No doubt you’ve heard about big data by now. Several farm organizations have warned farmers of the dangers of vendors collecting farm data although some associations have struck accords with some of those data-collectors already. But today, let’s examine how big data is being used to help farmers in improving their livestock yields.
First for the backdrop on farm data mining that upset farm associations to illustrate that big data, like other technologies, is indeed a double-edged sword.
“For instance: Your local seed salesman might get the data, and he may also be a farmer — and thus your competitor, bidding against you for land that you both want to rent,” explained Dan Charles in his NPR post. "’All of a sudden he's got a whole lot of information about your capabilities,’ says Mary Kay Thatcher, American Farm Bureau Federation’s senior director for congressional relations.”
“Or consider this: Companies that are collecting these data may be able to see how much grain is being harvested, minute by minute, from tens of thousands of fields. That's valuable information, Thatcher says. ‘They could actually manipulate the market with it. They only have to know the information about what is actually happening with harvest minutes before somebody else knows it. I'm not saying they will,’ says Thatcher. ‘Just a concern.’"
Much of this data is collected from farm equipment but some it comes from vendor customer data, field sensor data, satellite data, and other sources too. That’s why it’s called big data, it’s a lot of data from many different sources and in many different forms that are then analyzed together.
Since that first alarm call, the American Farm Bureau Federation has announced a “coalition to resolve the issues between farmers and agriculture technology providers.” You can find details on that effort in my post in FierceBigData.
So the above are a few examples of how the big data sword can harvest the farmer, so to speak.
But big data can help farmers too in lots of different ways. You’ll find excellent examples and discussion on this in an article in Delta Farm Press. Suffice it to say that lots of change is coming to farming and much of it is focused on collecting and analyzing farm data for the purpose of increasing farm yields.
Consider for example drones designed for farm use like the Canadian made drone in the video below. Although the video uses the example of gathering corn field data, it can be used to gather animal data in the field too.