Automate and optimize crop rotation and planting planning
Every farm has a system that records which crop went on which field. Most still decide what to plant next, on which field, and in which week by hand, one season at a time. Let's plan them together, so the harvest lands when the program needs it.
One solve plans every field, every season, and every planting week
Timefold solves crop choice, rotation sequence, and planting dates as one optimization problem across a multi-year horizon. Return intervals, prohibited sequences, nitrate zone caps, GAEC 7 crop shares, organic soil building, processor capacity, committed volumes, and weekly planting capacity are enforced as hard constraints, so every plan is one the farm can actually follow. Within those rules, the model maximizes gross margin, net of yield drag, shortfalls, and surplus.
Where Timefold goes beyond rotation spreadsheets
Four places where rotation spreadsheets fall short. Timefold bakes each one into the model.
Rotation rules hold across years
Return intervals and carryover rules are checked against field history, so next year's plan never undoes this year's agronomy.
Harvests land when buyers need them
Planting weeks are chosen against weekly retail and processor volumes, so supply follows the program instead of a buffer.
Regulation is a rule, not a check afterwards
Nitrate caps, GAEC 7 crop shares, and organic soil building are hard constraints, not a review after the plan is done.
Replans that respect what is in the ground
Pin what is planted and replan the rest, with as few changes to the previous plan as possible.
Every rotation choice shows up in yield and margin
A poor sequence costs yield on every hectare, fertilizer is the biggest variable cost, and regulation limits what each field can take. The rotation decides all three, years ahead.
Less yield from planting corn after corn
Measured over ten years of trials, against corn after soybeans.
Higher returns from a corn-soybean rotation
Compared with continuous corn in the same trials. The sequence matters as much as the crop.
Of corn operating costs go to fertilizer
A legume in the rotation leaves nitrogen behind, so the sequence cuts the biggest variable cost.
Of manure nitrogen per hectare a year in EU nitrate zones
Caps like this limit what each field can take, so the rotation has to plan nitrogen, not just crops.
Constraints the model expresses today
When scheduling works, everything works.
Less waste. More control. Teams that trust the plan.