2018 May Newsletter

May 2018   Volume 12  Number 4


  • Welcome new members – Purity Ag, Chronicled, Tavant Technologies, Easy Automation, and GrainChain.
  • Register now for Mid-Year Meeting! June 11-14, Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa – Sign up for a sponsorship!
  • Take part in the Quick Connect Session at Mid-Year Meeting – contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org
  • Considering subscribing to AGIIS? Contact Member Services by May 11 for information on a new subscribers promotion.


AgGateway News

AgGateway and USDA Forge Agreement To Work on Joint Projects to Benefit the Agriculture Industry

By Susan Ruland AgGateway Communications Director

AgGateway and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have forged an agreement to work together on data projects to benefit American farmers in the transition to digital agriculture. The current agreement will consist of a series of efforts over the next 20 months; all results of the collaboration will be made publicly available.

Specifically, the collaboration is designed to provide both parties with the opportunity to better serve the American farmer by: 1) Aligning USDA and AgGateway data elements and data standards; and 2) Developing procedures within the USDA that align with the use of precision ag technology and data used by producers and agri-businesses. Read more...


New Member Profile

Tavant Technologies, Inc.

By Evin Ellis, AGDATA

AgGateway welcomes Tavant Technologies, based in Santa Clara, Calif., a digital products and solutions company serving customers across a wide range of industries such as Consumer Lending, AgTech, Aftermarket, Media and Retail in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Tavant solutions, powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms, help improve operational efficiency, productivity, speed and accuracy in the interconnected world to succeed in a rapidly changing business environment. Read more...


Mid-Year Meeting

Register Now for AgGateway’s Mid-Year Meeting, June 11-14 in Altoona, Iowa

By AgGateway’s Conference Committee

It’s time to register for the Mid-Year Meeting, just weeks away at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, outside of Des Moines. The meeting will provide valuable insights and networking to better enable the industry's transition to digital agriculture. Much of the meeting consists of open working group sessions where teams discuss ways to more efficiently exchange information in agriculture to maximize efficiency and productivity. Read more...


Quick Connect

Don’t Miss the Quick Connect Session To Jump-Start eConnectivity and its Benefits

By Natasha Lilly, The Equity, and Ag Retail Council Chair

As you register for Mid-Year Meeting, make sure you also consider signing up for the “Quick Connect” session, featuring face-to-face meetings between you and your trading partners. Read more...

Council Updates

Grain & Feed Council Works on Traceability and Other Issues

By J Nolfo, BASF and Communications Committee Chair

Rich Adams, Chair of the Grain & Feed Council report, “The council is participating in a couple of working groups. The two groups are the second phase of the CART grain project 2018 proof-of-concept (POC), and the new cross-council Traceability Working Group. Also we have been discussing how Blockchain would work with AgGateway XML messages.”

Thanks Rich!


AGIIS Update

Tribute of Appreciation to AGIIS Supporters

By Chris Crutchfield, AgGateway Member Services

For almost 15 years the Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS) has been providing the essential building blocks for the exchange of business data. Throughout the years key enhancements and modifications have been added to AGIIS such as web services, seed licenses and ResponsibleAg certification notifications; all of which have made our subscribers’ jobs a little easier. The AGIIS service has delivered many benefits, efficiencies and cost savings for companies. Read more...


AgGateway In the News

We’ve gotten good coverage of recent press releases on the working agreement between AgGateway and USDA, the upcoming Mid-Year Meeting, benefits of AGIIS, and more. Below is just a sampling, plus a few mentions of AgGateway in other news.

AgGateway, USDA Announce Data Gathering, Reporting Agreement
 Agri-Marketing, May 2, 2018 –AgGateway and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have forged an agreement …Specifically, the collaboration is designed to provide both parties with the opportunity to better serve the American farmer by: 1) Aligning USDA and AgGateway data elements and data standards; and 2) Developing procedures within the USDA that align with the use of precision ag technology and data used by producers and agri-businesses. 

AgGateway, USDA team up on data projects for Grain agWorld, May 1, 2018 - AgGateway and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have forged an agreement to work together on data projects to benefit U.S. ag producers in the transition to digital agriculture.

AgGateway Encourages Use of Standard Identifiers with AGIIS PrecisionAg, Apr 11, 2018 - AgGateway, the non-profit organization with the mission to promote and enable the industry's transition to digital agriculture, is offering an incentive to further boost use of standard identifiers in electronic communication.

Register now for AgGateway's Mid-Year Meeting, June 11-14 in Altoona, Iowa Farm Forum, Apr 12, 2018 - Registration is now open for AgGateway's Mid-Year Meeting, June 11-14, at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, just outside of Des Moines. The meeting will provide valuable insights and networking to better enable the industry's transition to digital agriculture.

Jeff Griffeth Appointed to LightStream's Board of Directors Newsbug.info, May 4, 2018 - Mr. Griffeth has served as Pulaski County Extension Board President, State P-CARET President and has been involved with 4-H his entire life. He has held various leadership roles, including Operational Board President for AgGateway, a consortium of ag businesses in North America.

Grant awarded to accelerate data-driven innovation in ag Feedstuffs, Apr 25, 2018 - The FFAR grant has been matched with funding from Winfield United, Centricity, AgGateway, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Purdue University, for a total investment of $2.1 million. The goal of the project, called “An Open Source Framework & Community for Sharing Data & Algorithms,” is to accelerate innovation by building a community of collaborators that can apply computer science and data analysis principles to agriculture.

Creating an Ag Data Use Policy Precision Farming Dealer, Apr 20, 2018 - Source: Janzen Ag Law. …The first step in drafting a data use policy is to identify the types of ag data the company collects. It is amazing how many companies do not understand that this is key to building a contract for data collection. If you do not define what data you collect, the rest of the agreement is mostly worthless, since no one knows to what information the contract applies. (Ag Data Transparent and AgGateway have both published ag data categories that can help on this point).