ACS Farm
Image launches precision soil analysis services and a range of yield boosting
products to mark 20 years of agricultural business.
September 2017 sees the 20th
anniversary for Farm Image, part of Kent-based Austin Contract Services Group
who, over the past two decades, have provided agricultural services including
soil sampling and lime spreading for farmers across the South East.
Since 1997, Farm Image has grown from solely offering soil
pH analysis to today providing the most accurate techniques for obtaining a
whole portfolio of useful soil data as well as offering a unique solution for
each client.
Introducing
SoilSmart.
The Farm Image team are of the strong ethos that
profitability in farming heavily relies on making the most of your every
hectare which in turn, is dependent on truly knowing your soil.
SoilSmart
is the division of Farm Image that offers a range of sampling and analysis
packages tailored to suit you and your business with no hidden costs or
contracts. In doing so, Farm Image pride themselves in remaining a team that
can provide an honest and personal service tailored to each and every one of
their customers.
Whilst
still offering the standard soil sampling techniques to give results for pH, P,
K and Mg, Farm Image have expanded their SoilSmart range to include Precision Sampling and Smart Scanning.
As opposed
to simply taking samples in a ‘W’ pattern across a field, Precision Sampling uses GPS technology to systematically sample a
field, taking 16 cores from every hectare or a specific number of samples per
hectare at the request of the farmer. As a result, this technique provides a
far more accurate insight into unique field environments and allows for the
formation of Farm Image Precision Maps (as depicted) clearly showing field
zones for each field property- pH, P, K and Mg.
However, in
2017, Farm Image began researching further into the ways in which soil can be
analysed and how that may be translated into precision farming techniques such
as variable rate seeding and fertiliser
application. As a result, September’s anniversary celebrations sees the launch
of SoilSmart’s Smart Scanner service
using the latest in-field scanning equipment.
Amy
Bradley, Marketing Manager at Farm Image, explains that ‘the Farm Image Smart
Scanner is able to take 200 readings per hectare and form on-the-go field maps
via an on-board tablet, to the highest accuracy for pH, Organic Matter, Soil
Texture and Topography, all of which drastically affect water holding capacity
and nutrient availability for crops.’
“We were
the first British company to import a U3 soil scanner from Veris Technologies”
remembered Amy. “It came straight off the plane at Heathrow and went to the
2017 Cereals show in Lincolnshire where it turned a lot of heads.” “Since then,
we have been busy taking the service from farm to farm across the UK showing
farmers the real potential in farming precisely for profitability”.
The team at Farm Image are keen to make it clear to their customers how the biggest benefit of the Smart Scanner service is how it translates into huge money savings by allowing farmers to be more targeted with drilling as well as product application. The advantage of the Smart Scanner mapping compared to grid sampling is that soil is not laid out in neat squares, there is variability within most 1Ha grids, and modern farming equipment has the ability to change rates multiple times within each 1ha grid, and meet the soil’s needs more accurately.
CropTec 2017
