United States
Department of
Agriculture
A CASE
FOR RURAL
BROADBAND
Insights on
Rural Broadband Infrastructure
and
Next Generation Precision Agriculture Technologies
APRIL 2019
Published as part of the American Broadband Initiative
PAGE 2
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
INTRODUCTION AND
PURPOSE
In January 2018, the Report to the President of the United States from the Task Force
on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity summarized initial findings on how to promote
agriculture, economic development, job growth, infrastructure improvements,
technological innovation, energy security, and quality of life in rural America. The
Report identified Achieving e-Connectivity in Rural America as a central pillar to do
so. President Donald Trump led the way by creating the American Broadband Initiative,
which reflects the work of his Cabinet to support the private sector’s expansion of rural
broadband and eectively steward Federal tax dollars in that partnership.
This analysis opens the next chapter in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) response to
this Call to Action. It is intended to convey high-
level and broad concepts about the potential
benefits of connected agriculture technologies to
policymakers, industry leaders, and all who are
aected by the lack of high-speed Internet service
in rural areas that is inhibiting greater productivity
and profitability for small producers, stifling
American innovation, and undermining potential
advancements in food security, food safety, and
environmental sustainability.
For the purposes of this report, Next Generation
Precision Agriculture can be considered an
interdisciplinary science leading to breakthroughs
and incremental technology advances to improve
agricultural productivity, eiciency,
and/or sustainability. Enabled by digital tools
and connectivity, Next Generation Precision
Agriculture is beginning to be applied across the
entire food value chain to the benefit of both the
producer and consumer. The concept of “precision”
in agriculture is not new, and practices called
Precision Agriculture have always included in-
field processes aimed for more accurate planting,
nutrient and pest management, and harvesting.
Yet, until recently, Precision Agriculture lacked
data collection and analysis that is enabled by 21st
century technologies and Internet connectivity.
This next generation of technologies will continue
to evolve, building innovation and ingenuity into
this vital American industry.
Likewise, the definition of broadband continues
to evolve, historically by increases in speed of
PAGE 3
Internet connections, with a download speed set
higher than upload speeds. Currently, the Federal
Communications Commission’s (FCC) definition of
“high-speed Internet” is 25 megabits per second
download and 3 megabits per second upload
1
. This
places more emphasis on data flowing to the end
user rather than from the end user. Today, some
Next Generation Precision Agriculture technologies
require these speeds, while some do not and
instead data can be transmitted intermittently.
However, as technology advances and the volumes
of data to manage agriculture production grow,
higher speeds will likely be necessary, requiring
more symmetrical data flows, with a better balance
of download and upload speeds and reliability.
For many years, the agricultural industry sector and
its institutions, including USDA, have been active
in various aspects of researching and supporting
usage of Next Generation Precision Agriculture
technologies, as well as investing in rural
broadband infrastructure. But the interdependency
of agriculture technology adoption and broadband
infrastructure has not yet been evaluated at a
nationwide scale, with a synthesis of the economic
impact they both could aect. That is the
purpose of this work: exploring the intersection
of broadband Internet infrastructure and the
digital Next Generation Precision Agriculture
technologies that will depend on improved
e-connectivity. USDA, therefore, has embarked
upon this analysis to estimate the possible
economic benefits of expanding rural e-connectivity
to farms and ranches and explore what’s needed to
unlock this potential.
PAGE 4
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
02 • Introduction and Purpose
06 • Background: The e-Connectivity Infrastructure and Adoption
Imperative
09 • The Power of e-Connectivity to Transform Industries
12 • Approach to Analysis & Patterns of Business Modernization
17 • How e-Connectivity Will Transform the Business of Agriculture
20 • The Potential Economic Benefits of e-Connectivity for U.S. Agriculture
22 • Table: Connected Technologies in Row Crops & Specialty Crops
23 • Table: Connected Technologies in Livestock & Dairy
24 • Table: Potential Economic Benefits of Next Generation Precision
Agriculture and Broadband
33 • Societal Benefits of Next Generation Precision Agriculture
34 • Today’s Challenges to Scaling Adoption of Next Generation Precision
Agriculture
38 • International Benchmarks for Next Generation Precision Agriculture
39 • Connecting Rural Agriculture: Strategies for Action
42 • What USDA is Committed to Doing
45 • Proposal for Partnerships
47 • Conclusion: Connectivity for the Future
48 • References
PAGE 5
“When we are able
to deploy broadband
ubiquitously, think
of all the things
we will be able to
design, harvest,
and develop …
Broadband in rural
America will be as
transformative in the
21st century as rural
electrification was
in the last century.”
- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Sonny Perdue
PAGE 6
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
BACKGROUND:
THE ECONNECTIVITY
INFRASTRUCTURE AND
ADOPTION IMPERATIVE
High-speed Internet access across America today is characterized by a stark infrastructure
gap between rural and urban areas. While urban centers enjoy widespread availability of
high-speed Internet service, much of rural America has yet to be connected, and of the 24
million Americans living in households that do not have access to a fixed terrestrial (non-
mobile or satellite) broadband provider, 80 percent of them live in rural areas, according to
the latest FCC data.
2
In addition, the gap between connectivity “haves” and
“have-nots” is at risk of being exacerbated in the coming years: a leading, multinational
network hardware and telecommunications equipment technology conglomerate projects
that the average global download speed will double from 39 Mbps in 2017 to 75 Mbps by
2022.
3
Moreover, the increased speed and capacity from
forthcoming 5G mobile coverage depends upon
network densification, requiring the extension of
deep fiber or intensity of infrastructure for similar
services to build adequate networks throughout
rural America. A recent Deloitte Consulting analysis
estimates the United States requires between
$130 and $150 billion over the next five to seven
years, to adequately support rural coverage and 5G
wireless densification.
4
Such disparities in infrastructure directly
impact rural citizens and businesses – including
agriculture, which stifles the modernization of
food production urban and suburban citizens rely
on. Digital technologies in agriculture, including
Precision Agriculture, can substantially increase
crop and animal yields, improve distribution, and
reduce input costs. However, without reliable,
aordable high-speed Internet connectivity
at both the farmhouse and in the field, many
of these technologies cannot realize their full
potential. As a result, producers face inconsistent
ability to tap into and master new technologies,
compromising the higher productivity and
greater profitability needed to sustain and grow
United States agriculture, meet the dietary needs
of a growing global population, and maintain
national competitiveness in international markets.
Addressing these imperatives is only possible
through eiciently and eectively building high-
capacity rural Internet infrastructure, both wired
and wireless, to deliver reliable, high-speed
access and harnessing the emerging generation of
Precision Agriculture technologies.
PAGE 7
“For my [10-year] plan, I need
100 Megabits per second, but
there’s no way to get it.”
- Specialty crop producer, West Coast
Satellite broadband services for supporting
Precision Agriculture technologies have historically
had both benefits and limitations. According to
the FCC’s 2018 Broadband Deployment Report
1
,
access to satellite broadband is much greater than
terrestrial broadband in rural areas. However,
satellite broadband may not be fully suicient for
Next Generation Precision Agriculture technologies
due to the unpredictability of service caused by
high latency, capacity limitations, and costs for
securing high volumes of data flows, especially
when time-sensitive information is required to
support on-farm operations and quickly respond to
market conditions.
In recent decades, attempts to increase
broadband deployment have not replicated
the nationwide rural electrification eort of the
last century and did not suiciently incentivize
broadband expansion to all rural American homes,
businesses, farms, and critical community sites
such as healthcare and educational facilities.
Low population densities in rural areas and the
high cost of installing and operating Internet
infrastructure present a non-viable proposition
for service providers, disincentivizing large-scale
private investment in rural Internet infrastructure.
Telecommunications providers evaluate rural
areas like they do urban areas, requiring
sustainable business models where revenues can
demonstrably cover or exceed costs. This is heavily
influenced by a focus on population dynamics like
density, but the complexity of connecting remote
areas requires new approaches and solutions.
Another key factor in supporting a sustainable
business model is the predictability of the market,
that customers are demanding such products and
services. One benefit includes direct-to-consumer
sales, as customers seeking fresh produce can
more readily find farms that can deliver fresh
produce in a timely fashion, minimizing food waste
while also meeting consumer demand.
This analysis explores the potential benefits rural
Internet infrastructure and emerging on-farm
technology can bring to the agriculture industry
and all who depend on its success. These Next
Generation Precision Agriculture technologies
support planning, production, and market
coordination in agriculture. The rural broadband
challenge is not without precedent as rural
electrification faced similar dynamics. While the
cost of connecting each rural property to the power
grid amounted to, on average, nearly a quarter of
annual household income, the long-term benefits
of rural electrification accumulated for decades.
6
As America finds itself once again on the verge of
economic transformation, it may require similar
investments to unlock the economic gains from
connectivity for rural businesses and households.
Whereas other studies may focus on the value
of individual technologies, this report provides
a summary of how technologies can be
simultaneously deployed together to impact the
United States’ top commodity groups: row crops,
specialty crops, and livestock (including dairy)
products. The following pages explore:
1. How e-Connectivity creates value through
digital transformation;
2. What the potential impact of connected
agricultural technologies are to the U.S.
economy;
3. What producers and the agriculture ecosystem
need to unlock this value; and
4. What strategies for action can make this
potential a reality.
PAGE 8
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
LIMITATIONS OF FINDINGS
While this report hypothesizes the potential
benefits that rural Internet infrastructure and
emerging on-farm technology can bring in the
future, it does not contemplate or attempt
to calculate the cost of implementing these
technologies that would be encumbered by
producers, telecommunications providers, rural
communities, or State and Federal Governments.
Cost estimates are excluded because of the lack of
clear, accurate, and publicly available data sources
on where broadband infrastructure currently
exists, and which connected equipment and other
devices are presently in use at which farms and
ranches. Also, peer-reviewed research on the
required connection speeds is not yet available
to indicate the costs to build out such supporting
infrastructure and the monthly Internet service
costs that would be ailiated for such precision
agriculture technologies.
Therefore, the findings reported herein should
not be the sole source for decision-making for
producers contemplating investing in connected
agriculture technologies, but rather can be a
tool for policymakers to use when considering
the impacts rural broadband infrastructure
can have on the agriculture industry and the
American economy. As broadband becomes more
dependable in rural areas and on-farm technology
becomes a reality in the coming years, it is possible
Next Generation Precision Agriculture costs may
decrease for producers by implementing these
technologies. Accordingly, USDA recommends that
producers perform their own cost-benefit analysis
on whether these emerging technologies would
benefit their operations.
PAGE 9
THE POWER OF E-CONNECTIVITY TO
TRANSFORM INDUSTRIES
Like many industries today, agriculture is experimenting with the integration of digital
technologies that can make the industry more productive. Sectors like finance, logistics,
and advanced manufacturing are now almost fully reliant on connected technologies, as
are a limited subset of the agriculture industry. Broad adoption of Precision Agriculture
technologies has been hit or miss. In the use of autonomous or self-driving vehicles, row
crop production is a leader, alongside mining and freight logistics. For instance, guidance
systems are used on around 50 percent of planted acres of some row crops in the United
States. Other primary segments of the agriculture industry, such as livestock production
and specialty crops, have experienced slower adoption and are the least mature industries
in terms of overall use of Next Generation Precision Agriculture technologies, due in part
to geographic decentralization and cost.
5
Looking at patterns of digital disruption
innovation across industries oers insight into
how connectivity’s ability to enhance access
to information creates value and how digital
technologies may impact agriculture today and
in the future. Although the agriculture industry is
experimenting with innovative technologies such
as autonomous tech and self-driving vehicles, we
now identify how the collection of technologies can
work together to improve agricultural production
economics and consumer nutritional and clothing
demand, but we do not have the comprehensive
tools (digital connectivity) needed to realize this
vision. While individual technologies oer direct
and discrete value, the greatest impacts will come
from the creation of new systems and approaches.
In the case of electric power, for example, switching
to electricity as a source of power was more
eicient than steam and oered direct benefits.
However, the rate of return increased dramatically
as manufacturers discovered new production
practices such as switching from “central drive” to
distributed, modular production in manufacturing.
The presence of Internet-enabled technology has
not yet led to similarly remarkable growth in labor
productivity and yet may now be able to achieve
the scale and tools needed to truly transform
operations the way rural electrification did.
6
PAGE 10
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
AN ANALOG TO CONSIDER:
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ELECTRIFICATION
According to the National Bureau of Economic
Research
7
, “portable power” (including distributed
electric power and the internal combustion
engine) initially yielded limited labor productivity
gains. It required time and widespread adoption
to transform business models. While initial
adoption oered direct benefits from 1915 to
1930, productivity grew at a faster rate beginning
in 1935, as electricity, along with other inputs in
the economy such as the personal automobile,
enabled new, more eicient and eective ways of
working.
Likewise, electricity-dependent refrigeration
fundamentally changed the way America’s
nutrition supply chain operated. When the Rural
Electrification Act passed in 1936, the impacts
of refrigeration were not known. For instance,
the mass adoption of refrigerators into American
homes which started in the mid-1940s spawned
new markets in transportation of raw materials,
refrigerated storage, and innovative food
products
8
. Previously consumers would shop at
local markets, but refrigeration enabled access to
new types of fresh fruits and vegetables, oen on
a year-round basis, and less spoilage occurred in
their homes
8
. This resulted in an overall decrease
in per capita disposable income spent on food,
improving overall quality of life, and enabling
household expenditures for other purchases
9
.
The impact of Internet and information
technology today followed a similar trajectory
as portable power, and more universal access
can continue to unlock the larger-scale, systems-
level change that will significantly transform 21st
century industries, depending on access to the
infrastructure and services that support necessary
data flow.
PAGE 11
FIGURE 1.
ANALOG OF PORTABLE POWER AND LABOR PRODUCTIVITY
Just as it was not possible to predict
electrification’s impacts through refrigeration,
predictions of the exact eects of Internet access
supported by broadband infrastructure are not
possible. However, ubiquitous rural broadband
infrastructure has immeasurable potential for
facilitating innovation and ingenuity by America’s
producers. Short of access to a full battery of
exact data that could be used to calculate future
economic benefits of broadband and Next
Generation Precision Agriculture, USDA embarked
upon an analysis using the following best-
available approach.
1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
Index of Labor Output per Hour
Portable Power IT
PAGE 12
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
APPROACH TO ANALYSIS
USDA conducted an in-depth analysis to attempt to
understand and capture how the U.S. agriculture
industry might be impacted by the 21st century
digital technologies impacting other sectors. The
analysis included review of academic and industry
research as well as validation through site visits
with producers and engagement with industry
experts. A total of 34 technologies were evaluated,
based on their applicability in the field today, as
well as published research available to assess for
scale for measurable impact. See Table 1 for a
summary list of connected Precision Agriculture
technologies, categorized by commodity type.
Further detail on the calculations and assumptions
for each connected technology can be found in the
Appendix.
Market sizing baselined potential benefits (gross)
by reviewing existing studies on value drivers,
extrapolating across commodity groups (row
crops, specialty crops, and livestock and dairy
products) and to national production levels,
determining the available market in the United
States, and estimating the contribution of Internet
connectivity.
Review of existing studies. USDA cataloged the
landscape of digital technologies in agriculture
and surveyed academic, government, and industry
studies that estimate the value created by each.
Extrapolation. The relative value for similar crops
within a commodity group—that is, those that
use comparable production methods—were
estimated using 2016 cost and production numbers
for the studied and targeted commodities and
extrapolated to a national scale based on overall
production volume. The analysis focused on the
highest-volume products in each category (row
crop, specialty crop, and livestock and dairy
products) which together equate to roughly 75
percent of total U.S. agricultural annual production
($254 billion of $340 billion total)
10
. The direct
analysis of the 75 percent subset establishes the
low end of the estimate range, while the upper
limit is based on an assumption that similar gains
can be realized for all production
10
.
Determine available market (scale). The national
totals were pro-rated to reflect “available” market,
an estimate that discounts national totals to reflect
anticipated late-or non-adopters and existing
users. Late-and non-adopters were factored out
based on “diusion of innovation” theory, which
defines standard phases and rates by which
a new idea or product has historically spread
among users. This model estimates that roughly
16 percent of users are “laggards” who will not
adopt new technology in a time period in which the
studied gains are meaningful. Therefore, discounts
by this rate, and the maximum addressable market
is considered 84 percent of U.S. production.
Similarly, it is not certain technologies that enjoy
less than 16 percent adoption will scale to mass
adoption; therefore, the available market was
further adjusted to reflect the lower probability
of reaching mass market scale. Current rates of
adoption were estimated for each technology and
incorporated into the analysis. These rates were
based on studies like Purdue University’s biannual
survey of Precision Agriculture equipment.
11
Percent of potential value attributable to
broadband. Each technology was assigned a
standard category for the contribution of Internet
connectivity to the overall value, acknowledging
that Internet infrastructure combines with sensors,
PAGE 13
signals, soware, and machines to realize the full
value. The classifications were vetted by producers
and industry leaders and assigned standard
values: technologies classified as having “low”
dependence on Internet were estimated at 10
percent contribution; technologies classified as
having “medium” dependence were estimated
at 30 percent contribution; and technologies
classified as having “high” dependence were
estimated at 50 percent contribution.
It is important to note that these are rough
estimates of the contribution of broadband,
relying on general, standard categories rather than
precise calculations.
This market analysis has additional limitations
that may be addressed in future research.
Specifically, the model (1) does not consider input
costs that would be required to realize the benefits
stated; and (2) is based on a collection of available
data and information sources that each have
independent assumptions and varying baseline
years.
Additionally, this market analysis is not dynamic,
because it does not attempt to model interaction,
network eects, or iterative impacts. Today,
agricultural technologies are oen framed as
standalone tools, which does not capture the end-
to-end use of tech in agriculture. Currently, most
producers plan, produce, and organize sales of
their goods, using independent, and disassociated
technologies. Use of Precision Agriculture will
continue to increase as technologies begin
working together interdependently, as an
agriculture “Internet of Things” to transform the
entire business of farming, regardless of which
technology or design ultimately creates this
value. This may be the most impactful eect of
ubiquitous broadband on farms, enabling full
and synergistic use of Next Generation Precision
Agriculture technologies, yet it is the most diicult
to predict and measure, and therefore was not
attempted here.
Site visits and industry roundtable. To
benchmark the desk research against frontline
user perspectives, experience, and results, we
conducted research visits to 31 sites in seven
agriculture-rich States: California, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. To
further validate assumptions and hypotheses,
USDA’s anonymized results were shared with
producer association leaders, agriculture
technology executives, academic researchers, and
telecommunication providers. The insights from
these conversations reinforce and illustrate the
analysis shared and are highlighted in quotations
and case studies throughout this report.
PAGE 14
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
PATTERNS OF BUSINESS MODERNIZATION
Our nation’s agricultural producers are seeking to operate just as any other modern business does, with
the benefits of technology driving operations, planning, and customer engagement. These broader
patterns of digital transformation across other industries can oer insight into what is possible with
access to e-connectivity.
Most industries experience a “second wave” of transformation as businesses begin to think digitally and
are able to fully leverage real-time, interconnected devices—pointing to not only the types of impact
created by today’s technologies but also the additional ways in which expanded Internet infrastructure
might further drive new ways of working.
By automating activities where possible, resources can be used more eectively and eiciently. Then,
increases can be realized in the productivity of personnel who can be freed from more repetitive tasks
in favor of new value-added tasks. The time and energy of managers are unleashed to expand business
operations, allocate inputs more eiciently, decipher methods to streamline resource allocation, and
increase access to more customers.
INTEGRATED DECISION-MAKING – BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
e-Connectivity provides improved quality and higher quantity
of information, allowing integration of data to improve business
decisions
• Making information more actionable by increasing the quality and quantity
of available data, as improved tools for data-centric decision-making can
harness the power of a broader scope and larger scale of historical and recently-
collected data
• Enabling real-time decision-making by sensing information, organizing it, and
providing opportunities to respond in the development and deployment of
digital sensor networks allow producers to monitor crop or animal health and
environmental conditions that can be used in decision support tools, resulting
in better business decisions
• Expanding access to digital educational resources and business data, freeing
up workers’ time for learning, and expanding the suite of tools available at the
push of a button
PAGE 15
AUTOMATED PROCESSING AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION –
DIGITIZATION
e-Connectivity improves information capture, feeding data to the
“Internet of Things,” and making it possible to automate activities
• Increasing productivity by eliminating manual rekeying and allowing for
automation—particularly where precision and repetition are core needs of
business
• Dramatically improving eiciencies and reducing the redundant manual tasks,
enhancing capacity to organize and retrieve information and enabling machines
to read, manipulate, and act on data
PRODUCTIVITY – LABOR EFFICIENCY
e-Connectivity offers real-time information that helps workers focus
on the most pressing tasks and triage issues as they arise
• Technology can support human tasks to increase speed, improve accuracy, and
reduce errors – examples are robotics and automation, such as distribution
centers’ pick-to-light technologies
• Reducing and—in some cases—eliminating the need to be physically present at
the site of observation, thereby reducing travel and connecting workers across
long distances by powering high-quality audio, video, and file sharing
EXTENDED REACH – GEOGRAPHIC ACCESS
e-Connectivity reduces information asymmetries to make more
efficient markets across geographies for both products and people
• Expanding communication and market access by enabling companies to enter
new markets, better understand their markets, and better meet consumer
preferences
• Creating online platforms with a reach not limited by geography
• Mitigating the eects of low unemployment, mismatched skills, or geographic
remoteness by providing the option to recruit from other towns, cities, and
States
PAGE 16
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
THE ADOPTION CURVE
An adoption curve, based on Rogers’ Diusion
of Innovation
12
, can model the typical phases/
rates with which a new idea or product spreads
among users and gains market traction or scale.
Many technologies within agriculture are at early
stages of adoption today – suggesting greater
potential economic benefits from increased
access to connectivity to support these emerging
applications. The adoption curve in Figure 2
indicates that on average, the agriculture industry
appears to be in the ‘early adoption’ phase of the
diusion curve, meaning there is potential for
a large available market and unrealized future
growth.
Increased e-connectivity can harness all the
benefits of big data, including reduced costs and
the removal of traditional barriers to business
growth. New technologies can be adopted and
unrealized potential can be unleashed within
dierent types of agricultural production, enabling
transformation of agriculture just as e-connectivity
has modernized other industries.
FIGURE 2.
ESTIMATION OF AGRICULTURE ON THE TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION CURVE
Specialty Crops & Livestock
Sum of Agriculture Industry
Row Crops
Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards
Chasm
PAGE 17
HOW E-CONNECTIVITY WILL TRANSFORM
THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE
Across the agricultural production cycle, farmers and ranchers can implement digital
technologies as other modern businesses are doing, enhancing agriculture by driving
decision-making based on integrated data, automating processes to increase operational
eiciency, improving productivity with tasks driven by real-time insights, augmenting the
role of management in the business of farming, and creating new markets with extended
geographic reach.
These patterns of digital transformation create
fundamental shis in agricultural production,
developing new ways of working that make
the industry more productive, attractive, and
financially sustainable for farmers and ranchers.
Tech companies which stand to benefit from
industry transformation continue to capitalize on
these shis by developing new technologies, which
according to one recent study, may help position
themselves to capture a portion of an estimated
$254 billion to $340 billion in global addressable
digital agriculture market.
13
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT shifts decision-
making from instinct to integrated data
Precision Agriculture is transforming the
way producers collect, organize, and rely on
information to make key decisions. Traditionally,
producers’ long-term experiences have created
a competitive advantage: years of experiments
have produced insights and instincts about the
land they have farmed and the animals they have
raised. But the volume of data that is possible
to collect today can accelerate that learning
curve, helping producers learn faster and more
rapidly adapt to market shis—particularly on
new fields and with new animals—and creating
more nuanced insights, enabling them to act
on leading indicators. This creates a disparity
between producers who can utilize high-speed
Internet service and those who cannot. Examples
include the ability to do the following:
• create decision tools to help farmers and
ranchers estimate the potential profit and
economic risks associated with growing one
particular crop over another
• decide which fertilizer is best for current soil
conditions
• apply pesticides in targeted areas of the
field, to control pests rather than applying
pesticides over the entire field
• use limited water resources more eectively
• respond to findings of sensors that monitor
animal health and nutrition
PAGE 18
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
Better choices about what, where, and when to
plant, fertilize, and harvest—or breed, feed, and
slaughter—can drive above-average returns by
removing unrecognized ineiciencies and scaling
insights.
DIGITIZATION shifts supply chain
management and resource allocation
from generic to precise
Precision Agriculture helps make the business
of farming more eicient by minimizing inputs—
such as raw materials and labor—and maximizing
outputs.
For example, previous research has found that
40 percent of fields are over-fertilized, which not
only inflates the cost of inputs but also results
in 15 percent–20 percent yield loss suered
from improper fertilizer application.
14
Precise
application of inputs, such as fertilizer, herbicides,
and pesticides, allows farmers to adjust inputs
to location-based characteristics and use exact
amounts needed, which saves money and
increases sustainability due to more eicient
resource stewardship. Improved fertilizer, soil, and
water use can significantly improve water quality
with less runo and reduce climate gas emissions,
which is important since agriculture accounts for
10-15 percent of worldwide emissions.15 Despite
reductions in necessary inputs, Next Generation
Precision Agriculture helps maintain or increase
yields, leading to significant gains in eiciency
14
.
Real-time insights also improve logistics. When
growing melons, for instance, real-time data can
help farmers overcome challenges in storing
and shipping their products. Melons should be
stored in an optimal refrigeration environment to
minimize spoilage, and real-time precision sensors
can reduce spoilage by alerting sta to suboptimal
variations in temperature and humidity, allowing
the execution of remedies before major losses
occur. When refrigerated storage is full or the
market price is at a peak, the “Internet of Things”
can provide real-time information about where
trucks are located and locating customers to
market products to help make the sale.
LABOR EFFICIENCY boosts productivity
by automating routine processes and
enabling real-time response
Connected devices equip farmers with a clear
picture of their operations at any moment, making
it possible to prioritize tasks more eectively
and triage the most pressing issues. While
routine inspection and scouting has typically
been a regular part of farm management and
has increased farm profitability
14
, connected
technologies can track, sense, and flag where a
producer should focus their time and attention
that day. Similarly, e-connectivity has allowed
rural farms to access new training resources and
high-skilled labor that has not been previously
available.
Real-time data and automation can radically
PAGE 19
improve a producer’s peace of mind and
performance under time constraints, especially
because of reduced physical and mental stress
(no longer struggling to keep the machine on
a row line between 6 and 10 hours in the field
during harvest or planting). On dairy farms, for
example, automated devices that milk and feed
animals can also track each cow’s activity and alert
producers to potential problems. Because these
tasks are traditionally done by the producer and
farm personnel, e-connectivity can substantially
reduce the amount of time and eort necessary
to run farms. This leads to dramatic increases in
flexibility, enabling time and talent to be directed
to more advanced tasks. Farmers can use newly
found time to re-invest in more high-value tasks
like long-term planning and management of the
operation. This shi towards farm management
opens new possibilities for the way that farms
conduct business.
GEOGRAPHIC ACCESS extends the reach
of the supply chain and shifts marketing
from standard to differentiated
As explained in the previous section, as Precision
Agriculture unlocks additional time and resources
to explore new ways of doing business farmers
are re-investing their time into identifying options
to improve inputs, including better-trained labor
and more eective types of inputs. New customers
and markets can also be explored to increase sales
volume and revenues.
THE RISE OF E-COMMERCE
E-commerce provides producers with the ability
to access new customer channels, dierentiate
products, and shape demand.
ACCESS. Online platforms provide access to
new customer channels. Web-enabled direct-to-
consumer sales, for example, enable producers to
shorten their supply chains, develop relationships
with customers, and retain more revenue. Through
online cattle auctions, cattlemen can save the cost
of traveling to live auctions while still participating
in transactions across wide geographies.
16
Through MarketMaker, the largest online database
connecting buyers, farmers, processors, packers,
distributors, restaurants, and others, businesses
can find suppliers, form more profitable business
alliances, meet new customers, and locate quality
products.
17
These examples provide just a small
sample of the many ways that e-commerce
increases market access.
DIFFERENTIATION. With direct sales, producers
can communicate key attributes about their
products, helping them charge premium prices.
Specifically, traceability technologies can help
instill trust in origin and assure buyers that foods
exhibit certain characteristics. An innovative
technology company operating today, for instance,
is combining blockchain technology with barcodes
and Quick Response (QR) codes to provide instant
information about food origination, nutrition,
and quality, empowering the consumer with
information to help choose which products to
buy.
18
Another company, an Internet-enabled grain
marketplace, assures producers they can “get paid
for the quality of their grain.”
19
PAGE 20
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
THE POTENTIAL ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF
ECONNECTIVITY FOR
U.S. AGRICULTURE
Together, new technologies and ways of working combine to improve yields, reduce costs,
improve labor eiciency, and increase revenues through greater market access. Business
impacts surface across three sets of activities.
Adoption rates for precision technologies have been higher to-date in row crops since they are already
highly mechanized. However, because each specialty crop has unique planting, harvesting, and
packaging processes, production operations have been diicult to modernize with process automation;
market coordination opportunities may have more potential here.
Accordingly, USDA’s analysis is reflected in Table 1 below. Though all farming businesses engage in
planning, production, and market coordination activities, the application of and benefit from Next
Generation Precision Agriculture technologies vary significantly by commodity type. For example, row
crops gain more in the planning phase than do specialty crops; since row crops are planted every year,
farmers have frequent opportunities to vary their planning decisions, whereas specialty crops, such as
crops grown on orchards, are oen planted less frequently, limiting the impact of additional data in
the planning phase. Because row crops are oen considered commodities—that is, products where the
price is largely determined by national indices rather than by product quality—row crop farmers seem
to have relatively less benefit to gain from market coordination phase technologies than specialty crop
farmers. The most consistent gains across all subindustries and stages are found in the production stage,
which reflects that farming is, at its core, a manufacturing business where accurate, timely information is
invaluable.
PAGE 21
FIGURE 3.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES APPLIED TO STAGES OF AGRICULTURE MANAGEMENT
Digital Technologies Applied to
Stages of Agriculture Management
STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3
PLANNING
Data collection and
decision support
to make better choices
about what, when and
where to produce
ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
Data analytics
Field prescriptions
Fertility planning
PRODUCTION
Monitoring the
growth cycle, managing
inputs, and optimizing
the product’s health
and harvest
ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
Real-time sensing
Algorithmic diagnosis
Automated harvesting
MARKET
COORDINATION
Creating access to
new customers and
channels, dierentiating
products, and shaping
consumer preferences
ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
Online sales
Targeted advertising
Optimizing distribution
PAGE 22
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
TABLE 1.
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES ANALYZED BY COMMODITY TYPE
(basis for calculations can be found in Appendix)
Connected Technologies in Row Crops and Specialty Crops (figures are rounded)
Commodity Type Business Function Technology
Potential
Annual Gross
Benefit
of Next
Generation
Precision Ag
Potential
Attributable to
Broadband
Percent
Dependent
on
Broadband
ROW CROPS PLANNING MICROCLIMATE MODELING TECHNOLOGY $,,, $,, %
ROW CROPS PLANNING YIELD MONITORING TECHNOLOGY $,,, $,, %
ROW CROPS PLANNING PRECISION SEEDING $,, $,, %
ROW CROPS PRODUCTION FIELD SCOUTING $,,, $,, %
ROW CROPS PRODUCTION VARIABLE RATE APPLICATION $,,, $,, %
ROW CROPS PRODUCTION CONNECTED EQUIPMENT $,, $,, %
ROW CROPS PRODUCTION MACHINE LEARNING AND VISIONING $,, $,, %
ROW CROPS PRODUCTION
REMOTE DIAGNOSTICS & PREDICTIVE
MAINTENANCE
$,,, $,, %
ROW CROPS
ROW CROPS
MARKET COORDINATION
MARKET COORDINATION
STORAGE MONITORING
or
SMALL PRODUCER COORDINATION
$,,,
or
$,,,
$,,
or
$,,,
%
SPECIALTY CROPS PLANNING WEATHER MODELING - TREE $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PLANNING WEATHER MODELING - GROUND $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION MACHINE LEARNING AND VISIONING - TREE $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION
PEST PREVENTION AND MONITORING -
TREE
$,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION SMART IRRIGATION - TREE $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION ROBOTIC HARVESTING - TREE $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION INPUT USE AND MANAGEMENT - GROUND $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION SMART IRRIGATION - GROUND $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION FROST DETECTION - GROUND $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCTION ROBOTIC HARVESTING - GROUND $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS MARKET COORDINATION FOOD WASTE MANAGEMENT $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS MARKET COORDINATION DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER SALES - TREE $,, $,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS MARKET COORDINATION DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER SALES - GROUND $,,, $,,, %
SPECIALTY CROPS MARKET COORDINATION STORAGE MONITORING - GROUND $,, $,, %
PAGE 23
Connected Technologies in Livestock and Dairy (figures are rounded)
Commodity Type Business Function Technology
Potential
Annual Gross
Benefit
of Next
Generation
Precision Ag
Potential
Attributable to
Broadband
Percent
Dependent
on
Broadband
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PLANNING FERTILITY PLANNING $,,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PLANNING INFANTICIDE PREVENTION $,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PLANNING LIVESTOCK RECORDS AND MANAGEMENT $,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PRODUCTION PRECISION FEEDING $,,, $,,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PRODUCTION MASTITIS DETECTION $,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PRODUCTION AUDIO/VISUAL FACILITY MONITORING $,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PRODUCTION UNMANNED HERDING $,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PRODUCTION ROBOTIC MILKING $,,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY PRODUCTION GENERAL HEALTH MONITORING $,,, $,,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY MARKET COORDINATION AUTOMATED SORTING $,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY MARKET COORDINATION ONLINE CHANNELS $,,, $,, %
LIVESTOCK AND DAIRY MARKET COORDINATION TRACING AND MARKETING $,, $,, %
While digital technologies are already creating value within the agriculture industry today, realizing
the full potential of these technologies, according to USDA, could create approximately $47–$65
billion annually in additional gross benefit for the U.S. economy. In other words, if broadband Internet
infrastructure, digital technologies at scale, and on-farm capabilities were available at a level that
met estimated producer demand, the U.S. could realize econonomic benefits equivalent to nearly 18
percent of total production, based on 2017 levels.
10
As the following table indicates, USDA estimates that rural broadband connectivity is the driver of
more than one-third of the value or $18 billion to $23 billion per year, that digital technologies could
create for our nation.
It is important to note that such economic benefits would be realized over a long term and could not
manifest during the course of one single year. This is because it will take many years to build all requisite
infrastructure for broadband service, deploy all necessary equipment, and train all producers to fully
utilize all of these Next Generation Precision Agriculture technologies. Therefore, these figures are being
reported here to simply give a general scale of the potential future benefits, in today’s dollars.
PAGE 24
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
TABLE 2.
ANNUAL POTENTIAL GROSS ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE
TECHNOLOGIES DERIVED FROM BROADBAND E-CONNECTIVITY
Commodity Type Row Crops
Specialty
Crops
Livestock Total
Annual Value of the U.S. Market Studied *
$. B $. B $ B $ B
Precision Ag in Planning
$. B $. B $. B $. B
Precision Ag in Production
$. B $. B $. $. B
Precision Ag in Market Coordination
$. B $. B $. $. B
Next Generation Precision Ag Potential Gross Economic
Benefits Annually, For the Market Studied
$. B $. B $. $. B
Annual Value of Total U.S. Market Production *
$. B $. B $. $ B
Next Generation Precision Ag Potential Gross Economic
Benefits Annually, Extrapolated to Total Market
$. B $. B $. $. B
Next Generation Precision Ag Potential Gross Economic
Benefits as a Percent of Total U.S. Production
% % % %
Average Percent of Next Generation Precision Ag Benefits
that Depend on Broadband
% % % %
Potential Gross Economic Benefits of Ubiquitous
Broadband Infrastructure and Next Generation Precision
Agriculture Adoption:
$. to
$. B
or 4%
$. B to
$. B
or 19%
$. B to
$. B
or 7%
$ B to
$ B
or 7%
of the total market
* Source: 2017 Production Values per 2019 reports of USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Access to reliable, aordable connectivity is a
critical component to powering these technologies
and contributes a significant portion of value.
In this sense, Internet infrastructure performs a
similar function as other types of infrastructure,
such as roadway systems. Prior to the construction
of the United States’ Interstate Highway System
that began in 1956, trucks transported inputs to
production sites and agricultural commodities to
market on at-grade signalized roadways across
the nation. However, with a complete system
of interconnected high-performance, grade-
separated highways, trucks can carry freight
across the country exponentially faster and using
fewer resources. It has catapulted America’s
productivity, redefined feasibility of manufacturing
and distribution, opened up new markets, and
transformed the way our nation’s economy runs.
Similar to pre-1956 roadways, some Precision
Agriculture technologies in use today may operate
with basic functionality on limited Internet access.
Only with the eiciencies of ubiquitous, modern
high-speed e-connectivity—much like the United
States’ Interstate Highway System—can producers
unlock technology’s full potential for their farms
and ranches, and for the industry and the nation as
a whole.
The following pages explore how these functional
dierences across sub-industries equate to
dierences in the utility and application of Next
Generation Precision Agriculture technologies
and how the suite of technologies varies between
commodities. Each section characterizes the
landscape of digital technologies today, where
they impact the value chain, and what this means
for frontline users.
PAGE 25
PAGE 26
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
United States Department of Agriculture
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES
IN ROW CROPS
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
ROW CROPS
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
USDA Logo
Reference final USDA report title
Precision Agriculture in Row Crop Farming Could Add
$13–$17 BILLION IN POTENTIAL BENEFIT (GROSS) FOR THE U.S. AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY,
OF WHICH ~33% ($5–$6 BILLION) DEPENDS ON INTERNET E-CONNECTIVITY
Precision Seeding: Location-
tagged field data can be uploaded into
planning software to optimize planting
decisions and placement, which can
save $6.53 per acre on seed expenses.
2
Remote Diagnostics and
Predictive Maintenance: Connected
hardware and software diagnose—
and even anticipate—needs for repair,
saving $5 to $15 in costs per acre.
5
Machine Learning and
Visioning: Connected cameras and
software can identify weeds, detect
disease with 90% to 99% accuracy,
and locate pests, facilitating treatment
and reducing crop loss by 30%.
8
Small Producer Coordination:
Web platforms connect farmers directly
to buyers, allowing them to earn
premiums for meeting specific quality
standards and bringing between $0.35
to $0.51 more per bushel for corn, soy,
wheat, and rice.
10
1
Yield Monitoring: Combine-
mounted monitors gather harvest
data for business decisions, which can
save $25 per acre in input costs for
corn farmers.
Connected Equipment
Guidance: Vehicles, including
autonomous vehicles, use GPS to
determine field boundaries for precise
tending and save an estimated $15
per acre on corn farms.
4
Field Scouting: Drone imagery
and software can collect nutritional
and growth data used to calculate
optimal inputs, saving $12 per acre on
corn farms.
7
Storage Monitoring:
Temperature and moisture sensors
can detect storage quality for
harvested products, reducing crop loss
and increasing sale price by $1 per
hundredweight for grain sorghum.
9
Microclimate Monitoring:
Satellites or on-site weather stations
can forecast local weather more
accurately, avoid potential pest
problems, and reduce crop loss by up
to 80%.
3
Variable Rate Application:
Technologies apply precise, optimal
levels of raw inputs, saving $22 per
acre for corn farms and increasing
operating profit by 1.1%.
6
$4.3–$5.6 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$6.7–$8.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$2.2–$2.9 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
Reference that all sources are in Appendix A
MARKET
COORDINATION
PRODUCTION
PLANNING
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
ROW CROPS
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
USDA Logo
Reference final USDA report title
Precision Agriculture in Row Crop Farming Could Add
$13–$17 BILLION IN POTENTIAL BENEFIT (GROSS) FOR THE U.S. AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY,
OF WHICH ~33% ($5–$6 BILLION) DEPENDS ON INTERNET E-CONNECTIVITY
Precision Seeding: Location-
tagged field data can be uploaded into
planning software to optimize planting
decisions and placement, which can
save $6.53 per acre on seed expenses.
2
Remote Diagnostics and
Predictive Maintenance: Connected
hardware and software diagnose—
and even anticipate—needs for repair,
saving $5 to $15 in costs per acre.
5
Machine Learning and
Visioning: Connected cameras and
software can identify weeds, detect
disease with 90% to 99% accuracy,
and locate pests, facilitating treatment
and reducing crop loss by 30%.
8
Small Producer Coordination:
Web platforms connect farmers directly
to buyers, allowing them to earn
premiums for meeting specific quality
standards and bringing between $0.35
to $0.51 more per bushel for corn, soy,
wheat, and rice.
10
1
Yield Monitoring: Combine-
mounted monitors gather harvest
data for business decisions, which can
save $25 per acre in input costs for
corn farmers.
Connected Equipment
Guidance: Vehicles, including
autonomous vehicles, use GPS to
determine field boundaries for precise
tending and save an estimated $15
per acre on corn farms.
4
Field Scouting: Drone imagery
and software can collect nutritional
and growth data used to calculate
optimal inputs, saving $12 per acre on
corn farms.
7
Storage Monitoring:
Temperature and moisture sensors
can detect storage quality for
harvested products, reducing crop loss
and increasing sale price by $1 per
hundredweight for grain sorghum.
9
Microclimate Monitoring:
Satellites or on-site weather stations
can forecast local weather more
accurately, avoid potential pest
problems, and reduce crop loss by up
to 80%.
3
Variable Rate Application:
Technologies apply precise, optimal
levels of raw inputs, saving $22 per
acre for corn farms and increasing
operating profit by 1.1%.
6
$4.3–$5.6 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$6.7–$8.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$2.2–$2.9 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
Reference that all sources are in Appendix A
MARKET
COORDINATION
PRODUCTION
PLANNING
After implementing precision agriculture technologies enabled by internet connectivity, row crop farmers can
enjoy benefits to their business management and quality of life.
ROW CROP FARMERS
BENEFITS OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE
Today is “fly day” for Jane, a Midwestern corn and
potato grower. She heads outside and fires up her
drone to do a pass over the fields she operates north
of the office. She has her workers check on the fields
throughout the week, of course, but they only check a
fraction of what the drone’s camera does. While the
drone is out flying, she checks her connected irrigation
system on her phone; it takes 3 or 4 minutes to load,
but then she adjusts the rate for each pivot based on
the data as it streams in.
The drone is mostly a scouting tool now, but she
heard at last week’s Next Ag Leaders event that one
company is developing some with 10-foot sprayers.
That seems too small, but the manufacturer pointed
out that “swarms” of ten drones could fly down a field
and spray almost as much as a 120-foot boom. Even
at $12,000 per drone with a spraying attachment, the
total would still be half the cost of a new, quarter-
million-dollar sprayer. Plus, there would not be any
compaction or crop damage.
Speaking of sprayers, it looks like she needs to apply
more fertilizer in the new field she picked up this year.
Without past years’ yield maps, she couldn’t set a
prescription formula to program her variable-rate
fertilizer application. She could probably approximate
something based on her drone imagery, but the drone
and larger machinery are from different manufacturers
with proprietary software, so she can’t integrate and
overlay the data. Drone imagery takes so much
bandwidth that she has made it a habit to leave her
laptop open overnight to upload and stitch images,
once the rest of her staff has left, since her office WiFi
isn’t fast enough while others use it.
Jane pulls out the tractor and heads out to spray.
Tractors mostly drive themselves these days, thanks to
autosteer, allowing Jane to multitask from the driver’s
seat. She does a little research into a few purchases
she is considering, including connected scales for the
grain loading dock. In reviewing last years’ haul data,
the drivers had entered almost a third of it incorrectly!
This kind of recordkeeping software is a game-
changer. In fact, as she pulls out of the field, she saves
a record of the pesticide treatment applied, and shares
a copy with the landowner. The cab is a lot less
cluttered these days; it used to be jam-packed with
coffee-stained notes trying to keep track of how much
had been put on and where. Plus, Jane’s shoulders
hurt a lot less at the end of the day than with her old
tractor, and the extra time gives her more energy to
focus on her business.
Back at the office, Jane kicks aside a box of soil
sensors under her desk; they had required constant
“fixes” and tech support from the manufacturer. Still,
they weren’t the most costly example of failed
equipment: when a $2 sensor on her combine failed
last year, she lost half a day of harvest time and
incurred $1500 in repair costs.
From her computer, Jane skims through message
threads on the online discussion forum AgBlog. Jane is
always searching for new practices and tech, but she’s
extremely reluctant to share her own. Crops like corn
and potatoes are—for the most part—commodities,
and so her peers are also her competitors. Speaking of
which, she flips over to check her marketing app to
see where prices are today. With the price jump, it has
reached the “sell” target she set this spring, so she
commits 20% of her anticipated harvest at that value.
In past years, she might gamble that the price will
keep rising, but the data has given her the discipline to
stick with pre-planned targets.
She flips back to the forum and reads a post about a
farm with a new side business offering Precision
Agriculture services. Diversifying into other businesses
seems like a good way to reduce risk. She still doesn’t
have quite enough time to build up the skills she’ll
need, but maybe one day she can become a full-time
Precision Agriculture services provider. Maybe.
Name:
Jane Dawson
State:
Illinois
Products:
Corn, potatoes
Highlighted
Technologies:
• Unmanned aerial
vehicle (drone)
• Drone attachments
for precision
measurement and
spraying
• Variable-rate
irrigation
• Yield mapping
• Variable-rate fertilizer
application
• Auto-guidance
systems on tractors
• Recordkeeping
software
• Online discussion
forums
• Marketing mobile
application
Jane’s story is a composite representation based on conversations with 13 real row crop farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New York, and
Texas. This story describes the everyday joys, frustrations, and experiences of farmers pioneering the adoption of Precision Agriculture
technologies.
A ROW CROP FARMER’S PERSPECTIVE
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN PRACTICE
for new fields or crops help triage problems
faster and improve
decision making over
time
through reduced
hours and stress
to learn new skills,
research and plan,
multitask, or manage
over digital channels
Faster
learning curve
Better, real-
time records
Physical health
and peace of mind
More time Peer learning
BENEFITS OF NEXT GENERATION PRECISION AGRICULTURE
PAGE 27
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
ROW CROPS
Producer Narrative: Row Crops
Today is “fly day” for Jane, a Midwestern corn and
potato grower. She heads outside and fires up her
drone to do a pass over the fields she operates
north of the oice. She has her workers check on
the fields throughout the week, of course, but they
only check a fraction of what the drone’s camera
does. While the drone is out flying, she checks her
connected irrigation system on her phone; it takes
3 or 4 minutes to load, but then she adjusts the rate
for each pivot based on the data as it streams in
from thermal images and soil water sensors.
The drone is mostly a scouting tool now, but she
heard at last week’s Next Ag Leaders event that one
company is developing some with 10-foot sprayers.
That seems too small, but the manufacturer
pointed out that “swarms” of 10 drones could
fly down a field and spray almost as much as a
120-foot boom. Even at $12,000 per drone with a
spraying attachment, the total would still be half
the cost of a new, quarter-million-dollar sprayer.
Plus, there would not be any compaction or crop
damage.
Speaking of sprayers, it looks like she needs to
apply more fertilizer in the new field she picked
up this year. Without past years’ yield maps, she
couldn’t set a prescription formula to program
her variable-rate fertilizer application. She could
probably approximate something based on her
drone imagery, but the drone and larger machinery
are from dierent manufacturers with proprietary
soware, so she can’t integrate and overlay the
data. Drone imagery takes so much bandwidth that
she has made it a habit to leave her laptop open
overnight to upload and stitch images, once the
rest of her sta has le, since her oice WiFi isn’t
fast enough while others use it.
Jane pulls out the tractor and heads out to spray.
Tractors mostly drive themselves these days,
thanks to autosteer, allowing Jane to multitask
from the driver’s seat. She does a little research
into a few purchases she is considering, including
connected scales for the grain loading dock.
In reviewing last years’ haul data, the drivers had
entered almost a third of it incorrectly! This kind of
recordkeeping soware is a game-changer. In fact,
as she pulls out of the field, she saves a record of
the pesticide treatment applied, and shares a copy
with the landowner. The cab is a lot less cluttered
these days; it used to be jam-packed with coee-
stained notes trying to keep track of how much had
been put on and where. Plus, Jane’s shoulders hurt
a lot less at the end of the day than with her old
tractor, and the extra time gives her more energy to
focus on her business.
Back at the oice, Jane kicks aside a box of soil
sensors under her desk; they had required constant
“fixes” and tech support from the manufacturer.
Still, they weren’t the most costly example of failed
equipment: when a $2 sensor on her combine
failed last year, she lost half a day of harvest time
and incurred $1,500 in repair costs.
From her computer, Jane skims through message
threads on the online discussion forum AgBlog.
Jane is always searching for new practices and
tech, but she’s extremely reluctant to share her
own. Crops like corn and potatoes are—for the
most part—commodities, and so her peers are also
her competitors. Speaking of which, she flips over
to check her marketing app to see where prices
are today. With the price jump, it has reached the
“sell” target she set this spring, so she commits 20
percent of her anticipated harvest at that value.
In past years, she might gamble that the price
will keep rising, but the data has given her the
discipline to stick with pre-planned targets.
She flips back to the forum and reads a post
about a farm with a new side business oering
Precision Agriculture services. Diversifying into
other businesses seems like a good way to reduce
risk. She still doesn’t have quite enough time to
build up the skills she’ll need, but maybe one day
she can become a full-time Precision Agriculture
services provider. Maybe.
PAGE 28
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
United States Department of Agriculture
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
SPECIALTY CROPS
1
2
3
7
4
5
6
10
9
8
SPECIALTY CROPS
Reference final USDA report title
Precision Agriculture in Specialty Crop Farming Could Add
$13–$22 BILLION IN POTENTIAL BENEFIT (GROSS) FOR THE U.S. AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY,
OF WHICH ~45% ($6–$9 BILLION) DEPENDS ON INTERNET E-CONNECTIVITY
MARKET
COORDINATION
PRODUCTION
PLANNING
Pest Prevention and
Monitoring: Connected drones and
software can prevent or identify pest
problems, reducing spray loss on the
ground by 68% to 93%.
3
Frost Detection: Wireless
sensors can help identify frost patterns
and alert producers, improving
forecasts by 50% and increasing
relative crop value by an average of
18%.
6
Direct-to-Consumer Sales:
Digital platforms can shorten the supply
chain and increase producer revenue by
50% per unit of apples, 649% per unit of
salad mix, and 183% per unit of
blueberries.
9
1
Weather Modeling: On-site
stations can forecast and detect local
problems, saving users $19,500 per
year in spray costs and preventing
$264,000 per year in crop loss.
Machine Learning: Software
and field imagery can identify
overgrown or foreign plants and
inform fungicide application, reducing
labor costs by 20% to 25%.
2
Smart Irrigation: Soil-based
plant sensors can help control
irrigation systems to improve water
efficiency by 20% to 25%, increase
yields by 17.5%, and cause 10-20% less
tip burn, increasing profitability by
$500-$4,000 per acre.
5
Food Waste Management:
Online platforms can help sell
perishable food that might otherwise
go to waste, increasing market access
and creating $10,651 in additional
revenue per producer.
8
Input Use and Management:
Decision support software can enable
data-driven decision making to
maximize yield while reducing inputs,
like fungicide use by 50%.
4
Robotic Harvesting:
Autonomous pickers using vacuums or
pincers for harvesting and picking can
reduce overall harvest costs to 35% to
45% of total production costs.
7
Storage Monitoring: Remote
sensor systems can manage
containers and send alerts, to avoid
temperatures and pressures causing
perishable good prices to drop 10%
per hour.
10
$1.3–$2.1 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$3.6–$5.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$8.5–$13.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
USDA Logo
Reference that all sources are in Appendix A
1
2
3
7
4
5
6
10
9
8
SPECIALTY CROPS
Reference final USDA report title
Precision Agriculture in Specialty Crop Farming Could Add
$13–$22 BILLION IN POTENTIAL BENEFIT (GROSS) FOR THE U.S. AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY,
OF WHICH ~45% ($6–$9 BILLION) DEPENDS ON INTERNET E-CONNECTIVITY
MARKET
COORDINATION
PRODUCTION
PLANNING
Pest Prevention and
Monitoring: Connected drones and
software can prevent or identify pest
problems, reducing spray loss on the
ground by 68% to 93%.
3
Frost Detection: Wireless
sensors can help identify frost patterns
and alert producers, improving
forecasts by 50% and increasing
relative crop value by an average of
18%.
6
Direct-to-Consumer Sales:
Digital platforms can shorten the supply
chain and increase producer revenue by
50% per unit of apples, 649% per unit of
salad mix, and 183% per unit of
blueberries.
9
1
Weather Modeling: On-site
stations can forecast and detect local
problems, saving users $19,500 per
year in spray costs and preventing
$264,000 per year in crop loss.
Machine Learning: Software
and field imagery can identify
overgrown or foreign plants and
inform fungicide application, reducing
labor costs by 20% to 25%.
2
Smart Irrigation: Soil-based
plant sensors can help control
irrigation systems to improve water
efficiency by 20% to 25%, increase
yields by 17.5%, and cause 10-20% less
tip burn, increasing profitability by
$500-$4,000 per acre.
5
Food Waste Management:
Online platforms can help sell
perishable food that might otherwise
go to waste, increasing market access
and creating $10,651 in additional
revenue per producer.
8
Input Use and Management:
Decision support software can enable
data-driven decision making to
maximize yield while reducing inputs,
like fungicide use by 50%.
4
Robotic Harvesting:
Autonomous pickers using vacuums or
pincers for harvesting and picking can
reduce overall harvest costs to 35% to
45% of total production costs.
7
Storage Monitoring: Remote
sensor systems can manage
containers and send alerts, to avoid
temperatures and pressures causing
perishable good prices to drop 10%
per hour.
10
$1.3–$2.1 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$3.6–$5.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
$8.5–$13.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) to
the U.S. agriculture industry
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
USDA Logo
Reference that all sources are in Appendix A
After implementing precision agriculture technologies enabled by internet connectivity, specialty crop
farmers can enjoy benefits to their business management and quality of life.
SPECIALTY CROP GROWERS
BENEFITS OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE
As the CTO for a 2,000-acre specialty crop farm, José
keeps a constant pulse on his crops. From a couple of
digital dashboards on his iPad, he checks the final
numbers on yesterday’s broccoli and lettuce yields and
double-checks the settings of the remote-controlled
refrigeration lockers, which help minimize spoilage
before crops are shipped out. On his drive to the next
site, he listens to a podcast from a regional innovation
center explaining some of the new ag tech projects
they’re incubating. He’s consistently been an innovator
in this area, building many of his own technologies for
specialized production of each crop. He now hosts his
own peer groups to share what he has learned and
show off his latest tech.
His drive is interrupted by a call from Tom, who’s been
experimenting with irrigation systems on iceberg
lettuce fields, as part of an effort to reduce water
usage due to rising water prices. A few years ago, Tom
had pitched and implemented a variable-rate
irrigation system to replace the farm’s flood irrigation
system and reduce overwatering. Estimates were that
precision irrigation could reduce inputs by up to 20%
while maintaining—or improving—yield per acre, and
the results have more than delivered. José asks about
the new autonomous irrigation pilot that Tom has
been running. During the lettuce harvest, they’ll record
conclusive results, Tom says, but so far, it appears that
the water sprayers are automatically adjusting based
on continuous water and soil sampling.
José hangs up and pulls up to the broccoli field to
check on his favorite project: a custom-built broccoli
harvester. Automated harvesters are commonplace for
row crops like corn, but specialty crops are usually
picked by hand, since they’re too delicate or
inconsistently shaped for machines to handle. Due to
rising wages, the owners had asked José to think
about ways to reduce dependence on seasonal labor.
José had seen a similar machine at a trade show in
Spain, and the big U.S. manufacturers didn’t seem
focused on specialty crops, so he decided to engineer
the first broccoli harvester in the country. He actually
outsourced production to Canada, in order to keep
American competitors from swiping his design. José
pulls up to the harvester and walks around it a couple
times, admiring his work.
A few yards away, a field crew packs romaine into
bags. José helped implement barcode scanners and
in-field label printers, although spotty service
constantly interrupts the data stream, and he has to
cross-check against shipping records. Last week the
cell service was so bad, José had to manually input half
the barcodes. The tracking increases traceability and
insulates the operation a little from outbreaks and
scares. José suspects consumers will continue wanting
to know more about where their food comes from and
how it’s grown, so he invested early.
As he returns to the office for a chat with the Deputy
CTO, José glances at his phone and scans an email
from the aerial imagery service he hired. Three times a
week, for a reasonable fee, they fly over his fields in
their special drone, equipped with an expensive
multispectral camera, to generate maps of chlorophyll
levels, temperature, and water density in the soil. The
maps they send take so much bandwidth to download,
José usually needs to drive to his equipment dealer’s
office to view them. He archives the email for later.
When hiring for the Deputy CTO job last year, José
struggled to find good applicants who were in—or
willing to relocate to—the area. Rather than lowering
his standards, he hired Jenny, who lives in San
Francisco. She lives close enough to visit the farm
every week or two while doing most of her work on
the systems remotely. José is very pleased with her
work and feels proud to have hired top-tier talent. It
gives him even more time to plan for future
investments; he’s looking forward to reading the latest
Fresh Produce Growers newsletter on his iPad, where
he’d seen a teaser for an article about next-gen
autonomous harvesters.
Name:
José Gutierrez
State:
California
Products:
Broccoli, lettuces
Highlighted
Technologies:
• Mobile applications
& dashboards
• Remote-controlled
refrigerators
• Variable-rate
irrigation systems
• Autonomous
irrigation systems
• Precision water and
soil sensors
• Automated specialty
harvester
• Internet-enabled
traceability scanners
and printers
• Drones with
multispectral cameras
• Autonomous
harvesters
José’s story is a composite representation based on conversations with 6 real specialty crop farmers in California and Texas. This story
describes the everyday joys, frustrations, and experiences of farmers pioneering the adoption of Precision Agriculture technologies.
A SPECIALTY CROP GROWER’S PERSPECTIVE
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN PRACTICE
facilitating recruitment
of top-tier talent
as a result of reducing
raw inputs like water
through automation,
addressing shortages
and premiums on
labor
and compliance with
federal requirements
to test new tech and
customize based on
farm-specific needs
Remote
work
Resource
sustainability
Decreased
reliance on labor
Improved
food safety
Experimentation
BENEFITS OF NEXT GENERATION PRECISION AGRICULTURE
PAGE 29
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
SPECIALTY CROPS
Producer Narrative: Specialty Crops
As the CTO for a 2,000-acre specialty crop farm,
José keeps a constant pulse on his crops. From a
couple of digital dashboards on his iPad, he checks
the final numbers on yesterday’s broccoli and
lettuce yields and double-checks the settings of the
remote-controlled refrigeration lockers, which help
minimize spoilage before crops are shipped out.
On his drive to the next site, he listens to a podcast
from a regional innovation center explaining some
of the new ag tech projects they’re incubating.
He’s consistently been an innovator in this
area, building many of his own technologies for
specialized production of each crop. He now hosts
his own peer groups to share what he has learned
and show o his latest tech.
His drive is interrupted by a call from Tom, who’s
been experimenting with irrigation systems on
iceberg lettuce fields, as part of an eort to reduce
water usage due to rising water prices. A few
years ago, Tom had pitched and implemented a
variable-rate irrigation system to replace the farm’s
flood irrigation system and reduce overwatering.
Estimates were that precision irrigation
could reduce inputs by up to 20 percent while
maintaining—or improving—yield per acre, and the
results have more than delivered. José asks about
the new autonomous irrigation pilot that Tom has
been running. During the lettuce harvest, they’ll
record conclusive results, Tom says, but so far, it
appears that the water sprayers are automatically
adjusting based on continuous water and soil
sampling.
José hangs up and pulls up to the broccoli field
to check on his favorite project: a custom-built
broccoli harvester. Automated harvesters are
commonplace for row crops like corn, but specialty
crops are usually picked by hand, since they’re too
delicate or inconsistently shaped for machines to
handle. Due to rising wages, the owners had asked
José to think about ways to reduce dependence
on seasonal labor. José had seen a similar
machine at a trade show in Spain, and the big U.S.
manufacturers didn’t seem focused on specialty
crops, so he decided to engineer the first broccoli
harvester in the country. He actually outsourced
production to Canada, in order to keep American
competitors from swiping his design. José pulls up
to the harvester and walks around it a couple of
times, admiring his work.
A few yards away, a field crew packs romaine into
bags. José helped implement barcode scanners
and in-field label printers, although spotty service
constantly interrupts the data stream, and he has
to cross-check against shipping records. Last week
the cell service was so bad, José had to manually
input half the barcodes. The tracking increases
traceability and insulates the operation a little from
outbreaks and scares. José suspects consumers
will continue wanting to know more about where
their food comes from and how it’s grown, so he
invested early.
As he returns to the oice for a chat with the
Deputy CTO, José glances at his phone and scans
an email from the aerial imagery service he hired.
Three times a week, for a reasonable fee, they fly
over his fields in their special drone, equipped with
an expensive multispectral camera, to generate
maps of chlorophyll levels, temperature, and water
density in the soil. The maps they send take so
much bandwidth to download, José usually needs
to drive to his equipment dealer’s oice to view
them. He archives the email for later.
When hiring for the Deputy CTO job last year, José
struggled to find good applicants who were in—
or willing to relocate to—the area. Rather than
lowering his standards, he hired Jenny, who lives
in San Francisco. She lives close enough to visit the
farm every week or two while doing most of her
work on the systems remotely. José is very pleased
with her work and feels proud to have hired top-
tier talent. It gives him even more time to plan for
future investments; he’s looking forward to reading
the latest Fresh Produce Growers newsletter on his
iPad, where he’d seen a teaser for an article about
next generation autonomous harvesters.
PAGE 30
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
United States Department of Agriculture
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES
IN LIVESTOCK & DAIRY PRODUCTS
794
1
2
3
4
8
6
7
5
9
10
11
12
LIVESTOCK & DAIRY
Reference final USDA report title
Precision Agriculture in Livestock and Dairy Could Add
$20–$25 BILLION IN POTENTIAL BENEFIT (GROSS) FOR THE U.S. AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY,
OF WHICH ~40% ($7–$10 BILLION) DEPENDS ON INTERNET E-CONNECTIVITY
Reference that all sources are in Appendix A
Infanticide Prevention:
Sensors can listen for sounds of
distress and stimulate sows to re-
position, reducing these preventable
animal deaths by 75%.
2
Mastitis Detection:
Automated monitoring systems can
detect early signs of mastitis and help
avoid $316 in indirect costs per
infected cow per year.
5
Robotic Milking: Robots can
sanitize and stimulate teats, self-attach
to utters, and catch milk, increasing
the frequency of milkings and
increasing production by 8%.
8
Online Channels: Channels like
online cattle auctions can return 65%
more revenue per unit of beef,
compared to mainstream supply chains.
11
1
Fertility Planning: Biosensors
can track ovulation cycles and detect
estrus with a 95% to 97% success rate,
helping to boost pregnancy rates.
Precision Feeding: Sensors
can calibrate and distribute optimal
amounts of feed, decreasing costs by
$0.12 per day per cow.
4
Unmanned Herding:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles can
monitor and herd, reducing by 20%
the cost of searching for lost cattle.
7
Automated Sorting: Visual
inspection, weighing, and quality
sorting can optimize product pricing
and return an additional $27 per day
or $10,000 per year for a farm.
10
Livestock Records and
Management: Software can keep
records and make decisions based on
real-time herd data to reduce costs by
$6 per 20kg of production.
3
Audio/Video Facility
Monitoring: Cameras and AI can help
avoid or track lost animals, reducing
labor time by 2.27 labor hours per
1000 pounds and two hours per
broiler house per day.
6
Tracing and Marketing:
Technology can communicate key
product attributes so consumers make
informed purchases and, for farmers,
unlock 15% premiums compared to
retail prices of commodity beef.
12
General Health Monitoring:
Bluetooth-enabled animal wearables
can monitor activity and detect
anomalies, reducing medication by
15% per animal and shortening the
cattle finishing process by 4 to 6
weeks.
9
$2.4–$3.1 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) for
the U.S. agriculture Industry
$15.7–$20.4 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) for
the U.S. agriculture Industry
$1.4–$1.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) for
the U.S. agriculture Industry
MARKET
COORDINATIONPRODUCTION
PLANNING
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
USDA Logo
794
1
2
3
4
8
6
7
5
9
10
11
12
LIVESTOCK & DAIRY
Reference final USDA report title
Precision Agriculture in Livestock and Dairy Could Add
$20–$25 BILLION IN POTENTIAL BENEFIT (GROSS) FOR THE U.S. AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY,
OF WHICH ~40% ($7–$10 BILLION) DEPENDS ON INTERNET E-CONNECTIVITY
Reference that all sources are in Appendix A
Infanticide Prevention:
Sensors can listen for sounds of
distress and stimulate sows to re-
position, reducing these preventable
animal deaths by 75%.
2
Mastitis Detection:
Automated monitoring systems can
detect early signs of mastitis and help
avoid $316 in indirect costs per
infected cow per year.
5
Robotic Milking: Robots can
sanitize and stimulate teats, self-attach
to utters, and catch milk, increasing
the frequency of milkings and
increasing production by 8%.
8
Online Channels: Channels like
online cattle auctions can return 65%
more revenue per unit of beef,
compared to mainstream supply chains.
11
1
Fertility Planning: Biosensors
can track ovulation cycles and detect
estrus with a 95% to 97% success rate,
helping to boost pregnancy rates.
Precision Feeding: Sensors
can calibrate and distribute optimal
amounts of feed, decreasing costs by
$0.12 per day per cow.
4
Unmanned Herding:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles can
monitor and herd, reducing by 20%
the cost of searching for lost cattle.
7
Automated Sorting: Visual
inspection, weighing, and quality
sorting can optimize product pricing
and return an additional $27 per day
or $10,000 per year for a farm.
10
Livestock Records and
Management: Software can keep
records and make decisions based on
real-time herd data to reduce costs by
$6 per 20kg of production.
3
Audio/Video Facility
Monitoring: Cameras and AI can help
avoid or track lost animals, reducing
labor time by 2.27 labor hours per
1000 pounds and two hours per
broiler house per day.
6
Tracing and Marketing:
Technology can communicate key
product attributes so consumers make
informed purchases and, for farmers,
unlock 15% premiums compared to
retail prices of commodity beef.
12
General Health Monitoring:
Bluetooth-enabled animal wearables
can monitor activity and detect
anomalies, reducing medication by
15% per animal and shortening the
cattle finishing process by 4 to 6
weeks.
9
$2.4–$3.1 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) for
the U.S. agriculture Industry
$15.7–$20.4 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) for
the U.S. agriculture Industry
$1.4–$1.8 Billion
in potential benefit (gross) for
the U.S. agriculture Industry
MARKET
COORDINATIONPRODUCTION
PLANNING
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
USDA Logo
After implementing precision agriculture technologies enabled by internet connectivity, livestock and dairy
farmers can enjoy benefits to their business management and quality of life.
LIVESTOCK & DAIRY PRODUCERS
BENEFITS OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE
Dave’s alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m., two hours later
than it used to. Out of habit, he swings by the barn
before breakfast and checks on the dairy cows lining
up to get into the robotic milking stalls. All 180 will be
milked 2 to 3 times today, compared to before the
robots when three people milked twice daily.
When his four kids still lived at home, the family could
easily get by with a parallel milking system, but as the
kids moved out, he realized that they needed to make
a change to stay in business. His son, Will, is pretty
tech-savvy and had begged him to consider
automating the operation with the robotic milkers
he’d read about. Dave was skeptical at first, but after
penciling out the cost of hiring 3 new laborers versus
outfitting the barn with robotic milkers, the financial
cost-benefits were pretty similar. Plus, with this new
tech, he has scaled from 60 dairy cows to 180 in 3
years, without new hiring. This automated system has
made his cost structure more similar to much larger
operations; as Will puts it, “less time milking, more
time managing.”
Dave walks to the small office attached to the side of
the barn, from which he runs much of the operation,
and checks the system dashboard from his computer.
As each cow enters the stall, its RFID tag pulls up its
record from the livestock management software,
flashing its recent stats across the screen (including
feed, medications, milk yield, and fertility cycle). This
data is used to set cows’ feeding regimen in the stall,
and the software increasingly enables personalized
precision feeding, varying the type and amount of
feed based on yields and other factors. He suspects
these records will one day make it easier to meet food
safety and traceability regulations, and he’s heard
some producers are experimenting with using
blockchain applications to share stats with customers
who want more information about their food.
The herd-level dashboard loads pretty quickly, but
pulling up an individual cow’s trends means sitting for
15 to 20 seconds each time. Because the metal barn
blocks cell signals, Dave has 14 different cellular plans
for full coverage, costing about $1900 per month.
Dave’s smartphone chimes with a mobile alert. Cow
#138 is eating and drinking less, a classic early warning
sign of mastitis. He walks back to the barn to inspect,
making a mental note to check the data from the
activity tracking collars, too. They’re like “fit bits” for
cows, in that they record each animal’s movements
and digestive habits (although, annoyingly, they
operate with a separate software from the robotic
milking system). It took Dave a while to trust the data;
he grew up around cows and jokes that he has a sixth
sense for when they’re in heat or getting sick. But the
data reports have been alerting Dave to health issues
12 to 24 hours earlier than his gut was telling him and
improving his breeding practices too. He’s heard that
swine and poultry facilities have started using artificial
intelligence in cameras and audio recorders to flag
signs of illness based on animal breathing or signs of
duress. He wonders if similar tech exists for cows. The
real value, of course, would be in streaming all this
data to his vet, offloading some health management
duties and getting recommendations faster and more
consistently.
He checks his schedule for the day as he heads back to
the house for lunch. He has a call set up with his
contact at a meal kit startup, one of the direct-to-
consumer marketing channels he’s trying. With more
time on his hands, he’s been testing the idea of a
dual-purpose herd, instead of selling his bulls to
someone else. Before, he lacked the volume to make it
economical, but this startup likes small, nontraditional
suppliers. Plus, they provide recipes to buyers, shaping
consumer tastes. He is able to sell more of each
animal, which reduces waste to increase profitability.
Dave is looking forward to this evening when the
whole family is coming over for dinner at 5 p.m., since
the young grandkids have an early bedtime. For most
of his life, Dave couldn’t attend many family events
because of his hours. Not anymore, and not tonight.
Name:
Dave McGrory
State:
Pennsylvania
Products:
Dairy milk,
some beef
Highlighted
Technologies:
• Robotic milking
system
• RFID tags
• Livestock
management
software
• Precision feeding
• Mobile alerts
• Activity tracking
collars
• Artificial intelligence
cameras/audio
recorders
• Direct-to-consumer
marketing
Dave’s story is a composite representation based on conversations with 8 real livestock/dairy farmers in California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana,
New York, and Pennsylvania. This story describes the everyday joys, frustrations, and experiences of farmers pioneering the adoption of
Precision Agriculture technologies.
A LIVESTOCK & DAIRY PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN PRACTICE
of illness, fertility
cycle, and digestive
issues in animals
with diversifying
business models a new
selling channels
by reducing manual
labor and allowing
for flexible scheduling
of daily activities
over gut instinct
results in quicker,
more accurate
business management
through direct
marketing channels
and transparency
Early
detection
Eroding
advantages of scale
Physical health
and peace of mind
Data-driven
decisions
Meeting
consumer demands
BENEFITS OF NEXT GENERATION PRECISION AGRICULTURE
PAGE 31
CONNECTED TECHNOLOGIES IN
LIVESTOCK & DAIRY PRODUCTS
Producer Narrative: Livestock & Dairy Products
Dave’s alarm goes o at 6:00 a.m., two hours later
than it used to. Out of habit, he swings by the barn
before breakfast and checks on the dairy cows
lining up to get into the robotic milking stalls. All
180 will be milked 2 to 3 times today, compared to
before the robots when three people milked twice
daily.
When his four kids still lived at home, the family
could easily get by with a parallel milking system,
but as the kids moved out, he realized that they
needed to make a change to stay in business. His
son, Will, is pretty tech-savvy and had begged him
to consider automating the operation with the
robotic milkers he’d read about. Dave was skeptical
at first, but aer penciling out the cost of hiring 3
new laborers versus outfitting the barn with robotic
milkers, the financial cost-benefits were pretty
similar. Plus, with this new tech, he has scaled from
60 dairy cows to 180 in 3 years, without new hiring.
This automated system has made his cost structure
more similar to much larger operations; as Will
puts it, “less time milking, more time managing.”
Dave walks to the small oice attached to the
side of the barn, from which he runs much of the
operation, and checks the system dashboard
from his computer. As each cow enters the stall,
its RFID tag pulls up its record from the livestock
management soware, flashing its recent stats
across the screen (including feed, medications,
milk yield, and fertility cycle). This data is used
to set cows’ feeding regimen in the stall, and
the soware increasingly enables personalized
precision feeding, varying the type and amount of
feed based on yields and other factors. He suspects
these records will one day make it easier to meet
food safety and traceability regulations, and he’s
heard some producers are experimenting with
using blockchain applications to share stats with
customers who want more information about their
food.
The herd-level dashboard loads pretty quickly, but
pulling up an individual cow’s trends means sitting
for 15 to 20 seconds each time. Because the metal
barn blocks cell signals, Dave has 14 dierent
cellular plans for full coverage, costing about $1900
per month.
Dave’s smartphone chimes with a mobile alert.
Cow #138 is eating and drinking less, a classic early
warning sign of mastitis. He walks back to the barn
to inspect, making a mental note to check the data
from the activity tracking collars, too. They’re like
“fit bits” for cows, in that they record each animal’s
movements and digestive habits (although,
annoyingly, they operate with a separate soware
from the robotic milking system). It took Dave a
while to trust the data; he grew up around cows
and jokes that he has a sixth sense for when they’re
in heat or getting sick. But the data reports have
been alerting Dave to health issues 12 to 24 hours
earlier than his gut was telling him and improving
his breeding practices too. He’s heard that swine
and poultry facilities have started using artificial
intelligence in cameras and audio recorders to
flag signs of illness based on animal breathing
or signs of duress. He wonders if similar tech
exists for cows. The real value, of course, would
be in streaming all this data to his vet, oloading
some health management duties and getting
recommendations faster and more consistently.
He checks his schedule for the day as he heads
back to the house for lunch. He has a call set up
with his contact at a meal kit startup, one of the
direct-to-consumer marketing channels he’s trying.
With more time on his hands, he’s been testing
the idea of a dual-purpose herd, instead of selling
his bulls to someone else. Before, he lacked the
volume to make it economical, but this startup
likes small, nontraditional suppliers. Plus, they
provide recipes to buyers, shaping consumer
tastes. He is able to sell more of each animal, which
reduces waste to increase profitability.
Dave is looking forward to this evening when the
whole family is coming over for dinner at 5 p.m.,
since the young grandkids have an early bedtime.
For most of his life, Dave couldn’t attend many
family events because of his hours. Not anymore,
and not tonight.
PAGE 32
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
20
40% less fuel burned, due to VRT
technologies
22
7.5% fewer people at risk of
hunger in developing countries
20
2 seconds to trace food products’
journey, using blockchain-enabled records
21
20–50%+ lower water usage
22,23
up to 80% reduction in chemical
application
24
SUSTAINABILITY SECURITYHEALTH
SOCIETAL BENEFITS OF PRECISION
AGRICULTURE
20
40% less fuel burned, due to VRT
technologies
22
7.5% fewer people at risk of
hunger in developing countries
20
2 seconds to trace food products’
journey, using blockchain-enabled records
21
20–50%+ lower water usage
22,23
up to 80% reduction in chemical
application
24
SUSTAINABILITY SECURITYHEALTH
SOCIETAL BENEFITS OF PRECISION
AGRICULTURE
United States Department of Agriculture
SOCIETAL BENEFITS OF
PRECISION AGRICULTURE
PAGE 33
OTHER BENEFITS OF E-CONNECTIVITY
FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Next Generation Precision Agriculture
technologies have the potential to generate a
“killer application”
25
that leads to a demand for
more or quicker expansion of rural broadband
infrastructure and services. Such expansion of
broadband throughout America’s rural areas,
would also enable Internet service access for
other uses. Rural based industries like mining and
forestry will find eieciencies and quality of life
measures can increase access to health care and
improved education facilities for rural citizens. A
similar analysis can be done in these industries
and quality of life measures.
FORESTRY. The forest products industry is
among the top ten manufacturing sectors in
the continental United States, by population
employed, and generates billions of dollars in
annual sales.
26
The largest gains can be found
in monitoring forest growth through smart pest
management, drone planting, and connected fire
prevention technologies. Real-time information
provides significant value where delayed
information transmission or imprecision in the
early stages of planting can result in long-term and
consequential loss.
TELEMEDICINE. Demographic, environmental,
economic, and social factors put rural residents at
higher risk of preventable death from conditions
like cancer, heart disease, unintentional injuries,
and stroke.
27
Mental health issues, including opioid
dependency, have become a focus for rural health
interventions.
28
Connected technologies enable
constant information streaming that can improve
care quality, resource use, and diagnosis, reducing
missed cases and medical waste.
Non-emergency treatment technologies can
improve the management of chronic conditions,
ensuring adherence of medication and preventing
costly, unnecessary interventions. Telemedicine
applications oen require higher speeds, reliability
and capacity, and if available could expand
treatment access to rural residents who may
be too remote for needed access to providers
and could enable local hospitals to continue
financially-sustainable operations.
29
DISTANCE LEARNING. Connected technologies
can benefit student retention, including increasing
education accessibility for disabled students.
Technologies enable tailored learning directed
to the individual student or for teacher support.
Digital learning, such as coding skills for post-
graduates, expands educational access for adults.
PAGE 34
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
TODAY’S CHALLENGES TO
SCALING ADOPTION
OF NEXT GENERATION
PRECISION AGRICULTURE
If Next Generation Precision Agriculture adoption fueled by a strong rural Internet
infrastructure is so transformative, then why are we not yet causing wide-scale change?
Farmers currently face challenges in adoption
and deployment of advanced technologies in
the field, limiting the extent to which the U.S.
agriculture industry can realize the potential
economic impact. A 2017 Purdue University survey,
for example, found that one-third of Precision
Agriculture technology dealers believed that
interpreting and making decisions with Precision
Agriculture information took too much of their
customers’ time. These dealers also expressed
that producers might be shying away from use of
Precision Agriculture tech because of aordability
(65 percent), soil type (23 percent), a lack of
confidence in data (23 percent), topography (21
percent), and limited time to interpret data (21
percent).
11
Broadly speaking, these trends are
classic industry challenges to adoption for any new
practice, product, or service and are not unique to
the digitization of agriculture.
As demonstrated by the following figure, Next
Generation Precision Agriculture incorporates
technologies of varying maturities, with some
of the most transformative technologies still
nascent or requiring new capabilities for full
deployment across the industry. Technologies that
can integrate with existing machines in highly-
mechanized production, like GPS guidance in
combines, for example, are a popular technology
that is widely used but may not have capacity to
significantly modernize business beyond current
practice. On the other hand, technologies like
image and video recognition may dramatically
change detection and diagnosis of issues in
livestock facilities or produce fields, requiring large
datasets to train machines and causing significant
changes in business.
Between these two factors, user characteristics and
technology maturity, Next Generation Precision
Agriculture brings several new or more nuanced
challenges to adoption that may necessitate new
roles within the industry ecosystem and new
strategies for action.
Specialized
Transformative
Emergent Conventional
Low High
Narrow Broad
POTENTIAL BENEFIT
APPLICABILITY
PAGE 35
A lack of ubiquitous, reliable broadband service
undermines potential benefits.
E-connectivity is the backbone of digital
technology and drives much of the value by
making it possible to aggregate, analyze, and
act on the data collected. When the Internet isn’t
reliable enough to support connected devices,
the benefits derived from precision technologies
are substantially diminished. Some farmers,
therefore, dedicate significant time and eort
to find workarounds to insuicient Internet
service, which takes time away from managing
their businesses and serving their customers.
Some of the more innovative and risk-tolerant
rural telecommunications providers and co-ops
are deploying nontraditional, creative methods
to help local farmers gain internet connectivity,
highlighting an untapped customer base for larger-
scale providers willing to understand and tailor
their services to rural communities’ needs.
Some Next Generation Precision Agriculture
technologies function with basic Internet
connections, so even slow speeds are better than
no connections at all. But many require a more
reliable and high-speed Internet connection as
a minimum requirement. Additionally, without
access to online learning and peer sharing
platforms, farmers are less likely to succeed
with technology implementation, having wasted
money, time, and eort without realizing complete
benefits.
Farms may not be able to access the full value of
the technologies they are purchasing.
New, high-tech features can drive more equipment
sales and higher usage, but purchases can be
expensive for producers, and obtaining the
greatest value from devices requires overcoming a
steep learning curve by farmers.
A grain farmer, for example, might use the basic
functionality of a yield monitor but may not realize
its full potential by analyzing year-over-year
patterns. Similarly, many livestock operations use
livestock management systems to record daily
activity but rely on analog clipboards for real-time
recordkeeping, due to clunky interfaces that dier
from their actual protocols.
The complexity of managing and interpreting
large datasets requires advanced technical skills
and overwhelming amounts of information that
can make it hard to, in practice, integrate insights
into daily operations. For early adopters, these
problems are complicated by a relative lack of
educational resources about new technologies,
and they are le shouldering a heavy burden of
exploration. Farmers who do maximize the use
of their investments are learning how to do so
through self-education or peer learning, which
are both time-intensive and ineicient to scale
naturally. Broadband use could help expand the
reach of these specialist sta members and justify
higher pay.
Crowd-sourced, cloud-based data sharing and
aggregation services are emerging, yet remain
limited when considering the full scale and scope
of American agriculture. Such services are not
readily available to all producers, especially to
those in the specialty crops and livestock and
dairy industry, who might be able to benefit more
from market coordination and production than
“90 percent of people
do nothing with the
data they collect.
They don’t know
what to do with it.”
- Row crop producer, Midwest
PAGE 36
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
row crop applications. USDA has taken significant
steps to improve its data analytics capabilities
but still primarily relies upon traditional data
collection methods, which limit the types of
analyses that can be performed to support
farm program administration and to improve
small producers’ profitability and sustainability.
Enhanced technical assistance and modernized
Extension Services are only possible with more
ubiquitous deployment of broadband to farms and
ranches along with expanded use of Precision Ag
technologies.
Values in the data economy, such as openness
and sharing, can seem contrary to traditional
farming culture that is grounded in proprietary
practices.
Farmers are oen hesitant to share data because
of competition, privacy, and ownership concerns.
But the ability to tailor services, benchmark
performance, and discover new connections relies
on exchanging information with providers and
peers. Attitudes toward peer data sharing run the
full spectrum from (a) farmers who believe in full
transparency to (b) those who are open to sharing
transactionally or with people they know to (c) still
others who, as a rule, decline to share their data.
Many farmers acknowledge discomfort with
sharing data with suppliers but are willing to make
a tradeo to realize the benefits of technology.
This points to the importance of informed consent
on the ways in which farmers’ data may be used
and to what extent they wish to participate in
various data-sharing activities.
The value of many connected technologies
comes from interoperability, but the industry
lacks standards to drive compatibility between
Precision Agriculture technologies.
Dierent technology systems create a need for
interoperability and a “common language” for
agriculture tech devices, but data integration has
so far been disappointing: “many companies claim
they can do it until [you] sit down and discuss the
… data sources and system requirements.”
13
A
tech-sophisticated farmer, for example, might wish
to predict year-end water usage by connecting
data from GPS field maps, drone images, variable-
rate irrigation systems, and farm management
soware; however, these technologies might
not be compatible with each other. Technology
PAGE 37
“It’s a major victory in my
career to establish a WiFi
connection on this farm.”
- Hog producer, Midwest
by dierent companies oen cannot interface,
sometimes resulting in manufacturer-dependent
purchasing decisions.
Without interoperable soware, farmers have
a diicult time getting a top-level view of their
operations, limiting their ability to use devices to
their full potential. Manufacturers oen do not use
open standards, and some farmers are improvising
solutions or even “hacking” their equipment to
generate more automation or deeper, real-time
insights. Innovations that are possible in batch
processing, interpreting, and archiving data on-
farm or near-farm are constrained because of the
lack of data standards.
Taken together, siloed products reinforce a view of
new ag technologies as standalone tools, making it
hard to get a full picture of on-farm data, generate
the new insights that are possible, and unlock the
full potential of digital production systems.
New and beginning farmers oen seek or
advocate for technological innovation, but
fewer people are returning to farms.
According to research by USDA’s Economic
Research Service, 65 percent of beginning farmers
are under 54 years old, including 17 percent under
35 years old, and these new farmers are more
likely to be digital natives, who have comfort and
experience using technologies.
30
They tend to have
a passion and interest in tech jobs or using digital
skills in their work. These individuals who are
interested in agriculture are attracted to the ways
that technology can bring value to the industry and
oen take it upon themselves to make the case for
ag tech investment. Today, however, the reality is
that many people are less attracted to careers in
production agriculture and are more interested in
jobs with less manual labor or with higher pay.
This may, in part, explain the net outmigration
of people from some rural areas, with annual
population losses recorded between 2010 and
2016.
31
Engaging digital natives is critical to
accelerating adoption of ag tech; in fact, by
expanding broadband e-connectivity to farmland
and ranchland, this would improve the ability of
technology growth in technology applications on
farms to slow the outflow of tech-savvy people
from rural areas.
PAGE 38
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKS FOR
NEXT GENERATION
PRECISION AGRICULTURE
Many countries are embracing new agriculture technologies, including Precision Agriculture, with
partnerships, policies, and targeted investment strategies designed to transform farms, businesses,
and local economies. These developments promise to improve agricultural sustainability and the
world’s capacity to meet demand but also raise questions about the United States’ ability to remain
internationally competitive with other leaders in ag tech.
Here’s a brief snapshot of how Next Generation Precision Agriculture is driving productivity and
profitability internationally—as well as what adoption looks like around the world.
AUSTRALIA
Rural communities in Australia—
much like those in the United
States—oen lack Internet
connectivity, due to the challenges
of an expansive land mass.
32
To help spur innovation and
technological adoption, the
government created a AU$60
million ($43.3 million USD) grant
program for individuals and
organizations interested in testing
and implementing sustainable land
management practices.
33
Grant
recipients at research centers and
connected farms are now validating
innovative technologies such as
virtual fencing, drones that muster
(corral) sheep, remote solar pump
monitoring,
34
and sensors.
35
Due in
part to the rise of Next Generation
Precision Agriculture, production
in Australia is expected to increase
by AU$20.3 billion ($14.9 billion
USD) in gross value by 2030, up 25
percent from 2015 levels.
36
CHINA
China has begun to embrace the
use of Next Generation Precision
Agriculture as one solution to its
constantly expanding population’s
demand for food and shrinking
amount of arable land, due to
degradation from pollution. The
government has launched a pilot
program to test autonomous
technologies in Jiangsu Province,
37
and companies are developing
technologies such as artificial
intelligence (AI),
38
wearables,
39
and
blockchain
21
to track livestock and
monitor their health. Gains from
the technology have been seen
at the microeconomic level, such
as a 25 percent increase in milk
yield due to livestock wearables,
39
but have not yet been significant
country-wide due to the small
size of most farms. Productivity
can be expected to increase with
continued consolidation and
modernization of Chinese farms.
40
THE NETHERLANDS
Despite its small size, the
Netherlands invests heavily
in innovative and sustainable
agricultural practices to help
farmers and technology companies
remain competitive.
41
Its adoption
of Next Generation Precision
Agriculture has led to notable
successes in agriculture leadership
through the use of pioneering
technologies: drones that measure
soil chemistry, water content, and
nutrients of individual plants; high-
tech broilers; and LED-lit, climate-
controlled greenhouse complexes.
The Netherlands produces the
largest tomato, chili, and cucumber
yield globally, has reduced its
water dependence by almost 90
percent for key crops, and has
reduced antibiotic use in poultry
and livestock by 60 percent. The
Netherlands is the world’s number
two exporter of food, in terms
of value, behind only the United
States, despite being 270 times
smaller in landmass.
42
PAGE 39
CONNECTING RURAL AGRICULTURE:
STRATEGIES FOR ACTION
Connected technologies can improve profitability for producers, prosperity for agricultural
communities, and boost national competitiveness for the industry, especially for small
producers and those in specialty crops and livestock who could benefit most from
understanding and utilizing all the data their farms and ranches generate. This will take
dedicated eorts to unlock the potential value for stakeholders. Harnessing the promise of
e-connectivity, digital technologies, and data will require new ways of working, new skills,
and new tools, and additional action can accelerate their development, at USDA, in land-
grant universities, and within industry.
As explained in the following call-out, greater
access to e-connectivity is at the core of
this opportunity and opens up additional
opportunities within healthcare, forestry, distance
learning, and other rural industries. Discussions on
e-connectivity that focus primarily on equity and
quality of life—while accurate—continue to focus
on dynamics of population, such as density, and
may miss new technologies to deploy the speed
and scale required by the agriculture industry to
reap the potential economic and societal benefits.
Realizing these results, therefore, will require
coordinated action focused on six key priorities:
1. Tailor deployment of Internet infrastructure
to communities
One of the most basic challenges is the variability
between communities—the dierences in the
challenges each face and the unique assets to
address them. In many cases community-based
groups may be best positioned to aggregate
demand for connectivity and realize substantial
benefit from deployment. Local utility co-ops, for
example, are able to tap into existing customer
bases, while local business and industry groups
could potentially serve as intermediaries or
resellers who cover a greater portion of the cost
of deployment. Aggregating local voices and
developing applicable strategies to connect supply
with demand can create sustainable strategies for
deploying Internet infrastructure.
2. Incentivize development of innovative
technologies and solutions, both for scaling
connectivity and improving agricultural
production
There is a revolution underway in how farmers
interact with o-farm service providers, suppliers,
and customers, oering the opportunity to bring
United States leadership in innovation and digital
technology to bear on the challenges of agriculture
and rural connectivity. Both the agricultural and
telecommunications industries are complex and
specialized, and it is not always easy to identify
which solutions might provide the most eective
and long-term success, but identifying innovative
ideas, providing seed funding for promising
ventures, and supporting technologies through
proof of concept can accelerate advancements
PAGE 40
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
from single-operation “tinkering” to mass market
research and development. Tapping into a farm’s
digital assets is a huge opportunity for equipment
retailers, agronomic consultants, or input dealers
that in turn feed the continuing development of
digital tools for agricultural production.
3. Create the conditions that allow, encourage,
and reward innovation, including identifying
the statutory or regulatory obstacles that
hinder new, innovative providers
Where laws are inconsistent across jurisdictions,
policymakers can help align requirements at
various levels of government and ease the path to
growth and profitability. The Federal Government,
under the leadership of President Trump and
his Cabinet, has set forth on a concerted eort
through the American Broadband Initiative, to
reduce barriers in Federal processes to access
Government assets for broadband deployment
and coordinating public programs, with the goal
of filling broadband connectivity gaps in America.
More information can be found in the American
Broadband Initiative’s Milestone Report, published
in February 2019, at https://www.whitehouse.
gov/articles/high-speed-broadband-unlocks-
opportunities-americans
.
Moreover, issues around use of spectrum
frequencies and interoperability limit the
eectiveness of new technologies and keep them
from working together everywhere, and the
agriculture industry could benefit from shared
agreement and standards. Without them, new
providers will remain with suboptimal access to
key resources needed to create greater value.
In order that the nationwide spectrum strategy
can best address the future needs of the Federal
Government as well as those of the private
sector, President Trump issued a Presidential
Memorandum on October 25, 2018, directing
the Executive Branch to evaluate current and
future spectrum needs to devise a national
strategy, including reporting on “emerging
technologies and their expected impact on non-
Federal spectrum demand”
43
. These activities are
currently underway, including USDA’s review of the
comments received through the Notice of Inquiry
issued in the Federal Register in March 2019.
4. Coordinate across public programs to
eectively use taxpayer funds and develop new
partnerships
Access to capital can support commercialization
and help new solutions scale to all communities,
osetting high up-front costs through direct
funding, coordination of existing sources of
public plus new private funds, and development
of partnerships to share the cost of deploying
new solutions. In some cases, equipment
manufacturers or telecommunications co-ops
may partner to oset the costs of infrastructure
investments, since they realize added benefits
in a specific community. Similarly, agricultural
producers may be able to more quickly adopt new
production technologies with the help of cost-
sharing programs—particularly in cases where the
technologies not only increase profitability but
drive greater societal benefits.
PAGE 41
5. Build capability to scale adoption and realize
value
An additional priority is building the capability
to take advantage of these assets, increasing
awareness of new developments, insight into the
expected return on investment, and access to the
skills needed to generate this value. To harness
this revolution, farmers need opportunities
for knowledge transfer to develop new skills,
utilize relevant services, and receive training
on digital assets. In some cases, these services
may be coordinated and shared, driven by local
production cooperatives. Borrowing from the
co-op model, in fact, one Texas-based data
cooperative oers access to benefits such as data
analysis tools and aggregated insights.
44
Local
universities and colleges may also provide test
sites, demonstrations, courses, and certifications
in new, high-value technologies. Ideally,
farmers and ranchers would be able to invest in
technology-neutral technologies that run on WiFi,
600MHz, or multiple bands of spectrum, enabling
the producer and the farm’s data to move freely
between satellite coverage to a mesh WiFi network
(or vice versa).
Each of these priorities needs key players to own
them and will require a broad set of partners to
achieve these outcomes: advocates who can
mobilize support, policymakers who create
the right conditions, incubators to accelerate
innovation and new solutions, planners to help
communities adapt it to their context, funders
and financers who address resource gaps, and
researchers and educators who help build the
awareness and capability to get the most from
those resources. The combination is beyond the
resources of any one organization or actor and will
require shared commitment over years to realize
the benefits to country, communities, and citizens.
6. Clarify and emphasize the importance of rural
connectivity to all consumers of agriculture
commodities
E-connectivity is not simply a rural issue;
Internet expansion, economic productivity,
and food security contribute to each citizen’s
quality of life, regardless of where they live. The
benefits of broadband e-connectivity accrue
not only to the producers using Next Generation
Precision Agriculture technologies, but also to
consumers throughout America and the world
who value a safe and eicient food supply. Plus,
more universal access to e-connectivity opens
up economic opportunity to more Americans
through improvements in quality of life, including
education, health, and leisure activities. However,
citizens of urban and suburban areas may not have
awareness of the importance of e-connectivity for
rural areas and the paucity of Internet services
available there. Therefore, it is important to
continue educating and energizing the public and
policy makers to grow the basis of support for
deploying broadband infrastructure in farmland
and ranchland, as well as enhancing knowledge of
agriculture technology’s potential for the nation’s
entire economy and prosperity.
PAGE 42
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
Broadband and Next Generation Precision Agriculture are critical components to creating a rural America
with access to world-class resources, tools, and opportunity, and USDA is committed to tackling the
challenges that limit full realization of this potential.
In many cases, the strategies outlined above can be utilized by industry associations, community groups,
private companies, or other coalitions, and USDA’s best role will oen be as a convener and integrator.
USDA is taking early action to see where incisive government support can accelerate impact. USDA has
launched an internal working group of relevant Mission Areas to analyze opportunities across programs
and support coordination and action for the specific initiatives:
POLICY
USDA will work with other Federal agencies to remove barriers to broadband deployment and precision
technology adoption and advocate for standards that facilitate scale.
• Documenting Spectrum Requirements for Precision Agriculture. On October 25, 2018, the White
House issued a Presidential Memorandum on Sustainable Spectrum Strategy, which will inventory
spectrum needs for U.S. industries. USDA will support this process through industry engagement and
policy analysis on agricultural spectrum requirements and engage with stakeholders to advise other
Federal oices as spectrum strategy is developed.
• Standards for Data Sharing and Access. USDA will support industry discussions on equipment
interoperability and data communication standards, making it easier for producers to aggregate and
use the data they collect.
• Reducing Barriers to Ag Tech Innovation. USDA continues to help streamline Federal permitting
processes as part of the American Broadband Initiative and will similarly coordinate across federal
agencies to reduce regulatory burden and barriers to use of digital technologies in agriculture.
WHAT USDA IS COMMITTED TO DOING
PAGE 43
FUNDING AND FINANCING
USDA will continue to play its traditional role in improving access to capital where private markets
are unable to do so at sustainable rates or levels. USDA is coordinating with, and providing technical
assistance to, other Federal agencies making investments in rural broadband. In particular, USDA plans
to launch already appropriated infrastructure funding and will adjust existing programs, to the extent
allowed by law, to recognize and encourage Precision Agriculture adoption.
• ReConnect Broadband Funding Pilot Program. Beginning in 2019, an innovative funding program
for rural broadband will expand communities’ and providers’ eligibility for Federal funding, increase
access to capital, and incentivize public-private funding and partnerships. For the first time ever,
USDA will be encouraging Internet service providers to connect farms and ranches with modern
Internet infrastructure.
• Farm Production Financing. USDA’s conservation mission oers opportunity to incentivize tech trials
through cost-sharing options, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will explore
opportunities to finance digital technologies that improve water and soil management, starting
with a pilot for water control measures. Similarly, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) will evaluate
opportunities to incorporate Next Generation Precision Agriculture into existing FSA farm program
funding or loans, such as those for storage facilities.
INCUBATING
USDA will look for opportunities to test and scale the use of precision technologies where they can
improve delivery of existing mission areas.
• Agriculture Data Strategy. USDA will support accelerated innovation through open data
and/or research insights from aggregate data. The increased volume of data creates new questions
about data use and protection as well as new opportunities to improve services and outcomes for
producers. USDA will explore how anonymized data sets might oer new agronomic insights or
impact measurement for conservation or other programs.
PAGE 44
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
• Blockchain for Major Retailers and Organics. USDA will perform short-term demonstration projects
to test the applications of traceability within the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), helping to
potentially certify specialized production practices such as organics.
• Integrated Reporting. Seek opportunities to ease the burden for producers interacting with USDA by
oering integration with precision technologies (like yield monitors) and allowing digital reporting.
In particular, the recently launched Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative oers a first test
case for this potential.
PLANNING
USDA will help local communities understand how specific resources and strategies fit their context,
identifying patterns and models that can help accelerate deployment and adoption.
• The e-Connectivity Resource Handbook. This document outlines all USDA programs that support
broadband deployment and adoption of e-connectivity technologies in the agriculture industry. This
new tool will support communities seeking to deploy high-speed, reliable broadband.
• The Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI). Under this initiative, Rural Development has
oered technical assistance to communities for strategic asset-based planning, including assessment
of and strategies for e-connectivity infrastructure.
RESEARCHING & EDUCATING
USDA will engage producers and other constituents to provide access to resources and local support at
USDA oices and assets.
• Assess Standards and Options for Production Models. USDA’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS)
will be on the forefront of conducting fundamental Next Generation Precision Agricultural research,
developing standards, evaluating new technologies, creating production models that can be used
in decision support tools, and developing a publicly available dataset that will be used in Next
Generation Precision Agriculture applications.
• Examine Constraints to Adoption. Conduct research to uncover barriers to producers’ adoption that
are impeding more broad utilization of Next Generation Precision Agriculture applications.
• Evaluate Options for Federal Investment Priorities. Collect and analyze data on USDA’s program
performance and further quantify the societal and financial impacts of Next Generation Precision
Agriculture to improve the eectiveness of Federal funds.
• Extension Oices. USDA will develop methods and protocols within Extension Services, creating
capabilities to promote or scale Precision Agriculture use by advising producers on relevant
technologies and potential financial benefits once applied.
• New and Beginning Farmers. USDA’s Oice of Public Partnerships and Engagement (OPPE) will
include Precision Agriculture elements in its New and Beginning Farmer programs.
PAGE 45
PROPOSAL FOR PARTNERSHIPS
The call to action extends well beyond USDA,
and both public and private actors have roles
to play. Expanding rural broadband Internet
infrastructure and spreading Next Generation
Precision Agriculture to farms across America
are herculean tasks that will require sustained
engagement from influential entities, innovators,
partners, investors, and more.
All hands are needed to help lead the nation
towards digital transformation and greater
economic prosperity.
Sitting at the intersection of infrastructure and
adoption, catalyzing this economic revolution will
depend on agriculture technology companies,
Internet service providers, community leaders,
producers, as well as the associations that
represent these interests. Each stakeholder group
can fill multiple roles to realize the benefits of
digital transformation.
ADVOCATING
Making infrastructure and adoption a national
priority is a job for all involved stakeholders
and beneficiaries, by building exposure to the
challenges and awareness of the importance
of solving them. Researchers can measure and
communicate the impact of broadband and Next
Generation Precision Agriculture expansion as
well as evaluate methods to tackle challenges
to deployment. Technology companies, Internet
service providers, and rural electric cooperatives
can highlight and prioritize the challenges of
rural communities and producers for talented
technologists to solve. Additionally, best practices
should be promoted to address cybersecurity
and privacy concerns in coordination with other
Federal agencies and external stakeholders.
FUNDING AND FINANCING
Public funding can play a role to address the scale
of the challenge for broadband infrastructure and
Next Generation Precision Agriculture technology
deployment, because the nation needs public-
private partnerships to share costs and risks.
Agribusiness companies and manufacturers
could consider osetting high initial costs of
infrastructure with the opportunity to gain users
and long-term revenue streams. New cross-
industry partnerships with other companies
that have business interests in expanding rural
connectivity, such as transportation or shipping,
could also oer a regional corridor play.
INCUBATING
Innovation will be at the core of eorts to
break through the tradeos inherent in scaling
infrastructure as well as developing compelling
tools that are practical and profitable for
producers to put to use. Associations can help
provide a platform with easy access to frontline
users (producers) for rapid testing of new
technologies. Similarly, universities
and/or USDA’s ARS can create hubs of talent
and expertise focused on these challenges,
bringing together multiple disciplines to solve
tough challenges. Technology companies can
help encourage and support innovation not only
from their research and development pipeline,
but also from small players embedded in rural
communities, providing channels to scale
success.
PLANNING
Communities can draw on their strengths and
assets to both attract infrastructure providers
and support technology deployment. Local co-
ops, including telecom, electric, and agriculture,
can help aggregate demand for connectivity and
PAGE 46
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
figure out how to invest to meet the demand.
Producers and farming associations can
crowdsource more accurate connectivity maps by
canvassing and sending surveys to local producers.
They can also clarify the local community’s
business case for broadband implementation
using local connectivity knowledge and peer
groups. Internet Service Providers can collaborate
with community leaders to set expectations and
explicitly lay out requirements needed to deploy
broadband to specific communities in response
to their unique needs. In technology adoption,
community organizations can identify methods
to pool high-demand support services, similar to
some local cotton gins that have experimented
with oering data services.
RESEARCHING AND EDUCATING
The economic return of U.S. Federal investment in
agricultural research is estimated at 45 percent,
with widespread benefits to society that are
realized for generations.
45
Communities need
access to the best knowledge resources and tools
to support deployment and adoption, spreading
insight around what is possible, eicacy, and
expected return on investment. Producers’
associations, as well as agribusiness companies
and manufacturers, can leverage their access
to producers to encourage knowledge sharing
through peer learning groups and/or
regional networks. Today, USDA extension
specialists conduct symposia and field days
where technologies are demonstrated and
the management “how to” and scenarios are
shown. Researchers and extension specialists
can establish courses and accelerators to help
translate knowledge into action or conduct
return-on-investment studies and testbeds
to ease the burden of analysis for producers.
Agriculture technology companies can broaden
their support and package all the components
for the end user, just as one cloud-based artificial
intelligence company has started to deploy WiFi
networking kits that provide the backbone for data
aggregation and cloud access.
“We can make
America great again
with broadband
e-connectivity
accessible to all
Americans”
- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Sonny Perdue
PAGE 47
Rural broadband has become a national priority to address the e-connectivity gap and
deliver increased economic and societal benefits. The American economy stands to
capture substantial gains from e-connectivity through adoption of Next Generation
Precision Agriculture. USDA’s analysis estimates that connected technologies are poised
to transform agricultural production and create a potential $47-$65 billion in annual gross
benefit for the United States.
CONNECTIVITY FOR THE FUTURE
CONCLUSION
If Internet infrastructure, digital technologies at
scale, and on-farm capabilities become available
at a level that met estimated producer demand,
the U.S. agriculture industry would realize benefits
equivalent to nearly 18 percent of total production,
based on 2017 levels.
Unlocking this potential value requires America
to scale adoption of connected Next Generation
Precision Agriculture technologies and expand its
rural broadband Internet infrastructure. Greater
adoption of these 21st century advancements
will depend on equipping producers, expanding
equipment interoperability, attracting new talent,
and increasing access to reliable broadband
e-connectivity as a key prerequisite.
The Trump Administration is taking advantage
of this unique opportunity by facilitating rural
broadband and Next Generation Precision
Agriculture and establishing government, industry,
and academic partnerships. Sustained leadership
and coordinated action by public and private
players can help address these challenges—
specifically, by building national support,
creating the conditions conducive to innovation,
accelerating development of practical solutions,
tailoring deployment for rural communities, and
providing access to capital to simultaneously build
out broadband infrastructure.
USDA is committed to answering this call to action
with concerted eorts across Mission Areas, as well
as implementation of an intradepartmental Next
Generation Precision Agriculture working group.
We invite our partners to address the challenge
as well, so that together, we can deliver lasting
prosperity for all Americans.
PAGE 48
RURAL BROADBAND
A CASE FOR
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PAGE 51
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PAGE 53
FURTHER READING
1. Dalton, David; et al. “Beefing up Blockchain.”
Deloitte Insights. 2018.
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/
Deloitte/ie/Documents/Technology/Deloitte_
Beefing%20up%20Blockchain_how%20
blockchain%20can%20transform%20the%20
beef%20supply%20chain_Oct%202018%20
(003).pdf
2. Erickson, Bruce. “2017 Precision Agriculture
Dealership Survey”. Purdue University. 2017.
http://agribusiness.purdue.edu/files/file/
croplife-purdue-2017-precision-dealer-survey-
report.pdf
3. Giles, Frank. “Realizing the Benefits of
Precisions Agriculture.” Growing Produce.
2018.
https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/
realizing-benefits-precision-agriculture
4. Hemken, Melissa. “Storage Allows a Market
Waiting Game.” Western Farmer-Stockman.
2018.
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crops/storage-allows-market-waiting-game
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Learning Can Help Farmers Diagnose Crop
Diseases?” AI.Business. 2017.
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farmers-diagnose-crop-diseases
6. Kite-Powell, Jennifer. “Why Precision
Agriculture Will Change How Food Is
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jenniferhicks/2018/04/30/why-precision-
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7. Lowenberg-Deboer, Jess. “The Precision
Agriculture Revolution.” Foreign Aairs. 2015.
https://www.foreignaairs.com/articles/
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agriculture-revolution
8. Margarito, Marco. “Drones in Agriculture:
How UAVs Make Farming More Eicient.” The
Drive. 2018.
https://www.thedrive.com/tech/18456/
drones-in-agriculture-how-uavs-make-
farming-more-eicient
9. Molteni, Megan. “Wearables Reveal the Secret
Lives of Farm Animals.” Wired. 2017. https://
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10. Ray, Brian. “An In-Depth Look At IoT In
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https://www.link-labs.com/blog/iot-
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A CASE FOR
11. Revich, Jerry; Koort, Robert; Archambault,
Patrick; Samuelson, Adam; Nannizzi, Michael;
Moawalla, Mohammed; Bonin, Andrew.
“Profiles in Innovation: Precision Farming.”
Goldman Sachs. 2016.
https://docdrop.org/static/drop-pdf/GSR_
agriculture-N1sH6.pdf
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17. Thomasson, Alex. “Identifying Obstacles to
Applying Big Data in Agriculture Conference.”
Texas A&M University. 2018.
https://www.agbigdataobstacles.com
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19. Wilson, Philip; et al. “Deep Deployment of
Fiber Optics is a National Imperative: The
Success of 5G Wireless Will Hinge on Deep
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