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 Kempf

Today 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.

Burro website: https://burro.ai/

FoA 271: Ag Robotics Roundtable: https://futureofagriculture.com/episode/foa-271-ag-robotics-roundtable

I’m really excited to share today’s episode with you. Charlie Andersen is one of the most impressive and intelligent founders that I’ve had the chance to speak with. I can remember being blown away with him when he was a part of our Ag Robotics Roundtable which became episode 271 of this podcast clear back in 2021. 

Charlie co-founded Burro in 2017 and today they have over 600 systems running in the field, which is arguably the largest fleet of mobile robots running in an outdoor agricultural setting today. If you’ve never seen a Burro before, think about like a flat bed cart, for lack of better term. They are 5hp to 20hp autonomous vehicles that go up to 6.5 mph in speed. They can tow, haul things, mow, spray, and patrol all autonomously. They even can be used with a docking station to recharge themselves to run continuously. They are very cool, and uniquely designed to augment human labor rather than trying to fully replace it. 

Charlie grew up on a working fruit and vegetable farm and says he was obsessed with machinery as a kid. He went on to get an MBA at Harvard Business School and he founded Burro after working for CNH, where he reported to the head of the North American operating unit and worked on special projects across sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, and autonomy M&A.

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. 

"The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C. Mann

Rhishi Pethe's "Software is Feeding the World" Newsletter

 "In 1968, the year a USAID official coined the term 'Green Revolution', Norman Borlaug gave a victory lap speech at a wheat meeting in Australia. Twenty years before, he said, Mexican farmers had reaped about 760 pounds of wheat from every acre planted. Now that figure had risen to almost 2,500 pounds per acre, triple the harvest from the same land. The same thing was happening in India. He said the first green revolution wheat had been tested there just in 1964-1965 growing season. It had been so successful that the government had tested it on 7,000 acres the next year, and now it was covering almost 7 million acres. The same thing was happening in Pakistan, and this didn't even count the Green Revolution rice, also short and disease resistant, which was spreading across Asia."

That is an excerpt from the book we'll be talking about here today. "The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C. Mann. The subtitle is "two remarkable scientists and they're dueling visions to shape tomorrow's world."

One of those scientists, "the wizard", was Norman Borlaug: the father of the green revolution. Today's episode focuses on Borlaug's life and contributions to improving crop productivity in some of the most impoverished areas of the world.

This episode is co-hosted by Tim Hammerich and Rhishi Pethe.

Erin Silva, Ph.D. https://cias.wisc.edu/directory/17158/

FoA 280: Organic Farming Myths and Realities With Erin Silva

I 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.

Todd's Profile on Farm Progress: https://www.farmprogress.com/author/todd-fitchette

Todd's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddfitchette/

Todd Fitchette is the editor of Western Farm Press which is part of the Farm Progress Group. Todd has been there covering relevant agricultural issues for farmers in the West since 2013. His journalism career began in 1990 with community newspapers in California, where he earned First Place honors from the National Newspaper Association for his photography.

His career progressed to agriculture journalism where he reported on livestock and specialty crop issues in the West. This work includes covering subjects relevant to large herd dairy operations, specialty crops including fruits, nuts, vegetables and niche operations. He also covers public policy and water issues affecting western farmers. He has repeatedly been honored for his agricultural journalism by the Fresno County Farm Bureau in California. He currently lives in Yuma, Arizona.

I’ve been reading articles from Todd for several years now. I have always appreciated his ability to stay on top of the issues affecting agriculture in the west and to distill information down into a format that is accessible and digestible. I’ve run into him at events like the Almond Conference and FIRA USA and he always seems to be on-site wherever things are happening with the crops that matter most to the western United States.

I wanted to invite Todd onto the show to get his perspective as a journalist and someone who is covering these issues. I also wanted to learn more about storytelling and sharing information in agriculture. He shares openly about how he thinks about his work and how he goes about covering so many issues for his readers.

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. 

Lumo: https://lumo.ag/

Great episode for you today with Devon Wright of Lumo. The Lumo story is really interesting for a number of reasons. One of which is that they have managed to take on venture capital, but still remain very focused on serving a very specific market within agriculture. As you’ll hear they have resisted the temptation that has led to the demise of so many agtech companies to try to be for everyone and rapidly expand to as many acres as possible. But Lumo is focused exclusively on wine grapes, and for a long time only wine grapes in the areas of Sonoma and Napa Counties in California. 

Also, Devon is just an interesting dude. I’ll read his bio here to give you a sense of what I’m talking about: 

Devon Wright is an entrepreneur, investor, and the co-founder and CEO of Lumo, where he and his team are on a mission to massively improve food and freshwater security by giving farmers the best irrigation system in the world. He sold his first startup, a local marketing platform for restaurants, to Yelp in 2017. When he’s not helping growers dial in their irrigation precision or providing advice to other early-stage startups, he’s spending time with his wife and three young daughters on their little farm, or writing cheesy sci-fi romance.

William Ridley, Ph.D. https://ace.illinois.edu/directory/wridley

William Ridley, Ph.D. on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qjox4QIAAAAJ&hl=en

Today’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. 

Follow Chris on X: https://x.com/reggaj

Follow Chris on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluefoxfarm

Listen to Chris' podcast "Not Only Farmers": https://open.spotify.com/show/12YRGbk9IYMh4gbR0pTkEh?si=d14c005214ab418d

Chris Jagger on episode 129 of the "Farmer to Farmer" Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBplMcnNdO4

Chris Jagger and his wife Melanie Kuegler have been running Blue Fox Farm in southern Oregon since 2004. They started with 1 acre of mixed vegetable production, scaled to 45 acres, and now have scaled back to around 7 acres in vegetables. 

Besides farming, Chris has dipped his toes into many other realms of agriculture- consulting for other farms, running an ag supply business, starting a soil-based ag conference, and now looking at new ways to build the regional supply chain in the Pacific Northwest. The main goal in all of these endeavors is building community and feeding people.

I’ve known Chris from Twitter for years now, and he has some bold and innovative ideas about the industry, but his perspective is still also very grounded in the practicality of running a farm business. We discuss finding the right scale as a first generation farmer, the decision to sell retail vs wholesale, what it takes to build regional food systems, what technology is needed on smaller scale farms, and more.