CropLife Retail Week: Special Report from Tech Hub LIVE

CropLife Editors Eric Sfiligoj and Lara Sowinski report from the show floor of the 2025 Tech Hub LIVE in Des Moines, IA, and are joined by special guest Amy Asmus of Asmus Farm Supply to discuss ag technology.

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:
Eric Sfiligoj: Welcome to a special edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj, editor of CropLife here at the Tech Hub Live 2025 event with Lara Sowinski and special guest Amy Asmus of Asmus Farm Supply. Amy, welcome to the program.

Amy Asmus: Well, thank you for inviting me to be here, and it’s fun to be here.

ES: I should add that you are the reigning chairperson, but the agricultural retailers Association as well.

AA: Yes. And thank you. Just on behalf of the AG Retailers Association for, really including us in the partnership and the advisory board for this great event. And also extending to our members as a benefit, a discount on their registration.

ES: So hey, I just, just a couple of share a couple of things since we’re here live recording, the, Tech Hub live event. I’m going to give you a couple of the takeaways I have.

I mean, the, the big thing I’ve heard again, that phrase garbage in, garbage out. I know about ten, 14 years ago, I used to hear the phrase it almost every event I went to varying data, and I think I heard that phrase used more at this event than I heard it used in at least the last 5 or 6 years.

So again, the point being that, everybody’s talking about artificial intelligence and systems that run with that, that are being used in agriculture. And the point being that if the data going in to the AI program is inaccurate or not good, that, what comes back out will also not be good. So that was my biggest takeaway, Miss Lara.

What what’s your big, big one takeaway from the event so far?

LS: You know, honestly, I think that people really it’s remarkable from one year to the next. Last year we were talking about AI and I was like, okay, what could it do? What could you know? So I felt still scratching the surface. I think this year it’s clear that a lot of people aren’t playing with it.

You’re using it. And so now we’re really getting into like, hey, this is working. This is not this is how you get them used. It’s almost like, you know, this is how you write a prompt. This is how you get the most out of it. This is where you just came from, a panel, a group for two years. Chris, I forget. Sorry, Chris’s last name, but really good questions that are starting to come up on the legal settlement and reading the fine print and that. So do we ask you to bring your question, who owns it? I mean, this really does now come into play in a way that, you know, maybe businesses need that data privacy and security part of it.

That was right. I think the other speaker, Arthur, also mentioned like, you know, don’t we don’t want it to somebody kind of is here and they developed it. People are using it. They have the customer base. And if you think you’re going to catch up, you’re not American. You can’t know. I mean, it’s moving fast.

You need to get in there. You need to figure it out. But just honestly kind of, prevailing these things, and do a lot of good decisions.

ES: Yeah. So again, I guess the data hub live may be the sort of, minor moniker for this event, but. Yeah. Miss Amy, what are your takeaways so far from us?

AA: Well, I love the trade show because it gives us a chance as a retailer to really look at the offerings that are out there and I always look at technology as this broad umbrella. And so you have technology that’s in operation. So you have like the Kahlers out there that are helping with systems that help retailers with their operation.

We also have systems out there that are helping them with, our back office stuff. And so you had ERP systems and things that are helping in the back office. So when I went through the trade show this year, I was kind of looking for that technology that we can use to help our Google. I don’t. And so I always think of, the whole season, we have 19 and you have a lot of data around planting.

You have the spring season and you have the harvest season. And those seasons. The technology is plentiful. The data is collected in a lot of different things. But what is out there for a grower to really look at the growing season between those three big areas? So, Emergent had a great booth. Here they are looking at, setting up an internet of Things.

What I’m most excited about is they’re partnering with a lot of other people that were also vendors here that, are providing sensors so that we can use their internet of things to send some of the technology, some of the information that we use to make decisions between those, those big tech things. And so I was pretty excited to, see their booth and some of their collaborators.

So if you’re not yet a collaborator with them, you have a sensor that you think the growers would love to use, make sure you get hold of them, Ken Zuckerberg’s a friend of mine, and he always has three questions, though. And I think with technology, we have to ask those questions and really use them to evaluate, should we?

So Jeff Blair had like the keynote presentation and he talked about. Yeah, just because we can does it mean that something at the grower need. So I always ask, what is it? So what? So what? Why do I care about this? What is it going to do for me? My game. And then the last question is, now what?

Now that I have this, what is my next form of action? And if there is no. Now what? I care enough about the so what to do? And now what then we’re wasting time effort on things that are trying to tell the grower that they have in common, instead of technology that’s trying to solve. So I really went through all the trade show and had to take away.

And, there are a lot of systems out there that are looking at it. So it’s the role of the retailer now to evaluate that. And what do we want to take to our growers as trusted advisors, and how will they help them solve that problem and not just provide another revenue stream for us? We can’t because that story.

ES: Yeah, that’s a very good point, because again, I know, I know for years and this comes back to that whole data question. Like you said, we collect a lot of data in agriculture. I mean, for years and years I visited farms and ag retailers and they have rows of binders of information was collected in the fall or in the spring and sometimes just out of curiosity of running my finger across the top of the binders and there’s a layer of dust.

So the data had been collected, but there was obviously no time to be going through that data and sort of digging through it, finding the key information that they really need going forward. And in my mind, when I first heard about AI systems coming into the marketplace, I’m like, hey, there’s something that actually kind of take this data and, and do something with it and spit out some recommendations that then an ag retailer like yourself can go back to your grower customer and say, hey, you know, based on our modeling, this could be this could be a good avenue for you to follow going forward in the next season versus what you’ve been doing.

And here’s the here’s the data to back it up. So in my wrong in that assumption or that we’re we’re heading?

AA: I think, you know, I’m a big proponent of customer segmentation. And so when you say grower, a lot of people put growers and bulk drink, and we have growers that are innovative collaborators that are going to be on the front end of stuff and love the data.

We’ve been, a partner with Taranis for the last several years, and Taranis is one of those businesses that fits in between the big ones. They’re running drones over systems and doing stand counts. So what do we do with the stand count? Plus, it’s better than Harlan and I going out in a side by side, for a romantic evening.

Driving through the fields, counting our stand. But they have that, and then they move on to where they need to work. And some of our growers eat up that in a I have that. Now I can look at this. Can you sit down and go through are my trends. So tell me what this is. And surprisingly I was talking to Harlan this morning and he said he had a grower yesterday that called him up and said, could you sit down and go through my maps with me. and Harlan went through and explained everything, and the grower goes, I don’t know if I can do this again next year.

And the grower shared with them that it makes me feel wise. But then a then farm. So you had those farmers that, will adopt it and wine full force and love the data. And you have those farmers that almost feel threatened by the data. It was again, interesting. And you’re going to have those across any spectrum of growers in the back.

So you really have to focus what you do with the data and the data and how they’re going to adopt it and use it to the type of whatever they like, as some will adopt and some will not.

ES: Yeah, that’s interesting, but that kind of ties back to so you mentioned this Jeff Blair of the CEO group when Andrew was our keynote speaker yesterday at this event, and he showed that graph or he used the emoji.

This are point. You know there’s the idea and then there’s the resistance to and the depression and the anger. And then eventually problem solved. Unique substance comes. But it’s a process that doesn’t happen overnight. So the fact that there’d be a segment that would be possibly threatened by someone, some data showing, hey, what you’ve been doing, it might not be the most effective way.

You’re right. Some people by human nature don’t want to hear.

So that’s interesting that it. Well again, it’ll be very fascinating to me because again, like Lara had said when we started earlier that, you know, last year when we were at this event, AI seen in its infancy in terms of the possibilities. And now it’s a year later and it’s like there are a lot of things out there.

There are a lot of systems out there in there that are experimenting with worse than the other thing. And, you know, we’re throwing things against the wall. See what sticks and, and and it’s just moving so fast. I’m sure a year from now when I, when we if we gather again here at the 2026 Tech Hub live and you’re talking about this topic again, I’m probably going to be very surprised pleasantly on how far we’ve come versus where we are.

LS: Well, you know, but you know, the other thing. And again, just calling this panel that I put these nine on posting running here, whoever comes in that in evaluating and like, you know, what things do we want to know. Well, when I was doing my job and who kind of stands that stood out for me too is like, sometimes isn’t this big, you know, fantastic stuff.

You know, across the board and being a that the small gains are just as important. Can we create and use an example, like with the way we measured how much time, let’s say for farmer or a retailer, to look up, lay them on the details. And she was saying, you know, 3 to 3 minutes with them on their feet.

So to me and she was talking about there’s it’s language for and she said then who were able to bring it down to 15 seconds. And if he do that time and pioneer can glow at the end of the day, look how much time ago. And then I have to say, you know, of all the industries out there, AD is still the most customer centric.

What else that people know? You know who you’re year to, who with your kids, who do gender, all things. So, if we call those small gains and this very cracked black, I might be on the AFC x9 in minutes or X amount of hours, it’s fun. Maybe you can spend larger materials you get from the other side very down.