Land O'Lakes & Microsoft Partnership
Jul 17, 2020
Megan Hasenour | Marketing Communications Manager
On July 15, 2020, Land O Lakes announced that they are teaming up with Microsoft Corp. for a multiyear strategic alliance to power new innovations in agriculture.
You may think, what’s this mean for Superior Ag? Superior Ag partners with Land O’Lakes through their WinField United and Purina divisions. The innovation and technology that is brought forth from this partnership will ultimately benefit member-customers at Superior Ag.
Land O’Lakes (LOL) is one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives, their network consists of over 150 million acres of productive cropland. You could say LOL is deeply rooted in Ag and is connected with farmers in many ways. Farmers and consumers rely on LOL’s ability to rapidly adapt to changing market forces through their innovation.
Microsoft is a trusted multinational technology company that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, electronics, computers and other related tech products.
LOL relationship with farmers combined with Microsoft’s trusted cloud technology and AI capabilities are anticipated to deliver solutions to help farmer’s profit potential and adoption of sustainable ag practices.
Year after year, farmers are faced with many industry challenges and obstacles that are beyond their control and that threaten their livelihood. According to the USDA, U.S. farms contribute more than $130 billion to the economy, and farmers are an essential part of our nation’s food supply.
Beth Ford, president & CEO of LOL said, “The data-based, precision agriculture tools that we are building with Microsoft will provide the edge they need, but unreliable or nonexistent high-speed internet in rural areas keeps these tools out of reach for many. Through this alliance, we will work to address this need and help farmers remain profitable and sustainable,”
A statement LOL released on their website said:
Initially, the companies will focus on developing a connected AgTech platform, built on Microsoft Azure, that will bring together Land O’Lakes’ portfolio of innovative AgTech tools, such as WinField United’s R7® Suite, Data Silo and Truterra™ Insights Engine under one unified architecture. By standardizing on Azure and harnessing the power of Azure FarmBeats, Land O’Lakes will be able to derive insights that enable intelligent agriculture solutions for farmers to be more productive with their time and resources. This includes early mitigation of plant stress to guide precisely where and when farmers should take action on their field for ideal growth conditions, maximization of yield potential by planting the right seed varieties and nutrients, optimizing fertilizer investments, and ensuring accurate output ratio to meet demand properly, all while lowering the farm carbon footprint.
Built on top of the AgTech platform, the companies will collaborate to advance an aggregator of data with Data Silo, as well as leverage Microsoft Azure and its AI capabilities and insights from WinField United Answer Plot® test fields, to support more predictable decisions for placement of crop inputs such as seeds and treatments, with the goal of increasing return on investment with the entire acre.
To read more about the partnership, visit: Press Release about Land O Lakes & Microsoft Partnership
On July 15, 2020, Land O Lakes announced that they are teaming up with Microsoft Corp. for a multiyear strategic alliance to power new innovations in agriculture.
You may think, what’s this mean for Superior Ag? Superior Ag partners with Land O’Lakes through their WinField United and Purina divisions. The innovation and technology that is brought forth from this partnership will ultimately benefit member-customers at Superior Ag.
Land O’Lakes (LOL) is one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives, their network consists of over 150 million acres of productive cropland. You could say LOL is deeply rooted in Ag and is connected with farmers in many ways. Farmers and consumers rely on LOL’s ability to rapidly adapt to changing market forces through their innovation.
Microsoft is a trusted multinational technology company that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, electronics, computers and other related tech products.
LOL relationship with farmers combined with Microsoft’s trusted cloud technology and AI capabilities are anticipated to deliver solutions to help farmer’s profit potential and adoption of sustainable ag practices.
Year after year, farmers are faced with many industry challenges and obstacles that are beyond their control and that threaten their livelihood. According to the USDA, U.S. farms contribute more than $130 billion to the economy, and farmers are an essential part of our nation’s food supply.
Beth Ford, president & CEO of LOL said, “The data-based, precision agriculture tools that we are building with Microsoft will provide the edge they need, but unreliable or nonexistent high-speed internet in rural areas keeps these tools out of reach for many. Through this alliance, we will work to address this need and help farmers remain profitable and sustainable,”
A statement LOL released on their website said:
Initially, the companies will focus on developing a connected AgTech platform, built on Microsoft Azure, that will bring together Land O’Lakes’ portfolio of innovative AgTech tools, such as WinField United’s R7® Suite, Data Silo and Truterra™ Insights Engine under one unified architecture. By standardizing on Azure and harnessing the power of Azure FarmBeats, Land O’Lakes will be able to derive insights that enable intelligent agriculture solutions for farmers to be more productive with their time and resources. This includes early mitigation of plant stress to guide precisely where and when farmers should take action on their field for ideal growth conditions, maximization of yield potential by planting the right seed varieties and nutrients, optimizing fertilizer investments, and ensuring accurate output ratio to meet demand properly, all while lowering the farm carbon footprint.
Built on top of the AgTech platform, the companies will collaborate to advance an aggregator of data with Data Silo, as well as leverage Microsoft Azure and its AI capabilities and insights from WinField United Answer Plot® test fields, to support more predictable decisions for placement of crop inputs such as seeds and treatments, with the goal of increasing return on investment with the entire acre.
To read more about the partnership, visit: Press Release about Land O Lakes & Microsoft Partnership