Reading Time: 3 minutes The Data Literacy for Cow-Calf Producers project aims to give farmers and ranchers the chance to discuss best practices and learn from experts and peers about how to use data to make better business decisions.
Data management has varied adoption in the cow-calf sector.
New program focuses on data literacy for cow-calf producers
Case studies and mentoring will help give farm data decision-making power
At Ag in Motion: Farmers gung-ho about digital integration system
'Having a single data point... was number one for us'
Reading Time: 2 minutes For a committed user of the Climate FieldView digital integration system, Mike Ferguson had an unusual observation about himself. “I’m not a big technology guy,” said Ferguson, who with his wife Regan farms 3,000 acres at Melfort, Sask. But for him, using the various data-based management tools available in farming today isn’t just helpful, but […] Read more
At Ag in Motion: Find a purpose, then buy tech, Prairie grower says
No matter how cutting-edge, digital ag needs to be a fit on your farm
Reading Time: 2 minutes Investing in digital agriculture can be a daunting experience. A producer’s best bet, one northeastern Saskatchewan farmer says, is to do your homework and find a purpose for it on your farm. “You have got to have the root purpose of why you got that technology. Either that or you talk to others to help […] Read more
Farming in 2030: Big data
The last time there was a change this big in farming, it was mechanization. The question is: are you open to exploring how it can work for you?
Reading Time: 5 minutes If you’ve got a cell phone anywhere close to you as you read this, you’re part of the data revolution in agriculture, whether you realize it or not, and whether you want to be or not. That’s probably a good thing. Certainly, the potential benefits are amazing. “The smartphone is going to be one of […] Read more
Grain equipment firm AGI takes stake in Farmobile
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian grain handling and storage equipment maker Ag Growth International plans to dial up its collaboration with ag tech firm Farmobile and has taken a minority stake in the U.S. company to that end. Winnipeg-based AGI announced Tuesday it had agreed to make a “minority equity investment” of US$15 million (C$19.57 million) in Farmobile, effective […] Read more
A place for community data
“Mining data isn’t a substitute for doing actual research,” warns seed company scientist
Reading Time: 7 minutes In the past five years, precision agriculture systems have begun providing an exciting opportunity to collect and pool data on factors ranging from yields to soil quality and beyond. Each data set offers greater insight into the characteristics of a field and its variability, or to its potential response to different treatments and management practices. […] Read more
Getting rich from your farm data
Data protection isn’t just for geeks. If you farm, you’ve got a pile of real dollars at stake. Here’s how
Reading Time: 8 minutes Farmers do all they can to protect their crops and livestock from pests, diseases and weather. We insure our buildings and equipment. We adopt marketing strategies to protect against price declines. But if you ask what we do to protect our farm data, you’ll usually get met with a blank stare. That’s not good. Information […] Read more
Gigs of data at work on the farm
Data Analysis: Rigorous analysis of numbers from the field helps this farm achieve its business objective
Reading Time: 8 minutes When Josh Fankhauser isn’t in the shop fine tuning some equipment, he’s often at his office computer, wading through gigabytes of crop production data and analyzing numbers. Like a lot of farmers, Fankhauser is happy with a wrench in his hand, and in a world where the ethos is “throw it out, buy new,” he […] Read more
Getting that farm data working in the field
Some big ag players and Silicon Valley investors are convinced that precision agriculture and ‘big data’ are the next big things. Convincing farmers is another matter
Reading Time: 5 minutes The problem with any new ag technology is that the engineers can design it, the manufacturers can make it and the marketers can sell it, but it’s left to the farmers out in the field to figure out exactly how to make it work. That’s the dynamic today for precision agriculture, according to one specialist. […] Read more
Are farmers suffering from too much information?
With today’s big data, it sure would help to have those provincial crop advisers back on the team
Reading Time: 7 minutes While agriculture in Canada has been evolving in the past 10 to 15 years, there has also been a curious evolution in the quantity and the quality of information available to farmers. In the late 1990s, at least in Ontario, the governing Conservative Party began scaling back on what was referred to as “bricks and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
