Seed Council Messaging Meeting a Success

Seed Council

Seed Council Messaging Meeting a Success

By Ann Vande Lune, Key Cooperative

Members of the Seed Council had a productive meeting in Arden Hills, Minn., last month, making significant progress toward goals of additional seed processes and messaging to help alleviate specific pain points identified by the council. Thanks to WinField United for hosting!

More than 30 people from 18 different companies participated in the two-day meeting. The group discussed four new processes, and new messages and documentation were created for:

  • Transfers – Both internal transfers and external transfers to other companies; created two new messages for a request and response of transfers.
  • Replants - created a new one-way message for the reporting of replant product
  • Returns - created a new one-way message for the reporting of return product to the manufacturer. There was discussion and some of the work that needs to be looked at is a response message and an electronic Bill of Lading (BoL).
  • Grower Licensing & Zone Geography - created a two-way request and response messages for the buyer to request the grower license and what zone geography the manufacturer has them listed for pricing.

The group also worked on documentation for the four processes, including:

  • High level business use cases
  • Data requirements
  • Excel expression of the message
  • Business rules and implementation guidelines.

In terms of next steps, the plan is to create flow diagrams for each process and complete the documentation by April 15. The documentation would subsequently be reviewed by AgGateway’s Standards & Guidelines Committee – the goal is to have it for their review by early May, seeking approval by mid-May, with public review in early summer and publication of the new messages by July.

Thanks to everyone who participated! If you’d like more information on the group’s activities, join the Seed Council on their next call or contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org.