A few weeks ago the annual ADC board meeting was co-located with the inaugural National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was a great time to meet in person with a variety of people from across the ag industry. The NAPDC conference kicked off with ADC Board members Amy Winstead with GreenPoint Ag and Ben Craker with AgGateway participating in a panel discussion (pictured left) as part of the Heuermann Lecture series at UNL.
The Heuermann lecture that kicked off the NAPDC conference started with an overview of the myriad data points growers need to keep track of and the challenges this presents followed by a lively Q&A session between the crowd and the panel. Through the discussion it was clear that multiple forces in the industry are putting pressure on growers to be able to quickly and accurately provide more data in greater detail than ever before about their operations. This really helped set the tone for the NAPDC conference where participants from USDA, various industry organizations, companies, and project participants outlined some of the biggest issues facing the industry regarding data collection, use, and access. This led to some informative break out sessions where the conference participants worked to document the core requirements for a national framework to enable better data management. The goal being that this framework could not only help to streamline farm operations and decision making but serve as the foundation to meet the new reporting requirements growers are beginning to face. These reporting requirements are largely a result of customer demand for sustainability information, or from food processor requirements for traceability.
With everything happening at the conference it seems like ages ago that the ADC team started our time in Lincoln with the ADC annual meeting. The annual meeting is a normal board meeting with the important addition of also holding board elections. This was the first in-person ADC board meeting in a couple years, so it was great to see most of the board face to face again with a couple attending virtually, even if there were a few weather educed travel delays for a few participants. The board did take several actions and you will be seeing more of the ADC coming up at prominent industry events as well as other outreach and education efforts we are making.
On that note, as part of the NAPDC project the ADC does have our grower survey open yet. We are trying to get a deeper understanding of what technologies growers are using as well as how they store, share, and generally manage data in their operations to inform the overall NAPDC work as well as enhancements to the ADC repository. If you are a grower, please take a few minutes to complete the survey, if you are not a grower please forward the survey link on to all the growers you know so we can capture their input 🙂
The result of the elections were the below individuals were reelected to the board for a two year term:
- Dr. Bruce Erickson, Purdue – University Director
- Ben Craker, AgGateway – Industry Director
- Dr. Ajay Sharda, Kansas State University – Elected Director
- Dr. Scott Shearer, The Ohio State University – Elected Director
- Dr Diran Fasina, Auburn University – Elected Director
Following elections, the executive team was also appointed by the board for the next year:
- President: Ben Craker, AgGateway
- Vice-President: Don Bierman, Crop IMS
- Treasurer: Dr. John Fulton, The Ohio State University
- Secretary: Dr. Joe Luck, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Other directors on the board not up for election this year include:
- Dr. Keith Coble, Mississippi State University – University Director
- Dr. John Fulton, The Ohio State University – University Director
- Don Bierman, Crop IMS – Industry Director
- Anthony Aaron, Ice Miller – Elected Director
- Mike Gomes, Topcon – Elected Director
- Dr. Joe Luck, University of Nebraska-Lincoln – Elected Director
- Amy Winstead, GreenPoint Ag – Elected Director