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Illinois agronomy day focuses on harnessing data

Adam Davis with the department of crop sciences says across the 30 presentations at the University of Illinois’ 2019 Agronomy Day there was a common theme.

“The growing complexity that farmers face with growing amounts of data that are coming out of agriculture.”

Davis says several of the presenters focused on taming the data that comes from yield monitors and automated tool bars.

“To make sense of that when we look across different soil types, different years, different farming practices and begin to feed those into statistical models that help us make better predictions about how we can use our inputs most cost effectively.”

He tells Brownfield the University of Illinois has created a new major that combines crop science and computer science with the goal of training students to analyze big data set in agriculture and make sense of that information for growers.