Better Farming – September 2016

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30 Farm News First > Better Farming September 2016
also opens the door for others to
access that information. This
danger is so widespread across
economic sectors that a Cloud
Security Alliance has been formed
to promote best practices in cloud
security. The fear in agriculture is
that large corporations will have
access to masses of information,
which can potentially be very
valuable.
Redmond downplays the need
for concern. “They don’t care
about the yield off some field in
London Township,” he says, “they
care about the aggregate data.
They want to know if (one) hybrid
did better than another hybrid.
That’s where the big decisions will
come from – aggregate data.”
Both Redmond and Bose
believe the farmer owns the raw
data, but does the data manage-
ment software company have
partial ownership of it once the
raw data has been massaged into
useful information?
“If you sign an agreement with
a software provider, whether it’s a
manufacturer or someone else,
make sure you read the fine print
in the agreement,” advises
Redmond. “Make sure you have
control over your data.”
A number of industry alliances
have been formed that set out
protocols for information securi-
ty. One of the largest is the Open
Ag Data Alliance (OADA), of
which Case IH is a founding
member.
“A guiding principle of OADA
is that a farmer owns his data,
and must give permission to
allow a third party to use it,”
explains Bose.
But third-party access to years
of accumulated data is what can
have the greatest impact on
input costs and yields. BF
continued from page 27 continued from page 28
The field management plan
All of this information can be used to
develop a management plan for the
field and the crop. Developing the
plan begins “day one” at the end of
harvest, says Bose.
“Look at what happened on a
yield basis. Based on what happened
and factoring in what you did in
terms of planting, chemical applica-
tion and fertilizer application, have a
third party advisor help you aggre-
gate that with data on soil types, and
you may be able to make purchase
decisions on seed, fertilizer and
chemicals for next year’s crop. Early
booking might give you reduced
rates.”
Redmond has worked on data
collection and management plans for
dozens of farmers.
“The first question I ask is, ‘how
comfortable are you with your yield
monitor?’ If you’re not comfortable,
get comfortable. Know it inside and
out.”
Then use your network to build
that necessary team of advisors. Bose
suggests starting with the implement
dealer.
“Our dealers know our customers,
and we can optimize performance
specific to that customer’s needs.”
It may be that you will need more
than one expert. Encirca’s Calkins
notes his company’s increasing
business ties with unexpected
partners. “The equipment guys, the
software guys and the genetics guys
like us, we all have something to
contribute, and it’s starting to come
together.”
Redmond finds that younger
farmers are generally more comfort-
able with technology.
“We had a customer who had just
graduated, and he was the son of a
farmer. His mom wanted to build a
wrap-around deck on the house, but
he wanted to use that money to buy a
planter capable of variable rate
seeding. So he calls us during the
winter. He points to his new planter
and says, ‘that’s mom’s deck. You
better make this work.’” BF
PRECISIONAG