Iteris Inc. has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded five patents for key harvesting technologies that make up Iteris’ precision farming platform, ClearAg. The five patents are directly related to ClearAg’s Harvest Advisory Services, which are available to agribusinesses and growers globally through ClearAg application programming interfaces (APIs), the ClearAg Visualization Components suite and the ClearAg Mobile App.

ClearAg’s harvest-time decision support capabilities help producers assess the financial impacts that weather, water, soil and crop health conditions can have on farming and harvesting operations. The patented technology guides agribusinesses and growers making harvest-related decisions that consider plant wetness and seed moisture. Specifically, the patented technology provides guidance for use of desiccants and helps with the optimization of in-field and fuel-based drying of agricultural commodities.

“The ClearAg Harvest Advisors help maximize yield and capture operational efficiencies by providing real-time crop analysis information in the context of historical norms,” Tom Blair, senior vice president of Iteris’ Performance Analytics Division said in a news release. “Harvest operations require timely decisions regarding the application of desiccants and the determination of an optimal harvest window based upon crop moisture content and growth stage. Agribusinesses and growers alike can utilize ClearAg to achieve critical decision support on a global basis for the upcoming harvest season.”

The ClearAg decision support advisory services for precision agriculture, such as the Harvest Advisors, are based upon ClearAg’s precision weather capabilities, and its proprietary Land Surface Modeling technologies as well as Iteris’ EMPower adaptive forecasting engine. As new information becomes available, the ClearAg system adapts to provide the most accurate, location-based information available on a worldwide basis. ClearAg’s patented technologies combine global, multi-sensor weather analyses, ensemble-based weather forecasting, customized soil modeling, crop growth modeling capabilities and a staff of meteorologists to create science-based environmental information.