Wisconsin Soy Checkoff Dives Into AI Using Grower Data

Jun 05, 2023

From the moment they wake up, farmers are bombarded with decision after decision.

Though it might not seem like it at the time, even a minor decision’s consequence – whether it be good or bad – may not be realized until months later.

What if there was a program that helped make those decisions easier for farmers?

With a long history of wisely directing checkoff resources toward soybean research, fiscal year 2023 is shaping up to be no different for the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board (WSMB).

WSMB is diving into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and the role it has in the agriculture industry by funding the project, “Evaluating the potential of an algorithm-based decision-making tool (Agroptimizer) to increase farmers’ profitability in Wisconsin,” with the University of Wisconsin. Through the research, Dr. Shawn Conley is examining how grower data can be used to develop AI tools.

For this project, the AI program being used is Agroptimizer, which is a decision support tool that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to identify the optimum cropping system that will maximize yield and profitability by sifting through the thousands of possibilities a farmer can choose from in a single field.

The project, which launched in 2021, aims to compare the yield and profitability of University of Wisconsin-recommended soybean and corn cropping systems with AI-recommended systems.

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Border View Farms is a mid-sized family farm that sits on the Ohio-Michigan border. My name is Nathan. I make and edit all of the videos posted here. I farm with my dad, Mark and uncle, Phil. Our part-time employee, Brock, also helps with the filming. 1980 was our first year in Waldron where our main farm is now. Since then we have grown the operation from just a couple hundred acres to over 3,000. Watch my 500th video for a history of our farm I filmed with my dad.

I started making these videos in the fall of 2019 as a way to help show what I do on a daily basis as a farmer. Agriculture is different from any other industry and I believe the more people that are showing their small piece of agriculture, helps to build our story. We face unique challenges and stressful situations but have some of the most rewarding payoffs in the end. I get to spend everyday doing what I love, raising my kids on the farm, and trying to push our farm to be better every year. I hope that I can address questions or concerns that you might have about farms and agriculture.