The Business of Helping Farmers Spend Less

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Farming operates on tight margins with little room for unnecessary costs. So finding technology that can offer real savings can be a game changer. But the ag retail model traditionally has depended on selling more, not less. Nick Einck, Director of Agronomy at Chandler Co-Op, says his team is taking a strategic approach to implementing technology that saves farmers money.

Einck… “You know, when we're thinking about implementing a new strategy or a new technology, obviously there's some costs involved in that, and it's gonna cost us more than doing it the old-fashioned way. You know? So we have to get pretty creative with how we can value capture ourselves. So when we're thinking about how we implement new technology like this, you know, we're looking at what is the farmer gaining? Where is the true value, and how can we share in that? And at the flip side, you also have to think about never allowing it to become adverse for the farmer, that it goes towards a negative path for them. So we've implemented a strategy where we're developing a saving share approach where if a farmer saves X amount, you know, we're taking a portion of that which allows us to be sustainable in this new technology and still be that win-win-win for everybody.”

Learn more about the tech they are using on episode 469 of the Future of Agriculture podcast.