CropLife Retail Week: AI and the Future of Ag Retail, Biologicals, and the Power of Storytelling

In this episode of CropLife Retail Week, CropLife Editor Eric Sfiligoj sits down with Mike Twining, Vice President of Innovation at Willard Agri-Service, to analyze the state of ag retail in 2026. From the staggering pace of AI adoption to the shift toward soil biologicals, Twining shares why the industry must ditch boring PowerPoint presentations and master the art of storytelling. Plus, learn how local advocacy can save your business from being left behind.

📍 Catch Mike Twining live at Tech Hub Live in Des Moines, IA (July 20-22, 2026)!

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:

Eric Sfiligoj: Hello. Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj, editor of CropLife and CropLife IRON, here with Mike Twining from Willard Agri-Service. Mike, welcome to the program.

Mike Twining: Thank you, Eric. Nice to be here.

Eric Sfiligoj: Mike, if you could just fill in our viewers who may not be familiar with Willard — what the company is and what you do there.

Mike Twining: Yes. Willard Agri-Service is a family-owned and operated independent ag retailer based in the Mid-Atlantic. We are in our 57th year of business, and we operate in six states with about 130 full-time team members.

Eric Sfiligoj: Okay. And your role there?

Mike Twining: I am Vice President of Innovation. So I’m really looking forward into the market to determine what the next steps are that will add long-term value for our customers and how we help them get there.

Eric Sfiligoj: Okay. Before we get into specifics, let’s pull back to the 30,000-foot view. Looking at the ag retail space in 2026, how would you describe the state of ag retail, and what are the biggest opportunities and challenges the marketplace is facing?

Mike Twining: Well, Eric, it’s a great question. I’d like to tell you a funny story that I think is relevant.

There’s a young guy visiting an older gentleman at his home. He walks in, and the older gentleman has this hound dog laying on the floor. Every once in a while, the dog lets out a loud howl. After hearing it several times, the young man asks, “Why is your dog barking every so often?”

The old man says, “Well, he’s laying on a nail.”

The young man looks confused and says, “Well, why doesn’t he get off the nail?”

The old man smiles and says, “Well, it doesn’t hurt bad enough yet.”

I think that’s a great story for where we are in 2026. Like all years, we have some real challenges facing us, and I believe those challenges are the photo negatives of the best opportunities for ag retail.

The question is: Who chooses to act on them?

2026 may be the year where the nail hurts badly enough that we start to see some real changes.

Just yesterday, I had an opportunity to meet with Don Fritz. That name may ring a bell for some folks listening. Don is 94 years old and had a huge influence on my career. He was a real leader in ag retail and across the industry.

What fascinated me was that Don really went back to the basics. He said, “You’ve got to focus on capital. We’ve got to focus on the grower’s balance sheet and articulate how we help growers manage and improve it.”

That’s the long-term success of a business. Retailers focused on grower profitability and helping growers succeed will do just fine in this market.

But we’re all laying on our own proverbial nails, and we may have to get off some nails we’ve tolerated in the past.

Eric Sfiligoj: That’s a good way of putting it — sitting on the nail until it hurts enough. I’ll remember that story.

One thing I’ve heard throughout nearly 30 years covering this market is that ag retailers are trusted advisors to growers, and that role is incredibly important. But ag retail still isn’t very well understood outside ag circles. When I tell people what market I cover, there’s often confusion.

So when it comes to communication, what suggestions would you offer ag retailers to help the general public better understand the industry?

Mike Twining: Two words come to mind: early and often.

Too often, when we communicate, we speak in language aimed at people’s working memory. We’re a science-driven industry, so we rely on data, logic, and transactional language.

I recently heard retired Green Beret Lt. Col. Scott Mann speak at the ARA Conference. He emphasized the power and importance of storytelling. His book, The Generosity of Scars, really highlights this.

One quote from the book stood out to me: “The world needs storytellers right now.”

Scott also talks about “the churn” — the overwhelming flood of information we all face daily. This interview is part of that churn. So how do we cut through the noise?

We do it through storytelling.

If we stick with the safe stuff — PowerPoints and bullet points — we’ll lose the engagement battle.

Let me give you an example.

When I was a kid, I hoed weeds with my Uncle Leonard in soybean fields. One day I said something kind of stupid, and my uncle looked over and said, “Mike, sounds like you thought like Lit.”

I asked, “Who’s Lit?”

My uncle chuckled and said, “Lit thought he had to fart, but he really had to…” — well, you can fill in the blank.

As a 12-year-old boy, I thought that was hilarious. But the point of the story is this: people often think they have all the information, but they still draw the wrong conclusion.

That’s where we are today. Many detractors or people who misunderstand agriculture aren’t bad people. They’re just uninformed.

We need to tell our story openly and transparently, not defensively.

Eric Sfiligoj: That’s interesting. And it ties into my next question. Over the years, I’ve noticed storytelling is common at the local level, especially in local newspapers, but nationally it’s different.

Talk a little bit about the differences between communicating locally versus nationally.

Mike Twining: I recently spoke with Graham Johnson from Carolina Eastern. I was really impressed by their outreach to local schools and how important it is to engage kids early and shape their understanding of agriculture.

As retailers, we need to invite those kids into our businesses and onto growers’ farms. That’s effective local communication.

Nationally, it’s a bigger challenge.

One of the strongest recommendations I can give any ag retailer is this: join ARA, the Agricultural Retailers Association.

There’s an expression: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

When you join ARA, you’re not just getting a seat at the table. You’re joining a leadership group made up of co-ops, large nationals, and independents like Willard. I believe those organizations will lead this industry long term.

If you’re not part of that conversation, you risk being left behind.

ARA gives us a stronger national voice.

Another thing retailers can do is engage employees. Encourage team members to contact elected officials, attend local meetings, or simply share stories about their work on social media.

You don’t have to become an expert storyteller, but you do have to engage.

Eric Sfiligoj: And for viewers wondering, ARA is the Agricultural Retailers Association. Their annual meeting is coming up this December in Austin, Texas.

Before we continue, let’s take a brief break for a message from CropLife.

[Sponsored message omitted for brevity.]

Eric Sfiligoj: We’re back with Mike Twining from Willard Agri-Service.

Mike, I wanted to shift to technology and communication. Recently, I’ve received many announcements from ag retailers using AI in both office and field operations.

For me personally, AI can summarize research in seconds that used to take a day to analyze. Tell me about AI’s role in communication for ag retailers.

Mike Twining: That’s a great question. Honestly, until you asked it, I hadn’t intentionally connected AI and communication.

But AI, like any tool, has to help us help growers if it’s going to have long-term value.

One of the biggest benefits of AI is that it can reduce time spent behind a screen and free us up for more human interaction.

Our VP of Sales, Tyler Adams, recently shared how AI is helping him spend less time in spreadsheets and emails and more time communicating one-on-one with customers and communities.

Ironically, AI may improve communication by giving us more time for real conversations.

I also use AI to critique ideas — not create them. I don’t want AI creating our vision or message. But after we create it, AI can help refine it, shorten it, and sharpen it.

We’re really just scratching the surface with AI. It’s helping us interact with decades of company data more efficiently and make quicker, more informed decisions.

I don’t think AI will take jobs in ag retail. But competitors who effectively use AI may outperform those who don’t.

Eric Sfiligoj: I agree completely. AI saving time in the office means more time in the field interacting with people.

Looking ahead, what other technologies do you see becoming important through the rest of the decade?

Mike Twining: When people hear “technology,” they often think only of digital tools. But technology includes much more than that.

AI-driven decision support tools are certainly important. But I also think we’ll see major developments tied to broader industry shifts — like deglobalization and the rise of biological understanding in soil health.

If you zoom out historically, agriculture spent decades scaling food production by treating soil primarily as a growing medium and trying to control nature.

Now, we suddenly have technologies giving us entirely new insight into biological systems and how soils actually function.

That’s going to reshape how we think about crop production and the technologies we use moving forward.

Eric Sfiligoj: Very good.

And speaking of technology, Tech Hub LIVE will take place in Des Moines July 20-22. Mike, you’ll be speaking there as part of our fireside chat series on communication in ag retail.

Mike Twining: That’s correct.

Eric Sfiligoj: So if viewers are interested, visit the Tech Hub LIVE website and register. Mike and I will both be there in person.

Mike, thank you again for joining us on this edition of CropLife Retail Week. I really enjoyed the discussion — and especially the story about the dog and the nail.

Mike Twining: Thank you, Eric. I appreciate the opportunity.

Eric Sfiligoj: And thank you to our viewers for joining us. We’ll see you again next week on CropLife Retail Week.