Drone Mapping With the John Deere Operations Center

By PrecisionTech Ag Professional Staff|April 16, 2020

We talked to Nick Guadagnoli, Technology Solutions Manager for 4Rivers Equipment in the U.S. about how they use the John Deere Operations Center in their everyday workflow, writes Barbara Horvatic at PrecisionAg.

4Rivers Equipment is a dealership that chooses the best suppliers from each solution category, such as John Deere, Wirtgen, Topcon, DJI, and Pix4D. “We offer sales, rental, service, parts, and training for the supplier’s product lines. The purchase of equipment is the first step but having a dealer there that offers superior aftermarket product support is key to the customer’s success,” Guadagnoli says.

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Pix4D: What do you see as the main benefits of the Pix4Dfields and John Deere Operations Center integration?

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Guadagnoli: For me as a dealer, having all Deere data as well as third-party data, like Pix4Dfields data, flow into one platform means I can focus my team of IS Solution Specialists on one product, rather than multiple products. Focus translates to much more highly skilled technical staff, rather than a staff that is “jack of all trades, master of none.”

This translates into a much more satisfied customer because they can come to us with questions and feel certain that they’re receiving guidance from very technically competent individuals with the product they’re seeking advice on. From a customer point of view, growers usually don’t have the free time it takes to become experts with multiple different farm management software platforms. For them to be efficient and develop their skills as deeply as possible, having data aggregated in one platform like John Deere Operations Center, is critical. They can rely on 4Rivers Equipment and the Operations Center clinics we host throughout the year, to help them grow their own personal competency with the product.

Pix4D: Explain the connected digital agriculture workflow.

Guadagnoli: With the new Connect feature, data can flow smoothly from Pix4Dfields to the John Deere platform. Here’s how:

  1. Plan the mission with the customer, to be sure you are covering all areas of their fields.
  2. Fly the mission and capture the data.
  3. Transfer the data to Pix4Dfields and process the captured photos into an orthomosaic.
  4. Draw field boundaries, identify avoidance areas in the field and then work through the different indexes to generate zones within the fields.
  5. Connect the customer’s Pix4Dfields account to their John Deere Operations Center account, via the Export options in Pix4Dfields.
  6. Upload the zones from Pix4Dfields to their John Deere Operations Center account.
  7. Open the John Deere Operations Center and show the customer the zones transferred from Pix4Dfields. These zones can be used to create prescription files for application of different types of inputs like chemicals, fertilizers and so on.

Continue reading at PrecisionAg.

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PrecisionTech Ag Professional, a CropLife Media Group® brand, is designed to help agricultural retailers, consultants and equipment dealers understand and incorporate precision technologies and techniques and install best business practices that help these service providers deliver high-quality, high-profit precision services to farmer-customers. See all author stories here.

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