End-to-end asset intelligence: How to track your equipment throughout the agricultural logistics management

By providing the opportunity to combine their resources, agricultural cooperatives pose a win-win situation for farmers and their communities. 

Though it offers many benefits, a farm co-op also presents unique challenges, one of which is tracking the many pieces of borrowed and rented equipment that moves between sites.  

Losing track of your equipment can result in gaps in productivity and increase equipment rental costs.  

In this second installment of our three-part series on tracking assets throughout the corn-production process, we explore the agricultural piece of the puzzle. We’ll also address how you can track your equipment every step of the way.  

This blog focuses on the second phase of corn production: agriculture. Don’t forget to read the rest of the series: Part 1: Fertilizer mining

Read on to learn about the equipment involved in growing corn and how to track all your assets throughout the process. 

End-to-end agricultural equipment tracking 

Corn farming requires a wide variety of assets and moving parts. Keeping tabs on all your equipment is impossible without the right technology. Here’s how Geoforce’s devices and mobile- enabled software help you track all of your farming equipment’s location and utilization:  

Fertilizer disbursement 

Once fertilizer arrives at a farm, it’s ready for the field.  

Agricultural co-ops usually use fertilizer carts, which distribute nutrients onto crops, and anhydrous ammonia spraying tanks, which distribute nitrogen. Farm cooperatives also rent out equipment, including pesticide and herbicide sprayers, to help farmers protect their crops. 

Along with these apparatuses, farmers also use field vehicle, fertilizer carts and maintenance trucks if and when they ship fertilizer directly to customers. 

Tracking benefits: Farmers commonly rent out or borrow disbursement equipment, but moving multiple assets from site to site can make it easy to lose them. Tracking these assets helps lenders minimize loss and borrowers avoid late rental return fees. When transporting fertilizer offsite, separately tracking the vehicles and carts can provide near real-time shipping statuses and insight on delivery timelines. 

Off-season crop maintenance 

During corn’s off-season, farmers rework the land and till the soil using equipment such as plows. 

To preserve their soil, farmers sometimes plant and manage cover crops using a no-till drill and ground broadcaster. Farmers may also install tiling, which entails underground plastic piping, essentially creating a drainage system that moves water away from over-saturated soil, into a drainage ditch. Tracking spools of tiling, along with the trailers and vehicles that pull the tiling solution, helps farmers keep an eye on whether the pipes need cleaning or move out of place. 

Tracking benefits: Geoforce devices are also compatible with a variety of maintenance equipment. Tracking these assets can help keep agriculture operations running smoothly. 

Start tracking your farming equipment 

Whether you’re an agricultural producer, rental company, contract farmer, or a service provider, you have a lot of assets to keep track of.  

Losing them can cost valuable time. 

Join other agricultural companies who track their equipment with smart solutions from Geoforce. Get a quote today. 

See how you can track equipment throughout your entire crop production process by reading the rest of this three-part series: Part 1: Fertilizer