Subscribe to Agriscience Explained: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qvFYYLq1dZM1KUiN6nz6H?si=6a6dd6193eea47a1Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agriscience-explained/id1789150766Web: https://www.corteva.com/our-impact/innovation/agriscience-explained.htmlOver the past eight years, I have learned so much from this podcast and it’s opened up a lot of cool opportunities. Some of those opportunities have been to help others launch their own shows. In fact a big part of my consulting work is helping commodity groups and companies reach agricultural audiences through digital communication like podcasts. What you’re about to hear is an episode from one of those projects. Earlier this year, I helped Corteva Agriscience launch a new show called Agriscience Explained. Each episode includes voices from a scientist and a farmer to understand how innovations are developed and where they fit into a modern farm business. I’ve really enjoyed working with Corteva on this, and we’ve already posted 10 episodes with an 11th coming this week on topics ranging from seed to nematodes to cover crops to gene editing to reduced stature corn. It really is a cool format to explore the various aspects of agriscience. So here’s episode one, if you like it, make sure you find their show and subscribe for more. 

The Modern Acre PodcastAgListPolaris Energy ServicesNuss FarmsFor today’s episode, I sit down with Tim and Tyler Nuss. Some of you may recognize their voices from their podcast, The Modern Acre. After growing up on the family farm and finding out in adulthood that they both were really interested in business, they started brainstorming ideas of how they could build something in the ag industry. Tyler said they were big fans of the real estate media brand “Bigger Pockets” which had a podcast and built a community and several adjacent businesses around it. They set out to do something similar in agriculture, and in their own way they have. I wanted to bring them onto the show because in the past year, Tyler announced he would be assuming the role of CEO for Polaris Energy Services and they both launched what they’re calling the Yelp for agriculture which is called AgList. So they wear a lot of hats between these businesses, the podcast, and the farm. 

"Tractor Wars" by Neil Dahlstrom: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953295746/Software is Feeding the World (Rhishi's newsletter): https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftw[History of Agriculture] Cyrus McCormick And The Birth Of Mechanical Harvesting It's impossible to picture the modern food system we have today without the invention of the tractor. And it happened really not that long ago, just over a hundred years ago.Today we're gonna be talking about this book, "Tractor Wars" by Neil Dahlstrom. Neil is the manager of archives and history at John Deere and tackling this book with me is my good friend and repeat host on the podcast, Rhishi Pethe.An excerpt from the epilogue of "Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester and the Birth of Modern Agriculture": " Fortune magazine called the 1920s the decade of the Fordson. Not everyone agreed, but the fact that the Fordson accelerated adoption of the farm tractor and forever altered the competitive landscape is undeniable. Ford was right about the insatiable appetite for automobiles and in time for farm tractors. There were now 17 million passenger cars and nearly two and a half million trucks traveling on more than 521,000 miles of surfaced roads. But he had miscalculated the connection between farmers and their land and their constantly evolving needs. Most importantly, farmers wanted to fortify that relationship, not end it. Only 33 American farm tractor manufacturers remained in 1929 as mergers, consolidations and bankruptcies continued to narrow the field. In its overview of the tractor industry in early 1928 the Tractor Field book surmised that large numbers of inefficient machines were discarded during the five-year period from 1920 to 1924. As many were built by companies whose efforts were largely experimental."So it's that process of like explosion in consolidation that we're gonna be talking about here today from Neil Dahlstrom's book.

The Almond Doctor: https://www.thealmonddoctor.com/David's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheAlmondDoctorFoA 249: A Global Perspective on Tree Nuts with The Almond DoctorDavid Doll was raised in a rural area growing apples and peaches. After attending Purdue University for his B.S. in Plant Biology, he attended graduate school at UC Davis, completing his M.S. in Plant Pathology. Shortly after completion, he started to work as a Farm Advisor the University of California.After ten years of working as a Farm Advisor, David moved to Portugal in November 2018 to work as the lead developer for Rota Unica Almonds. His task is to develop California styled almond plantations within Alentejo. Through this process, he has become familiar with some of the various challenges associated with growing almonds in Portugal and Europe.Prior to his move, David worked with farmers in the Central Valley of California in troubleshooting problems and conducting on farm research within almonds, walnuts and pistachios. In this position, he would visit nearly 200 operations and deliver 35 presentations annually. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. Currently, he works with almond operations across the world, including California, Africa, and Australia. Many of his observations and lessons learned have been shared within his online platform, “The Almond Doctor,” where he shares research, experiences and opinions of better farm management practices for almond orchards.

AgriCorps: http://www.agricorps.org/Movement for School-Based Agricultural Education: http://www.sbae.org/4-H Liberia: https://4hliberia.wordpress.com/Trent McKnight's TedX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2pPO29DaYsToday’s episode is going to open a lot of eyes I think. We tend to think of youth programs like 4-H and FFA as great things for the kids to be doing. Very few recognize them for the power they have to not only develop young agricultural leaders but also as tools for spreading ideas and technologies. That’s what today’s episode is about, and it’s a personal one for me. I grew up in 4-H and FFA and both organizations had a profound impact on my life and my worldview. Then in 2012 I joined a team led by today’s guest, Trent McKnight, and spent several weeks in the country of Liberia interviewing farmers about food insecurity and farming practices. That experience also left a permanent impression on my life. So I’ve known Trent for about 25 years now and have had a chance to work with his non-profit organization, AgriCorps in various capacities over the years. In fact Trent first appeared on this show WAY back on episode 27, which i posted in November of 2016, so over eight years ago. For those of you not familiar, 4-H and FFA are youth agricultural organizations. 4-H varies a lot state to state and country to country, but in Liberia which is a country in subsaharan Africa that we will focus on today, they have what is known as a school-based agricultural education model. So in that way Liberia 4-H is similar to how FFA is here in the states. It involves three major components: classroom instruction in agriculture as part of their school, leadership events and contents, and a project outside of the classroom which in Liberia they refer to as a Home Entrepreneurship Project or HEP. If it sounds like a great way to learn a lot about agriculture and develop yourself as a leader and entrepreneur, you’re absolutely right. But it’s also more than that. The model was intended to lower the risk of adopting new agricultural innovations and as you’re about to hear it is also very effective in doing just that. Some biographical background: Trent McKnight is an experienced international agriculturalist, investor, and cattle rancher from rural West Texas. Trent holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Agricultural Economics and Comparative Politics from Oklahoma State University and The London School of Economics, respectively. He has held leadership positions, including national president of the Future Farmers of America and chair of the USDA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Advisory Committee. In 2013, Trent founded AgriCorps, a nonprofit organization focused on improving school-based agricultural education in sub-Saharan Africa. Through AgriCorps, he created the International Agricultural Education Fellowship Program under the Trade Title of the 2018 Farm Bill and launched The Movement for School-Based Agricultural Education. G. Umaru Sheriff is the National Executive Director and co-founder of 4-H Liberia, a local Non-Governmental Organisation reviving efforts from the 1970s and 1980s, when Liberia boasted over 1,000 4-H clubs. Under his leadership, 4-H Liberia has worked in hundreds of rural communities and empowered thousands of youth through School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) and leadership development. Committed to evidence and learning, Umaru partnered with Northwestern University, Innovations for Poverty Action, and AgriCorps on the largest randomized

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesFollow Chris on X: https://x.com/pettyranch Today's episode features 5th generation farmer Chris Sayer of Petty Ranch. Chris grows avocados in Ventura County, which is just northwest of the Los Angeles area. And there are several unique aspects to Chris’ story. First, he grows avocados, which is awesome, and I wanted to find out how he stays competitive with so many avocados coming from Mexico these days. Also he grows them in a very populated area, so there are a ton of considerations there from urban sprawl to water management to theft. I also wanted to ask Chris about soil health. I knew from talking to him previously that he grows cover crops and really thinks deeply about soil and water conservation, so we dive deeper into that as well. Chris grew up on the farm but left to attend Northwestern University where he majored in Political Science and joined the Navy ROTC. That led to flight training school and an eight year commitment to serving in the Navy. After completing his service, Chris worked in tech in the late 90s before returning to the farm and taking over management in 2001Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates[Spotlight] Integrating Tech and Iron With Chris Dempsey of CNH[Spotlight] How Case IH Turns Customer Insights Into Farm EquipmentWhere Tech Meets Tractor With Joe Miller of CNHStrategic Investing in Ag Technologies With Michele Lombardi of CNH VenturesAs part of this quarter’s sponsorship, Case IH has given me access to some of their key people to learn more about what goes into developing the tractors and equipment that farmers use every day. This is our third and final installment of that series, so if you haven’t already listened to the first two with Dan Klein and Chris Dempsey, I highly recommend you go do that after listening to this spotlight. Today’s interview features Scott Harris, who at the time of this interview was the Brand President at Case IH. In the time since the interview took place, it was announced that Scott took on the role of president of CNH North America, so congratulations to Scott on that. Scott told me he feels like he was destined to work in the ag industry but his story began as a secondary education teacher in Applied Technology. From there he spent over 20 years in the automotive and finance industries, and says he found his calling when he joined CNH Industrial in 2006. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesCNH Ventures: https://www.cnh.com/en-US/Our-Company/VenturesToday's episode features Michele Lombardi. Michele is the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at CNH and the Head of CNH Ventures. He is responsible for developing and implementing the Company’s long-term business strategies and in-house capabilities, tied to inorganic growth. Through this work, he holds Board positions in several of the independent technology companies in which CNH has invested, such as Monarch Tractor, Stout Industrial Technology and Zasso.Michele and I talk about how he’s thinking about the future of agricultural technology, some wins and lessons from his experiences in this industry, what it means to be a strategic investor, and how he handles the convergence of startups and the large established brands he represents at CNH. Michele joined CNH in 2008. Prior to his current role, he was Head of Global Mergers and Acquisitions from 2019 – 2021. His international assignments with the company have included: Executive Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand; Head of the Iveco brand for the Asia Pacific Region; Head of the Iveco China branch; Managing Director for CNH Industrial South East Asia & Japan.Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesTwisted River Farm: https://www.twistedriverfarm.com/Follow Steve on X: https://x.com/TRFyeomanfarmerSteve Strasheim of Twisted River Farm. I’ve followed Steve on X for a long time now, and I’ve been really looking forward to getting him on the show for a few reasons. He focuses on a totally different model for farming that is radically different from the commodity mindset. Instead of economies of scale being the priority, his top priority is connection to his customers. Because of that he’s able to build his business without the two biggest barriers for most farmers: access to a lot of land and a lot of capital. It’s more the bootstrapped version of getting started in farming. And I’ve seen this market garden model work. There are well-known YouTubers like Curtis Stone in Canada that have inspired countless others to pursue this version of farming on small sections of other people’s land and building a business on customer relationships rather than economies of scale. I can remember being inspired by finding Curtis Stone’s content maybe a decade ago, but I thought it was a model that could only work in urban areas with very affluent consumers that only want to buy local. In Steve’s case, he’s in rural Iowa. Mitchell, Iowa, to be exact. About 12 miles south of the Minnesota border. Steve first became interested in local food in 2013, so in 2014 he began raising chickens. He did that as a side business and then in 2017 he ditched the chicken project for vegetables, which he said proved to be a much better fit for him from the very beginning. Since that time he has grown his operation to a few different locations that total around three acres of borrowed land. He mostly pays in produce. Although when we spoke he was in the process of buying a five acre property to centralize his operation. Steve is a great example of what it takes to build a direct to consumer business from scratch. His model includes growing produce most of the year, he has some hoop houses that help him extend his season. He sells at a couple of farmers markets and thorough a CSA - which stands for community supported agriculture. These are subscriptions that his customers pay for to get a box of fresh produce either weekly or every other week. He also sells to some grocery stores and restaurants but since COVID his focus has been mostly on the direct sales to the end customer. And all of this is a very rural area, which kind of blows my mind.Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesMcCain's Farms of the FutureHot Potato PodcastToday’s episode features Dr. Michelle D’Souza. Michelle is the Manager of Research and Innovation for McCain’s Farm of the Future Project. In this role, her mission is to empower McCain on its journey to developing sustainable corporate frameworks that benefit society and nature through regenerative agriculture.Some of you may know that McCain has set some ambitious goals for transitioning their potato supply chain to regenerative agriculture. Over the years they have been willing to lead in their commitments and also back those commitments up with incentives and support for farmers trying to adopt regenerative practices. As such, they have hired scientists like Michelle. Dr. Michelle D’Souza is a molecular ecologist whose work focuses on biodiversity conservation, community engagement, and knowledge mobilization. So first and foremost, she is a scientist who in addition to her work at McCain still works as a Visiting Scientist at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics. Michelle and I have a great conversation about McCain’s commitments, how the progress has been so far,  and how their farms of the future are designed to serve as farm-scale laboratories for regenerative transition. We also discuss why biodiversity should be a goal we should strive for in agriculture, who is responsible paying for soil conservation, and a whole lot more. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesSubscribe to Janette Barnard's Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/Connect with Ian Lahiffe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-lahiffe-25165b1a/ If you had to make a shortlist of the key drivers of the global agricultural commodity trade over the past 30 years, one of the top drivers would most certainly be China. " The Chinese livestock industry and how Chinese consumers choose their protein has a direct impact on global agriculture. China's obviously the world's largest importer of dairy, largest importer of beef, largest importer of soy, largest importer of corn." - Ian LahiffeIan Lahiffe has been living and working in China for nearly 14 years. He joins Janette Barnard on today’s episode to help us better understand the Chinese market, and even more importantly, unpack some important changes that impact global agriculture.  "There's two trends that I think US producers should be concerned about. One is Brazil becoming increasingly close to China, and that . Brazilian product can get more easily to the port. And the second is that, Chinese producers are actively looking at nutritional solutions where they can reduce the amount of imported soy that they need. The trend looks like US producers need to look for those next markets. I think the boat is sailing on being very reliant on China." - Ian LahiffeJanette Barnard and Ian Lahiffe talk about some big changes happening in China on today’s Future of Agriculture podcast. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesToday’s special episode is what I like to call a spotlight. Instead of our normal format of a 40 minute long form interview, it’s just a short peak into something interesting. The topics for these spotlights are determined in collaboration with our quarterly presenting sponsor, which this quarter is Case IH. If you listened to our last spotlight with Dan Klein about a month ago, you already know that this quarter Case IH has given me access to some of their people to learn more about what goes into developing the tractors and equipment that farmers use every day. These spotlight segments are usually farmers, and it just so happens that’s also the case here, Chris Dempsey, like Dan Klein is not only a Case IH employee, but a farmer himself. Today’s episode builds upon what Dan shared about how Case IH stays systematically customer-focused through their Customer Driven Product Design. Chris is going to share more about the integration of technology and iron and how that comes together in the modern Magnum Tractor. Chris Dempsey has spent 12 years with CNH and Case IH in a variety of roles in the technology space spanning dealer technical support, quality, marketing, and product management. Chris is currently responsible for overseeing precision technology integration across CNH’s portfolio of iron products as well as global go to market execution of technology solutions across CNH’s house of brands.And the pride Chris and his colleagues have in Case IH and specifically in the Magnum is very evident when you hear them talk about it.Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesDownload the Agtech Alchemy Quarterly: https://agtechalchemy.substack.com/p/agtech-alchemy-quarterly-winter2025GenAI Whitepaper: https://www.rhishipethe.com/genai-in-agToday's episode features the founding members of Agtech Alchemy. This format is a little different from our normal show. It’s a lot less formal, you’ll hear some jokes and laughter, but really it’s just four guys who all really care about agtech and its ability to improve agriculture in the future. If you’ve been around agtech circles for very long, especially if you’re on LinkedIn, you know all three of our guests today: Walt Duflock is the vice president of Innovation at Western Growers, which represents family farmers growing fresh produce in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico. Sachi Desai is with Bayer Crop Science. He has over 20 years of experience in AI and machine learning research, development and application across multiple industries including agriculture. Rishi Pethe has guest hosted this show a number of times. He is the author and publisher of the twice weekly newsletter, Software is Feeding the World. He also just released a whitepaper today which is a practical guide to generative AI and explains how organizations can go past proof of concept phase of these new capabilities. Make sure you go download that. I’ll leave a link for that in the show notes. I will also leave a link in the show notes where you can read the Agtech Alchemy Quarterly, which is what we’re going to talk about in today’s episode. I knew it would be filled with insights, but it surpassed my expectations, and it’s 116 pages long, so obviously we will just barely scratch the surface in today’s episode. Make sure you go read the full digest to understand what’s happening today in agtech. It was really cool to read thought pieces from creators back-to-back in the same document. I started making connections that I don’t think I would have made if I read them independently. If I had to summarize an overall theme for this one, it would be an exploration of if and when technology can be a true competitive advantage. There is a lot of talk of AI, especially generative AI, but the pieces run the gamut. Some of the authors you’ve heard from on this show in the past, like Janette Barnard, Matthew Pryor, Rishi Pethe, and Dan Schultz. Others are household names in agtech thought leadership like Shane Thomas and Walt Duflock. It’s a great mix and I think you’re going to enjoy today’s conversation which serves as a bit of an overview. A quick disclaimer: I will admit that this episode does get a little bit wonky because all four of us like to nerd out about agtech, but but it’s also a lot of fun, so stick with it. I think there are some really important concepts discussed. Then after you listen go read the full digest. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs, engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and...

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesJ.R. Simplot: A billion the hard way by Louie AtteberySimplot company website“During World War II, Jack Simplot’s plants produced thirty-three million pounds of dehydrated potatoes and five million pounds of dehydrated onion to fuel America’s fighting men and women. In the 1960s, he helped McDonald’s chief Ray Kroc turn the french fry into a national staple. In the 1980s, the Idaho farm boy with the eighth grade education played a major role in making the personal computer a household word. And as a new century begins, the company and the man show little sign of resting on the laurels.”That is from the book J.R. Simplot: A Billion the Hard Way by Louie Attebery which tells the incredible life story of J.R. Simplot, more commonly known as Jack Simplot. Today Simplot is a household name for those of us in agribusiness. The diversified global company has business interests in farming, ranching and cattle production, food processing, food brands, phosphate mining, fertilizer manufacturing, and other enterprises related to agriculture. But the humble beginnings it came from and the incredible evolution of the company has a lot of insights for all of us interested in the future of agriculture and is the focus of today’s history of agriculture episode. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesOcean Mist Farms: https://www.oceanmist.com/Today’s episode features Mark Munger of Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville, California in the Salinas Valley. Mark shares a story that I think is very relevant to a lot of agriculture production today, all over the world. Although they’ve grown a great business to produce consistent, high quality, affordable, safe, nutritious commodities, they still face challenges. Rising costs, regulations, competition, and consumers whose expectations for convenience have gone up dramatically. These headwinds have propelled the company in the direction of innovation, and Mark is going to share that with us today. For background, Mark Munger is the director of marketing at Ocean Mist Farms, where he has been for the last 2 ½ years. But Mark is definitely not new to the industry - he has worked in fresh produce for almost 40 years, including positions at the Produce Marketing Association, Driscoll’s, 4Earth Farms, and others. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesHello fellow ag nerds. Today’s special episode is what I like to call a spotlight. Instead of our normal format of a 40 minute long form interview, it’s just a short peak into something interesting. The topics for these spotlights are determined in collaboration with our quarterly presenting sponsor, which this quarter is Case IH. Dan Klein is the Customer Insights Lead at Case IH and CNH. Dan grew up on a farm in Southwest Wisconsin, where he stays actively involved, working with his brother on the family farm. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in Engineering Management, which have supported his 17-year career at CNH. What I wanted to know from Dan is how a company of their size is incorporating feedback from customers into the design of their machinery. They have a “built by farmers” promise, but how are they actually executing on that? Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesAgricultural Economic Insights: https://aei.ag/Today's episode features David Widmar of Agricultural Economic Insights. David first appeared on the show a year ago on episode 399, which ended up being one of my most listened-to episodes of the year. Today, we discuss the current state of the ag economy, the margin squeeze that farmers are facing and where that places us on the economic cycle that commodities tend to follow. We also talk about some key ideas and mental models that David has written about for how to manage risk during this challenging time for the industry. As background, David Widmar is an agricultural economist specializing in ag trends and the farm economy. Through his research, he supports agribusinesses and farmers in their strategic and planning efforts. David’s current work can be found at Agricultural Economic Insights, aei.ag, which he co-founded with Dr. Brent Gloy in 2014. Prior to Agricultural Economic Insights, Mr. Widmar was a researcher with the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, and served as the economist for the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesMach: https://www.mach.io/Today’s episode features Colin Hurd who is the CEO of Mach. Colin first appeared on this show back on episode 180 in November of 2019. At that time he had just sold his previous company, Smart Ag, to Raven Industries. Colin continued working for Raven Industries until 2022, when he left and eventually helped to bring together a partnership merger to form Mach. Mach works with Original Equipment Manufacturers (otherwise known as OEMs). These are all of the companies that manufacture equipment, in our context farm equipment. Mach helps these OEMs that want to incorporate autonomy into their products. This again is part of an insight I had at the FIRA USA show, which is that there is a whole emerging industry of companies that exist to service the robotics and automation companies so that they can bring their solutions to farmers. Mach is one of those companies. Also, I’m delighted to have Colin back on the show because he offers such a rich perspective as a technologist with a really deep understanding of agriculture and an accomplished entrepreneur. Colin discusses the current landscape of ag equipment manufacturers, some of the tailwinds and headwinds in bringing more autonomous solutions to the farm, a cool case study of how Mach works with another former podcast guest GUSS Automation, whether or not he thinks Mach can be a big company, and Colin’s predictions for what the future holds for this part of the industry. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesJanette Barnard's Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/Future of Agriculture YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FutureOfAgDr. G. Kee Jim is the founding partner of Feedlot Health Management Services Ltd. (FHMS). Dr. Jim’s cattle feeding companies (G.K. Jim Farms, Cattlinc Inc, Silverado Cattle Inc, Taweel Cattle Company Ltd, Korova Feeders Ltd, Diamond Feeders, Quality Beef Producers LP, CanTex Feeders LP, Tierra Blanca Cattle Feeders LP, and Ordway Cattle Feeders LP) are major players in the Canadian and United States cattle industries through ownership of cows, backgrounding cattle, grass cattle, feedlot cattle, and feedlots. In addition, Kee has served on the board of directors of several beef industry groups and as an Adjunct Professor in the Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and VERO at Texas A&M University.Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstatesSo much of what we talk about on this show comes together in the cab of a tractor to leverage technology and make the best possible decisions for the farm. And I really haven’t spent enough time exploring the innovations surrounding the tractor itself. We take it for granted a little bit, but it really is the hub of a modern farming operation. The Magnum Tractor has been a flagship of the Case IH brand since it debuted in 1987, and Joe does a great job of talking about the work that goes into making this essential piece of equipment the best it can be. Some background on Joe Miller:He grew up on a farm in Rochester, Indiana and has always enjoyed working with equipment from a young age. This led to his current career with CNH which has included  business management, new equipment sales, and parts and service sales. Joe has an MBA from the Indiana Kelley School of Business and a masters in ag economics from Purdue. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

Sponsored by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/The VINE: https://thevine.io/Farmhand Ventures: https://www.farmhandventures.com/The Reservoir: https://www.reservoir.co/F3 Innovate: https://www.f3innovate.org/Today you’ll hear from three people: Hannah Johnson, Connie Bowen, and Danny Bernstein. Hannah is the Industry Lead for The VINE at  UC Ag and Natural Resources. Connie is the founding general partner at Farmhand Ventures who works with The VINE. Danny is CEO and managing partner at Reservoir, which includes Reservoir Ventures, and nonprofit incubators, Reservoir Farms & Labs, which is what he’ll be talking about today. I attended FIRA-USA this past October to try to better understand what’s happening in ag robotics and automation. What I didn’t expect was to see some really fascinating public-private partnership efforts that I think fill some real needs in agriculture innovation. But as luck would have it, that’s what happened, and so I wanted to put together this episode to highlight it. I think this type of work is critical. Running a farm, doing industry-leading research, growing a startup, all of these things are all-consuming tasks. It really is important to build the connective tissue to empower and fully enable new and lasting innovations in agtech. Brought to you by Case IH: Case IH designs,engineers and produces cutting-edge farm equipment based on a comprehensive understanding of farmers’ needs, wants and challenges, integrating these insights into their development and manufacturing.For example, take their Model Year 25 Magnum tractor. The new Magnum is purposefully designed to answer farmers’ needs in every design and engineering choice. Improved horsepower for pulling heavier loads, faster. Bundled, integrated and ready-to-go precision tech for greater accuracy in the field. And a transmission farmers can tweak for improved control and performance in different tasks. That kind of design thinking is exactly where the future of ag is headed, and that’s why you’ll be hearing me talk to the folks at Case IH at different points throughout this quarter about what they do and how they’re working to push the ag forward.

Featured Podcast Episodes: David Friedberg on Joining Ohalo Genetics as CEO, Gene Editing Technology, and AgTech Trends by The Modern AcreHow Syngenta is Thinking About AI with Feroz Sheikh by Agtech - So What?The Agriculture Economy: How Bad Is It and Where Is It Going? by The Business of AgricultureCoaching Farmers for Profit: Athletes Have Coaches Why Shouldn't You? by Farm4ProfitNavigating the De-Commoditization of Ag with Daniel Oh of AgCertain by The Pacesetter PodA New Direction in Florida Citrus with Benny McLean by Regenerative Agriculture PodcastEmerging Trends in Sustainable Packaging with Max Teplitski and Andrew Stephens by Fresh Takes on TechLinks to other resources mentioned: FoA 395: Where is Agriculture Headed? Insights From Six Different Ag Podcasts'Biological' Is Not A Category (it's the future of agriculture)The Changing Farm Economy with David Widmar of Agricultural Economic InsightsAsk The Ag Economist With Trey Malone, Ph.D.Farm Business Strategy with Kristjan HebertImplementing a Farm Operating System with Kristjan HebertThe Farm Entrepreneur Mindset with Evan Shout of Maverick AgUnderstanding Status Quo Risk in Ag with Jim Schweigert of Gro AllianceChallenging Assumptions About Regenerative Agriculture With John Kempf<a...

Conservation Technology Information Center: https://www.ctic.org/Regrow Ag: https://www.regrow.ag/ The Nature Conservancy: https://www.nature.org/en-us/FoA 248: Regrow Merges Agronomic Insights with Sustainability MetricsToday’s episode is made possible thanks to the support of the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC). Formed in 1982 to support the widespread use of economically and environmentally beneficial agricultural systems, CTIC’s mission is to champion, promote and provide information on climate-smart technologies and sustainable agricultural systems that conserve and enhance soil, water, air and wildlife resources and are productive and profitable.Members of this non-profit organization include farmers, policy makers, regulators, academic researchers, agribusiness leaders, conservation group personnel, farm media, and others. It is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and other public entities.&nbsp;Thank you very much to the Conservation Technology Information Center for supporting agricultural innovation and the Future of Agriculture podcast.&nbsp;All right, now let’s dive into today’s episode. I’m excited for this, because while the content of today’s show are right in our wheelhouse at the data-driven intersection of technology and sustainability, I don’t think I’ve ever had an episode quite like this. We’re not featuring an individual or company, but a collaboration. A group of people who saw a problem in the lack of important information, and came together to make that happen.&nbsp;To tell this story, I’m very pleased to have on the show three guests: Bill Salas who is the chief strategy officer at Regrow, Dave Gustafson, project director at the Conservation Technology Information Center, and Kris Johnson, director of agriculture at The Nature Conservancy.&nbsp;Some brief context here:&nbsp;CTIC, Regrow, and The Nature Conservancy are all partners is bringing together the Observational Tillage Information System, or OpTIS. This is an automated system to map tillage, residue cover, winter cover, and soil health practices using remote sensing data.&nbsp;And before anyone Tweets me concerned about using remote sensing to track on-farm practices, you should know: while OpTIS calculations are performed at the farm-field scale using publicly available data, the privacy of individual producers is fully protected by reporting only spatially-aggregated results at regional and watershed scales.This collaboration has been happening for over 14 years, long before just about anyone was talking about carbon sequestration or climate smart agriculture, so in a lot of ways, this effort was ahead of its time. And it’s a good thing it was, because these data are needed now more than ever. So, I highly recommend you stick around through all of today’s episode, as we talk about the past, present and future of OpTIS, highlight some of the use cases it enables, and talk about the importance of efforts like this for the future of agriculture.&nbsp;And this isn’t just answering the simple question of are farmers doing x practice at not. This data can inform much more nuanced questions, like:&nbsp;Why do farmers employ conservation practice in certain areas vs others?&nbsp;&nbsp;Does this correlate with investments made in those areas?&nbsp;What is the relationship between crop insurance and conservation...

Bloomfield Robotics: https://bloomfield.ai/Kubota North America Corporation Acquires US-based AgTech StartupFOA 228: Solving the Rural Connectivity Problem with Dr. Sara Spangelo of SwarmQuick note: I am still looking for a couple of brands to partner with in 2025. If your company might be interested in positioning yourself as an innovator in the ag industry, I would love to talk with you about my quarterly presenting sponsorship package. This is an exclusive, I only work with a maximum of four companies per year, and I’m hoping to have all of them locked in by the end of the first quarter of 2025. So if your company is doing innovative work and you’d like to share that with thousands of leaders in the ag industry, please reach out to me at [email protected] or via LinkedIn or Twitter. I’m happy to share details.&nbsp;Ok, now back to today’s conversation with Mark DeSantis. As I mentioned, Mark was first on the show about four years ago on episode 228 in October of 2020. Since that time, Mark and team grew Bloomfield AI, a company that helps specialty crop growers improve the health and performance of their crop on a per-plant basis using computer vision and artificial intelligence. Then this past September, it was announced that Kubota had acquired the company.&nbsp;I wanted to invite Mark back on the show to talk about the experience and his views on where autonomy, robotics and digital ag go from here.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mark led Bloomfield through the acquisition and is now a consultant to Kubota. Prior to joining Bloomfield in 2019, he was previously cofounder and CEO of RoadBotics (acquired by Michelin), a company that assessed roadway infrastructure using AI. So he’s been in this space of robotics for real world applications for a long time. He is also an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University.

Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola TwilleyPrime Future Newsletter by Janette BarnardThe Great Beef Bonanza and the Fall of the Cattle Kingdom"Our ancestors learned to control fire before modern humans even evolved. But our ability to command cold at will dates back a little more than 150 years. Mechanical cooling refrigeration produced by human artifice as opposed to the natural chill offered by weather dependent snow and ice wasn't achieved until the mid 1700s and wasn't commercialized until the late 1800s, and it wasn't domesticated until the 1920s."That is a quote from the book that we're gonna be talking about here today, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley. I'm very excited to dive into this book. There's so much here on the history of refrigeration and we take for granted how much refrigeration has changed our food system and our world in a number of profound ways.But I'm also excited to not be tackling this massive project by myself. Coming back for another episode is my good friend, animal agtech venture capitalist, and creator of the Prime Future newsletter, Janette Barnard. Also from Twilley's book: "It's impossible to make sense of our global food system until you understand the mysterious logic of the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it. We overcame not just rot, but seasonality and geography as well."Listen as Janette and Tim unpack their takeaways from this incredible book about the history of refrigeration.

Tenacious Ventures: https://tenacious.ventures/Farmhand Ventures: https://www.farmhandventures.com/“Navigating a future of cross sectional forces” (AgriFutures Australia Report): https://agrifutures.com.au/product/navigating-a-future-of-cross-sectoral-forces/Ag’s Scifi (and Non-Fiction) Future: Horizon Scanning… so what? with Shane Thomas: https://tenacious.ventures/insights/ags-scifi-and-non-fiction-future-horizon-scanning-so-what-with-shane-thomasCitrus Moves North with Farmer and Orangepreneur Lindy Savelle: https://tenacious.ventures/insights/citrus-moves-north-with-farmer-and-orangepreneur-lindy-savelleFoA 348: Investing in the Future of Fertilizer with Sarah Nolet of Tenacious Ventures: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-348-investing-in-the-future-of-fertilizer-with-sarah-nolet-of-tenacious-ventures-agtech-so-what-crossoverFoA 112: Accelerating AgTech with Sarah Nolet of AgThentic: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/future-of-agriculture-112-accelerating-agtech-with-sarah-nolet-of-agthenticFoA 127: Expanding the Global AgTech Ecosystem with Connie Bowen of The Yield Lab: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/future-of-agriculture-127-expanding-the-global-agtech-ecosystem-with-connie-bowen-of-the-yield-labFOA 220: Agricultural Solutions for Hunger and Poverty with Paul Winters of IFAD: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-220-agricultural-solutions-for-hunger-and-poverty-with-paul-winters-of-ifadFoA 260: The Lentil Underground with Dave Oien of Timeless Seeds: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-260-the-lentil-underground-with-dave-oien-of-timeless-seedsThere are few topics that seem to get people more riled up than climate change. Most of the episodes I’ve done that focus on climate as a theme receive comments from people that seem to think I’m being an alarmist and others thinking that I am drastically underestimating its impacts. I could take this as a sign to avoid the topic altogether, but that’s not really how I roll. I instead take it as a sign that we need to ask more questions and gather more data and context to understand what has everyone so fired up.&nbsp;And the concept for this episode came to my mind while I was listening to the Agtech, So what? podcast with Sarah Nolet. Specifically, their August episodes which are titled: “Citrus Moves North with Farmer and Orangepreneur

Niqo Robotics: https://niqorobotics.com/Five Questions About The Ag Robotics Revolution (FIRA USA Takeaways)Today’s episode was recorded live at FIRA USA in Woodland, California. If you’re not familiar with FIRA it is the premier event for agricultural robotics and autonomous solutions in action. If you’d like more of my reflections and takeaways from the event go back and listen to episode 439.But I wanted to feature this interview with Jaisimha Rao as a standalone episode for a few reasons: first, I think his story is interesting as a finance guy turned farmer turned agtech founder. He also uncovers some very real insights about agtech that he’s learned over the past 10 years or so in this industry. And they are a great example of an ag robotics company that is making real impact on farms, not just doing demos and talking about what the future might hold. Because what I’ve been most excited about lately is the commercialization of ag robotics and automation.&nbsp;Walking around FIRA last month, my first reaction was, this all looks really familiar. Most of the technology has either been around a while or it looks a lot like machines that have. So at first glance you might wonder, are we just stagnating? But then you talk to these companies about what they’re doing with the technology. How many farms their working with and how many hours they have under their belt. In Niqo's case it’s over 50 autonomous sprayers running in India that have operated on over 120,000 acres and worked with over 2000 farmers. That is what has me so excited about what’s happening; what’s new - or relatively new, and what’s changing.&nbsp;NIQO is now not only expanding in India, but also bringing their technology to the North American specialty crop market with their Niqo Robo Thinner which they had on display at FIRA.&nbsp;

Geco Strategic Weed Management: https://geco-ag.com/Today’s episode features a new tool in the toolbox for farmers fighting weed pressure. As I’ve had conversations with farmers throughout the country, there is no doubt that the costs of weed control is a major pain point. This takes a lot of different forms, from the hand labor crews in California’s vegetable crops, to herbicide-resistant kochia in the middle of US and Canada to just the sheer cost of chemistry that’s impacting the bottom line of farmers everywhere, it’s certainly an area ripe for solutions.&nbsp;For the past few years, Dr. Greg Stewart has been working on a very interesting solution to use data to predict weed pressure. This is interesting because it’s addressing a major problem in weed control, but it’s also interesting because it embodies what where we all hope this “ag data revolution” is going: towards predicting problems before we experience them. This opens the door up for more proactive weed management solutions, in some cases before the crop is even planted.&nbsp;Greg is a listener to the show and he’s heard my requests over the years to not just feature founders of new technology, but also the farmers that are trying the solutions, so he offered to connect me to Rob Stone. Rob was nice enough to join me for a short interview while in the cab of a tractor, so you’ll get his perspective as well. Rob is a customer of Geco and not compensated by them in any way. He was invited on to openly share his experiences.&nbsp;Let’s dive into things here starting with an introduction to Greg. I’ll introduce rob when we cut to him mid-episode.&nbsp;Dr. Greg Stewart is the founder and CEO of Geco Strategic Weed Management, who use AI and agronomic modeling for targeted and predictive control of weeds in farm fields. It requires no new equipment or new practices, and the turnaround time for a new farm can happen within a day. Geco is now serving over 60 farms across Western Canada.Greg’s PhD is in the control of spatially distributed systems. He has worked with a range of industries. His data products reside on farm fields in Canada, US, and South America, in over 12 commercial greenhouses, 350 paper machines, 35,000 production diesel vehicles, and are creating more than $40M/year in value in manufacturing. He holds over 50 patents and 60 technical publications, and is a certified judge for competitive barbecue.

FIRA USA: https://fira-usa.com/SwarmFarm Robotics: https://www.swarmfarm.com/Robotics Plus: https://www.roboticsplus.co.nz/Bluewhite: https://www.bluewhite.ai/Agtonomy: https://www.agtonomy.com/Western Growers' Financial Case Studies: https://www.wga.com/innovation/case-studies/A couple weeks ago I had the chance to attend FIRA USA, which is the gathering for ag robotics and autonomous equipment in agriculture. And autonomy has been on my mind a lot lately. You’ve seen an uptick in autonomy related episodes this past year or so, featuring companies like Verdant Robotics, Carbon Robotics and Sabanto all on different episodes. The reason for this is I’m definitely getting the sense that many of these solutions are starting to reach a tipping point from “wouldn’t it be cool if” to “this is actually being purchased and used on farms”.&nbsp;And that’s exciting. So while I was at the event I recorded about a dozen conversations and asked some of the questions I have about what I’m choosing to call the “ag robotics revolution”. What you’ll hear today are clips from four founders who were at FIRA USA to feature their technology.&nbsp;Andrew Bate of SwarmFarm RoboticsSteve Saunders of Robotics PlusBen Alfi of BlueWhite RoboticsTim Bucher of AgTonomyI should mention that Tim’s interview didn’t actually happened at FIRA, it happened earlier this year for a series of radio reports, but it really fit the episode and he was at the event I just missed him, so I wanted to include him. That said, I chose these four to feature on this episode for a number of reasons:&nbsp;They all have some sort of focus on fully automating the power unit of the farm - aka the tractor - although this isn’t their exclusive focus as you’ll hear - but they all are taking different approachesThey are all originally from different countries, which I think really shows the global effort of this industry and the different perspectives that come with that. Andrew at SwarmFarm from Australia, Steve at Robotics Plus from New Zealand, Ben at BlueWhite from Israel, and Tim at Agtonomy from California.&nbsp;They represent the type of people leading this effort in that these are not young (no offense guys) silicon valley types. These are accomplished entrepreneurs and businessmen in their own right who don’t seem to be doing it because they need the money or they want to become billionaires. They really seem to just have a passion for the technology and the change it can bring to the future of agriculture. This to me is at the core of what made the people I interviewed at this event different from other agtech events I’ve been to. That, and the field demonstrations equipped with everything from fake orchards and vineyards to vegetable beds to a field crops area just big enough to showcase John Deere’s see&amp;spray ultimate and its 120 ft carbon fiber boom was what separates this events from other agtech events.&nbsp;&nbsp;I’ll tell you more about each of the guests as we go and share some of my thoughts about robotics and the event, but overall through these four interviews, we had the chance to cover seven of the big questions I have about farm robotics, and i’ll outline those questions here:&nbsp;Has the ag robotics revolution *really* arrived?&nbsp;What’s driving the push toward

NuCicer: https://www.nucicer.com/Growing Pulse Crops Podcast: https://growingpulsecrops.com/If we were to re-think the food system and start with human nutrition as the goal, we would likely want food ingredients that are affordable, delicious, high in protein and high in fiber. Chickpeas fit the bill.&nbsp;Kathryn Cook and the team at NuCicer are developing genetics for chickpeas with more protein to make them more functional and appealing to food companies. But can they pass enough of that value back to the growers to scale?There’s a lot to this story and NuCicer is taking a really interesting approach to creating the rotational crop of the future that is nutritious, delicious, affordable and profitable for farmers. Today’s episode has a lot of fascinating aspects to it, all of which I think give us some interesting threads to pull on when thinking about where agriculture is headed.&nbsp;On the surface, NuCicer is crop genetics company working with chickpea, or what some of you might know as garbanzo bean, or others might know just as humus, arguably it’s most popular processed form. The company has been able to take the protein content from 20-22% up to 30-35%, which has major ramifications for its use as a food ingredient. One of those ramifications is the obvious - more protein - but it’s also a tastier source of protein and one that is rich in fiber and has fewer low value co-products, which is an interesting part of the story that we will get into.&nbsp;If you think this is just another meat alternative story - guess again! This is really about adding protein and fiber to foods that are currently composed of other grains or oilseeds or peas. You’ll hear us use the word “fortify” which is referring to the ability to make a processed food healthier without sacrificing the eating experience.&nbsp;But while a big part of the story here is using science to make better foods for people, we can’t lose site of the need for this to also work for farmers. Kathryn has a really interesting take on this that you’ll definitely want to hear because it’s a bit of a different approach from a lot of other genetics companies.&nbsp;Speaking of Kathryn Cook, she is a materials scientist and engineer by training, spending the first part of her career with Boeing and Meta. But she is also the daughter of Dr. Douglas Cook, a professor of plant pathology at UC Davis.&nbsp;Doug Cook had been working a lot with chickpeas in his research at Davis. The way Kathryn explained it to me is that when the chickpea was domesticated thousands of years ago, only a small number of seeds were brought forward in that process, so today 95% of the genetic diversity remains in the wild species. Doug Cook has been working to identify those species that are compatible with modern chickpea varieties and systematically cross pollinating to bring back some of that genetic diversity. The result is a novel library from which they can now launch new traits in the market. Part of that work started to include protein when they found dramatic difference in protein content in some of these wild species.&nbsp;This work caught Kathryn’s attention at a time when she was considering leaving her job in materials science to pursue a startup in food and ag. The two ultimately co-founded NuCicer together to commercialize some of this research Doug was doing through a tech transfer agreement with the university. And they soon were awarded a $1M non-dilutive grant from the&nbsp; Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research to get started.&nbsp;

ChrysaLabs: https://www.chrysalabs.com/Today’s episode features Sam Fournier, CEO and co-founder of ChyrsaLabs. I had the chance to briefly meet Sam at World AgriTech. Thank you to Sachi Desai and the Bayer team for the intro. And when I heard what they were doing, I immediately asked if he’d ever be willing to come on the podcast. This idea of providing real time soil information on nutrients has been tried before and as far as I know the tech just hasn’t worked. But ChrysaLabs has been at this since 2018 and have a track record of reliably providing this information, which is something that I think is super exciting for the future of agriculture. I wanted to ask more though about how the tech works, how affordable it could be for farmers and agronomists, what impact this could have on management decisions, and where Sam wants to take the company from here.&nbsp;For some background: Prior to founding ChrysaLabs in 2018, Sam held strategic positions in the development of smart cities implementation projects, electric recreational vehicles manufacturing and electric vehicle sustainable power plant solutions. He holds a B.A. in political Science from Sherbrooke University and an MBA from Laval University, and is driven by his vision for a more sustainable agriculture ecosystem.&nbsp;

I’ve never been to space, but it has been said that from outer space there are three man-made technologies visible: the Great Wall of China and electric illumination of the world’s largest cities are the first two. The third are the green crop circles created by center pivot irrigation.&nbsp;It has been said that the center pivot irrigation system is “perhaps the most significant mechanical innovation in agriculture since the replacement of draft animals by the tractor”. Today, over 50% of the irrigated field acres in North America are using the center pivot concept. And other modern agricultural countries are catching up, such as Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.&nbsp;It’s no coincidence that this agricultural technology was invented by someone who farmed on top of the largest aquifer in the western hemisphere: the Ogallala Aquifer which is sometimes called the High Plains Aquifer.&nbsp;Geologists estimate the aquifer was formed about 5 million years ago by ancient erosion from the Rocky Mountains carried eastward by rivers, along with the additional accumulation of countless rains and snows. It now stretches beneath 174,000 square miles, underlying parts of eight states: South Dakota, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico, which makes up most of what we call the great plains.&nbsp;This area has been the setting for numerous big ag stories over the years, from the great cattle drives of the 1800s that we covered in our Cattle Kingdom episode, to the land grab of the Homestead Act to the dirty thirties of the dust bowl. But there is no doubt that the center pivot was a major game changer, and it allowed the tough settlers of this rough country to turn this desert land into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.&nbsp;I’ve had the chance to live in two different agricultural areas made possible by the Ogallala aquifer: in the panhandle of Texas where I lived and worked in Amarillo and Dumas, Texas. Then years later I lived in Northwest Kansas where I commuted up to my job in Benkelman, Nebraska. So I’ve been able to see firsthand what this incredible resource can do for farming and for rural economics when combined with the revolutionary ag technology we’ll discuss today: the center-pivot invented by Frank Zybach.&nbsp;Frank definitely fits my criteria for these history episodes as an ag innovator that I wish I could interview if they were still alive. It highlights the impact innovation can have on the ag economy and carries valuable lessons for all of us aspiring ag innovators out there. But it also is a case study about agricultural sustainability. The aquifer is a limited resource, built from snowmelt coming off the rocky mountains over thousands of years. In the 72 years since Frank Zybach patented his invention, water levels in many parts of the Ogallala Aquifer have dropped drastically, many times larger than what could possibly be replenished. Resources:“How Center Pivot Irrigation Brought the Dust Bowl Back to Life” - Smithsonian Magazine“The Boys from Valley - Frank Zybach” - McCook Gazette“A History of Irrigation Technology Used to Exploit the Ogallala Aquifer” by Stephen White and David KrommFrank Zybach: A man who revolutionized agriculture - INEDA<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ogallala-aquifer/"...

Voyage Foods: https://voyagefoods.com/Jennifer Barney's Business of Food Newsletter: https://jenniferbarney.substack.com/I continue to be interested in pursuing episodes that are more on the food side of the industry. I think at first glance some of these stories might make you question whether it really belongs on an agricultural podcast. But I really believe consumer interest and food trends will drive the future of agriculture just as much if not more than any ag technology will. So it’s really important for all of us in agriculture to keep a close watch on these trends and connect the dots about what impact this could have on our industry.&nbsp;Guest hosting today’s episode is Jennifer Barney. Jennifer has been very generous with her time to bring us several episodes over the years, all focused on food companies. In the past she has featured companies like: Teffola, WonderCow, Alexandre Family Farm, Bibamba, Ugly Fruit Company, Neutral Foods and Seal the Seasons.&nbsp;She is a successful food entrepreneur, having founded, grown and sold an almond butter company called Barney Butter. Today she works with consumer packaged goods company as a consultant and writes the weekly email newsletter “The Business of Food”.Jennifer is going to be interviewing Voyage Foods founder Adam Maxwell.&nbsp;A native of Boston, Adam Maxwell, was drawn to a food career from an early age, pursuing his first professional experience as a 14 year-old pastry apprentice at James Beard award-winning restaurant, Clio. He continued working in fine dining while studying food science at McGill University. But before graduation, Adam left school to work at Chew Innovation Labs. It was there that he met one of his co-founders for Voyage Foods, Kelsey Tenney. After his time at Chew, eh went to work for Endless West, the worlds’ first and only molecular wine and spirits company. His belief that everyone deserves to enjoy their favorite foods without compromising on tastes, the risk of future access or sacrificing dietary needs led him to launch Voyage Foods in 2021. 00:00&nbsp;Intro00:31&nbsp;Meet Adam Maxwell of Voyage Foods01:20 Introducing Guest Host Jennifer Barney02:23&nbsp;Jennifer Barney Interviews Adam Maxwell03:04&nbsp;Adam Maxwell's Background and Voyage Foods' Mission06:49&nbsp;Innovative Food Processing Techniques09:55&nbsp;Sourcing Sustainable Ingredients13:29&nbsp;Challenges and Opportunities in Food Tech17:34&nbsp;Scaling Up Voyage Foods and Future Plans33:01&nbsp;Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Dr. Trey Malone Profile: https://ag.purdue.edu/directory/tjmalone#:~:text=Trey%20Malone%20is%20an%20agri,on%20agri%2Dfood%20supply%20chains.Trey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treymalone MS-MBA Joint Degree: https://agribusiness.purdue.edu/degrees/ms-mba/Dr. Trey Malone is an agri-food economist and the Boehlje Chair in Managerial Economics for Agribusiness in the department of agricultural economics at Purdue University. His work focuses generally on strategic marketing and strategic decision making especially as it relates to what universities can do for industry. He has published over 60 research articles in outlets including Food Policy, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.&nbsp;Before Purdue, he worked as an ag economist with the University of Arkansas, and before that at Michigan State University. His insights have been featured in popular press outlets, including the New York Times, TIME Magazine, CNBC, CNN, USA Today, Fast Company, and Popular Science. And now the Future of Agriculture podcast. This episode has been a long time in the making. I’ve known Trey, at least from a distance for years. He almost came on the show earlier this year, but then was offered his dream job to move from Arkansas to Purdue so we put it on hold until now. In addition to being an ag nerd, I’ve always had an interest in economics, specifically what drives markets and what drives behavior. I read Freakonomics years ago and am a listener to podcasts like Planet Money. So why it took me so long to realize that what i”m trying to do here with the Future of Agriculture is bring together my science and tech nerdiness with my business nerdiness is beyond me. When I say that this show is really at the core about ag economics, a lot of you long time listeners are probably saying “DUH!”, but to be honest I never consciously thought of it that way.&nbsp;I share all this with you because I’m hoping this episode is just the start of featuring many other economists. No, i”m not going to stop covering agtech or sustainability or science or the other topics we we cover here on the show. But I do want to make a concerted effort to highlight the interesting work our countries 2,000+ ag economists are doing. And this episode with Trey is a great place to start.&nbsp;

Farmland LP: Back on the show today is Craig Wichner of Farmland LP. I had been reading in the news some of the big moves Craig and his team were making to acquire and add value to more farmland. And I thought, wow, this must be a tough environment just based on the prices of some of these specialty crops and the jump in interest rates. But what Craig shared surprised me, and I’m excited to share it with you today.&nbsp;If you need a little refresher from Craig’s first appearance on episode 298 back in February 2022, here is some background:&nbsp;Craig founded Farmland LP in 2009 with a simple yet powerful idea: to combine regenerative agriculture with proven real estate management practices from the commercial property sector.&nbsp; Thanks to that approach, Farmland LP is the largest fund manager focused on organic farmland in the U.S., delivering strong financial returns alongside demonstrable environmental and social benefits. Craig is responsible for day-to-day management, business strategy, and all investment activity at the firm.&nbsp;&nbsp;Craig is an outspoken advocate for verifiable, data-driven standards for sustainable farmland investing so investors and consumers can look beyond misleading labels and support beneficial farming practices.&nbsp;

Gallagher: https://am.gallagher.com/en-US I’m pleased to welcome Gallagher Animal Management Chief Executive Lisbeth Jacobs onto the show today. There is nothing like the battle-tested point of view from a company that has been an innovator and market leader for a long time. In Gallagher’s case, it’s in technology for animal management. A quick description from their website: Founded in 1938, Gallagher is now known and respected in over 100 countries as a family-owned business built on customer-led innovation. From the electric fence to the cloud, Gallagher’s connected and customisable ecosystem of solutions empower our customers to work responsibly, productively, and profitably to protect what matters most.So their customers are ranchers and livestock raisers, particularly those who raise livestock on pastures. And I love the juxtaposition of this pastoral customer grazing livestock like has been done for thousands of years, using the latest technology like virtual fencing which they sell under the brand e-shepherd. Lisbeth and I will talk about e-shepherd specifically, as well as Farmote, which is a joint venture between Gallagher and Barenburg to commercialize technology for automated pasture monitoring.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lisbeth Jacobs joined Gallagher as Chief Executive - Animal Management in April 2021 and thrives on providing strategic leadership across the global footprint of the Animal Management operations. &nbsp;&nbsp;Prior to this Lisbeth held senior leadership roles at the leading edge of applied innovation and sustainability with Fletcher Building, Uniservices, The Icehouse, and global steelcord &amp; steelwire company Bekaert where she worked and lived across Europe, China, the Middle East, and North America.   Lisbeth holds a PhD of Engineering from the University of Auckland. And her background in both business leadership and engineering both shine through in today’s episode.&nbsp;

Full Harvest: https://www.fullharvest.com/Software is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwMetal Dog Labs: https://www.metaldoglabs.ai/I’m really excited to share today’s episode with Christine Moseley. This problem of food waste is one I’ve been interested in since starting this podcast. The first episode I dedicated to the issue was episode 040 clear back in early 2017 with Jonathan Bloom of Wasted Food. Then we’ve had other episodes with people like Olympia Yarger of GOTERRA, Abi Ramanan of Impact Vision, Larry Clarke of Nanoguard and Justin Kamine of Do Good Foods all talking about food waste. And if I’m being honest, I don’t think the needle has moved in how much food gets wasted every year. But I applaud the efforts of all of these people and Christine to take on such a massive and complex problem.&nbsp;But I won’t be asking the questions today. I’m very pleased to welcome Rhishi Pethe back onto the show to host what I believe is his fifth episode. For anyone who doesn’t know, Rhishi has has extensive experience in artificial intelligence, supply chain &amp; logistics, product, data &amp; technology strategy, robotics &amp; computer vision, sustainability, and data interoperability. He has held leadership roles at Mineral (an Alphabet company), The Climate Corporation (Bayer), Amazon, and other technology companies. He has led two startups through exits, and one through a spin out.&nbsp;Rhishi is also the creator of the free weekly newsletter “Software is Feeding the World”, which I highly recommend and I will leave a link in the show notes where you can subscribe for free. It is always a please to pass the mic over to Rhishi and I appreciate him hosting Christine today.&nbsp;And speaking of Christine….Christine Moseley, Full Harvest Founder + CEO, is a passionate serial entrepreneur. At age 17, she started a music education non-profit, Musical Empowerment, which is still growing nationally 16 years later. Currently, at Full Harvest, she is solving the food waste problem at the farm level with technology. Full Harvest is the first B2B platform for surplus and imperfect produce, connecting large farms directly to food &amp; beverage companies.Christine has over 15 years of experience in the logistics and food industries at both Fortune 100 companies (Maersk, P&amp;G) as well as high-growth food start-ups. In her last corporate role, she assisted Organic Avenue, an NYC healthy food + juice start-up, double in size as Head of Strategic Projects and Business Development.&nbsp;Christine holds an MBA from Wharton Business School.&nbsp;Two really smart people talking about one of the greatest challenges our food system currently faces. Enjoy this conversation between Rhishi Pethe and Christine Moseley.&nbsp;

Ag Done Different Newsletter: https://agtechmarketinginsights.substack.com/"Reclaim Your Market Power: The Agribusiness Blueprint for Strategic Influence" : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aO__6x2ze9QSe_e7jyWvCKJzh-4-I7yW/view?usp=drivesdkSchultz Collaborative: https://www.schultzcollaborative.com/As lead category designer at Schultz Collaborative, Dan Schultz helps agtech companies around the world design their category and think differently about how they commercialize their products.Dan is vehemently opposed to telling boring stories, sales pitches thoughtlessly read off spec sheets, oversold technobabble, undersold innovation, and venture money wasted on vanity marketing metrics. Dan helps companies stop droning on about incremental improvement and start building movements.He is the author of the weekly newsletter Ag Done Different. You can read his full weekly newsletter at agtechmarketinginsights.substack.com

Sabanto: https://sabantoag.com/FoA 241: From Drives to Driverless with Craig Rupp of SabantoI’m really glad to get Craig Rupp back on the show today. Some of you might remember his interview on episode 241, where Craig shared the incredible journey of building 640 Labs which he sold to the Climate Corp and became the FieldView Drive. At that time, we also talked about his newest venture, Sabanto, which is bringing autonomy to agriculture.&nbsp;Since that episode over three years ago, Craig and the team at Sabanto have evolved their offering from autonomy as a service to a kit that allows dealers and farmers to convert the equipment they already have to include autonomous capabilities. Along with that, they offer a service for remote operating and monitoring, which kind of blows my mind. Craig is hiring a team of remote tractor drivers to monitor several autonomous tractors at once, and we’ll talk a lot about that in today’s episode. Sabanto has also found an interesting niche in sod farmers. They work with farmers across basically all crops, but the amount of passes these sod farmers have to make in a given year, makes an offering like Sabanto has really compelling. This is also an episode about the evolution of on-farm autonomy and what the future might look like as adoption continues to grow.&nbsp;For a refresher on Craig’s bio:&nbsp;Raised on a farm in Iowa, Craig Rupp started his career in 1988 as a hardware engineer at Motorola, designing and developing the first GSM and Iridium mobile stations and John Deere in 2002, developing the Starfire receiver and Greenstar display.In 2012, Craig founded 640 Labs, envisioning a simple iPad as a data collection and monitoring device for agriculture. Acquired by Monsanto in 2014, he made his FieldView Drive one of the most ubiquitous and low-cost data collection devices in agriculture.In 2018, Craig founded Sabanto, a company that provides autonomous solutions for agriculture. He was the first to autonomously plant a farmer’s field in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and Indiana.I really enjoy whenever I get a chance to talk to Craig, his intelligence and real world experience comes through in the wisdom that he shares.

Terviva: https://terviva.com/Today’s episode is long overdue. For the past 15 years, today’s guest: Naveen Sikka, has been working to commercialize the pongamia tree. There are several things that are special about this emerging crop. First, it’s a legume, so like soybeans, peas, lentils, chickpeas and other legumes, the plant forms symbiotic relationships with nitrogen fixing bacteria, so in short, it can fix its own nitrogen from the atmosphere. Although the crop does still require some fertilizer - just a fraction of what is required for a lot of other crops. Also like other legumes, the beans are very high in oil and protein. But unlike those crops it’s a tree, which can have benefits in terms of productivity, soil health, and adaptability to certain parts of the world. So you have this supertree, that is a nitrogen fixer that is a perennial and adapted to both periods of flooding and periods of drought, and most of all it produces a versatile and nutrient dense crop. Naveen’s going to share a whole lot more about pongamia, but I wanted to start with answering, why is all of this effort worthwhile?&nbsp;And it is indeed a lot of effort. Naveen and his team are having to attack this from every angle to turn this tree into a viable commercial crop: developing genetics, growing practices, markets, processing, attracting interest from farmers, and educating potential consumers just to name a few. But they’re making real progress, and I find their commitment to the cause to be inspiring and certainly helpful to all of us hoping to make real contributions to the ag industry.&nbsp;To give you his formal bio here before we jump in: Naveen Sikka is the founder and CEO of Terviva, an agricultural innovation company partnering with farmers to grow pongamia, a climate-resilient tree which helps to reforest land and revitalize communities. Under his leadership, Terviva has unlocked pongamia’s potential as a super tree capable of providing meaningful climate-change solutions. After more than a decade of innovation, Terviva has established an equitable and transparent supply chain where they harvest and transform pongamia beans into bioenergy and sustainable food ingredients called Ponova®.

BovEye: https://boveye.com/ Flyover Whiskey: https://flyoverwhiskey.com/FarmAfield: https://www.farmafield.com/Andrew Minarick tells Tim about his latest company, BovEye, which is using computer vision and AI for remote livestock verification. As you’ll hear this is extremely important to his customer base which is not producers, but instead agricultural lenders. We also talk about his experiences in starting Flyover Whiskey, working for FarmAfield,&nbsp; getting his MBA at Stanford, and more. Cool stuff all the way around and a very fun conversation for me.&nbsp;Andrew grew up on a small ag operation in North Bend, NE and has worked as an engineer and operator across a number of early-stage AgTech ventures, with a current focus on livestock production and financing technologies. He holds a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was a member of the Engler Entrepreneurship program and holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Andrew lives in Omaha, NE where he serves as the Founder/CEO of BovEye.

In this unique solo episode, Tim Hammerich shares his framework for thinking about the future of agriculture. Drawing inspiration from a recent keynote at the 4th annual Soybean Research Forum and Think Tank, Tim discusses the rationale behind the podcast and shares the four key questions (plus a bonus) that guide his exploration into agricultural innovation. 00:00&nbsp;Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast00:36&nbsp;Inspiration from a Recent Keynote01:49&nbsp;Reflecting on the Podcast's Journey04:26&nbsp;Challenges in Discussing the Future of Agriculture08:31&nbsp;Framework for Thinking About the Future of Agriculture09:38&nbsp;Current Trends and Historical Insights12:20&nbsp;Innovations on the Fringes13:43&nbsp;Considering Unpredictable Changes18:33&nbsp;Conclusion and Final Thoughts

PURIS: https://www.puris.com/Growing Pulse Crops Podcast: https://growingpulsecrops.com/Nicole Atchison is the CEO of PURIS Holdings, a vertically-integrated plant-based food company that operates from field to fork in primarily yellow peas. Nicole leads the agriculture side of the business, including contracting with growers, seed development and breeding, and innovation in product development. Her brother Tyler leads the ingredient side of the business. PURIS operates throughout the entire supply chain from developing genetics to developing new markets.&nbsp;“So if you're making a high protein cereal, you need a different pea protein than if you're making a plant-based beverage, which is still using a pea protein. But those two pea proteins are slightly different. And that's really the innovation that we do on our processing side, is we create these different proteins with different functionalities so that they can work in these different applications.”&nbsp;- Nicole AtchisonAtchison describes the wet protein processing they are using that provides a unique protein stream with a lot of potential for furthering plant-based protein production. She sees potential for pulse proteins in providing protein sources for both consumer beverages and medical nutrition. As they ramp up production, PURIS Holdings is also active in ongoing efforts to regulate the impact of foreign pulse crop processing and imports affecting both global and domestic markets.“I'm a huge advocate for pulse based ingredients because I do think that as much as we want and encourage people to have and eat whole pulses, that's not where the American consumer is today. We like convenient foods, packaged and processed. That's where our market is. And so we need to be able to drive these crops into those channels as well and that's why processing is so critical to the market.” - Nicole Atchison

Syngenta: https://www.syngenta.com/en[Soil Sense Podcast] Soil Health Assessment with Jordon Wade, Ph.D.FoA 364: Supporting Soil Health with Dr. Steve Rosenzweig and Dr. Abbey Wick [Soil Sense Crossover]Future of Agriculture 123: Nerding Out About Soil Health with Dr. Abbey Wick of North Dakota State UniversityFuture of Agriculture 162: Cannabis Inputs with Dr Colin Bell of Mammoth MicrobesReally excited this week to bring Dr. Matt Wallenstein onto the show. Matt is the Chief Soil Scientist for Syngenta Group, where he leads their efforts to enable farmers around the world to improve their productivity and profitability through science-based innovation through soil health. Part of that team is my good friend and co-host of the Soil Sense podcast Dr. Abbey Wick, who you’ve heard on this show in the past. As well as Dr. Jordan Wade, who was a guest on a very fascinating episode of Soil Sense a year or so ago that I’ll have to link to in the show notes because it’s a great one. Anyway, so Matt’s putting together this dream team of soil scientists and I had to bring him on the show to figure out what I can about what they’re up to.&nbsp;Prior to joining Syngenta in 2022, he was a professor and department head of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University. His research focused on how the soil microbiome interacts with plants and the environment. He also co-founded a startup called Growcentia, which commercialized a phosphorus solubilizing microbial consortia developed in his academic lab and went on to develop other biostimulants. A cool connection there is one of Matt’s co-founders at Growcentia was actually on this show five years ago. I didn’t know Matt at the time so that’s more of a coincidence than anything else, but that’s episode 165 if you want to find that deep track.&nbsp;Anyway, i’ll drop you into today’s conversation when Matt is telling me what attracted him to this position, even though he already had a startup and a thriving career at Colorado State when he decide to make the leap two years ago to Syngenta.&nbsp;

FarmTest: https://farmtest.ag/Iowa Nitrogen Initiative: https://www.agron.iastate.edu/portfolio/iowa-nitrogen-initiative/Today’s episode is a really unique concept and potential game-changer for how we think about on-farm technology, management practices and research. Historically, universities and agribusinesses would conduct randomized controlled trials for the best data on how products work. But these trials are limited on where they can take place and how many replications could take place, so when a farmer says “what about MY field and MY management?” it’s not surprising that the bottom line comes down to: your results might vary. But we don’t know for sure or by how much.&nbsp;But with advancements in technology, why can’t every field include some sort of trial to understand how that product is performing? This has been done in the past with check strips that a farmer would plant as sort of a control, but this is far from precise or scientific.&nbsp;It just so happens that Nick Cizek is a bit of an expert in precision measurement and experimentation design, and he has created in FarmTest a way from farmers, their advisors, input companies and researchers to run real experiments on farm without interfering with a farmers operation. They are essentially increasing the scientific rigor of on-farm trials while removing the hassle factor. And today we talk to Nick about that as well as a user of the product: Dr. Mike Castellano of Iowa State University and the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative which conducted 270 unique on-farm trials last year to analyze nitrogen applications. He says that current university nitrogen recommendations are very coarse and really only differ based on broad geographies and whether the crop is after corn or soybeans, but with this data they are already finding consistently predictable differences in fertilizer requirements based on other important factors like soil type, crop residue management, and drainage.This has big ramifications not just for research but for optimizing individual farm management practices and determining which inputs and technologies should be utilized and where and how much. Obviously this also could be very handy for input companies to more accurately represent their products because in agriculture the honest answer to “does it work?” is “it depends.”&nbsp;Nick Cizek is an applied physicist specializing in precision measurement (Ph.D. Stanford). Before founding FarmTest in 2019, he worked for 4.5 years at The Climate Corporation / Monsanto / Bayer Crop Science. Specifically, he led teams designing and executing in-field trials to measure the performance of advanced nitrogen management systems. He initially joined Climate to help design and deploy a sensor network to collect local data to improve the value of their predictive agronomic optimization models. FarmTest envisions a future where all farms optimize their management practices based on statistically rigorous in-field performance data.&nbsp;FarmTest builds software tools to automate on farm performance testing on commercial farms. We help researchers and growers design and analyze statistically robust field trials using commercial farm equipment. We make this easy by embedding product trials in variable rate prescriptions that account for all the nuances of each growing operation's fields, equipment, and management practices, and all the randomization, replication, and blocking needed for a statistically sound trial that produces a usefully small least significant difference.Dr Mike Castellano’s work aims to increase the productivity, profitability, and environmental performance of crop production. To achieve these outcomes, he uses a systems approach and strong...

Cultura Technologies: https://culturatech.com/Metal Dog Labs: https://www.metaldoglabs.ai/Software Is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwIf there’s been a theme on this show over the past few months, it’s what does tech collaboration look like? Is it lip service or will it lead to real outcomes? You’ve heard from Lawrence King, Claudia Roessler, Mark Pendergrast, Jim Ethington and others all talking about this. Today, we hear from another leader who has proven experience in agtech collaboration, Jeff Schreiner.&nbsp;Jeff is the senior vice president of global collaboration at Cultura Tech, a company that has acquired technology companies focused on agriculture across the value chain. Jeff is interviewed by Rhishi Pethe in today’s episode about collaboration, data, regulation, and the future of agriculture.

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Arable: https://www.arable.com/FoA 256: Agtech Collaboration and Data-Driven Decision Agriculture with Jim Ethington of ArableToday's episode features Arable CEO Jim Ethington. Jim first appeared on this show on episode 256 back in 2021 and I was pleased to get a chance to sit down for a second interview with him in person at World AgriTech in March.&nbsp;His background is impressive. Prior to joining Arable in 2018, he spent 10 years at The Climate Corporation where he was VP of Product and grew the company to 50 million paid acres and built a team from 10 to over 600 individuals. So he started at Climate in 2008 when they were still called Weatherbill and stayed with the company through the big acquisition in 2013 and for years after that.&nbsp;So Jim has been thinking about the challenges and opportunities in digital agriculture for a long long time and it shows in the insights he shares in this episode.&nbsp;If you’re not familiar with Arable, they are an ag technology company that provides data insights and recommendations to help farms be more productive and sustainable. Specifically they have created an intuitive system for farmers and agronomists to optimize irrigation, fertilizer applications and other important farm decisions. This is all based around their Arable Mark 3 device.&nbsp;Jim is also one of the guests suggested by Lawrence King at Headstorm to give one of their client testimonials. Similar to Amie at Wilbur Ellis and Claudia at Microsoft, I wanted to make this one a full length episode because Jim is someone I wanted to have back on the show anyway to get an update on Arable and more of his insights on the future of ag. And he doesn’t disappoint. I’ll drop you into the conversation where he’s explaining the key insight from farmers that informs the work they do at Arable.&nbsp;

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Ag Ventures Alliance: https://agventuresalliance.com/AgLaunch: https://aglaunch.com/FoA 068: Farmers Investing in AgTech with Spencer Stensrude of Ag Ventures Alliance and Matthew Rooda of SwineTechFoA 117: Bridging the Gap Between AgTech Entrepreneurs and Farmers with Pete Nelson of AgLaunchToday's episode features Pete Nelson and Margaret Oldham from Aglaunch and Spencer Stensrude at Ag Ventures Alliance. If you’ve been a long time listener to this show - i mean a REALLY long time listener - you heard Spencer back on episode 68 in 2017 and Pete on episode 117 in 2018. I’ll link to both of those classics in the show notes. Since that time the two organizations have partnered together based on a shared mission of investing in farmer-led innovations. They each have unique aspects to their models, which i’ll let Pete, Margaret and Spencer describe to you. But they also are joining forces in a way to put the farmer at the center of investing in and incubating early stage agtech companies.&nbsp;There are some really interesting points brought up in this conversation that I’ve been thinking about a lot since we recorded it a couple of months ago. Things like, should billion dollar unicorn exits be the measure of success for venture capital? Or number of viable lasting companies? Or maybe jobs and economic impact on communities? Is the fact that venture capital gets poured into so many businesses that fail a feature or a bug when it comes to advancing agriculture? And does the fact that we are in a commodity driven business mean that by definition, all of the value created by companies will eventually get squeezed out and extracted by low cost leaders? Some thought provoking questions that I think you’ll enjoy pondering as you listen to Spencer, Margaret, and Pete.&nbsp;Spencer Stensrude invests at the intersection of transformational technology and agriculture. He is the CEO of Ag Ventures Alliance, which is a farmer-owned cooperative with a mission to increase farm profitability. They make venture capital investments in startups with a direct impact on farmers. Before joining AgVA, he started and operated some small businesses, invested in income-producing real estate, and worked in the commercial lending industry.Pete Nelson has been experimental farming, venture investing, and creating innovation hubs in agriculture with farmers across the US and Canada since 1997. He is currently co-founder and President of AgLaunch, a nationally recognized farmer-led innovation platform for advancing the next generation of agricultural technologies.Margaret Oldham is the Vice President of Innovation at AgLaunch. She is an experienced marketer and coach with a reputation for...

Headstorm: https://headstorm.com/AGPILOT: https://headstorm.com/agpilot/Carbon Robotics: https://carbonrobotics.com/Paul is the founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics. What Carbon Robotics is doing is novel and interesting in and of itself, and we’re going to talk a lot about that in today’s episode. But it’s important to note that Paul has a really impressive history of building technology companies outside of agriculture.Before starting Carbon Robotics, he co-founded Isilon Systems, a distributed storage company, in 2001. Isilon went public in 2006 and was acquired by EMC for $2.5 billion in 2010. In 2006, Paul co-founded Clustrix, a distributed database startup that was acquired by MariaDB in 2018. Immediately before Carbon, Paul served as Director of Infrastructure Engineering at Uber, where he grew the team and opened the company’s engineering office in Seattle, later focusing on deep learning and computer vision.&nbsp;So in today’s episode we’re going to talk a lot about laser weeding, building a field robotics company, Paul’s views on artificial intelligence and where he sees applications for the tech in agriculture, and the challenges an opportunities ahead for carbon robotics and agtech in general.&nbsp;I’ll drop you into the conversation where Paul is explaining his desire to jump from tech to agtech, and how that transition has been for him.&nbsp;