We often “ooh and ahh” at the sight of fancy new gadgets, mesmerized as technology marketers dazzle us with reasons why we just have to have their product. Sometimes we give in to the hype and buy that new Apple Watch or that ShamWow towel that’s supposed to magically replace the “$20 per month” we spend on paper towels.

For ambitious dealers, the collection, processing and analysis of precision farming data has shown significant promise as an added revenue source. But even for those who are less inclined to directly pursue this area of precision business, at least minimal handling of customers’ data is virtually unavoidable.

Todd Janzen, attorney at Plews Shadley Racher & Braun LLP in Indianapolis, grew up on a Kansas grain and livestock farm and now practices law in the at the intersection of ag and technology. In this guest post, Todd addresses the question "Does Your Co-Op Own Your Farm Data?"