Big Data Becoming More Integrated Precision Agriculture

Big data might sound a little too much “big brother” for some farmers, but it is quickly becoming a large part of growers’ move to precision agriculture.

Jake Flanders of John Deere said there is even more to come.

“We’re going to get more and more precise. For the last 15 years it’s always been bigger, faster, stronger as the mantra. But now we’re taking that and moving it over to smarter, easier and more precise.”

Data collection is a major part of the move towards precision and getting a more complete picture of what is happening, not just at the field level, but down to each plant.

One such method of collecting data is soil sampling grids, something Chris Everson of Farmers Edge said can be valuable.
“A grid would be essentially laying a square grid across a field and taking soil samples from there based on some repetition. So you’re really taking Mother Nature that doesn’t work in straight lines and you’re developing it into a straight line and trying to make analysis based on that.”

And the data collected in many cases can be funneled not only to an office computer, but to mobile apps that could be available to the farmer on the tractor.