Customer Spotlight: A Crop Advisor’s Perspective

When it comes to providing clients with their agronomy, pest control and management needs, Vern Johnson is the total package; the independent crop advisor for Arizona Ag Solutions swings a pretty wide swath when it comes to what solutions he provides for his growers. But with such a variety of services, comes a need for an integrated software platform.

“One of the difficult things I faced when it came to figuring out how to do it all, was finding an integrated platform where I could scout fields, crop plan, write recommendations, and keep records. Agrian was it,” Johnson says.

Recently, Johnson started integrating plant tissue, soil sampling and nematode sampling into the Agrian platform with his preferred labs. The lab then feeds their information right back into Agrian, enabling Johnson to provide reporting and recordkeeping in a single platform. “There are other scouting programs out there that are using GPS, easy inputs, and quick and nimble reporting, but the problem is that they don’t integrate,” he notes.

Since being introduced to Agrian’s NextGen platform, Johnson recognized it as the partnership he was looking for. “The database technology that you have with Agrian in rec writing, recordkeeping, and in field scouting is the total package that makes Agrian the best thing out there, without a doubt,” he says.

With the ability to do everything within one platform Johnson has more time to spend building relationships with his clients rather than filling out paperwork by hand. “Time is really important to us. We don’t have the luxury of being able to go out in the morning, make the loop, and get back to the office in time to write recs and be home by 5 o’clock,” he says.

For his growers, Agrian gives Johnson a quick way to record what was talked about and outline what the plan of action is. “It gives me the opportunity to provide to them load sheets and add notes. Everything’s in a single document that can be batched out to fax machines, printers or emails – with the e-print function I can email it to my grower’s printer, so they have that physical copy,” he notes. And when it comes to early orders, Agrian helps Johnson quickly calculate what is upcoming. “I can point and click, and move things over, and am able to realize more quickly how much of X commodity products I need, or how much of Y compound products I need, etc.,” he says.

Johnson truly values the partnership between his business and Agrian and views the relationship as a core part in his ability to build trust with his clients. “I continue to tell Fertizona, without Agrian, and without Fertizona’s support so I can have Agrian, I would be lost. Agrian is a partner that I have to have – just as important as having my growers or having my affiliation with Fertizona as a retailer.”

But it’s more than just efficiencies gained in workflow; Harman has seen how utilizing

Agrian’s software has helped increase the communication between himself and his farmers. “Agrian’s Crop Planning tools makes my job easier, and yet we are working together just as closely and sharing information more quickly. My growers place a lot of trust in me, and I don’t take that for granted. I wouldn’t have introduced them to the Agrian system if I didn’t have the confidence it would make crop planning and orders a whole lot easier for them.”