Built by Farmers, Driven by Microbes: The Smart Blend Technology Story
April 15, 2026 
SBT customers gathered at a crop field in Montana to see SBT’s product in action. Photo: SBT
Innovation comes in many forms: Hard work, happenstance, and in the case of Smart Blend Technology (SBT), a series of small and deliberate choices that have led to a company delivering a series of biological products that support row and specialty crops.
Initially, AgriBrew was founded by Tom Costamagna along with his brother Daniel Costamagna, serving as Managing Partner, who provided consulting and headed formulation. Tom Costamagna talked with CropLife® Magazine about the company’s journey.
“Basically, 20 years ago, this whole idea of beneficial microbes by catalysts were kind of foreign and unknown in commercial horticulture and floriculture,” says Costamagna. “Today, there are over 350 companies that have entered this market. I break it down to four simple quadrants — microbial, plant extracts, acids, and others.”
Costamagna’s goal has been to “mimic Mother Nature in a way that was cost effective and could benefit all crops. The goal will always be to produce the highest quality plant at the least cost.”
To scale their operations, Costamagna and Daniel started a company that became SBT, which serves as a manufacturing and distribution company. The brothers brought on Gerald Baltrusch, who grew up on a Montana farm that is still run by his brothers, as CEO.
The Beginnings
With SBT up and running, the company used the Baltrusch brothers farm as a research and development acreage center. The collection of SBT plant protection products has been developed with FIFRA’s 25(b) exemption, meaning they’re considered so safe they don’t require EPA registration, and can be easily adopted into a grower’s integrated pest management strategy. The company offers both plant nutrition and plant protection products.
The company’s website defines its products as “a diverse nutrient source and a probiotic. They contain hundreds of species of mostly facultative anaerobic microbes. The microorganisms are ‘flexible facultative,’ meaning they can use either aerobic or anaerobic respiration and can therefore adapt to changes in soil oxygen.”
As a result, Smart Blend Technology’s solutions “will result in higher brix levels, increased yields, lower input costs, and reduction in chemical fertilizers or pesticides,” the company says.
To date, SBT products have orders for about 50,000 acres, and they keep coming in. Shortly, Costamagna expects that number to jump to 250,000, covering a variety of crops including several high-end golf courses, many of which will be outside Montana. For now, the company is focused on U.S. acres.
“We’re family owned and farmer owned,” he says. “We’re U.S.-sourced and U.S.-based, we’re not impacted by tariffs, which is very key moving forward. Our dollars stay here.”
The executive team expects to expand manufacturing operations in the third and fourth quarters of this year and further in 2027 and beyond. Sites they’re considering include South Dakota, Texas, and Alabama.
Costamagna and the SBT team spend a lot of time talking with growers of all sorts. Whether they’re multi-generational or first-time growers, they know a farmer’s endorsement at the local coffee shop is the most effective advertisement. That’s something Tom, Gerald, and Daniel have experienced firsthand.
“I am a grower; I am a farmer,” Costamagna says. “I understand plants. Often there is a disconnect from the lab to the field or vice versa. I never enter a new commodity for the quick sale. It’s understanding the history, the challenges, and the system.”
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