Method and system for tracing the identity of an agricultural product

• US 20060190494A1
• Filed: 04/26/2006
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Andy Dwayne Beck, Frederick William Nelson, Terence Daniel Pickett, Thomas Kent Wagner
• Original Assignee: Andy Dwayne Beck, Frederick William Nelson, Terence Daniel Pickett, Thomas Kent Wagner
• Inventors: Pickett, Terence Daniel, Nelson, Frederick William, Beck, Andy Dwayne, Wagner, Thomas Kent
• Application Number:
  US11/412,211
• Publication Number:
  US 20060190494A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 91/00 Methods for harvesting agricultural products
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 25/00 Storing agricultural or horticultural produce; Hanging-up harvested fruit maturing fruit A23N15/06; arrangements in barns for preparatory treatment of tobacco A24B1/02; packing or storing hops C12C3/04
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A method and system for tracing the identity of an agricultural product comprises holding an agricultural product in a container. The container is associated with a tag. Harvesting data is obtained. The harvesting data is associated with the harvesting of an agricultural product. The harvesting data is stored as stored information by transmitting the harvesting data for storage as stored information associated with a data management system. Primary transportation data is obtained. The primary transportation data is associated with the transportation of the product to primary storage. The primary transportation data is added to the stored information.

Claims

1. A method for tracking product information from harvesting to a processor, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining harvesting data associated with the harvesting of agricultural product,

storing the harvesting data as stored information by transmitting the harvesting data for storage as stored information associated with a data management system;

obtaining primary transportation data associated with the transportation of the product to primary storage;

adding the primary transportation data to the stored information;

obtaining primary storage data associated with the storage of the product in the primary storage; and

adding the primary storage data to the stored information.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising, the steps of:

requesting at least a portion of the stored information from the data management system on the product, the stored information comprising at least one of the harvesting data, the primary transportation data, and the primary storage data.

3. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of:

obtaining supplemental transportation data associated with supplemental transportation of the product from the primary storage; and

adding the supplemental transportation data to the stored information.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the supplemental transportation data comprises a transport identifier, a load date, and a load time.

5. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

obtaining delivery data associated with delivery of the product to a processor; and

adding the delivery data to the stored information.

6. The method according to claim 5 further comprising, the steps of:

requesting at least a portion of the stored information from the data management system on the product, the stored information comprising at least one of the harvesting data, the primary transportation data, the primary storage data, and delivery data.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the harvesting data comprises product characteristics, a harvester identifier and a load identifier;

wherein the primary transportation data comprises a first transport identifier, a load date and a load time.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the obtaining of the harvesting data comprises entering harvesting data via a user interface.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the obtaining of the harvesting data comprises sensing product characteristics via one or more sensors associated with a harvesting machine or combine, the product characteristics comprising at least one of a moisture level of the agricultural product, the weight of the agricultural product, the oil content of the agricultural product, and a nutritional value of the agricultural product.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the obtaining of the primary storage data comprises entering primary storage data via a user interface.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein the obtaining of the primary storage data comprises generating the primary storage data in response to reading one or more tags associated with a primary storage location via a reader at a respective reading time.

12. A method for tracking product information from a processing to a consumer, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining processing data associated with processing of an agricultural product into a final product or a derivative product;

storing the obtained processing data as stored information associated with a data management system;

obtaining packaging data associated with the packaging of the derivative product or the final product; and

adding the packaging data to the stored information.

13. The method according to claim 12 further comprising:

obtaining supplemental transportation data;

adding the supplemental transportation data to the stored information;

obtaining delivery data; and

adding delivery data to the stored information.

14. The method according to claim 12 further comprising:

requesting the stored information to obtain at least one of the processing data and the packaging data

15. The method according to claim 12 wherein the processing data comprises at least one of processing steps, process date, and process time and wherein the packaging data comprises at least one of packaging identifier, packaged date, and packaged time.

16. The method according to claim 12 further comprising:

obtaining harvesting data for the agricultural product prior to the processing by sensing product characteristics via one or more sensors associated with a harvesting machine or combine, the product characteristics comprising at least one of a moisture level of the agricultural product, the weight of the agricultural product, the oil content of the agricultural product, and a nutritional value of the agricultural product.