CropLife Retail Week: AI Revolution in Ag and Scaling Tech for the Next Gen of Farming

Eric Sfiligoj:
Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj, editor of CropLife, and here with Brian Henze, Agronomy Portfolio Technology Manager at GROWMARK. Brian, welcome to the program.

Brian Henze:
Thank you, Eric. Pleasure to be here. Longtime fan and viewer, first time on the show. Thank you for the invite.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Well, thank you so much for joining us. Before we dive in, could you tell our viewers a little bit about yourself and what you do there at GROWMARK?

Brian Henze:
Well, Eric, I’ve been in the GROWMARK system for 36 years next month, so I’ve been around a long time. I started at a member company as a crop specialist and location manager. While I was in that position, precision farming basically came into existence. That’s when we started using satellites and spreading VRT. I’ll be honest with you — it became a passion for me.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Tell me a little bit more about what’s going on with ag retailers and the adoption of AI systems and ag technology.

Brian Henze:
Wow, it’s really been a journey. What used to take us a long time to do — if we came up with a new idea, we’d have to test it, hire a programmer, program the computer systems, and it would take months to years to get something to fruition and out to the end user, like a crop specialist using a new tool.

In the last year and a half, AI has come into the technology world and really turned everything on its ear. GROWMARK has really gotten into it. I think you probably saw our release with our partner, Intelinair, a few weeks ago. We’ve been working with them for almost five years now with their imagery and scouting software. We’ve actually made that scouting software our own — we have our own version of it — and they’ve been working with AI, and we’ve now integrated that AI into our systems.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Okay, all right. Well good. I know I’ve worked with AI quite a bit myself. I mean, ChatGPT and tools like it are being used in the editorial world in some capacity. Personally, I find it useful when somebody sends me a survey that may be 20 pages long. I can feed the data into the computer and, rather than crunching numbers with a calculator and pen and paper for a day and a half, it gives me all the key takeaways in about 20 seconds, which is a great time saver.

But tell me, with any type of technology adoption, there are always hiccups or challenges — things that still need to be addressed. What are some of the challenges still being faced by ag retailers as they adopt this technology, and how is a company like GROWMARK trying to address them?

Brian Henze:
I think addressing the challenges has really been our key focus. When you look at AI, its purpose is to make you happy and give you an answer. But is it always the right answer? No, not always.

We’ve got to be very careful about what we’re looking at, and I think that’s been GROWMARK’s focus. We want to bring that technology to our crop specialists to help the grower at the farm gate. But if we don’t have the right answers and we give them a wrong answer, that’s not good all the way around.

So we’ve been really focused on making sure we limit the AI tool. By “limit,” I mean we don’t let it go everywhere. We’ve put rails on it and said, “These are the databases you use. This is the information you use.” So we’re using information coming from the planter monitor, the harvest monitor, and those kinds of things to help make the right decisions on seed or chemical recommendations.

An AI agent isn’t going to know where we tore down the old farmstead and buried that old barn and pulled up all that old clay. It’s going to see an area in the field in the imagery and say, “Hey, this isn’t growing right. We’ve got a disease problem or a nutrient deficiency problem.”

Then it’s going to try and tell us to apply this chemical or fertilizer or foliar treatment. But as humans, we know that’s where the old farmstead was buried — that spot just isn’t going to grow well.

So it’s situations like that. AI is a great tool for a crop specialist, but it’s not a replacement for a crop specialist. We’re trying to make sure it’s a tool in the toolbox, not a replacement. That’s one of our biggest focuses at GROWMARK.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah, and I was going to say, I’ve talked to other folks who say AI is a great tool, but that human element needs to remain there. I think one of your coworkers gave me a quote saying AI is great for driving the car up to the field, but the last few miles need to be driven by an agronomist. The person still has to be involved.

Brian Henze:
Totally agree.

Eric Sfiligoj:
All right. We’ll talk more about this in a moment, but first, a little message from CropLife to its readers.

Before the break, we were talking a little bit about myFS Agronomy. I know that’s the new AI-driven app GROWMARK introduced back in April for members to utilize in the field. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to one of your coworkers, Brendan Bachman, about the program, and that story will appear in the June issue of CropLife.

One point we discussed was the human element. He made the point that one of the keys for this system among GROWMARK members is the fact that, as the company tries to attract new and younger talent, giving them all the tools they can utilize day-to-day to help the grower customer is very important. He pointed out that this platform really does that. Do you agree?

Brian Henze:
Oh, entirely. You can put a new crop salesman into an area with new customers — maybe somebody retired or moved on — and that new employee can have all the information at their fingertips: past history, what they planted, problem fields, fields they’ve struggled with, all right there.

They can go into the agronomy app and ask the AI bot, “Show me this on this grower,” and within seconds it gives a full breakdown.

When I was a crop specialist and moved from one location to another, I didn’t know one grower or operation. It took me years to learn those growers and their operations. Now I can come in, use that AI tool, and know everything about them in 35 seconds.

For these new crop salespeople coming in, the amount of data and knowledge at their fingertips from these AI tools is unreal.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah, agreed.

So we’ve been talking a lot about technology, ag technology, and AI. Coming up in July, our company, Meister Media Worldwide, has an event called Tech Hub LIVE, which takes place in Des Moines July 20–22. If you want to know about ag technology, that’s the event to attend.

You’re going to be joining us there and moderating a panel discussion. Could you give our viewers a preview of what’s going to be discussed in July by yourself and your panelists?

Brian Henze:
Sure. I’ll be moderating the panel, and Intelinair will be one of the companies represented. One of the gentlemen who works with the AI tool we use almost every day will be on the panel. I believe GreenPoint is involved as well, though I can’t remember the third participant off the top of my head.

We’re going to ask a lot of questions about AI: What is it good for? What are its downfalls? How are we using it at the farm gate?

I keep calling it “the farm gate” because that’s the true purpose — helping the grower do better in every field. If they do better, retailers do better, wholesalers do better — it goes all the way up the chain.

We need to make sure each field is producing the best it can. AI is helping us identify those smaller problems we may have known existed but didn’t fully understand. It’s pulling those issues to the surface and helping us make that final push toward higher yields, like hitting 300-bushel corn in areas capable of producing it.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Okay. Folks, if you’re interested in this session, check it out for yourself. It’s titled “AI Across the Ag Tech Stack: How Ag Tech Leaders are Turning Strategy into Systems.”

It takes place in the morning session at Tech Hub LIVE, so be sure to sign up for the show and attend that event.

Brian, before we wrap up, I’d like to speculate a little bit. Looking ahead between now and 2030, what do you envision for the growth curve of AI and ag tech adoption across ag retail and the grower community?

Up until now, survey data has shown that technology adoption has remained fairly flat over the last 20 years. What do you expect the next four years to look like?

Brian Henze:
A couple of things are going to play into that, Eric. We’ve got a lot of farmers beginning to retire. The average farmer age is getting a little younger, and those younger operators have sons or grandsons joining the operation who grew up with technology and smartphones in their hands.

I really think that curve is going to shoot upward over the next five years. Even myself, as an old-timer, I’m using AI more than I ever thought I would because it just answers questions so efficiently.

I also think you’re going to see more farmers adopting technology in their planters and combines. As younger crop specialists come out and show growers these AI tools — saying, “Hey, you planted this variety in the wrong spot. You should have planted it over there because of this soil type, water issue, or nutrient issue” — growers are going to realize the value of collecting that data.

I think you’ll see a push for farmers to install equipment or technology they may have delayed investing in. Once they understand what AI can do with the data, they’ll want to capture more of it.

So I honestly think AI is going to drive additional equipment upgrades and broader technology adoption among growers who may have been hesitant before.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. One of the points made while I was putting together some ag tech articles for our June edition was that, up until now, many systems primarily targeted the customer. But now a lot of these systems are also being used internally to help employees and workers improve operations. I think that’s an important distinction in ag technology adoption.

Brian Henze:
Yeah, I think you’re right on the mark with that one.

Eric Sfiligoj:
All right, great. Well, Brian Henze from GROWMARK, thank you so much for joining us for this edition of CropLife Retail Week. We appreciate your insights, and we look forward to hearing more from you at Tech Hub LIVE in July.

In the meantime, viewers, we hope you enjoyed this edition, and we’ll see you again next week.