TITELTHEMA EDITORIAL DEAR READERS, At almost 210,000, visitor count at the French SIMA exhibition in Paris remained stable when compared with 2017. On the increase, however, was the public interest experienced by the Krone France team at the event. The team was also gratified by an increase in sales turnover with Krone achieving a plus of 18% in France during 2018 – a trend continuing into the first months of 2019. Reasons for this success include consistent expansion of the Krone sales and distribution network backed by very good service and spare parts supply, new products and overall greater willingness to invest by customers. Right in front of you now and fresh from the press is the latest issue of XtraBlatt. Once again, the editorial staff travelled all over Europe harvesting articles and reports for your interest. The title theme in this issue is digitization in agriculture – a challenge confronting all of us everywhere, one that most are not sure how best to tackle. This is why our writers have looked for examples where digitization doesn’t stand before us as a sort of abstract “data monster” but instead eases in very practical ways the day-to-day situations for farmers. In particular, the report on the Swedish farmer Anders Johnsson (p. 16) makes very plain to me just how a “down-to-earth” digitization can sustainably optimise everyday farming procedure. Incidentally, one doesn’t have to be a prophet to realise we’ll have to involve ourselves more intensively with this theme in the near future. Government requirements for documentation, starting with the Fertiliser Ordinance through to plant protection, will certainly not become less. This poses the question: do you want to involve yourselves in all the administrative procedures? Or would you rather seek professional help? After all, you leave the intricacies of your tax returns to your tax accountant. I think this aspect offers an important business opportunity for agricultural contractors and machinery rings. With such a service they could offer you a helping hand through the maze of mandatory documentation. For instance, we’ve already moved to meet the necessary technical requirements developing, with DKE Data, the platform “agrirouter” in a joint project with many other manufacturers. This enables smooth transference of all your personal data and means you can be absolutely sure that it is only you who decides who sees your data and can use it for time-efficient and safe operation, whatever the machinery makes being used. At Hanover during Agritechnica 2019 – it’ll be with us again in just four months – we’ll be presenting all our digital systems and naturally also many new ideas in our machinery. I’m very much looking forward to you visiting us there in Hall 27. Until then, have a very good season! With best greetings from Emsland Yours sincerely, Bernard Krone 3
