Most farmers probably don't think of the information stored in their tractor, combine or phone as another farm asset, but maybe they should. Today's equipment collects an insane amount of information. Yield maps show what different parts of a field produced, planting monitors record populations and varieties, and application equipment tracks fertilizer and chemical use. Add soil tests, GPS information, satellite imagery and years of crop history, and you can build a pretty detailed picture of a piece of ground.

We've been collecting much of this information for years. What's changing is what we can do with it. Artificial intelligence can take years of farm data and quickly compare yields, rainfall, fertilizer applications, soil types, planting dates and other information. It can identify patterns that would be difficult for a person to find on their own. That can be a very useful tool, but it also raises a pretty simple question: Who owns all of that information?

Let's say a landowner rents the same quarter to a farmer for 20 years. The farmer owns the equipment, pays for the technology and makes the management decisions. During that time, he builds a detailed history of the property through yield maps, fertilizer records, soil tests, planting information and other production data. Then the landowner decides to sell.

Who owns those 20 years of information?

The farmer could reasonably say, I paid to create it. Those are my production records. The landowner could just as reasonably ask, But isn't that information about my property? 

There isn't always a simple answer.

From a real estate standpoint, this is where the topic gets especially interesting to me. When we're evaluating farmland today, we look at things like cropland acres, soil productivity, FSA information, access, drainage, rental history and comparable sales. Now imagine adding 15 or 20 years of actual production history.

Instead of simply knowing the soil productivity of a quarter, we could see which acres consistently produce, which areas struggle in wet years, which burn up first in dry years and where additional inputs have—or haven't—resulted in additional production. AI could take years of that information and make it much easier to understand.

There is a positive side to all of this as well. A producer with years of good records may be able to use AI to identify where inputs are being wasted, compare management practices and make better production decisions. Instead of relying on one year's results, producers may be able to look at long-term trends and better understand what is actually working on their operation.

That history could also become important when transitioning a farm to the next generation. We already think about passing down land, machinery, livestock, financial records and years of knowledge. Twenty-five years of detailed production information could be extremely useful to a son or daughter taking over the farm. Maybe farm data eventually becomes another part of that transition.

I don't think farmers need to be afraid of AI. There is a lot of potential for it to become another useful tool in agriculture. But as the technology gets better, we probably need to start thinking differently about the information our farms are already producing.

Who owns it? Who gets to use it? Does it stay with the farmer who created it or eventually follow the land? What happens to it when a farm changes hands or moves to the next generation?

We may not have all of those answers yet, but AI is giving us the ability to learn more from farm data than ever before.

Author Bio: Abbey Messer has been helping buyers and sellers across central North Dakota since 2019, specializing in farmland, farmsteads, and rural properties. As a land agent with Pifer's Auction & Realty, she guides clients through land auctions and traditional real estate transactions, combining strategic marketing with local expertise to help them achieve their goals. Abbey and her husband, Marty, are raising their two children on a rural farmstead in central North Dakota. Because she lives the same rural lifestyle as many of her clients, she understands the value of the land, the importance of family, and the deep connection people have to the communities they call home.