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Geomagnetic storm could threaten farmers’ yield data collection

A cropping systems specialist says farmers might be at risk of losing critical yield data due to a rare, geomagnetic storm this week.

Terry Griffin with Kansas State University says major disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere may disrupt the information producers collect during the growing season. “There’s a lot of effort that goes into doing an on-farm experiment, and if we lose the ability to georeference that yield data, those on-farm experiments the value will largely be negated because you will not be able to analyze those experiments.”   

The Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday through Thursday. These storms occur when powerful solar eruptions send charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, sometimes disrupting GPS, communications, and satellite systems.

Griffin tells Brownfield much of the yield information is stored in monitors during harvest. “The experiment goes in for tillage, varieties, applied crop protection chemicals for fertility in the spring or summer and now we’re waiting to collect that data here in November.”

He says the storms usually interfere with GPS navigation more than harvest operations. “When you think about harvesting corn and soybeans, GPS guidance is not as important as it is for planting of those crops to make sure things are in straight rows and avoid wide and narrow middle.”  

He says producers should who are wanting to preserve their harvest data should wait until next week after the storm weakens.