Working Group Round-Up

Portfolio Management Center

Working Group Round-Up

By Dan Berne, AgGateway Portfolio Manager

Here’s a brief summary of Working Group activities.

First, I’m happy to announce a new group, WG08: ADAPT In-Field Product ID Plugins. The group is addressing a gap in identification and tracking the planting of seed and application of crop protection products on a grower’s field. This is especially true when a grower buys multiple brands of seeds. A new ADAPT plug-in and enhancements to the ISO plug-in are needed in order to address this gap. The new group’s goal is to fund and manage the development of an ADAPT plugin that enables the traceability of products shipped from a retailer and used during field operations. The initial use case is related to seed planting, with a pilot during spring planting 2021. We anticipate capabilities for crop protection potentially during the summer timeframe.

WG00 Agri Semantics

This group has been working on controlled vocabularies for the In Field Product ID and Agricultural Lab Data working groups. These controlled vocabularies help preserve the meaning of data as it is exchanged among growers and industry partners. The working group has been coordinating with the ADAPT team on cotton plugins for context items and observation codes. They have also incorporated MODUS soil testing codes into the overall set of observation codes.

WG01 In Field Product Identification

Data Linking: The group has been forming the structure and use cases for data linking and building a conceptual foundation for implementing solutions for those use cases. The intent is to link summary metadata about Critical Tracking Events (CTE), such that raw data can be found for analyses. Each metadata will describe the raw data specific to its scope, provide a link to the raw data, and potentially known related predecessor metadata that may exist. The structure will also provide the capability to link backwards to previously executed CTEs. The group is using the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set as a guiding principle for terms. These data linking activities will soon form the basis for a new working group.

Tracking Seed and Crop Protection Products in the Field: There is currently a gap in identification and tracking the planting of seed and application of crop protection products on a grower’s field. This is especially true when a grower buys multiple brands of seeds. To meet this need, the working group will be contracting the development of an ADAPT plugin. The intent is to complete the plugin in time for spring seed planting. The contracted work will be managed by a new working group.

WG02: Channel Integrity

This group’s activities are on hold, as the value of an industry implementation was not proven out. Industry executives will meet to discuss a new effort; goals and deliverables have not yet been defined.

WG03 Product Catalog

The AgGateway Product Catalog Guideline is up and running. This electronic message standard will ensure distributor and retailer online stores will have complete, accurate, and up-to-date manufacturer product information. The OAGIS Catalog JSON Schema v1.0 was submitted and approved by the Standards & Guidelines Committee in November. There were also 13 approved enhancements to the OAGIS standard as a result of AgGateway Product Catalog work. These changes will be released in OAGIS 10.7. The working group is actively seeking more companies to use the catalog guideline. If interested or you want more information, contact the working group chair Mike Altman, or contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org.

WG04 Agricultural Laboratory Data

The soil testing work now includes members from Latin America and Europe. The working group’s 2021 goals include:

  • Reaching all regions and including them in the development of the new testing standard.
  • Further outreach to ensure compatibility with other areas of agriculture (dairy, forage, grain, water testing, etc.)
  • Working with the Agrisemantics Working Group to provide a lexicon of semantics, including nomenclature and geopolitical aspects.
  • Provide a registry for agricultural labs.

WG05 Mix Ticket

The JSON schema v1.1 for providing common integration patterns to exchange work orders and work records for blending/dispensing operations was approved by the Standards & Guidelines Committee. The next steps are to publish the new schema and move into the implementation and maintenance phase.

WG06: Farm Inputs: Reference Data

The group has finalized version 1 of the reference data model on crop protection products. They will soon review their report with the Standards & Guidelines Committee. They are working closely with the Agricultural Laboratory Data Working Group to examine alignment with ELabs, a European-based lab data standard. Their next steps are to finalize the specifications of the use case and a resource description framework for the proof-of-concept.

WG07: Farm Inputs: Work Order and Work Record

The group has been developing a modified version of the enriched SMAG data model for crop protection. Their next steps are to continue testing data models and specify their requests for ADAPT updates.

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