PHOTO: JAN WILLEM VAN VLIET PHOTO: PETER ROEK
BIG DA ▶▶▶ TA The more (free) data, the better
Combining data from tractors with GPS signals gives you access to a wealth of free data – data that you can place alongside other information such as soil scans and satellite images. This functionality is available for new and existing tractors. Because: the more data you have, the more effective and reliable they are.
D BY RENÉ KOERHUIS
ata is collected nowadays from practically everything, and “big data” is the latest buzzword, so coined because enormous quanti-
ties of data (information) are involved. Large multinationals are avid users of such a prac- tice. Data not only yield knowledge, insight and power, but also hard cash, and even farm- ers or agricultural contractors can earn money from it! The agricultural sector is already gathering and making use of big data. Data collection is also increasingly an accepted phenomenon that happens automatically, as more of us
Freeing tractor data
There are a range of initiatives under way to collect tractor data and transmit it wireless- ly. Such as the Dutch initiatives Agrobox from FARM24 and an ISOBlue derivative (see photo) from
Trekkerdata.nl. Purdue Universi- ty in the USA developed this ISOBlue box for the North American market. Technical ex- perts from FarmHack,
Trekkerdata.nl and Purdue adapted it to enable it to ‘under- stand’ European tractors. The slogan on the website
www.isoblue.org reads ‘Freeing Ag Machinery Data’, and that is also essentially what it is: ‘freeing’ tractor and machine data from the CAN bus/Isobus to render them in- dependent of any brand and making them available for use by the farmer free of charge. The Agrobox works in a similar way. Both boxes use 4G to continuously send the data that has been recorded. The data from the Agrobox becomes available on MyFarm24.
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embrace automation and 24/7 connectivity. The GPS system, the autopilot, machines and implements are, in fact, recording what they are doing and where at any given time for every square centimetre. (Tractor) manufacturers are also recognising the importance of this, and are assisting users to access and analyse this data using cloud en- vironments and online software applications. As a farmer, you will often pay for wireless communication and for the storage, analysis and processing of your own data, and that is increasingly giving rise to resistance from farmers across the world. Some state-of-the-art tractors and other vehi- cles are already constantly connected, and
send their data to manufacturers’ cloud environments. This can be useful for the purposes of service, preventative maintenance, and track & trace, but, in spite of privacy legislation, questions are being raised as to what is happening to all of that data. This is one of the reasons why initiatives and solutions are being developed across the world to take control of data collection, man- agement and valorisation. Not only are those tasks becoming easier all the time, but they are being carried out in a more focused and more targeted way. Data are no longer considered ‘nice to have’, but rather ‘need to have’.
Recently, a number of Dutch arable farmers and contractors have started testing these solutions. Contractors regard it mainly as a means of being accountable to customers (as
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 27 August 2019
well as the Government) with regard to fuel consumption, use of fertilisers and crop pro- tection chemicals, and the impact on soil and the environment.
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