Synopsis
Welcome to the Future of Agriculture Podcast with Tim Hammerich. This show looks into the diversity that is agriculture and agribusiness.The global population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 and agriculture is expected to produce more food with less land and less water. Agribusiness will be part of the future to constantly innovate and find sustainable ways of meeting the challenges of tomorrow.Visit AgGrad.com today to get connected to careers in the agriculture industry.
Episodes
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FoA 392: Ag Labor and Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition With Edward Silva of másLabor
06/12/2023 Duration: 39minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/másLabor: https://www.maslabor.com/Edward Silva is the CEO of másLabor and AgWorks, the nation’s leading providers of H-2A (agriculture) and H-2B (non-agriculture) labor solutions. As one of six children of Portuguese immigrants, Edward and his brothers grew up farming in California's Central Valley for their family's almond and grape operation. Edward's academic background includes studies in International Agricultural Development at the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has dedicated his company’s mission to saving U.S. businesses by helping them secure the workforce they need to successfully run their operation. másLabor, under his leadership, represents more clients in more industries and geographies than any other service provider for H-2 visas.One cool part of today’s story is that Edward had reached out to me cold years ago in October of 2020 when he was fresh out of business school and looking for
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[History of Agriculture] Cyrus McCormick And The Birth Of Mechanical Harvesting
02/12/2023 Duration: 35minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/[Founders Podcast] #324 John D. Rockefeller (38 Letters Rockefeller Wrote to His Son)[Morgan Housel Podcast] "My New Book, Same As Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes"Today’s combine harvesters are modern marvels capable of harvesting thousands of bushels per hour, including cutting, threshing, cleaning and capturing the grain. But the path from hand tools to the mechanical harvester is a fascinating one; which involved several farm shop innovations, intellectual property battles, labor challenges and pioneering business practices that are considered standard today. So buckle up for this one, because our subject for today’s episode, Cyrus Hall McCormick, was right in the middle of a lot of it all. Other Resources: [YouTube] THE ROMANCE OF THE REAPER " 1937 INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER PROMO FILM CYRUS MCCORMICK[YouTube] Alex Plaza- McCormick Reaper Documentary[Wikipedia] Obed Hussey[Richmond Times-Dispatch] “Jo Anderson” [Forbes Archives] Forbes Greatest Busine
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FoA 391: The Path To Superhuman Farming with Curtis Garner and Brent Shedd of Verdant Robotics
29/11/2023 Duration: 47minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Rhishi Pethe's Software Is Feeding The World Newsletter: https://www.rhishipethe.com/sftwVerdant Robotics: https://www.verdantrobotics.com/Verdant Robotics is offering a smart sprayer that helps farmers reduce labor and input costs. But don’t let the word “robotics” in the name fool you: their technology, although very cutting-edge, hooks right onto existing equipment like any other farm implement. “Here at Verdant we have a slogan called 'autonomy last.' So even though our co founders and early employees all were foundational in the birth of that (autonomous vehicle) industry, it's the last thing that we're going to do. The majority of the value that we're going to provide the grower is automating the machine on the back. That's actually where the value is being provided.” - Curtis GarnerAutomation doesn’t necessarily mean autonomy. That’s Curtis Garner, founder and CCO at Verdant Robotics. A lot of the team, like Chief Operating Officer Brent Shedd, came
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FoA 390: Bridging Data Gaps with Carlos Hirsch of Eiwa
22/11/2023 Duration: 41minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Eiwa: https://eiwa.ag/Today's episode features Carlos Hirsch, Chief Revenue Officer at Eiwa. Carlos is passionate about the intersection of agriculture, technology, and people. He has been in the Ag Industry for over 20 years and built an accomplished career in seed production, technology development and SaaS businesses. He has an agronomy degree from ESALQ in Piracicaba, Brazil and an Executive MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He joined Eiwa in August of 2021 and resides with his family in St. Louis, MO.Carlos and Tim talk about what makes data problems in agriculture unique versus a lot of other industries. Their solution, that they call the Eiwa Vault, combines all types of data sources like weather, machinery, satellite, drones, field notes etc. and puts them all in a place and format that makes them accessible to other tools and ultimately, actionable decisions. Their original market for this are researchers and R&D teams so they
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FoA 389: Modern Tree Crop Farming With Sawyer Clark of Gold Leaf Farming
15/11/2023 Duration: 39minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Gold Leaf Farming: https://www.goldleaf.ag/Today’s episode features the Director of Asset Management at Gold Leaf Farming, Sawyer Clark. Gold Leaf was founded in 2017 by Brandon Rebiero and Jack McCarthy. Sawyer met Jack while they were both in business school at Stanford, and soon became a part of the team. In today’s episode, Sawyer and I talk about Gold Leaf’s model for investing in farming, specializing in just a few permanent crops, how they add value after acquisition including transitioning to organic, hiring top talent, and embracing technology. We also have a lengthy discussion about the types of technology that has worked - and not worked - for their operation. Sawyer describes himself as a farm kid from Oregon's Willamette Valley, where his family continues to grow hazelnuts to this day. He spends his time at Gold Leaf Farming split between acquiring new properties and leading operational initiatives with the farm team - especially those re
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FoA 388: Agtech Reflections and Projections with David Friedberg and Louisa Burwood-Taylor
08/11/2023 Duration: 38minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/"10 years on from Climate Corp’s $1bn acquisition, David Friedberg reflects": https://agfundernews.com/david-friedberg-reflects-10-years-on-from-climate-corp-1bn-acquisitionThe Production Board: https://www.tpb.co/Almost exactly 10 years ago, an acquisition was announced that caused many people in the technology and investment community to pay more attention to what was happening in agriculture: Monsanto was buying The Climate Corporation, which was founded by David Friedberg. "Climate.com became the standalone software product for farmers, and that really is kind of the reason Monsanto bought the company, and really kind of set the first big precedent for digitization of agriculture."Today David reflects on the Climate Corp journey and the Monsanto acquisition with AgFunder’s Louisa Burwood-Taylor, and he shares his current thoughts on agtech now that a decade has passed. "I do think that there's going to be some big opportunities for the next transformat
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FoA 387: Integrating Farm and Food to Make the World a Tastier Place
01/11/2023 Duration: 47minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Silver Spring Foods: https://www.silverspringfoods.com/ Today's episode features Eric Rygg of Silver Spring Foods. This is a fun story for me, not only because I like horseradish, which I definitely do. This is a story of what’s possible when you carve out a niche and make moves to vertically integrate. There are also some great insights here about product positioning both to consumers and to retailers, and some of the challenges and opportunities of processing a marketing farm products. I particularly enjoyed learning about how the team at Silver Spring took it upon themselves to study the chemistry of what makes horseradish hot, and from that research they developed their own heat index for horseradish, they call a zing factor. So it’s kind of like the Scoville Heat Index in hot peppers. For the zing factor, one is beginner, or the least amount of heat, and 5 is the hottest, which will definitely give you that zing that travels up into your nose. Eric and I a
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FoA 386: Challenging Assumptions About Regenerative Agriculture With John Kempf
25/10/2023 Duration: 49minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Advancing Eco Agriculture: https://www.advancingecoag.com/AEA's Equity Crowdfunding Campaign: https://wefunder.com/advancingecoagRegenerative Agriculture Podcast: https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/John Kempf on Twitter: https://twitter.com/realJohnKempfToday’s episode will challenge several commonly held assumptions about the future of agriculture. Take regenerative agriculture, which most define by the ability to improve soil and sequester carbon. But these are outcomes, even by-products, not the complete definition of regenerative, says John Kempf. John is a leading crop health consultant and the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture. He designs innovative soil and plant management systems to help growers realize the benefits of regenerative transition right away. We talk about what it means to be regenerative, the results they’ve seen from working with over 10,000 farmers across 4M acres, why they’ve launched an equity crowdfunding campaign and
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FoA 385: The Private Equity Playbook with Kevin Schwartz of Paine Schwartz Partners
18/10/2023 Duration: 43minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Paine Schwartz Partners: https://paineschwartz.com/Today’s episode features Kevin Schwartz of Paine Schwartz Partners. This is a really interesting look at the food and ag industry from a totally different perspective. Kevin and his team are investors, but they’re not trying to invest in early stage startups like a venture capitalist would, or into farmland like other investors might. They focus on companies that already have proven their product, but for one reason or another might be looking to sell or take on an investor. Paine Schwartz Partners focuses their investing in these companies into two general categories: productivity - which includes seed and other inputs and technologies that help farmers and ranchers produce more efficiently and profitably. You’ll hear Kevin use the word “upstream” a lot, and he means upstream in the value chain, so these types of companies/products and services. Then their second area of investing is further downstream in
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FoA 384: Infinite Banking and Farming Without the Bank With Mary Jo Irmen
11/10/2023 Duration: 45minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Farming Without The Bank: https://www.farmingwithoutthebank.com/"Becoming Your Own Banker" by R. Nelson NashFarming Without The Bank PodcastMary Jo Irmen is the author of the book Farming Without the Bank and a Infinite Banking Concept Practitioner who has set out to change how the farming industry is financed. She has helped farmers for 13 yrs see that there are financial solutions for them and the next generations. Mary Jo's mission is to take a 100 year old financial process and turn it around by making the bank plan B rather than plan A, give farmers back control, and allowing the next generation to take over without having to buy the farm from the bank with each generation.It’s important for me to note here, that I’m coming to this interview with a personal interest in this infinite banking concept. I’m not a farmer, but I see where it might be a good addition to my personal wealth-building strategy, and I also see where people who rely on banking even mor
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FoA 383: Artificial Intelligence That Adds Real Value to Farmers with Craig Ganssle
04/10/2023 Duration: 39minPut AI to work on your farm: https://farmwave.io/Follow Farmwave and Craig on TwitterFoA 237: Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture with Craig Ganssle of Farmwave: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-237-use-cases-for-artificial-intelligence-in-agriculture-with-craig-ganssle-of-farmwaveToday's episode features Farmwave's harvest loss system, some broader perspective on artificial intelligence in agriculture, and how to build an agtech company that adds real value to farmer customers. Farmwave founder and CEO Craig Ganssle is my guest today. Craig first appeared on the show back in episode 237 in late 2020, where we talked a lot about Craig’s military and technology background and how he has applied it in agriculture. Today, we focus on creating real value for farmer customers, the role of artificial intelligence, and the journey of a successful agtech entrepreneur. If you’re still a little fuzzy on what Farmwave does, the most succinct way to sum it up is to say that they’ve built an au
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FoA 382: [History of Agriculture] Carl Bosch and the Agtech That Changed the World
29/09/2023 Duration: 31minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/"The Alchemy of Air" by Thomas HagerFoA 325: Electrified and Distributed Fertilizer Production with Nico Pinkowski of NitricityFoA 337: Synthetic biology for nature-based and data-driven farming with Travis Bayer and Adam Litle of Sound AgricultureFoA 348: Investing in the Future of Fertilizer with Sarah Nolet of Tenacious VenturesFoA 370: [History of Agriculture] William J Morse, the Father of the US Soybean IndustryWe learned in elementary school that soil, water and sunlight were what plants needed to survive. But for us to produce not just plants, but also food; food for billions of people, many of which live far away from the farm….we need fertilizer. Especially nitrogen. Lots and lots of nitrogen. Crops need other nutrients as well, but none are more essential than nitrogen. Before the 1900s, that nitrogen mostly came from manure or compost, or the very slow process of microbes that are able to fix small quantities of nitrogen from the air. And that
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FoA 381: Is There An Anti-Farming Agenda?
28/09/2023 Duration: 41minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Claire Taylor: https://www.nuffieldscholar.org/scholars/2023/claire-taylorClaire Taylor grew up on a small beef farm on the west coast of Scotland and went on to study Politics and International Relations at Edinburgh University. She is a passionate storyteller and writer, with almost a decade of experience working with the BBC and the Scottish Farmer – first as a reporter and later as political editor.Claire and I discuss her current pursuit: to travel the world in order to understand what she calls the anti-farming agenda, and learn what it means to have productive and honest conversations about the future of farming. Be sure to stick around to the end of today’s episode for a spotlight segment with Ohio farmer and United Soybean Board vice chair Steve Reinhard. What do you think? Do you think there really is an anti-farming agenda out there? And if so, what needs to be done to turn the tide on that? I’m always glad to hear from you either on Twitter or the contac
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FoA 380: Equity Capital for Farmland with Ben Gordon and Kyle Mehmen
20/09/2023 Duration: 41minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Fractal Agriculture: https://fractal.ag/Ben Gordon is the founder and CEO of Fractal Agriculture, a passive farmland investment partner that invests alongside farmers rather than competing against them for land. After serving as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, Ben worked in ag tech, management consulting, and private equity due diligence before his most recent role leading Corteva Agriscience’s carbon program. Kyle Mehmen is a partner at MBS Family Farms, a successful family-owned, family-operated corn and soybean operation in Plainfield, Iowa. Kyle and his family are ardent stewards of their land, leaning into sustainability balanced with profitability.I’ve had the opportunity to interact with both Ben and Kyle in different capacities throughout the years. I worked with Ben’s team at Corteva to host some webinars last year on soil health, and Kyle was featured on this show as part of our Farm Data series with INTENT back on episode 226. So it was fun to
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FoA 379: The Farm Entrepreneur Mindset with Evan Shout of Maverick Ag
13/09/2023 Duration: 46minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Soy Innovation Challenge: https://www.thesoychallengelive.com/Farmer Coach: https://farmercoach.ca/Maverick Ag: https://maverickag.com/Hebert Grain Ventures: https://hebertgrainventures.com/FoA 302: Farm Business Strategy with Kristjan HebertFoA 303: Implementing a Farm Operating System with Kristjan HebertEvan Shout is the president and co-founder of Maverick Ag, a business consulting and risk management firm in Western Canada. He also sits as president, co-founder, and lead coach at Farmer Coach, an education and coaching program for primary producers in both Canada and the US. These organizations fall under the Hebert Group of Companies, which also includes Hebert Grain Ventures, a 30,000-acre grain and oilseed operation in southeast Saskatchewan, where Evan sits as Chief Financial Officer.I had the privilege of hosting Evan’s business partner, Kristjan Hebert on the show last year back in episodes 302 & 303. Those were very popular episodes about farm strate
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FoA 378: Adventure Capitalism with Legendary Investor and Author Jim Rogers
06/09/2023 Duration: 37minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/More About Jim Rogers: https://www.jimrogers.com/Today’s episode features Jim Rogers. I will first admit that this episode is pretty selfish. I found Jim’s books, particularly “Investment Biker” “Adventure Capitalist” and “Hot Commodities” in college when I was trying to figure out where my interests were and where I might like to start my career. I already had an interest in agriculture, international travel, and investing, so they had a huge impact on me. In fact, I decided to start my career in commodities in no small part because of his writing. So, when I had the chance to interview him on his thoughts about the world generally, I jumped at it. This one might be a bit different from our normal content because Jim is looking at broader economic and geopolitical drivers from an investor perspective and not so much as a “ag person” but I think his perspective is extremely valuable. The other reason this one might be a little bit different is I couldn’t help but be
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FoA 377: Leveraging Data to Advance in Cattle Genetics With Lee Leachman
30/08/2023 Duration: 40minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Prime Future Newsletter: https://primefuture.substack.com/Leachman Cattle of Colorado: https://leachman.com/URUS: https://www.urus.org/In agriculture, we have exponentially more examples of people collecting data than we do of people using data to unlock real value supported by real dollars. Cattle genetics company Leachman Cattle is one of those few who demonstrated the ability to do just that. "You know, we kinda had set our own course to analyze our own data, to gather our own data to store it. And that's just been part of our model. It certainly wouldn't have been the cheapest route to go. But if you go the cheapest route, which is you put your data in a breed association, then we wouldn't have had any proprietary data or indexes. And I think it is that information and the way we use that information that. That led to the opportunity that we had to do business with URUS."That’s Lee Leachman, and Uris, who he mentioned there at the end, just agreed to acquire a
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FoA 376: Agroforestry on Commercial Midwest Farms with Kevin Wolz of Canopy FM
23/08/2023 Duration: 44minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Canopy Farm Management: https://canopyfm.com/Savanna Institute: https://www.savannainstitute.org/Kevin Wolz and I talk about the fundamentals of agroforestry, their potential in the midwest, what these systems look like, and the barriers and opportunities to agroforestry becoming a bigger part of the future of agriculture, especially in the midwest where Kevin is focused. In 2013, Kevin co-founded the Savanna Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and promoting perennial and tree-based regenerative agriculture systems. Under Kevin’s leadership, the Institute quickly gained recognition for its transformative research, education, outreach, and breeding efforts.Kevin is also the CEO of Canopy Farm Management. He is leading that company to drive innovation in tree establishment and management via a mobile fleet of state-of-the-art farm equipment, appropriate automation, and holistic strategies for tree-crop integration. Make sure you stay
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FoA 375: Soil Carbon Sequestration and Grazing Management with Paige Stanley, Ph.D.
16/08/2023 Duration: 39minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Dr. Paige Stanley's website: https://paige-stanley.com/FoA 222: Digging Deeper Into Regenerative Agriculture with Paige Stanley: https://future-of-agriculture.captivate.fm/episode/foa-222-digging-deeper-into-regenerative-agriculture-with-paige-stanleyMetrics, Management, and Monitoring (3M) Project: https://www.noble.org/3m/Dr. Paige Stanely is an interdisciplinary scientist working to understand how grazing management can sequester carbon in soils to help mitigate climate change and build more resilient rangeland ecosystems. She draws on a wide range of disciplines including soil biogeochemistry, grazing and rangeland ecology, agroecology, rancher sociology, and political ecology to approach research questions holistically. Paige is particularly interested in the use of “regenerative grazing” (or adaptive multi-paddock grazing) by ranchers on rangelands -- a form of high-intensity, short duration grazing with potential for increasing soil C sequestration.We really
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FoA 374: The Potential for Perennial Grains with Peter Miller and Brandon Schlautman of Sustain-A-Grain
09/08/2023 Duration: 40minSoy Checkoff: https://www.unitedsoybean.org/Sustain-A-Grain: https://www.sustainagrain.com/The Land Institute: https://landinstitute.org/Today’s episode features Peter Miller and Brandon Schlautman, Ph.D. of Sustain-A-Grain. Sustain-A-Grain has a two-part mission: to introduce consumers to Kernza® perennial grain and to support family farms in growing Kernza®. The team has been growing Kernza® themselves for nearly 5 years in close collaboration with The Land Institute—where Kernza® was first developed. They are certified seed dealers, handlers, and growers, and they work with dozens of farmers across the Great Plains to grow and market their grain. They also work with food companies, restaurants, breweries, and distilleries to source high-quality Kernza®. This is an interesting episode about the potential for perennial grains, and what it takes to commercialize a brand new crop. The problems are different that what you would expect. For example, Kernza® has received a ton of press and excitement from so