Spencer Stensrude is a business analyst for Ag Ventures Alliance, a company that invests in startups aimed to support and innovate the agricultural industry. The company itself was formed by farmers in Iowa in the late 90s. One of their latest investments is a company called SwineTech and is headed by Matthew Rooda. As the name implies, SwineTech is a company focused on innovating the swine industry, and right now its focus is on preventing sows from crushing their piglets.

On today’s episode, Spencer and Matthew talk about how they met, what their companies are all about, and how they started working together. They also share their prediction for the agricultural industry in the future and one of the biggest issues in the pork industry and how it’s affecting the economy.

 
“We are happy the company making money and sending us a check vs having to sell the company to someone else to pay back the investors.”  – Spencer Stensrude

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: 

• What is SwineTech all about?
• How did they discovered the piglet problem and how they developed a solution?
• The success rate of their new technology.
• The process from getting the startup ready to actually getting an investment.
• Matthew’s long term vision for SwineTech.
• Why Ag Ventures invested in SwineTech?
• The price point of SwineTech's product for producers.
• The timelines and process involved in investing in SwineTech.
• The focus of Ag Ventures for future investments.
• The first objection Matthew usually gets from producers when selling his product.
• What excites Spencer about the industry and his prediction for the future of agricultural technology.

Check Out Spencer Stensrude Across the Net: 

• Ag Ventures Alliance
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Check Out Matthew Rooda Across the Net: 

• SwineTech
• Email: mrooda@SwineTechnologies.com
• Facebook

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family! 

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today. 

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Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

Future of Agriculture Website

AgGrad Website

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Aidan Connolly has been with Alltech for 27 years and is currently its Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). Alltech is a company that helps farmers feed the world, raise healthy animals, and protect the environment. He works with the company’s research department focused on developing nutrition-based technologies that will capitalize on insights gained through Alltech’s investment in nutrigenomics. Aidan’s main tasks as CIO is to spearhead Alltech’s projects in multiple facets of the agricultural industry, make sure they’re always on the cutting edge when it comes to current technology, as well as incorporating new technologies into how food is produced in the future.

On today’s episode, Aidan shares how he became Alltech’s CIO and how the company decides which innovation to invest in. He also explains the disruptive technologies that will greatly affect the agricultural industry in the near future.

“Brain power and imagination are going to be very important in terms of the roles we play.” – Aidan Connolly

This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast:

Alltech's views on disruptive technology.
How they strategically decide when to invest in an innovation.
What is the Pearse Lyons Accelerator?
The 8 potentially disruptive technologies.
Is artificial Intelligence something humans should worry about?
How he prepares his children for the future.
Since 2009, TOP US food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion of market shares. How does this affect agriculture?
Can the "local food" movement scale?
How should we balance thinking about innovations and our busy lives?

Mentioned in this episode:

ONE18 Conference
Humans Need Not Apply Video

Check Out Aidan Connolly Across the Net:

Alltech
LinkedIn
Twitter

We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!

The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.

Share the Ag-Love!

Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:

AgGrad Website
AgGrad on Twitter
AgGrad on Facebook
AgGrad on LinkedIn
AgGrad on Instagram

Do we take basic decision making for granted? Do we just assume that our practices in the past should be our practices in the future? Using data based information, there may be ways to become more efficient and productive while saving money and resources.

Dr. Curt Livesay from Dynamite Ag is one of those people who questions basic assumptions. He focuses on agronomy or soil management and crop production. He has been a guest on a past episode, but we mostly discussed the cannabis industry.

Today, Dr. Curt Livesay shares his data based process especially around the subject of nitrogen use. We look at nitrogen efficiency and getting the desired amount of nutrients without creating waste. We also talk with Scott Wettstein, a farmer from Lidgerwood, North Dakota. If you like thinking for yourself, this is a great episode for you. 

"When we test and find products that actually work, we take those on and promote them to our growers." – Dr. Curt Livesay

This Week on the Future of Agriculture Podcast:

• How Dynamite Ag prides themselves on research and education 
• How Dr. Curt Livesay always had a greater vision and wanted to sell based on independent research
• Nitrogen research and accepting the idea of “what everybody knows”
• Nitrogen is not uniform in the soil profile
• 360 Yield Center produces the Y drop which drops from a sprayer and places nitrogen closer to where the plant needs it
• Overapplying nitrogen's negative impact on the environment
• Looking at cost savings and capturing the yield goal based on Curt’s research
• Research versus tradition and nitrogen soil tests with sensors

Check Out Dynamite Ag & Dr. Curt Livesay & Scott Wettstein Across the Net:

• Dynamite Ag
• Dynamite Ag on Twitter
• Dynamite Ag on Facebook
• Dynamite Ag on YouTube
• Call Curt at (641)919-5574
• Curt@DynamiteAg.com
• com
• ScottWettstein@hotmail.com
• Scott Wettstein on Twitter
• Scott Wettstein on Facebook

Share the Ag-Love! 

Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

AgGrad Website  
AgGrad on Twitter  
AgGrad on Facebook  
AgGrad on LinkedIn  
AgGrad on Instagram 

There was a time when people found a job and stayed there for most of their working lives. Those times are in the past with modern statistics saying that 67% of employees leave a first job within the first 2 years. Having a job that is a good fit is not only important for employer cost savings, but it also makes a difference in the employee’s happiness.

Bob Broeckelman was interested in agribusiness right out of high school. He has been an FAA officer and advisor, an ag teacher, and is recently retired after 33 years working in the Farm Credit system.  He understands the importance of human capital and why it's important for people to understand and find what is the right fit for themselves.

Today, we talk about tools used to create profiles and questions to create good matches for people and jobs. We also talk about how this method helps the employer and employee.

"We were trying to do the students a favor by putting them in the right jobs." - Bob Broeckelman

This Week on the Future of Agriculture Podcast:

• How matching people who were good fits for jobs drastically reduced turnover
• Tools used for finding the right fit such as interview questions and questionnaires
• Using the predictive index for behavioral profiles
• Using questions to narrow down the top and bottom applicants and how these profiling methods were effective in many positions from loan officers to truck drivers
• Cost lowering effects of matching people to the right jobs before hiring
• How results proved the accuracy of these methods in success and retention rates
• How the age they started working was the biggest predictor of success
• How Bob noticed a decrease in critical thinking skills in interviews since the 80s
• How we will grow by taking risks and having an open mind and attitude

Check Out Bob Broeckelman Across the Net:

• Bob Broeckelman on LinkedIn
• Bob Broeckelman on Facebook

Share the Ag-Love! 

Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

AgGrad Website  
AgGrad on Twitter  
AgGrad on Facebook  
AgGrad on LinkedIn  
AgGrad on Instagram 

Tim@AgGrad.com

Grasslands and grazing cattle go hand in hand. Yet, grazing cattle can be a complex process with things like dynamic business practices, the ecology of the grasses, and the biology of the animal all needing to be considered. Grass-fed beef and other grass-fed agricultural products are also fueling the modern-day demand for pastures and grazing opportunities.

I recently came across a business that is trying to solve issues associated with pasture management and cattle grazing. Christine Su is the co-founder and CEO of PastureMap, a platform that collects data on different areas that are being used for grazing. It helps build on that data to help with making informed decisions on the entire process.

Byron Palmer is a livestock rancher who grazes cattle in Sonoma County. He is one of the people doing the work and putting future agricultural ideas into practice. He is the owner of Grounded Grasslands. Byron grazes cattle for farmers and manages pastures. Today, I talk with Christine about PastureMap, and with Byron about how he uses the software.

“We have a lot of respect for the tradition of planned grazing and the emotional component, so we follow adaptive planned grazing methodology very closely.” - Christine Su

This Week on the Future of Agriculture Podcast:

• How PastureMap helps grazing managers who practice multi-paddock adaptive grazing
• Christine’s background and how she went from a consumer with a business background to reconnecting with the land and food she eats
• Features of the initial app prototype that could be accessed from a smartphone
• An iterative process of launching live modules and beta testing future prototypes
• How their mission is to help ranchers make more profits by building healthy grasslands
• Focusing on soil carbon data and rewarding farmers by sharing positive data
• How it’s not profitable to graze without productive pasture planning

Check Out PastureMap & Christine Su & Byron Palmer Across the Net:

• PastureMap
• Grounded Grasslands
• Grounded Grass Fed
• Sonoma Mountain Institute

Share the Ag-Love! 

Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots! 

Learn more about AgGrad by visiting: 

AgGrad Website  
AgGrad on Twitter  
AgGrad on Facebook  
AgGrad on LinkedIn  
AgGrad on Instagram