My off-farm and on-farm worlds will meet on 5 July in the Horse and Jockey, Thurles, at the much-anticipated AgTech Symposium. The research group I work for off-farm is one of the event organisers and after enquiring politely if I could go for a look, I received an equally polite thumbs up to drive on.

Smart agri

The research group is the TSSG (Telecoms Software & Systems Group) and is part of Waterford Institute of Technology. There, for four days a week, I work on IT research projects. The Group has been making moves into smart-agri for the past few years and has already completed projects with Dairygold and Teagasc, among others. Several TSSG people will participate in the AgTech event, and being one of the farmers in the Group, I’m going to attend as well.

These tech companies gather, analyse, and sell the huge amounts of data that you and I provide when we google something

It’s been a while since I was at one of these events so I’ve been reading up on the latest happenings in ICT-agri. One of several new areas that has cropped up is “Big Data”, a concept that has made the likes of Facebook and Google multi-billion euro companies. These tech companies gather, analyse, and sell the huge amounts of data that you and I provide when we google something and like/share things on Facebook. This is a simplification of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on, but it’s a reasonable summary nonetheless.

Big bucks

Big data in ICT-agri is not making billions for anyone just yet but some large companies such as John Deere and Monsanto are already investing big bucks in the area and you can be sure they’re not doing this just for the good of their health!

So, where is big data at in ICT-agri from the farmers’ point of view? Is there a bucket of money to be made from selling your farm’s data? In my semi-educated mind, the answer is no. However, perhaps one way to look at it is to consider the farmer as the primary producer again.

One way to look at it is to consider the farmer as the primary producer again

As with milk, meat, corn, or any other produce, the farmer is just the start when it comes to big data in ICT-agri. For most of us, we sell our produce onto a processor who slaughters, pasteurises, or does whatever is required to process the raw material. They then forward the processed food onto a retailer where the consumer arrives in and completes the food chain.

Sell direct

A similar procedure could be applied to the farmers’ data. It’s unlikely we’ll sell it directly to an end consumer. Instead, we’ll most likely supply it to a processor for a price, and they in turn will transform, compile, and package it, before passing it onto the next purchaser. Large-scale analysis may then take place and lessons learned can be passed back along the chain.

This is one possible way farmers may take part in the big data movement in ICT-agri. No doubt many others will be discussed and debated in the Horse and Jockey on 5 July. All going well, I’ll see you there.

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Farmer writes: Milking cows on an island off Canada