Willie Cade, a director with the Theo Brown Society and right-to-repair advocate, was part of the National Farmers Union Convention. Cade said it’s not just about the ability to fix equipment. “More importantly than that is data; these machines are pulling enormous amounts of data,” said Cade. “If a combine moving at seven miles an hour over six seconds, it covers about 60 feet and if they’re collecting data every six inches, the amount of yield data is humongous.” Cade wonders who owns and should benefit from that value. “That’s where right-to-repair comes in because manufacturers hide the data behind onboard computers. They only give you the data after they’ve processed it, and we don’t even know if they give us all the data.”
