#climate corp

Case IH, The Climate Corporation partner to deliver two-way data sharing | AgroNews

Bringing Big Data to the Farm

5X5 - 4. CROP PROTECTION

Monsanto wants to take The Climate Corporations weather insurance products global and according to reports has ambitious growth targets for the acquired firm. We could easily see Monsanto packaging its existing products, such as seeds, with a weather insurance policy designed specifically for the farmers needs. This could be a very effective way of rolling out these crop weather policies in developing nations and bundling of weather index insurance with seeds has been done before at a microinsurance level.

Who knew betting on the weather could make a billion dollars?

According to Climate Corp. Founder and CEO David Friedberg, his company knows the shape of each of the 20 million fields in the United States, as well what was grown each year, the outcome in terms of crop yield, the water-holding capacity of the soil, and other critical metrics. To bastardize a classic idiom: You can’t make a weather omelet without cracking 30 years worth of data-rich eggs.

A large planting rig can run more than $250,000 and is a marvel of modern farming technology. The planters' arms stretch 90 feet wide when in use and fold for storage. A GPS device inside the tractors helps operators steer straight and prevent planting sections of the field twice, saving seed and time. Vacuum-release spindles drop kernels at just the right depth, in precisely spaced intervals. And seed hoppers have been centralized on planters to efficiently distribute seed to each row, reducing how often farmers must stop to restock seed.

Since its launch in June 2011, the Weather Observations Website (WOW) has received more than 100 million weather observations from enthusiasts all over the world. WOW provides a hub for UK weather observations, helping people learn about the weather and encouraging growth in the UK's amateur weather observing community.