dataTHRESH, Inc., the developer of a leading INDEPENDENT platform of precision ag data tools for farmers, announced the beta release of the dataTHRESH INDEPENDENT Ratings tool for farmers at the 2014 Farm Progress Show.

The dataTHRESH INDEPENDENT Ratings tool gives farmers an edge in selecting their seed for the upcoming year. Farmers will rate their corn hybrids and soybean varieties at harvest on characteristics such as yield, moisture, and drydown. Farmers then will be able to compare their ratings to other farmer ratings on a “Give to Get” basis. Farmer ratings are anonymous.

“On my farm, seed selection is the most important decision I make every year. The problem is that it is getting more difficult to get unbiased seed comparison data on a local, regional, and national basis–especially by the time I need it to select my seed for the upcoming year. That’s why our first tool is the dataTHRESH INDEPENDENT Ratings tool,” Mike Coon, 6th generation Iowa farmer and founder of dataTHRESH.

Farmers are facing seed decisions earlier every year, says Coon, as seed companies offer discounts earlier every year, sometimes even before yield and other data from the current growing season are available.

The dataTHRESH INDEPENDENT Ratings tool provides farmers with a tool that is easy to use and provides data and analysis in a timely manner. The tool will help reduce the time spent on seed analysis for seed selection, and it can help de-risk the seed selection decision by providing an additional source of product information. The tool gives farmers the opportunity to rate each hybrid or variety according to several characteristics throughout the growing season.

Individual farmers rate the seed products. dataTHRESH does not. dataTHRESH is providing the data tool that enables farmers to have this capability.

dataTHRESH will be beta testing the product through this harvest, as it fine-tunes the tool according to additional farmer feedback. The initial tool will be the free basic version. A Pro version is in development.

The dataTHRESH INDEPENDENT Ratings tool beta release follows the launch of the dataTHRESH Farmer Community Forum for farmer data topics, that is free. The Farmer Community Forum is a place online where farmers can ask, discuss, and learn about data topics from other progressive farmers and invited experts.