FOA 226: The Problem with Farm Data

Future of Agriculture

We talk a lot about data in agriculture. Yield data, aerial data, weather data, soil data, data interoperability, data ownership, and on and on and on. What we’re not talking about enough, however, is data quality. More and more and more data is not helpful unless it is QUALITY data. We have the quantity, there’s no shortage of farm data out there, but how do we improve the QUALITY?

We often fall into the trap of assuming more data is better data, when in reality, better data is better data. We’ll explain why in this episode. You’ve probably heard of data being “cleaned” or being “scrubbed”. But what does that mean? Why is this so hard to do with farm data? Why is this a problem and what can be done about it?

“Right now the industry is really really excited about all of the data that we can produce...but I really feel like the second generation of the data wave here in agriculture is going to be quality, and comparability, and what metrics do we measure excellence by. Those are going to be the things that make the difference.” - Kyle Mehmen, General Manager, MBS Family Farms

All of these are questions and more are addressed in today’s episode as we bring on farmer Kyle Mehmen and New Leaf Symbiotics Technical Sales Lead Brad Walkup to talk about their experiences in focusing on getting higher quality data from their trials.

“Agriculture for years has been a race to see who can grow the most commodity. I feel like in the next 5-8 years, I’m hoping we can get to the point that we can differentiate crops by quality. Therefore a grower will have a unique value position in the market, rather than just #2 yellow corn.” - Brad Walkup, Technical Sales Lead, New Leaf Symbiotics

This episode is another one that I’ve partnered with my friends at In10t to bring to you. This year I’ve really wanted to explore where innovative ideas meet practical realities in agtech, and there is no company doing more in this area than In10t, so they’re the perfect partner, not only for this episode, but also for episode 194 called “Accelerating AgTech Adoption” where we talked about the importance of on-farm trials, and episode 215 entitled “Bridging the Gap Between Farmers and AgTech” where we talked about the real challenges in getting trials right.

From those episodes, you may assume In10t is a consulting company that helps arrange farmer trials. That’s how they got their start, but as VP of Technology Mike Hartquist will tell you, they have evolved into a technology platform as well.

“We look at technology as almost the third piece of the pie. We do (technology) well, and we want that to be the core of how it fits together, but our people and process is really how we got here...We don’t want to create this cool tool, but it’s not useful. Let’s get out in the field, and go walk fields and use a spreadsheet, and go figure out how it works and what works and what doesn’t, and then let’s let technology make it better for us.” - Mike Hartquist, VP of Technology at In10t

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