Farming When Data is King

The entire farming operation is within 8½ miles of their shop, creating efficiencies that allow owner-operators Quentin and Renee Overbeck and their nine employees to run the farming operation. They farm owned land and do custom planting and spraying. In addition, they service a local seed company and do the full custom harvest for them. In all, they work as many as 20,000 acres. 

“The people on the Remington Farms team — managers and employees — are big contributors to the farm’s success,” says Quentin. “We cannot and would not do this without them.” 

Their crops include seed corn, popcorn, commodity corn (yellow #2 dent), seed soybeans and commodity soybeans. The commodity crop acreage is relatively small and is mostly for rotation. According to Quentin, “Seed corn and seed service are really our bread and butter.” 

Remington Farms’ relationship with New Holland began about six years ago with their first purchase of front-boom sprayers. They currently own two Guardian™ SP310F sprayers – one for corn and one for soybeans – to prevent cross-contamination. Quentin says that the delicate nature of seed corn drove that decision.

Seed corn gets stressed through the detasseling process, so to keep the plant as healthy as possible, they need to be proactive with fungicide and insecticide applications. High clearance is necessary to apply fungicides multiple times during the season, and Quentin says, “We really believe that New Holland has the best product on the market for a high-clearance sprayer.”

Combine automation
Remington Farms added three CR8.90 Revelation combines to their fleet based on the line’s reputation for gentler grain handling, cleaner seed samples and faster harvesting. The combines are equipped with IntelliSense,™ which automatically makes proactive adjustments to the combine while harvesting based on the harvest strategy identified by the operator.

Quentin says, “We want to be the best producer of high-quality seed that we can be, and the combines definitely proved to do as advertised.”

He continues, “We were seeing cleaner soybean samples from the mechanical aspect of those combines. But I also think the IntelliSense technology behind them helped us see cleaner samples. You can put less experienced combine operators in the field with those combines and still get quality repeatable results with that system.”

Other advanced technologies available with the Revelation series that are key for Remington Farms’ operation include IntelliField,™ which shares guidance lines and positions between machines and seamless upload of accurate yield data into the MyPLM™ Connect portal for management and analysis.

Introduction to precision farming
Remington Farms has heartily embraced the transition from traditional farming to an era characterized by advanced precision technology, equipment with fully integrated connectivity and use of data analytics to manage farms. Such a transition must include an equipment strategy involving both current and future purchases.

Their farm was a “different color” until 2021 when their New Holland dealer brought a T8.435 with PLM Intelligence™ tractor equipped with SmartTrax™ to the farm to test with their planter. PLM Intelligence, New Holland’s most advanced precision technology offering, offers integrated connectivity, productivity and telematics solutions. Currently available on T7, T8 and T9 Series tractors and model year 2023 Guardian sprayers, these capabilities will increasingly be integrated into New Holland equipment moving forward. For Quentin, the real game-changer is the intuitive, customizable in-cab IntelliView™ 12 display, the control center for mapping, navigation, fleet management and information sharing.

Quentin says, “I can’t stress enough that repeatable RTK (real-time kinematics) guidance is significant when you’re planting a pattern, not necessarily an entire field. With seed corn planting, sub-inch accuracy matters. We plant in patterns of four female, one male, four female, one male. Then we have to replant the male in those patterns, spray in those patterns, detassel the female in those patterns and harvest in those patterns. We make multiple passes, so we need to have repeatable guidance lines that are very accurate.”

Value of technology
In their analysis, the Overbecks agree that the driver for their choice of equipment going forward hinged on the technology integrated with the equipment. Was it efficient? Was it precise? Was data collection streamlined? How reliable was the support, the service and the people they would work with? 

That T8.435 tractor more than passed the test and is now working on Remington Farms, with three more T8 with PLM Intelligence tractors on the way. In the meantime, the farm’s staff, newcomers to precision agriculture, are learning the many ways technology will benefit their operation.

New Holland’s precision technology platform allows the farmer to analyze data and manage his operation.

New Holland precision technology allows farmers like the Overbecks to analyze and manage their operation in three key areas:

FLEET management enables the grower to keep an eye on his machines’ operations with the MyPLM Connect smartphone app, which puts his fleet’s operational data in the palm of his hand. He can view updated machine data remotely, such as machine locations, fuel levels, engine hours, engine performance and other machine parameters, to make proactive decisions that help boost uptime and productivity.

FIELD functionality encompasses more traditional precision farming tools, such as auto-guidance, variable rate, section control and precision placement of inputs when spraying, fertilizing, or seeding. New Holland software analyzes and plans in-field tasks for more efficient coverage, which reduces inputs, boosts profits and lowers wastage and runoff for a cleaner environment.

A team effort
Quentin says incorporating precision technology aids both short-term and long-term planning at Remington Farms. In addition to working out what crops go where in any given season, the platform greatly assists with daily task planning, communication and execution.

Members of the Remington Farms team are not “employees” or “hired hands,” Quentin is quick to say. A retired ag chemical retail professional assists with the planning and another manager makes sure that the equipment is maintained and that everyone involved has the details they need to get the day’s goals accomplished. All team members carry iPads, so one of Remington Farms’ immediate goals is to create flexible daily plans that everyone can access through the shared MyPLM Connect account.

“We’re all farmers here,” Quentin says, “and I want everybody to have something tangible, so everybody knows, ‘Hey, the reason you’re in this field right now is because the planter is going to be there in two hours. We need the pre-emergent chemical to be going on because in six hours, it’s going to rain.’ Then everyone has a stake in the goal of getting a quality product to market.”

While Quentin is out in the fields doing the planning and the planting, back in the office, Renee tracks the data produced in the field, manages the financials and works with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office. She creates reports of when and where crops were planted, including acreage and bean buffers.

Renee summarizes the value of adopting technology from New Holland this way: “When you’re talking about fleet metrics, like the fuel levels, the engine hours and where the equipment is at, the person who’s coordinating the plan will have that information at his fingertips. It won’t have to be communicated from the operators. Quentin has this repeatable guidance line that everybody carries through all year long … it’s all right there for the operators.”

As for Renee herself, the critical information she needs for her reports will automatically be exported to one place, eliminating the need to consult with Quentin or to search through multiple programs and spreadsheets, saving time and improving accuracy.

Future of farming
In so many ways, New Holland’s precision platform defines the future business of farming. “Moving forward, I think what separates a good producer from a great producer is going to be an in-depth understanding of where your profits are coming from,” Quentin says. “I don’t think you can do that without a full picture of your data.”

Learn more about the Remingtons and their relationship with their family, their land and their community here.