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DHagar
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!

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afwriter
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?

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DHagar
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.

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faryl
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.

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faryl
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 :)

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ms.akkineni
ms.akkineni
7/31/2016 12:50:16 PM
User Rank
Platinum
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.

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ms.akkineni
ms.akkineni
7/31/2016 12:56:36 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: Verizon's Ag IoT
DHagar:

Yup, vineyards is a very good example that could readily adapt this model.

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dlr5288
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.

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JohnBarnes
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)

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JohnBarnes
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 ..

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