Data standards used for data-exchange of FMIS (44)

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Markt en Ketens

DATUM

4 November 2011 AUTEUR

Robbert Robbemond Jan Willem Kruize VERSIE 1.0 STATUS Verzonden naar PPL programmaleiding Wageningen UR (Wageningen University, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences and various research institutes) is specialised in the domain of healthy food and living environment. LEI develops economic expertise for government bodies and industry in the field of food, agriculture and the natural environment. LEI is accredited with ISO 9001.

Data standards used for data-exchange of

FMIS (44)

A research carried out within the Dutch Program on Precision

Agriculture

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Data standards used for data-exchange of FMIS (44) 3 van 75

Outline

1 Summary 5 2 Introduction 6 2.1 Background information 6 2.1.1 Motive 6 2.1.2 Research question 6 2.1.3 Goal 6 2.1.4 Effect 6 3 Method 7

3.1 Determination of the regions 7

3.2 The selection of FMIS 7

3.3 The creation of an FMIS overview 9

3.4 The creation of a reference process model of arable farms 9

3.5 The analysis of FMIS applications using the reference model 10

3.6 The method for analysing data exchange of FMIS 11

4 Results 13

4.1 Which regions can be distinguished globally? 13

4.2 Which organisations are the most important FMIS vendors on a global level? 13 4.3 What are the relevant applications of each software vendor? 17 4.4 Which arable farm processes are relevant for analysis of cultivation oriented

FMIS? 18

4.4.1 Procurement 18

4.4.2 Inventory Management 18

4.4.3 Product Management 18

4.4.4 Marketing and Sales 18

4.4.5 Human Resource Management 18

4.4.6 Technology Management 19

4.4.7 Energy Management 19

4.4.8 Real Estate Management 19

4.4.9 Quality Assurance 19

4.4.10 Finance 19

4.4.11 Accounting 19

4.4.12 Tactical and operational dimensions 19

4.4.13 Different detail levels 19

4.4.14 Generic business processes 20

4.5 Which business processes are supported by the selected FMIS? 21 4.6 Which standards are used in arable farming and what are their details? 23

4.6.1 Data-exchange between FMIS and exchange actors 24

4.6.2 File types used for data exchange per application 25

5 Discussion 28

6 Conclusions 29

7 Recommendations 30

8 Literature 31

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Annex 2 Reference model 35

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1 Summary

In this study various data standards for data exchange between Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) and other applications used by arable farmers are identified based on desk research. Differences between geographical regions, business processes and the users of these different data standards are taken into account. The research aims to give insight into the current state of data standardization in arable farming. Results are presented at the web-site https://sites.google.com/site/agrilabreferences/

and in this report.

These FMIS are the main focus of this research. An overview of current commercial available FMIS has been provided by making an inventory of available systems. 264 different farm management applications of 143 different software vendors have been identified. Based on these applications, a shortlist is created consistent of interesting vendors who have both state of the art applications and an international focus. In addition, one vendor is chosen from the region North-America, Oceania and Europe as a comparison of vendors that operate internationally. To get an overview of the local market, different vendors that support farmers in the Netherlands are analysed. For each selected software vendor an overview is created of the applications (FMIS) that support arable farming.

A reference model has been created to analyse different applications. By using this reference model differences between FMIS are revealed in a standardized manner. The reference model defines relevant functions for arable farmers. For each function, relevant processes are described in detail. This reference model is used as the starting point of the analysis of each selected application. Of each application the services that are offered to a user are identified. These services describe the functionality of the application. The relation between the application services and the reference model is visualised by a ‘used by’ relation. This analysis provides insights into which functions and related business processes are supported by the different applications.

The use of data standards has been researched by analysing one application of each vendor. This application is selected on being able to exchange data with other applications. Each analysis of the application data exchange functionality shows with which exchange actor the application can share data, which file types are supported, and if the message and file types are imported or exported.

We conclude that the selected applications focus on the support of the business function product management. When all identified processes from the reference model are taken into account, integrated solutions that support a variety of business functions are not very common. Furthermore, there are a variety of different file types and formats that can be imported or exported by the FMIS available worldwide. The application of the vendors with a regional focus can import and export less file types, but do offer automatic interfaces with processors and in some cases with suppliers and the government. The aim of this research is to gain insights into the current situation of FMIS and used data standards. This research neither provides a complete overview of all the functionalities offered by applications in the market nor identifies all the messages and used data standards of these applications. If the results of this research can be generalized to the whole market is a point of discussion. To acquire more insight, relevant standardisation organisations and relevant data-standards should be researched. In this kind of research not the identified FMIS would be the focal point of research, but the type of messages that are exchanged between the different applications. Furthermore, this research can be extended with research on the task controllers and terminals and the exchanged messages that are imported and exported. The created website can be used to continue building knowledge about FMIS and data exchange standards on an international level.

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2 Introduction

2.1 Background information

In this section the motive, problem description, goal and aim of the project are described.

2.1.1 Motive

Data standards are required to exchange data between information systems developed by different organisations. Different standards are used at the moment to exchange data between Farm Management Information Systems and other information systems, for example ISO-11783, part 10 (ISO-XML), EDI-Teelt+, agro-XML. Currently, al kind of closed standards are used as well. A large amount of closed standards hinders the data exchange between systems. This can negatively influence the data exchange within and between organisations.

Many vendors of Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) operate globally and are facing many different standards. To be able to improve their operations, specifically at a global level, it is valuable to develop an overview of the current situation.

Software developers are another group for whom it is important to have an overview of the current situation. A data standard can only be successful when sufficient systems use it; it needs to reach critical mass. FMIS developers need insight into the relevance of existing standards and learn from existing solutions.

The overview that developers and vendors need will be developed as part of this research project. At the moment there is little information available on the use of standards by FMIS. This means that a clear vision of what standards will be used in the near future is lacking. This situation is an important information gap addressed by this research project.

2.1.2 Research questions

Which standards are currently used in the data exchange between modern Farm Management Information Systems in the field of agriculture?

 Which geographic regions can be distinguished globally?

 Which organisations are the most important FMIS vendors on a global level?

 What are the relevant applications of each software vendor?

 Which arable farm processes are relevant for the analysis of cultivation oriented FMIS?

 Which business processes are supported by the selected FMIS?

 Which standards are used in arable farming and what are their details?

2.1.3 Goal

The goal of this research project consists of several parts:

 Increasing insight in current Agri Food business processes, farm management information systems, available standards for data exchange and their interdependence;

 Increasing insights about different stakeholders involved in the development of information management support;

 Providing views (visualisations) on the current situation with special attention to the interests of the stakeholder;

 Publishing results in an open development environment making them accessible and ready for on-going refinement.

2.1.4 Effect

By publishing the results on the Agrifood Living Lab different stakeholders can get involved. The website provides software vendors input en insights into which processes are relevant for farmers and what data standards are available. The software vendors could change their software to adjust to current main standards and increase the interoperability between different applications. Furthermore, farm processes that are not supported by software applications can be discovered. The research provides an overview what kind of applications are available and provide insights into their characteristics.

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3 Method

This chapter describes the method used in this research. The method described can be used in the future to gain a better overview of current FMIS and their standards. The goal of this research is to gain insights and an overview of the relevant processes. This is why we have created an extensive model of the current situation in a standardized modelling language: Archimate. This language fits the requirements of this research because we can model the business layer and application layer in sufficient detail. Archimate is used by different industries to create an overview of the enterprise architecture and has been adopted by the Open Group, an international standardisation organisation. The models themselves are created in Archi. This free modelling tool can be used to create different views on the modelling object. The created views are presented in a Google Sites webpage. In the figure below the different steps of the research are presented.

Figure 1. Diagram of the method

3.1 Determination of the regions

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has identified regions for aggregating their data. These FAO regions are chosen as a basis to divide the world into smaller regions for our own research. For each region an overview is shown describing the main types of agricultural products produced. This information provides information about the context of each application developed in a certain region. 3.2 The selection of FMIS

After extensive desk-research we have created a long list of vendors that have applications used in agriculture. These applications support the cultivation of crops at arable farms. A shortlist has been defined based on the following selection criteria. First, AGCO and the researchers will select software vendors that have an international focus. For these vendors standardisation is certainly relevant. Second, from this shortlist, vendors are selected that sell applications for use by farmers and agronomists. Applications that are used by farmers and agronomist have high requirements with regard to data-exchange between data-exchange actors. Consequently, applications are chosen that are representative and state of the art in data-exchange. Third, to confirm if current results are representative for the world, from each region an extra software vendor is chosen and added on the list for analysis. Fourth, to evaluate our method, Dutch vendors of applications that support cultivation are added to the list. In the figure below the different steps are visualized.

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Figure 2. The selection of FMIS applications

The selected FMIS vendors are divided per geographic region. This is presented in a Google Maps overview. In this overview place-markers are shown for each analysed software vendor. In the information box of the place-marker a link to the analysis on the web-site is provided. The Google Maps overview is presented at the website as well. In the figure below the route of the web-site is visualized.

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Figure 3. Presentation of the geographical regions and the analysed software vendors.

3.3 The creation of an FMIS overview

Of each selected software vendor an overview is provided that shows the FMIS applications that support cultivation on arable farms. The figure below provides an example that shows the analysed software applications of a vendor. In this figure one application is divided in different components. For each application an association relation is used to show if the application focusses on farmers, agronomists or both. A farmer cultivates the crops and fields of one organisation. An agronomist supports the cultivation of crops and fields of more than one organisation.

Figure 4. Example of an overview of applications provided by a software vendor

3.4 The creation of a reference process model of arable farms

To be able to compare different FMIS in a standardized way a reference model has been created. This model is used to analyse each application. The model describes the different functions that are relevant to run an arable farm. In each function a tactical and operational dimension is distinguished. In each dimension the business processes are described on an abstract level. For several processes an extra level

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of detail is described in which process steps become transparent. In this way differences in the FMIS can be visualized. In the appendix the reference model is presented.

3.5 The analysis of FMIS applications using the reference model

The next step to provide insight in the differences of applications is to describe the relation between the application and the reference model. A description of the application is created by modelling what services are offered to their users. These services are a detailed description of the functionality the application offers to the users. For each service the relation with the reference model is modelled. These relations visualize which business processes are using what service(s). The figure below shows an example. In blue the applications are described. The blue ovals are the services offered by the application. The yellow concepts are processes from the reference model. The relation between the services and the processes is a ‘used by’ relation. This relation does not mean that the whole business processes is automated by the application. Sometimes the whole process is supported by the application, in others only some tasks of the business processes is supported.

Figure 5. Diagram describing the relation between the application and the business processes.

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3.6 The method for analysing data exchange of FMIS

The data exchange of one application of each software vendor that imports and exports data is analysed in detail. This is done by analysing the meta-model described in the figure below.

Figure 6. Meta model for data-exchange

The FMIS is the main object of this research. A FMIS is offered by a software vendor. The application is used by a FMIS user. In agriculture the user can be classified as a farmer or as an agronomist.

At certain moments there is a need to exchange information with, for example the government, a data provider, a processor or a task-controller. Sometimes this is done by exchanging data in an automatic manner. In other cases this is done by picking up the phone and calling another person. In case of data exchange between applications, a message is sent using an interface. This can, for example, be a point to point interface or an interface using web-services. In practice, external data carriers are used for data exchange as well (e.g. SD cards or USB-sticks). The data is formatted in a certain standard and saved in a file type. The messages can be formatted in an official standard that is managed by a national or international data standardisation organisation or is managed by a commercial organisation. The messages are exchanged using an interface. When an external data carrier is used the file is saved in a data file of a certain file type, having a certain extension. Different file types can be identified.

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4 Results

The main question of this research, “Which standards are currently used in the data exchange of modern Farm Management Information Systems in the field of agriculture?”, will be examined by providing an answer to each sub question.

4.1 Which regions can be distinguished globally?

Agriculture and its management differs between regions. It is expected that FMIS will differ for that reason as well. In the presented table a list of regions and their most cultivated crops are presented. The table is based on FAO data accessed on October 28 2011.

Table 1. Most cultivated crop per region

Ma iz e S o yb ea n s Wh ea t T o ma to ’s S u g a rc a n e S u g a r b ee ts R ic e G ra p es Po ta to es O li ve s S u n fl o w er North-America x x x x South-America x x x x Europe x x x x x Russia x x x Africa x x x Asia x x x Oceania x x x

4.2 Which organisations are the most important FMIS vendors on a global level?

In seven regions a total of 262 different FMIS for arable farming from 143 different software vendors have been discovered. The graph below shows the distribution of the home countries of the identified vendors and the focus markets. Together with AGCO a shortlist is created to delineate the research. From this list, the vendors are selected that have focus on a global market.

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Graph 1. Home countries of software vendors and the markets focal markets.

From the graphs can be concluded that most vendors focus on a local market. Almost ¾ of the vendors come from the USA, Germany or France. Almost ¾ of the vendors focus on the markets USA, Germany or France.

Duitsland

36%

Frankrijk

16%

USA

13%

Tsjechië

6%

Overig

16%

Italië

5%

Wereldwijd

8%

Markt Softwareleveranciers

n=144

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Data standards used for data-exchange of FMIS (44) 15 van 75 Together with AGCO the following shortlist of software vendors for in depth analysis is created:

 AGCO

 AGLeader

 AGROCOM / Claas

 Case new holland

 DACOM  Farm Works  GeoSys  John Deere  MapShots  Mosaic  SST Software

From this shortlist, five software vendors are selected that support both farmers and agronomists. Most times these packages have to exchange data with a wide variety of different exchange actors. When more data needs to be exchanged the more interesting data standards are. In this way, current state-of-the-art applications for data exchange are selected. This step resulted in the following list of software vendors:

 AGCO; USA, focus worldwide

 SST Software; USA, focus worldwide

 FarmWorks; USA, focus worldwide

 AgLeader; USA, focus worldwide

 MapShots; USA, focus worldwide

The selected software vendors are all from the USA. An explanation can be that precision agriculture or information intensive agriculture, and the applications that support this kind of agriculture are further developed in the USA than in other countries. To get an overview of the state-of-the-art applications in other regions, some additional applications are selected. Not in all regions a representative application was found. The following extra software vendors have been analysed.

 Progis; Europe, focus West-Europe

 AgJunction; North-America, focus USA

 Fair Port; Oceania, focus Australia

In the following regions no vendors are selected and are taken out of the analysis:

 South-America

 Rusia

 Asia

 Africa

To test the method of this research the following FMIS vendors have been selected for analysis in the Netherlands:

 Dacom; The Netherlands, focus worldwide

 Agrovision; The Netherlands, focus the Netherlands

 ISAGRI (ISATeelt); France, focus the Netherlands

The selected software vendors are shown in the figure below. This interactive Google maps application can be found on the website.

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4.3 What are the relevant applications of each software vendor?

For each software vendor the applications are represented that support cultivation. It needs to be mentioned that the applications GTA 100-400 of AGCO are no longer distributed. The applications GTA 500 (Sgis) has been sold by AGCO to Topcon. There is chosen to mention and analyse these applications because this can contribute to the recognition and understanding and of this research by AGCO. Results are presented in the table below.

Table 2. The analysed software vendors and their applications

Software vendor (home country, focus area)

FMIS en components Focus (farmer or agronomist) AGCO (USA, focus

worldwide) o GTA Software: o 100 Communicator o 200 Record Keeping o 300 Mapping o 400 Precision Farming

Farmer

o GTA Software 500 SGIS Agronomy Agronomist and farmer

o Agcommand Farmer

AgJunction (USA, focus North-America) o

AgJunction: o Agri HD o Agri Wave

Agronomist and farmer

AgLeader (USA, focus

worldwide) oo SMS Software Mobile SMS Software: Farmer o SMS Software Basic

o SMS Software Advanced o

Farmer

o Farmer and agronomist AgroVision (the

Netherlands, focus the Netherlands)

o Crop Farmer

o Comwaes

o Comwaes Pocket Dacom (the Netherlands,

focus the Netherlands) o Agri Yield Management o Disease Solution o Irrigation Solution o Fertilizer Solution o Insect Solution

Farmer

Fairport (Australia, focus

Oceania) oo PAM Pasture Watch MAX Machinery database Farmer o PAM QA Plus

o PAM mapping:

o Precision Data Processor FarmWorks (USA, focus

worldwide) oo Pro Funds Agronomist and farmer Farmer o Dispatch o Site o Trac o Surface o Sync o Viewer Isagri (Frankrijk, focus

West-Europa) Teelt: o De Grafische Link Farmer o ISA 360 o ISA Guide+ o GPS+

MapShots (USA, focus

worldwide) oo EasiSuite Easi Rx Farmer

o Easi Pocket Crops o Easi Grain Progis (Austria, focus

Western-Europe) o Agro Office DocuPlant Lt: o GIS Professional o Soil Manager o Professional

o Interface and Data-import o Subsidy Manager o Farmer o Farmer o Farmer o Farmer o Farmer SST Software (USA, focus

worldwide) o SST Summit: o SST Summit

o SST Summit Professional o

Farmer o Agronomist

o FarmRite Agronomist

o SST Toolbox Lite Farmer

o SST Stratus o SST Toolbox

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4.4 Which arable farm processes are relevant for analysis of cultivation oriented FMIS? To answer this research question a reference model of arable farm specific processes has been developed. The reference model can be found in the annex and on the website.

The core of the reference model is generic in order to broaden the scope from arable farming to other farming organisations. Zooming in for more detail of the processes, the processes are more arable farm specific.

To organize the processes on a higher abstraction, business functions are added. A agricultural enterprise has to fulfil different enterprise functions to manage the enterprise. A business function is defined as a unit of internal behaviour that groups the behaviour on, for example, knowledge, resources, en is executed from a certain role within the organisation (Archimate 1.0) The reference model uses these functions to group different related business processes. In total, eleven different business functions are defined that have a specific goal within the agricultural enterprise. To achieve this goal, different business processes within a function are executed. The identified functions are described:

4.4.1 Procurement

Procurement is the acquisition of goods and/or services for the agricultural enterprise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procurement). The goal of the function is to produce products that are needed in the daily routine of the farm enterprise. Examples are the procurement and retrieval of fertilizers and pesticides.

4.4.2 Inventory Management

Inventory management is defined as the overseeing and controlling of the storage and use of products that a company will use in the production of the items it will sell as well as the overseeing and controlling of quantities of finished products for sale ( http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inventory-management.asp#ixzz1dCcTdQ9d) The goal of the function is to control the product and produce in a optimal way. Examples are the storage of potatoes, the storage of spare parts for machines and the control over de pesticides in the storage according to GLOBALG.A.P. rules.

4.4.3 Product Management

Product management includes the production and processing of the produce of the farm enterprise. The goal of this function is to optimal produce and process the agricultural products (Produce) in order to meet requirements of the customer. To produce, efficiency, quality and the environment are taken into account. Examples are the harvest of grain, disinfection of seeds and processing potatoes for sale.

4.4.4 Marketing and Sales

Marketing and sales processes and sub processes are related and grouped in the same enterprise function. Marketing is finding out what people want, why they want it and how much they will spend. The results are valuable as input for the sales strategy. Sales is converting an inquiry or lead into a contract or shipment to the customer. (http://www.online-marketing-scotland.com/). The goal of the function is to improve the sales environment (marketing) and have effective sales processes. Examples are negotiation with retailers about delivery terms and closing a contract.

4.4.5 Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. The goal is to handle issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. (http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm). Examples of processes that are part of HRM are recording seasonal workers working hours and make an employee training program.

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4.4.6 Technology Management

Technology management is the function that focuses on the monitoring and maintenance of all technological objects within an enterprise, both hardware and software. Main goal is to keep the hardware and software in a good condition. Examples are updating the enterprise software and the check-up of a tractor after a certain amount of hours.

4.4.7 Energy Management

The definition of energy management can be ‘the judicious and effective use of energy to maximize profits (minimize costs) and enhance competitive positions’ (Cape Hart, Turner and Kennedy, Guide to Energy Management Fairmont press inc. 1997). The underlying goal is to minimise energy cost / waste without affecting production and quality and to minimize environmental effects. (http://www.em-ea.org/Guide%20Books/Book-1/1.3%20Energy%20management%20&%20Audit.pdf). Examples of business processes within the function energy management are recording and adjusting fuel use of tractors during field operations or recording the energy use of cold stores

4.4.8 Real Estate Management

Real estate management is the function that focusses on monitoring and maintaining all real estate of a farm enterprise such as fields and buildings. The goal of the function is to keep the real estate in a good condition. Examples are levelling the field, remove ditches and to paint the barn.

4.4.9 Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) can be defined as the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process of agricultural products. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_assurance). The main goal is to verify that the produce meets predefined quality standards. Examples of QA are taken samples of the produce for monitoring purposes and change the production of the produce if certain quality standards are not met.

4.4.10 Finance

Finance is the control over the cash flow within an organisation in relation with other organisation. Main goal is to manage the cash flow. Examples are sending invoices and collection outstanding debts.

4.4.11 Accounting

Accounting is the systematic recording, reporting, and analysis of financialtransactions of a business (http://www.investorwords.com/48/accounting.html ) The goal is the monitoring of the financial transactions of the enterprise. Examples of accounting are bookkeeping and the creation of an accounting report.

4.4.12 Tactical and operational dimensions

For each business function a tactical and operational dimension is identified. Within the tactical dimension processes are identified that are used for:

o Planning of operational processes

o Evaluation of the results of the operational processes o Adjustments the operational processes

Within the operational dimension processes are identified that are responsible for the execution of ‘work’ at the arable farm. Within these processes are:

o Operational planning o Executing the work

o monitoring and operational adjustments of the work executed

4.4.13 Different detail levels

The reference model has identified processes at a high level in the tactical and operational dimension. Besides, sub processes that exist within these processes are identified and used for mapping the

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different FMISs. The figure below shows the in the operational dimension the sub processes; plan field fertilization, execute field fertilization and monitor field fertilization, off the process fertilize field

Figure 8. A detailed level of the reference model

4.4.14 Generic business processes

There are operational processes that occur in diverse cultivation practices within the function product management. These processes and sub-processes are generic. These generic sub processes are similar for different processes and can be supported in a generic manner by the FMIS. An example is the creation of a task that can be used for spraying, fertilizing, or other field operations. To be able to visualize the relation between these generic processes and the FMIS, a new view is defined. This view is presented in the figure below.

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4.5 Which business processes are supported by the selected FMIS?

All selected FMIS are analysed to describe the relation what application service is used in which business process. This is done by visualizing the offered services. A business service is defined as the externally visible (“logical”) functionality, which is meaningful to the environment and is realized by business behaviour (business process, business function, or business interaction) (Archimate 1.0). For each service, the relation is made visible between the service and the supported business processes. The results, as can be seen below, are published on the web-site.

Figure 10. Services offered by the FMIS to the business processes of a arable farm

Next, an overview is created that shows the number of application services supporting a business function. The results are presented in the graph below. The number of applications services supporting a

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function is used as measurement to analyse what business function is supported the most. From the graph can be seen that the applications focus on supporting the business function product management. Our selection method of the software vendors can explain these results. The vendors are selected on offering applications that support cultivation. As a consequence, a large number of geographical information systems are selected. From this analysis can be concluded that other business functions are not well supported. To support other business functions, farmers should use other software applications.

Graph 2. Functionality (application services) per business function

To compare the identified software vendors, an analysis is made about the number of offered application services per vendor. The number of offered application services is used as an indicator to draw conclusions how much the farmer in supported in his business process. The results are shown in the graph below. From the graph can be seen that the amount of application services per software vendor differs.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300 Opbrengstbeheer

Marketing en Verkoop

Kwaliteitsbeheer

Technologiebeheer

Financieel beheer

Beheer vastgoed

Magazijnbeheer

Accounting

Personeel en Organisatie

Energiebeheer

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Graph 3. Functionality (application services) per software vendor

4.6 Which standards are used in arable farming and what are their details?

From each software vendor one application is chosen to analyse what standards en file types are supported. From each software vendor the application that can import and export most file types is selected. For each software vendor this is:

 AGCO; Gta 500 (Sgis)

 SST Software; SST Summit Professional

 FarmWorks; Site

 AgLeader; SMS Software Advanced

 MapShots; EasiSuite

 Progis; Agro Office DocuPlant Lt

 AgJunction; AgJunction

 Fair Port; PAM mapping

 Dacom; Agri Yield Management Systeem

 Agrovision; Crop

 ISAGRI (ISATeelt); Teelt

An overview is created of each application describing with what kind of exchange actor data can be shared. Furthermore, there is described if the data from the exchange actor can be imported exported of both. The following exchange actors are identified:

 Farm hardware  Processors  Suppliers  Farm software  Government  Data providers

Farm hardware consist of the task-controllers, terminals, farm sensors and the others technologies used in the farm enterprise. The processors are the clients of the farm that buy the produce of the farmer. The suppliers provide products for farming such as pesticides and fertilizers. Farm software consist of software that is used within the farm enterprise. Some FMIS used by agronomist can sent data to the

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70 FarmWorks

AGCO

SST Software

AgLeader

FairPort

MapShots

Agrovision

AgJunction

ISAgri

Progis

Dacom

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FMIS of the farmer. The government is the organisation that is responsible for regulations. The final exchange actors are the data providers. Data providers provide the farmer with information or knowledge about his soil, crop or cultivation. The data provided can be measured by all kind of technologies such as satellites or soil sensors.

4.6.1 Data-exchange between FMIS and exchange actors

By identifying the messages exchanged with some exchange actors relevant international data standards can be identified. A well-known exchange standard is the ISO 11783 standard that facilitates the data exchange between the FMIS and the farm hardware. Or in more detail, the data exchange between the FMIS, task-controller and the implement. Organisations that develop ISO 11783 compatible terminals or task controllers can exchange data with implements of various organisations. The task controllers or terminals facilitate the data exchange from en to the FMIS.

Another interesting international data standardisation organisations is the UN/CEFACT. The UN/CEFACT defines messages that can be used for data exchange between suppliers, farmers and processors. “UN/CEFACT supports activities dedicated to improving the ability of business, trade and administrative organizations, from developed, developing and transition economies, to exchange products and relevant services effectively. Its principal focus is on facilitating national and international transactions, through the simplification and harmonization of processes, procedures and information flows, and so contributing to the growth of global commerce (http://www.unece.org/cefact/about.html.”

Not an extensive list is provided that provides an overview of interesting standardisation organisations for agriculture. Although, for each application there is identified with what exchange actor data is exchanged. The results are presented in table 3.

Table 3. Data-exchange actor for each FMIS and distribution area

Distribution area for each software vendor

Regional

Worldwide

Total

Exchange actor

Data Providers

Farm Hardware

Processors

Farm Software

Suppliers

Processors

Government

Suppliers

Government

legend:

Only regional

Only worldwide

Both regional as worldwide

From this table can be concluded that some of the analysed applications from the vendors having a regional focus exchange data automatically with processors and governments. The applications of vendors with a worldwide focus don’t exchange data with these actors. Furthermore, the application of the vendors with an international focus do exchange data automatically with farm software, the applications of the regional vendors don’t support this data exchange. The software vendors with an international focus offer applications for agronomist. The agronomist can exchange data with the application used by the farmer. In most cases this data can only be exchanged if the farmer and agronomist are using an application from the same vendor. Moreover, there is identified from what actors the FMIS can import, export or import and export data.

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Table 4. Data-exchange actors and the exchange direction of the data

Direction of data exchange between FMIS and exchange actor

Import

Export

both Import and Export

Exchange actor

Data Providers

Farm Hardware

Data Providers

Farm Hardware

Farm Software

Farm Hardware

Suppliers

Processors

Farm Software

Government

Processors

Suppliers

Government

legenda:

Only Import

Only Export

Both Import and Export

Based on table 4 can be concluded that the FMIS import data from data providers and suppliers but don’t export data to these actors. De analysed FMIS export data to farm software, processors and governments, however don’t import data from these exchange actors. Currently, there is an on-going discussion in the Netherlands about the fact that farmers send all kind of data to the government, but can’t retrieve data back. The government has initiated projects to deal with this problem.

4.6.2 File types used for data exchange per application

For each FMIS there is analysed what file types are supported for the exchange of data. No information could be found of AgJunction and FarmWorks Site. In the table below is shown what kind of file types are commonly used.

Graph 4. Used file types

Various file types are discovered and categorized in universal, geographic and enterprise specific. Universal file types are used in all kind of organisations. Examples are *.xml, *.txt, *.csv. Geographical file types are based on common standards such as *.shp. Furthermore, enterprise specific file types are created by specific organisations and in general used by farm hardware or software of this specific organisation. As can be seen in graph 5, almost half of the file types supported by the analysed applications are enterprise specific.

*.xml

16%

*.shp

14%

*.dbf

7%

*.csv

5%

*.rcd

4%

*.txt

4%

*.log

3%

*.tif

2%

Overig

45%

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Graph 5. Distribution categories file types

The next step shows what categories of file types are supported by the selected applications of the software vendors.

Graph 6. File types for each software vendor

From table 6 can be deduced which application supports most file types. It can be seen that the FMIS with a regional focus are able to handle universal file types. These FMIS are in general focussing on data exchange with suppliers and processors. In one case the data exchange between the government and FMIS is facilitated.

The FMIS with an international focus can import and export more file types. These applications can exchange data with a variety of exchange actors and with different organisations. These FMIS can exchange data to a variety of task-controllers, terminals, sensors and guidance devices. The ability to import or export all kinds of file types does not mean that the FMIS can exchange data with the most organisations. Data standards aim to exchanging data based on one file type with all kind of organisations. From an interview with an expert can be concluded that SGIS is able to create for almost all task-controllers and terminals a task file for variable rate application using the ISO-XML and FODM-XML standard.

Bedrijfspecifiek

46%

Algemeen

23%

Geografisch

31%

Dacom

ISAgri

AgroVision

SST Software

Progis

AGCO

FairPort

Mapshots

AgLeader

0

5

10

15

20 Geografisch

Algemeen

Bedrijfsspecifiek

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Data standards used for data-exchange of FMIS (44) 27 van 75 From the same interview can be concluded that creating task files for variable rate application, or import data from data providers, sensors and farm hardware is not always easy. In some cases the user of the software have to create own templates to read the data. The interoperability to export or import data from the different exchange actors is clearly inadequate.

There can be concluded that there is a lack of consensus about used data standards for data exchange in agriculture. Furthermore, international available data-standards are not common to exchange data between FMIS and other exchange actors. The ISO 11783 standard is available, however not all terminals and task controllers can import or export data in this format. Currently, there are all kind of file types and file formats used for data exchange between different exchange actors. No standardised messages from international standardisation organisations have been discovered that facilitates data exchange between sensors and the FMIS or data providers and the FMIS. Furthermore, we did not found standards for guidance equipment.

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5 Discussion

This research is based on desk-research. Result are based both on (informal) expert interviews and by analysis of descriptions of applications on software vendor’s websites. Because different vendors describe their applications in a different level of detail result might be effected. Additional, the models have not been validated by the software vendors. In this way the objectivity has been maintained. Contra dictionary, feedback would have improved the quality of the research.

The goal of the research was to provide insights in the current situation by a sample. Consequently, not a complete overview of current applications, their functionalities and the data-exchange is provided. In what extend the results can be generalised to the global market is a point of discussion.

To gain more insights a web-site is provided. The provided web-site is public and presented models can be commented and improved by the different actors. In addition, not all relevant information about the supported messages and file types could be identified for all specific applications. The web-site provides functionality that on the data standards can be commented as well. Currently, there are ideas to use the created web-site as a developing platform which can be used by software vendors en other actors to provide feedback and can help to improve the analysis of the current FMIS market.

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6 Conclusions

This researched provides an overview of current FMIS and used data standards worldwide. Results are public and open for comments on the website: “https://sites.google.com/site/agrilabreferences/”. On the web-site different actors can participate by commenting on current models. Goal is to let the research develop over time to provide more insights.

Based on this research can be concluded that the most and the major software vendors of FMIS are from the USA and Europe. The international oriented vendors are mainly from the USA. It is expected that the less international focus of European vendors is due to the regional differences in Europe, related to production, governments, culture and language differences. These facts create barriers to distribute software applications within Europe. In addition, the selected FMIS focus on precision agriculture, an area which have been more explored in large-scale agriculture.

From the research can be concluded that no actual reference architecture is available in which arable farm business processes are identified. In this project a first version of a reference architecture has been provided. A reference architecture is valuable for commercial companies, governments and science. These models facilitate the communication between different actors that communicate in different languages/dialects such as, scientist, software developers, civil servants and farmers. To make information intensive agriculture work, these models are crucial. The wider these models are accepted, the better this is for standardisation en data-exchange in agriculture.

The analysed software vendors in general provide specific services. The services focus on supporting the processes in the function product management. Integral solutions are rare, taking all identified processes described in the reference model into account. The research did not identify solutions that both have an integral focus as geographical services. The lack of applications that focus on an integral solution makes supporting certain business processes in an optimal manner difficult. If farmers want a variety of business processes supported different software applications should be used. A treat is that data cannot be exchanged between these different applications. As a result, optimisation of the business operations and data analysis is difficult.

Automatic data-exchange between FMIS and the exchange actors suppliers, government and processors is facilitated by applications of vendors that have a regional focus. The data exchange standards for automatic data exchange with data providers, suppliers, governments and processors varies within the different countries. The applications of the vendords with a regional focus do not focus on exchanging data with all kind of different farm hardware.

International oriented software vendors seems to prefer to develop applications with a more flexible manner of data exchange. In common, data exchange is facilitated by external data carriers. The applications support a variety of different data types and data formats. To be able to import or export data from the variety of farm hardware the user should have lots of knowledge about these applications to work with them. It is not expected that current farmers are able to handle these kinds of data exchange and often experts are needed for support. Furthermore, these applications can’t support automatic data exchange to suppliers, processors, data providers and the government. It is expected that the variety of local standards is causing this. The variety of different file types and file formats is a barrier to exchange data between the FMIS and the other exchange actors.

Based on this research can be concluded that there is a lack of consensus about used data standards for data exchange in agriculture. International available data-standards are not commonly used to exchange data between FMIS and other exchange actors. Currently, there are all kind of file types and file formats used for data exchange between different exchange actors. This makes data exchange difficult.

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7 Recommendations

This research provides insight in current available FMIS and used data standards. To gain more insight, making a list of international standardisation organisations would be beneficial. This list could be used to identify what messages between FMIS could make use of the standards provided by these organisations. Further, this research can be extended by identifying what messages could be read by the individual task controllers. The website provided, can be used as a basis to increase insights and to facilitate discussions. In this manner, discussions are facilitated on an international level. Other recommendations are: conducting more interviews with farmers to improve the reference model. Discussing the results interactively with software vendors to improve the analysis. Extending the sample of selected software vendors.

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8 Literature

Vendor Application Application information (link)

AGCO Agcommand http://www.agcotechnologies.com/naen/AGCOMMAND.htm

AGCO Falcon VT http://www.agcotechnologies.com/naen/falconvt.htm

AGCO FieldStar http://www.agcotechnologies.com/naen/fieldstar.htm

AGCO GTA suit 100 http://www.agcotechnologies.com/eapacen/gtasoftware.htm

AGCO GTA Suit 200 http://www.agcotechnologies.com/eapacen/gtasoftware.htm

AGCO SGIS Agronomy http://www.agcotechnologies.com/eapacen/gtasoftware.htm

AgJunction Agjunction http://www.agjunction.com/joomla/

AGLeader SMS software

Advanced

http://www.agleader.com/products/sms-advanced/

AGLeader SMS Basic Software http://www.agleader.com/products/sms-basic/

AGLeader SMS software Mobile http://www.agleader.com/products/sms-mobile/

AGROCOM / Claas AGRO-Map http://www.agrocom.com/en/cereals/yield-mapping/agro-map.html AGROCOM / Claas AGRO-NET http://www.agrocom.com/en/cereals/arable-farm-management/agro-net.html AGROCOM / Claas AGRO-Scout http://www.agrocom.com/en/monitoring/telematics/agro-scout.html AGROCOM / Claas AGRO-Telematics http://www.claas.co.uk/countries/generator/cl-pw/en/products/agrarmanagement/telematics_neu/start,lang=en_UK.html AGROCOM / Claas RAMIS http://www.agrocom.com/de/pflanzenbau/anbauberatung/agrocom-ramis.html

Agrovision Bolwerk http://www.agrovision.nl/agrarier/teelt/bolwerk/

Agrovision Comwaes http://www.agrovision.nl/agrarier/teelt/comwaes/

Agrovision CROP http://www.agrovision.nl/agrarier/teelt/crop/

BasFood CropLook http://www.basfood.nl/croplook_25.html

Case new holland

AFS Farm Mangement Software

http://www.caseihafs.com/ Cengea

(Trimble)

Cengea Agriculture http://www.cengea.com/industry-solutions/agriculture/overview.htm

DACOM Disease solution http://www.dacom.nl/index_new.php?pid=product&tid=disease&lid=en

DACOM Fertilizer Solution http://www.dacom.nl/index_new.php?pid=product&tid=fertilizer&lid=en

DACOM Insects Solution http://www.dacom.nl/index_new.php?pid=product&tid=insect&lid=en

DACOM Irrigation solution http://www.dacom.nl/index_new.php?pid=product&tid=irrigation&lid=en

Fairport MAX machinery

database

http://www.fairport.com.au/max/

Fairport PAM QA Plus http://www.fairport.com.au/Pam/

Fairport Pasture Watch http://www.fairport.com.au/pasturewatch/

Fairport Precision data

processor

http://www.fairport.com.au/DES/

Farm Works Farm Works Dispatch http://www.farmworks.com/products/dispatch

Farm Works Farm Works Sync http://www.farmworks.com/products/sync

Farm Works Funds http://www.farmworks.com/products/funds

Farm Works Pro http://www.farmworks.com/products/pro

Farm Works Site http://www.farmworks.com/products/site

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Farm Works Trac http://www.farmworks.com/products/trac

Farm Works Viewer http://www.farmworks.com/products/view

FarmFiles FarmFiles Crop http://www.farmfiles.com/crops.html

HELM Software Herakles http://www.i-farm.de/web/ HELM Software Lohnunternehmer http://www.logiss.de/my/index.php HELM Software Parallelfahrhilfe http://www.dosimap.de/ HELM Software

Schlagkartei Mobil http://www.helm-software.de/cont/pdf/SD_FarmAreaPDA_DLZ.pdf

HELM Software

Schlagkartei PC http://www.helm-software.de/cont/pdf/MultiPlant_Flyer.pdf

HELM Software

Schlagkartei Web http://www.myfarm24.de/my/index.php

ISAGRI Cultivation (teelt) http://www.isagri.fr/BibliFrontOffice/Default.aspx?idnode=4473

ISAGRI GPS+ http://www.isagri.fr/frontoffice/logiciels__services/5321-isagps___.aspx

ISAGRI ISA360

http://www.isagri.fr/informatique-agricole-viticole/Equipements-informatiques/Materiel-5647.aspx

ISAGRI ISAGuide+

http://www.isagri.fr/frontoffice/logiciels__services/5446-logiciel_-_gestion_parcelles_-_guidage_-_barre_de_.aspx

John Deere Apex http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/products/equipment/greenstar_precision_sol

utions/information_management/apex/apex.page

John Deere JD Link http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/products/equipment/jdlink/jdlink.page

LANData AO Gemüse- &

Obstbau

http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-gemuese-obstbau.html

LANData AO Lohnunternehmer http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-lohnunternehmer.html

LANData AO NetDok http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-netdok.html

LANData AO Pflanze Düngeplanun g http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-pflanze/duengeplanung.html LANData AO Pflanze Schlagkartei http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-pflanze/schlagkartei.html

LANData AO Pflanze GIS http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-pflanze/gis.html

LANData AO Pflanze

Teilflächenmanageme nt

http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-pflanze/teilflaechenmanagement.html

LANData AO Pflanze Pacht &

Antrag

http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-pflanze/pacht-antrag.html

LANData AO Rechnungswesen http://www.eurosoft.de/software/ao-rechnungswesen.html

LANData Bauplaner http://www.eurosoft.de/software/bauplaner.html

LANData JDoffice http://www.eurosoft.de/software/jdoffice.html

MapsShot EasiSuite http://www.mapshots.com/products/es/

ProducePak FarmERP http://www.producepak.com/pdf2/ProducePakFARMMANAGEMENT.pdf

Progis Agro Office DocuPlant

LT

http://www.progis.com/en/?id=agroffice\lt.html

Progis Agro Office DocuPlant

professional

http://www.progis.com/en/?id=agroffice\pro.html

Progis DocuPlant Interface

and Dataimport

Progis DokuPlant GIS

Professional

http://www.progis.com/en/?id=agroffice\gis.html

Progis DokuPlant Soil

Manager

http://www.progis.com/en/?id=agroffice\bodenmanager.html

Progis DokuPlant Subsidy

Manager http://www.progis.com/en/?id=agroffice\antrag.html Softeware Farm Saaiplan http://www.softwarefarm.co.za/docs/Saaiplan.html Softeware Farm SimFini http://www.softwarefarm.co.za/docs/simfini.html

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Data standards used for data-exchange of FMIS (44) 33 van 75 SST Software FarmRite http://www.sstsoftware.com/farmrite.htm SST Software SST Stratus http://www.sstsoftware.com/stratus.htm SST Software SST Summit http://www.sstsoftware.com/summit.htm SST Software SST Summit Professional http://www.sstsoftware.com/summitpro.htm SST Software

SSToolbox Lite http://www.sstsoftware.com/sstoolboxlite.htm

SST Software SSToolbox http://www.sstsoftware.com/sstoolbox.htm SST Software SSToolkit http://www.sstsoftware.com/sstoolkit.htm Vertical Solutions

Easy Farm http://www.easyfarm.com/

Vertikal Solutions

Crop and field manager

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