Trimble announced the release of its flexible API for the Trimble Agriculture Cloud, an industry cloud that streamlines farming operations. The availability of this API represents the next evolution of connectivity for agriculture integrators by coupling in-field devices and operational workflows for enabling compatibility with both Trimble and third-party agriculture applications.
As part of its focus to provide precision agriculture technology for mixed fleets, Trimble has created a path to enable broad compatibility that seamlessly connects local, regional and national applications to Trimble equipment in the field, as well as the data it collects.
The Trimble Agriculture Cloud helps farmers execute workflows with greater accuracy, more efficiency and fewer errors while driving sustainability. It also centralizes data needed for compliance and regulatory requirements. For integrators, access to the Trimble Agriculture Cloud's API enables third parties to connect to the Trimble platform and its key workflow applications, including Trimble Ag Software, Trimble Ag Mobile and the Precision-IQ™ field application, expanding the value of the solutions they offer.
"At Trimble, our vision is to help farmers work more efficiently through data-driven farming practices and decision support tools," says Dave Britton, vice president of Product Management, Trimble Agriculture. "Enabling farmers to complete workflows that involve solutions from multiple technology providers is critical, especially in cases where third-party applications address unique regional farming practices. With this in mind, we created the Trimble Agriculture Cloud and an expanded, flexible API to establish a place where integrators could easily connect and share data, regardless of brand."
API capabilities include farm setup, task records and recommendations, materials, vehicle setup, work orders, harvest and crop zones activities. Through the combination of software and hardware, Trimble enables integrators to create value for farmers and their partners, including consultants, agronomists, custom applicators and more, by facilitating workflows that leverage connectivity to the machine in the field, improving the overall crop production process.
With the recent update of the Trimble Agriculture Cloud, the most common API workflows available to third-party integrators address the majority of applications on the farm, including:
- Accessing Trimble display as-applied data in third-party applications for productivity analysis and regulatory compliance
- Sending prescriptions to and from third-party applications to Trimble displays
- Aligning field resources such as boundaries, guidance lines and landmarks between connected third-party applications and Trimble displays for in-field execution
Trimble currently has more than 180 million customer acres (72.8 million hectares) using its Trimble Agriculture Cloud on the connected platform, along with many partner integrators ranging from enterprise farmers, customer software applications and local and regional dealers.
"As an environmental software company that enables farmers and their partners across New Zealand to connect, manage, visualize and share their environmental data, we need partners that can make data sharing simple. Syncing data to the Trimble Agriculture Cloud allows us to easily send prescription files to Trimble displays and receive equipment activity data back, allowing farmers and their contractors to provide proof of application for their spreading and spray applications," says Chloe Walker, chief operating officer, Precision Farming Ltd. "The Trimble Agriculture API opens up the market to a much broader range of options for New Zealand-based GPS guidance users, allowing them to utilize the devices of their choice and automatically return that data to where they need it to go. Proof of application data from Trimble displays can now be returned to the farmer, supplier and regulator as part of a digitized workflow management process for contractors."
