With this information, farmers will be able to make better daily decisions based on the latest data. The Connected Farm dashboard is customizable and accessible via Internet-enabled devices such as desktop and notebook personal computers, smartphones and tablets, and Trimble's new TMX-2050 display.

 The Connected Farm dashboard will allow farmers to:

• Check daily rainfall totals for each virtual rain gauge—without the use of physical rain gauges. (Made possible by Trimble's acquisition of RainWave's assets). This will allow a farmer to reprogram his irrigation system based on the previous evening's rainfall, optimizing the use of water.
• View the weather forecast weekly, daily, or hourly for a given location including temperature, humidity, chance of precipitation and wind speed. For example, wind speed will allow a farmer to plan when to spray a given field.
• Set up a Doppler radar map to show upcoming weather patterns for their area. This will allow a farmer to assess in real time whether or not to continue with a current activity. 
• Check the latest commodity prices. Farmers will be able to select the commodities that matter to them and list them based on personal priority.
• View farming operations data. For example, if the farmer is viewing yesterday's planting activities, the dashboard may show population, singulation, skips and doubles.
• Monitor a fleet by tracking the location and status of vehicles and receive geo-fence and curfew alerts. Farmers also can link through to Trimble's new Connected Farm fleet app to add landmarks or for turn-by-turn directions to locate vehicles from their current position, and view historical positions.
• View a boundaries map created with Trimble's Connected Farm scout app.

Following the completion of the recently announced IQ Irrigation asset acquisition, irrigation pivot data is expected to be available on the Connected Farm dashboard in New Zealand in the fourth quarter of 2013 and the U.S. in the first half of 2014.

These features will allow farmers to use their proprietary information to make real-time decisions needed to manage operations.

"With the Connected Farm dashboard, farmers can quickly see a snapshot view of their latest field operation as well as key information that may impact today's activities such as rainfall, commodities, and the day's weather forecast," said Joe Denniston, vice president for Trimble's Agriculture Division. "With this information available in one convenient central location through Connected Farm, farmers can access the information they need to make the best daily decisions about their farm. Since the dashboard can be accessed from Internet-enabled devices, farmers can make these decisions from potentially any location at any time."

The Connected Farm dashboard is a free Web portal and is currently available. To set up an account, please visit www.connectedfarm.com. To view rainfall totals, monitor pivot irrigators (when available), or for fleet management, customers will need to purchase these services.