Ushering in the Future of Data-Driven Farming at Cargill

How Cargill is leveraging AI and Advanced Data Analytics to Boost Yields and Increase Supply Chain

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As the world grows hotter and the global food supply chain grows more complex, agricultural companies are turning towards “big data” to feed more people with less land and fewer resources. Chief among these pioneers is global food corporation Cargill. 

In a recent interview with CIO Magazine, Justin Kershaw, Cargill’s CIO, was asked to list the biggest technology trends impacting the food and agricultural industry right now. He replied, “Big data and advanced analytics continue to have a major impact. To be more specific, I’d point to computer vision from low-Earth orbit satellites and very sophisticated up-close imagery in dairy, swine, and row crop farming, along with artificial intelligence to drive predictions and decisions on the farm.”

To support this endeavor, Cargill created its own proprietary data platform dubbed the Cargill Data Platform (CDP).  A centralized data analytics tool, it serves as a single source of truth for the entire enterprise and, according to a piece in FoodNavigator.com, the platform uses over 300 indicators that allows them to pull data from an expansive list of external and internal data sources ranging from weather data to satellite imagery to GPS data to historical crop yields. 



Dairy Farm Analytics

Over the past 3 years, Cargill has rolled out a number of data-driven solutions aimed at helping their dairy farmers boost yields. 

For example, Cargill has built one of the largest Near-Infra-Red Reflectance (NIR) - technology that measures nutrients and quality parameters in feed supplies databases - in the world. Using a “big data” tool known as Cargill Cargill Nutrition System (“CNS”), they’re able to mine the NIR database and provide farmers with highly-customized, real-time nutrient analysis of feed ingredients. 

Cargill has also installed automated, cloud-based data loggers into their dairy farms in order to track how heat and humidity impact milk production. As Cargill ruminant lead Mark Scott explained to Food and Farming Technology Magazine, “Our research work has shown that the combination of increasing temperatures and humidity – that is typically 60% in the UK in summer – affects cow performance with fertility being the first ‘victim’. Fertility can decline when temperatures exceed average 14°C for the day (THI 57), and production can be affected when daily average temperatures exceed 22°C (THI 68). And it is worth noting that THI levels will be higher inside cow sheds than outdoors by at least 2 THI points.”

To help dairy farmers and their advisers recognise and mitigate the signs of heat stress in dairy cattle, Cargill is providing dairy farmers with free access to this data as well as sharing it with relevant government agencies. 



Traceable Turkeys & Chocolate

Part data wrapping scheme, part sincere gesture of accountability, Cargill has launched at least 2 consumer portals to allow people to trace where their food comes from. 

For example, CocoaWise “provides customers with fast, easy access to the sustainability data of Cargill’s cocoa supply chain.” Leveraging data visualization tools such as interactive maps and dashboards, users can learn more about the farms where these products originate and more about Cargill’s role in facilitating the farm to table supply chain. 

In partnership with Honeysuckle White, Cargill built an online tool that uses blockchain to technology enable consumers to “trace their turkey back to the family farm, access the farm’s location by state and county, view the family farm story, see photos from the farm and read a message from the farmer.”


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