Machine Control System Providing Actionable Management Information and Insight Using Agricultural Telematics

A machine guidance apparatus for completing farming operations with operational efficiency on a farm having at least one field or significant location, the apparatus comprising:

• an agricultural work machine configured for traversing the farm, the agricultural work machine having an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) communicably coupled via a system bus to a plurality of machine system elements including an engine and sensors to control and monitor engine functions;
• a farm implement operationally engaged with, and operated by, the agricultural work machine to effect farming operations as the agricultural work machine traverses the farm;
• a GPS receiver disposed on the agricultural work machine to generate location data for the work machine;
• and
• a data collector communicably coupled to the GPS receiver and to the system bus, the data collector configured to capture agricultural geospatial data including the location data for the work machine from the GPS receiver and engine function data from the ECU;
• and
• a guidance system communicably coupled to the data collector, the guidance system having a memory and a processor, wherein the memory includes a stored program executable by the processor, the stored program configured to:
• (a) capture geospatially located geometries of the farm, including field boundaries and topographical features of the field;
• (b) capture the agricultural geospatial data;
• (c) automatically classify the agricultural geospatial data, using the geospatially located geometries of the farm, into one or more activity/event categories including operational events, travel events, and ancillary events, to produce classified data;
• (d) aggregate the classified data to create a plurality of geospatial data events;
• (e) match the plurality of geospatial data events to planned versions of said plurality of geospatial data events within an agricultural operations model to generate a plurality of matched events;
• (f) use the plurality of matched events to generate actionable information for the working machine in real-time or near real-time;
• and
• (g) generate and send operational directives to the agricultural work machine based on the actionable information.