2018 December Newsletter

December  2018   Volume 12  Number 11



Annual Conference

Thanks for a Great Conference!

By the Conference Committee

AgGateway’s Annual Conference drew business and IT professionals from across the industry. AgGateway extends its thanks to the many generous conference sponsors, including:

Titanium Sponsors: AGDATA, Proagrica

Gold Sponsors: BASF, Corteva

Silver Sponsors: Bayer, CF Industries, EFC Systems, Mosaic, Rosen’s Inc., Syngenta

Conference Sponsors: ACS, AgCIO Roundtable, AgVantage Software, ARMtech Insurance Services, Barcoding Inc., Co-Alliance, DTN/The Progressive Farmer, DXC.technology, Effingham Equity, Key Cooperative, Software Solutions Integrated (SSI), TKXS Inc., Wilbur-Ellis, and WinField United

Here is the information for next year’s meetings:

  • Mid-Year Meeting, June 10-13, Prairie Meadows, Altoona, Iowa
  • 2019 Annual Conference, Nov. 4-6, Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans, LA

See you there!


 AgGateway Year in Review

The Gateway to Digital Agriculture in 2018

By Wendy Smith, AgGateway President & CEO

(Excerpted from Wendy Smith’s presentation at Annual Conference)

For our 2018 Annual Report, we chose the title, “The Gateway to Digital Agriculture”, recognizing our mission to promote and enable the industry’s transition to digital agriculture and expand the use of information to maximize efficiency and productivity. That title also highlights AgGateway’s role as a conduit to the resources and collaboration you need to be successful. We are on the threshold of change and opportunity in our industry. This organization must continue to be the gateway to that opportunity for our members. Read more >


AgGateway 2020

Looking Ahead

By Doug Farrington, 2018 Chair of the AgGateway Strategic Board of Directors

(Excerpted from Doug Farrington’s presentation at Annual Conference)

I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about how the Strategic Board has been working to prepare this organization to be the trusted leader in enabling digital agriculture. What does this organization need to look like in 2020 for AgGateway to address the dynamic needs of the industry in its transition to digital agriculture? How do we remain the “go-to” resource for industry collaboration and transformation? Are AgGateway’s mission and vision still relevant?

Here is our mission: “To promote and enable the industry’s transition to digital agriculture, and expand the use of information to maximize efficiency and productivity.” I think we would all agree that this mission is still valid and relevant. We know that our industry still has quite a ways to go in the digital exchange of information. We’re not there yet. And we need AgGateway and the work being done here to bridge that gap and speed up that transition. Read more >

Randy Fry (left) presents Joe Tevis with Ron Storms Leadership Award

Recognition

AgGateway Recognizes Leaders; Joe Tevis Receives Top Leadership Award

By Susan Ruland, AgGateway Communications Director

At the annual conference last month, AgGateway honored exemplary individuals and companies that are advancing the organization’s mission to enable the industry’s transition to digital agriculture. The honorees have all made substantial contributions that are enabling the industry to better access accurate information in order to maximize efficiency and productivity.

Joe Tevis, President of VIS Consulting, received AgGateway’s Ron Storms Leadership Award, the organization's top honor. The award recognizes repeated, outstanding efforts by an AgGateway volunteer member in promoting collaboration among AgGateway teams and advancing initiatives in digital agriculture. In presenting the award, former Ron Storms recipient Randy Fry of Ceres Solutions described Tevis as someone who has had an enormous impact on AgGateway success, and “one of our most passionate advocates when it comes to international agricultural standards.” He added that, “Joe has worked tirelessly to bridge the gap between equipment manufacturers and the broader farm management world.” Read more >


New Member Profile

Welcome TerraMetric – Geospatial Applications

By Evin Ellis, AGDATA

AgGateway welcomes TerraMetric, a consulting firm focused on helping multinational organizations expand capabilities and market reach with geospatial applications and space-based technologies. This includes satellite imagery and IoT, as well as software and equipment supporting those capabilities.

TerraMetric decided to join AgGateway because many of its technologies and applications serve the agriculture industry. To learn more about TerraMetric, visit their website: https://terrametric.global/.


AGIIS Update

AGIIS Annual Maintenance is Upon Us!

By Chris Crutchfield, AgGateway Member Services

Subscribers to AgGateway’s Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS) depend on the accuracy of the demographics associated with the more than 5.4 million entities that are maintained in the database. For this reason, we perform a series of maintenance activities on an annual basis that help ensure data integrity. Over the next several weeks, we will standardize addresses according to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), apply Locatable Address Conversion System updates to rural route addresses, apply National Change of Addresses reported to the USPS, update telephone area codes that have changed, add eligible Global Location Numbers for reuse, and inactivate duplicate entities.

To help subscribers understand and plan for the updates, I’ve listed a description of each maintenance activity below along with the scheduled date for each activity. Read more >