Future of Agriculture

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: http://www.calgaryagbusiness.comEdgar's Feed and Seed: https://www.edgarsfeedandseed.ca/I know many of you are entrepreneurial. Maybe you’ve dreamed about starting a company. But there are many established companies that are looking for their next owner. In 2013, at the age of 23, Elliott and Rebecca Miller acquired Edgar’s Feed and Seed in Ontario, Canada. Through a good relationship with the previous owner, Elliott and Rebecca were able to utilize seller financing to buy the local ag retail company. Now after 10 years of ownership, they’ve been able to not only keep it afloat but to grow and expand. In 2013 at the age of 23, Elliott and Rebecca, purchased a business, got married, and bought a farm. That’s a busy year! The business they bought is Edgar’s Feed and Seed, which today offers retail products for livestock and agronomic services for a wide range of crops. They’ve also started carrying frozen meats, cheeses and other specialty pantry items from all over Ontario and Canada. They purchased the business from Niel Edgar, who was Elliott’s boss there at the time, and now works for the Millers as an employee of the company. Today’s episode will focus on their journey to acquiring a business at such a young age, making it work in the early years as they paid it off, and how they’ve grown it since. This is a pretty inspiring couple, and hopefully will help get your wheels turning about business opportunities in your local area. 

Find out how Calgary is leading the agribusiness revolution: http://www.calgaryagbusiness.comElevate Agronomics: https://www.elevateagronomics.com/Today’s episode features Trent Kubik of Elevate Agronomics. In 2020, Trent and his brother Troy purchased a long-standing seed business in Winner, SD named Winner Seed.  From this purchase, their new company Elevate Agronomics was born.  Along with the robust offering of seed and seed cleaning that the business already had, they added on chemicals, starter fertilizers, livestock supplements, Precision Planting planter enhancements, as well as other misc agricultural products.  Shortly after their acquisition, they took over operations of a similar business in a neighboring town and expanded their footprint which services out of two locations.  Currently they sell products into 10 counties in South Dakota and Nebraska.You’re going to hear about what led to finding this business opportunity for them to acquire, how they lined up their financing, how they manage the financial and operational sides of the business, coping with the stress and workload of running your own business, growth/expansion opportunities, modernization through technology and efficiencies, hiring and retaining employees, and more. The audio is not our best work. Trent’s bluetooth headset wasn’t working, so we had to use the old office computer mic. But if you’ll forgive me for that, I promise the content is well worth your time.

Try Acres for Free: https://www.acres.co/FoA 334: Cybersecurity in Agribusiness with Mike Moore of Ever.AgFoA 310: Investment Models with Hannah Senior of Innovating AgtechFoA 351: Agritourism and Adding Value on the Farm with Allan RobinetteFoA 355: Tule Technologies Acquired by CropX with Tom Shapland and John GatesFoA 301: Funding Innovation for Agriculture, People, and Planet with Suma Reddy of Future AcresSeven business opportunity ideas i've been thinking about lately: Security: Data security, cybersecurity, farm/ranch/rural crime securityAcquiring small/medium sized ag-related businessesPremium produceFarmer feedback and on-farm validationSoftware/outsourcing of farm regulatory/compliance Commercialization of university tech transferVenture studio in partnership with established industryBonus: independent education/analysis/insights of farmland investments: platforms, REITs, syndicates, physical deals, etc.Plus, a spotlight segment featuring David Gorder!

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/Tule Technologies: https://tule.ag/CropX: Today’s episode features Tom Shapland of Tule Technologies and John Gates of CropX. We have a great episode for you talking about Tule’s technology, Tom’s entrepreneurial journey, The decision on both sides for Cropx to acquire Tule, M&A in agtech and integration lesson, and the future of artificial intelligence in agtech. Tom is the co-founder and CEO of Tule Technologies, which is now part of CropX. As a graduate student at UC Davis, Tom developed the underlying technology that Tule commercialized which is a way to measure water use of crop plants over a broad area. Specifically they measure actual crop evapotranspiration or ET and he’ll talk a lot more about that. He founded Tule in 2013 after finishing his PhD work in this area. He went out and started talking to customers and getting sales early, which you’ll find is an important part of his entrepreneurial journey. Him and his co-founder Jeff LaBarge went the Y Combinator program, which is our second episode this month with a YC alum. Joining us from CropX is senior vice president and global head of product John Gates. John also has a background in academia. He was a professor of Hydrology at University of Nebraska. He evenutally joined CropMetrics as their Chief Scientist and stayed on with CropX after they acquired CropMetrics a few years ago. You’ll hear from Tom first about Tule’s technology and trajectory, and then we’ll invite John in to talk about the acquisition and much much more.

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/AGvisorPRO: https://getagvisorpro.com/Today’s episode features AGvisorPRO CEO Robert Saik. Rob is a well-known outspoken champion of agriculture, a Distinguished Agrologist, Professional Agriculture Consultant, and a veteran entrepreneur who has been on this show twice before in episodes 095 and 166. He has leveraged these strengths to found over 15 companies in the areas of Farming, Agri-Retail, Distribution, Media and Ag Tech. He was the founder and CEO of The Agri-Trend/Agri-Data Group of Companies which was acquired by Trimble.  He also served as CEO of DOT Technology Corp (Autonomous Farming) through the acquisition of DOT Robotics by Raven Industries.Robert is the founder and CEO of award-winning AGvisorPRO, a technology platform that connects those seeking agriculture advice with trusted experts who can provide answers now. Rob describes AGvisorPRO as a connectivity ecosystem that combines elements of other tools like Uber, e-harmony, Twitter and FaceTime to connect seekers of agricultural knowledge with relevant experts. 

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/IFPA's Fresh Field Catalyst Accelerator: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/fresh-field-catalyst/"Taste is King" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-56-taste-is-king/"Locally Grown Through Vertical Farming on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-59-locally-grown-through-vertical-farming/ "Traceability is Crucial to the World Produce Industry" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-55-traceability-is-crucial-to-the-world-produce-industry/"New Innovations are Improving All Aspects of Our Produce Supply Chain" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-68-live-from-the-global-show-2022-part-four/"The Future of Automation is in the Fields" on the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/episode-57-the-future-of-automation--is-in-the-fields/ Today’s episode features Vonnie Estes, vice president of innovation at the International Fresh Produce Association or IFPA. You probably noticed in our opening segment more than just Vonnie’s voice. That’s because we will be playing clips of some of the entrepreneurs and mentors that participated in IFPA’s Fresh Field Catalyst this past year. You see, Vonnie reached out about coming back onto the podcast to talk about how applications are open for their second cohort. After talking to Vonnie and hearing about how the first cohort went, I realized this would be a great chance to talk about tech and innovation in the produce industry in general. Our conversation today covers some of the challenges facing this industry, including water, labor, food safety, traceability, quality, compliance and more. And you’ll hear from entrepreneurs and industry leaders about differentiation, consumer preferences, indoor ag, traceability, and automation and robotics. Before we dive in, I want to make it clear that the intention of the accelerator is to attract companies that already have a product in the market somewhere. That could be a market outside of agriculture, or perhaps in row crops, or maybe in produce but in another geography. So they’re looking for companies that already have some traction, but maybe haven’t directed much focus to produce yet but think that there might be value in that market. If that sounds like you or someone you know, applications close soon: March 20 of 2023. I’ll link to the application in the show notes. You may remember hearing from Vonnie back in episode 270 of this podcast. To refresh your memory, she has held leadership positions at prominent companies including DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta along with start-ups including DNAP, Emergent Genetics, and Caribou Biosciences. She has a BS in Horticulture from New Mexico State and a Masters in Plant Pathology from UC Davis. In addition to Vonnie, you’re going to hear clips from some of the entrepreneurs and mentors in the program’s first cohort. These clips came from Vonnie’s podcast called Fresh Takes on Tech. You definitely want to go check that out. I’ll link to it in the show notes as well. 

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/PYKA: https://www.flypyka.com/Michael Norcia is CEO of Pyka, which as I mentioned earlier is an autonomous electric aircraft company. Michael has a deep technical background in autonomous flight, having contributed to a wide variety of manned/unmanned electric aviation projects at Joby, Cora, and Kittyhawk. In 2017, Michael co-founded Pyka with the goal of combining two of his lifelong passions: electric aviation and business. This is a really fascinating interview that not only features some pretty mind blowing technology, but also a great example of finding product-market fit, overcoming regulatory hurdles, and taking a futuristic idea and converting that into a real business that solves real problems in the present day. For those of you who are entrepreneurial, I think you’ll be especially inspired, and you’ll probably also enjoy the questions I ask him about his Y-Combinator experience towards the end of the episode. 

Try Acres for FREE: https://www.acres.co/Robinette's Apple Haus & Winery: https://robinettes.com/The Land Podcast - The Pursuit of Land Ownership and Investing https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-land-podcast-the-pursuit-of/id1572511098 Exodus Outdoor Gear: https://exodusoutdoorgear.com/ Hello fellow ag nerds! Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Future of Agriculture podcast. My name is Tim Hammerich and every week you and I get to hear from the farmers, founders, innovators and investors shaping the future of the ag industry.Today’s episode features Allan Robinette. Allan is a fifth generation fruit grower and orchard manager at Robinette’s Apple Haus & Winery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They grow primarily peaches, apples, and sweet cherries and sell everything retail. We get into all sorts of interesting value-added concepts here including u-pick, farm retail, operating a bakery, winery and cider mill, corn mazes, gift boxes and a lot more. This one was a blast for me who grew up in direct-to-consumer agriculture and still dreams of owning an enterprise in this part of the industry some day. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Try Acres for FREE: https://www.acres.co/Magnetic Ag Newsletter: https://magnetic-ag.com/"Farm and Other F Words" https://bookshop.org/p/books/farm-and-other-f-words-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-small-family-farm-sarah-k-mock/16922376Imagine Content and Consulting: https://newsletter.imagine-content.com/"AEI.Ag Presents" podcast: https://aei.ag/podcast/"Agtech - So What?" podcast: https://www.agtechsowhat.com/One important change to agriculture that we probably don’t talk about enough is the changing ag media landscape. Farmers and those of us who work in agriculture traditionally would read industry publications and listen to farm broadcasters on the radio to get ag information. Those programs were funded by agribusinesses who new they had a fairly captive audience. Well as you know all of that has been turned on its head in the past 20 years. Now companies can have much more direct contact with their target audience, whether that’s a potential customer, a trade association member, a potential investor, collaborator, or any number of important people you might want to interact with. That’s awesome, right? But it also means ther are no more captive audiences. You have to earn attention. And that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do. After years of interacting with those of you who listen to this show, I know that for the most part you have an honest intention to improve the future of agriculture. In order to do that you absolutely will need to know how to get the word out there. That’s what today’s episode is all about. Sarah Mock joined me back on episode 210 to talk about the future of ag media. She jokes that she is slowly working her way through every job in ag, having worked for USDA, RFD-TV, Farmers Business Network, and others. Today she’s an independent contractor who does research, content, journalism and a number of other interesting projects in agriculture including producing podcasts like AEI Presents and Agtech, So What? She is also the author of two books that I personally recommend: “Farm and Other F Words” and “Big Team Farms”. Travis Martin started his career in agribusiness, and ended up finding his love for marketing while working at Elanco. Since leaving the company in 2018 he has worked for a variety of agtech companies in both full time and contractor roles, including a couple companies you’ve heard on this podcast like Leaf Agriculture and Advanced Agrilytics. In 2020 he started a weekly newsletter called Magnetic Ag that really is different from just about any content you’ll see anywhere else in agriculture. Still going strong, over 12,000 people read Magnetic twice a week. That led to Travis staring his own content and consulting business for agricultural clients called Imagine Content & Consulting. I’m very lucky to have Sarah and Travis on the show, and I really think this topic and their advice is important for all of us, no matter whether you see yourself as a creator or not. One quick clarification before we jump in. This was recorded in December of 2022, so when we say “this year” - we mean 2022. 

Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/advance.farm website: https://advanced.farm/ Today’s episode features Kyle Cobb, president and co-founder of advanced.farm. They describe themselves as a 21st-century ag equipment company centered around robotics, with a current focus on automating harvest and postharvest in fresh fruit. advanced.farm is based in Davis, California and has raised over $35M of venture investment led by Kubota, Yamaha, Catapult Ventures and Impact Ventures. Before advanced.farm, Kyle was a Co-Founder of Greenbotics, a cutting-edge platform for robotic solar panel cleaning that was acquired by SunPower in 2013.Kyle and I talk about the journey that led him and his team to robotic harvesting, the challenges of bringing this type of technology to the market, why Kyle is convinced that now is the perfect time for robotics in agriculture, how they’ve approached raising money and much more.