Ag Retailers Identify Obstacles to Further Tech Adoption
July 24, 2026 
Increasing adoption rates for new ag tech is certainly not a new story, and the reasons behind this trend are obvious. But signs are appearing that use of some technologies may actually be declining somewhat, and the panelists for a discussion entitled “Where Ag Retail is Investing its Tech Dollars” at the 2026 Tech Hub Live Conference agree about what may behind these changes.
“We don’t train as well as we used to,” notes Jeff Wessels, Acre+ Precision Ag Manager for Frenchman Valley Co-op. “There is so much pressure on everyone involved with the farm, and that includes retailers’ employees. As a result, many of them are just order takers now. They get buried working with their farmer customers who are just trying to survive given the current input and commodity prices, so there’s no time for talking about new technologies.”
Brendan Bachman is director of FS Agronomy for GROWMARK, and he sees the same obstacle challenging adoption. “Some of the retailer salespeople walk on the farm and they’re so focused on just selling something that they’re not focused on what’s smart from an agronomic perspective,” he says, calling this an alarming trend for the industry. “There’s a complexity to these technologies that you need to understand in order to be able to explain it to the farmer, and learning that detail takes time. Plus, trying to have a conversation about the variability across the field with your farmer customer can be intimidating, so some salespeople just hit the easy button instead.”
“We run into the exact same thing,” agrees Wessel.
Leon Vandenberg’s company, 4AgTech, doesn’t sell any inputs. Instead, the company focuses on leveraging technology and the resulting data to provide the best recommendations for its producer clients, and he sees retailers looking to consultants like him to essentially be the ones incorporating precision data on the their own customers’ farms.
“We always hear retailer salesmen say, ‘I’m so glad you’re helping this grower out,’” he says. “It’s amazing how they (the retailer salesmen) want this responsibility off their backs. They tell me, ‘You handle the data and let me just sell my stuff.’”
“We’re all creatures of habit, and bringing these technologies to the farmer takes more effort,” says Bachman.
Purdue University’s Bruce Erickson offers insights from the 2026 CropLife Magazine-Purdue Precision Agriculture Dealership Survey at Tech Hub LIVE in Des Moines.
The panel discussion centered around the results from the 26th CropLife Magazine-Purdue Precision Agriculture Dealership Survey, which was released in July and can be found here. And, to be clear, the survey results showed continued adoption of a wide range of precision technologies, including VRT seeding prescriptions, VRT lime applications, crop input applications via drone and more.
But the percentage of retailers reporting they use precision technology for VRT custom fertilizer application decreased from 84% in 2025 to 78% and other valuable technologies continue struggling to gain adoption, such as imagery.
Ultimately, the panelists agreed that embracing new technologies and figuring out how to use the data these technologies present is critical for farmers and retailers alike.
“I think producers and retailers not figuring out how to use these tools are making a big mistake,” says Bachman. “There are so many opportunities for those of us who understand the data we have at our fingertips now. These numbers aren’t the gospel truth, but they can help us get to a decision point faster.”
Vandenberg agrees. “I think the size of the farm matters in terms of being able to use the data,” he says. “The guys who bring on people that they trust and have them at the table so that they can simply take charge of meetings and make decisions as a CEO of the farm are the ones who will be profitable and be here for the next 20 years.”
Bachman went so far as to challenge retailers to get comfortable with data and AI tools before it’s too late. “The pace of development with AI is so great that I think everyone who is not comfortable with it now needs to make it a priority,” he asserted. “If you don’t, I don’t know if you’ll be able to pick it up in two or three years because it will be so much farther along.”
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