# Digital Dust



## ozarkian (Dec 11, 2010)

https://www.agprofessional.com/article/cubbage-agriculture-being-left-digital-dust


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

I like the comment below... as usual, more prescient than the article itself...



> Submitted by C Petersen on Sat, 03/31/2018 - 08:57
> This institute has no idea what they are talking about. Agriculture has been on the leading edge. We only adopt technology that makes us money. The yield data is being analyzed to see how it can be used profitability. Just because certain technology is available doesn't mean you adopt it. Auto steering makes you money so it was adopted right away. Variable planting has yet to really work because our soil types are not well defined. We don't use it if you can't get a return on your money. If you bring us ideas that are profitable we will adopt them faster than you can think of them.


That's the thing... technology for technology's sake is just an additional cost; it has to not only PAY FOR ITSELF but also MAKE YOU MONEY! That's the biggest thing that a lot of people miss...

Autosteer and yield mapping and variable rate stuff is great, BUT you have to have the ACRES to pay for the investment in equipment up front, the ongoing expenses of maintenance, subscriptions, data interpretation, and recommendations (ie a GOOD agronomist) and of course eventual replacement or upgrade costs as well.

The world is awash in data, and "data is a good thing"... yes, to a point... BUT only if you USE IT... same thing with technology. "Data for data's sake" is useless, sometimes even counterproductive. There's something of a joke in NASA and aerospace called "analysis paralysis"... ie SO much data that nobody can really agree on the way forward-- can't see the forest for the trees so to speak. So while arguments are formed, made, and modified based on a seemingly endless set of data and permutations thereof, nothing is really accomplished but a debate.

I was talking about this very thing with my mom last night... when I was a kid on the bus in the 80's, I'd be talking with someone, we'd get to their stop, usually kept talking as they walked up the aisle and down the stairs of the bus, then I'd lean out the window and shout a last comment or so as they walked up their driveway as we drove off. The bus driver would usually wag a finger and tell me to sit down. When I was a bus driver a few years ago, I had the same issues... kids hanging out the windows screaming at the kid I just dropped off as we drove away, usually through low hanging trees that often scraped the bus (something we never faced on my old route when I was a kid). Being responsible for their safety, and being in a different time now, I'd actually get kinda mad about it... "Don't do that-- yall have EVERY FORM OF COMMUNICATION KNOWN TO MAN, right at you fingertips... cell phones, text messaging, instant messaging, computer chat rooms, land lines, email, heck you can chat from your phone or game console as you play video games with others online now... there's NO REASON to stick your head out the window to YELL at them as we drive off-- it's not like it was when I was growing up, and there was ONE PHONE in the house, and you had to ask your folks if it'd be okay to use it and "Call Johnny" for awhile, and get a grumbled response, "Yeah, for about 10-15 minutes, then get off-- I don't want you tying up the line all night!" because the ONE PHONE had to service the ENTIRE family AND business..."

It's HOW YOU USE the technology that matters. Something else we discussed-- When my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, he started having me take him to downtown Houston to the medical center district for treatments and appointments. We did that for awhile and finally he got sick and tired of it and had his stuff transferred to another doctor in Victoria, closer to their home in Shiner, (an hour south of their place) versus a 150 mile trek through the traffic and aggravation of Houston. The main reason WHY was because even though it was an "ultra-modern" hospital (Memorial Hermann) and they had EVERY FORM OF TECHNOLOGY KNOWN TO MAN AT THEIR FINGERTIPS, they were COMPLETE IDIOTS about how they used it... *ALL* his medical records were on the computer, in their files... easily accessed at the press of a button... heck it's on file what color his first poop was as a baby, YET time and time again, basically EVERY time we'd take him down there for the "next scheduled appointment" or procedure, if he was in a different office, they were COMPLETELY FRIGGIN' CLUELESS about what was going on... Case in point, they scheduled him for an MRI. Okay, the hospital has a huge MRI machine inside on one side of the street, and across the skyway over the street in the "professional building" they have another MRI in the "sports medicine" clinic. When he was hospitalized, they used the hospital MRI, which was rated for "limitless" weight. When he's undergoing treatments, they schedule him for the "sports medicine" MRI in the professional building, which is only rated at 400 lbs capacity, and Dad was a BIG guy... SO, he shows up for his MRI and they start flipping out because the doctor had sent them another big patient a few months back and they "broke their table", so they INSIST that this handicapped 69 year old in a scooter chair go upstairs to the cancer center and get weighed and they send the information back down to them before they'll do the MRI... so we shuffle across the buildings into the elevators, get upstairs, and of course it's a zoo up there, and two and half hours later they get around to weighing him, and sure enough he's overweight for their machine. Then they spend another 2.5 hours arguing about what to do... by that time everybody's gone and they tell us they'll have to reschedule him for another day, because they'll have to figure out how to get him an MRI in the main hospital's machine across the street in THEIR HOSPITAL... I was like "So what's the problem?? WHY didn't they call down there and send him across the street in the FIRST PLACE?? Why all this rigamarole??" "Oh, well, it causes BILLING PROBLEMS in our system, because usually ONLY inpatient cases are done by the hospital MRI and outpatient MRI's are done over here". REALLY??? "Then why the h3ll did yall cheap out and put in a dinky MRI machine that can only handle thinner fit people in the "sports medicine" department for your elderly and overweight patients from all the other outpatient clinics over here then?? Why not put in a bigger machine like the hospital one to handle people regardless of their weight??" All I got was a dumb stare-- the answer is obvious-- MONEY-- they 'cheaped out' on the "sports medicine" machine because few "athletes" are over 350 pounds, obviously.

Time and time again we faced such stupidity, and ended up with WASTED TRIPS down there because, despite having EVERY FORM OF COMMUNICATIONS KNOWN TO MAN, with computer capabilities UNDREAMED OF just a decade or two ago, with INSTANT access to his medical records and current status and treatments across a half-dozen different doctors, NOBODY would take the time and damn effort to actually DO ANYTHING or LOOK AT THE DAMN FILES... He'd show up for a procedure, they'd ask questions, then were "shocked and amazed" to find out, "Oh, you have *THIS* problem?? Well, we can't perform this procedure on you... we'll have to consult and reschedule..." I was just like, "You guys work for the SAME DAMN HOSPITAL SYSTEM in the SAME COMPUTER SYSTEM in buildings either across the street from each other, or often in the SAME BUILDING just a few floors above each other-- with ALL THIS TECHNOLOGY at your fingertips-- every form of communication known to man, computerized records of his ENTIRE health history at your fingertips, and NOBODY KNOWS A DAMN THING until he's sitting here and the nurse starts quizzing him before a procedure and he tells them he has this or that condition or problem! IT IS RIDICULOUS!"

After a half-dozen such episodes, he got disgusted and ordered them to transfer all his treatment and records to Victoria to their hospital and professional building oncologist, and he started going there.

ALL THE TECHNOLOGY IN THE WORLD IS COMPLETELY USELESS IF YOU DON'T USE IT EFFECTIVELY...

Later! OL J R


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