December Working Group Round-Up: A Year of Accomplishments!

Portfolio Management Center

December Working Group Round-Up: A Year of Accomplishments!

By Dan Berne, AgGateway Portfolio Manager

Want to get involved or start a group? Contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org.

You, the members of AgGateway, accomplished a lot this year! It’s a good time to take a look back at the achievements of AgGateway’s working groups during 2021. Here are just some of the highlights.

Supply Chain Meets Field Operations:  In-Field Product ID (WG 01) and ADAPT In-Field Product Id Plugin (WG 08)

The teams demonstrated the ability to send a shipped item instance with specific seed product data from the distributor to the retailer to a farmer’s tractor display. The plugin converts supply chain messages that are in the OAGi standard to crop production messages in the ADAPT and ISO11783 standard. The product information can then be displayed on a planter control system monitor or mobile device. The ADAPT plugin makes the benefits of this project easily extensible to other crops and agricultural products. If you did not get a chance to see the video at the Annual Conference, look for it, coming soon on AgGateway’s Vimeo site. Next steps are to develop an implementation guide and to choose the next target, such as crop protection products.

Have You Seen My Catalog?

The Product Catalog Working Group (WG 03) completed version 2.1of the product catalog schema. The update added product application information. The 2.1 version is being reviewed by AgGateway’s Standards & Guidelines Committee and is expected to be approved at the December meeting. Meanwhile the group has been helping companies like BASF implement the product catalog API for their specific business. It should be available to Winfield United in Q1 of 2022.

It’s All About the Soil

If you heard Andy Beadle’s talk at the end of the Annual Conference, you’ll remember how critically important soil is to develop a sustainable agriculture industry. Through the efforts of the Ag Lab Data Working Group (WG 04) and AgGateway Chief Technology Officer Jim Wilson, AgGateway obtained the license for the Modus soil testing standard. The Ag Lab Data Working Group updated those Modus tables for a multitude of different soil tests. The Agrisemantics Working Group joined in to help create object codes to greatly facilitate the exchange of test data while preserving the many detailed specifications for any single soil test.

Meanwhile, the Latin America region Integração Dados Laboratório Working Group (WG 11) continues to align their model on tropical soils with the overall MODUS soil test model.

Blending Reality

The Mixed Ticket Working Group (WG 05) published a .Net Library and JSON schema for exchanging work orders and work records for blending/dispensing operations. The work order and work record standards reduce errors, lower the costs of implementation, and aid the addition of new facilities and standardized capabilities.

A Reference Data Model and Resource Development Framework for Crop Protection Products

Many countries in Europe have their own way to exchange crop data, which works great if all of your business is in that one country, and not so well when you cross borders. The two Farm Inputs working groups (Reference Data – WG 06 and Work Order/Work Record – WG 07) brought together companies and ag data specialists to standardize data exchange for farm inputs, specifically for seed, fertilizer and crop protection products. By standardizing on a data exchange standard, companies can better support sustainable agriculture, increase transparency and improve interoperability, as well as provide opportunities to boost innovation. The reference data models have been completed and are being submitted to AgGateway’s Digital Resource Center. Additional work is being done to align the model with the ADAPT framework.

Preserving the Meaning: Agrisemantics (WG 00)

As noted, this group continues to work with the agricultural lab working groups in both North America and Brazil. They are also working with the Data Linking Working Group on creating context items.

Data Linking Subcommittee (WG 09)

The group has outlined its use case for developing a model for finding data repositories in order to track critical events. They are currently examining other models, such as those in the health industry, that can be leveraged for agriculture.

Ag Energy Ship Notice (WG 10)

The group is on hold as they try to source IT resources to implement their JSON message.

Precision Irrigation (PAIL - WG 12)

Members continue to work on completing Part 2: Observations and Measurements.

In the Pipeline

Field Boundaries:  Many different shapes are created to represent areas of land that growers operate today. These shapes can be different from one software or hardware device to another, creating issues for growers or service providers. A good discussion at Annual Conference covered this topic (see Annual Conference Highlights this issue).

Potato Provenance:  At a second Meet-Up of interested companies in September, potato processors and FMIS companies in attendance aligned on the goals and scope of the potential project. Participants agreed that the first objective would be to gather as much field data about the potatoes as possible, including name, location and geometry of the field. The participation of FMIS companies was deemed critical for success. Output from the meeting will be used to draft a charter for a new working group.

Closed Loop Spraying:  AgGateway’s Europe region is leading an effort to create a protocol that helps farmers stay in compliance with regulations for spraying. Results from an October 27 Meet-Up were shared at the Annual Conference. The objectives of the work would include:

  • Creating a system/protocol that ensures compliance and minimizes mistakes.
  • Product Discovery – Machine discovers which product has just been loaded.
  • Label Data Compliant Work Order – The machine and the FMIS are able to query a catalog data source for this product to find the agronomic constraints.
  • Work Record – The spray as carried out is accurately and consistently recorded for regulatory compliance, agronomic and traceability purposes.

Water Use and Water Quality Management:  The original focus was on providing standards for obtaining, reporting and verifying water management data that can be used for sustainability credits. After a work session at the Annual Conference, it was recommended that AgGateway focus on the quantity (amount of water used, return flows) and the quality of the water (purity, leaching of chemicals, etc.), and not worry about carbon credits.

Proof of Delivery Scale Ticket:  The focus is on standardizing the data to provide proof of delivery of grain from the farmer to the grain elevator. This includes actual delivery, proof of delivery, and transfer of ownership/custody. The data can potentially be used heavily downstream for traceability and stewardship. A goal is to eliminate the use of paper receipts. The group held a Meet-Up at the Annual Conference, and reviewed the purpose, scope and deliverables in detail. The next steps are to review what is already in AgXML, then write and submit a charter.