New Bayer hardware simplifies farm activities, equipment setup and provides increased value to farmers

WAHOO, Neb. — Bayer unveiled FieldView Drive 2.0, a small plug-and-play device that farmers can use to connect, monitor and record activities across different farm equipment types and brands.

An upgrade over the previous generation, FieldView Drive 2.0 provides more processing power, data storage and in-field connection stability to improve how farmers connect with digital solutions and gather data during planting, spraying and harvest activities.

Bayer will begin shipping the new hardware first in the United States followed by other global regions starting early next year, pending applicable regulatory approvals.

“I tested Drive 2.0 last spring, and the upgraded technology significantly improved the connection and reliability to my iPad,” said Russ Kavan, who farms in eastern Nebraska.

“I also appreciated that it could read serial data without needing a separate converter. In our operation, we use equipment from multiple companies and move the (FieldView) Drive around from planter to sprayer. Having the ability to do that without needing another piece of hardware has simplified the process.”

In addition to simplifying installation, FieldView Drive 2.0 also streamlines how seed prescriptions and other “scripts” transfer from FieldView directly to precision farming equipment.

When factors like soil type and elevation cause some parts of a crop field to perform better than others, many farmers create management zones and assign different application rates for seed, fertilizer and pesticides based on the needs of each zone. Then they use their precision equipment to execute those scripts across their fields.

These activities can optimize farm resources and reduce environmental impact, but executing them is often tedious and time-consuming.

Farmers and agronomic advisers typically create the script in an office, download the file to a thumb drive and drive to the field where they can finally upload the script file to the equipment monitor.

Now the script can be created anytime in FieldView and transferred directly to the equipment via the connected FieldView Drive 2.0 — no fumbling with thumb drives and no wasting time, energy and fuel just to deliver a prescription.

FieldView Drive 2.0 serves as a link between farm inputs, digital solutions and precision equipment.

Its prescription delivery feature supports global expansion of new crop systems like the Preceon Smart Corn System, which incorporates digital prescriptions and recommendations — including seeding rate — as part of the system.

“Bayer is in the business of innovation, and as we work to de-risk farming operations and deliver new profit opportunities to our farmer customers, FieldView Drive 2.0 is a foundational tool that will broaden our reach and deepen our impact,” said Jeremy Williams, head of Climate LLC, digital farming and commercial ecosystems for the Crop Science division of Bayer.

“With its improved performance and simplified setup, more farmers will benefit from digital farming technology, and as tailored solutions like the Preceon Smart Corn System and outcome-based business models expand, more farmers will be able to send data-driven recommendations directly to their equipment with simplified prescription delivery through the device.”

An upgrade from its predecessor that launched in 2016, FieldView Drive 2.0 adds equipment compatibility while continuing to work with all makes and models of equipment.

“We’ve been FieldView customers since the beginning. In prior years we’ve paid over $1 an acre for scripting so that is why we utilize FieldView Premium for the scripting aspect,” said Connor Keithly, a third-generation farmer who runs his north-central Missouri operation with his father and grandfather.

“We save so much money having the premium subscription that can put into other valuable resources on our farm. Our seed rep writes our scripts so having a platform we can all access helps us make the right decisions for our farm.”