Interoperability in Ag: Three Key Strategies for Success

Today, equipment interoperability is reflecting a larger transformation across ag.

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Shifting toward digitization, the industry demands interconnected systems and faster data speeds. In many cases though, interoperability is still being treated like a feature, when it is the infrastructure all systems are dependent on.

As this evolution speeds up, it’s important for retailers to understand where this trend is heading, and what it means.

Improved Efficiency

USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Agenda is seeking to ensure American agriculture improves in efficiency, lowers input costs, boosts productivity, and reduces regulatory burden. Precision agriculture is a key enabler of these goals.

According to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and global consultancy firm Kearney’s study, “The Benefits of Precision Ag in the United States,” today’s most common precision ag technologies provide a 5% increase in crop farming productivity, while reducing fertilizer use by 8%, herbicide use by 9%, water use by 5%, and fuel consumption by 7%. For example, the study says that for every 1,000 acres of row crops, a grower can generate an additional $66,000 in revenue per year simply by increasing productivity (yield) by 5%.

Despite the benefits, according to McKinsey Co., only 50% of growers in the U.S. have adopted precision ag technologies. As data connectivity improves, and adoption grows, the benefits grow significantly. McKinsey estimates that the digital ag market could reach $500 billion in global value by 2030.

But precision ag only scales if machines, data streams, and software work together. Interoperability is the key to the future. Here are three key strategies that ag retailers can implement for success.

Strategy One: Educate Yourself and Get Involved

With so many different manufacturers creating a wide scope of agricultural products, equipment interoperability has been, and still can be, problematic. However, it is seamless when products all share the same “nervous system,” referred to as ISOBUS.

In the early 1990s, the ag industry began realizing that by adding electronics to equipment, you could reap the benefits of precision farming. But, by adding electronics, there became a need for interoperability between those electronics. That led to the development of a standard for electronic communications between ag equipment (ISO 11783), or what became nicknamed “ISOBUS.”

Back then though, everybody interpreted the standard in a different way, creating confusion in the marketplace. This led seven original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and two trade associations to come together to address issues with ISO 11783 to solve compatibility issues in precision ag equipment. They formed the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) in 2008.

The AEF has now grown to more than 300 member companies worldwide who share the primary goal of ensuring seamless interoperability of ag equipment across brands by advancing and standardizing through ISOBUS implementation, thus making work better for their farmer customers.

Ag retailers need to understand the role ISOBUS and ISOBUS certified products are playing in the future of America’s agriculture industry. Retailers are increasingly becoming stakeholders in the ag industry’s future and can join the AEF to help shape the direction.

Strategy Two: Become a Mixed Fleet Advisor

The industry’s focus on interoperability over the years has built consumer trust in the ability to make choices based not off of brand but based off of an individual farm’s needs.

Historically, American farms would use one brand. However, mixed fleets are becoming more common as growers prioritize flexibility, cost management, and access to specific technologies. As a result, OEMs and tech providers are expanding their investment in interoperable solutions. This is helping to give the consumer more choices, and more choices in the precision ag space means more success, efficiencies, and return on investments.

The AEF has been observing a more open approach to current technologies and their implementation, as well as a greater curiosity about what future needs will emerge, and how the ag industry will meet them. For growers, that means more relevant and flexible retail choices for their individual needs.

You can become a better advisor by familiarizing yourself with ISOBUS precision ag functionalities and ISOBUS certified equipment. For example, the AEF developed a free database app showing product compatibility. It contains information on all the ISOBUS products from the different manufacturers who have passed the AEF ISOBUS Conformance Test. Using the compatibility check, not only will the database show you what ISOBUS functionality each individual product has, it will also show you what you can do if you connect all those products together.

Strategy Three: Retrofitting as a Pathway to Trial New Tech

Growers have more options than ever to customize equipment to their specific operation, and with the state of the farm economy today, interoperability enables cost-conscious solutions.

Interoperability not only allows choice for ag equipment, but the ability to retrofit technologies; to keep older equipment around longer, to extend the life cycle of that equipment, and to continue to make changes and improvements to a grower’s operation.

Older equipment can be retrofitted to work with ISOBUS-enabled implements, or growers can utilize smaller machines that already support these capabilities. Either way, growers will have access to advanced functionalities without investing a large amount of capital into new equipment.

Growers can also equip older ag equipment with the AEF functionality Universal Terminal to control modern implements. They can also add Task Controllers and GPS to enable precision applications, or install ISOBUS retrofit kits consisting of connectors, wiring harnesses and in-cab terminals that allow legacy equipment to communicate with modern systems.

An Expanding Scope

We are at a tipping point. Industry has been moving ISOBUS forward for the last 18 years, and research is showing that ISOBUS is expanding the competitive landscape, enabling new companies, and strengthening partnerships across the industry.

Building on the foundation of interoperability and ISOBUS, there will be a real need to share data faster. High Speed ISOBUS (HSI) is 4,000 times faster and will deliver greater precision for the future. The AEF estimates that HSI 1.0 will be introduced in 2028, leading to a huge wave of innovative technology and product developments as a result. When you think of digitalization and smart farming, interoperability is going to be the key enabler, and new technology will continue to be brought to the farm.

The industry will continue along with the digital trajectory, collaboratively. Interoperability is here, and its scope will continue to expand in the future. Retailers who understand interoperability will position themselves as more effective, and more trusted partners to their customers for the future.