Use of Data Management Software on Canadian Farms Jumped in 2018

This past winter, Stratus Ag Research released the 2018 Dynamics of Data in Agriculture report. This report is designed to track the use and perceptions of field data management software platforms available to today’s farmer.

We interviewed 1,560 farmers from across North America and gathered software user perceptions of the major field data management software brands on the market today.  Including Cimate – FieldView, AGRIAN, AgFiniti/SMS – Ag Leader, John Deere Ops Centre, Trimble Ag Software, Syngenta – AgriEdge, FCC – AgExpert Field, Farmers Edge – FarmCommand, Farm At Hand and many others.  The following are a few of the key insights derived from the reports.

• Software use is rapidly expanding in Canada especially among younger farmers, those who manage large acre farms and among those who use an independent crop advisor. 
• In the United States use of software plateaued in 2018; use was already significantly higher than Canada with over 60% of farmers using a field data management platform.
• ½ of today’s software users are using more than one brand of software.
• Yield mapping is the most used software feature, but use of features varied widely among the different software platforms.
• Intentions to adopt new software in the next 3 years vary by geography; from a low of 33% in western Canada to a high of 45% of farmers on the US West Coast are in the market. 
• Interest in using new software platforms is coming both from non-users, as well as users who are intending to make a change to how they are managing their farm’s agronomic data today.
• Brand awareness is very low and most farmers lack familiarity with the different software platforms that are on the market today.

Industry benchmarks on software adoption, brand awareness and brand perceptions are delivered in this report.  Understanding how farmers intend to use the software, the benefits they expect to receive, the features they are most interested in and the factors that will ultimately drive their decisions on which software to use is critical information for the development and marketing of digital ag solutions.

The Dynamics of Data in Agriculture report delivers actionable insights that clients can use to:

• Establish clear positioning in the digital ag space based on factors that drive farmer decisions.
• Consider the demographics of today’s software user in company growth projections.
• Determine key features and benefits to focus in on with company sales and marketing tactics.
• Assess the impact of their advertising campaigns; provide guidance to communication agencies.
• Measure user perceptions of software strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors.