myKWS: New online platform for farmers

Einbeck, August 27, 2020

With the aim of making efficient use of resources and optimizing production processes in crop production, the focus of modern agriculture is increasingly on digital farming. In light of this, KWS is also expanding its portfolio. Digital services are now pooled on the new online platform myKWS and support farmers in the successful cultivation of the crop types and varieties.

“Farmers have already been able to access specialist information and digital tools in the past few years on our Cultivent platform,” explains Mark Bieri, who is responsible at KWS for implementing the new platform. “With myKWS, we have additionally created a new, clearly laid out and personalized homepage that now provides each farmer with each more specific information than before – all tailored exactly to their farming operations.” That includes, for example, weather data, current market analyses and price data for wheat, rapeseed, corn and sugar as well as potatoes, milk or soybeans. Users of the area-based tools from KWS, such as SAT TS-Monitoring, are automatically directed to the personalized homepage after logging in, all other users can simply activate this area. Fields can also be marked or uploaded on a central map. The marked fields are then displayed with color coding and a crop icon on the overview map. A new feature is that the vitality check is now available for all crops. These maps display the plant vitality and plant growth, thus clearly showing differences in stock development. The images, unless hindered by clouds, are updated once a week based on satellite images, allowing farmers to follow the development of their fields over time. Bieri: “Naturally, personal contact on site by our sales forces remains very important. With myKWS, we are nevertheless expanding our portfolio to include, for example, expert consulting via the familiar e-mail service. Added to that are information on the area-based tools used and invitations to events or information on new crop varieties.”

The expanded myKWS service offering can be used by farmers with operations of any size and any type of farming irrespective of the cultivated type or variety of crops. Existing registrations in Cultivent will be seamlessly continued in myKWS via the known accounts. New registrations are possible at any time at www.kws.de/mykws.

Awards for myKWS

In parallel with the launch of the new online platform, myKWS has already received multiple awards: Winner of the iF Design Award 2020 (Service Design category) and the Red Dot Design Award 2020 (Digital Service category), Bronze in the Art Directors Club competition 2020 (Web Service category) and a nomination in the UX Design Award 2020 (Digital Applications category). The prizes were awarded, among other things, for the user-friendliness of the portal and the offer of suitable and tailor-made solutions for special user groups.

Here is a selection of the digital services offered by KWS:

The Added Value Service – for corn, sugarbeet and rapeseed
Volatile weather conditions, animal pests or errors in stock management can lead to upheaval. The aim of the Added Value Service for corn, sugarbeet and rapeseed is to give farmers with additional security and planning reliability in cultivation in difficult situations. In the event of drastic upheaval, they will receive support from KWS in the form of 50 percent discount on the seed price for newly sowing sugarbeet or 50 percent of the seed rate for newly sowing rapeseed and corn. All fields created in the Added Value Service can also be enabled for other free digital services offered by KWS.

Satellite images, vitality and humidity maps
Keeping an eye on the entire vegetation period and always receiving the latest information on the vitality of the stock with satellite images, biomass and humidity maps for different crop varieties. KWS provides them free of charge.

SAT TS-Monitoring – optimum time to harvest corn for silage
SAT TS-Monitoring uses satellite images to identify the dry substance content of corn for silage so that a reliable recommendation can be made for the best possible time to harvest.

Site-specific planting – optimum planting density of corn
The digital tool “Teilflächenspezifische Aussaat” (Site-Specific Planting) defines the ideal planting density for corn on the basis of respective soil conditions. KWS combines satellite images delivering objective data with long-standing empirical values and variety-specific know-how – because not all varieties react alike to changes in the planting density.

Crop Manager – optimum crop rotation planning
Crop Manager supports farmers in managing their various crops. Alongside planning and optimizing crop rotation, it also provides key profitability figures for operations and the opportunity to directly compare and contrast multiple approaches to crop rotation.

About KWS*
KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. In the fiscal year 2018/19, more than 5,500 employees in 70 countries generated net sales of EUR 1.1 billion and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of EUR 150 million. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for more than 160 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugarbeet, cereals, rapeseed, sunflowers and vegetables. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to increase farmers’ yields and to improve resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested approximately EUR 200 million last fiscal year in research and development.

^{*All indications excluding the results from the companies accounted for using the equity method AGRELIANT GENETICS LLC, AGRELIANT GENETICS INC. and KENFENG – KWS SEEDS CO., LTD.}