Farmers need to move beyond the hype and fears about the evolving use of large database management — commonly called big data — so they can use this promising technology to make meaningful improvements to their production and management systems, a leading consultant said last week.

"There is a lot of fear and anxiety about big data now that it’s on the cover of every farm magazine. But there is going to be a tremendous amount of value in it," said Matt Bechdol, president of GeoSilos, an Indiana-based consulting firm specializing in data...