January 23, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
‘Big data’ panel will address farmer-generated info
By MATTHEW WEAVER
during the panel discussion
where companies differ in con-
tractual agreements — how the
data is kept, shared, owned or
protected.
Wesley cautioned farmers to
look carefully at the legal agree-
ments when they sign up for on-
line applications, or apps, to de-
termine where and how the data
may be used.
“Put this up a little bit higher
on your radar, maybe have an
idea of where this data is going
and how it’s going to be used,”
Capital Press
Farmers will learn from ex-
perts about the potential opportu-
nities and dangers of “big data”
during a presentation at the Spo-
kane Ag Expo and Pacific North-
west Farm Forum.
The discussion will be from
1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4,
in the DoubleTree Hotel Ball-
room.
Panelists will talk about
farmer-generated data to guide
production and business deci-
sions, how that data is used by
service providers, who owns the
data and managing risks when a
farmer shares his data.
“The goal for the program
will be to help farmers start think-
ing about (these) questions and
how the data revolution could
affect their own farming prac-
tices in the future,” said Myrna
O’Leary, director of the Spokane
Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest
Farm Forum.
The panelists will include
Kirk Wesley, national and key
accounts manager for CNH In-
dustrial in Burr Ridge, Ill.; Barrie
Robison, associate director of the
University of Idaho Institute for
Bioinformatics and Evolutionary
Studies; and Elizabeth Telless-
en, an attorney with Winston &
Cashatt in Spokane.
Each speaker will have 30
Wesley said.
Successful farmers could end
up sharing their techniques with
competing growers and putting
their own operation at risk, Wes-
ley said.
Farmers could also find that
they are inadvertently sharing
private information under a li-
censing agreement with a seed
company, he said.
“All the players you’re bring-
ing to this table, you need to un-
derstand what their stance is,” he
said.
GO NUMBER ONE!
GO SCHULTE!
Tellessen
Robison
Wesley
minutes, with time for a ques-
tion-and-answer session.
“Big data” refers to the col-
lection and storage of informa-
tion from machinery, companies
working in agriculture and regu-
latory agencies, Wesley said.
Telematics connect opera-
tions in the field to data ware-
houses, or silos, he said.
CNH Industrial is careful to
inform customers that they con-
trol any sharing or use of their
data, Wesley said. The company
removes identifying factors to
look at data on a broader scale to
find potential areas for improve-
ment, he said. Wesley likened
this approach to the financial
and health industries. CNH is the
maker of agricultural equipment.
“We can tell you in the coun-
ty you’re sitting in right now how
many cancer cases (there are),
but the door slams shut when we
want the names of those people,”
he said as an example. “We don’t
care where any of this equip-
ment is running, we just want
to know the performance issues
that might be going on and make
a better product in the future.”
Robison said “big data” cov-
ers an array of data sets from
growers worldwide. The infor-
mation could answer questions
that were previously impossible
to answer by showing what kind
of steps have been used else-
where to address challenges, he
said.
“The idea is to get to solutions
that can actually be implement-
ed,” Robison said.
Tellessen recommends farm-
ers who are using computerized
technology look over their agree-
ment before attending the discus-
sion.
Technology is changing so
quickly that farmers need to
know both the opportunities and
the risks, Tellessen said.
One of the concerns is who
owns a farmer’s data and who
has access to it, she said.
Tellessen hopes to convey
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