Winter
2016
grainswest.com
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giant’s move into the realm of data services. Climate
Corporation also agreed to the privacy and security principles.
The buying and merging has continued on, as well. John
Deere acquired Climate Corporation’s Precision Planting LLC
equipment business late last year to take advantage of its
Climate FieldView software that examines weather patterns
and agronomic trends. In addition, Trimble acquired Red
Deer-based Agri-Trend for an undisclosed sum, and Canadian
companies FarmLink Marketing Solutions and Farm At Hand
joined forces. With so many companies getting into data, it’s
paramount that farmers seek clarification if the privacy and
security policies of any provider are murky.
IS ALL OF THIS TECHNOLOGY REALLY NECESSARY?
According to a recent
Business Insider
story, sensors on
Monsanto’s harvest data equipment generate about seven
gigabytes of data per acre. That’s an incredible amount of
data, especially if producers aren’t making use of it. Not
everyone sees its value, though. Ask around at any farm show
or ag conference and you’ll get a mix of responses. Some
swear by the data they collect, claiming it has allowed them to
solve problems they didn’t know they had. They’ll say that it
has helped them to reduce input costs and increase yields and
profits. However, others are not only uncertain about security
and ownership, but simply don’t see the value of the data in
the first place.
Andy Stender, owner-operator of Crowfoot Ag Solutions
in Strathmore, AB, has been involved
in agriculture for more than 20 years,
and during that time he’s seen a lot of
change. Currently, he works with about
120 farmers, helping them to improve
their businesses. Stender said there are
three main reasons why farmers are slow
to jump on the data bandwagon. For one,
he said, they’re protective. They want to
know where the data is being stored, who
owns it and how to interpret it.
“There are a lot of issues with data,” he
said. “There’s no consistent platform for
producers to collect, store, interpret and
convert it into something they can use on the farm.”
He also pointed to money as a potential hindrance. “It can be
a lot of additional cost without a lot of financial reward for the
farm,” he said.
Despite his skepticism, Stender encourages his farmers to
use their data for good stewardship and traceability. Still, only a
few of the farmers he works with are keen on using the data they
collect. He thinks uptake will be higher in the future, but not
until farmers have access to trustworthy and reliable platforms.
“Once it’s at the point where we can interpret the data and
make it useful, then yes, it has a future,” he said.
Rob Stone farms 7,500 acres of durum, barley, lentils and
soybeans in Davidson, SK. While he does collect data, he
prefers a more “old school” approach.
“We keep records of all our field activities on a written
desktop calendar,” he said. “That method dates back a long
way. It’s easy to access and it’s often compared easily with other
years.”
Stone uses yield data to pick out trends in the fields,
sometimes splitting fields to compare treatments or varieties
he’s testing. Sometimes he uses yield data to make changes
to variable rate zones and to guide future recommendations.
For the most part, though, he admits that what he collects is
underutilized.
“There is so much data generated. We need to do a better
job of saving it to a [USB] stick and getting our consultants
to organize it for us,” he said. “We are paying for that. It just
doesn’t get done.
“I’ve had bad experiences with a couple of different monitors,
and it takes too long to download,” he added. “It’s a weak
excuse, but it’s the truth.”
Peter Gredig farms roughly 1,000 acres of soybeans
and wheat south of London, ON. Gredig is also a partner
at AgNition, a mobile app development company, so he
understands the importance of technology on the farm. He’s
excited about the potential of precision ag, but said he thinks
on-farm data is more useful in controlled environments, such as
dairy and hog farms.
“Trying to do that same analysis in crop production is
tough because we’re constantly facing
variables,” he said.
To make the data really work, he said
producers should identify a problem and
then use the tools to generate data that
addresses that problem.
There are other producers who swear
by the usefulness of on-farm data.
Josh Fankhauser farms 7,000 acres
in Claresholm, AB, where he grows
spring wheat, yellow peas, canola, flax
and barley. He’s a huge proponent of
collecting and using on-farm data.
“Every single thing that happens on the
farm gets recorded,” he said. “You don’t pull a land roller or a
harrow without me knowing about it.”
While Fankhauser doesn’t use all of the data he collects, he
stores it for possible use in the future. Today, he uses data to run
trials and test inputs.
“There’s not a single input on the entire farm that I don’t
have an extremely good idea of exactly what the return on
investment is,” he said. “We’re dealing with very unique
soils—very, very long-term no-till soils. A lot of our agronomic
practices are changing. We were told that some things just
weren’t possible in our climate, and we’re doing ’em because
we have the data to back it up.”
“There’s no consistent
platform for producers
to collect, store, interpret
and convert it into
something they can use on
the farm.”
–Andy Stender
