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Challenging times are only difficult without action

Back in 2018, digital transformation was already taking shape across Europe’s agriculture sector, albeit unevenly. While true end-to-end digital offerings were still rare, expectations were beginning to shift, and Borealis L.A.T recognised early that digital capabilities would soon become a differentiator rather than a novelty. They have faced difficulties in multiple stages:

1. Competitive pressure was emerging selectively rather than across the board. At the time, only a handful of players had taken a clear lead in digital agronomy tools. This signalled what was coming next: a gradual but inevitable shift toward data-driven decision-making in crop nutrition.
2. While Borealis L.A.T’s product portfolio was already well-established, the leadership team had a clear vision as early as 2017: digital tools would play a supporting role in strengthening farmer relationships and adding value beyond the product itself. The task was less about discovery and more about execution, translating this vision into a practical, farmer-friendly solution.
3. Preparing for the spreading season, most farmers have spent extensive hours using the good old pen and paper (or an Excel sheet at best) to plan their fertilisation strategy. Let’s say, Dominic, our farmer, was planning to grow winter wheat, rapeseed and maise on 50 hectares of land. Normally it took Dominic minimum half a week sitting at a desk to carefully plan the fertilisation timeline, calculating the necessary amount of nutrients for each crop, considering both the characteristics of the soil and the available fertiliser options. One misstep in this process could cause serious damage: apply too much fertiliser and potential profits are reduced, apply too little fertiliser and there is not enough production. 

The old days claimed new ways. That is why Borealis L.A.T decided to enhance its digital arsenal in order to make its farmers’ lives easier by reducing the time spent on fertiliser planning.

The outcome of our collaboration in short:

1. Three years after launch, NutriGuide® had evolved into a widely used digital fertilisation planning tool across several European markets.
2. The platform enabled farmers (#1 digital fertilisation planning tool in Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) to receive crop- and plot-specific recommendations aligned with Borealis L.A.T products, supporting more informed fertilisation decisions without adding complexity to their daily workflows.
3. The average time spent on creating the fertiliser plan per plot has been reduced significantly: from 3 hours to 2 minutes.

What’s cooking? From first recipes to a kitchen built to scale

As NutriGuide® evolved from an early concept into a widely used planning tool, the focus naturally shifted. What started as rapid feature development gradually became about something more fundamental: building a solution that could grow sustainably, adapt to different markets, and remain reliable for farmers season after season.

Our role centred on strengthening NutriGuide®’s foundations to support this next phase. The development work focused on creating a clear, modular structure that made the platform easier to extend, localise, and refine, all while ensuring continuity for farmers already relying on it in their daily planning.

With this groundwork in place, NutriGuide® was shaped into a scalable digital agronomy tool. One that continuously responds to farmers’ real needs through regular user-experience research, while remaining flexible enough to accommodate country-specific regulations, crop portfolios, and fertilisation practices across Europe.

By today, NutriGuide® with its interconnected features helps farmers in:

• creating their fertilisation plan for approx. 90 crops (depending on the country), 
• plot handling (editing/adding plots manually and XML uploads), 
• crop-rotation planning,

• getting personalized product recommendations even in 3rd party Farm Management Systems (FarmDok in Austria & Germany and AgroCity in Romania),

• and precise, efficient fertiliser spreading by creating application maps (Variable Rate Fertilization (VRF) prescription maps) using the latest satellite images (available in Austria).

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And the story of technological advancement goes on

In 2022, we’ve built NutriZones®, the companion app of NutriGuide® in collaboration with JR. 

The true innovation stands in using these tools interconnected, offering farmers a unique precision farming experience. 

NutriZones® uses the Variable Rate Fertilisation prescription maps generated in NutriGuide®, and from this point on, Dominic hops in the tractor with his smartphone, and all he has to do is follow the instructions of NutriZones® as he advances on the field with the spreader. By tracing his position, NutriZones® guides him through the plot telling the right application rates in the specific zones. This way, Dominic can be confident that nutrients are applied where they have the best efficiency.

In the old days this was only possible for farmers owning smart tractors. But with the arrival of NutriZones® precision farming and automatically controlled spreading efficiency became accessible without having to invest in highly-expensive machinery. 

By regularly analysing and adapting to the needs of farmers, knowing their main concerns is where we had created value: developing the software of complex algorithms that is easy to use even for farmers who are seemingly distant from technology and innovation.

*NutriZones® available in Austria

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Cultivating trust across Europe

The journey of NutriGuide® set off in Austria and France back in 2019. With a sharp eye on making it scalable in several other markets, our goal was to make the next version of NutriGuide® a state-of-the-art digital fertilisation planner that is customised to farmers’ needs all over Europe. 

To this day, NutriGuide® is used in 5 countries. Although it wasn’t an easy jump, it was worth every last bit of effort for two main reasons:

1. With the launch of the new NutriGuide® 4.0 at the end of 2020, we hopped into two new countries right away: Hungary and Romania.
2. The development time needed for adapting the tool to a different country was notably slimmed down due to the layered code structure implemented in version 4.0. For instance, building the most recent version debuting in Bulgaria took only a third of the time needed compared to its predecessors, NutriGuide® for Austria or France.

On a tech level, this is how the internationalisation of NutriGuide® went down, but there was no time to stop. It's not enough to have a great product anymore. In order to create a proper user base, we needed to make smart plays about how we position it, the stories we tell, the kind of marketing we do, and how we build the brand. We needed to persuade Dominic to drop his old habits, put the pen and paper away, and discover the much faster, digital way of fertilisation planning.

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Time is precious, why not spare some for what you like?

Farming is not a conventional job. It is full-time in the most literal form, a way of conducting one’s life. Fertilisation planning is a necessity, but not exactly a favoured one. Dominic, for example, is more fond of his outdoor activities: planting the crops, operating the harvester, or tending to his animals. Cutting down on the time spent on ‘paperwork’ to pursue his passions instead seems a rather appealing bargain, doesn’t it? And that’s exactly what NutriGuide® is for.

So in our marketing campaigns, we built on the idea of giving back time for one’s precious pastimes. Within the framework of this message, we aimed for educating farmers about the benefits of NutriGuide®, describing its key features and usage.

We went big on the marketing assets as well and prepared a set of creatives for each campaign that helped to deepen brand recognition and draw farmers’ attention to try out NutriGuide®. Dedicated landing pages, digital banners, ‘how it works’ animations, giveaways, creative contests, webinars and testimonial videos from verified users were promoted across various channels year over year, reaping handsome results. 

To give you an idea, here are some key results that we bagged so far:

• Marketing launch in 5 countries
• Nr. 1 in Google Austria one year from the launch
• From 0 to 68,3 M brand impressions in 2.5 years
• From 0 to 9,5 M video views and ad clicks in 2.5 years
• From 0 to 400 K visitors on the NutriGuide® Landing Page in 3.5 years

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Flutter your wings right and soar high

Hummingbirds are not like all the others. They are not flashy or craving for attention,  they are only doing what they are best at: working hard by exploiting their uniqueness. They are the only species that can fly forward, backwards, and even upside down. How about that? 

Well, we are very much alike: we build on our unique qualities, our agility and structured team effort. We come in, assess the situations, and heal the pain points. Where others get stuck or struggle to thrive, we find a way to win the day.

We are able to oversee each project from head to toe without losing details in translation and respond to each challenge with careful consideration. The proof is NutriGuide® itself, where we were able to simultaneously tackle the technological challenges and strengthen the brand value. We drive the growth of NutriGuide® on its journey of becoming a leader and maintaining its position in the field of international digital agronomy tools. 

That’s why we consider NutriGuide® as one of our signature products and take pride in the long way we have come since inheriting it. Even more than that, we are most proud of the mutual trust and well-balanced dynamics with our partner that connects us in bringing innovation to the agriculture scene.

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