Comments
DHagar
7/28/2016 7:25:39 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@Joe, fascinating article and great application. That is where I believe true IoT value will be developed is in the applications that solve problems.
This does make sense with Ag in that they are increasingly looking at ways to streamline and become less labor intensive, including using more automation itself.
Now if they will use IoT with the delivery service and connect that wine with customer delivery to the home (i.e., drones?), we will have the complete value! I'll drink to that!
afwriter
7/29/2016 10:53:14 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
I think the idea is amazing, but how many set-in-their-ways farmers are going to embrace new technology?
DHagar
7/29/2016 12:47:10 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@afwriter, good point and excellent reality check! My thinking is that the small independent farmers aren't likely to move into automation. But the larger "farms" that sell on the larger commercial markets, like vineyards in this example, who are already finding ways to automate various aspects of agriculture, will view this as a great addition.
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
DHagar:
Yup, vineyards is a very good example that could readily adapt this model.
faryl
7/30/2016 8:28:39 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
I'm not sure farmers can afford to be set-in-their-ways anymore.
My impression (which could be totally wrong!) is that there's not a super-high profit margin in farming - so optimizing processes (through technology) is necessary to stay afloat.
Plus I'm guessing "Ag" includes the factory-farms & Monsanto-type innovations, being run as part of companies like Kraft, Foster Farms & Dole (for example) - so more of a true industry sector, vs. small farms.
faryl
7/30/2016 8:30:28 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Also want to commend Joe on his stellar pun usage :)
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
there's not a super-high profit margin in farming
@faryl:
I have to respectfully disagree with you on this. Now people are moving into organic products for all produce. Lately there is an incline for organic prodcuts which triggered organic farming boom. I believe there is good reasonable marigins for this.
DHagar
8/1/2016 1:24:32 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@ms.akkineni, thanks. And to your points, I fully agree:
- Profit margins - for those who make the farming process an effective production system, there can be good profits. It no longer rewards anyone who just wants to farm. Like anything else, it has to be effective.
- JohnBarnes - overview of the system - agreed - "understanding" the evolutionary changes and what makes the system work helps to make sense. Again, information and knowledge makes things better!
Great points, ms.akkineni, as always.
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@DHagar: Feels good to connect back. Been slightly low lately, super hectic and demanding work schedules.(:
Really good point - Effective Farming. This is really one area that folks are paying attention and finding several different ways to get there. For folks that have real passion in farming, finding effective ways and using that technique to reach their goals would be a real rewarding expereince.
DHagar
8/22/2016 1:06:21 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@ms akkineni, great to have you back!
Yes, and farmers need all the help they can get in that they are already operating on thin margins. This gives them new capabilities to survive and prosper. A win-win for everyone!
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@ms akkineni, yes, glad to see you here again. We hear and read a lot about the promise of IoT but these improvements in ag are real world. We're not going to get more land/water for farming going forward.
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Yup, absolute win-win situation. Way to go !
dlr5288
7/31/2016 6:21:23 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Good point!
I think some people are stuck in their old ways when it comes to new technology. They're used to doing things the way they've been doing it for years and might not totally trust new devices.
JohnBarnes
7/31/2016 6:38:34 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
afwriter,
I've known enough farmers to say they tend to be a lot less set in their ways than the typical industrial plant manager or retail business operator. Betcha they're all over this as soon as it's easily available (nobody likes to be the alpha-test guinea pig)
JohnBarnes
7/31/2016 6:51:14 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
There's always been a paradox in agricultural economics because the three big components in the production equation -- land, labor, and "physical capital" (aka machines and buildings) -- have an unusually intertwined relationship. The most productive agricultural land on Earth in terms of nutrients per square meter tends to be the land with the most workers per hectare on it -- truck farms, rice paddies, etc. This is because there's a huge informational component -- you get a lot more food out of your vegetable garden by weeding it (high information -- each individual plant reviewed frequently to see if it's a weed or intentional) and by having soil moisture, freeze risk, insect and varmint situation, etc. checked several times a day.
However, ag workers (as opposed to farmers) not only get paid for zilch, they're too expensive even at that rate (because their jobs require only a little training), so agribusiness has functioned for many decades on substituting physical capital for people (the tomato harvesting machine might lose a quarter of the tomatoes by picking them too green and another quarter that are overripe, but it can run through thousands of acres per day with three workers running it, so it's more tomatoes for the dollar, even if they resemble greenish-reddish tennis balls; the hand picker gets many more per hectare but costs much more per hectare).
What this does is potentially breaks the paradox. Instead of irrigating the wheat based on the average situation from past records and weather reports across an area half the size of a Nebraska county (the low-information agribiz way) you get reports every 15 minutes from 50,000 soil monitors that cost a buck each, integrate that info, and put the water only where it's needed. You pick what's ready when it's ready and leave the plant producing (or the stuff that isn't ready to ripen); you see weeds coming up and (sometime soon) even zap them individually.
Mind you, it can also be looked on as a 21st century way to hose over the agricultural workers yet again. But their situation has been worsening since the late Middle Ages, so I suppose it won't be anything new ..
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@John:
Great length of details. I always cherish the wealth of information that you share in this forum and I truely appreciate that. Thank You!
JohnBarnes
7/31/2016 7:27:37 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Mind you, in real life I'm that immensely boring man who stands around lecturing people at parties.
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
LOL...I can see the lecturing part, but I may not be bored all the times, depends on the topic.
DHagar
8/1/2016 1:19:54 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@JohnBarnes, thanks for that fascinating review of Ag! Totally makes sense and explains the evolutionary trends.
Our farms have been becoming highly productive and the jobs have been shrinking, so it is generally becoming more industrialized - for better or worse - but it does keep a high level of food production and at costs that are affordable; making it highly competitive in the world market.
True on the Ag jobs, but they are declining anyway, and if the farms went out of business there would be no jobs. Possibly more jobs may be developed, even though there will be fewer. Possible new jobs can be managing the machinery, including repairs, and hopefully, data-driven jobs.
Progress is never easy! We need to learn how to adapt and optimize!
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Paraphrasing Faulkner, "Progress is never easy. Much of the time it's not even progress."
DHagar
8/1/2016 3:55:33 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@JohnBarnes, I like that - very true. It is just activity, which may be forward, sideways, or even backwards!
I was thinking, you should write a book on the Ag Industry and the evolution that has taken place. I think, with your skills in painting the picture, it could be a best seller!
batye
8/1/2016 6:53:03 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@DHagar yes, I could not agree more, and please do - Ad evolution is very interesting process... - how I see it :)
DHagar
8/1/2016 7:56:49 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@batye, there we go - That's two sales at least! Thanks - I am with you.
batye
8/2/2016 2:49:52 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@DHagar like everything else in life things start small... do not give up on your dreams... also this days people create books for digital format only... like pdf :)
JohnBarnes
8/1/2016 10:41:40 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
Skipping over the flattery (which I am nonetheless cherishing and will get you everywhere), I think the potential for IoT in agriculture is astonishing. Networked robots tending crops would basically be like extremely diligent peasants who didn't sleep or eat. You could literally water and weed on an individual basis, kill harmful bugs by plucking them off and squishing them (or throwing them into feeding areas for the birds) so that no pesticides were needed, maybe even inject soil nutrients on a plant-by-plant basis. Harvest everything when it's just ripe, bring in samples of every diseased plant the moment a blight shows up, compost all the waste.
And it's a natural environment for solar and wind power, too. (Or so I'm told. I side with Fran Leibowitz: the outdoors is "that unpleasant area with harsh lighting between the cab and the restaurant.")
Kinda hard to make that exciting in fiction, though, I have to admit. But the world already produces almost enough food, and then wastes 25-35% of it by letting bugs get it, mistimed harvests, misallocated resources, spoilage in transit, etc. If you could get the world's big wide fields, currently given over to big ag, to turn out food at the rate and variety that a Maryland or Breton truck farm -- or a family vegetable patch in the 3rd world -- does, you could pretty much end hunger in a generation. Even an old Luddite like me can appreciate that!
batye
8/2/2016 2:59:36 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@JohnBarnes interestion point/observation I still remember Internet of things :) idea but slowly everything becomes reality now :) one way or other... it like watching Metropolis before great changes :)
DHagar
8/2/2016 1:40:16 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@batye, good points. IoT does enable new possibilities and will enable the development of new breakthroughs previously thought to be impossible.
batye
8/2/2016 1:42:45 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@DHagar in my mind anything is possible as long as power of humanity moving toward progress and true peace... not war :)
DHagar
8/2/2016 1:52:42 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@batye, great thoughts! I believe that is what motivates people and causes them to embrace change - when it makes things better.
batye
8/2/2016 1:55:19 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@DHagar thank you, in my mind humanity spend too much time doing things what make no sense... for me power, war is addiction :) to adrenalin rush... like gambling...
DHagar
8/2/2016 2:01:17 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@batye, ... "feeds the body but not the soul". Maybe that is why people become disinterested, apathetic, cynical, etc.
batye
8/2/2016 2:03:54 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@DHagar yes and no as human nature trying to avoid day to day reality... forgeting look around and see good things now :)
DHagar
8/2/2016 2:10:23 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@batye, good advice. We see what we look for.
batye
8/2/2016 2:30:32 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@DHagar I would say life itself is complex and interesting... like brain sending signal via nerve network to type :) this message... or using this message to communicate idea... endless possibilities to see :)
DHagar
8/2/2016 1:36:05 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
@JohnBarnes, great vision! It is fundamental to everyone's lives and affects us economically as consumers and/or producers. So it should resonate with everyone.
As you put it, a "Smart" Farming would bring us back to the future with ag intelligence, precision farming, "natural" farming methods with reduced waste, and better delivery capabilties. That would interest old and young alike and possibly regenerate this vital industry.
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