By Mary Hightower
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Fast facts
- Ag data ownership laws shift from asset to property right
- Freeman: Expect ag data laws to become more granular
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Who owns data collected on a farm and how private is it? The answer depends on where the farm is and the type of operation, said D. Reed Freeman, partner and chair of the privacy practice group at ArentFox Schiff.
Freeman and Karen Ellis Carr, chair of the firm’s agriculture and agtech industry group, discussed “Agricultural Data Rights: A New State Law Landscape,” a webinar hosted Oct. 21 by the National Agricultural Law Center.
How did we get here?
D. Reed Freeman, left, and Karen Ellis Carr, presented a webinar through the National Agricultural Law Center on Oct. 21 titled “Agricultural Data Rights: A New State Law Landscape.” Recording available on NALC website. (Courtesy photos)
The rise of precision agriculture over the last 40 years is built on data, which is now routinely collected by farm equipment such as combines and drones. Paired with GPS and other digital tools, this data enables row crop farmers to better manage inputs such as fertilizer and water, and for livestock producers, it provides detailed means to track animals, water and feed use and manage pastures and forage.
Ag data may also include climate and weather information such as precipitation, temperature and wind speeds, or data about the land, including measurements about soil fertility, elevation and topography.
Further data sources could include management data such as information relating to finances, taxes, and employment records.
As more farmers adopted variable fertilizer rates and, with the advent of yield monitors in combines, GPS and other data collection, farmers began to wonder who owned the information and who was seeing what was being collected in their fields.
“Farmers are not the only party with access to the data being generated through many precision agriculture practices,” said Elizabeth Rumley, senior staff attorney for NALC. “In fact, user agreements with the companies who manufactured such technology may convey certain rights over the data being generated. This has created some privacy concerns, leading to calls for state laws clarifying who owns the data being generated on farms.”
2014 agreement
In 2014, the American Farm Bureau worked with farm organizations and agriculture technology providers to create an agreement on data privacy and security principles to “encourage the use and development of a full range of innovative, technology-driven tools and services to boost the productivity, efficiency and profitability of American agriculture.” This agreement was voluntary, and as Freeman noted, “didn’t carry the force of law.”
A more recent milestone in ag data ownership was Nebraska’s landmark LB525, the Agricultural Data Privacy Act, signed into law in April 2026.
“This marked the first state law to establish ownership rights and safeguards for the wide array of data generated by farmers during their operations,” Rumley said.
To read the full news release, click here.