Automation, artificial intelligence, advancements in fertilizer science, and much more are reshaping today’s agriculture industry.
Last week, Northwest Missouri State University hosted an open house for students and area farmers to hear from innovators in the field.
The companies at today's AgTech Innovation Open House are promising to push agribusiness and the industrial farming sector into a highly tech-oriented future. This is the third year Northwest's Agricultural Learning Center has hosted an innovation day put on by the agriculture department.
It brings together students, professors, and area farmers with a crop of entrepreneurs rolling out new products in farm technology. The St. Louis based nonprofit business incubator, BioSTL, partners on the day. They look around the world for emerging companies in the agribusiness sector and support them as they perfect and roll out new products.
Director of Agricultural Innovation at BioSTL, Joey Jedlicka says that the St. Louis area is home to policy and lobbying groups, major agribusinesses and food industry giants.
"So, we sit in a pretty unique space between all of these different giant organizations, which have an impact on farmers," Jedlicka says. "And then we can source those innovators who really need to be connected to those industry organizations."
The goal is to support entrepreneurs, and launch their disruptive technologies can take across the country, or the globe.
Dan Schutz is here with Ostara which offers an improved phosphate fertilizer product called Crystal Green. He is optimistic about the changes coming to agriculture.
"Farmers, when they can see new innovation and how it's going to work — how it's going to impact their farm — they will respond. We often say: 'if you put us in a room with a hundred farmers and share with them the economic, the agronomic, and the environmental benefits of using Crystal Green, 95 of them will probably want to try it.'"
Outside the Agricultural Learning Center, a team from Deep Agro leads a demonstration of their selective spray technology, which uses computer learning to recognize and target weeds, leading to major efficiencies in herbicide use. Matias Nardi says the Argentinian-based company is working to launch in the US market, even in times of economic uncertainty.
"There are benefits to the US. But farmers are struggling. The corn prices and soybean prices are very, very low. And interest rates are very high. Trade policy is in flux."
If these entrepreneurs feel confident that change is coming, professors of agriculture in attendance are thinking of the impact for their classrooms. Dr. Kaitlin Epperson teaches animal science at Northwest.
" From an academic standpoint, [today has been] eye-opening. We have to be able to contribute to teaching students, to being flexible and willing to try different stuff, because they are growing up in a tech centered environment. So, they'll already have that advantage, but I think the flexibility, [teaching that is a] a big one."
Epperson's students looking at a career in agriculture anticipate change as well. Kenlyn Grove grew up on a farm, hearing firsthand how far agricultural technology has come already.
"My grandparents, from when they started to where they're at now, the difference is crazy and they talk about it all the time, " Grove says. Her grandfather recently purchased a drown for use on his farm, she said. "And I know it's just, getting faster. I can just only imagine."
In an industry dominated by big companies and legacy names the disruptors at today's exhibition recognize they face challenges perfecting their product, securing a market, scaling up, navigating imports, pleasing investors, and more. But Jedlicka says he believes in these products.
" I think at the end of the day, these innovations are absolutely critical. You know, some of these will bring improvements to the bottom line and the return on investment, and that's the main selling point. There's other innovations that might bring environmental impact and positives from other angles. It can be a strong marketing message for some of these innovations", says Jedlicka.
