ReinCloud Promises Remote Control

Apr 19, 2016

As more cotton producers learn about the advantages of remote irrigation management, manufacturers are naturally contemplating the next step. For Reinke Irrigation, that new frontier is data management.

This spring the company debuted its ReinCloud Ag-Data Services software, designed to combine irrigation control with data management – all in a simple, user-friendly interface accessible on a farmer’s smartphone, tablet or
home computer.

“ReinCloud is a new ag-data service that is going to be an open platform where additional online data can be shared, providing access to all that data in one location for the grower,” says Mike Mills, southeast territory manager for Reinke Irrigation.

For Reinke, the irrigation part of this software is second nature – the company has made a name for itself with a broad irrigation portfolio. But data collection and management is a relatively new venture, and the company is partnering with existing agriculture data brands to make ReinCloud a success.

“We’ve rolled ReinCloud out right now to communicate with our on-track field hardware for monitor and control of center pivot irrigation systems,” says Mills. “Our next step is to incorporate some soil moisture and on-farm moisture monitoring companies as ReinCloud Ready partners. Then we’ll be adding partners in the coming months that will take, really, any data that is collected on the farm and be able to provide that to ReinCloud, so that the grower can access all of their own data on the farm in one location, and make his decisions from there.”

Mills notes that the data collected and stored within the ReinCloud package doesn’t necessarily have to be moisture-related. The platform is built such that any on-farm data can be stored and analyzed within the ReinCloud system.

Perhaps the most practical feature of the ReinCloud package is the remote irrigation technology it offers. Growers are able to control center-pivots, for example, from their smartphones or tablets – any web-enabled device, as Mills notes – from great distances.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.