At MapShots, we believe that automated electronic reporting of Crop Insurance and FSA information will be one of the significant benefits of implementing a good crop recordkeeping system. However, crop insurance companies appear focused on implementing proprietary data systems. As a rule, they have ignored the opportunity to implement open data exchange with growers using the crop record keeping system of their choice. And small software companies, such as MapShots, are unable to command the attention of USDA that large corporations, i.e. Deere and ESRI, have the ability to do. The result is procedures and protocols are implemented that may not benefit all growers. Having said this, we would encourage interested growers to ask these questions: - Why do you need GPS or Precision Ag to do electronic reporting?
- Does the reporting that is being promoted as an Apex feature only work with John Deere crop insurance?
- Will John Deere crop insurance accept electronic reporting from other software packages?
Although these questions are framed within a Deere Apex context, as a response to the original post, they are questions growers should ask in any crop insurance electronic reporting situation. | 
more use for precision ag than just in the field...
