There has been a lot of discussion about data ownership, data sharing and data value for on-farm information such as application rates, planting dates, yield and harvest dates. It’s a working assumption that as you enter into any kind of data collection and data sharing agreement, you read the fine print, scroll and sign the usage agreement.
Farmers themselves generate more than 10 MB of data per acre between the planting, application and harvest passes they make in the field.
That does not include additional scouting, soil sampling or other data-driven missions in the field conducted by the farmer or a designated consultant.
But what if you were told some of the data from your land and your farming practices is being collected without your consent. And furthermore, your consent wasn’t required.
“Many farmers are not completely cognizant that imagery is being collected by multiple sources that are freely available such as Sentinel from European Space Agency,” says Terry Griffin, professor in the department of agricultural economics at Kansas State University and sole proprietor of Griffin Consulting LLC.
Since 2017, the free-to-use 30' resolution images from Sentinel-2 L2A have captured satellite images every five days or so.
Using the NDVI values and how they change between flights, those images can be used to detect crop type, planting date, harvest date and more.
And because they are captured from public air space, your consent isn’t needed.
NO CONTROL
Todd Janzen, an attorney with Janzen Schroeder Agricultural Law LLC, says farmers creating the field level data still expect to have control of its sharing and usage.
“There’s still a big expectation of privacy in the data farmers generate themselves,” he says. “But for data that is available publicly, there’s no court that would say there’s an expectation of privacy in that data.”
For example, Janzen cites the Open Fields doctrine stating anything visible in an open field that can be seen by the public comes with no expectation of privacy.
Griffin says the two data sources — those generated by and shared with permission from the farmer and the publicly available images — are being used together to refine models and algorithms for all kinds of land management applications.
“The big one everyone sees as the target is yield modeling. We aren’t there yet, but there are a lot of people working on it,” he says. “There are others such as carbon emitted or stored, water usage or runoff, and more.”
Griffin uses the satellite data as a lookback tool in consulting work.
“It’s a magic eye in the sky that you can rewind and playback,” Griffin says. “I have consulted on herbicide drift cases, and by the time it gets to me, it’s two years old. So, using the Sentinel images, I can go back as needed and look up images at specific times.”
Griffin says planting and harvest dates can be determined within a few days. He can also assess other management practices such as irrigation, cover crops and tillage.
Using the Sentinel satellite data, the 30' resolution is available for free, and more detailed 3' and 1' resolution imagery are available with a paid subscription.
“What none of us know is how detailed the military satellites are or what kind of resolution can they reach,” Janzen says. “But regardless of whether it’s with a satellite, airplane or drone, if someone wants to collect the data they can do it from the public air space.”
With the technology already in place, the applications for the images will continue to development.
“Farmers need to know the satellites are watching,” Griffin says. “You are more vulnerable than you realize, and this data can be used against people. When it comes to this data, the farmer and landowner aren’t the customers — they’re the product.”
Griffin also points to farmers who have already acknowledged they are being watched from above out in the back 40.
“A lot of farmers find themselves on Google Earth when they are harvesting or planting, and then they screenshot that, and it becomes their social media profile pic,” he says. “But there are applications for this data beyond that for sure.”
