June Working Group Round-Up

Portfolio Management Center

June Working Group Round-Up

By Dan Berne, AgGateway Portfolio Manager

Here’s a brief summary of AgGateway’s Working Group activities this month, starting with the latest news. Want to get involved or start a group? Contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org.

Cross-Portfolio Connections at Education & Action Week

A portfolio discussion is scheduled for Monday June 14, as part of AgGateway’s Education & Action Week. This will be an interactive discussion on where the various working groups might connect. For example, can the data linking group provide input to the data models for potato traceability? Can the newly created ADAPT infield product ID plug-in be used or leveraged elsewhere? Working group leads and volunteer members should come prepared to discuss these cross-connections. I look forward to the discussion!

Agrisemantics (WG00)

The group continues to provide guidance to the lab working group on Modus controlled vocabularies. They have defined a process for others to submit new context items. They have begun working with the data linking working group to sort out vocabulary and meaning concerning containers. The group has also defined three general categories of data type definitions:

  1. ADAPT representations (numeric and enumerated)
  2. ContexitemDefinitions, providing geopolitical-context-dependent information
  3. Observations codes and components.

For more on these, contact the working group chair, Andres Ferreyra, via Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org.

In-Field Product ID (WG01)

In preparation for its field testing, the group has loaded seed product information onto a CNH 700 Controller and an AgCo ISO controller. Loading the seed information onto a John Deere planter monitor is in process. The ability to load the data was enabled by the recently developed ADAPT in-field product ID plugin.

 

Figure 1: Seed product data loaded onto CNH Task Controller

Product Catalog (WG03)

The work is complete. The team is working on promotional materials. If your company would benefit from having complete, accurate and up-to-date product information that flows from you to your retailers, contact Mike Altman (through Member Services) to find out how you can incorporate the product catalog API into your business. And be sure to check out an overview of the SCORE tool on Monday, June 14, as part of AgGateway’s Education & Action week!

Agricultural Laboratory Data (WG04)

The group has been meeting with the Agrisemantics working group to apply the observations and measurements model to the Modus model, and to provide a lexicon of semantics, including nomenclature and geopolitical aspects. It’s a complete range of soil testing analysis: everything from boron to zinc.

Mix Ticket (WG05)

The group is buttoning up its final deliverables. They will be meeting with AgGateway’s Standards & Guidelines Committee soon to finalize the deliverables and determine the best way to publish the JSON schema and library of messages.

Farm Inputs: Reference Data (WG06)

The group has finished the analysis and basic design for the proof-of-concept use case implementations. In order to implement any of the use cases, the group will need support from commercial companies. Member volunteers are reaching out to the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) to see if there might be any AEF members (tractor or machine manufacturers) interested in participating in or supporting an RDF proof-of-concept implementation on VRA (variable rate application). In addition, the team recently completed two sessions dedicated to aligning the ADAPT and rmCrop PPP data models.

Farm Inputs: Work Order and Work Record (WG07)

The group has developed a modified version of the enriched data model for crop protection developed by French software company SMAG. The output from this group will be used as a starting point for a new working group focused on potato traceability.

Ag Energy Ship Notice (WG10)

The group has developed a value calculator which was well received by members. The value calculator enables companies to estimate the time/cost savings they will see if they adopt the ship notice schema. The working group has paused, as it awaits technical support from within the members’ organizations.

Integração Dados Laboratório Solos – Latin America Regional Soil Lab Data Integration (WG11)

The team has been refining its business model and clarity of its value proposition in order to gain the participation of other labs. Chair Ronaldo Oliviera continues as an active participant in the ag laboratory working group (WG04).

Precision Ag Irrigation - PAIL (WG12)

The team continues to work towards a case study with a farm in Kentucky. In preparation, Kristi Block, AgGateway’s Implementation Manager, interviewed the farmer who will be participating.

The interview provided insights into the overall business goals of the farm and the challenges with making the right irrigation decisions.

In the Pipeline

Potato Traceability

As noted in an accompanying article, interest and work continues for potato traceability, specifically the goal of tracking a specific batch of harvested potatoes to the field in which it was grown. A group of interested members is drafting a charter for a new working group.

Crop Nutrition Connectivity

A group of member companies recently met to review the current state of crop nutrition messaging, and to identify opportunities for new message formats and exchange that would help connect partners. There is a desire to harmonize EDI X12 (a set of standards and rules that determine a specific syntax for structuring and digitally transferring business documents between partners) and crop nutrition XML messages. Specifically, the group expressed interest in expanding the use of the crop nutrition XML. There is also some interest in having a JSON version. API and web services are also topics of conversation. The group will explore Inco terms 2020 (these are updates to the internationally recognized rules which define the responsibilities of sellers and buyers). The group agreed to hold additional meet-ups to further explore these topics.

Closed Loop Spraying

There is interest in forming a working group around the topic of closed loop spraying. The idea is to create a system/protocol that ensures compliance and minimizes mistakes, by creating a way for the OEM machine, the farm management system and the input product to talk to each other.