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AMES -- Iowa State University Extension and Outreach's Ag Decision Maker has released a new four-part resource series: Managing Your Farm’s Technology Systems Risk.
Like most businesses, modern farms rely heavily on electricity, internet access and digital tools to keep daily operations running smoothly. Emergencies like severe weather, an extended electrical grid outage or a sudden cyberattack can disrupt those connections and threaten farm security.
Developed by the ISU Extension and Outreach Farm Business Management Team, the resources prompt crop and livestock producers to evaluate how the operations would handle a temporary or prolonged loss of power and digital connectivity.
The newly released series includes three targeted checklist publications and one comprehensive reference guide:
• Digital Ag Risk Assessment is a general operational checklist covering emergency communications, online security, network firewalls and financial continuity protocols.
• Crops – Digital Ag Risk Assessment is a tailored tool for crop producers to evaluate field operations, manual overrides for GPS and autosteer, grain storage monitoring and contract delivery backups.
• Livestock – Digital Ag Risk Assessment focuses on animal welfare, electronic watering pump backups, climate control systems, manual feeding protocols and offline records.
Power and Backup Systems Reference is a technical planning guide co-authored by Dan Shrock, automation architect at Synk and former U.S. Navy submarine electrician, to help farmers plan and run backup power systems.
A highlight of the reference guide is the load-tier framework, which helps farmers categorize their farm's electrical needs into four clear tiers: essential, important, comfort and non-vital loads. The authors note that by classifying equipment such as well pumps, livestock ventilation fans or grain bin monitoring tools, producers can size generators, fuel reserves or solar-wind systems, preventing guesswork when it comes to backup needs or over-investing in oversized systems.
Farmers can download all four publications and printable checklists at no cost through Ag Decision Maker.
For related content, visit ISU Extension and Outreach Disaster Readiness.
For more information, contact Ann Johanns at aholste@iastate.edu or Madeline Schultz at schultz@iastate.edu.