Trimble Partners With Great American Insurance Group to Automate Crop Reporting

Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced a strategic alliance with Great American Insurance Group to help farmers automate their crop insurance reporting under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Federal Crop Insurance Program. The new recordkeeping system makes it possible for Farm Works™ users to submit their crop insurance records electronically to Great American Insurance Group. The time-saving solution makes it simple for farmers to transfer planting and harvest data directly to the Great American Insurance Group systems from their Farm Works Mapping software.

The announcement was made today at the Trimble Agriculture Reseller Conference.

"Aligning with Trimble provides great value to our crop insurance customers and serves to distinguish us in the marketplace," said Tim Copeland, divisional vice president of Marketing at Great American Insurance Group, Crop Insurance Division. "It will also increase awareness among farmers about how precision agriculture tools can help improve accuracy and efficiency in crop insurance reporting."

In 2011 the USDA Federal Crop Insurance Program, administered by the Risk Management Agency (RMA), began accepting precision agricultural data which meets the specific requirements listed in RMA's Crop Insurance Handbook and/or Loss adjustment Manual. The new reporting system will help farmers more quickly, easily and accurately meet USDA requirements related to acreage, planting and harvest. Geo-referenced data may be collected from the tractor or combine cab with a compatible precision farming display such as the Trimble® FmX® integrated display or CFX-750™ touch screen.

"Farmers increasingly list data management and recordkeeping among their top management concerns," said Erik Arvesen, vice president and general manager for Trimble's Agriculture Division. "As the USDA now allows precision agriculture-based recordkeeping and begins standardizing its recordkeeping requirements, we are very pleased to be among the first to provide a comprehensive crop insurance data solution to Great American Insurance and Trimble customers."