Data Security

Closing the Transparency Gap: Ag Data Group Updates Its Model Agreement

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:20:43 GMT

Technology moves fast. For example, five years ago, we were just seeing commercially available selective spraying machines in the U.S., now a handful of companies have hundreds of machines across the country.

Changes in the industry were recognized by Ag Data Transparent, an industry group founded 10 years ago with the goal of bringing greater transparency for farmers and the industry in how data is used, collected and stored.

As such, five years after ADT wrote and distributed its first Model Ag Data Use Agreement, they updated it late in 2025. It’s now available on their website for no fee.

“A lot of companies would come to us and say: ‘We want to do things right, how do we do it? What’s the best way to go about collecting data from farmers?’” says Todd Janzen, administrator for the Ag Data Transparent project. “We created this model agreement that they could use as their primary contract with farmers.”

He says in the past five years, it’s been downloaded hundreds of times.

The committee that recently worked to update it included:

a new category for sustainability data (carbon, conservation programs, and climate data)
a new category for usage data and how a farmer is using a platform
addressing artificial intelligence, adding derived data, which would be new data sets that are created based upon use of the ag data itself

“The agreement tries to be much more specific than others you see outside our industry,” Janzen says. “Also, it starts with a basic framework that a farmer owns the data.”

Reflecting on the origin of the model agreement, Janzen remembers a time with many ag startups all collecting data individually. Since then, there’s been a shift, mostly due to consolidation but also businesses closing, where there are fewer players today.

“Ag Data Transparent was created to first establish a set of core principles around what are the best practices for how data should be collected from farms,” Janzen says. “And then secondly, to do a certification or verification of which companies were adhering to those principles, by going through this voluntary certification process.”

Nevertheless, tools to help farmers ensure transparency are important, he says.

“What I understand, there still is a great deal of concern from farmers about what happens to all this data, and with advent of AI it started to reinvigorate a lot of these discussions about data and what does it mean for these AI models to use data, to train themselves,” Janzen explains.

Drone Wars: Agriculture Caught In The Middle Of Global Tension

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 12:00:00 GMT

If you are in agriculture and the latest high-tech drone is on your Christmas list, then you might want to ask Santa for something else before it’s too late. One of the largest consumer drone manufacturers is on the naughty list.

No, it is not Santa’s naughty list, but instead, it’s the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) naughty list.

The company in question is Chinese drone maker DJI. In 2022, the DoD added DJI to its list of Chinese military companies (CMCs). After a delisting petition from DJI in July 2023, DoD ultimately responded by redesignating the drone company as a CMC in January 2024.

This growing crackdown on Chinese technology companies stems from U.S. government agencies implementing key provisions of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress passed to help fight espionage enabled by foreign technology companies. The U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments also have DJI on their own blacklists.

The news got much worse for DJI in September as the House of Representatives passed the Countering CCP Drones Act. The legislation would essentially place a domestic ban on DJI devices by prohibiting them from operating on U.S. communications infrastructure. It is doubtful a final verdict on DJI’s fate in the U.S. will be rendered until a new Congress and administration begin work in 2025, but if passed, then it could ground all DJI drones within the U.S.

Caught in the Middle
Due to the immense market share DJI has in the U.S., the impact could be quite disruptive, especially in the short term. Several U.S. agriculture drone service companies that have been built on the backs of DJI’s technology could soon have their wings clipped if the ban becomes reality.

It has been more than a decade since commercially affordable drone technology landed on farms all across this country. The initial value proposition drones brought to the table was both intriguing and mesmerizing. Finally, you could visualize and analyze your crops, land and assets in ways that were more in-depth and instantaneous than ever before. Plus, you’ve got to admit that flying a drone around your corn field is a lot more fun than cleaning out a grain bin or bucking hay bales.

As it relates to agriculture, the drone industry has seen incredible advancements in technology and application since drones first took flight. In the early days, a modified pocket camera from Best Buy and suspect Russian imaging software were needed to make the whole process work. Today’s drones are available with all kinds of bells and whistles ranging from standard 4K resolution to thermal imaging and even lidar mapping sensors. Thousands of images from hundreds of drones are now processed in the cloud by companies such as Pix4D and DroneDeploy. Meanwhile, companies such as Rantizo and Guardian Agriculture offer specialized drone spraying services for ag retailers and producers. Progress for sure. Game-changing? Not quite.

Last Year’s Forgotten Toy
After more than a decade, it seems agricultural adoption of drone technology has hit a virtual ceiling and is stuck in a holding pattern over some corn field in Iowa. The acceptance and integration just haven’t happened at the same pace compared with how agriculture has responded to other innovations such as auto-steer, yield monitoring or variable-rate spraying.

The obvious question is: “Why aren’t drones and drone-related services further along by now?”

When answering that question, one could quickly run out of fingers to point the blame. It is easy to point first at the government, specifically the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Given its rules, you still cannot fly a drone higher than 400', it still can’t weigh more than 55 lb., and you still can’t let it out of your sight.

Foreign drone companies, especially DJI, have exploited FAA’s 55-lb. weight limit to the detriment of the industry’s advancement. By flooding the market with cheap technology, DJI was able to push out much of the manufacturing competition in this arena. In turn, and probably by design, that meant any complementary technology and software that U.S.-based companies wanted to develop had to be done with DJI setting the rules and protocols. This alone should give one pause as China isn’t afraid of simply coopting such ideas and calling them its own.

Data from Purdue University’s annual precision agriculture dealership survey lays out a damning verdict when it comes to the adoption and economic sustainability of current drone tech. The 2024 study showed only 27% of ag retailers currently offer drone services. Another 25% of retailers are “farming” this work out to other companies. Of the ag retailers that do offer such services, only 9% say the services are profitable.

Unprofitable, Impractical
The problem is this: expecting today’s class of drones to operate effectively and efficiently is like asking a 2,500-acre-farmer to go out and harvest his crop with a John Deere 45 combine from the 1950s.

The FAA needs to get out of the way and allow drones to get bigger, smarter and more capable in the field of agriculture. The agency is starting to show it can do this for other industries, such as air transportation. In October, the FAA published 880 pages of special regulations, which will allow drone transportation companies to start flying people in their “air taxis” around city skylines.

It’s time our industry recognizes drones as serious tools in the agronomic toolbox instead of just “cool” toys for farmers. And if our government is so concerned about our national security that it needs to take away our Chinese toys, then it needs to open doors to better alternatives by clearing the regulatory and economic paths to allow for bigger, faster “Made in the USA” drones and services to rule our skies and fly over our farmland.

Drones: American Option Emerges Amid DJI Ban Saga

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 13:46:19 GMT

Anzu Robotics, an emerging U.S.-based commercial drone manufacturer, announces its entrance into the drone market with the launch of two enterprise aerial platforms: Raptor and Raptor T.

According to reporting by TechRadar.com , in a one-time deal for its new Raptor series (not an ongoing DJI partnership) Anzu Robotics has built Raptor and Raptor T upon the popular and capable DJI Mavic 3E platform.

TechRadar also reports that Anzu is manufacturing its drones in Malaysia (with operations based in Austin, Texas), representing a new solution that potentially satisfies geopolitical and cyber security concerns.

RELATED: Feds Issue Warning on Chinese-Manufactured Drones as Farmer Adoption Soars

The software driving the drones is entirely developed in the United States through a collaboration with Aloft Technologies, Inc., a Syracuse, New York, firm well known in the commercial drone market.

Anzu itself is owned and operated by American citizens and offers US support, service, and, most importantly, hosts all data on domestic servers.

The Raptor series combines enterprise grade hardware with domestic, secure and capable software, offering commercial use across a wide range of applications. It will be particulary interesting to see if DroneDeploy and other third-party flight planning and data management software companies release integrations with Anzu.

“These platforms meet the highest standards of quality, reliability, and innovation,” said Randall Warnas, CEO of Anzu Robotics. Warnas is the former CEO of Autel Robotics.

The Raptor-series platforms boast the following imaging features, alongside a solid 45-minute flight time (per battery) and 9-mile range (well beyond a single operator’s unaided visual line of sight):

Raptor-series drones carry a high-resolution visual inspection platform with a 4/3-inch 20mp wide, and 1/2-inch 12mp CMOS cameras. Together they offer hybrid zoom capabilities up to 56x.
The Raptor T (Thermal) combines 1/2-inch 48mp and 12mp cameras with a 640 x 512 high-resolution LWIR thermal imaging payload.

Learn more at anzurobotics.com.

MORE TECH NEWS

Three’s A Crowd: Hylio Secures FAA Drone Swarm, Night Flight Exemptions

What’s New With Agriculture Drones?

Smart Firmer: What Is It, What Can I Do With The Data?

Here's How to Bridge the Data Gap With Your Ag Retailer

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 20:15:36 GMT

There continues to be an assumption by those outside of production agriculture’s inner circle that the farmer has complete possession and control over their farm’s digital data. Reality begs to differ as many important pieces of digital field data are created and retained by someone other than the person actual farming the fields.

This large data gap has been exposed by outsiders because an expanded digital dataset is need-ed for emerging sustainability and carbon credit programs to be viable. For you to be a player in these sorts of programs, someone other than your agronomist wants and needs your data.

Fertilizer and crop protection applications are considered key cogs in most sustainability and carbon credit programs. However, because an overwhelming number of acres are applied by local ag retailers and independent applicators, handing off digital records of such field activity to the farmer has been sketchy at best — at least up until now.

Being in control of your data means having complete access. Today, the definition of access is having a digital file of the actual field activity that was performed by a third party — whether that was a anhydrous application or spraying on a biological midseason. A paper map or, worse yet, a bill, is no longer the documentation standard.

To clear the higher bar currently being set, there is no time like the present to have a heart-to-heart conversion with your ag retailer and others in your inner circle about what is expected of them regarding data transparency and data delivery back to you. Here’s what you need to ask for:

1.) Will the data contain following? Date applied, product(s) applied, actual rates, field totals and the actual GPS point-by-point data are must-haves.

2.) How will the data be delivered to me? Access via the cloud or online portal is preferred. USB storage will work, but the potential for data loss or failed transfers is much higher.

3.) Will I be able to download the dataset and send to other parties? Being able to download an electronic field activity dataset from a trusted third-party provider is key to assembling a complete record of the products applied on each field. Being able to share such data with other par-ties is critical for added-value opportunities.

4.) In what file format will data be delivered? It is best to request your electronic field records in the most common data formats. By default, the ESRI shapefile is the most prolific format and a good choice when requesting your data be shared with you. The other even more basic format are text files, which can be delivered via.txt or .cvs files.

Getting the right answers to these questions are and will be extremely important to make sure you secure your farm’s future by gathering a complete digital dataset.

Here are a few more stories to help you farm smarter:

8 Field Activity Data Types You Need to Collect Now

6 Tech Tools and Trends To Watch In 2024

You Can’t Afford to Be Complacent About Tar Spot

Can A Scouting Technology Increase Farmer Trust?

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:44:28 GMT

Farm Journal’s Smart Farming Week is an annual week-long emphasis on innovation in agriculture. The goal is to encourage you to explore and prioritize the technology, tools and practices that will help you farm smarter. Innovation today ensures an efficient, productive and sustainable tomorrow.

From 2020 with only a few farmers participating to covering millions of acres in 2023, Taranis says it wants to help retailers and farmers understand every decision with analytics via its AcreForward technologies. Via its multiple drone flights through the growing season, Taranis has built its product layering artificial intelligence, computer learning and agronomic knowledge.

“Our technology enables a leaf-level view that brings good advisors, high-quality suppliers, and excellent growers together to understand what’s going on on the acre in a new way,” says Mike DiPaola chief commercial officer for Taranis. “We’re in a new era where we have game tape for the acre. We understand the management practices that led to how that hybrid yielded because we’ve created a digital twin of the field.”

DiPaola credits technological advances with improved battery life and drone platforms along with an increase in people willing and interested to try the technology.

Brian Essinger, Sales Effectiveness Lead with Nutrien in northen Ohio, has worked with Taranis for two and a half years.

“This is starting to change our culture. We’ve had people– even our own folks say we scout for free–and we don’t. There’s a cost there—there’s always been. Taking the technology to our farmers showed the value in what we can provide,” Essinger says.

Nutrien markets the technology with its farmers and pairs it with their in-the-field support, branding it Nutrien Digital Scout powered by Taranis. In their first year, they had 6,000 acres participate. Now it is more than 50,000 acres, and he says it’s their goal to triple that.

“Agriculture and agronomy is really an applied art, it’s elevated above a science because of the complexities and the variables. And here a trend is we’re really focused on having ties quantify, analyze and have partners like Nutrien and the Nutrien Digital Scout provide even more value to their growers,” DiPaola says.

Taranis technology was introduced to many as a replant calculation tool. Such was the case for Jeremy Deter of Midnight Farms based near Findlay, Ohio. For his farm, they work with Essinger’s team to schedule six flights a year, and they have decided to expand the program to every acre they farm.

“If it doesn’t pay for itself on the farm, we can’t have it,” Deter says. “The digital scout has proven it can pay for itself.”
The tool is used to scout for water management issues, nutrient deficiencies, hybrid placement, fungicide efficacy, weed severity and more.

“It’s powerful to bring people together, rather than just talking about how we reorganize a value chain or move somebody out of the way,” DiPaola says. “With a mobile app, we can give you a view as if you are standing over the plant. It’s not just bringing images, it’s bringing real knowledge.”

Essinger credits the Taranis platform for elevating their scouting program.

“We thought that we scouted; we didn’t. What we were doing was making hypothesis decisions on small sample sizes. This gives us a bigger sample size,” he says. “Now, not only can I help make their decisions better, but I make the partnership more solid because I give them a practical approach to an issue.”

DiPaola highlights Taranis is continuing to work toward making decisions as instantaneous as is possible.

“We are focused on taking advisor and grower know-how evaluating this qualitatively, and moving into more quantitative elements to understand what the yield impact is. Saying you can FaceTime your farms sounds a little weird, but it’s real. You can see a leaf-level view and the value of it brings people together and we’re making better decisions.”

2024 AgTech Predictions: 5 Trends To Watch

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 16:51:10 GMT

In 2023 the agricultural industry faced challenges from extreme weather to supply chain issues.

Ron Baruchi, CEO of Agmatix, outlines the key trends he anticipates impacting the agricultural industry over the coming year:

#1 - Generative Artificial Intelligence in AgTech

Of all the 2024 trends in digital agriculture, the role played by Gen AI, or generative AI, is likely to be one of the most significant. The potential of Gen AI on the global economy is already being calculated in trillions of dollars. There is a historic opportunity to optimize processes, cut costs, and importantly, fuel innovations through improved modeling to fuel decision-making. Companies are already using Gen AI through Digital Crop Advisors, allowing agronomists to distill agronomic data into actionable recommendations for farmers.

These tools enhance crop management by analyzing big agronomic data, providing AI-supported insights to optimize production practices. This helps farmers understand patterns affecting the performance of crop varieties and production on their specific farms, and tracks climate trends to help farmers become more resilient to the changing climate.

#2 - Using Digital Twins to Optimize Field Trials

An interesting 2024 trend is increased integration of digital twins into field tests and field test planning. A digital twin is a digital model or a virtual representation of an actual physical product, system, or process. These allow researchers and designers to experiment as though they were handling its physical counterpart, reducing the need for expensive and time-consuming field trials.

Generating real-world data is a costly and time-consuming process, averaging more than 150 studies and over 11 years to register a new active ingredient. From 2010-14, developing a new crop protection product cost around $286 million, of which, $47 million (approximately 16%) was budgeted for field trials.

Synthetic data can enhance the performance of digital twins. Based on real-world data, synthetic data can supplement data gaps, significantly reducing the time, cost, and effort in bringing new agricultural products to market. These tools provide a competitive edge for agricultural input suppliers seeking regulatory approval, or seed companies that rely heavily on experimentation to improve their seed genetics.

#3 - Technical Innovation in Regenerative Agriculture

Greater technical innovation and research into regenerative agriculture will continue over the coming year. Essentially mimicking natural process and biodiversity on agricultural land, the ultimate aim of regenerative agriculture is to improve soil health in order to boost yield.

To address the challenges of climate change and feed a global population of over 8 billion, regenerative agriculture is vital. Digital tools use accurate, up-to-date data to create tailored regenerative agriculture solutions. These consider soil conditions, weather conditions, microclimates, and current crop growth or land use, as well as individual budgets and local regulations.

Platforms offering site specific data will likely reign supreme in 2024. A view of sustainability that extends beyond simple carbon metrics and one-size-fits-all solutions is necessary and will enable the establishment of realistic, actionable objectives for growers, promoting sustainability and formulating strategies tailored to local environments.

#4 - Managing Data with Advanced Cloud Solutions

Innovation in agriculture is often data-dependent and the cloud gives researchers the ability to collate, manage, and extrapolate information from data in a way that was previously unimaginable. Anticipated exponential growth in farm data emphasizes the transformative impact - IDC has estimated that by 2036 the amount of data collected on the farm will increase by more than 800-percent. Cloud tools enabling real-time access to field trial data reduces trial duration and cost, and the volume and scope of trials can be increased.

Cloud applications span every aspect of agriculture, optimizing crop management, soil insights, multi-season crop monitoring and analysis, and leveraging local knowledge for decision-making. Cloud-based solutions foster collaboration between researchers, agronomists, and farmers, providing R&D companies with an efficient, cost-effective and scalable solution.

#5 - Innovation Across the Agricultural Spectrum

Agriculture’s innovative history is turning towards sustainability and environmental protection, marking a transformative era. The new year will see progress in climate-resilient crop development.

At the farm level, digital technologies empower farmers to process and use the data they collect. AgTech solutions can help farmers and agronomists measure and demonstrate the return on investment of agricultural technologies. Amidst global challenges, stakeholders using AI and machine learning will drive unprecedented innovation in food production.

About the Author - Ron Baruchi, President & CEO, Agmatix

With over 20 years of experience in the technology sphere, Ron is passionate about using data to solve complex problems. He has used his expertise in technology and AI with Agmatix to improve crop yields and quality while limiting environmental impact.

Precision Ag Updates from John Deere

Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:58:17 GMT

John Deere has a trio of updates to its lineup of precision ag tools– G5 Universal displays, JDLink M modem and StarFire 7000 Universal receiver.
“Our goal is to ensure every customer can benefit from the value connectivity provides. Whether it’s helping their dealer receive alerts on equipment, sharing agronomic data or monitoring logistics – connectivity makes it easier,” says Ryan Stien, marketing manager for John Deere. “The modem, along with the G5 Universal displays and StarFire 7000 Universal receiver, provide customers with a pathway to the future of precision ag.”

Key features of the new G5 Universal displays:

two configurations – G5 with a 10.1-inch display and G5Plus with a 12.8-inch display
a 35% larger viewing area
three times faster processing speed
a high-definition screen

G5Plus includes AutoTrac, Documentation, and Section Control in its base offering, simplifying the purchase experience. Farmers can select additional features including automation features such as AutoTrac Turn Automation, AutoPath, Machine Sync, and In-field Data Sharing.

Key features of the StarFire 7000 receiver:

five years plus of repeatability
73% faster pull-in times
17% more accurate when using SF-RTK when compared to previous models using SF3 signal.
Improved signal stability and reliability

Introduced last year, and now, as an aftermarket option, farmers can add a StarFire 7000 Universal receiver to their equipment for improved functionality or to replace outdated GPS receivers for better accuracy and repeatability.

JDLink M modem key features:

can be installed in as quick as 15 minutes
designed to support legacy equipment, mixed fleets and support vehicles
easily document machine and work data
easily transfer data from machines

FBI Puts Ag on Alert: Ransomware Attack Potentially Timed to Critical Seasons

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 20:40:53 GMT

Farmers and ag cooperative employees need to be on high alert this spring. That’s according to the FBI , which is predicting cyber criminals might attack the industry during planting and harvesting seasons.

Why? Cyber criminals believe their prey could be more vulnerable and willing to pay off the extortion.

Since 2021, FBI reports multiple agricultural cooperatives have been impacted by a variety of ransomware variants:

In March 2022, a multi-state grain company suffered a Lockbit 2.0 ransomware attack. In addition to grain processing, the company provides seed, fertilizer, and logistics services, which are critical during the spring planting season.
In February 2022, a company providing feed milling and other agricultural services reported two instances in which an unauthorized actor gained access to some of its systems and may have attempted to initiate a ransomware attack. The attempts were detected and stopped before encryption occurred.
Between Sept. 15 and Oct. 6, 2021, six grain cooperatives experienced ransomware attacks. A variety of ransomware variants were used, including Conti, BlackMatter, Suncrypt, Sodinokibi, and BlackByte. Some targeted entities had to completely halt production while others lost administrative functions.
In July 2021, a business management software company found malicious activity on its network, which was later identified as HelloKitty/Five Hands ransomware. The threat actor demanded a $30 million ransom. The ransomware attack on the company led to secondary ransomware infections on a number of its clients, which included several agricultural cooperatives.

These attacks resulted in service issues, production disruptions and loss of access to administrative functions.

In a public advisory , federal officials say a major disruption of grain production would impact the entire food chain.

What You Can Do

The FBI is asking those in agriculture to take defensive measures against the potential threat. Those steps include:

Regularly back up data, air gap and passwords. Make backup copies offline. Ensure copies of critical data are not accessible for modification or deletion from the system where the data resides.
Implement a recovery plan that includes maintaining and retaining multiple copies of sensitive or proprietary data and servers in a physically separate, segmented, secure location (i.e., hard drive, storage device, the cloud).
Identify critical functions and develop an operations plan if systems go offline. Think about ways to operate manually if it becomes necessary.
Implement network segmentation.
Install updates/patch operating systems, software and firmware as soon as they are released.
Use multifactor authentication where possible.
Use strong passwords and regularly change passwords to network systems and accounts, implementing the shortest acceptable timeframe for password changes. Avoid reusing passwords for multiple accounts and use strong pass phrases where possible.
Require administrator credentials to install software.
Audit user accounts with administrative or elevated privileges and configure access controls with least privilege in mind.
Install and regularly update anti-virus and anti-malware software on all hosts.
Only use secure networks and avoid using public Wi-Fi networks. Consider installing and using a virtual private network (VPN).
Consider adding an email banner to messages coming from outside your organizations.
Disable hyperlinks in received emails.
Focus on cyber security awareness and training. Regularly provide users with training on information security principles and techniques as well as overall emerging cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities (i.e. ransomware and phishing scams).

Tools and Resources

Tips for Protecting Yourself Against Ransomware Attacks

For additional resources related to the prevention and mitigation of ransomware, visit Stopransomware.gov

CISA’s Ransomware Readiness Assessment (RRA) is a no-cost self-assessment based on a tiered set of practices to help organizations better assess how well they are equipped to defend and recover from a ransomware incident.

CISA offers a range of no-cost cyber hygiene services to help critical infrastructure organizations assess, identify, and reduce their exposure to threats, including ransomware. By requesting these services, organizations of any size could find ways to reduce their risk and mitigate attack vectors.

Watch our report on AgDay TV:

Read More

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John Phipps: Is a Possible Cyberwarfare Attack Looming for Your Farm? Why Tractors May Be Next

John Phipps: Is North Korea the New Breeding Ground for Cyber Warfare?

Cyber Threats Are A Real Threat To Modern Agriculture’s Expanding Digital Infrastructure

Senators on Cyberattacks: ‘Agricultural Security is National Security’

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 14:05:18 GMT

Schreiber Foods, an international dairy processing company in Green Bay, Wis., is the most recent to report a “cyber event” two weeks ago. It’s reported $2.5 million in ransom halted computer systems from Saturday to Monday. Speculations continue as Schreiber has yet to formally confirm or deny the allegations.

Cyberattacks and ransomware have impacted agriculture this year with JBS in June, Colonial Pipeline in July and Fort Dodge, Iowa-based New Cooperative in September, among others.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) took the floor on Monday to say these attacks hinder advanced agricultural practices: “As Iowa farmers adopt new technologies to get their crops to market, their exposure grows to similar attacks.”

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) followed suit, saying, “The ag sector is designated as critical infrastructure but historically has not received robust cybersecurity support from the government.”

Advancing technology and fulfilling food demands while also working to improve soil and water quality “demands heavy reliance on interconnected devices and the internet, creating vulnerability,” she adds.

Agriculture supply chain criminals are rapidly working the system, says Davis Hake, co-founder and vice president of policy at Resilience Insurance, a cyber insurance solutions company. In the past two years, he says there’s been an estimated 300% increase in ransomware money taken in by the Ransomware Task Force.

“Cyber criminals will focus on people doing the attacks and then they have a market that sells those victims to folks who go through the extortions,” Hake says. “Then there’s a whole separate system for laundering that money.”

Hake, who previously served on the Obama Administration’s National Security Council writing cybersecurity legislation, says we have two avenues to address the cyberattacks:

1. Step away from large automation trends such as IT infrastructure systems that sacrifice efficiency.
2. Establish tactical policy to crush the issue.

The Biden Administrations addressed cybersecurity in a national security memorandum. Of the legislation, Ernst says, “the plan is voluntary and would severely limit its effectiveness.”

Following the memorandum, Senators Ernst, Grassley, Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Jon Tester (D-MT) have offered permanent representation on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to address cybersecurity issues.

Both Grassley and Ernst stress cybersecurity should be a primary focus for congressional leaders, as “Agricultural security is national security.”

Minnesota Grain Handler Targeted in Ransomware Attack

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 14:26:27 GMT

By Tom Polansek and Karl Plume

CHICAGO, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Minnesota agricultural firm Crystal Valley Cooperative said it had been targeted in a ransomware attack in recent days, making it the second Midwestern farm-services provider in a week to be forced to take systems offline due to cybersecurity incidents.

Crystal Valley, which sells supplies like fertilizer to farmers and buys their crops, said it became aware of the attack on Sunday, prompting it to take operating systems offline and to stop accepting major credit cards.

“This attack has infected the computer systems at Crystal Valley and severely interrupted the daily operations of the company,” Crystal Valley said in a statement on its website. It asked customers for understanding while the company resolves the issue.

The attack left Crystal Valley unable to mix fertilizer or fulfil orders for livestock feed, said Kevin Paap, a corn and soybean farmer in Garden City, Minnesota, on Thursday.

“With the help of some other local co-ops, they’re helping grind some feed and sharing the burden,” he said.

NEW Cooperative Inc in Iowa said on Monday its systems were offline to contain a cybersecurity incident. A Russian-speaking cybercriminal group named BlackMatter said on its website that it stole data from the farm services provider.

The disruptions are hitting the Farm Belt as growers gear up for the autumn harvest.

Crystal Valley operates eight grain elevators with the capacity to store a total of 25 million bushels in Minnesota, the third biggest U.S. soybean-producing state and fourth biggest corn producer, according to its website. Two locations load huge 110-car trains for delivery to big buyers or exporters.

Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, said he has been able to deliver grain to Crystal Valley’s elevator in Vernon Center with minor delays as the normally automated process is offline.

“It’s old school, with hand-written tickets instead of the computer reading the card on the side of your truck as you drive in,” he said.

Cybersecurity has risen to the top of the Biden administration’s agenda after high-profile attacks that affected U.S. fuel and food supplies. (Reporting by Tom Polansek Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Corn Plant Sets World Record

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:10:55 GMT

Standing guard for an entire crop season, a red flag flew patiently above a corn canopy in all weathers, marking the location of a record-breaker. The Ohio State University (OSU) banner stood sentinel over a plant named Terra Byte which represented the most agricultural data gathered in farming history for a single corn plant across an entire growing season.

A world record for ag data collection in a corn field is a heavyweight headline-grabber, but far beyond the novelty, OSU researchers are using Terra to pick apart the strengths and weaknesses of precision agriculture data. Surrounded by 3.2 million other corn plants in a 100-acre field, Terra was a vehicle to examine methods of data collection, analysis, and actionable potential for U.S. growers.

Precision agriculture graduate student Trey Colley used a wealth of research technology and applied it to a field situation outside the box, selecting ground worked by farm manager Nate Douridas at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center, home to OSU’s Farm Science Review show site. “This project documented and opened up information about what was going on in our fields,” Douridas says.

Douridas planted three headland passes of 100-day corn around the field where Terra grew (114-day corn). Colley chose ground zero just inside the first pass of 114-day corn and planted the red OSU flag over Terra, accepting the risk of deer, weather or machinery mishap.

“Boiled down, if you can’t make actionable decisions with your precision ag technology, you need to reevaluate the types of tech used on your farm,” says OSU’s Trey Colley.

© Trey Colley, Ohio State University

Pre-season, planting, in-season and harvest, an immense amount of data was collected from Terra: 18.4 gigabytes; 28 megabytes per kernel. (Terra’s record is currently awaiting Guinness confirmation.) Theoretically, if the same rate of collection was applied across the entire 100 acres, the storage requirements would be staggering, according to Colley: “The total comes to 60 petabytes of data. To store that much data, you’d need 466,000 iPhones or about 360 million filing cabinets filled with paperwork.”

Kaylee Port , program manager for OSU Precision Agriculture, says Terra was an attempt to showcase various tools available to growers. “Hopefully our work with Terra will allow growers to do more with their data, integrate new data, and make better on-farm management and crop production decisions with that data.”

Climate FieldView , AirScout , Trimble Ag Software , MyJohnDeere , time lapse cameras, weather station, aerial imagery, application data, input measurements, soil sensors, and so much more, Terra’s data haul is intimidating in scope, but broken down into individual components, the tale-of-the-tape measurements reveal the hits and misses of farming. Colley and the OSU team are compiling an overall report and will measure the economics of each technology. “It’s pretty simple,” Colley explains. “We’re going to find out what made a difference for the grower and what didn’t across the whole field. We want to point to which technologies were economical.”

Douridas says the Terra project (and precision ag as a whole) relates to return on investment (ROI). “We farm by the inches and that requires tremendous data collection. It’s important to look at as much ag technology as possible and decide if there is ROI and where,” he explains.

At harvest, Terra was 16 kernels around and 34 kernels long. “Terra wasn’t the biggest one in the field, but we stuck with it and didn’t grab a bigger ear to trick anybody,” Colley laughs.

Terra gained a great deal of attention, but the record-breaking project was aimed squarely at field scale production, emphasizes Colley. “We just want to inform farmers of what we see and observe. All growers need a digital strategy so they don’t blindly adopt technology just because it’s cool.”

“Farmers don’t need pretty imagery to tell them where bad dirt or wet spots are in their fields because they already know,” Colley adds. “Boiled down, if you can’t make actionable decisions with your precision ag technology, you need to reevaluate the types of tech used on your farm.”

(For information on the technology used in the Terra Byte project and an overview of the entire season, see fabe.osu.edu/node/6355 )