By Dan Berne, AgGateway Portfolio Manager
With the Mid-Year Meeting less than two months away, AgGateway volunteers have made great strides on key emerging projects. Many are planning updates and building agendas for working sessions as they prepare to meet at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa next month. Here is a synopsis of recent Working Group and Subcommittee activities.
Increasing Level of Synergy Across Projects. In order to achieve the data interoperability needs of AgGateway members more efficiently, Working Groups are consciously establishing connections with one another. Here are some examples:
As the need for traceability and operational efficiencies increases, identifying synergies between and among projects becomes paramount.
Field Boundary Subcommittee – There have been several Meet-Ups to scope the issue and begin work on user stories and use cases. A charter for the Subcommittee has been approved by the Portfolio Management Center. The role of this Subcommittee is to help launch, coordinate, and guide Working Groups for this topic. The first Working Groups will likely include:
Jeremy Wilson presented a summary of work-to-date at the Potato Provenance Field ID (WG 14) launch meeting. That Working Group will work closely with the Subcommittee. The Subcommittee is looking for additional input and participation on this very important topic at the Mid-Year meeting.
Agrisemantics Subcommittee – The group is finishing up its final observation codes for the Lab Data Working Groups (WG 04). The next step is to document a “one to many” mapping for labs and FMIS companies to convert to the new tables. The Subcommittee continues to work with the Data Linking Subcommittee on controlled vocabularies. This month members will be taking a close look at controlled vocabularies for crop and harvest commodities. “These terms are fairly fuzzy in the industry right now,” says Subcommittee Chair Andres Ferreyra. “One area to look at is the difference between intended use and actual use.”
Data Linking Subcommittee – This group helps to link field operation datasets by providing metadata standardization. The Subcommittee is providing the framework to define Critical Tracking Events (CTEs), Key Data Elements (KDEs), and Traceable Resource Units (TRUs) for the In-Field Product ID pilot.
In-Field Product ID (WG 01) – The team continues its progress for its spring planting pilot. Farmers are lined up to participate for the Spring planting. One grower expects to plant 2400 acres. Scott Nieman has created the example code to pull down the ADM, JSON and ISO files. A GitHub page has been created and the following components have been added:
The mobile app is now complete.
Ag Lab Data Working Group (WG 04) – The team is completing its final review of the Modus soil test tables, and the Agrisemantics Subcommittee is documenting a “one to many” mapping so that labs and FMIS companies can more easily convert to the new tables. The Working Group is meeting with the Purdue Open Ag Technologies and Systems (OATS) Center on a “Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack” initiative.
Integração Dados Laboratório Solos (WG 11) – The group is ramping back up after a brief hiatus (member volunteers were providing their expertise for Brazil national effort on soil restoration). The team is completing its evaluation of the Modus soil test samples. They are leveraging observation codes developed by WG 04. Their focus is on specific tests related to tropical soil.
Closed Loop Spray: Product Identification (WG 13) – Although the April 28 kickoff meeting occurred after the newsletter deadline, many AgGateway members had signed up to attend. One of the important considerations is being able to leverage existing and upcoming digital resources such as the Product Catalog and the In-Field Product ID pilot. Look for updates from AgGateway Europe Director Conny Graumans in the June newsletter.
Potato Provenance Field ID (WG 14) – The Working Group held its initial launch meeting on April 22. Representatives from Varda presented their work on a cloud platform to share field identifiers and boundaries. Conny Graumans reviewed how the EDI-Crop standard is used in The Netherland to exchange data between FMIS's and the industry. AgGateway COO Jeremy Wilson gave an update on the Field and Field Boundaries work in North America, emphasizing the need to for both groups to stay in close communication with one another.
Many of the issues re: fields and field boundaries were similar to those for North America.
The Working Group will focus on drafting the business requirements for the specification and use of field ids and field boundaries from the point of view of the potato industry.
Product Catalog – The Product Catalog is now using OAGIS 10.8. The Catalog Business Information Entity (BIE) has been uplifted and updated in Score, and a pull request has been created. The scope adds Regional Availability for the Catalog Line and Language Code for Catalog Header, which was a requested feature by Canadian companies. At the Mid-Year meeting, the team will show the latest Digital Resource Public Page, as well as the GitHub repository. Based on feedback from session participants, we will define the scope and deliverables for a new, follow-on Working Group.
May 2022 Newsletter Home
From The President | Celebrating Our Volunteers
Mid-Year Meeting Update | Top Four Reasons to Register Now
Portfolio Management Center | May Working Group Roundup
AGIIS Update | Inside the Global Location Number (GLN) Non-Reuse Rule
Latin America | Better Access to Agricultural Climate Data
New Member Profile | ARVA Intelligence