DEFENCE AND SPACE Intelligence

Simplot Relies on Airbus to Deliver Valuable Agronomy to Their Farmers Case Study

Challenge Solution and Results Benefits

To provide agronomic A fully automated, scalable A reliable system that insights and value through and integrated imagery allows Simplot to grow the use of satellite imagery processing engine for delivery their business and support and mobile technology. of data driven agronomy into farmers in the field. Simplot Advisor™ portal. Satellite imagery is the backbone of our SmartFarm® Precision Agriculture platform. The high resolution, high frequency imagery we receive from Airbus enables our crop advisors to quickly respond with more agronomic insight to issues occuring in the growing season. Allan Fetters, Director of Technology J.R. Simplot Company

Challenge resolutions of 50cm to 6m and up to weekly enrolment to tasking to processing and temporal resolution. This imagery process display of imagery, each step became Satellite imagery has been used since the has enabled Simplot’s SmartFarm® Precision integrated and seamless. The digitisation 1970s to provide insight on crop health to Agriculture team and agronomists to gain of imagery also enabled Simplot to overlay farmers and agronomists. However, it has insight on their farmers’ fields, such as: other digital agronomic data layers (soil type, been viewed as nothing more than static, • Infrared – Radiation reflectance from the management zones, yield, etc.) and begin tricolored maps with minimal value for plants surface in the Infrared spectrum. determining correlations within the data to farmers. As GPS-enabled mobile devices facilitate agronomic decisions. The digital • Plant Health – Infrared imagery converted grew in use and satellite imagery started to format also allows Simplot agronomists to to a standard vegetative index. become more relevant with better imaging use imagery on their mobile devices. This quality, frequency and resolution, then new • Plant Health Change – The amount new ability to provide directed-field scouting solutions became possible. of plant health index change since the over multiple imagery layers has proven to be previous image. a great agronomic tool and time saver. Although the technology continued to improve, turning this data into valuable, • Plant Health Ranges – The standard timely agronomy that was easily scalable, plant health index divided into color ranges Organisation Involved remained a challenge for both agriculture with a given color for each index value. retailers and farmers. As the advent of mobile • Visual – A natural color photo. The J. R. Simplot Company, a privately-held devices began altering the historic imagery agribusiness firm headquartered in Boise, • Weak Acres – The plant health index market and printed maps were no longer , has an integrated portfolio that statistically devided into classifications at a preferable, J.R. Simplot Company, one of the includes mining, fertiliser 95% confidence level. largest privately-held food and agribusiness manufacturing, farming, ranching and cattle companies worldwide, struggled to efficiently • Weak Acres Change – The amount of production, food processing and food assist farmers in making sound agronomic weak acres changed since the previous brands, plus other enterprises related to decisions in this new digital era. image. agriculture. Simplot’s major operations are located in the US, Canada, Mexico, These specific imagery derivatives began , and with products marketed as a printed deliverable for Simplot’s farm in more than 40 countries worldwide. The Solution and Results customers and became invaluable once company supports 4R Nutrient Stewardship the process was fully integrated into the Simplot and Airbus jointly developed a – using the right source of fertilizer at the right SmartFarm® agronomic data portal Simplot scalable, automated system to collect, rate at the right time and in the right place. Advisor™. Then the conversion from print process, analyse and digitally display satellite For more information, media to digital took Simplot’s imagery imagery from Airbus’ Pléiades and SPOT6/7 visit www.simplot.com offerings to a whole new level. From field constellations. This provides spatial

Benefits • An unrivalled agronomic imagery • Detailed change detection layers to • Increased opportunities for value useful time-saving tool for farmers and farming advisors as a result of the creation through the development of agronomists. precise spatial accuracy of processed multiple imagery derivatives. imagery. • Increase in the number of monitored • Support for farmers in their daily work fields and acreage thanks to reliability • Increased directed-field scouting and decision making, fulfilling the in image collection, imagery quality, revenue, due to imagery integration SmartFarm® mission of delivering data- automated processing and ease of use. into Simplot Advisor™ and the ability to driven agronomy. scout over imagery derivatives.

Airbus This document is not contractual. Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, France, Subject to change without notice. Germany, Hungary, Singapore, Spain, © Ron Thomas United Kingdom, United States © Simplot All rights reserved. @AirbusSpace www.intelligence-airbusds.com