InfoAg 2017: Developers Should Plan Ahead on New Resources for Farm and Grain Operations

Precision Ag

AgGateway once again shared a booth with the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF); l to r: Benjamin Jefferson (AEF), Mark Schmutzler (AEF) and Brent Kemp (AgGateway)

InfoAg 2017: Developers Should Plan Ahead on New Resources for Farm and Grain Operations

By Susan Ruland, AgGateway Communications Director

AgGateway had a message for software and system developers at InfoAg in St. Louis last month: Make implementation plans now for the industry-wide solutions for interoperability and traceability that AgGateway teams have been working on. These standards, implementation guidelines and associated documentation serve as a means to significantly boost the ability of growers, advisors and grain handlers to leverage data in their operations.

“This is a win-win for solution providers and – mostly – for growers and grain handlers, who are seeking systems that can interact easily so they can better use data to increase productivity and profitability in their operations,” said Jeremy W. Wilson, Technology Specialist at Crop IMS and Chair of AgGateway’s Precision Ag Council. “A great deal of work has been done by AgGateway teams in the past 2-3 years, and now it’s time for developers to plan for the implementation of these solutions – most of which are free and publicly available for all to benefit from. We also welcome any and all new members to AgGateway to continue contributing ideas and skills to advance eConnectivity in our industry.”

AgGateway had good traffic and interest from attendees to its booth at the show. In addition, several AgGateway members fanned the floor to carry the message to developers, and Wilson and Joe Tevis of Topcon Agriculture presented on AgGateway developments in the InfoAg conference programming.

Some key areas of focus that now need industry attention for implementation planning include:

  • ADAPT, the open-source Agricultural Data Application Programming Toolkit (ADAPT) for interoperability, which is being adopted by Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) developers and terminal manufacturers;
  • New standards for grain-handling information management, giving grain producers and handlers more powerful data management capabilities to address traceability and the regulatory needs of the Food Safety Modernization Act;
  • Easier, standardized ways for different actors to source reference data – from label information on chemicals or genetic information on seeds, to base specifications on equipment;
  • New irrigation standards for better irrigation management.
  • Deliverables coming out of AgGateway’s SPADE precision ag project this year will include documented product user stories and use cases, associated process diagrams showing how data flows through each story example, and data models identifying the information needed by the actors in each use case. As an example, a crop nutrition team has focused on the processes associated with nutrient management plans, including application of manure or chemical fertilizer to a field and the associated record-keeping.

Companies are encouraged to visit www.AgGateway.org for more information on implementation or how to get involved in AgGateway initiatives.