Data collection and analysis has been commonplace in the agriculture sector, but Florida sugar farms are just now beginning to put it to use, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Florida Crystals, a grower of sugar cane, is one of the companies opting for modernization. It relied on Excel spreadsheets and physical paper to map out planting, growing, and harvesting schedules, often relying on subjective knowledge, said CIO Kevin Grayling.
This means the plan can quickly become outdated as factors like changes to weather patterns affect the schedule.
“And then as stuff happens to that plan to upset it, they kind of wing it after that,” said Grayling. “If any business can be considered analog until very recently, it’s farming.”
To make the best use of the data the company has gathered, it implemented a digital farm management platform from GAtec, which helped drive efficiency. It can leverage its data to model realistic growth scenarios, applying labor, equipment, and energy availability constraints.
But modernization has faced issues in its implementation, largely because it must contend with century-old practices, and groups of workers who have farmed the same way for 20 years or more. Full Story (Subscription Required)
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