Staying Competitive by Reducing Time In-field

How productivity is maximized with path planning technology

As a grower, you know how important it is to get the most out of every day and every effort. Each aspect of the job is considered to maximize productivity from seed to harvest, and this includes labour. 

Growers are continually faced with the challenge of covering as much land as possible, a task made even more difficult with a shrinking workforce. Once you do find new staff, teaching them the operation of more intricate equipment takes time and effort. How long does it take to trust their ability on the sprayer or the seeder? 

More isn’t necessarily better

Dealing with additional people or expanding the skills of the existing workforce can be time-consuming, but so can the purchase and commissioning of newer equipment. This means that there’s a mounting need to streamline both labour and equipment. 

While the right machine such as tractors and harvesting tools make the process of planting, maintaining, and harvesting more efficient, the capabilities of your equipment do rely on efficient planning and in-field operations. 

Enter: Path planning

The ability to path plan is an effective answer to this efficiency challenge. Path planning can impact a grower’s ability to farm more land without more equipment or more humans because it makes the most of every movement. 

Through proper path planning and optimized in-field operations, Launch Pad allows farmers to reduce the hours and miles spent on each piece of equipment, reducing spending on fuel, wear and tear, and repairs. In doing this, Launch Pad’s path planning capabilities extend the lifespan and reduce the cost of farm equipment.

Path planning is an answer to farmer’s labour woes, as well. Launch Pad’s path planning technology simplifies equipment use, making it possible for farmers to use workers with less operator experience. 

Take Delage Farms, for example.

Path planning has allowed for a much more efficient harvest operation on the Delage Farm. 

Using path planning technology, the team at Delage Farms has increased the average acres each machine harvested in a day and simultaneously reduced the need for back-and-forth team communication in-field. 

In 2020, Delage Farms saw a 13% increase in the number of acres harvested by each machine every hour they were working even with a drop in average speed when compared to the previous year. 300 fewer separator hours later, Delage saw a substantial $67,000 in savings. Read the full case study here.

Make the most out of harvest.

Optimize your entire operation with the ability to plan, manipulate and tweak path plans for each production cycle. It’s especially important to take control of efficiencies during harvest when your time is important and your resources are at capacity. 

Measurable improvements in efficiency are possible with path planning technology. Watch these videos or book a demo to learn more.