Episoder
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Twisted River Farm: https://www.twistedriverfarm.com/
Follow Steve on X: https://x.com/TRFyeomanfarmer
Steve 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
McCain's Farms of the Future
Hot Potato Podcast
Today’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.
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Mangler du episoder?
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Subscribe 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 Lahiffe
Ian 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 Lahiffe
Janette 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
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.
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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Download the Agtech Alchemy Quarterly: https://agtechalchemy.substack.com/p/agtech-alchemy-quarterly-winter2025
GenAI Whitepaper: https://www.rhishipethe.com/genai-in-ag
Today'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...
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
J.R. Simplot: A billion the hard way by Louie Attebery
Simplot 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Ocean 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Hello 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Agricultural 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Mach: 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
Janette Barnard's Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/
Future of Agriculture YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FutureOfAg
Dr. 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.
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This quarter of the Future of Agriculture podcast is made possible by Case IH: https://www.caseih.com/en-us/unitedstates
So 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.
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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.
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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 -
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 Metrics
Today’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.
Thank you very much to the Conservation Technology Information Center for supporting agricultural innovation and the Future of Agriculture podcast.
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.
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.
Some brief context here:
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.
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.
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:
Why do farmers employ conservation practice in certain areas vs others? Does this correlate with investments made in those areas? What is the relationship between crop insurance and conservation... -
Bloomfield Robotics: https://bloomfield.ai/
Kubota North America Corporation Acquires US-based AgTech Startup
FOA 228: Solving the Rural Connectivity Problem with Dr. Sara Spangelo of Swarm
Quick 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.
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.
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.
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.
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Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley
Prime Future Newsletter by Janette Barnard
The 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.
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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-thomas
Citrus Moves North with Farmer and Orangepreneur Lindy Savelle: https://tenacious.ventures/insights/citrus-moves-north-with-farmer-and-orangepreneur-lindy-savelle
FoA 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-crossover
FoA 112: Accelerating AgTech with Sarah Nolet of AgThentic: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/future-of-agriculture-112-accelerating-agtech-with-sarah-nolet-of-agthentic
FoA 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-lab
FOA 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-ifad
FoA 260: The Lentil Underground with Dave Oien of Timeless Seeds: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-260-the-lentil-underground-with-dave-oien-of-timeless-seeds
There 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.
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
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Let’s dive into things here starting with an introduction to Greg. I’ll introduce rob when we cut to him mid-episode.
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.
- Se mer
