One of the primary goals for Farm Service Agency Administrator Bill Beam is the modernization of acreage reporting. The technology update is long overdue. “We had these antiquated systems with these large mainframes and databanks and now we’re converting a lot of our data to the cloud; now we can afford to take some risk and I think that was a big part of it,” said Beam. “We didn’t want to break it, so it was easier just to keep fixing it. I think now we can actually try and stand up new systems and make it work this time.” Ultimately, Beam would like farmers and ranchers to have the ability to file farm program reports over a smartphone. “It’s got to be super, super easy to use and intuitive; everybody else is doing it. Hopefully, we can get there, too.” Beam was featured in a Red River Farm Network forum at the Big Iron Farm Show.
