When Monsanto purchased the Precision Planting operation from central Illinois farmer Gregg Sauder in 2012, No-Till Farmer editors asked readers about their concerns with sharing electronically generated on-farm crop data. While six out of every 10 growers surveyed at that time were concerned about sharing their cropping data with suppliers, these worries have become worse with Deere’s recent purchase of Precision Planting’s hardware and technology from Monsanto.

Concerns with sharing data without permission by ag suppliers has risen by more than one-third over the past 3 years. This conclusion is based on results from a recent survey of no-tillers in which we asked the same questions that were part of the 2012 survey.

These results indicate that no-tillers are concerned with not only how Deere will make use of on-farm data for marketing and equipment purposes, but there’s also a fear that this information could be passed along to local dealers.

Confidentiality Worries

When growers were asked if they were concerned that their electronically collected crop data will remain confidential, 77% said it is a major worry. This represents a significant increase from 60% of growers back in 2012.

Growers were also asked whether they are unhappy about the unauthorized sharing of on-farm cropping data with chemical, seed or equipment companies. While 54% of the growers were concerned in the 2012 survey, this jumped to 71% of no-tillers in the recent survey.

Monsanto vs. Deere

Another question dealt with what farmers felt about Precision Planting being sold twice within 3…