“Most growers throughout the country independently maintain and manage their own yield data, agricultural input records, seeding information, crop insurance records, etc.,” said Laura Gentry, Illinois Corn Growers director of water quality research and adjunct assistant professor at the U of I. “This new program will help manage agronomic records and, more important, uses that data to provide individualized agronomic consulting to farmers considering implementing conservation practices on their farms.”
Coppess added, “This effort will help us better understand the conservation work already being done by farmers and set a baseline that will allow us to assess changes and improvements over time. Research and assessment will use aggregated and anonymous data, all of which will be protected on behalf of the farmer. As regulatory pressures on farming increase, this work will help demonstrate not only the economic benefit to farmers but also the increasing benefits farmers can provide through natural resource conservation and best management practices.”
Gentry said that a major deterrent for growers considering enrolling in conservation programs, such as those provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, is the paperwork and data-entry requirements for participation. As part of the proposed Precision Conservation Management service, agents will collect relevant grower management data and, at the grower’s request, will securely upload required information to the program on behalf of the grower to guarantee confidentiality.
Source: ACES