The Next Generation of Farm Reporting

Ben Craker is the Portfolio Manager at AgGateway, a global nonprofit organization whose members develop standards and other resources across agricultural industry sectors by providing a unique forum where companies can meet to solve digital challenges. In this role Ben helps facilitate the efforts of working groups as they meet to develop digital resources solving pain points identified by member organizations. He has also served as the president of the Ag Data Coalition since it was founded in 2016. The ADC has been working to establishing an independent data repository farmers, researchers, and industry can use to store and share data. The ultimate ADC goal is to make data storage a pre-competitive space in the agricultural industry.

Prior to joining the AgGateway staff he spent eighteen years in the farm equipment manufacturing industry at AGCO and Kuhn North America. He held positions in marketing, sales, partnering, and product management. He grew up on a farm in south central Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with an Ag Business degree with an engineering technology emphasis. He still helps out on the family farm whenever possible and lives south of Madison, WI with his wife Jackie and their three children.

As Chief Science Officer, Tom leads the Science organization at Climate LLC and Digital Farming at Bayer Crop Science, where he drives the company’s research and development efforts in data science, modeling, sensing, and field research. The capabilities developed within the Science organization enable operational insights backed by the integration of vast amounts of real field data into Climate models.

Most recently, as the Senior Director of Science Implementation at Climate LLC, Tom led the testing and application of Climate Science in our global field operations and with our customers, in order to ensure successful execution of Science research. Tom brings to his role more than 14 years of strategic leadership at Bayer in the development and implementation of research and technology deployment that directly benefits farmers.

Tom holds a BS in Agronomy, and a Masters and Ph.D in Entomology from the University of Nebraska.

Amy Winstead is the Vice President of Business Innovation and Agronomy for GreenPoint Ag Holdings, LLC a joint venture between Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and Winfield Solutions. In this role she leads GreenPoint Ag’s IT and Business Systems and the Agronomy and Ag Technology offerings for Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and GreenPoint Ag retail locations.  

Prior to joining GreenPoint Ag, Amy was the Chief Technology Officer for Agri-AFC, LLC and worked for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System as an Extension Agent with statewide responsibilities for Precision Agriculture.  She received her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Agronomy and Soils with a Precision Agriculture emphasis from Auburn University. Amy currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Ag Data Coalition. She and her husband Matt reside in north Alabama on a small farm with their two sons.

My main research interest is the application of genomics to increase value for all of the links within protein value chains (from the animal breeder to the consumer) with a focus on improving animal health. My main ambition is to develop the program, together with other groups in ALES and their partners, to develop new tools for application in many of the farmed animal species.