Cyber-Physical Systems for Agricultural Loss Mitigation and Margin Optimization in the U.S. Grain Belt: A Thermodynamic & Predictive Architecture

The agricultural production landscape across the United States Grain Belt faces simultaneous pressures from extreme microclimatic volatility and post-harvest storage losses exceeding .5 billion annually according to the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). This paper presents FarmMargin, a decoupled cyber-physical software platform coupling deterministic financial sensitivity algorithms with GrainGuard-AI, a thermodynamic decision engine implementing the modified Chung-Pfost Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC) model (ASABE Standards D245.7) for automated silo ventilation, and FarmSense-IoT, a low-power LoRaWAN US915 edge telematics framework. Results demonstrate an average post-harvest loss reduction of up to 3.8% and producer margin protection of .42 per bushel.