Scottish precision agriculture company SoilEssentials is launching a new version of its online farm mapping system later this year.
The company, which is based at Hilton of Fern, near Brechin, will showcase the new version of EssentialsMap at this year’s Cereals event and at the Royal Highland Show.
EssentialsMap, which was first launched in 2012, is an online farm mapping system that allows producers to manage spatial farm data such as soil sampling, yield mapping and variable rate map production.
The new version has been developed as part of a research project known as KORE – Knowledge, Observation, Response, Evaulation – with co-funding from the European Space Agency.
The project developed a platform to combine earth observation data from a variety of sources including the space agency’s new Sentinel satellites, drone imagery and tractor-mounted sensors.
The remote-sensed imagery is captured at a range of scales from centimetre level for drones, one to 20 metres for satellite imagery and tramline width for tractor-mounted sensors.
SoilEssentials managing director, Jim Wilson, said: “Our aim with the KORE project and the new version of EssentialsMap was to create a unique white box web platform for agronomists to re-brand and tailor to their, and their customers’ own needs. We also wanted to dramatically improve the reliability and usability of remote-sensed imagery and we have achieved that with the seamless integration of multiple providers of satellite imagery, UAV images and tractor mounted sensors.”
He said the new version of the online tool was also the first cloud-based farm management system to be integrated with Trimble’s Connected Farm which allows variable rate application maps to be sent directly to the user’s Trimble console without using a USB stick.
The company is holding an open day to discuss its technologies later this month.
The event, which takes place on Tuesday May 24 at the Finavon Hotel near Forfar, runs from 10am to 4pm.
It will feature in-field activities and indoor demonstrations.