The land grab for farm data • Hacker News Board

Re: The land grab for farm data

#21

Post by basseq » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 4:35 PM UTC

HillaryBriss wrote: post #6

> Farmers tell me, “Look, I know that my data has value because everyone wants it. The part that frustrates me is that companies want my data in return for some undefined ‘value.’ Meanwhile they are often upselling me for additional services that would not exist without my data." Sounds like a good description of what's been going on across the economy for 20 years. Farmers are asking the same question many others ar…

Two thoughts:

1. This is tough, because the value of a single data point ("my data") is pretty much zero. The value is in the aggregate. Of course, without any data points, the value of the data is then zero. So the sum of the value of the individual data points does not equal the value of the data as a whole.

2. There's value to you in my ability to sell you more things. Which sounds nonsensical, but hear me out. If I'm able to sell you, it means you see value in that product or service greater than its cost. I would not be able to create that value for you without your data. So it's a help-me-help-you situation.

Re: The land grab for farm data

#22

Post by weberc2 » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 4:43 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #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 the…

The point is that everyone except farmers are profiting from the data the farmers are helping to collect. Perhaps the better question is "why should everyone except farmers get to nickel and dime research in this way?"

Re: The land grab for farm data

#23

Post by dejv » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 4:44 PM UTC

Kluny wrote: 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…

I run small web app for farmers (http://vitipad.com english website is not really up to date as I am active mostly on Czech market at the moment.

I am not selling the data, the app is used for storing their data and generating the reports for various govt agencies.

Selling to farmers is not easy, they don't have much time for administrative tasks, they are usually older and not really into new stuff anymore. Most of the software on market was created in 90s and there was quite a lot of acquisitions lately (mostly to wipe the market).

I can't wait to see new crop of tools entering the market, but mixing correct set of features will be hard.

Re: The land grab for farm data

#24

Post by infinite8s » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 4:58 PM UTC

MAGZine wrote: post #10

Kluny wrote: 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…

Yes, FarmersEdge (disclosure: I know the CTO) is a big player. I think, in a roundabout way, Monsanto is one of their competitors through acquisitions, though I'm not sure of their market placement wrt FE. I think ag is an underrated software industry. It's ripe for disruption, but you need to do it in a way that makes sense to farmers, which can be tricky for at least a couple of reasons!

Could you go into those reasons?

Re: The land grab for farm data

#25

Post by kayhi » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 4:59 PM UTC

vcarl wrote: post #19

cushychicken wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FarmLogs!

They're even a YC company!

Awesome of you guys to open the place for the tech walk!

Re: The land grab for farm data

#26

Post by dejv » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 5:07 PM UTC

infinite8s wrote: post #24

MAGZine wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, FarmersEdge (disclosure: I know the CTO) is a big player. I think, in a roundabout way, Monsanto is one of their competitors through acquisitions, though I'm not sure of their market placement wrt FE. I think ag is an underrated software industry. It's ripe for disruption, but you need to do it in a way that makes sense to farmers, which can be tricky for at least a couple of reasons!

Could you go into those reasons?

Most of the software on market is basically data collecting apps (be it manual or automatic data entry). What you get out of those apps is just another piece of (already abundant) information. You might get good insights out of it, but most farms are seriously understaffed and there might not be enough time left for doing another data entry job or analysing it.

Re: The land grab for farm data

#27

Post by otoburb » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

basseq wrote: post #21

HillaryBriss wrote: post #6

> Farmers tell me, “Look, I know that my data has value because everyone wants it. The part that frustrates me is that companies want my data in return for some undefined ‘value.’ Meanwhile they are often upselling me for additional services that would not exist without my data." Sounds like a good description of what's been going on across the economy for 20 years. Farmers are asking the same question many others ar…

Two thoughts: 1. This is tough, because the value of a single data point ("my data") is pretty much zero. The value is in the aggregate. Of course, without any data points, the value of the data is then zero. So the sum of the value of the individual data points does not equal the value of the data as a whole. 2. There's value to you in my ability to sell you more things . Which sounds nonsensical, but hear me out. I…

For #1, I'd imagine that farmers already belong to (or could form?) a farming or agriculture association, and one of the [additional] responsibilities could be data collection, anonymizing and selling to other parties. The association, similar to a labour union, could also potentially hire a 3rd party to do this work on their behalf provided they still retain ownership over the data, but at least the overall coordination and aggregate value would be captured on behalf of the farmers and not the vendors.

#2 would be fulfilled more easily by the association provided there was enough true representation of member interests and concerns.

Re: The land grab for farm data

#28

Post by JoeAltmaier » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 5:21 PM UTC

weberc2 wrote: post #22

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #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 the…

The point is that everyone except farmers are profiting from the data the farmers are helping to collect. Perhaps the better question is "why should everyone except farmers get to nickel and dime research in this way?"

I didn't read that. I read that no money was changing hands; just agreements. And of course the farmers benefit greatly; that's the whole point of it all, to make better yields.

Re: The land grab for farm data

#29

Post by jomamaxx » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 5:24 PM UTC

rayuela wrote: post #7

cjf4 wrote: 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...

That was really funny to read. "We have no idea how money will be made off this data, but it's going to be around $20-25 billion/year" rofl

Silicon Valley = Pied Piper :)

Re: The land grab for farm data

#30

Post by microDude » Thu, Jul 07, 2016, 5:47 PM UTC

emcrazyone wrote: post #9

I'm the lead software architect at a major agricultural and construction equipment manufacturer. I deal with this stuff every day. I'm not aware of any efforts to make collected data available but what I can say about the company I work for is that we largely view the data the farmer or operator's personal property. We don't transmit it back to any data center presently but we do have ways to copy the captured data o…

Yes, this is a common problem to all industries. Formats can be figured out or obtained from the OEM, then a gateway is created to transform into a digestible format (my guess some XML schema). In the article, the author states his company [1], where in the tech section he describes this very scenario.

[1]https://www.farmobile.com