“Without the facts, you can’t do the analysis...” – Ron LeMay, Main Street Data
As former president of Sprint as well as a former officer at AT&T and other communications companies, Ron LeMay was intimately involved in early forays into data analytics and benchmarking in the 1980s. Having gotten involved in the tech side of agriculture with an investment in Machinery Link in the early 2000s, he sees a lot of parallels between those early days of connectivity in communications and the challenges of integrating agriculture into the Internet of Things.
In this podcast, hosted by Julia Gerlach, managing editor of No-Till Farmer, Ron talks about the importance of precision in agronomic data collection. Highlighting the scope of the data set collected by Farmlink, which was recently acquired by Main Street Data, he explains that their data compares 56 variables and farming practices that affect yield and profitability. Based on 1.3 billion field samples in 150-square-foot increments and normalized for weather, it allows them to understand causes and correlations in farm management practices that can be elusive when looked at through a less precise lens.
This focus on precision has helped Main Street Data develop several tools and strategies for farmers, such as performance benchmarking at the sub-field level, identifying opportunities for improvement based on best practices, yield forecasts at a farm level, a disciplined trading plan informed by local fair grain values, lease optimization, and more!
Intro Music: Adam Selzer - True North
Interlude Music: Alialujah Choir - Little Picture (Instrumental)
