Company Spotlight: Precision Decisions

“We have worked with the Satellite Applications Catapult to develop new skills and services for our business that we would not have done previously without the specialist insight and support it provides to allow us to utilise space data to provide information to our clients.”

Clive Blacker, Director, Precision Decisions

Agriculture is a complex science with farmers and agronomists having to manage multiple variables, some of which such as the weather, they have no control over. The complex environment enables the capture of a multitude of data sets from different and disparate systems all of which need to be unscrambled to provide insights to challenge thinking, and drive decisions around costs, outputs and variability.

Precision Decisions are a precision farming service business, part of the Map of Ag Group, supporting arable farmers across the UK to measure and manage variability. They help farmers integrate different technologies, supporting the mapping and measurement of crops utilising sensors, soil analysis, remote sensing and data systems to qualify the causes of variation and support farmers to target appropriate actions to treat them.

Utilising space technology the business supports their clients in 2 main areas:

Positioning

Capturing data at a specific position enables yield mapping and soil sampling giving the farmer the opportunity to capture data about variability of crop performance to direct further accurate analysis.  

Yield mapping, a key component of precision farming systems, quantify the effects of management and allow land managers to view spatial variation across fields, identify areas for future action and the effects of the previous seasons management.

It also enables them to accurately position vehicles with automated steering systems allowing massive improvements in efficiency, fuel use and wear and tear on machines, whilst also supporting precise applications of seeds, fertiliser and plant protection products by sophisticated computers allowing specific issues to be monitored and treated.

Remote Sensing

Monitoring the environment from afar via remote sensing provides farmers with data around weather systems as well as visual images of crop growth patterns in near real time to support decisions around the application of fertilisers and the ability to adapt levels as required across individual fields.

By combining multiple datasets into a common online mapping portal, MiFarm, they provide farmers with a farm and land management tool that offers multiples layers of data to help manage decisions.  The platform includes satellite data in the form of variability assessments, YARA N-Sensor maps and also supports the automatic uploading of soil sampling results from the lab, to enable farmers to improve farm yields through better crop management, increasing farm profitability and reducing negative environmental effects by improving the efficacy of application of inputs.

For more information about Precision Decisions, visit their website.