to seamlessly integrate their AGCO equipment with the trusted service providers and software partners they use.

“It’s all about making sure farmers have choices,” Rushing says, which is why AGCO is partnering with a variety of companies that provide decision agriculture software, such as computer-based applications and agronomy services. DuPont Pioneer is one such provider working with AGCO in the U.S.

The two companies reached an agreement earlier this year that allows growers to wirelessly transfer data collected through AGCO’s VarioDoc, TaskDoc™ and AGCOMMAND® systems to Pioneer Encirca (SM) services. Essentially Encirca, a data-driven, agronomy-based whole-farm solution available for corn and soybean farmers, can seamlessly use information from AGCO equipment provided by participating farmers.

“There is a great synergy between both the companies, AGCO and DuPont Pioneer,” says Michael Sharov, senior manager, Encirca services business development and planning. “There were a number of reasons we wanted to partner with them. No. 1, AGCO is one of the leaders in the farm machinery space … and AGCO is also pursuing an open approach. That’s very important to us that farmers be able to choose.

That, concludes Rushing, “will allow each farmer to get the most out of his operation in the most efficient way possible.”