Everyone knows that over the past few years, technology has significantly impacted the way we live. But as the old saying goes, "we ain't seen nothing yet," according to data expert Kenneth Cukier.
"'Big Data' is coming, and it's going to hit you like a tidal wave," said keynote speaker Cukier as last Thursday's Livestock, Forage and Grain Forum in Indianapolis. Cukier is the data editor for The Economist magazine and co-author of the book "Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think."
Cukier said that as the computer age has moved from the analog to the digital age, the amount of information available to people has exploded exponentially, with the total amount of information doubling every two to three years. For example, he said that Google or Yahoo now daily processes as much information as Wal-Mart would have done in the past decade.
He gave another example of how in 2003, 20 nations of the world decided they needed to map the human genome, so they went together to tackle the project. They finally completed their task 10 years later at the cost of $1 billion. Now, a single facility can duplicate that same feat in one day for $1,000.
Cukier defined "Big Data" as the collecting and applying of data in ways we never have before. He then said that the implications of Big Data are that we can also take this gargantuan amount of data and now apply it to problems we never could before.
"This quantitative shift leads to a qualitative shift," said Cukier. "More isn't just more, more is different."
In the area of medicine, Cukier said that as a result of the vast increase in data, drugs and therapies can soon be tailored to individuals' exact genetic makeup, rather than designing them for "the average man." He also said that these mega changes aren't limited to just medicine, but are everywhere—retailing, media and farming.
"Data collected by farm machinery manufacturers can now in some cases analyze—in real time as you move across the field—when different parts of your combine are operating outside the normal range of heat or vibration. Then they can accurately predict a part failure before it happens, saving you valuable time and money," he said.
Cukier told his audience that the accumulation of these huge amounts of data that can be precisely applied to specific problems has created a new form of value, which is an asset that can give its users a competitive edge in the marketplace. He also said that while Big Data can bring big opportunities, it can also bring thorny legal and ethical questions—like who owns (and controls) the data.
To bring Cukier's concepts down to the farm level, his presentation was followed by a panel discussion featuring four members who had expertise in both agriculture and Big Data.
Panel member Sarina Sharp of Fair Oaks Farms said that the farms' dairies had recently installed robotic milkers, which was helping them to better achieve their goals of profitability and animal welfare through the use of Big Data. Specific instances included the ability of the robot's computer system to use lasers to precisely identify each cow during its first experience in the robot. From there, it can collect vast amounts of health and production data on each cow during each milking.
Examples included the robot automatically adjusting the feed ration upward for higher-producing cows. Sharp also said that the robot had sensors that could detect 27 different shades of white. As a result of this, the robot could detect the presence of an infection in the milk well before human operators would observe symptoms. This, in turn, would result in cows being treated much earlier for mastitis.
Another panel member, Kip Tom of Leesburg, said that he saw Big Data as the latest in a continuing stream of innovations that began with the mechanization of agriculture in the early 1900s, followed by hybrid corn in the late 1920s, then green crop care products, and in about 1996, biotechnology. About that same time, yield monitors began coming to farms.
"Today, we're at the convergence of those innovations—biotechnology, the ability to remote monitor and sensor, and now Big Data—which puts an augmented reality at our disposal," said Tom. "Today is much different than in grandpa's day. We need the tools and technology that computerization has brought to agriculture to be able to profitably drive production and marketing decisions, with the kinds of acres we're farming."
Tom also said that along with the opportunities that Big Data brings, it is also incumbent on farmers to educate themselves regarding the dangers involved.
"Farmers need to educate themselves. Understand what Big Data is, and how data's owned and controlled," he said. "Just like we spend time in the owner's manual of a new combine, we need to do the same with our data and how we manage it."
In her morning welcome remarks to forum attendees, Indiana Soybean Alliance CEO Jane Ade Stevens foreshadowed some of these themes when she discussed various trends that determined how the Alliance board had recently developed its new strategic plan for the next three years.
"In years to come, farmers are going to spend less time changing oil and more time managing their farm's data," she said. "While the oil will still need to be changed, it will probably be done by someone other than the person managing the data."
As the Soybean board developed their new strategic plan which determines how checkoff dollars will be spent, Stevens said the board had done research which had identified eight key trends, most of which were expected to be around for the foreseeable future. The eight included: Who's running the farm?"/the disconnected policymaker; the public's in love with food; aging infrastructure/losing our competitive advantage, surpluses in major grain and oilseed commodities, farmers transitioning from the Baby Boom generation to succeeding generations; increased risk and volatility; Big Data, and the accompanying need to "farm the data;" and both the challenges and opportunities in soybean and corn production.