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.

DEERE & CO. and The Climate Corp., a subsidiary of Monsanto Co., signed agreements for Deere to acquire the Precision Planting equipment business, and to enable exclusive, near real-time data connectivity between certain Deere equipment and the Climate FieldView platform.

NOBODY HAS TO remind you that lower grain prices and higher crop input costs are having a serious impact on your farm income. With earnings for farmers expected to tumble by over 35% in 2016, most suppliers are also seeking new ways to slash costs.