Farm406

farm406 44 and help us access it to make adjustments in season. The system can give us real-time cost-per-unit projection to help determine profit potential, and the profit potential helps us decide things such as whether to spray for rust. From Braaten's perspective, growers need to track at least these categories of information: cropping history; product history; soil test data; tissue test data; yield history; yield boundaries; coverage maps; scouting reports; herbicide, pesticide and other crop protection products used; and quality attributes of the commodity, such as grain protein and test weights. Braaten believes Montana is ripe for the adoption of precision agriculture that becomes possible with such hard data at hand. "Traditionally we have large fields and a large degree of variability as a function of alkalinity, soluble salts and topography, and all of those factors drive or impact yield variability. As we shift from managing fields to zones within a field, we must have the data platform that accommodates the expanded data set," he said. "There's a lot more to it when we break a field into five management zones. Multiply that by the number of fields in an operation, and now we're talking about digital prescription files that we're going to input into a controller, for a variable rate of phosphorus or nitrogen into different zones of a field." "We now have a significantly higher degree of data intensity than ever before," he added. "We have more factors to consider when we're making decisions." Emotions affect our management, as well. Braaten said he often sees subjective decision-making in the marketing of commodities. A grower thinks, "The price is low; I'm not going to sell today." Then the price dives even lower – "I should have sold yesterday!" The price goes higher; wanting to maximize sales, he waits another day, but by then the peak has passed. Selling at the top of the market isn't a realizable goal every time, but we want to move our commodities at a profit. How can we know whether a particular price is profitable? When we do a good job of capturing data, we can do a better job of making decisions. The more information we have regarding yield per field, fertilizer used, the weed spectrum, and so on, the more objectively we can assess the effectiveness of prior decisions. Then we can base current decisions on something more substantial than the emotion of the day. Overwhelmed by data? Collecting, storing and using all that information can be daunting. "The days of keeping our field notes in notebooks that fall out of our trucks are probably done," Braaten said. Data-management tools are available to help capture information associated with producing crops. The prospect of buying and learning to use any of these computer programs and platforms can be daunting, too. The data "platform" is critical. That's the computerized system where we capture the information so we can pull it up on our smart phone or tablet or desktop computer. Many of the platforms are "cloud-based" – the information is stored off-site via the Internet, not in the grower's individual computer. Benefits of this arrangement include automated backups and software updates. Even if our computer breaks down, the stored information still exists. The platform we choose needs to be accessible enough to input while auto-steer is on, or for someone else to input data regularly – sometimes daily. Programmers who build data platforms should understand what a grower needs to know in order to make decisions, and that growers have various levels of experience and comfort with technology. Too little bandwidth means an Internet or cloud-based platform is not accessible, no matter how good a tool it is. On the other hand, "While the Internet can present challenges with cloud computing, that is rapidly changing with high-speed mobile data services and software programs that balance offline use with online syncing," said Alan Telck, Certified Crop Adviser in Sheridan, Wyo., and board member for the Rocky Mountain CCAs. There is a lot of chatter in the information technology industry about data ownership. In some cases, whoever owns the platform owns the data. In other cases, the grower maintains ownership. "Producers do need to do their homework to use a trusted and reputable source that has a good privacy policy," Telck added. Taking advantage of outside expertise becomes more and more important, whether that is from a certified crop adviser, retail sales representative, precision ag specialist, University Extension agent, or University Extension specialist. When we need guidance, an outsider's perspective can help us look at these management questions objectively, not from an emotional viewpoint. Farming will always be something of a gamble, but using the data we've collected can help us make the best of the factors we can control. For more information on certified crop advisers, or to find one near you, go to http://wwwcertifiedcropadviser.org.

• Cover