One of the biggest concerns among farmers is that they no longer have a grip on the data flows surrounding their farm. The cooperative data hub gives them an overview again, says Ton Loman, chairman of the Smart Dairy Farming Foundation. 'Farmers regain control of their data flows.'
An important development, but has it actually landed in the sector?
'The data hub is the only one of its kind in the Netherlands, but it has not yet been widely adopted, while it is an important step for farmers. The goal of the SmartDairyFarming Foundation is to enable a reliable way of data traffic. Making it easier for farmers to improve business processes on their farm.'
To put it bluntly, the farmer retains ownership of the data?
'Our guiding principle is that the farmer remains in charge of who and where his data ends up. The farmer remains in control, he determines which data he makes available and for what purposes. I can explain the technology behind it, explain privacy legislation and say a few things about IP matters, but that makes this story unnecessarily complicated. Starting point is: Farmer at the wheel!'
Does the hub (in a negative way) prevent commercial parties from using the farmer's data?
'It prevents commercial parties from using the data without the farmer's knowledge. There are quite a few commercial parties that can add knowledge and design beautiful applications with the help of clever minds, but the farmer decides whether he makes his data available for this and whether he wants to use that application. You don't take new steps by sitting on your data. Certainty about where your data will or will not go also encourages farmers to cooperate.'
Can you resist the John Deere's of this world with this?
'What we notice is that such multinationals are more willing to share data from their sensors, tractors and equipment. They realize that keeping this data to themselves is not sustainable in the long run. It may even provoke aversion. Other parties can also use that data to make applications for the benefit of the farmer. You see that in the EU and in the rest of the world. There is movement and that is positive.'
For the time being, the project is very much aimed at dairy farmers. What do you do for arable farmers and pig farmers, for example?
'I can't name concrete names yet, but the initiative is being expanded further. Especially now that LTO Nederland and EDI-Circle are going on July 1th join, we also expect sectors other than dairy to make use of this hub. After all, all farmers in the Netherlands benefit from me. We will quickly take the next steps after the summer.'
What kind of innovations can come from this?
'Consider better forecasting of milk supply. An initiative that is currently underway is to calculate the premium for robot milkers who do want to use grazing. This system can fuel many ideas because you have a safe way to get the data from A to B. More and more data is becoming available in real time, the safe (trusted) sharing of it will stimulate innovations and thus strengthen the strength of the Dutch agricultural sector.'
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.