For growers

Seed Rate planning

Create bespoke seed rates to match contracts, marketable yield requirements and harvest dates.
Easily updatable. Modify seed rates for changes to date of planting or target market.
Account for all physiological factors.

Crop Forecasting

Attainable yield forecast from date of emergence.
Prediction of tuber population from early season stem counts.
Final marketable yield and size distribution forecasts.
Scenario modelling and ‘what if’ analysis.

Irrigation Scheduling

Manage crop value. Optimised schedules for efficient scab control and yield.
Update schedules on demand 24/7, adjust irrigation as weather changes.

Contract and crop value analysis across the season

Understand likely commercial impact of crop development from emergence.
Proactive crop management decisions to maximise crop value. Burndown scheduling.
Early insights allow time for commercial negotiations and scenario planning.

Simple data collection, maximum insights

Only collect agronomically relevant data.
Groundcover from satellite imaging (for use in yield forecasting, irrigation scheduling).
Automated sizing of yield samples from video analysis machine learning.

For supply chain

Connect to the grower base

In season comparison of grower, regional and varietal performance.
Strategic management of sustainability objectives.

Seed Management

Manipulate seed stock production to exploit seed physiology in ware crops.
Improve efficiency of seed allocation to ware growers.
Create bespoke seed rates to match contracts, marketable yield requirements and harvest dates.

CROP FORECASTING

Understand commercial impact of growing conditions from early in the season.
Manage supply chain risks ahead of time.
Evidence based procurement decisions in-season.

REDUCE SAMPLING, INCREASE INSIGHTS

Replace intensive field sampling programs.
Automated data collection tools.
Updated forecasts through season.

How does Crop4Sight work?

The proportion of marketable yield in the biological yield of a potato crop is an agronomic outcome of its development and growth across the season. Crop4Sight is an integrated suite of forecasting tools enabling growers and agronomists to manage these agronomic factors. This results in improved commercial outcomes and delivers efficient stocks into the supply chain.

Crops are most sensitive to changes in agronomic management in the first 50 days after emergence. Therefore, forecasts of crop growth are essential when managing crops to achieve target marketable yields and profitable crop value. Correct crop planning and early forecasts allow for effective adjustments to be made, where necessary, in response to measured crop growth and the season.

All our tools are developed using defined relationships quantified by independent applied research.

Crop4Sight makes decision making easier – all season long

Managing stem and tuber populations for optimum marketable yield

Optimising marketable yield requires the biological yield and tuber population to be adjusted for the commercial requirements of the crop (which size fraction is most valuable), yield potential of the field and type of seed being used.

Too many tubers for the target biological yield and the crop tuber size will be too small. Not enough tubers and crop tuber size will be too large. Both reduce marketable yield and crop value.

The stem population of a crop is the primary control for managing tuber numbers. Using the correct seed rate, accounting for seed size and age is essential for establishing the required target stem population. Crop4Sight’s seed module combines agronomy and commercial requirements to create your required seed rates.

Early season stem counts reforecast the tuber population. This allows early-season decisions on crop nutrition and season length to be amended, if required. Mid-season yield samples measure the actual tuber population and are used to forecast progression of marketable yield to the end of the season. Adjustments to burndown schedules can be made to achieve optimum marketable yields.

MST
crop4sight sprinkler

Crop value through the season

Understanding canopy development is crucial to good potato crop management. The rate of canopy expansion and persistence of full canopy are major factors in controlling the total biological yield, which is closely correlated to the solar radiation absorbed by the crop.

Crop4Sight provides benchmark canopy and biological yield curves that account for variety and date of emergence. These allow easy detection of deviations from good crop growth, giving users the opportunity to revise crop expectations in-season to manage crop value. Risk and reward analysis, using crop yield forecasts, quantifies the financial value returns of the crop weighed against operational requirements.

Crop4Sight’s irrigation scheduling is a full potato specific model using canopy to calculate crop water demand. Irrigation can be scheduled for scab control, yield, or both.

Forecasting final yield, crop value analysis and supply chain logistics

Yield forecasts are created from mid-season and updated throughout tuber bulking. These predict the progression of total yield and change in tuber size distribution. The value of marketable yield can be modelled to identify the date of optimum burndown or used for scenario planning to achieve highest total value when limited by operational constraints.

In combination with early season forecasts on tuber populations, yield forecasting can be used to manage stock and contract position in the supply chain and aid strategic business planning.

Crop4Sight offers bespoke project work. Examples of this work include optimising seed rates for specific commercial requirements (by tuber size and tuber weight). Regional and varietal performance analysis. Agronomic analysis of specific seed stocks or crops. Contact Crop4Sight for more information on bespoke project work.

FFY
  • I’ve been using Crop4sight for a while now and the data it produces is invaluable for forecasting crop development.

    Sean Liddell
    Scottish potato grower and Crop4Sight customer since 2018
  • “Crop4Sight is a fantastic management tool that enables us to be far more informed about our crops than ever before. The app is capable of taking account of the different variables at play and providing a detailed picture of the crop at all points of development”

    Nick Taylor
    Shropshire Potato grower Crop4Sight customer since 2019
  • “Digital technology is starting to revolutionise agriculture and bring new efficiencies to businesses that have not been previously possible.

    With Crop4Sight, we wanted to create a powerful tool that used data and modelling to provide highly accurate crop forecasting to help agronomists and professional potato growers become more efficient”.

    Paul Coleman
    Managing Director