by
Naeem Zafar, Co-founder and CEO, Telesense Inc, USA
Technological innovation in agriculture is moving faster than ever. Twenty-five years ago, innovation in our industry was driven by machinery and chemical developments. Adding an additional row to combines or planters was considered a state-of-the-art advancement.
Fast forward to today, and agricultural innovation primarily comes in the form
of better data analysis and metrics. After all, if you can’t measure it, then
you can’t improve it!
Today, everyone from farmers to processors to distributors has the ability to pinpoint what they should do to increase yields and profits. As operational efficiency becomes key to staying profitable, it will be the people who adopt innovations in data and analytics who succeed.
In the same way that a mule cannot compete with a John Deere plow, grain managers who don’t adopt data and analytics technologies will soon be unable to compete with grain managers who do.
But what makes data so valuable to agriculture? Afterall, data doesn’t do anything. Data can’t pick corn, it can’t be added to soil, and you can’t put it in a trailer and sell it at the local co-op. What gives data value is the insight which comes from it. Data helps people learn to do things better.
For example, let’s say that you are measuring the temperature of stored corn in the middle of a silo. The thermometer reads 80 degrees. That is a piece of data.
You read it again the next day, and it is 85 degrees. A day later it is 90 degrees. The next day it is 100 degrees and you realise that a hotspot is forming, and you need to take care of it immediately. That is insight.
If it weren’t for you measuring that temperature data, you never would have had the insight to manage the hotspot. At best, you would have lost the corn in that hotspot. At worst, the hotspot may have spontaneously combusted.
The link between data, profit, and safety is clear. In this instance, the data driven decision to manage that hotspot could have saved this farmer thousands of dollars in damage caused by an unmanaged hotspot. Even more importantly, he better ensured his team’s safety.
Read more HERE.
Technological innovation in agriculture is moving faster than ever. Twenty-five years ago, innovation in our industry was driven by machinery and chemical developments. Adding an additional row to combines or planters was considered a state-of-the-art advancement.
Today, everyone from farmers to processors to distributors has the ability to pinpoint what they should do to increase yields and profits. As operational efficiency becomes key to staying profitable, it will be the people who adopt innovations in data and analytics who succeed.
In the same way that a mule cannot compete with a John Deere plow, grain managers who don’t adopt data and analytics technologies will soon be unable to compete with grain managers who do.
But what makes data so valuable to agriculture? Afterall, data doesn’t do anything. Data can’t pick corn, it can’t be added to soil, and you can’t put it in a trailer and sell it at the local co-op. What gives data value is the insight which comes from it. Data helps people learn to do things better.
For example, let’s say that you are measuring the temperature of stored corn in the middle of a silo. The thermometer reads 80 degrees. That is a piece of data.
You read it again the next day, and it is 85 degrees. A day later it is 90 degrees. The next day it is 100 degrees and you realise that a hotspot is forming, and you need to take care of it immediately. That is insight.
If it weren’t for you measuring that temperature data, you never would have had the insight to manage the hotspot. At best, you would have lost the corn in that hotspot. At worst, the hotspot may have spontaneously combusted.
The link between data, profit, and safety is clear. In this instance, the data driven decision to manage that hotspot could have saved this farmer thousands of dollars in damage caused by an unmanaged hotspot. Even more importantly, he better ensured his team’s safety.
Read more HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com
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