May Working Group Round-Up

Portfolio Management Center

May Working Group Round-Up

By Dan Berne, AgGateway Portfolio Manager

Here’s a brief summary of 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.

New Working Group Subcommittee Seeks to Provide a Map to Data

Have you ever had to search for data that resided in disparate data repositories and wished you had a map to show you where to look? The newly chartered Data Linking Subcommittee (WG09) is working to help you out. According to Working Group Chair Joe Tevis, the industry benefits from awareness of, and linkage between, agricultural datasets at the producer/farmer, retailer, processor and up- and downstream channel partner levels. If you’re seeking supply chain transparency, sound farm business management, and consumer confidence, you need to be able to link data clearly and consistently. The group’s goal is to provide the metadata definition(s) that allows linking of key agricultural datasets resulting from supply chain and field operations, including Critical Tracking Events (CTEs), such that raw and processed datasets can be found for analyses to support traceability. If you’d like to join the group or find out more, contact Joe Tevis or myself via Member.Services@AgGateway.org.

ADAPT In-Field Product ID Plug-In is Complete

The In-Field Product ID Plugin working group (WG08) has completed the development of the ADAPT plug-in to support the transfer of shipped product data. “It’s a classic case of a working group spinning up to do a specific task, and completing that task in a timely manner,” said Chair Scott Nieman. The plug-in will enable the In-Field Product ID working group (WG01) to pilot the sending of shipped product data from a retailer to the task controller in the field.

Regional Soil Lab Data Integration for Latin America is Up and Running

The Latin America region soil lab data integration group is up and running (Integração Dados Laboratório Solos). Ronaldo Oliviera is the Chair. The group has been reviewing the soil Modus testing model and specifying regional needs. Member organizations include AsBraAP, CIAG, Empbrapa, the Brazilian Institute of Analyses (IBRA), John Deere, Mosaic, Syngenta, Prisma and Proagrica. Interested parties should contact Ronaldo or Dan Berne via Member.Services@AgGateway.org.

Agrisemantics

The group (WG00) has been meeting actively with the Agricultural Laboratory Data group (WG04) to place Modus controlled vocabularies into the Observations System, as well as the ADAPT cotton plug-in. They have defined a process for others to submit new context items. There is preliminary work for a new glossary work plan focused on alignment of terminology around carbon data. This could include terminology, methodologies and datasets that focus on permanence and additions of activities that affect carbon pools.

In-Field Product ID

The group (WG01) is setting up a pilot for specific seed product identification in the field. This includes not just basic product information, but detailed data such as lot number, so that growers and retailers know exactly which seed was planted into the field. The pilot is aimed at corn planting in North Dakota.

Product Catalog Group Wraps Up!

The Product Catalog working group (WG03) has submitted its JSON schema for approval to AgGateway’s Standards & Guidelines Committee. There will be some updates, based on OAGIS 10.7, which replaces a few work-arounds with exact-fit mapping to requirements. We anticipate that the Product Catalog API will be published prior to AgGateway’s June Education & Action Week. BASF is planning to adopt the API and is mapping it with their current catalog. 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 via Member Services to find out how you can incorporate the Product Catalog API. Meanwhile, the group continues discussions with the European region on leveraging the work already done. The European region was particularly interested in the use of the Score tool. Score is a NIST/OAGi software tool used to specify an API interface and to produce JSON and XML schema and API specifications. Its efficiency is especially attractive for small businesses.

Agricultural Laboratory Data

The group (WG04) 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. They are also meeting with external labs to get feedback on the model.

Mix Ticket

The Mix Ticket working group (WG05) has completed its work and the JSON schema has been approved. They will next meet in May to determine next steps. If you are interested, please contact Adam Hilton via Member.Services@AgGateway.org.

Farm Inputs: Reference Data

The key project report from this group (WG06) is being finalized. The draft report notes that that many of the relevant lists (e.g. ISO list of country codes, etc.) with reference data on crop protection is not yet available in a structured format (e.g. XML or JSON). A final meeting is scheduled this month.

Farm Inputs: Work Order and Work Record

The working group (WG07) has interest from several potato companies in tracking the identification of products from planting through storage. Their goal is to know, as accurately as possible, from which crop fields a processed batch of potatoes came from. The focus would be on the production areas in France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Poland. More on this as discussions continue.

Ag Energy Ship Notice

The working group (WG10) 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. Progress on the schema itself is slightly delayed as the working group awaits technical support from within the members’ organizations. (See more on this group in a separate article in this issue of the newsletter.)

In the Pipeline:  As noted with the Agrisemantics working group, data involved in carbon capture is of high interest across the agricultural industry. Look for a Meet-Up on this topic later this year.