What a year it’s been! The team at AgriNovus Indiana wants to thank you for listening to Agbioscience in season 6 and to let you know – there are still plenty of episodes to go. Season 7 will kick off on January 2.
In the meantime, take a walk back through 2023 with us – from agtech consolidation to new companies emerging, Indiana has a lot to celebrate. We talk about the big themes in agbioscience over the last year, how the industry is evolving and emerging trends we feel are here to stay for a while. You’ll hear from past guests and get a glimpse on what to expect in the new year.
Traction Ag Inc., the first cloud-based farm accounting software delivering solutions to growers across the Midwest, today announced the appointment of Dustin Sapp as chief executive officer. Former CEO, Ian Harley, will take over as the company’s chief operating officer and remains an executive board member.
Sapp brings nearly 25 years of experience in the SaaS industry to the role. He has worked with multiple high-growth Indianapolis organizations including his tenure as CEO & co-founder of Octiv and most recently, Formstack.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dustin to the Traction Ag team,” said Ian Harley, COO at Traction Ag. “His deep expertise in all facets of SaaS, combined with his proven abilities to scale a business, make him uniquely suited to guide Traction Ag into its next phase of innovation and growth.”
As CEO, Sapp will be responsible for setting and executing the company’s strategic vision. The transition comes at an ideal time as Traction Ag is uniquely positioned to shape the future of agriculture operations as farmers embrace technology. Over 60 percent of North American and European farmers are currently using or planning to adopt one agtech product in the next two years.
“I have long admired Traction Ag’s talented team and unparalleled solutions empowering growers, and I’m looking forward to leading our next phase as a company,” said Sapp. “2024 promises to be a pivotal year for the industry as technology continues to transform and disrupt agriculture. I’ll be focused on partnerships, integrations and thoughtful innovation that builds upon the strong foundation and values that have made Traction Ag an industry leader.”
Insignum AgTech develops plant genetic traits that enable plants to ‘talk’ and signal to farmers when specific plant stresses begin
A ruling by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service allows farmers and growers to run trials on corn plants developed by Insignum AgTech. These plants use naturally occurring pigment to signal when specific plant stresses begin.
Insignum AgTech CEO Kyle Mohler said the plant turns purple to indicate that a fungal infection has started but is not yet apparent.
Mohler, who earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Purdue University’s College of Agriculture, founded Insignum AgTech in 2019.
The USDA APHIS decision and its impact
A Nov. 14 news release from the USDA stated, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently reviewed 12 plants modified using genetic engineering to determine whether they posed an increased plant pest risk as relative to non-modified comparators. …
“APHIS found these modified plants were unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk compared to other cultivated plants. As a result, they are not subject to regulation under 7 CFR part 340. From a plant pest risk perspective, these modified plants may be safely grown and bred in the United States.”
Mohler said the announcement represents a milestone for Insignum AgTech and its customers.
“It means our edited plants can be grown and tested across the U.S. without restrictive permits, opening the door for our customers to run trials,” Mohler said. “It strengthens our ability to help farmers treat specific problems affecting their crops exactly when, precisely where and only if needed to sustainably increase crop production.” Mohler said the company will develop additional plant traits that utilize other natural pigments, like red or blue, to give an early indication of yield-limiting factors such as insect pests or fertility loss.
“Farmers will gain the ability to sustainably and precisely treat when and where needed, ultimately increasing yields without arbitrarily increasing costly inputs,” Mohler said.
Twenty-one teams ranging from companies, students, startups, academics and innovators develop solutions to improve net farm income
AgriNovus Indiana announced today that FiberX of Hammond, Ind. has won the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge, awarding them $25,000 to advance commercialization of their solution.
In partnership with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance, the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge tasked companies, entrepreneurs, students and innovators with creating new revenue streams from current on-farm processes to increase efficiency and return on investment for producers’ operations.
“Agriculture is the only economy in the world that touches every person on the planet, because it centers on food,” said Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus. “This challenge sought to identify new innovations that enable farmers to generate additional revenue streams while simultaneously meeting the growing global demand for a sustainable food system.”
FiberX works with corn growers to source and convert corn stover into a feedstock for the chemical and materials sectors. The company’s product portfolio includes natural fiber-reinforced plastic polymer pellets and fiber for the plastic injection molding industry. These biocomposite plastics offer superior strength and cost-effectiveness, potentially replacing up to 50% of petroleum-based plastic polymers. FiberX is focused on customers producing durable products for long-term use such as outdoor furniture. Their team, comprised of Dave Skibinski, Wade Lange and Tom Santelli, has already received a Manufacturing Readiness Grant from Conexus Indiana and an Innovation Voucher for Elevate Ventures.
“Producers are always looking for better ways to make our farms more efficient,” said Indiana Soybean Alliance Board Director Denise Scarborough, a farmer from Lacross, Ind. and a challenge judge. “New technology is a key way to achieve those goals. ISA is excited to continue supporting this contest. There were many interesting and diverse projects; it was very difficult to select one, clear winner.”
“New technologies allow farmers to consider changes that could help their farms,” said Indiana Corn Marketing Council Board Director, Warren, Ind. farmer and challenge judge Janis Highley. “Farmers are usually early adopters of new technology because it can add to their success of family-owned farms. Like our winner, many successful innovations begin with the idea of solving a problem.”
In addition to the $25,000 grand prize, Purdue DIAL Ventures presented prize money to the top two student teams from Purdue University. EcoTrack, founded by Purdue student Corey Tuinstra, was awarded $4,000 for its digitally enabled audit management system. YieldSmart was awarded $2,000 for their precision agriculture solution focused on data-backed decision making. Their team is comprised of Purdue students Anton Josifovski and Isha Shamim.
The Producer-Led Innovation Challenge has enabled entrepreneurial companies to thrive. Most recently, the 2022 winner was acquired by Indiana-based agtech company Intelinair. In the announcement of the acquisition, Intelinair cited Aker Technologies’ victory in the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge. Since its launch in 2020, every company that has won the Challenge has either received follow-on funding or been acquired. Learn more about the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge here.
A law signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 created the cornerstone for America’s leadership in engineering and agriculture. Known as the Morrill Act, the law established land grant universities in states across the country, including Purdue University in Indiana. Since the university’s launch in 1869, it has become a research powerhouse becoming the only university in the country to have both a top 10 ranked college of agriculture and college of engineering. Its graduates include 27 astronauts, 3 World Food Prize laureates, 2 Noble Prize winners and the pace continues to quicken. Today we are joined by Purdue’s Executive Vice President of Research, Dr. Karen Plaut, to share how the university is building on its momentum to advance research and create the economy of the future.
Asking “what if” has been the cornerstone of Karen’s career and she talks all things innovation at Purdue and where they see their greatest opportunities for impact – from agbioscience to aerospace. As the former dean of the College of Agriculture, she explores the idea that technologies across different disciplines have meaningful effect on food. Karen also talks research influencing legislation, commercializing and conducting basic research that will drastically improve lives in the future.
So, what are the next gigantic leaps for Purdue? Karen talks about students being at the core of the university’s success, new intersections for driving change and agbioscience’s critical role in the future.
Global venture capital deal volume has fallen by 50% worldwide since peaking in the first quarter of 2022 – that’s according the global analyst firm CB Insights. Despite the decline, companies are raising capital. Today’s guest is here to share more about the current fundraising environment and what it means for innovation. Audre Kapacinskas, principal with S2G Ventures – the second most active agtech investor in America – joins us to talk investment across the entire value chain.
The daughter of an immigrant, Audre found her love for the food space when her mother opened up a bakery. That love took her on a professional journey to s2g Ventures where she focuses on helping their nearly 100 portfolio companies in food and agriculture thrive. She gets into solutions that create more balance across the value chain, removing the brunt of risk and cost to the farmer and aligning financial incentives to drive impact. Audre also talks about the importance of having farmers at the discussion table when it comes to innovation and what she’s seeing in terms of valuation, time to close and how entrepreneurs and investors are working together during a tumultuous time; she stresses patient capital in the agbiosciences as being important.
So what will the capital landscape look like in the future? Audre talks big corporate investment, aligning incentives for all stakeholders to drive innovation and how she sees the agbiosciences evolving from an era of great moderation to one of great volatility.
WHIN received a $1M Build to Scale Grant from The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) this month! There were more than 260 applicants with only 60 organizations selected for the Build to Scale program, WHIN being one of them!
The grants, part of the “Build to Scale” program administered annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), aim to accelerate technology entrepreneurship by increasing inclusive access to entrepreneurial assistance and startup capital. These EDA investments support innovation industries, such as agriculture technology (agtech), bioscience, advanced manufacturing, blue economy, and health technology, among others.
The funding will enable WHIN to scale our Innovation as a Service (IaaS) program and help many manufacturers in the region to utilize IoT technology to address needs such as preventative maintenance, reduced downtime, safety, reduced waste, asset tracking, and energy and other input management.
WHIN’s IaaS initiative gives companies a manpower and expertise boost. Working side-by-side with plant personnel, WHIN’s team helps to identify pain points and implement IoT solutions from a portfolio of technologies that WHIN has vetted for quality and effectiveness. IaaS flattens the technology learning curve with real results so that manufacturers gain the vision, skill and experience to continue to the next level of digitalization.
Indiana-based farmer-owned cooperatives Co-Alliance Cooperative, Inc. and Ceres Solutions Cooperative, Inc. announced on Wednesday an agreement to pursue a merger. The cooperatives spent the past three months in a due diligence period to better understand the potential synergies of a combined organization. Upon reviewing the final due diligence report, the Boards of Directors of both cooperatives have unanimously approved a member vote for the merger.
“After considerable analysis, we believe this merger will provide a tremendous opportunity for our 20,000 farmer-owners. This will allow our team to provide more robust service offerings, greater investments in our assets and an unmatched customer experience,” said Jeff Troike, CEO of Ceres Solutions. “Together we know there will be great synergies from this historic merger with the Co-Alliance team.”
If the membership approves the merger, the new cooperative will have 1,800 full-time employees who will serve hundreds of rural communities in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. The cooperative system plays a vital role in our rural districts, investing in facilities, sustainable agriculture, and the next generation of farmers. The employee team will be focused on collaborating to drive efficiencies, share expertise and deliver a diverse portfolio of services to customers.
“This merger drives our mission of serving our farmer-owners and the communities where we live and work,” added Kevin Still, CEO of Co-Alliance Cooperative. “The combined strength and legacy of success of Ceres and Co-Alliance creates a powerful partner for our farmer-owners and customers, helping them grow future generations. We are excited about this dynamic combination and what it means for the strength and future of the cooperative system.”
Ceres and Co-Alliance have tested their partnership approach with their joint venture, Endeavor Ag & Energy. Endeavor has successfully provided agronomy, propane, and feed services in north central Michigan. Membership voting will take place in the coming weeks with the hope of completing the merger in early 2024.
Platform to Streamline Hybrid Seed Corn Production In-Season Decision Making, Workflow
Intelinair and Hubner Industries, LLC announced a strategic multi-year collaboration agreement to create a new innovative digital platform specifically to manage hybrid seed corn production. Under the terms of the agreement, Intelinair will use its high-resolution imagery and data analytics to help growers more efficiently identify issues in the field throughout the season and inform real-time seed production management decisions to protect yield potential.
“We are excited to partner with Doug Hubner and his team at Hubner Industries, a family-owned business that has been in the seed production, treatment, packaging, and distribution industry for more than 50 years,” said Tim Hassinger, CEO & President at Intelinair. “Through this new platform, we will be able to address the specific needs of seed production using our technology.”
The platform will simplify or automate some of the seed production practices used today, as well as help streamline decisions and dispatch field scouts to identify issues in the field throughout the season.
“Production managers need a way to closely and efficiently manage every acre of their seed crop, giving confidence to their seed partners they will have the highest quality seed,” said Douglas J. Hubner, President at Hubner Industries, LLC. “What we are doing with Intelinair is going to be a game-changer for our production team as it will give us the best of both worlds. Real-time information through the combination of high-resolution imagery and data analytics, along with scouting tools for the boots on the ground in the fields, will help us manage our workflow and decisions throughout the growing season. We expect this combination will increase our yield by 2-3 percent and will deliver higher quality seed across every acre.”
Other terms of the collaboration agreement were not disclosed.
Discussion around the energy transition often focuses on electrification, but one Indiana company and thousands of Indiana farmers are working together to create new options in that transition – specifically around biofuels. Today’s guest is a long-time energy leader and the chief executive of one of Indiana’s largest privately held companies. Matt Smorch, CEO of CountryMark, joins us to talk the continued emergence of biofuels, diversifying for the farmer and answers a question that most won’t know: where exactly does our fuel come from?
How will farmers play a role in the new innovative energy sources coming to market? Matt talks about lessons learned from E-85 and how changing the gasoline standard could open up a wide array of new options for fuel (and agriculture). He also looks ahead and how CountryMark will continue to innovate to stay reliable and serve the farmer.
