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Funded in part by the soybean checkoff
Advancing Agricultural Performance®
and Environmental Stewardship
Digital Agriculture: Leveraging Technology
and Information into Profitable Decisions
Dr. Matt Darr, Ag & Biosystems Engineering
Some material adapted from “The Digital Transformation
of Row Crop Agriculture”
Authors: The Hale Group, Ltd & LSC International, Inc.
• No intent to be critical of, or endorse, specific products/services
to the exclusion of others that fulfill similar functions.
• Mention of product/service name is for information purposes
only.
• This discussion is a snapshot of what is available today, and is
intended to generate positive momentum around the ag data
space.
• We must recognize that everyone along the chain must derive
income from “AG BIG DATA” to be commercially viable.
Presentation Guiding Principles
What is Big Data?
Big Data is data whose scale, diversity, and complexity
require new architecture, techniques, algorithms,
and analytics to manage it
and extract value and hidden knowledge from it.
Digital Agriculture is the new industry which is combining
large data sources with advanced crop and environment
models to provide actionable on-farm decisions.
• Autosteering and swath control technology have driven strong ROI
which has led to a proliferation of GPS technology on farm.
– This leads to ‘free’ machine data.
– Typical ROI in Iowa:
• 3.3% Planting Overlap Error, $7.89/ac
• 7% Tillage Overlap Error, $0.96/ac
Why the New Emphasis on Data Today?
• Autosteering and swath control technology have driven strong ROI
which has led to a proliferation of GPS technology on farm.
– This leads to ‘free’ machine data.
– Typical ROI in Iowa:
• 3.3% Planting Overlap Error, $7.89/ac
• 7% Tillage Overlap Error, $0.96/ac
Why the New Emphasis on Data Today?
• Our goal in agriculture is to make the best management decisions
each year to meet our economic, social, and environmental goals.
• Every producer enters spring with the best plan for their farm based
on the information they have available.
• The Goal of Digital Agriculture is to help producers accelerate the
natural adoption of new cultural practices and technology to yield
valued added benefits to the farming operation.
Where’s the Value in Digital Agriculture
What if you could pack 50 years of natural cultural practice
change into a 40 year farming career? Would your farm be more
financially stable and better suited for growth?
• Data Generation & Capture
– Yield Maps, Soil Fertility, Aerial Imagery, UAVs
– Wireless Data Transfer
• Data Warehouse
– Cloud Data Storage
• Prescription Agriculture
– VRA, Multi-hybrid Planting
• Probabilistic Decision Management
– Nitrogen Modeling
– Weather & Soil Suitability Modeling
Segments of the Digital Agriculture Industry
Which ones are you in?
• Satellite Delivered:
– 5m Resolution
– Timing can be limiting but more options
are becoming available
• Contracted Flight:
– 1m Resolution
– Typically can schedule images within a +/-
3 day window around target date
• Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS)
– ~3 – 10 cm Resolution
– If weather permits scheduling can be
within a few hours of target time
Data Generation: What Role Will High
Resolution Imagery Play?
Eliminate Status Quo Crop Production
Farming by the Foot means we
will no longer accept individual
plant or row failures.
Data Analytics: Field Example
Hybrid BHybrid A
170 Acre Field, Continuous Corn
Hybrid BHybrid A
200
150
100
50
0
Gra
in Y
ield
(b
u/a
c)
131
176
Yield Comparison of Two Hybrids in a Side-by-Side Test
34
Producer Value:
Quantify the impact of production practices.
120 acres x 70% compacted x 15 bu/ac yield loss =
1,260 bu yield loss = $5,000+
Cost of imagery = $240
Profit Benchmarking
If we stop farming the lowest yielding
20% of this field we have the potential
to double of per acre field profit.
• Incorporate probability of events occurring, mainly weather related.
• Utilizes extensive historical data and weather forecasting data to drive model predictions.
• As the season progresses real time weather data in integrated into the model to improve robustness.
Probabilistic Decision Management
Deterministic Model:
Outcome is a single value with
no randomness, i.e. soil sample
based fertility recommendations.
Probabilistic Model:
Outcome is a range of potential
values that represent
environmental variability and
can be used to manage risk.
Big Data Policy Issues Receiving Major
National Attention
• Farmer ownership of data
• Farmer control of data
• Disclosure of data usage
• Farmer choice for use of data
• Portability of data
• Security from misuse
• No vulnerability to FOIA
Farmers express concern about all of these issues.
• Compatibility of systems
• Protection of GPS
• Regulation of UAVs
• Use of aggregated data
• Consistency of agreements
• Simple language
• Transparency and consistency
Producer Surveys on Big Data
Skeptical of the New Technology – 65%
The biggest concern is misuse of farm data by:
Fear that it favors the large farmers.
Prescriptions will recommend only some products, i.e., are biased.
It doesn’t work. Agriculture is too complex.
Neutral or Nuanced in Attitudes – 19%
It has potential, but must be implemented carefully.
Embracing the New Technology – 16%
The technology is here to stay. Let’s embrace it and make it work for us.
No one that is highly profitable today is doing it with only their own ideas and crop data.
• The ATPs • Activist groups • Grain traders
• The government • Computer hackers
American Farm Bureau Big Data Resources
http://www.fb.org/index.php?action=issues.bigdata
1. Proprietary data collected from farming and agricultural operations is valuable, should remain the property of the farmer, and warrants
protection.
2. We support:
2.1. Efforts to better educate farmers and ranchers regarding new technology or equipment that may receive, record, and/or transmit
their farming and production data;
2.2. Requiring companies that are collecting, storing, and analyzing proprietary data to provide full disclosure of their intended use of
the data;
2.3. Formation of standardized protocols regarding privacy and terms of conditions to ensure a standard definition of all components
within the contract. We should be an active participant in developing these protocols;
2.4. Compensation to farmers whose proprietary data is shared with third parties that offer products, services or analyses benefitting
from that data;
2.5. Multiple participation options being included in all contracts;
2.6. All proprietary information between the farmer and the company remaining between the two entities. This would not preclude a
farmer from sharing data with whomever he/she chooses (e.g., a consultant);
2.7. Utilizing all safeguards to ensure proprietary data is stored at an entity that is not subject to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request;
2.8. The farmer’s right to enter into agreement and their rights to sell their proprietary data to another producer (e.g., in a land sale);
2.9. Private companies entering into agreements which would allow for the compatibility/updating of equipment and updating of
software;
2.10. The right of a farmer to have access to their own data, regardless of when it was shared with a company; and
2.11. The right of the producer who no longer wishes to participate in aggregated data sharing with a private company, to remove their
past aggregated data from the company’s database and revoke that company’s ability to sell or use that data in the future.
3. We oppose any federal agency or FOIA-eligible entity from serving as a data clearinghouse for all proprietary data or aggregated data
collected by private companies.
Data Warehouse
Crop Consultant
Seed/Fert Supplier
Machinery Supplier
Insurance Agent
Landlord
Internal Mng Team
Grower Driven Entity
Pooled Analysis
Will Digital Agriculture Change
Production Ag?
How Will it Impact
Integration of Row
Crop Agriculture?
Will it Create an
Inflection Point in Ag
Production?
Will it Change the
Source of Agronomic
Advice?
• Will Digital Ag Create an Inflection Point in Production Ag?– The value of Digital Agriculture is still being defined. Most likely there will be
modest returns from Digital Agriculture in the next 4 – 8 years and a true inflection point in the near future is unlikely.
• Will Digital Ag Lead to Major Integration in Agriculture?– In the next several years we’ll continue to see integration, acquisitions, and
mergers throughout the Digital Agriculture industry as the industry matures.
– If successful, the rapid expansion of services from Digital Agriculture could drive a trend to larger scale farm integration and consolidation just as other technologies have had an impact on this trend.
• Will Digital Ag Change the Way Agronomic Advice is Delivered?– Digital Ag is focused on increasing our ability as growers to make the best on-
farm decisions. It is unlikely that Digital Ag will replace our traditional sources of agronomic advice although it will certainly provide a new and potentially very beneficial tool set to help enhance the advice and provide a broader understand of our farming environment.
Will Digital Agriculture Change
Production Ag?
Big Data and Small Drones: Tools or Toys?
Dr. Matt Darr, Iowa State University
The over-all point is that new technology will not
necessarily replace old technology, but it will date it. By
definition. Eventually, it will replace it. It's like people
who had black-and-white TVs when color came out.
They eventually decided whether or not the new
technology was worth the investment.
~ Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple Inc.