Virtual test drive of AFS Connect

Jan 25, 2021

Expert provides step-by-step walk through of Case IH’s farm management software

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to use Case IH’s AFS Connect?

The farm management software allows growers to monitor and manage its fleet, farm and data.

Kirk Wesley took attendees of the 2020 Farms.com Precision Agriculture Conference & Ag Technology Showcase on a virtual test drive of AFS Connect. Wesley is AFS Marketing Manager, Off-Board for Case IH North America.

At the farm level, AFS Connect allows farmers to organize fields and applications, gain agronomic insights and share relevant data with partners.

“Your data is yours,” adds Wesley. “We’re not sharing this with anyone else – you’ve got access to [the data] and you control who gets to visualize it.”

At the fleet level, AFS Connect allows farmers to easily “monitor equipment and logistics to achieve peak performance” and provides in-depth analysis of machine data.

Wesley also notes that Case IH recently rolled out a new feature allowing farmers to view its machinery fleet within the field portal.

After creating field boundaries, the software automatically (within the United States) generates a map showing all soil types within those set boundaries.

Under the Field View tab, farmers can view seeding populations, application rates and yield data from information gathered from monitors. This allows farmers to make data-driven agronomic decisions by overlaying yield data onto field maps.

So, what kind of data can be brought into AFS Connect?

CaseIH/NewHolland/Steyr (CN1)
John Deere (RCD/Gen4)
ISO 11783 (XML)
Trimble (AgGPS)
Field Boundaries (SHP zip)
3rd Party Data
Harvest Loads/Protein (CSV)
Gatekeeper (XML)

“One of the costliest parts of data management is just converting data from one format that you may have had in the past to the current format,” explains Wesley. “That’s one of the powerful tools that we have in [AFS Connect] is being able to utilize all of that information easily.”

The portal also has a reporting setting that automatically generates reports that can be shared with various partners of the organization.

The reports, using herbicide application as an example, includes the following information:

Rates of how it was spread across the field via map and graph
Summary of activities including when spraying started and when it ended, field size, acres applied, equipment and operator information, etc.
Tank mix information

To learn more about AFS Connect, watch the below step-by-step walk through with Wesley.

Photo: caseih.com

Video: From Conventional to Regenerative: Will Groeneveld’s Journey Back to the Land

"You realize you've got a pretty finite number of years to do this. If you ever want to try something new, you better do it."

That mindset helped Will Groeneveld take a bold turn on his Alberta grain farm. A lifelong farmer, Will had never heard of regenerative agriculture until 2018, when he attended a seminar by Kevin Elmy that shifted his worldview. What began as curiosity quickly turned into a deep exploration of how biology—not just chemistry—shapes the health of our soils, crops and ecosystems.

In this video, Will candidly reflects on his family’s farming history, how the operation evolved from a traditional mixed farm to grain-only, and how the desire to improve the land pushed him to invite livestock back into the rotation—without owning a single cow.

Today, through creative partnerships and a commitment to the five principles of regenerative agriculture, Will is reintroducing diversity, building soil health and extending living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible. Whether it’s through intercropping, zero tillage (which he’s practiced since the 1980s) or managing forage for visiting cattle, Will’s approach is a testament to continuous learning and a willingness to challenge old norms.

Will is a participant in the Regenerative Agriculture Lab (RAL), a social innovation process bringing together producers, researchers, retailers and others to co-create a resilient regenerative agriculture system in Alberta. His story highlights both the potential and humility required to farm with nature, not against it.