The challenge in precision ag these days seems to be less about how much data can be created – plenty of tools and programs to tell you everything about your operation – and more about how to create just the data needed without making farmers try to drink from some firehouse of information. One of John Deere’s partner companies definitely sees it that way and was part of the program of the recent 2014 Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City.
Christopher Haak with AgIntegrated shared the stage with Tyler Hogrefe and brought a lot of the same thoughts on data transfer to the table but from a John Deere partner company perspective.
“The agricultural industry did a great job and made a lot of implements and had a lot of tools for a number of years,” he told Chuck during an interview. “But the real problem has been how to effectively transfer that information and get it to end-users so they could make practical decisions almost on the fly.”
Christopher added usability of the data is getting better, as bandwidth is still at a premium, especially in rural America, and time is always money for farmers. He said we don’t necessarily need to be able to generate more data, but producers do need more effective ways of accessing the information they need when they want it.
“I think the next generation of precision ag tools is going focus around smart usage of data, not more creation of data,” he said.
You can hear Chuck’s interview with Christopher here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/jd-develop-14-haak.mp3″ text=”Christopher Haak, AgIntegrated”]