Making Technology Work Harder: Frenchman Valley’s Jeff Wessels on Precision Ag, AI, and the Future of Retail Agronomy

As input costs remain elevated, commodity prices stay under pressure, and growers look for every possible efficiency, ag retailers continue searching for technologies that can deliver measurable value. During a recent episode of CropLife Retail Week, Jeff Wessels, Precision Ag Manager for Frenchman Valley Co-op, shared his perspective on how retailers can maximize existing technologies, leverage artificial intelligence (AI), and evaluate emerging tools such as biologicals and targeted application systems.

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Based in Imperial, NE, Frenchman Valley Co-op serves a broad geography that includes southwest Nebraska, northeast Colorado, and southeast Wyoming. Wessels has led the cooperative’s precision ag efforts since joining the organization in 2018 and plays a key role in evaluating new technologies through research and field testing.

Building Supply Chain Resilience

One recent development that has helped strengthen supply chain reliability for Frenchman Valley Co-op is the cooperative’s investment in a specialty ag formulations facility in Aurora, NE. The facility manufactures micronutrients, fertilizers, crop additives, and biological products closer to customers across the Western Plains.

According to Wessels, the project grew out of a practical challenge many retailers know well: freight costs.

“We were always discussing how much freight was costing us to get products from Springfield, IL, clear out here,” he said. “There really was no facility in this part of the Western Plains states that did any type of manufacturing like that.”

The result was the creation of a regional manufacturing site that reduces transportation costs and places key crop input products closer to growers and retailers.

Getting More from Existing Technology

While new innovations often dominate industry discussions, Wessels believes one of the biggest opportunities lies in better utilizing technologies that already exist on farms and in retail operations.

“It’s amazing to me how few people utilize all the capabilities that they have out there,” he said.

Many growers and retailers have equipment capable of variable-rate applications, advanced planting prescriptions, and precision nutrient management. Yet adoption of those capabilities often lags behind equipment purchases.

“That’s one of the things that I’ve always worked on throughout my career,” Wessels said. “We have the equipment. We can do variable-rate fertilizer. We can do a better job of placing fertilizer where it’s needed.”

He believes continued education and training will be essential to helping retailers and growers unlock the full value of precision ag investments.

AI’s Role in Data-Driven Decision Making

Artificial intelligence has become one of the most discussed topics across agriculture, and Wessels sees significant potential for the technology, particularly in data analytics and business management.

Frenchman Valley already utilizes AI-enabled tools in areas such as remote sensing and crop scouting. Looking ahead, Wessels expects AI to play an increasingly important role in helping retailers process large volumes of information and make more informed decisions.

“For myself, I’d like to use it to run a lot of data through it for data analytics on research,” he said. “It can spit out numbers faster than I can.”

The opportunity extends well beyond agronomic research. AI-driven business systems can help retailers identify purchasing trends, improve forecasting, and strengthen inventory management.

“Instead of taking all these reports and spending days to try and accumulate them, now we’ll be able to use AI and say, ‘Here’s what our historical numbers are,’” Wessels said.

That capability could prove especially valuable in today’s market environment, where uncertainty around grower purchasing decisions can make inventory planning increasingly difficult.

Balancing Innovation with Retail Economics

While technologies such as targeted spraying systems promise substantial savings for growers, Wessels noted that retailers face a more complex equation.

He pointed to green-on-green and green-on-brown spray technologies as examples. These systems can dramatically reduce herbicide use by applying products only where weeds are detected.

“I think there’s great potential in that type of situation for a producer,” he said.

However, reduced product usage also creates new challenges for retailers that have traditionally built business models around product volume and application services.

“Most people look at it and say, ‘You’re going to use 40% less herbicide. That’s a savings for the customer,’” Wessels explained. “But as a retailer, you have multiple factors involved. It makes it a little more difficult than simply saying we’re going to use less chemical.”

As adoption grows, retailers will need to adapt inventory strategies, logistics systems, and service offerings to align with changing product demand.

Biologicals Continue to Gain Attention

Wessels also sees continued opportunity in biological products, particularly as retailers and growers search for ways to improve efficiency and crop resilience.

In Frenchman Valley’s trade territory, ongoing research includes biologicals that target insect pressure, enhance root development, improve nutrient utilization, and help plants manage environmental stress.

“I see a lot of things on the biological side,” Wessels said. “Whether it’s biostimulants to help with plant growth, root promoters, or factors for stress mitigation.”

The cooperative is also evaluating products that may help crops recover more quickly from stress associated with post-emergence herbicide applications. New RNA-based tissue testing technologies are helping researchers better understand how plants respond to those treatments.

Ultimately, Wessels believes the focus should remain on improving efficiency.

“Can we cut back fertilizer by using something else that provides better efficiency of the fertilizer?” he said.

Looking Ahead

As retailers navigate evolving technologies, tighter margins, and changing grower expectations, Wessels believes the future belongs to organizations that effectively combine precision agriculture, data management, AI, and agronomic expertise.

The technology exists to help growers make better decisions. The next challenge, he says, is ensuring those tools are fully utilized and integrated into day-to-day operations.

For retailers, that means not only evaluating the latest innovations but also helping customers unlock the full value of the technologies already sitting in their cabs, offices, and data platforms.

Want to hear more from Jeff Wessels? View the full episode of CropLife Retail Week to hear his complete discussion on precision agriculture, AI adoption, biologicals, and the future of ag retail technology.