Farmers to Use Machine Learning to Boost Yields and Collect Crop Data

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Washington University and The Climate Corporation are working on revolutionizing the farming profession. Farmers in the next few years will be using sensors in their fields and farm equipment that collects data through a Seed Advisor program to be digitally analyzed by machine learning (ML) to boost yields of crops. The data generated from the sensors will allow sophisticated ML models to predict which hybrid seeds and fertilizer have the best chance to produce maximum yields in an environment. In trials against conventional soil sampling, the ML recommendations have an 80% win rate. The $8 million project is funded by The U.S. Department of Energy's ARPA-E TERRA program and includes multiple universities and other collaborators.

In 2017, Seed Advisor demonstrated an average advantage of 6 bushels per acre with a nearly 80 percent win rate in farmer field trials. 2018 testing is underway on more than 100,000 acres, with expanded pre-commercial testing planned for the 2019 growing season. The pre-commercial test, called the Climate FieldView Innovators program, is targeting approximately 200 farmer participants.
 
Data mining plants. Who woulda thunk it?

So they're going to collect telemetry data and spy on everything the plant does to innocently direct targeted advertising to the plants, huh?
 
DustMite said:
Data mining plants. Who woulda thunk it?

So they're going to collect telemetry data and spy on everything the plant does to innocently direct targeted advertising to the plants, huh?
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Could be. Or worse. Crop circles would have embedded brand logos. Likely with RGB lighting visible from space.
 
And all this wonderful data that can increase yields as such income for farmers will have an annual fee associated with it after they pay for their own sensors, no pay then you can access the data. They will John Deere the fuck out of this idea
 
Tried checking what they comparing to.. no exactly fair if the computer chooses hybrids farmers have no access to, stuff like that...
 
Monsanto. John Deere. Especially the Latter. They have made it so that you can NOT repair the equipment you purchase.

 
this is nothing new Farmers have been moving towards automation for decades... this is just the logical next step as the computing power and advent of GPS have allowed it

Trimble Ex Guide, CXF 750, Field IQ, etc
Ag Leader Insight, Integra, In Command, etc
Raven Industries Viper 4
CLASS LEXION (CEEBIS)

etc

are all into automatic machine control during planting/spraying/harvest. Most all new machines are ready for this integration or have it preinstalled (JD Green Star)

You can also see this on the construction side (Heavy Trimble integration)

sfsuphysics said:
And all this wonderful data that can increase yields as such income for farmers will have an annual fee associated with it after they pay for their own sensors, no pay then you can access the data. They will John Deere the fuck out of this idea
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Getting higher precision GPS requires an annual fee (OMNISTAR)
Major Software updates may or may not require a fee (depends on how old the system is)

in a way I can understand this as a lot of farmers typically do not do the best repair jobs and will abuse the equipment in order to get their job done... (ask me how I know)
 
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Need more competition in the market for this type of equipment / technology.
 
atp1916 said:
Need more competition in the market for this type of equipment / technology.
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Working on it. Except my timeline is not multiple years and is slightly different focus of tech.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Except the data is collected by hand and uploaded to be checked. For anything that requires a real time connection they already use cell or sat for data.
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Cellphones don't necessarily work in rural America. So they probably use satellite. :)
 
cageymaru said:
Cellphones don't necessarily work in rural America. So they probably use satellite. :)
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My dad isn't a farmer but he has used cellphones in rural northern South Dakota since about 1999, obviously that was just voice to order fuel shipments, etc. but I think there are plenty of towers if it's streaming analysis data and not video. But the area is also flat as a pancake.
 
singe_101 said:
My dad isn't a farmer but he has used cellphones in rural northern South Dakota since about 1999, obviously that was just voice to order fuel shipments, etc. but I think there are plenty of towers if it's streaming analysis data and not video. But the area is also flat as a pancake.
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Where I live in NC, you have to climb on the trunk of your car to get a signal. And the only companies that work here are Verizon and US Cellular using that method. In some areas you just get nothing. All we have are pine trees; billions of them probably. :)

It is so funny to watch family members come into town with their fancy 4G, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc and think that they are going to be able to use a cellular phone here. Those towers are at least 30 - 40 miles away from me.

And there is an elementary school 3 houses down from me.
 
cageymaru said:
Cellphones don't necessarily work in rural America. So they probably use satellite. :)
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Most rural farm areas actually do have cell service. Most if not all farm area is quite flat and has little to nothing in the way to stop signals. As a country boy most of my life and living on tree farms back in the day where the closest store was an hour drive in any direction, we had cell service, it has only gotten better, as when I go back to visit my parents I now have full 4G there. In other locations I have lived that were in the mountains, we used satellite. Not the best and pricey, but people choose where they live, some things are better/cheaper, other things are more expensive.
 
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