Mine the Data

By Des Keller
Progressive Farmer Contributing Editor

When Mike Anderson reviews precision-farming data this winter, he won't just be reviewing what happened on the operation he runs with his father-in-law, Andy Russell. He'll be able to see, in some detail, the inputs and results on more than 40,000 acres from 25 other farms in his northwest Iowa region. That data may help him make decisions for his own operation.

"For one thing, when I look at everyone else's yields on the maps, that helps tell me, for instance, what seed-population adjustments might be justified on different soil types," said Anderson, based near Dakota City, Iowa. "We most definitely would not do without it now."

The "it" he refers to is the Data Management (DM) program, a subset of member customers of New Cooperative, Fort Dodge, Iowa. Members in the DM program agree to participate by sharing their precision information -- in a non-farm-specific way -- in the data-crunching program. The results are then shared with other members.

"I would say we're looking at a 15 to 20% yield increase over the last four years as a result of having this information," Anderson said. The group also compares data on seed varieties and nitrogen levels.

New Cooperative's DM program is an example of efforts occurring at the local, regional and national levels by individual producers, consulting groups, cooperatives and large agricultural companies to use agronomic information to the benefit of everyone. The cooperative is unique in that it has been able to recoup the cost of precision-data collection and software development by charging DM members to see specific numbers beyond their own operation.

COST AND BENEFITS

"If we're able to improve a grower's efficiency and profitability, it allows our customers to be more confident in their decision-making," said Grant Klever, an agronomy sales representative for New Cooperative. "Additionally, this efficiency often leads to less overapplication [of fertilizer], which could lead to increased yields, less nutrient loss and improved watershed quality."

The service costs members anywhere from $3 and up per acre, depending on the amount of services the cooperative provides with the data. It's well worth it, Anderson explains. "Anything that can help a guy save a buck or make a buck is important, given the price of land, the cost of seed and the fact I think we're looking at a couple of harder years ahead," he said.

Among the aggregate information those in the group are privy to include yield information by soil type, fertility and variety, primary and secondary nutrients, planting date, fungicide use and variety coupled with fungicide use.

Another member, Bob Grandgeorge, said the information has been valuable. Based on the data from test strips New Cooperative runs on his farm and from other management group members, he increased corn-seeding rates—and it has paid off. Grandgeorge's top seeding rate for corn prior to the program was about 32,000 seeds per acre. Now, some fields are at 38,000 seeds per acre.

"The higher rates have been doing much better in the fields where the data indicated they might," said Grandgeorge, who farms near Woolstock, Iowa. "The yields, which he estimates are up 15% overall, have more than justified the expense. I'm not sure we're saving money, but overall, we are putting money where we can use it the best we can."

In addition to seed populations, the group data convinced Grandgeorge to use variable-rate planting, which he said also factors into the overall yield increase.

TURN NUMBERS INTO ACTION

That's where New Cooperative's SOILMAP software comes in. The proprietary program (in conjunction with a handful of additional apps) crunches the agronomic data from the planter, sprayer and combine, along with information on fertility and soil type, and makes recommendations for specific fields.

The SOILMAP program, which New Cooperative also sells to other co-ops, doesn't cost extra for members. "The program doesn't tell us we need to plant this variety at a certain population," Klever said. "But we then work with the farmer and our agronomists to create a map, a plan, to make better decisions next year."

"Handling and interpreting that data is time-consuming," Grandgeorge said. "You need people to do the crunching. It's actually so much information, you can hardly take it in, but you can take what works for you."

The SOILMAP software and Data Management are New Cooperative's effort to capture a chunk of the precision-farming business. This industry is expected to show 12% annual growth in the next five years and be worth $4.5 billion by 2020 in the U.S.

On a much larger scale, Monsanto's FieldScripts and DuPont Pioneer's Encirca Services are efforts by those companies to create more value for their products for customers. Both involve applications and analysis to make business recommendations on agronomic and input use.

This doesn't mean the various plans and services are mutually exclusive. New Cooperative also works with FieldScripts for members who are interested. "We do different things to offer more opportunity to our growers," Klever said.

PROTECTING THE DATA

Clearly, precision-agricultural data is valuable. New Cooperative officials are adamant precision farm data is the property of the farmer, not the cooperative. The cooperative can't move a member's data anywhere else -- to business partners or other ag enterprises that might want to buy the data -- without the farmer's permission.

While the cooperative's stance is clear, there's a bigger ongoing debate as to whether farmers own the data from their farms.

"Your data is your most important source of information," said Joe Russo, who helped pioneer what would become precision farming 29 years ago as an agricultural meteorologist at Penn State University. "It defines you and represents your economic position and intellectual property. There is no doubt in my mind who owns it," he notes.

A coalition of some of the major farm organizations and agribusinesses recently forged an agreement on data protection and privacy. It essentially states that farmers own the information generated on their farming operations and that it can't be shared without a farmer's consent.

Billy Tiller is a west Texas farmer who agrees with Russo. Tiller is also a founder of the Grower Information Services Cooperative (GISC), whose goal is to store, safeguard and disseminate farm-generated data on behalf of its members.

"Individual growers may not see this data as valuable because their operation is such a small piece of the whole," Tiller said. GISC provides farmers a means to aggregate and sell their information. Several thousand farmers in 24 states are already members of the cooperative.

Certainly the biggest value for members is how their data can help them make or save money in their own operation. How much can the cooperative's grower members make from selling their aggregated information to ag businesses or others? "It's hard to say at this point," Tiller concedes.

ACCESSING DATA

This coming summer, GISC hopes to begin The Exchange -- a platform by which members can access data or allow other vendors to access all or part of their farm's information. "I don't want anyone thinking they are going to get a $5,000 dividend from this cooperative," Tiller said. "But if we don't do anything, and big data turns out to be valuable, we're not getting any of the added value. I want to be on the other side of that."

Tiller likens the fact that other businesses generally hold and control farmers' data to someone who uses the garages of someone else as a place to park their cars. "At some point, you can forget that it's your car in their garage," he said. "When you don't possess these things, you begin to lose the premise you have ownership."

In addition to GISC, two other entities have been established regarding the compiling, use and controls of precision-farm data. One is AgGateway, a nonprofit consortium of more than 200 businesses trying to promote, enable and expand eBusiness.

AgGateway is working on a Standardized Precision Ag Data Exchange to simplify data-sharing. The group, which was founded several years ago, is also moving to field-test a Precision Ag Irrigation Leadership Project for data exchange in connection with irrigation work orders.

Additionally, the Open Ag Data Alliance (OADA), based at Purdue University and formed in 2014, works to "open source" or allow data to be shared more easily across various formats. OADA is working to develop protocols to share the information while ensuring the security and privacy of a farmer's data.

On his Iowa farm, Anderson knows that the sharing of his data -- under certain protocols of anonymity -- has paid off in beneficial agronomic knowledge. His ultimate test of the practice: "We're getting better yields."

(ES/ BAS)

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