How Sensors and Software Turn Farms Into Data Mines 62
Nerval's Lobster writes that business intelligence tools have come to agribusiness, with farmers and cattle ranchers using many of the same tools found in numerous corporate cubicles, but fed by sensors you won't find in cubeland. "Machines (such as this one from DeLaval) keep track of all kinds of data about each cow, including the chemical properties of its milk, and flag when a particular cow is having problems or could be sick. The software can compare current data with historical patterns for the entire herd, and relate to weather conditions and other seasonal variations. Now a farmer can track his herd on his iPad without having to get out of bed, or even from another state. And Farmeron attempts to aggregate all farm-related data in a single Web portal. The company was started by Matija Kopi, the CEO who calls himself the 'Main Cowboy in the Saddle' and Marko Dukmeni, the CTO who is their Chief Tractor Hacker. They offer monthly accounts (starting at 25 cents per animal per month) to track animal physical characteristics along with milk production, medical treatments, and even particular feeding group schedules."
ROI? and First post? (Score:2, Interesting)
How much is this going to cost? (I don't think the "25 cents per animal per month" is a total cost, but I'd guess that that's just the monitoring fee.)
Everything I see is hundreds of dollars per plant/animal monitored.
Yes, probes can probably be used for years. However, if the per-monitored cost would come down, data on this stuff could go crazy.
I'm not just being theoretical. I just bought a small farm a few weeks ago and want to do this very thing.
Being an opensource kind of guy, I'd rather do it myself, anyway.
Living in the middle of Illinois... (Score:4, Interesting)
There are a lot of TV ads for farm equipment, seed, fertilizer, pesticides, etc. There's also a farm show early Sunday morning that's often quite interesting. Modern farms are tech marvels using smart phones, GPS, all sorts of mechanical wizardry.
It ain't a mule and a plow no more.