One of the services Premier Crop provides growers with is community or group data analysis from a regional basis. Growers can confidentially and anonymously share their field data with other growers in their region though written data-sharing agreements. Group data analysis compliments field- and grower- level analysis; growers receive actionable field intelligence they can use on their own fields.

If you’ve ever traveled to London and been a passenger on their subway system, the "tube," you’ve heard the phrase “mind the gap.” It’s kind of funny because that’s not how Americans would say it. We’d probably say “watch your step.” The long straight cars and the curves in the tracks cause the gaps between the train cars and the loading platform; therefore, passengers are warned to “mind the gap.”

At the inaugural Ag Data Conference, Aaron Rahe, one of our Premier Crop advisors, shared his perspective on how he works with his grower customers. Premier Crop was fortunate to hire Aaron is an Iowa farm kid, as he finished his MBA after his five-year stint with the U.S, Navy. Aaron carries his military and business training into how he approaches his work with growers.

Agronomically, most of us are “land grant” educated. Land grant universities were established with the Merrill Act in the 1860s and served to make the higher education affordable to the masses, including a lot of farm kids. By design, they had an agricultural focus – both in research and education. Even if we did not attend our state’s Land Grant or follow their sports teams, they are the foundation for most of the industry’s agronomic knowledge.

When I’m visiting with growers and advisers, I frequently say that maps are a great way to view data, but the real power lies within the data file that the map represents.

Hunters and soil scientists may seem like an odd pairing but they have at least one thing in common – they know and appreciate that nature has an aversion to straight lines. Hunters spend a lot of time in and observing the great outdoors and getting an up-close look at the variability Mother Nature molded upon our landscape. Soil scientists not only spend time looking at the curvy contour lines that represent the transition from one soil type to another but their academic training is about the "how's and why's" of soil formation over the centuries.

We are excited to announce the launch of our new Data Visualization platform, part of our three-tier technology strategy. This new platform allows growers to gain key insights that give them the ability to make informed decisions based off economics, seed, crop protection, fertility, operations and management.

At this time of the year, it's easy to feel like yields are largely a function of weather – temperature and rainfall. Over the years in hundreds of grower meetings, I've heard that sentiment repeatedly. If you are inclined to think that way, think about this scenario.

Every week I see ads using the latest marketing buzzwords to describe how a company is going to use your/their big data to revolutionize how you farm. Estimated rainfall using radar images is being claimed as “hyper-local”. UAV’s, imagery and crop models being claimed to replace scouting for diseases and insects. Proprietary algorithms use big data to manage all your inputs so efficiently it will be “game-changing.” That’s one of my favorite buzzwords- “game-changing.”

This is a three part series focusing on ways to determine your field profitability using your technology. We will post the series over the course of two months. If you don't want to wait, you can get the full series here.