Future of Agriculture

Oxrow.aiLoftus Ranches: https://www.loftusranches.com/Patrick Smith is a fourth-generation farmer and the CEO of Loftus Ranches, a Yakima Valley-based agricultural business producing hops alongside apples, pears, peppers, and other crops. He focuses on long-term strategy, capital allocation, and stakeholder relationships, balancing operational discipline with financial rigor.He founded Oxrow.ai, an analytics platform that helps agribusinesses pull together fragmented operational and financial data into decision-ready insight. The platform grew out of direct experience running complex businesses with messy data, where the cost of getting things wrong is high.In 2013, Patrick co-founded Bale Breaker Brewing Company, extending the family’s hop-farming roots into a consumer brand built at the source. He serves on the board of Yakima Chief Hops and has held leadership roles across hop industry organizations.He holds an M.S. in Business Analytics from NYU Stern, an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, and a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Washington.

Five Questions About The Ag Robotics Revolution (FIRA 2024 Reflections)The Next Great Ag Equipment Brand will be Autonomy-First with Charlie Andersen of BurroAutonomous Sprayers with Gary Thompson of GUSSMaking Spot Spray Technology Accessible With Jaisimha Rao of Niqo RoboticsThe Path To Superhuman Farming with Curtis Garner and Brent Shedd of Verdant RoboticsCategory Design with Dan SchultzTHE BIG REGRESSION (by Jason Fried on X) I attended FIRA USA a few months ago, which is a great event focused on agricultural robots and autonomous solutions. Like I did last year, I wanted to share some reflections on the current state of the ag robotics sector. Today you'll hear from AgTonomy CEO Tim Bucher and Ecorobotix CEO Dominique Mégret on today’s episode about how autonomy in agriculture is much more than a way to reduce labor needs. It’s about re-thinking what it means to farm better. And while these solutions are finding their footing, we’re still a long way from widespread adoption. We talk about both the opportunities and the challenges of ag robotics and automation on this episode!

FieldLark AI: https://fieldlark.ai/Advancing Eco Agriculture: https://advancingecoag.com/Regenerative Agriculture Podcast: https://advancingecoag.com/podcasts/FoA 386: Challenging Assumptions About Regenerative Agriculture With John KempfToday we’re joined by John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture. John first joined me on the podcast two years ago for episode 386 titled “Challenging Assumptions About Regenerative Agriculture”. That episode was widely shared and provided me with a ton of interesting feedback. So I was eager to bring John back on especially to discuss this new AI regenerative agronomist tool they’ve launched which is called FieldLark AI. As I hoped, John and I also get somewhat philosophical about technology use and ethics, and we talk about a separate but similar project he has taken on of building a digital clone of his knowledge and expertise. We talk about what that process looked like and how he’s using Digital Clone John in his daily life. And you agronomy nerds definitely will want to stick around to the end because we talk about some fascinating insights about nitrogen that John and the AEA team have been helping their customers take advantage of. First though, let me read some background here about John because I think it’s fascinating and it really informs his perspective and his focus with AEA. John Kempf is an entrepreneur, speaker, podcast host, leading crop health consultant, and designer of innovative soil and plant management systems. He founded Advancing Eco Agriculture in 2006 and serves as Chief Vision Officer and Executive Board Chairman.In the early 2000s, Amish farmer John Kempf was on a quest to save his family’s fruit and vegetable farm in Northeast Ohio. After years of intensive pesticide use, pest and disease pressure was unmanageable and unaffected by continued chemical applications. This resulted in an almost total loss three years in a row. After years of extensive agronomic research, first-hand growing experience, and close mentorship John found new crop management methods. The practices he discovered and the products he created were the beginnings of Advancing Eco Agriculture.

Today’s episode is another installment in our Tech-Enabled Advisor series. The idea here is to better understand agtech through the lens of the BUYER and USER of that technology rather than just the entrepreneurs or investors behind it. I’ve received some super positive feedback about the return of this series. By talking to the buyers rather than the sellers of the tech, we got an unfiltered introduction to the technology and more importantly got to see HOW its used and the VALUE that it provides. To do this, I partner with a company and together we invite one of their customers onto the show. The catch is that they’re not allowed to script these individuals or dictate what to say or edit it after it is recorded - it has to be real and unfiltered. So today’s episode featuring Todd Kirwan of Apex Precision Agriculture is produced in partnership with AgWorld. And I’m really excited to be partnering with them again, as they were a part of the last time I did this tech-enabled advisor series. But for anyone who might not be familiar, Agworld has been operating since 2009, developed by and for growers & agronomists, and is independently owned. The Agworld ecosystem digitally connects growers with their staff, agronomist, contactor, ag retailer and anyone else that is involved in the farming process. The tool is set up to enable collaboration in the digital farming process, so farmers can maximise financial and crop performance. With Agworld you can plan your crop, mitigate your risks, and improve your profitability. And you’re going to get a great illustration of what that looks like on the ground and in practice in today’s episode with Todd Kirwan. Todd and I discuss what types of cultural changes need to happen in a farming operation to get the most out of technology, where things go wrong in the attempts to get the most value out of farm data, why he believes the challenging farm economy makes tools like AgWorld even more critical and some of the changes he sees happening in the future of agriculture. A little background on Todd: Todd Kirwan is the founder of Apex Precision Agriculture, a consultancy focused on helping growers and agribusinesses transform their operational data into their most profitable asset.With over 25 years in large-scale production agriculture, his career has been dedicated to bridging the gap between field-level agronomy and high-level financial strategy. Over that time, he’s seen the industry from every angle, from moving pipe on the family farm to directing operations for a multi-state farming enterprise. Through his experiences in farm management, he recognized a critical need for a partner who understands not just the data, but the human dynamics of implementing change. And that led him to starting Apex Precision Agriculture. Todd grew up working in his family’s farming operation and then started his own custom applicator business. That led him into farm management and leadership for a rapidly expanding farming company called Lance Funk Farms. He then stayed on after Lance Funk sold to AgReserves, which is the agricultural company owned by the LDS church. It was that time at Lance Funk Farms, when they were hyper focused on growth that Todd really embraced how technology can improve a farming operation. 

Erin Silva, Ph.D. https://cias.wisc.edu/directory/17158/FoA 280: Organic Farming Myths and Realities With Erin SilvaI wanted to invite Erin Silva back on the show to hear about her continued work with farmers that are going down the path of organic AND regenerative. On the surface, those two farming approaches are easy to get behind: let’s try to reduce our dependence on synthetic chemistry and let’s try to build soil health over time while still farming intensively and profitably. But in practice, there are tradeoffs. To promote more living roots on the soil through cover crops, as one example, farmers need a way to terminate those cover crops and using herbicides for that is really really helpful. So I’m intrigued about how farmers are making these systems work and how scientists like Erin our doing the critical research to understand how these practices can work on more acres for more farmers. So that is what today’s episode is all about, and for context I’ll give you a brief bio on our guest. Dr. Erin Silva is an Associate Professor and State Extension Specialist in Organic and Sustainable Cropping Systems in the Department of Plant Pathology as well as the Director for the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW-Madison. Her research influences the strong organic sector that contributes to Wisconsin’s agricultural economy, with Wisconsin second only to California as the state with the greatest number of organic farms. In continued support of these farms and the organic sector within the state, nation, and globally, her research and scholarly contributions continue to be directed in the broad area of the biology and agroecology of organic crop management, with emphases on cover crops, soil health, and genotype/ environment interactions. Dr Silva earned her Ph.D. in Horticulture at Washington State University.

I’m really fascinated by today’s topic of looking into pest and disease outbreaks in animal agriculture from an economist's point of view. Our guest, Jada Thompson, is going to discuss the economics behind prevention of these biosecurity issues,the economic impact when outbreaks do occur,  some of the tradeoffs in the difficult decisions that need to be made, what that means for producers and consumers, and a whole lot more. To give you a little bit of background on Jada: Dr. Jada Thompson is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas. She worked in private industry for a few years managing customer insights and pricing analytics before earning her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Colorado State University in 2016. Dr. Thompson’s research primarily focuses on animal health and livestock economics with emphasis on the poultry industry. She also came very highly recommended from Dr. Trey Malone who was on this show last year on episode 434. So thank you Trey for the referral to Jada. 

William Ridley, Ph.D. https://ace.illinois.edu/directory/wridleyWilliam Ridley, Ph.D. on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qjox4QIAAAAJ&hl=enToday’s episode is timely and thought provoking in my opinion. The farm economy is struggling again this year, and while there’s no one cause for all of that struggle, exports certainly play a role. A major role. I’m very pleased to welcome Dr. Bill Ridley onto the show. Bill is an international economist studying global markets and trade policy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  His research explores pressing market and policy issues relating to international agricultural trade, economic integration, trade disputes, and the implications of globalization for the environment and natural resource use.I wanted to bring Bill on the show to ask about the implications of tariffs and trade disputes for the farm economy, his perspective on the current trade relationship with China, his work on the virtual water trade which is an interesting concept measuring how much domestic water gets used to export food out of the country, and his thoughts on the path forward from here. If you’re hoping for a rosey picture of how this all plays out, I’ll warn you now - you may be disappointed. But it’s certainly an important topic to be thinking deeply about how this impacts your business for all of us in agriculture.