By Dr. Allen Chen, Research Lead, Ag Ingenuity Partners, Advanced Agrilytics
Join the Conversation at Tech Hub LIVE!
Dr. Allen Chen will present “Scalable Agronomy Backed by Real-World Research” at the upcoming Tech Hub LIVE! event in Des Moines. His session will explore the TerraFraming platform in detail and highlight how ag retailers and crop advisors can use it to refine services, enhance ROI, and meet the demands of today’s complex growing environments. His session is on Wednesday, July 23 at 10:20 AM on the Show Floor in the Tech Talks Pavilion. Can’t make his Tech Talk? Then stop by booth #208 in the Expo Hall at Tech Hub LIVE!, and meet Dr. Chen in person.
If your business depends on servicing growers—whether through retail agronomy, crop consulting, or seed sales—you’re judged by one metric: are my growers winning? Advanced Agrilytics’ TerraFraming™ turns that challenge into a repeatable advantage by revealing precisely where yield risk hides and how to neutralize it. The result? Fewer “at-risk” acres, more predictable ROI, and a data story your competitors can’t match.
And when you zoom out to look at what really drives performance, one principle emerges: consistency. Not just across seasons or product lines—but within every single field. The concept of consistency has become foundational in our work with growers. It’s the critical bridge between agronomic opportunity and execution. Thanks to TerraFraming, it’s no longer an aspiration—it’s a measurable, repeatable advantage. And now, ag retailers, crop consultants and seed sales representatives can bring this predictive agronomic offering into their customers as well.
A Decade of Proven Results
Advanced Agrilytics has compiled yield performance and insurance data across a wide range of operations over the past ten years. The impact of our predictive agronomic approach is clear:
Figure 1: Reducing Risk = Increased Yield Consistency
Advanced Agrilytics’ approach to yield consistency is holistic. Our objective is to reduce risk and create “whole farm” results, such as improved yield consistency and better crop resilience – not just on the traditionally “good” acres but on every acre. The chart above shows the “at-risk” acres—those that historically underperform, in the green shaded area. Under Advanced Agrilytics management, the yield distributions of those underperforming acres shift to the right, indicating that yield risk is diminishing.
Figure 2: Overall Corn Results
The red curve represents yield distribution before Advanced Agrilytics management in this graphic. The green curve represents corn production under Advanced Agrilytics management. You can see the substantial rightward shift in yield distribution after implementing Advanced Agrilytics management. In addition, there was a substantial reduction in the left tail of the yield distributions, indicating that production improved significantly on traditionally “poor-producing” acres.
Figure 3: Overall Soybean Results
Similar to the results in corn production, there is a significant rightward shift in the yield distribution after the Advanced Agrilytics predictive agronomic method was implemented. Again, there was also a substantial reduction in the left tail of the graphic, indicating that approximately 4.7 Bu/A of soybeans were removed from the left tail, meaning lower risk and better overall production throughout the farm’s soybean acres.
The Importance of Yield Consistency
Achieving yield consistency is the foundation of a farm operation’s economic stability. By identifying the sub-acre factors causing yield variability, growers reduce their exposure to financial risk. They gain better control over ROI and make more informed decisions about seeding rates, fertility plans, and crop protection strategies.
Achieving this consistency requires more than good management. It requires a new model of agronomy—one rooted in precise, predictive insight, not reactive treatment.
This scatter plot illustrates the relationship between yield performance and crop insurance loss cost ratios—the higher the ratio, the greater the insurance payouts due to yield losses. The trendline for Advanced Agrilytics customers (represented by the green dots and the green trend line) shows a much flatter decline compared to the RMA/NASS-reported average. This means that as weather variability or other risk factors increase, Advanced Agrilytics growers’ yields remain more stable.
TerraFraming Powers a New Era of Predictive Agronomy
Traditional agronomy often applies the same practices across entire fields—fixed seeding rates, flat-rate nutrient applications, and soil test interpretations based on outdated assumptions. This “one-size-fits-all” approach fails to capture the complexity within fields, especially at the sub-acre level.
That’s where TerraFraming™ comes in. Developed by Advanced Agrilytics, TerraFraming is a patented platform that analyzes environmental variables—soil moisture, elevation, slope, organic matter, and more—to deliver zone-specific, sub-acre insights. The result: actionable, predictive prescriptions for fertility, seeding, and crop protection tailored to each unique environment.
Key analytical tools include:
- Soil Wetness Index (SWI): Predicts saturation or drought-prone zones, informing decisions on nitrogen stability, root development, and emergence.
- Nitrogen Loss Potential (NLP): Assesses risk of nitrogen loss through leaching, volatilization, or denitrification to guide variable-rate nitrogen and stabilizer applications.
- Spatial Critical Levels for P & K: Moves beyond static fertility recommendations by calculating nutrient needs based on soil texture, slope, and water availability—improving uptake and reducing waste.
By revealing the agronomic realities of each field in high resolution, TerraFraming makes it possible to manage variability, protect inputs, and deliver more consistent performance, especially in historically challenging acres.
A New Offering for Agribusiness Partners
Now, through licensing and managed service partnerships, TerraFraming is available to ag retailers, seed dealers, and crop consultants looking to bring precision and scalability to their own customer base. The platform integrates with existing workflows and provides partners with a differentiator: the ability to offer field-specific, research-backed predictive agronomic prescriptions that build long-term customer success.
By incorporating TerraFraming into their portfolio, agribusiness partners can:
- Deliver more precise input prescriptions – Tailor recommendations down to the sub-acre level, reducing input waste and boosting ROI—giving you a clear edge over standard recs.
- Support more resilient agronomic programs – Build strategies that adapt to field variability and changing conditions, helping growers stay ahead of weather and economic pressures.
- Strengthen grower relationships with proven, data-driven insights – Shift from selling products to solving problems—building trust and long-term loyalty with insights grounded in each grower’s own fields.
Ag Ingenuity Partners (AIP) is the research division of Advanced Agrilytics. Their work is critically important in helping to provide “proof of concept” of development-stage analytical product concepts, before they become part of the TerraFraming platform. AIP also performs independent, third-party research and testing of other companies’ products. This testing helps clarify the agronomic environments in which the products perform best, helping agribusinesses streamline their product development and commercialization processes.
By characterizing products with AIP, ag partners can:
- Increase the probability of success – understanding how a product interacts with its environment allows targeted placement
- Boost sales team confidence – equip your sales team with a thorough understanding of the mechanisms powering a product
- Sell with integrity – AIP evaluates products independently, providing unbiased, data-driven insights to inform product development and marketing
A Smart Foundation for a Stronger Legacy
Consistency is the cornerstone of profitability in today’s agriculture. Through TerraFraming and the predictive agronomic methodologies developed by Advanced Agrilytics, growers and their trusted advisors are turning unpredictability into precision, and variability into opportunity. With every season, the data grows—and so does the ability to make smarter, more resilient decisions.
© 2025 Advanced Agrilytics Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved. Advanced Agrilytics and TerraFraming are trademarks of Advanced Agrilytics Holdings, LLC.