A Farmer's Journey to Smarter Agriculture with Augmenta

2023 | September 21

In the heart of Canada’s farmland — amid endless fields of grain, pulses, and oilseeds — there’s a farmer who has embarked on a journey to embrace the future of agriculture and leverage the benefits that automation provides to farm operations. Brady Fahlman, a fifth-generation farmer from Holdfast, Saskatchewan, has harnessed the power of the Augmenta field analyzer, the newest addition to Raven’s Sense & Act portfolio.

Brady’s story is one of innovation and the quest for a better way to manage his farm and increase productivity and profitability. Augmenta caught his attention with its ease of installation and compatibility with the most common machinery. “As soon as I saw Augmenta, and they said it spans 138 feet, and it’s a camera – it goes on top of the cab, and we’re not changing booms or adding a bunch of stuff to the sprayer, that was – to me – the easiest solution. It’s the simplest to put on. We installed it in our own shop. The ease of putting it on was definitely a big upside for us,” he said.

While using Augmenta’s Harvest Aid and Fungicide VRA services, he noticed the immediate value that the system brought to his operations. “Augmenta is a very interesting product because when you start talking about fungicide applications and desiccation, there’s an immediate ROI – which makes it very easy to understand how it pays for itself,” he commented. “I can look out the window and I can say, okay, I know that spot needs fungicide. And then I look at the monitor and Augmenta’s doing exactly what it should: it’s getting the high rate of fungicide in the areas that it needs. Augmenta took the guesswork out of deciding whether we were going to spray our lentils or not. We knew we were going to spray them, and we had some range at the right time. We just went out and did it and knew that it was going in the right place and applied at the right spot,” he explained.

Augmenta: Innovation Farmers Can Trust

Farmers that are searching for new technologies often find it challenging to adopt ones that are reliable and easy-to-use without excessive operational overhead or second-guessing. By utilizing Augmenta’s technology in his operations, Brady Fahlman realized Augmenta’s immediate impact on his operation and put his trust in it. “We, in a very, very short time, trust that Augmenta is going to put the right amount of chemical in the right spots, bring the crop in even, and we just go spray the whole thing. We don’t think twice about it again,” he said.

Taking Steps to Their Path to Autonomy

For Brady Fahlman, new ag technologies and products are not a new addition to his operations. His family has been an early adopter of the latest technologies, building their own Path to Autonomy. As a progressive operator, his dad installed solutions that would help him increase productivity and profitability. Using Raven’s Field Hub 2.1 to Viper® 4+ displays, and other Raven tech products, Brady has seen the ease and efficiency that autonomous solutions provide.

For us, the next natural step is autonomy.
— Brady Fahlman

“We wouldn’t be capable of doing the number of acres and be as efficient on what we’re doing right now without automation technology. But to take the next step - not even for growth, but even to do a better job of what we’re doing right now - autonomy and all this tech are necessary to us. For us, the next natural step is autonomy,” he said. “A lot of conversation in autonomy is focused on labor, and it’s true. Seasonal labor is hard to find. And when we throw in tight weather and application windows, it’s even harder to have that labor ready when we need it. So, autonomy, to us, is the necessary step to prove the efficiency of our farms. If we can get guys out of the cabs, we can use the labor that we already have more efficiently by supporting this equipment. That’s really what we’re looking for when we see autonomy fitting in our farm,” he added.

Where are you on the Path to Autonomy?

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