Faculty from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln are leading a federally-funded initiative to develop a national cyber-ecosystem for agricultural producer data. The project recently advanced with a strategic visioning session during a national planning conference in Lincoln.
The National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative conference, held Aug. 8-9 on UNL’s East Campus, featured academics, industry scientists and representatives from producer groups. Objectives discussed include outreach and coordination with ag producers and industry; collaboration among successful existing data projects and strategies to enable the projects’ long-term viability. The initiative has been funded since 2021 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Its primary goal is to equip producers with tools and services to manage and access their ag data with adequate privacy and security assurances. A central theme of the conference was the importance of providing “useful data” to farmers and ranchers nationwide.
As an example, Matt Spangler, professor of animal science and a beef genetics specialist who is helping lead the initiative, highlighted the financial considerations of data handling in the private sector.
