Iteris Inc. has received a patent for technology related to assessing the impact of weather on crop harvest operations in precision agriculture. The U.S. Patent Office issued Iteris U.S. Patent Number 9,009,087 for modeling the impact of time-varying weather conditions on post-harvest crop drying techniques.

The patent addresses the technology in Iteris’ ClearAg offerings for harvest operations in precision agriculture. Specifically, the patent teaches a system and method of applying real-time, field-level weather simulation to identify the optimal time to harvest crops, based on predicted weather and soil conditions and crop moisture levels. The ClearAg system implements multiple agriculture models to generate a series of context-based, harvest advisory outputs for supporting farm operations management.

“This patent covers an important element of the technical foundation of our ClearAg products,” said Tom Blair, senior vice president of Performance Analytics at Iteris. “We anticipate expanding our patent portfolio to cover a broad set of our intellectual property in this area. We believe that our ClearAg product offering will allow growers and agribusinesses to optimize harvest operations and enhance time-sensitive harvest decision-making. Through our full suite of ClearAg products, our customers are able to utilize real-time content and agricultural models for enhanced decision-making at all stages of the crop production cycle.”

ClearAg is an intuitive application suite that leverages the power of agronomic models to solve complex agricultural challenges. Iteris’ patented technology leverages the ClearAg learning platform, an ensemble of multiple concurrent weather models, and applies global soil, agronomic crop growth models, and a multi-sensor science-based analysis of current and past weather and soil conditions, all curated by a staff of degreed meteorologists. The ClearAg solution set provides users with the right information for the right field at the right time, allowing access to the best decision-making information available.