As technology continues to improve, agriculture has been a major beneficiary. Auto steer for row crop equipment, which is made possible with satellite technology, has improved the accuracy of row spacings and the ease of operating for producers. This satellite technology also controls seed placement for planters, so point rows are not double-planted. This not only saves on seed costs, but also prevents overplanting end rows.

Tractors are equipped to measure fuel usage on the go and measure wheel slippage in real time. Combines are equipped to measure yield in real-time while creating color-coded yield maps. This technology also measures grain moisture, which is adjusted to dry bushels, thereby reflecting the actual crop yield.

Center pivots are available that can not only speed up and slow down the rate of movement, but also have the ability to turn off or reduce the rate of water output for each sprinkler along the pivot to avoid over-watering wet spots. They can even be controlled remotely from your phone.

These technologies are commonplace among many operators today, but are only the beginning of the potential improvements and innovations for American agriculture.

Livestock producers can use electronic ID (EID) tags to store data for each animal in their herd. Once again, there are limitless amounts of data that can be generated.

The challenge has become how to safeguard the privacy of this data and how to identify who has the right to own or control the data. That was the subject of a legislative round table I hosted last week in Lincoln. The Governor asked me last session if I would sponsor a bill dealing with the privacy of agricultural data. With the limited time we had to draft last year’s bill, my staff worked with the Governor’s staff to develop LB525. In the end, I decided that the bill needed more work, so I held the bill in committee so we could do an interim study on the subject and get input from all interested parties between sessions. I plan to amend the bill with a “white copy” (replacement) amendment and rehear the bill in committee in January.

At the roundtable, we gathered great input from everyone present. There were opinions that ranged from those who felt the producer should control the use of all the resulting information gathered from the technology to those who believed both the producer and the developer of the software should have unlimited use of the data. Since no other state has a privacy law specific to agricultural data, I wanted to walk before we run, but I believe there is a need to start putting some guardrails in place, given the fast rate of technology growth. In doing so, it’s important to balance producer protections with the ability to innovate.

We left the roundtable with a basic framework and will be having more discussions to improve on what we started. We have much to do over the next two months.

It is a privilege to represent you in the Nebraska Legislature, and I look forward to continuing to hear about issues that are important to you. I can be reached at 402-471-2729 or by emailing me at mjacobson@leg.ne.gov.