-
A Different Kind of "Services Oriented" Agriculture – Part 2
- Monday March 19, 2012
A Different Kind of "Services Oriented" Agriculture – Part 2 “An app for this, an app for that” is fine, so long as these apps can share, or at least access common services. It’s not much different from my smart phone where I have lots of apps that value add pictures, notes, recordings, GPS tagged items, etc. can ultimately be shared and discover these things via Facebook, Twitter, email, text or even my favorite “farming app.” I want an app to find my fields, my yields, my imagery, my equipment, and my staff. I want to put things “in the cloud” once and share them many times, with many people as I choose, and across many apps. For you Apple users of iPhones, iPads, etc. you can think of the iCloud…your... -
A Different Kind of "Services Oriented" Agriculture – Part 1
- Monday March 19, 2012
A Different Kind of "Services Oriented" Agriculture – Part 1 Services Oriented Architecture or SOA has been a buzz term in IT for years. According to IBM, SOA is “a business-centric IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services.” Let me simplify further. You move to a new home, you make some calls, and power, water, telephone, internet, television, garbage, mail, lawn service etc. just “happen.” A bill comes, you pay it, and the services continue. You like one provider over another, you change services and life goes on. These are “linked, repeatable business tasks, or services” (both physical and virtual) which can be “called” via... -
Interconnected We Stand... part 2
- Friday December 23, 2011
Interconnected We Stand…part 2 Modern producers have to be farmers, biologists, agronomists, bankers, accountants, market hedgers, economists, policy analysts, and often technologists to be successful. As farms grow larger and risk and volatility increase, technology is enabling us build an interconnected system of equipment, software, data, and virtual consultative teams around our operations. When it comes to humans and technology, it is interesting that technology can be simultaneously an attractive and repulsive force. Telecommunications and social media enable people to stay connected with a larger and increasingly decentralized network of personal and professional contacts. But at the same time, it sure seems like... -
Interconnected We Stand…part 1
by Matthew Bechdol - Tuesday December 13, 2011From the chisel plow to the combine to the cell phone, technology on the farm has aimed to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and expectations of our industry’s capabilities. It has enabled us to deliver the most abundant, safe, and affordable food supply in the world. An unintended consequence of this progress is that it has also eroded the numbers of a once dominant community of America. Farmers and ranchers are among the hardest working, ethical, and community driven people in the world. Technology has enabled us to do what we love, to be profitable and to be responsible, but there simply a lot fewer of us now because of it. In 1919 farmers represented 31% of the workforce, there were 6.3 million farms, and average farm...
