Digital Ag Strategy 2026
Feb 18, 2026
Success doesn’t happen by accident. It involves careful planning and the development of a strategy to achieve success. The majority of successful farmers that I work with have developed a digital ag strategy, which has allowed them to be more profitable and get more time back in their day, which are two things I know most are looking for. A digital Ag strategy uses software, hardware, and the cloud/internet to document as many layers of your operation as possible, so it can be easily shared with others to take advantage of new market opportunities with much less effort on your part. It also provides valuable insights into the decisions you made this year, so you can make better ones next year.
The 1st place to start is getting your own operation ready to be digitally documented. If you operate all or mostly John Deere equipment, I strongly encourage you to look at John Deere’s Operations Center, your central, secure place to monitor, organize, analyze, and share your farm data. The Operations Center works extremely well and has no additional cost to utilize. You can use it to map all your fields’ boundaries and enter all your products to create setup files to share with your equipment. This helps speed up the documentation process once in the field while precisely recording each application, all under the same field season after season. They also have very affordable data plans that automatically upload machine data to the Operations Center, which every farmer who has them has come to appreciate greatly, so they don’t have to waste time downloading and uploading data manually. To learn more about the John Deere Operations Center, contact your nearest John Deere location or click here Welcome to Operations Center | John Deere US.
The other great option, if you don’t run John Deere equipment or have a mixed fleet, is FieldView from Climate. Fieldview is very similar to Operations Center, but everything is mostly inputted and documented on an iPad in the cab. A nice perk of Fieldview is its very user-friendly interface, which can replace using an outdated OEM monitor and system in your cab to document planting, spraying, and harvesting data for all equipment that is 2010 and newer. And even if your equipment is older than that, there are still available options for you to digitally document. Fieldview also provides in-season crop health NDVI satellite imagery, which can be a really good indicator of which areas of your field are doing well and which are not. Their offer is not free, but the $649/yr tier paired with a $550 Fieldview Drive 2.0 (one-time purchase) and an iPad gets you everything I have discussed here. To learn more about Fieldview, please visit Digital Farming decisions and insights to maximize every acre.
Both of these offerings allow you to partner with your MKC Team so we have access to the information you want to share with us. We can then leverage your data on your behalf to upload it to our Eco Asset partners, greatly reducing the amount of work and conversations typically needed. This also allows us to share the vrt prescriptions and seeding scripts we create with you so we can send them directly to your equipment. Another plus to doing business with MKC is that we can source all the applications, nutrients, seed, products, and soil data we provide to you, further reducing the information you need to provide us to participate in our Optimal Eco Asset Program.
One of our customers who has a sound digital ag strategy and partners with MKC for the agricultural needs told me, “I have received a very nice payment for what feels like not much work involved on my part.” If that is how you would like to feel at the end of next season, please contact your Strategic Account Manager or Ross Benisch, Ag Technology Manager, at rbenisch@mkcoop.com.
Article provided by Ross Benish, Ag Technology Manager
The 1st place to start is getting your own operation ready to be digitally documented. If you operate all or mostly John Deere equipment, I strongly encourage you to look at John Deere’s Operations Center, your central, secure place to monitor, organize, analyze, and share your farm data. The Operations Center works extremely well and has no additional cost to utilize. You can use it to map all your fields’ boundaries and enter all your products to create setup files to share with your equipment. This helps speed up the documentation process once in the field while precisely recording each application, all under the same field season after season. They also have very affordable data plans that automatically upload machine data to the Operations Center, which every farmer who has them has come to appreciate greatly, so they don’t have to waste time downloading and uploading data manually. To learn more about the John Deere Operations Center, contact your nearest John Deere location or click here Welcome to Operations Center | John Deere US.
The other great option, if you don’t run John Deere equipment or have a mixed fleet, is FieldView from Climate. Fieldview is very similar to Operations Center, but everything is mostly inputted and documented on an iPad in the cab. A nice perk of Fieldview is its very user-friendly interface, which can replace using an outdated OEM monitor and system in your cab to document planting, spraying, and harvesting data for all equipment that is 2010 and newer. And even if your equipment is older than that, there are still available options for you to digitally document. Fieldview also provides in-season crop health NDVI satellite imagery, which can be a really good indicator of which areas of your field are doing well and which are not. Their offer is not free, but the $649/yr tier paired with a $550 Fieldview Drive 2.0 (one-time purchase) and an iPad gets you everything I have discussed here. To learn more about Fieldview, please visit Digital Farming decisions and insights to maximize every acre.
Both of these offerings allow you to partner with your MKC Team so we have access to the information you want to share with us. We can then leverage your data on your behalf to upload it to our Eco Asset partners, greatly reducing the amount of work and conversations typically needed. This also allows us to share the vrt prescriptions and seeding scripts we create with you so we can send them directly to your equipment. Another plus to doing business with MKC is that we can source all the applications, nutrients, seed, products, and soil data we provide to you, further reducing the information you need to provide us to participate in our Optimal Eco Asset Program.
One of our customers who has a sound digital ag strategy and partners with MKC for the agricultural needs told me, “I have received a very nice payment for what feels like not much work involved on my part.” If that is how you would like to feel at the end of next season, please contact your Strategic Account Manager or Ross Benisch, Ag Technology Manager, at rbenisch@mkcoop.com.
Article provided by Ross Benish, Ag Technology Manager