Help us serve you: UMN field survey

GEMS informatics is in the business of developing data science solutions to make farms more profitable and more economically and environmentally sustainable. Like any research, our advanced data analytic tools are only as good as the data we feed into them. Farmers are the source of the best ground truth data there is. 

Our Current Focus

There are a host of factors that affect whether applied fertilizer is taken up by the crop or runs off the field. Among them are the types of crops grown, the tillage and other soil conservation practices used, and their timing. Your responses will help us build better analytical models to make these connections. Our ultimate goal is to help farmers improve fertilizer use efficiency (and thus farmer profitability) while at the same time reducing runoff.

Data Privacy

We are after some very specific data to help us better model farming practices across the State. But we are well aware that farmers have legitimate concerns over the access and use of their data. We share those concerns. All data that we collect is stored in a secure data center on campus. We do not share our data with external parties; it is only used internally within GEMS or other UMN research groups with strict internal sign-offs. Data stored at GEMS is protected from access by external parties by way of a MN State Statute that came into effect in 2018, which deems the data to be legally private, non-public.

Our Request

We have built a simple survey to inquire about your cropping and field practices in the past two cropping seasons. It is easy to locate your field, and then simply click a few responses. On submission of your first field, please go ahead and submit another field.