Incitec Pivot Fertilisers is teaming up with soil health data business Precision Agriculture, offering its Nutrient Advantage Laboratory services to the paddock nutrition advisory firm.
Apart from providing laboratory services, Incitec Pivot will also work with Precision Agriculture to support development of novel soil testing products and services.
The fertiliser giant's Nutrient Advantage Laboratory has operated for more than 50 years.
It is widely regarded as one of Australia's leading nutrient testing facilities providing the broadest range of National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited nutrient tests in Australia.
Precision Agriculture, which has operations bases at Ballarat and Rutherglen in Victoria, the Temora research station in NSW, and Tasmania, collects, curates and interprets spatial soils data and provides nutrient mapping and spatial application solutions.
It operates across dryland cropping, pasture systems, horticulture, irrigated agriculture systems and provides soil carbon measurement and management guidance to farmers.
Its service to agronomists, consultants and farmers throughout Australia includes geo-spatial information system (GIS) platform Soli, which delivers directly into the cab of cropping machinery.
The company's methodology for intensive soil management enables advanced understanding and management of paddocks.
Incitec Pivot Fertilisers president Stephan Titze said the new partnership would add to the agronomic data and tools available to fertiliser dealers, agronomists and consultants to help farmers achieve better and more sustainable paddock outcomes.
"Our business is committed to providing customers with market leading products and services that improve plant nutrition and soil health and lead to better and more sustainable plant nutrition for Australian farmers," Mr Titze said.
"Intensive soil testing as carried out by Precision Agriculture complements regular soil testing carried out by agronomists every year.
"It provides a more detailed and accurate investigation and opens up new horizons to significantly improve plant nutrition and soil health, whilst supporting farmers to manage input costs and optimise crop yields in a more sustainable way."
In the new digital world he said no one company had all the answers, so partnerships such as this one would help to improve data driven decision making and precision farming.
To use data to improve plant nutrition, soil health and environmental outcomes was a logical and necessary trend which would support a robust agriculture sector well into the future.
Precision Agriculture's chief executive officer Todd Buck said the alliance would help Precision Agriculture to meet growing demand for its services.
"Our customers will have enhanced service delivery, faster results and access to a range of innovative plant nutrition and soil health solutions into the future," Mr Buck said.
"The strategic nature of the partnership will also assist us in delivering our plan for further developing our services across our existing customer base in broadacre dryland farming, horticulture, pasture systems, irrigated agriculture and soil carbon solutions."
Collaboration with Incitec Pivot included a focus on autonomous sampling technology, rapid infield soil testing, variable depth sampling, variable rate nitrogen applications and other innovative soil health focused opportunities.
The IPF team works closely with a network of local dealers, agronomists and advisors across Australia's eastern states.
Both companies were excited about the new supply agreement, which starts from November, and looked forward to working together to make Precision Agriculture's novel services available to more dealers, agronomists, consultants and farmers in more regions.
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