Two new web tools – one focused on calculating seed rates and the other on weather forecasting – were unveiled at Cereals this year to help growers maximise crop potential.

Distributor Agrovista was showing off its new MapIT Pro data management tool at the event.

The tool is the latest addition to Agrovista’s cloud-based agronomy management system Axis.

The company’s head of precision services, Lewis Mckerrow, said MapIT Pro will underpin growers’ variable-rate drilling plans using field zone map data.

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He said: “To make a seed map, users can choose to use an existing layer of data such as soil conductivity, yield or biomass maps, and the programme will then turn these into zoned maps. All the user needs to do is to add seed rates to each zone and press download.”

He adds that users can also start with a blank field boundary and draw seed zones manually.

Still under development is data assessment tool that uses yield information, grain prices, diesel cost and seed cost to predict return on investment and help growers choose the most efficient seed rate when the crop is next grown in the field.

Axis subscribers can bring their memory cards to the Agrovista stand (427) for a demonstration of the new MapIT Pro system using their own data.

Agrovista is also launching its revised weather forecasting tool Forecast Pro, which gives users a detailed three-day forecast showing likely spray windows, sunlight hours and soil temperatures.

The forecast also calculates the effectiveness of an application of herbicides, fungicides or insecticides depending on the weather conditions.

 For more news, photos, video and information on the Cereals event see our Cereals 2015 page