Titan has completed another successful year of Titan University Summit, its exclusive sales training program for tire dealers, after revamping the format and raising the bar by offering hand-on classes using the latest live-streaming production technology to give attendees an interactive experience in the virtual event.

The annual event — held this year over six days, Jan. 25-27, and Feb. 1-3 — had strong dealer engagement and allowed attendees to build their own customized learning experiences. There were 17 classes and 2 keynotes, many of them with interactive activities, which Titan hosted from a convention center in Quincy, Illinois, and live-streamed to attendees worldwide. Over 2,500 student seats were filled from a variety of countries, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.

“Classes were live-streamed in a manner that allowed students to interact with industry experts within a classroom setting that will help our dealers better serve their customers and achieve their own business goals,”

said Paul Hawkins, Dean of Students and Senior Vice President of Aftermarket Sales at Titan.

The all-virtual format featured classes on product features, effective selling strategies, and competitive product positioning as well as targeted sessions by segment for Ag, Construction, and Forestry. Keynote speakers included tire compounding and chemistry specialists and industry experts from Stellar Industries, Fuller Brothers, and AME sharing safety tips, important tools of the trade, and tire maintenance best practices.

“While we hope to return to in-person classes next year, I’m proud of how the Titan team took Titan University Summit to another level this year with enhanced engagement, improved technology, and new classes,”

said Kim Boccardi, Director of Content and Vice President of Marketing at Titan.

One dealer attendee from Illinois said,

“It was very well put together, and very informational! You guys are literally the only manufacturer to do anything of this caliber. And it certainly will pay off for me.”

Another dealer attendee from Fountain Tire in Canada mentioned,

“The training was incredible, from content to commentary, and the technology made us feel like we were right in the room.”

This is the fifth year of Titan University Summit, offered exclusively to Titan dealers and Titan Strong Seller Associate dealers. The classes were designed for everyone from entry-level to advanced students in any dealership role including sales, purchasing, marketing, customer service, and support. Those interested in attending a future Titan University Summit should contact their Titan Territory Sales Manager or the Titan Corporate Marketing department.

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The result of a dynamic team’s desire to continue to make the world of agricultural equipment shine despite the health situation. This web series has enabled AgroSup Dijon students to interview professionals of industry from all over the world.

These exchanges took the form of a web series of 20 episodes of 8 minutes each. The episodes deal with the issue of innovation, environment, marketing, professional integration, digital issues, etc. in the field of AgTech or agricultural equipment.

The broadcast started with one episode, then two episodes per week until February 2021. It showcases this innovative industrial sector and demonstrates the ability of a French engineering school in agronomy to mobilize a large network at a global level. Do you want to follow the series? Go to www.agritech-world-tour.com

The web series in figures:

• 17 professionals
• 9 companies
• 12 countries

The speakers of the AgriTech World Tour web series :

• the John Deere company in France and Germany for Central Asia,
• the company Case IH in Austria,
• the New Holland company in Italy,
• the company Kuhn in the United Kingdom, Brazil, China, and Australia,
• the Lemken company in France, Canada, and Germany,
• the company Berthoud in France and Ukraine,
• an International Voluntary Service in Chile,
• AXEMA (French Agricultural Equipment Manufacturers’ Union),
• Teagasc, the agricultural and agri-food research agency, in Ireland.

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“While the program looks much different this year, it is expected to be no less educational than what we’ve come to expect at our previous in-person events. In a year full of many unexpected challenges, connecting to gain knowledge and share lessons learned with ag retail professionals from across the country is more important now than ever before.”

said ARA Chairman Rod Wells with GROWMARK, Inc.

Tuesday’s events included the debut of the 3D Expo Hall and the networking lounge as well as the opening general session featuring the ARA President’s Report from Daren Coppock and keynote speaker Kaihan Krippendorff. Following the opening session, The Scoop’s Margy Eckelkamp moderated a panel focused on insights showing the farmer of the future with Brett Sciotto and Scott Caine with Aimpoint Research.

“Attendees have a lot to learn from the first day of sessions, from how they can harness knowledge about shifts in industry trends caused by COVID-19 to build a successful blueprint for their future, to how they can empower employees to take action on innovative growth ideas,”

said ARA President and CEO Daren Coppock.

Krippendorff took a deeper dive into his keynote message on The Outthinker Process in an interactive workshop designed to help individuals and teamed at all levels to increase their strategic and innovative thinking capability.

Throughout the day, attendees had several networking opportunities including the New Member/First-Time Attendee Welcome in the networking lounge as well as the chance to be the grand prize winner of trivia in the Expo Hall.

Earlier in the week, the ARA Board of Directors gathered for its quarterly meeting. The agenda included the review of regular business operations of the organization and opportunities to strengthen and create efficiencies.

Coppock said:

“As the only national association representing the interests of agricultural retailers in Washington, D.C., ARA and its Board of Directors are always seeking avenues to strengthen the voice of the ag retailer. And the changes in leadership from this year’s election make it more important than ever to remain or become involved at a grassroots level.”

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The App or website will give you direct access to the most up to date results of specialized testing and fertilizer experience. In just a few steps, the spreading charts App/website shows you the right settings for your Vicon fertilizer spreader.

1. Select your spreader model or enter your serial number.
2. Enter the working width, application rate, driving speed, and select your type of application.
3. Select the shape of your product to spread.
4. Fill out the density (kg/l) and the distribution (%). The distribution can be determined with the granule size box which is delivered with your Vicon spreader.
5. Select your type of vanes and get the results which are matching your entered settings and vane set.
6. Select the product you would like to spread and you immediately get the advice.

By following these easy steps, you are sure that you get the best spreading pattern possible in the field.

Source: Vicon

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DataConnect enables the exchange of essential machinery data among different platforms, allowing users to view all of their mixed-brand fleet information within the single data platform of their choice. Previously, viewing such information required duplicating effort by using each manufacturer’s corresponding but separate platforms or web portals.

The structure of this new direction, the cloud-to-cloud solution enables a seamless and automated data flow without any effort required by the customer. The real-time data exchange allows a live overview of the whole machinery fleet. Furthermore, DataConnect works without any additional hardware or software components and ensures secure data handling.

With this new approach, customers can view five different machinery data sets for their fleet:

• current machine location
• historical machine location
• fuel tank level
• status of the machine in the field
• machine speed

​​​​​Customers can decide which company’s digital platform they prefer to use to display all the data. As soon as they are connected, other manufacturers’ machines appear automatically. Machines are either displayed with icons in the respective brand’s color combination or are visible in the icon’s information panel. Further partners and functions will follow at a later date.

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Steven Brockshus, Founder and CEO of FarmlandFinder, says:

“Now at FarmlandFinder.com landowners are able to buy and sell farmland, entirely online. Farmland is a highly fragmented and opaque market. There are more absentee landowners today than ever before, farmers are looking for optionality when it comes to expanding their land base, and getting access to reliable information about the farmland market is difficult. We’ve seen books, cars, and houses start to transact online… why not farmland?”

Through the FarmlandFinder Offers Platform, a landowner can request an offer on their land and receive offers from a private network of verified buyers in as little as a week. Once an offer is accepted, FarmlandFinder helps to navigate the rest of the process to ensure a seamless and stress-free transaction.

“Farmland is the foundation for 5% of America’s annual GDP,” says Amanda Donohue-Hansen, Managing Director at Cultivian Sandbox and FarmlandFinder Board Member. Farmland is valued in excess of $2.5 trillion with a staggering 10% — $250 billion – transferring hands in the past 5 years, most of it offline and private. Even more of America’s farmland is projected to change hands in the coming years with generational turnover and growing interest in farmland as a financial and environmental investment.”

By digitizing the farmland transaction process, FarmlandFinder Offers can provide unique optionality to expanding farmers. Not only can they privately buy farms through the platform, but they can also expand their land base without taking on additional debt by partnering with an investor through the FarmlandFinder buyer network. This decreases the barrier of entry for beginning farmers and creates optionality for seasoned growers who are looking for unique ways to strengthen their balance sheets.

Donohue-Hansen says:

“At Cultivian Sandbox, we believe that if there was ever a time for a digital revolution in farmland, the time is now and FarmlandFinder is its pioneer platform. We align with FarmlandFinder’s values to make farmland real estate transparent and accessible to all. We’re proud to support its launch of the Offers Platform to make farmland sales simple, instant, and online.”

Source: FarmlandFinder

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The Bobcat Machine IQ wireless communication solution connects customers to their machine’s information anywhere and from any device. Using Machine IQ, customers can monitor vital, time-saving information about their Bobcat compact excavators, skid-steer loaders, or compact track loaders. This information helps customers better track and utilize their equipment while making maintenance and asset management more efficient.

The information recorded by the Bobcat Machine IQ system is delivered to Bobcat Owner Portal, a personalized website accessible via any internet-connected computer, smartphone, or tablet. With access to more information, owners can better manage their Bobcat equipment and maintenance needs to increase machine uptime. Customers can register at my.Bobcat.com to access the Bobcat Owner Portal.

The Machine IQ Basics package is a subscription service that allows customers to effectively manage their fleet. The service is free for the first three years from the original equipment purchase date. Machine IQ Basic features include:

• Basic Telematics – Tracks key information points, including GPS location and history, operating hours, and last recorded fuel levels.
• Custom Asset Name – Allows customers to create personalized names to quickly identify machines in a fleet.
• Maintenance Interval Tracking – Tracks regular planned maintenance and custom maintenance schedules and allows customers to view high-level instructions in the portal for each.

The Machine IQ Health and Security package gives customers the ability to upgrade their machine subscription to proactively monitor their equipment. This service is $200 per year plus a one-time $100 activation fee. It includes all Machine IQ Basic features plus the following advanced features.

• Maintenance Reminder Email Alerts – Notifies customers via email when they are approaching regular maintenance. The alert provides high-level information on how to perform regular maintenance as well as on relevant parts. Customers can access the regular maintenance tracker to see what planned maintenance is coming up.
• Fault Code Notifications and Troubleshooting – Distributes alerts, a clear description, and troubleshooting steps if the machine reports a fault code. Customers can also subscribe to email notifications for alerts and troubleshooting.
• Geofence Creation and Breach Notification – Provides customers with the ability to set up custom boundaries and receive email notifications the moment the machine leaves the specified operation footprint.
• Curfew Creation and Breach Notifications – Alerts customers via email if their equipment is being operated outside of designated days or hours.
• Machine Utilization Reporting – Tracks machine efficiency and utilization to help customers make more informed decisions. The feature compares idle time, working time, and fuel usage as well as generates custom reports.
• In-Portal Notification Management – Gives customers the ability to monitor notifications within the portal. A clear notification counter on the home page provides a singular place to manage all important machine notifications.

Source: Bobcat

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The newest ag megatrend unfolding is e-commerce; particularly in the crop input sector. This year, concern about contracting (or spreading) COVID19 has only accelerated promotion, interest, and use of e-commerce for purchasing among farmers. In a September 2020 report, Purdue’s Dr. Scott Downey, Director, and Professor; Dr. Michael Boehlje, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and Dr. Luciano Thome e Castro, International Adjunct Professor, found three distinct categories among ag e-commerce platforms:

• Retailer-to-farmer online only (no physical presence),
• Manufacturer-to-farmer direct online sales, and
• The retailer-farmer omnichannel experience (both online and physical presences).

The 1998 trailblazer was XSAg.com; now FarmTrade.com. There were no brick-and-mortar facilities or inventory involved. Founder Fulton Breen of XSInc. described their XSAg.com division as

“a secure trading platform to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers of herbicides, pesticides, and other inputs at discounts averaging about 20%.”

Then, in 2013, he decided to focus on XSInc’s data analytics services and divest itself of the XSAg platform. To his great satisfaction, the buyer was one of his long-time employees, Jeff Stow, who renamed the business FarmTrade.com to avoid confusion with Breen’s XSInc ag analytics business.

“We are still a family business,”

says Stow,

“and we’ve only enhanced the name-your-price approach for buyers with our unique ‘Dutch auction’ approach. Instead of sellers offering prices they’ll take; on our site, buyers offer prices they’ll pay. They wait until a seller meets their offer and we make a small commission; simple as that.” Stow adds, “We even hold the buyer’s money in escrow until they take delivery; eliminating that element of risk for all of us involved.”

Farmers Business Network (FBN) launched in 2014, with a former Google exec at the helm, and attracted $571 million in the capital. They are seen by some as a threat to disrupt ag retailing the way Amazon.com has turned malls into ghost towns. Brick-and-mortar ag retailers feel pressured to adopt the “if you can’t lick ’em, join ’em” response to the impending migration to e-commerce on their own websites. Alas, many are finding there’s little or no margin left for them when farmers are finding input costs at or below what manufacturers are charging the ag retailers as “middlemen”!

Between XSAg.com (now FarmTrade.com) and FBN, other e-merchants have emerged. In fact, Farm Journal magazine began surveying farmers with at least 500 acres of corn on their use of e-commerce sites in 2018. The most recent data is from the 2019 survey compiled last November. Farm Journal’s Margy Eckelkamp cited three key take-aways:

• Farmers’ purchase intentions tend to exceed what they actually do online.
• Their experience drives their online purchase decisions, with the price the number one factor, followed by the availability of products, ease of the purchasing process, the delivery process, and consulting available for specific questions.
• Online purchases vary by input category. The highest interest is for crop chemicals (63% in 2019 with indications this would jump to 75% for 2020); followed by seed (42%); then fertilizer (19%).

When Farm Journal asked farmers to list online retailers they use, 14 different e-commerce sites were mentioned among nearly 400 respondents from 36 states and are shown below:

Most noteworthy to me is that despite its enormous capital infusions, relentless promotion, and offering the entire array of ag input products, FBN is still only slightly higher in the percentage of farmers using it than FarmTrade.com, which specializes in crop protection inputs only.

FarmTrade’s Stow says

“When we purchased the XSAg business in 2013, we were excited about our new direction and value proposition but didn’t expect the success we’ve had since our very first year.”

When asked to explain why Stow says

“it’s a combination of earning intense customer loyalty, the word-of-mouth referrals we get from them, and attracting channel members (vendors) with the hottest input products.” 

That 2019 Farm Journal farmer survey also reported the most important factors farmers consider in choosing e-commerce over their regular ag retailer here:

Stow says those top influences in Fig. 2 are right in line with their own experience at FarmTrade and have guided their own site development. I’ve also learned consultants to traditional brick-and-mortar retailers feeling threatened by e-commerce are telling them not to count on the “personal, face-to-face relationship with their salespeople” to immunize them from the lure of e-commerce competitors. Why? Among Gen X, Gen Z and Millennial generations of farmers, brand and dealer loyalty are a distant second to saving time and money.

Some consulting firms are even advising ag retailers to do a careful cost analysis for the extra services they “bundle” with their input sales to “justify” prices for inputs to the farmer. One put the reasoning starkly and bluntly:

“I tell them that if they couldn’t charge for those perks and services a la carte on an invoice, they ought to stop offering them, save the cost, and trim their input prices instead to compete with these aggressive, penny-pinching e-commerce platforms.” 

The consensus among those focused on the future of ag retailing says it will always demand price competitiveness for crop inputs. They add it will create the opportunity to charge for actionable analytics using the farmer’s precision ag data as a separate profit center. Others I monitor predict the next megatrend driving such analytics will be the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the farmer’s precision ag data. It will churn out the most profitable prescription on a field-by-field basis in a matter of minutes. But that’s grist for another article on another day!

Source: Perfect Fit Presentation

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A few weeks later, the Preview will be followed by the physical review of EIMA International, which was rescheduled due to the COVID 19 emergency from 3 to 7 February at the BolognaFiere exhibition spaces. Both events are organized by FederUnacoma, the Italian association of agricultural machinery manufacturers.

Despite being an absolute novelty, EIMA Digital Preview has already polarized the interest of operators and exhibitors. Like the traditional event, it aims to play a strategic role in the landscape of virtual trade exhibitions. A few days after registration was opened – the organizers explain – more than 520 companies (out of the over 1,600 booked) have finished setting up their virtual rooms, and more than a thousand businesspeople from all over the world have registered for the digital event https://www.eima.it/en/visitatori/userform.php). According to FederUnacoma, this second figure is bound to grow exponentially in the coming days.

EIMA Digital Preview is based on a platform conceived and developed specifically for the virtual exhibition, which is divided into 15 “product category planets”, representing the 14 specialization sectors of EIMA International, plus one dedicated to services. Inside the virtual rooms, the participating companies can take advantage of ample space to present new products and conference rooms for Business to Business meetings. On the other hand, a specific area of the platform is dedicated to technical meetings, topical analysis, and company press conferences, with a full calendar of events that already today, 40 days before the event, includes more than 50 scheduled events.

As the first industry event after last spring’s lockdown, the digital preview was promoted with the aim of revitalizing the agricultural machinery market, to reconnect the demand for agricultural machinery, which is emerging globally, with the technologies produced by the manufacturing industries. Thanks to this innovative formula that combines digital preview and traditional exhibitions, exhibiting industries have the opportunity not only to capture the demand for agricultural technologies from all over the world but to select and rationalize business contacts, thus optimally preparing for the physical EIMA of February.

The organizers are planning this event with great care and attention, to offer
attendees safety standards that are the highest in the entire international trade
exhibition landscape.

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Hitachi, Ltd. announced that a dedicated 5G network has been installed at its Silicon Valley Research Center, part of the Research & Development Division of Hitachi America, Ltd. (“Hitachi America”) in partnership with Ericsson. The network will leverage 5G and Hitachi’s platform technology to accelerate the development and demonstrate the value of digital transformation across industries.

Fifth-generation wireless network technology, commonly referred to as “5G technology,” is expected to drastically change the way society operates by providing ubiquitous connectivity with ultra-reliable low-latency communication. 5G has the power to accelerate the digital transformation of not just the telecom sector, but businesses across industries. Sectors that will benefit from the increased resiliency and efficiency that 5G technology affords include manufacturing, mobility, healthcare, energy, and IT, though the platform is also expected to support new business models.

Hitachi is taking a multi-pronged approach to developing technology solutions for the various layers of 5G, accommodating for regionally available infrastructure and needs. Leveraging Hitachi’s extensive Operational Technology (OT) knowledge accumulated over the years, as well as advanced digital technologies such as AI, Hitachi is developing Lumada solutions through collaborative creation with customers to resolve the various challenges they face and accelerate digital transformation within their businesses. 5G is expected to make business infrastructure more dynamic and improve business continuity and resilience in a “new normal” environment; Hitachi plans to enhance these benefits through “Lumada × 5G” to create added value for customers.

In a major step forward on this front, Hitachi America has partnered with Ericsson to install a dedicated 5G network in its Silicon Valley Research Center in Santa Clara, California. With this network, Hitachi America will be able to validate new 5G technologies and related solutions it is developing to generate an understanding of their potential value to customers. Hitachi America intends to start by testing manufacturing solutions using the 5G collaborative teleoperation technology co-developed with Georgia Institute of Technology (“Georgia Tech”) and continuing to work closely with Ericsson on joint development initiatives for industry solutions as a result of this new dedicated 5G lab network.

Erik Josefsson, Head of Advanced Industries, Ericsson, said:

“Ericsson has been working with Hitachi and its ecosystem partners to identify use cases for co-development of industry vertical 5G-enabled IoT solutions to meet product pipeline demands as 5G adoption accelerates. This new dedicated 5G network is another proof point in our collaboration moving forward.”

Collaborative robotics between humans and robots will be a key technology to leverage as our society works to achieve contactless, fully automated systems while maintaining human supervision. The remote control of industrial robots by human operators as well as intuitive operation of robots by analysis/control functions located on a multi-access edge computing (MEC) server will require high-speed detailed communication between humans and robots to enable accurate assessment of what is happening on site. Further, with the increasing trend towards personalization, today’s manufacturing industry is fast evolving towards hyper-customization done at scale, which will require flexible production lines.

The key technologies that are making flexible automation at scale possible are robotics and AI, with 5G and time-sensitive networking (TSN) serving as a digital backbone. Hitachi America, in collaboration with Georgia Tech, is developing novel applications to realize flexible automation powered by 5G edge AI technology. One such application is a real-time and interactive remote collaboration between skilled workers and machines. Optimized control of the robot can be realized by the 5G edge AI technology allocated to the MEC server and by utilizing the wide variety of large-capacity sensor data (comprised of 4K video and TOF sensor information) collected from the site via 5G to support appropriate judgment by the remote human operator.

To validate this technology, a scenario case was assumed where a fully automated robotic arm picking task is affected by a malfunction. Such a situation may occur, for example, if the object to be picked up by the robotic arm is not positioned correctly or is of a different size or shape. Hitachi’s 5G edge AI technology provides seamless intuitive remote control of the robotic arm through the real-time analysis of comprehensive sensing data. This technology is expected to reduce work time by 50-70 percent compared to the conventional method, in which a remote operator directly controls a robotic arm. The technology incorporates flexible automation at scale, which will help usher the manufacturing industry into a new age of hyper-customization.

“Hitachi’s Silicon Valley Research Center will serve as critical proving grounds for currently emerging technologies relating to collaborative robotic systems,”

says Sonia Chernova, Associate Professor in the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at Georgia Tech.

“Adaptive automation requires access to high quality, multi-modal data from a wide range of sensors. Hitachi’s 5G capabilities are poised to revolutionize how such data is collected, aggregated, and analyzed at scale in real-time, helping to make the next generation of advanced robotic systems possible.”

The dedicated 5G network will provide a test environment for Hitachi America and Ericsson to explore 5G solutions in North America, as well as for potentially interested customers to join Hitachi’s co-creation approach to accelerate development and validate the value of digital transformation. The combination of 5G and Hitachi’s platform technology has the potential to transform industries across North America.

Hitachi will continue to create innovative solutions through “Lumada × 5G” to catalyze changes in business infrastructure, improve business continuity and resilience, and add value for customers.

Source: Hitachi

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