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The land grab for farm data

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11–20 of 54 posts

Re: The land grab for farm data

#11
post #2

>Farm data is expected to be a $20–$25 billion revenue opportunity, but we haven’t yet determined how the data can be collected, structured, stored and shared, let alone monetized. For crying out loud...

One can know that a system can be improved by a certain amount without knowing who will pay for it; knowing how much it can be improved and how expensive it currently is, is enough to place an upper bound on how much someone would pay to improve it.

Re: The land grab for farm data

#12
post #3

This seems to confirm just how important the price of data is for ML & AI based startups. Methinks there is a market alone for data companies, not even those that are necessarily doing anything productive with said data, just collecting it. Also raises the question of whether its possible to bootstrap a data science, ML, or AI startup, given the high expense of purchasing that data.

By collecting it you mean scraping?

Re: The land grab for farm data

#13
post #8

I could see myself dedicating my life to making software to help farmers organize their farm data and sell it. Anyone know of companies that do this? edit: I'm a full-stack application developer with a lot of experience working with non-techy business owners and proven success as a problem-solver. I'm interested in getting into this industry as a technical project manager. Email me if you're looking for such a person…

FarmersEdge is definitely big in at least exploiting the data for higher yield through several techniques including avoiding disease, rotating crops, weather preduction, etc...

Really interesting work, and in a domain that is just opening up to the idea of using data. They're definitely recruiting and open to remote work if you're serious. I used to work for a startup they acquired.

Re: The land grab for farm data

#14
I'm not sure the farmer should be getting in the way of data collection. Regional and global optimizations can be mined from a large enough set of ag data. Do we really want to nickel and dime research this way? Its a fair question.

I know; there's a sense of ownership. But farmers are just one participant in the chain of data management. They just happen to be the one person residing physically over the land. So they could charge rent on data. But should they?

Re: The land grab for farm data

#15
post #8

I could see myself dedicating my life to making software to help farmers organize their farm data and sell it. Anyone know of companies that do this? edit: I'm a full-stack application developer with a lot of experience working with non-techy business owners and proven success as a problem-solver. I'm interested in getting into this industry as a technical project manager. Email me if you're looking for such a person…

Check out our startup Pycno. We do a smart sensor for farmers, since getting the data out of the farm is the first problem. On the software side we have a lot of analytics and predictions that the farmer can benefit from. We are in HAX, here in Shenzhen!

Re: The land grab for farm data

#17
post #8

I could see myself dedicating my life to making software to help farmers organize their farm data and sell it. Anyone know of companies that do this? edit: I'm a full-stack application developer with a lot of experience working with non-techy business owners and proven success as a problem-solver. I'm interested in getting into this industry as a technical project manager. Email me if you're looking for such a person…

FarmLogs!

Re: The land grab for farm data

#18

Precision Planting HQ is 2 corn fields away (~5 miles) from the house I grew up in in rural Illinois. Maybe I shouldn't have moved to the west coast to chase startups...

This is what the campus of a $250M startup looks like: https://goo.gl/maps/hRpUS1BQbZL2

Re: The land grab for farm data

#19
post #8

I could see myself dedicating my life to making software to help farmers organize their farm data and sell it. Anyone know of companies that do this? edit: I'm a full-stack application developer with a lot of experience working with non-techy business owners and proven success as a problem-solver. I'm interested in getting into this industry as a technical project manager. Email me if you're looking for such a person…

FarmLogs!

They're even a YC company!

Re: The land grab for farm data

#20
post #8

I could see myself dedicating my life to making software to help farmers organize their farm data and sell it. Anyone know of companies that do this? edit: I'm a full-stack application developer with a lot of experience working with non-techy business owners and proven success as a problem-solver. I'm interested in getting into this industry as a technical project manager. Email me if you're looking for such a person…

On the operational/financial side, you have Granular. On the soil science / land data side, you've got AcreValue.

Disclosure: was/am the lead designer on both (leaving to do the #vanlife thing).

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