TY - JOUR T1 - Cloud-Based Approach for Tracking and Monitoring of Hay Bales in Smart Agriculture JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2021 A1 - Ilpo Pölönen A1 - Antti Suokannas A1 - Antti Juntunen KW - bale inventory KW - bale trade KW - big data KW - precision farming KW - RFID KW - round bales KW - silage KW - Smart farming AB - The introduction of new technology to agriculture has resulted in enormous amounts of data and their handling and utilization challenge. Data is typically gathered from several sources such as field sensors, machines, industrial processes, different laboratories and officials. This has led to several complicated systems that are not always compatible. Farmers are confused, unaware, and face challenges in seeing the benefits for their business in relation to the time required. This paper introduces an automatic digital tracking and monitoring system for round feed bales on farms. In this system, bale data from sensors, switches, and a GPS-device in the baling machine are collected by hardware and sent to the cloud with the bale ID read from a RFID tag attached to each bale. A digital inventory of bales forms instantly, and baling can be followed on the map application with a mobile device. Data in the cloud is utilized for the farmer's user interface. The farmer can manage and do various operations with bales. An important outcome is the yield report, showing basic statistics, quantities, and qualities of bales in a digitalized field parcel. If the farmer wants to sell bales, this can easily be done with the tool. It makes sales by connecting the farmer to an e-commerce portal. A key question and challenge to be resolved involves who owns the data. All the benefits of digitalization can be achieved only with good cooperation and mutual agreement from farmers who want to have control of their data under all circumstances. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 11 UR - timreview.ca/article/1419 IS - 2 U1 - Häme University of Applied Sciences Ilpo Pölönen is an animal nutritionist, a principal research scientist in HAMK Bio Research Unit at Häme University of Applied Sciences. He has a Ph.D. in Animal Science from Helsinki University where he also holds docentship. He graduated from Helsinki University after which he continued Animal Science studies and earned a M.Sc. at Oregon State University. In nutritional research, he has specialized in the preservation of feeds, while during the last years has been involved in developing digital solutions for grass silage. He also teaches master-level students in HAMK. U2 - Natural Resources Institute of Finland Antti Suokannas is a research scientist at the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke). He holds a M.Sc. in Agricultural Technology at Helsinki University. He has a long history of various research projects in forage harvesting technology and has also been involved with work safety studies in plant production. His current research interests include smart farming, automation systems, and forage harvesting processes. U3 - Häme University of Applied Sciences Antti Juntunen is a software developer (B.Sc.) in HAMK Smart research unit at Häme University of Applied Sciences. He has gained experience with many digitalization projects connected to working life. In this project, he was responsible for developing the bale inventory in the cloud and the services connected with it. ER -