Future of Ag Tech: A Conversation with Brant Caley

Join Chad Fiechter and Todd Kuethe as they explore ag technology and the ag economy with guest Brant Caley. Caley, an expert in ag tech, discusses his journey, from playing FFA basketball to working with companies like Trimble, Farmers Business Network (FBN), and now Gradable. The discussion covers the evolution of farm technology, sustainability in grain marketing, the future of agricultural technology - and the potential impact of emerging technologies like AI and LLMs. Whether you're a farmer deeply invested in ag tech or simply curious about the technological transformations reshaping agriculture, this episode is a must-listen.

Podcast provided by Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. For more farm management information and insights, visit us at http://purdue.edu/commercialag.

Gradable App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gradable/id6742845206

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the Commercial AgCast part ofthe Center for Commercial Agriculture

(00:04):
at Purdue University, and this is aseries of conversations that we're
having with people who are gonna helpus try to understand the ag economy.
Hopefully this is not your firsttime listening to the podcast.
You've heard some of ourother previous episodes.
If you haven't, uh, goback and check 'em out.
We've got some great,
Two specifically.
We've got two great previous episodes.

(00:24):
If you're listening to this sequentially,I mean you could have, we don't
know where you're dropping in.
That's true.
This might be a binge listener.
This might be 2027.
We are prone to just gooff on weird tangents.
Uh, but today we're talking to,Chad, tell us who we're meeting with.
We're talking aboutgood friend Brant Caley.
Brant Caley and I think that'scritical that you said good friend.
'Cause I wanna warn the listener.

(00:45):
This is part of an ongoing conversationyou and Brant have had for decades.
That, that is true.
He works in ag tech.
He also explains the ag tech world.
I'll just be honest, I don't reallyunderstand what the heck ag tech is.
Brant's gonna talk about the, the,the firm he works for now and some
of the products that they're doing.
Hopefully won't be sales pitch.
Um, but help us to sort of,again, as we say, we're trying

(01:06):
to understand the ag economy.
So we've really enjoyed this conversation.
We learned a ton.
We hope you do too.
I am Chad Fiechter.
Some of you may know me for mywork in the department, but more
importantly on the 2004 Norwell HighSchool co-ed FFA basketball team.

(01:29):
That's right.
I was the starting power forward.
That's what I'm gonna call that I was.
And I'm joined here by my co-host.
Todd Kuethe.
I was not on this team, but
Oh, you weren't?
No.
We're also joined by a good friendand an expert in many things.
Oh gosh.
Brant, would you liketo introduce yourself?

(01:49):
Uh, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm Brant Caley.
I I was the best player onthis 2004 co-ed FFA team.
Um,
What was your position, because that's a
Just gimme the ball.
Yeah.
He was all positions.
He
Just gimme the ball.
For the record, we did not win a game.
I like,
I thought we won one.

(02:10):
Oh man.
You,
It was a Thursday afternoon tournament.
No.
At Belmont High School, I think.
There's no way we beatBelmont High School.
No, no, no.
We definitely didn't beat them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're FFA team.
They f, yeah.
Co-ed FFA team.
Yeah.
Okay, so I have a question here.
Clarifying question.
Are there micro rulesabout the co-ed nature?
Like do you have to have a certainnumber of women on the on, on

(02:32):
the court at a time, or do you,
I mean, Todd.
Todd, I hadn't thought about thisteam until and seriously, 21 years.
Until Chad brought itup a few minutes ago.
You just gave away our age.
Yeah.
We're,
I guess we didn't tellhim about what year.
That's right.
Yeah.
Okay.
You did say 2004.
We could all do the math.
Yeah, but we could have been freshman.
Yeah.
It, it doesn't matter.
I mean, if we were a freshmanor if you're a senior, like the,

(02:53):
It's true.
Regardless.
I don't, I don't know the rules.
I do know that, like if youlooked at, and by the way, I'm
not good at basketball, but if youlook at like our FFA crew, yeah.
Chad and I were, we were the ring leaders.
Definitely.
At least in our memory.
Yeah.
In our memory.
We,
Uh, if you remember a differently call in.
Well, 'cause there was a, so I, Iplayed ultimate Frisbee in college

(03:13):
and we were on a co-ed team for awhile and then we had a men's team.
Uh, but the co-ed team, the ruleis like whoever goes onto the field
first sets how many women play.
And women have to match up with women.
Oh, okay.
I just, I'll be honest, I don't, I don'tremember there being women on our, there.
There was, I feel veryconfident there was.
I don't think there was rulesabout who could guard who or

(03:35):
who had to be on the court.
Okay.
I don't, I don't think.
There probably should have been.
If there weren't, there should have been.
I know.
I know the other team, whoever theywould be, would be like on that
four position we're gonna matchup with our best guy probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, they werescouting for me, I think.
Um, I've always been known alittle more for my defensive
prowess than anything else.
Getting the boards?

(03:56):
Yeah.
Fouling.
A junk man.
Like Dennis Rodman.
He's good at fouling.
Oh, okay.
You've got five to give.
I actually do think Ifouled out in one game.
You probably did.
I think I did.
You probably did.
Yeah.
That's consistent.
Anyway, should, should wedo work on this podcast?
No, let's talk about, let's talkmore about, about FFA basketball.
Well, I think, Brant, so you're clearlyhere because of your basketball skills.

(04:17):
That's right.
And other things.
So you, you kind of hold a couplejobs that are interesting to us.
Can you talk about whatother things you do?
Yeah, yeah.
Chad and I have been friends fora long time, if you can't tell.
And I currently am on afarm and Markle, Indiana.
So our family farms there.
I help when I can.
Not sure, surely not as much asmy dad would like for me to help.

(04:39):
Um, surely not as much as I'dlike to help, to be honest.
So I do have that responsibility.
I have also worked for Gradable, whichis a joint venture between FBN and
ADM. I've been with FBN for nine years.
So our listeners, we now, we now knowwe have multiple, multiple listeners.
'Cause Chad's mom, listen.
And Brant said that he listenedto the podcast on the way over.

(05:00):
We're at two.
Yeah, so we got two for sure.
So in case Chad's mom does notknow, what does FBN stand for?
Oh yeah, good call.
Yeah.
FBN is Farmer's Business Network.
We're a ag technologycompany founded in 2014.
The goal of FBN is to usedata and technology to help
farmers be more profitable.

(05:21):
Well, one I like, I like you.
Uh, but two is we wanted to talk aboutag tech because it would, it would be
honest for me as, in my current roleas a professor and Todd in your role,
that we hear a lot about ag tech.
So you're kind of here to help open thehood a little bit and help us understand
what's happening, what you've seen.

(05:41):
'Cause you've done this for quite a while.
Yeah.
You were what number employeeat Farmer's Business Network?
Yeah, so I, I think I was originallyemployee 65, but fast forward nine
years, and I think I'm now like the11th or 12th most tenured person at FBN.
But prior, prior to FBN, youwere also in ag tech, right?
Yeah, so I was, I was at Trimble.

(06:03):
So Trimble does GPS on tractorswas there for eight years.
Not the whole time in in ag, I spent acouple years doing some construction and
learning that that side of the world.
But for the most part, ag technology for,
Do you think, is there anyone, thisis gonna sound like a really stupid,
is there anyone that has as muchtenure as you in the ag tech industry?
Like do you meet people thathave the same amount of time?

(06:24):
Oh, definitely.
I mean, some of my mentors like atTrimble that have been in the space for
Okay
for that that long.
I would say most of the peoplethat have been in the industry
that long are like Trimble folks.
Trimble, early John Deere folks.
Because, okay.
So that in that era, the long era ofag tech would've been hardware around
precision ag technologies, correct?
Yeah, definitely.

(06:45):
And anything else that would've gonebeyond sort of like we're looking
outside of a 15 year prior to today?
Is there any, I mean,clearly digital, right?
Like you're, it's meant to be,
There were probably some ag software, likeaccounting software type type companies,
but, but no, I would say really rightto start the digital ag software space,

(07:07):
you had to have digital ag or ag datato work with, which requires hardware.
So I'd say hardware first and then,you know, that had its run and
then the internet kind of unlocked
Yeah.
everything else that's come from that.
So tell us a little bit about sortof like maybe your kind of career
training, education prior to that, oralternatively, like if a student told us

(07:30):
like, I'd love to work in ag tech, thenwhat should we tell them they should
do now to be able to enter that space?
Yeah, so I, I definitely hada weird path to get here.
So, you know, grew up on a farm,love technology and but, but did
not go to school for this, right?
So I came to school to be a personalfinance advisor, like a financial advisor.

(07:51):
So what should we do with our 401K?
No, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, yeah, no, exactly.
But I, you know, went to school for that.
Graduated in 2008.
May of 2008.
Not a great,
Tough, tough, tough time to find a job.
Not a great time to bea financial advisor.
So,
or an easy one.
The best time or an easy one.
'cause you're like, do whateveryou want at this point.

(08:11):
Honestly, I just feel like who am Ito like go in and help anybody here?
Yeah.
Like the market was injust absolute free fall.
And, and you did start in doing likederivative products on submarket housing
probably, which is not advisable.
That's, that's an inside the weeds joke.
Alright, sorry.
I'd say I had no idea what that was
Oh.
when I graduated.

(08:31):
Which nobody did in 2008.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So graduated in 2008 with thatdegree, didn't really want
to get in into that space.
And then just kind of through likesome awesome circumstances with some
friends, fell into this job at Trimble.
Originally doing training for precisionag technology, how to install the
stuff onto tractors, was my first job.

(08:52):
Got that job through likemy aunt's friend, just like,
how on earth did that happen?
I, I just very blessed in that,that sort to get into this space.
Well, I wonder, maybe this is, I'm, I'mwrong in this, but I, I sort of have
this prior belief or bias that there's alot of people in, in tech world that are

(09:14):
just, they're smart and coachable, andthen they sort of like, oh, you could,
like, I, I have several friends thatlike, sort of write software for things.
And they're often just like, oh,I already did this 'cause like,
I like computers or whatever.
And like, they kind of sort offall into it more than like being
like 19 and being like, I'm gonna
Yeah.
do this or whatever.
Yeah.
And I'd be curious what it's like now.

(09:34):
Right.
But I, I would say in 2008, ag technologywasn't a thing, at least that I
don't think it was talked about here.
I'm sure Purdue didn't have a programfor it back in the, maybe they did.
We had, we had one professor,'cause I took one ag one as
ag systems management class.
Okay.
And we literally walked around the, theAg Mall with stationary Raven systems.

(09:57):
Yeah.
Taking coordinate points.
Yeah.
And that was our homework.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I, well, I, when I was a graduatestudent here, my, I worked for a
semester and the guy told me that oneof his, one of his graduate students
was the first person agriculturaleconomics that used a spreadsheet.
Wow.
So like, that's, that's like,

(10:17):
Like crazy.
Like we went from like nothingto all of this faster than,
Yeah.
than you'd think.
Right.
Crazy.
Okay.
So if you were given advice to students,'cause I have, I have many more questions.
We gotta get Brant
Yeah.
two x speed.
I'm just kidding.
Yeah.
You know, I don't, I would sayadvice for students is, for me, it

(10:38):
was just, I think I found kind ofmy passion, what I enjoyed to do.
Um.
I, you know, I didn't really know itexisted, but I knew a lot about farming.
Enjoyed, uh, a lot of aspects of thefarm and then loved, knew, I knew I
enjoyed technology and comes to findout there's jobs in this space, right?
And I think some of my advice isalways just to like, find what you're
passionate about and what you're good at.

(10:59):
What, like you think about when you can'tfall asleep at night, that sort of thing.
And then, and then if you, if youlike, find that passion, I do think
that you can have success 'causeyou enjoy working in that space.
So again, it's kind of maybe relatedhere, but for the other folks that you
interact with in the ag tech space, whatshare would you say are sort of like ag

(11:20):
folks from maybe from a farm backgroundthat kind of find a passion and kind
of technology or software or whatever,versus people that are sort of tech
focused, that they're like, oh, ag hasinteresting problems, i'll work there.
Yeah, I think probably more,way more of the latter.
At least.
At least in my, my current role.
You know, FBN is has offices in,in California, so I think it's just

(11:42):
a little bit more tech focused.
I think there's a lot of people that havepassions for kind of the, the food system.
Passion for farmers.
And they, they're very likeattracted to the mission of FBN.
So I would say they're more techpeople that we're attracted to the
mission and want to help farmersand help help the food system.
Where I would say Trimble wasprobably more the opposite.
It was a lot of like people withmore ag backgrounds that then kind

(12:06):
of found their way into that space.
So I'd say it probably dependson where the, where you're
at is kinda my, my guess.
Yeah.
I would imagine like SiliconValley, California would be
sort of tech first, right?
Yeah.
But if you're in Indiana orNebraska or something, right, maybe
That's, that's kind ofwhat my guess would be.
But, but I also think there's, there's,there's just fewer and fewer people
I think that like grew up or have asimilar background to, like Chad and

(12:28):
I, where like grew up kind of on arow crop farm where it was our dad's,
uh, livelihoods to run, run the farm.
We kinda got firsthand experience.
We grew up, uh, driving tractorsat a young age and, and like that.
Playing FFA basketball.
Playing FFA basketball.
That's a good point.
That's right.
Good callback time.
But you know, that like started,started like that, ingrained in it.

(12:49):
I don't feel like there's a ton of peoplethat grew up in that environment and
then like go out and don't, you know,they don't just go back to the farm.
So I'd say I, I don't know thatthere's a ton of people that
have the same background is me.
Okay.
So probably, probably more peoplethat are like tech focused that
found an interest in ag is what
Yeah.
Okay, perfect.
I'd answer.
So, okay, so this is, I'm justthinking of this right now.

(13:10):
I listened to a presentation by someonein Microsoft and yeah, so they're,
they're really trying to, I guess they'retrying to get into sort of ag technology
and digital technology and agriculture.
And they had like this promo video andon the promo video it was like this
farmer in the in Washington state whoalso happened to be like, had gotten
an undergraduate in master's degree incomputer science and he had developed

(13:32):
all of these things for his farm.
Yeah.
And they were kind of like co-opting'em into the Microsoft system.
How often do you find people like that?
Yeah.
Where they're like, they were, right,like they were heavy sort of tech,
very technical, in the weeds coding.
And then they were like, oh yeah, but thenI also on the side operate a large farm.

(13:52):
Those seem like unicorns, don't they?
Like
Well, I think that's what I thoughtwhen I was watching the promo videos.
I'm like, that might be theone, or yeah, again, call me
Yeah, we both, we both have brothersthat, that did computer science.
Yeah.
Work or computer engineering.
Um, so maybe they're not totally unicorns.
But like the true, I, one thingthat I do think that farmers

(14:12):
are true tinkerers, right?
There's a lot of farmersthat like to build things.
So I guess it's probably notsurprising that our generation of
them, like lean towards technology.
Yeah.
And they choose to take technology.
Do you think be more of that?
Because like, I think that ifyou, if you were to think about
the people that we know that arefarmers, they do do this, right?
They build up stuff.
They, they change machines.
They, if they would understand.

(14:35):
If, if digital was one of the firstplaces they were thinking through that,
would they be doing the same stuff?
Yeah.
Like do you think we'll see more of that?
I hope so.
'Cause I think, I think it woulddefinitely help to get more folks
that, like, this was like their,their livelihood and their,
Well, I, I did, I I do know of at leastone student since I've been back here on
faculty that was telling me that like,he's in one of the ag fraternities, and

(14:56):
they had a bunch of dudes that would sitaround and build stuff with Raspberry Pi,
which is like a little computer chip thingthat you can like write your own code.
Did like
Yeah.
turn light switch or do little like,sort of silly mundane things, but
like, like, but they like, and I waslike, oh, that's no different than
like when, like when I was in collegeand dudes would've been like replacing

(15:16):
their own oil on their trucks, youknow, in the, in the parking lot.
Yeah.
Like it's a similar kind of idea.
I think.
I do, I do think some of the new, Idon't know if you guys have tinkered
with any of the new like LLM tools andthe ability to like create programs.
Just using prompts.
Oh, yeah.
I, I do think that that will probablyunlock some farmers, like people that

(15:37):
like to tinker, like technology butdon't know how to code, which I would
fall in that category for the record.
But like I do know how to like play aroundwith ChatGPT and put together prompts.
And there it is not, there's allthese tools that are out there.
So I, I do bet you'll see some like kindof cool apps that come from farmers to
solve like their niche problem on thefarm because it's so accessible now.
Yeah.
That, that wasn't available before.

(15:58):
Okay.
So where else are people located?
Working for FBN?
Yeah, so COVID kind of made FBN,change the dynamics of FBN quite a bit.
So we used, we used to have kind of acouple offices and one in Sioux Falls,
one in San Francisco area, San Carlos.
And with COVID we went remote.
We do still have an office in San Mateo,which is close to the San Carlos area.

(16:20):
So I technically that's our headquarters,but everybody else is pretty distributed.
This is, um, my poor understanding of thetech world and, and maybe my skeptic of
sort of going to extension meetings andpeople come in and talk about ag tech, how
much do you think that there's sort of alimit to the growth of ag tech based on
the appetite or knowledge for technology?

(16:42):
Like, like I, so I run the PurdueFarmland Value Survey and we switched
from doing paper surveys to doing a,a online version five, six years ago.
Yep.
And there was a lot of concern oflike, are we going to lose some of
our respondents because they are justlike, they're not doing computers.
Right.
Do you think that there like, oris it just because I'm going to

(17:03):
extension meetings which cater moretowards sort of older crowd maybe?
Or does that make sense?
Yeah, I, I think, I think that mostof the folks that farming is their,
like primary source of income.
I think they're prettyingrained in technology.
I, I think.
I mean, I, I, and, and most everybodyhas smartphones now, so at least, at

(17:24):
least they're like cap capable of that.
If, if you can build it simple enough,then they could interact, right?
Yeah.
So in my experience working withfarmers, I think that the computer
phase, like I think they, for mostfarmers just skip that, right?
So like, I, I grew up, I wentlike computer and now smartphone.
I think most of 'em were just like,I don't wanna mess the computers
Just smartphone.
right?
They went straight to smartphoneand I don't know that like companies

(17:45):
have totally caught up to that.
I mean, I would say FBN has tried.
Mm, yeah.
But I think figuring out how tomonetize that and make like a
really good business off of that, Ithink has been, has been difficult.
But I think my opinion is that the, thelike people are there, the technology,
like the technology is ready to be used.
I just, I think we solve, have somework to do to bring solutions to 'em.

(18:05):
And then sort of looking at the landscapeof ag tech companies, the other thing
that I'm always curious about isare people like sort of looking at
problems and thinking about technologyas solutions to problems versus sort
of having technology and looking forproblems where they could apply that?
Oh, good question.
I would say that it's probablybeen a little bit too much

(18:29):
of, of the ladder, right?
Where like, I have thistechnology, where do I put it?
And I hope that over the next fewyears it will go the other way.
Right, because that's, that'show it should be, right.
It should be where's your problems?
How can use technology to fix it?
Although I didn't realize that waitingin line to grab coffee was a problem for
me until I had a smartphone and then Irealized like, oh, I can look at pictures

(18:53):
of cats or whatever while I'm doing this.
Yeah.
So sometimes, sometimes not, youknow, having the technology first
before you realize some, some ofour problems we don't necessarily
recognize as problems right now.
Right.
So.
I, and I think that's, I mean, I hope,this is what I try to do in my job
is to kind of, first of all, to theinvolvement that I am on the farm is
like what problems do I feel on the farm?

(19:15):
And then talking to other farmers,what are the problems you feel?
But still starting withthe problem, right?
And then, okay, what do I know aboutdifferent technologies that are out there?
How could we build some softwareto help solve that problem?
So I still hope that wecan, we can accomplish that
and start with the problem.
And build a solution off of that ratherthan like trying to force people to
use an app that they don't want to use.

(19:36):
So we'll jump into the heart of thispodcast, the thing that makes Chad
and I very excited, which is tasks.
Yeah.
So like walk us through what youdo like in a day or typical week.
Like what are the sort of tasks thatsomeone who's in the ag tech space does?
Yeah, so for me it's very seasonal.
Depends on what's goingon that time of year.
I, my role right now is, is I workfor a joint venture called Gradable.

(20:01):
We are trying to digitize the grainmarketing decision and how grain
gets purchased or sold by farmersand purchased by grain buyers.
And our focus for the last fewyears has been very focused
in sustainability programs.
Because that is the kind of the best pathto, to digitizing that transaction is
you, you have to have a reason to do it.
Does it come from like the customer'sdemand to know about the sustainability

(20:23):
of the products they're purchasing?
So far, our demand has come fromthe grain buyers wanting to access
markets, sustainability markets.
Yep.
And so you're gonna give some sortof measure that these things are,
are compliant with what you'rewanting out of this product.
Right.
They're, they may be harder tomeasure in just sort of traditional
Yeah, I, I can get the, the simplestway to explain it would be, you know,

(20:45):
one of our partners, grain buyersthat sells into the biofuel market.
There's a lot of demand mostlyoverseas for ISCC certified fuel.
Which is, which?
Which, what's IC?
What's ISCC??
It's international sustainabilitycarbon certification.
Right?
It's like the most cliche name youcould come up, you can come up with.
Yeah.
But, but the idea is like this fuelis made in a more sustainable way.

(21:05):
This fuel is made in,in a more equitable way.
There's demand for that over overseas.
So our biofuel partners can get apremium if they sell it overseas, if
it gets this stamp of of ISCC on it.
Well, to get that stamp, they haveto go all the way down to the farm
level to check with farmers to makesure that they're doing certain steps.
And also to check the carbonintensity score of that grain.

(21:28):
The only way that they can access thatmarket is if they partner with somebody
like gradable to go and work with thefarmers to collect the information
to make sure that they qualify.
Some little validation of,
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we, we go through this whole process.
So you asked for my day to day.
For part of the year, for like threemonths out of the year, I'm leading
a team that's just trying to collectthat information from farmers.

(21:48):
So we have a, a small windowafter harvest to collect.
You know, we do surveys with 4,000, 5,000farmers to collect this information, to
get them qualified for premium payments sothat they can be a part of these programs.
So part of the year is just likevery focused on talking to farmers,
getting 'em through this process.
And then the rest of the yearwe're really kind of just focused

(22:09):
on gearing up for the next.
So building technology to make surethat we can intake that data, trying
to make it as optimized as possible.
And then over the last few months, roleshave been a little bit more involved
on the grain marketing side of things.
So how do we create a product for farmersto help them better market their grain is
kind of the next phase goal for Gradable.

(22:31):
Okay.
And so then again, that kind oftasks would be developing these
surveys or information collection?
Yeah, I can
Processing it when it comes in?
Right.
So that's, that's part of the season iswhen we're doing sustainability work, when
we're trying to develop like a new pieceof software, a new technology for farmers
to help them with grain marketing, whichhas been the goal for the last few months.
It really starts with my own painpoints of, of trying to help our family

(22:56):
market our grain, and then going outand talking to a group of farmers.
We probably talked to 30, 40 farmers andjust ask them to like walk us through
how they, how they market their grain.
Similar to this podcast.
Just explain to us what's going on.
Okay.
So a lot of like kind ofinformation gathering.
You're just trying to figureout where the pain points are.
And this is you personallyhaving the conversation.

(23:17):
Like you sitting
For this, for this project, this is me.
You're sitting down, you're talking tosome people probably that I know too.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Handful of them.
Yep.
Some of 'em happened at Commodity Classic.
'Cause I go to
There you go.
Commodity Classic.
So yeah, we're going through tryingto figure out the pain points.
Then once we get the pain points,it's okay, we've done our research.
Now we're gonna go work with our,our product development team.

(23:40):
So working closely with the designer.
Okay, here's some ideas.
The goal of the designer is to kind oftake these ideas and refine them and make
them come to life, I guess, and, and evenbetter than what we originally planned.
And then once we get past the designphase, we go back to farmers like,
okay, here's what we come up with.
They make some tweaks,make some adjustments.
And then once we get pastthat design phase, then it's,

(24:01):
then we're in build phase.
So that's where we've been for the lastfew weeks is, and the build phase, which
is, you know, we have engineers thatwe're meeting with on a daily basis.
What have you worked on?
We're getting new builds.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
So they send us out new beta versionsand we're testing it, we're reporting
bugs, and we're prioritizing bugs.
And then they have to fix thosebugs and you can't fix all the bugs.
So it's like, how do you, whatdo you do to make it, to get as

(24:24):
close to perfect as as possible?
And then ultimately, we'll, youknow, we'll launch this app here and
probably after this podcast comes outand then the cycle repeats, right?
Okay.
What, what's the nextfeature we wanna release?
Where are the pain points?
What is feedback?
What do we
Yeah.
Or people will tell you like, oh,I, it'd be nice if I could do this.
Yeah.
And I can't figure out how to do that now.
And they're like, oh, we gotta figureout, either make that easier or
make it do that, right, or whatever.

(24:45):
Exactly.
Exactly.
Okay, so I, I have a question.
This is a big, this is a big question.
Yeah.
So it seems like a lot of thetechnology that, like I hold up as
my favorites in my personal life.
I'm, I'm a consumer consuming athing that I don't really need.
Right, like, so like going onto Duolingo and paying 120 bucks
a year so that I can have fullhearts every day is very different

(25:08):
than a farmer saying I'm going to
Es muy diferente.
Wow.
Nice.
Big Duolingo fans here.
Like and subscribe.
But like they farmers are runninga business as opposed to just
being purely sort of a consumer.
So has, has that beenpart of the challenge?
Right?
Like, because it seems like sometimessome of these applications that I see

(25:30):
developed are assuming that the farmer'sgonna treat 'em kind of like a consumer
product where there is no real bound tohow much money, right, they'll spend.
Versus like when you're in a business it,it's gonna end up in your bushel of corn
or soybeans or cotton or whatever else.
Like, is there part, is part ofthat the problem that we've seen?
First of all, there has beenbeen some like really successful

(25:50):
apps created for farmers.
Like I think the John DeereOp Center app is awesome.
I think farmers use that a lot.
So I do think that if you find a problemand then you, here's an idea, like
solve that problem for the farmer.
Then they will, they will use it.
But I think if you like, tryto force them to use an app,
They have, they, they haven't have,they really monetized app op center.

(26:11):
Like that's the part that is confusingto me is I'm like, people use it,
but are they u are they using it?
Like, what, what are they using it for?
Yeah, so I, and I, I do think,I think you have to be kind of
creative with monetizing these apps.
'Cause I, I don't think that like, Imean, FBN had a subscription model for
a while and it did have some success.
We had thousands of userssign up at 600 bucks a year to

(26:33):
Mm-hmm.
to, to be a member of FBN.
Some of them were to use the app.
I think a lot of 'em were to getaccess to the chemicals that we were,
we were selling at a lower cost.
But ultimately we, we scrapped thatbecause the, the way to monetize it was
by getting more farmers onto the app sothat you could get more farmers buying or
using FBN Finance, buying from FBN Direct.

(26:54):
So that's kind of the path that FBN took.
And I think John Deere's path isprobably more, I mean, I won't wanna
speak for them, but I would guessthat theirs is, let's get people using
the app so they buy more tractors.
Yeah.
And, Bayer, Bayer, Climate, same,
But it's all like these indirect, right?
Like it's all kind of like, itfeels like ag tech is indirect.
Like it's like we're, this is aservice that we're gonna provide,
so you'll have deeper engagementwith our core set of products.

(27:15):
Yeah.
It's a complimentary productin a lot of cases, right?
Yeah.
Where like Duolingo is clearlyjust, I'm using them 'cause I'm,
but like it's clearly just likethey've integrated into my life.
Yeah.
Right?
And I spent that money becauselike I'm a consumer and I,
So I think what Chad's sayingis we need to figure out a way
for farmers to get streaks.
That they keep.
Yeah.

(27:35):
That seems to be,
Well, I mean, that might change it.
I don't know.
I just think there's, like, there just,uh, there's a part where I observe it,
where the ag tech industry, where itseems like there's like, I think we, we
treat farmers like they are consumersas opposed to like, this is a business.
Yeah.
No, I think, I think that's an interestingperspective and you know, I do think
that if you just think about apps,I don't know that that many apps are

(27:59):
super focused on the business user.
I think the apps you mentioned arelike more consumer facing apps anyways.
So I think you just have to bewise about the problems you try to,
you're trying to help them solve.
When we look at like comparisons forthe, for Gradable and trying to help
farmers do grain marketing, we'relooking at apps like Robinhood, right?

(28:22):
Those type of apps that arefocused on the Fidelity app.
That are helping consumers like managetheir portfolio of, of stocks or whatever.
I like those have gottena lot of traction.
Yeah, sure.
In banking, same thing.
I think a lot of people have moved tolike online banking through the app, so
there have been a lot of financial aspectsthat have went down the technology path.
Mm-hmm.

(28:43):
So that's, I think kind of the moremodel that we're trying to follow.
And then I would say, you know,outside of that, I, I'd say there's
probably some merit to what you'resaying, which is, which is like,
okay, we're, we're trying to likebring consumer ideas to this business.
And I, I would say that's probablypart of the reason why there's
been a lot of struggle there.
Well, we, we don't have like,I mean, we are a business.

(29:04):
Purdue University is a business.
It's a not-for-profit, but likeall of our software solutions, hope
this doesn't get me in trouble.
Like they're, they're nottailored to our needs, right?
Like we, it seems like we'rejust like jamming, right?
These big sort of overarching systems thatwe have are like kind of clunky and big.
It's interesting because I think thatwhen I see ag tech solutions, it's like
we're gonna solve these specific problems.

(29:26):
And I'm like, these big institutionsseem to buy technology solutions
that aren't necessarily tailored totheir specific tasks, so to speak.
Right?
And then they kind of make 'em work.
Like it seems like businesssoftware isn't necessarily friendly.
Yeah.
And, and all the ag tech I see is.
Yeah, probably depends on whatyou're trying to solve, right?

(29:47):
I think there's some, we use a lotof business tech at FBN and there are
like, I would say that a lot of thesoftware we use is pretty user friendly.
Okay.
Yeah.
Not great though.
I mean they're not perfect,but I also think they're
trying to solve like these big
Yeah.
problems, right?
And trying to kind of doeverything for everybody.
Where like at one thing that we dohave, especially at Gradable, is like

(30:11):
we have a pretty clear mission, right?
It's like, okay, we work a lot withgrain buyers, we work a lot with farmers.
Mm-hmm.
We are trying to help thembetter transact and sell grains.
Right?
Yeah.
So it's kind of a niche problemand we can really focus in on that.
Um, and I don't know thatlike a "do everything" app
Mm-hmm.
could like, I think that'd betoo hard to bite off, I think.

(30:33):
So, kind of question, maybe not about thefirms you've worked with specifically,
but kind of ag tech in general question.
So, this is mostly basedon pop culture, right?
Which is I my sort of preconceivednotion of like the tech world is my
goal is to create something like inmy basement or in my garage that will

(30:54):
either grow to dominate the world, right?
It would be like an Amazon orI'll do this thing relatively on
my own and it'll grow just bigenough that Amazon's gonna buy me.
Right?
Yeah.
And so like, I'm gonna havethis price checking thing
that Amazon now is gonna want.
Yeah.
Like in the ag tech, is it are, arethere companies that are sort of

(31:15):
wanting to start and become likethis big, freestanding, long lasting
company or want to be acquired bysome other either existing ag company
or existing technology company?
Like what's the,
That's a good question.
Yeah.
What's sort of the, do you thinklike would be the successful,
like we've made it point for alot of the ag tech companies?

(31:39):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I think, I think youshould always, the first strive for
success is just like you solved a problemfor, for farmers and you start to get
customers, which is really, really hard.
Oh yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
But once you get past that,
Once you get past thestage one production,
what's the long term path?
I think, I think, every companyprobably start out to be to be big.

(31:59):
And they want to be likea staple forever at.
At least every, every part, everycompany that I've been a part of.
I do understand there's like smallsand like our, our exit plate in
here is just to like, sell cash.
Yeah.
We we're gonna, we're gonna getthis big enough that then some big
guy's gonna want to buy it for a,
Yeah.
I, I've probably ran across a coupleof those type of companies in, in
my day, but I, I've always beenmore attracted to the long term.

(32:20):
FBN, if you remember when theywere first launched, like,
we're gonna take over the world.
It was kind of their mentality.
We're gonna be like the ag company.
Which has been, that's been atough battle to, to do that.
But still that was the original,that, that was the ambition.
I would say that still.
Yeah, I would say there hasn't beenthat like breakout ag tech company
that is like a staple, right?
I think the FBN still has achance to, to pull that off, but

(32:44):
it's, I think we've proven that'sreally, really hard to do, right?
It's, it's, it takes a lot of, it takesa lot of capital, it takes a lot of
like understanding your customers andcontinuing to just like be consistent.
And solve problems with them overa really long period of time.
You know, just look at like thestaple companies in agriculture today.
They've all been around forever.
Yeah.
Maybe there's been a couple, likePrecision Plant would be like a

(33:07):
company that's popped up recentlythat was like a staple and is kind
of had that exit trajectory, butthey ended up getting acquired.
Yeah.
Well, and, and kind of brings to anotherquestion we ask a lot on the podcast,
which is what's, what are the constraintslimiting achieving those goals, right?

(33:27):
Is it, I wish I had more people, orI wish we had more capital, or I wish
we didn't have to live in Indiana?
Or what, what, what's, what's the limitdo you think, that are preventing that?
Yeah, interesting.
I, we should talk about that'cause I, I don't know that I have
the answer, but we can maybe, wecould, yeah, we could ideate on it.
Which is, you know, for me, I, Iwould think capital is probably the,

(33:49):
the toughest thing, you know, to be.
I think if you want to be that likelongstanding company, you wanna get to
like a an IPO or be in the public markets.
And then I think that's a reallydifficult barrier to, to like jump into.
Oh, for sure.
So then if you stay in the venture capitalbacked world, and it's the same in the
public markets, whether you're you'reprivate markets or public markets, the

(34:11):
goal that you have to maintain this growthand you need consistent growth over time.
And if you have a reallygood year of growth.
You excited in the moment,but then you're like, you're
also in the back of your mind.
You're like, man, we gottafigure out how to sustain this.
Well,
because if you get that little hill
Yeah.
Then the capital dries up.
Yeah.
Everybody's no more.
Well, especially it's about theventure capital world, right?
Which is like if you got everyfarmer on board, that's like

(34:33):
2 million customers, right.
Which is like, thatwould be amazing, right?
But then like, they're used tothinking of like, Duolingo that's like,
Yeah.
we, we added 3 million people thisquarter or something like, like the,
Yeah.
like there is sort of a, a kindof natural limit I think when we
think about like user experience,like when you're already dealing

(34:53):
with sort of a niche market, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I, I would say that's probablywhat let FBN down this path where
some from afar would be like, whyare you in so many different things?
Right?
Like FBN is trying to sell chemical,sell land loans, they're doing Gradable,
they're doing all these different things.
You're like, why areyou, you're doing much
Because if you wanna get to10 million, you gotta have 2
million people buy five things.

(35:14):
Right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
You, you've gotta like beable to bundle and offer them
a lot of different services.
Value in a lot of different ways.
So it's, it is difficult, right?
I think.
I think that's why if you are like a nichetype company, you do just run outta steam.
Because you just hit, hit a cap.
Yeah.
Especially if you're inthe tech world, right?
'Cause the percent of farmers thatare like techie is not 2 million.

(35:34):
Yeah.
It's a much, it's a much smaller number.
So you gotta figure out how to like offerthem enough value and enough services
that your business continues to grow.
You continue to grow capital and youcan keep, keep the the flywheel turning.
In your current role, how much ofit is like you are the gut check for
people writing software to say like,no, that, that's not gonna work, guys.

(35:58):
Like, that's not, that's not the problemthat these farmers are thinking about.
How, how much of it is just that?
Yeah, I, I think I'm really fortunatein my current role to be able to
be like a pulse of the farmer.
It's not always been that way, butI do think that just right now I
find myself in a position where myperspective is, is really valued.
And I do talk to engineers on adaily basis about, and designers on

(36:22):
this is what, this is what farmerswant, this is what farmers need.
Basically I've done like,I've done the homework.
This is, this is what they want.
Yeah.
I can have confidence in that.
That is one that's kind of come,the opportunities kind of come and
go out and gone over the years.
And I also think it just takes a, ittakes a long time to feel confident in
what the voice on what farmers need.
I, I don't know that I was ever,that I was that confident for

(36:43):
that for a long period of time.
So I keep asking vague questions, but isis that part of the, the challenge with ag
tech is that it there is, there does needto be some sort of a, a buffer between
farmers and sort of software developers.
So if we would shorten thatup, it, it would be quicker?
Possibly.
I mean, I do think that, like you,I do think that like having a really

(37:07):
good perspective on the farmer andlike really understanding the farmer's
problems, which I, I think I've justbeen fortunate due to my upbringing.
I can do that, but I don't thinkthat everybody can, and I think it's
really hard for people from outside ofagriculture to then ingrain themselves
Sure.
into that space, and to be ableto like confidently answer that.
Because you just run intoso many biases, right?

(37:29):
It's like, oh, well I'mgonna do a bunch of research.
Like that's how I'm gonna developmy opinion and perspective on what
farmers need and I'm gonna go.
Talk to farmers.
I, I mentioned I talk to farmers,but you still, like, as you do that,
you run into a lot of biases becausethe only people that will like talk
to you about technology are likea certain niche group of farmers
that are wired this certain way.
So I think it's, it's hard to likecome up with like a solution that

(37:53):
works for a lot of folks withouthaving the, feeling those problems.
Like I, I love the positionI'm in now because.
One of my roles on our farmis to help market the grain.
Yeah.
So it is a pain that I feel, and Ithink farmers feel it too, right?
Your motions swingingwith the grain markets.
Like that, that's a real thing thatyou feel and I think it's hard to

(38:13):
like come up with solutions for that.
I think I'm just fortunate to be inthe position I am where I feel it
and they can come up with solutions.
Well, and you are the somebodythat is interested and cares about
the marketing part of it, right?
'Cause the other thing is when I taughtfarm management, like there'll be.
We, there's farmers that are just obsessedwith like the science of agriculture.
Yeah.
And they'll talk to you about weeds.
Yeah.
But the second we're like,hey, we're gonna talk to you

(38:34):
about crop insurance right now.
They're like, I'm gonna get acoffee and go stand in the back.
Yep.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, I'm out.
Right.
And so it seems like it's consistentalso with techy kind of space,
for lack of a better term, right?
Where it's like, oh, I'm kindof interested in this anyway.
Right?
Like are there are a lot of the clientsthat are farmers you interact with?
The, the ones that get the newcell phone every year or buy a new

(38:56):
TV more frequently 'cause they'veadded some bell and whistle or,
Yeah, I would, I would say that like thoseare the farmers that you go after first.
Right?
Because they are the most likelyto adopt, adopt your technology
and, and just give feedback.
Right.
So like, when I'm doing this feedback,these feedback sessions with farmers,
they are the more tech forward farmers.
I try to, you know, get some, butthey're just harder to get ahold of.

(39:18):
Yeah.
So you, you definitely wantto like pick your market.
And that is the attractivemarket to go after, right?
Because you're like, I'm gonnadevelop this app that works for,
you know, the 500 acre farmer thatdoesn't use a, use a smartphone.
Well, that's, you're not gonna make it.
Yeah.
Right.
You've gotta be like, all right, I'mgonna go after the like 1500 acre farmer.
Yeah.
That like loves technology 'causethey're the most likely to adopt.

(39:40):
And then once, if we can solve a problemfor them, we're gonna hope that that
same problem will then be able to likehelp out the longer tail of farmers.
So do you just like go to CommodityClassic and just look for guys wearing
those like meta glasses or whatever?
Like that's our guy.
Let's talk to him.
That's a good idea.
I'm just coming with great ideas.
You are.

(40:00):
I should be, I should takethese off of the money.
Okay, so this is a question forboth of you because like sometimes I
don't even know what my problem is.
Right?
Like I think that that's thething with, with like smartphones.
I remember distinctly riding to abasketball game with your parents and you
had a new, you had the original iPhone.
And I was like, dude, we're nevergonna type on screens, right?
Like, we're never gonna usethe keyboards on screen.

(40:22):
So I'm like, how?
Like that's a daunting task.
How do you think through that?
Like frequently?
I don't know what,
Yeah.
like if you would, if you interviewed me,I am terrified at what you would develop
Yeah.
That I probably won't use in the future.
Yeah.
I, again, I don't want to act likeI have this all figured out, but
I do think that you've just gottafigure out how to solve a problem.

(40:44):
And if you solve that problemreally well, like the users,
like the people will come to it.
You're right, typing on a screen likeit is worse than typing on a Blackberry.
It, it just is worse, but it's like,oh yeah, but also you like can watch
movies way better or whatever, right?
Yeah.
Right.
So they're, they're like, and, andif you look at like farmers and
technology adoption, I do thinkthat like great products get used.

(41:07):
Precision Planting has a great productthat almost every farmer that I talk
to, they have a precision planting
Yeah.
Right.
unit in it.
It's like, well, they, they like createdsomething great and they figured out
how to get farmers to use it, and theysolved a problem, and they nailed the
price point and, you know, there you go.
You have a bus.
Like sometimes.
Sometimes That's how easy,

(41:27):
Yeah.
how easy it is.
So I think that you just have to startwith, from my perspective, start with
the problem, and then how do you comeup with an accessible solution for that?
I don't know.
We'll, we'll see if wecontinue to pull that off.
Chad, if you need someone totell you what your problems are,
I'm, I'm always there for it.

(41:47):
Really?
Yeah, I can, I can point out a couple.
Oh, all right.
Like you,
Call it up later.
You look too much likea young Lorenzo Lamas.
I heard that one.
Oh, we, we need to ask you, Brant,the listeners have been wondering
this entire time, do you have a celeb
When they've been picturing this.

(42:07):
Now this is gonna be jarringfor some of our listeners.
It is..
It'd be interesting to, to be ableto have them phone in and say,
here's who I've been pictured.
This is not a call in, this is a podcast.
It's true.
But yeah.
Brant, what celebrity have youbeen told do you look like?
So, I have been told a couple timesthat I look like Ryan Reynolds.
But, but they're always weird.
They always are very specific that it'sRyan Reynolds in the Green Lantern.

(42:31):
Which, which I assume that meanshe was like fatter and balder.
I don't know.
Well, here's the thing about RyanReynolds, though, I feel like
this is a compliment in many ways.
'Cause Ryan Reynolds not onlyis very talented, he's also been
extremely successful outside of being
In this,
an entertainer.
In the startup space.
Exactly.
With companies he starts.

(42:52):
It is not a fair comparisonto Ryan Reynolds.
Say, I feel bad
Would you say you are theRyan Reynolds of ag tech.
No, I, Ryan, if you're listening tothis podcast, I don't look like you
and it's, I'm sorry for the disrespect.
But do you think it's not because youlook like him, but because you like,
sort of just capture his persona?
Definitely not, it's definitely not.
I would assume that he wears that outfit.
The only people that haveever told me I look like Ryan
Reynolds are like Uber drivers.

(43:12):
So they, they dunno me.
I think the problem with Brantis that his Uber profile is
a picture of Ryan Reynolds.
Oh crap.
We have solved.
We solved it.
We solved it.
That's where that came from.
Dang gone it.
Uh,
We'll have to change it.
How are we doing on the time?
We,
I think we should goto the lightning round.
Okay.
Yeah.
Since you're in the ag tech space,I'm sure you're familiar with

(43:36):
the stereotypes of tech bros.
Yeah.
Which stereotype of techbros is the least accurate?
And which stereotype is the most accurate?
This is good.
Yeah.
I mean, unfortunately I thinkthey're all probably pretty accurate.
And I, I would say most people in myhometown would classify me as a tech bro.

(43:58):
And they're probably,they're probably right.
Like, who am I to say that they're wrong?
Like, so how, how manyPatagonia vests do you own?
Yeah.
I did wear a vest today,which is really weird.
I, I.
It's not Patagonia though.
It's not Patagonia.
Yeah.
This was a gift from my mom.
I don't wear.
My wife was like, whyare you dressed up today?
And I was like, well,Chad always dresses up.
I do.

(44:18):
Yeah.
And I, I didn't wanna be uncomfortable.
If I would've known Todd, it's justgonna be wearing a t-shirt today.
I would've wore a T-shirt.
Yeah.
So I I,
That's a really ryan Reynolds move of you.
Matches the room he's in.
Exactly.
But no, there definitely is like.
I, the, the one thing I will say abouttech bros, of which I am one, like I do
believe in like typically some of thethings that they dive into, like they

(44:41):
are like, I do like those things, right?
Like, joggers had a moment.
Joggers are right, they werelike, those are comfortable.
I, I, I actually agree.
Joggers a hundred percent.
Yeah.
The joggers, except I got big calves.
Okay.
So I actually do it betterin a straight sweatpant.
That's my problem.
Yeah, but you, you're, youhave like travel pants.
You have specific, He,
I do have, I own travel pants.
He likes to pretend like he's every man.

(45:03):
Yeah.
But he owns a specificpair of travel pants.
Yeah.
Um, we're doing great at keepingthis at the lightning pace.
We put it at two x speed.
It's gonna be fast.
Yeah.
But, but Brant, just did say on therecord, he loves everything about tech.
He wears Patagonia, helikes ayahuasca tea.
All of the, isn't that,isn't that one of the,
Honestly, some of thosethings I didn't get into.
I, not Patagonia, I'm toocheap and Yeah, not ayahuasca.

(45:26):
To call back to your earlier experienceand, and that we've talked on about
on the podcast, what's your opinionof a shoot, first point guard versus
just bringing the ball up the floorand setting up the play for others?
Mm. Good question.
Can I answer it too after you're done?
Yes.
Yeah, that'd be great.
Brant only does one of those two things.
Well, it depends on your team, right?

(45:46):
If you're on the FFA team, you are theonly shooting because you're like, if
I pass it to Chad, he's gonna shoot,so I'm gonna take my chances of that.
You better believe I'm gonna shoot.
But I did.
I only played basketball this morning.
And I think in that setting, youjust gotta know your role, right?
So in that setting, I was, I'mnot the best player on the team.
I'm like, you just, you scout the team.

(46:08):
You're like, okay, you're most days,I'm the fifth best player on the team.
So I need to be passing.
So you're just distributing.
I gotta pass.
You're the fifth best player.
That's hard for me to believe.
I mean, it depends on,it depends on the day.
Who are you trying, who areyou trying to butter up here?
This is no longer the FFA.
Team is what he's saying.
He's playing, he'smoved up to the 4H team.

(46:29):
How many people?
Is it very dependent, uh, for like, forPurdue basketball, I lo I love the pass.
I love, like Braden Smith isthe perfect point guard to me.
Oh, I should ask you just a Purdue light.
I got a Purdue lightning round question.
That's a good idea.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
All time favorite Purduebasketball player?
Yeah, it's Carsen Edwards.
That's Carsen.
Oh!
Yeah, so interesting though becauseI just said I love Braden Smith

(46:51):
as a, as a past first point guard.
Carsen Edwards was the opposite.
So I guess maybe that'swhat I really like.
That's who you aspire to be.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean,
See if this was a farmerinterview, what you just said
Yeah.
was one thing.
But what you meant,
Yeah.
like you were, maybe youshould work for tech companies.
Well, the other, well, the otherone pull the other, the other, we'll
just, we'll just stay on this greatlightning round, which, so, which

(47:13):
I do, sorry, just I, I do wannasay Zach Edey was also great.
So Zach, if you listen tothis, I think you're great too.
So, which, this, this is how I tella Purdue basketball fan from regular
basketball fans, which do you likemore hard work or natural talent?
Gosh, I mean, I know whatyou want me to answer.
You want me to say hard work,

(47:33):
But you said Carsen Edwards.
That's natural talent.
I know.
Like really?
Yeah.
I honestly, you want both, right?
Like, I hate to be like cliche to that
Wow.
answer, but like,
Well, he does hang out with Chad,
but if you, if you arejust hard work, right?
If you're just the hard workguys, then when, when Chad and
I were here, you were here too.
2006, you're gonna say 2006, 2007.
Those were a lot of hardworking guys.

(47:54):
Yeah.
Right?
Yes.
And then who came in in 2007?
You had E'Twaun Robbie, JJ,those were some talent guys.
Yeah.
Yes.
And all of a sudden we got a lot better.
So I guess I will answer talent as,
Okay.
And then this is a, this isa fan favorite from our fan.
If you had a time machine that youcould use to get better at your

(48:16):
job, only use it for work purposes.
Yeah.
When are you going?
When am I going?
Mm-hmm.
To get better for me to get betterat my job or to like redo a decision?
No, no, no.
It's just a work issued time machine.
You go, you go to work tomorrow,and they're like, Hey, guess what?
We got a time machine.
You can't use it for recreation.
Okay.
But if you got something that'llmake you better at your job,

(48:38):
take the time machine for a spin.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean I do think that rolling backto let's, let's, there was some era
of FBN where we were like trying,trying to solve a lot of big problems.
And I would say that some of thoseproblems we fell short on and I'd love to
like go back and get another shot at 'em.

(48:59):
Right.
Like specifically like seed.
Seed is like, seed is is, I worked in seedfor a while and seed is like this part
of agriculture that just drives me crazy.
Speaking from a farmer's perspective,'cause it's kind of like, sorry,
this is not a lighting round answer.
Alright, I'm ready.
But, but you, if you think of agriculturein your ability for a farmer to be

(49:20):
like long-term profitability, thereare these two like huge pillars
in the way that always just kindof suck out profitability and it's
seed costs, it's fertilizer costs.
And fertilizer is likethis massive problem.
It's really hard to solve.
I, I don't know, but seed I feel likesomebody could figure out, at least

(49:40):
I thought we had a path to try tosolve it and try to help bring some
pri price relief to the seed industry.
And I don't think we were assuccessful as I'd like to be.
So I'd love to like go backand take another shot at that.
Could you have influencedit in a different way?
I mean, I, I was very, I was fortunateto be in a good, in, in like a
pretty influential role at that time.

(50:01):
And I, looking back at what wewould've done differently, I think.
I think we, first of all, we likebrought low cost seed to the market.
Right?
Right.
When there was a nice little swing up inthe, the, in the value of corn, which just
makes people not want to go cheap on seed.
Yeah, sure.
And then I, I do think that like,there's just some different steps.

(50:23):
I think that if we would've stayed on thispath a little bit longer, if we execute
a little bit better, we could have gotsome like extra exit trajectory and could
have made a little bit of a dent there.
And unfortunately we, we fell short.
So yeah, we, we did like, like thecore problem One was I think we, our
genetics weren't as good as they shouldhave been, but, but the, the exciting

(50:45):
thing, I think we were trying to bringoff patent Roundup ready to market.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
And we were just like acouple years short of that.
And it's still hard, right?
You gotta bring it into genetics.
There's a lot of things you haveto do, but I do think if you could
solve for that problem and thenyou could solve like bugs, I think
you can manage in other ways.
But if you could solve for that,I do think you could bring a lot

(51:05):
of, a lot of pressure relief.
Brant as the tech guy, theresident tech guy in this room.
Tech bro.
Tech bro,
Tech bro.
And my joggers.
to, to take the timemachine into the future.
Yeah.
I figure we finally get to go to thefuture, but no, everyone goes to the past
because I think, because I thinkBrant though, he's hardworking, right?
And what's haunting him is you,you go back and change something.

(51:28):
Yeah, the future will come like,uh, and that's, that's fine.
Okay.
I I'll, I do think going back and tryingto solve, solve mistakes is probably,
So speaking of the future Brant,what, like what do you see ag tech?
What, what's the cool thing about
Yeah.
I, I mean this, this would be a littlebit of a tech bro answer, but I do,
I do think that what LLMs and AIcan bring to like the ag financial

(51:51):
space is really cool and exciting.
And I'm excited to seewhat, what happens there.
I think that that's been the biggestbarrier for ag financial tools to
take off has been that you, it'sso hard to like get somebody just
to change to a new system, right?
Like my mom does all the accountingon our, on our farm and she just is

(52:13):
really comfortable with this softwarethat she's been using for a long time.
And to get her to change,it's like, why would I change?
I. Whatcha talking about this works fine.
It solves my problems.
I don't need to change.
I think now we finally have like astep forward where you could do ag
financials in a totally different way.
Right?
Like just take a picture of an invoice.
Yeah.
Right.
Or just really personalized advice basedoff of my information specific to me.

(52:37):
And I think that there'llbe, there'll be some cool
technologies that come outta that.
Since we're in the crystal ball world.
Yeah.
When you're closer to like theretirement stage of your career.
Do you think there will be fewer ag techcompanies or more ag tech companies?
I sure hope more.
I mean, my opinion on where thingsare heading and with these AI tools,

(52:57):
I, I do think that fast forward acouple years, you'll be able to create
these things with way less people.
Create technology with way lesspeople than you used to be able to.
Right.
So some of the, we talked aboutbarriers that ag companies run into.
We, we said it was capital.
We need capital so that you can hire morepeople so that you can build more things.
I do think that some of that barrier willbe removed where I could just use this

(53:20):
AI tool to run a handful of engineersthat build the tools that I want.
Yeah.
And I can do the work that a hundredperson company, you know, that
would take today I could, I could dothat with five people, for example.
And if you do that, then you havea lot of smaller companies that
are solving niche, niche problems.
Because like you could neverjustify a business to solve
a really specific problem.

(53:40):
You should be like, well it'snot a big enough business.
Like, you're not gonna beable to get to IP level.
You're not gonna be able to.
Yeah.
Well now it's like with, with some ofthese new technologies, like, no, you,
I can stay small 'cause my cost todevelop, it's gonna be so much lower.
Sure.
This could be like my own little one.
So, so it's almost closer to liketinkering again, right where you can rig
up a, a solution to your niche problemand you don't have to care as much.

(54:01):
Am I gonna be able to get x numberof people to adopt this thing, right?
Yeah.
At least, at least I hope.
I hope that's the way that it goes.
'Cause I think, I think a lot ofsmaller companies that are creating cool
technologies is better for the farmer.
This is not an ag tech question.
This is a tech bro question.
Okay.
Oh good.
What do you think is the most underratedapp that I should have on my cell phone?

(54:23):
Oh, wow.
Other than gradable?
Well, I already have that one.
Oh gosh.
I don't want to givetoo basic of an answer.
I'll give two.
You probably already have the ChatGPT app.
ChatGPT app is incredible.
Okay.
I, I asked it on the way here, I sentthe link to your guys podcast to it,
and I said, Hey, I'm doing this podcast,just like, give me like, help me get in

(54:45):
the right mindset and ChatGPT knows youguys better than you know yourselves.
Oh, now, just so I want to do it.
So wait, why don't you ask?
Okay, so let's go back to the tech thing.
Why aren't you just havingChatGPT talk to the farmers?
That's why I was, I was telling youthat I do think that LLMs will like be
Ah.
a key part.
But I, I just think that that's, andFBN does have their own LLM, Norm,

(55:08):
that will answer agronomy questions.
Norm.
Take tank mixes and things like this.
After the OG agronomist, Norm.
Borlaug.
Forget last name.
Borlaug.
Borlaug
Borlaug.
Okay.
Norm Borlaug.
Oh really?
That's really what it's named for.
Yeah.
I have, I use ChatGPT to makestuff I'm writing to students
sound less like a boring professor.
Yeah.
So I'd lead a study abroad trip.

(55:29):
And I will write my email that I'mgonna tell them like, you know,
we're gonna meet at the airport.
Yeah.
And then I'll say, can you makethis more exciting, exciting for a
student going on a study abroad trip?
And then it's always like, getready for the trip of a lifetime.
And I'm like, let's dialit back a little bit.
Yeah.
It's way too nice right now.
Down it's way too excitable.
Yeah.
Way too excitable.
And then I do think I, the otherapp that I would recommend, I think

(55:51):
the Robinhood app is incredible.
And I think that if, I make thisjoke quite often, but like I've, it's
introduced me to training options.
I've lost hundreds of dollars.
But I'm not mad at Robinhoodbecause they do such a good job of
like explaining what you're doing.
Chad has lost that muchmoney with a Duolingo.
We've learned, so,
Yeah.

(56:11):
Yeah, yeah.
And it, it, it's just like,well, I don't blame the app.
Like they did, they fully informedme on what I was getting myself into.
But it, it does help me.
It's helped me learn a lot about,
We should let our listener knowthat we are not being sponsored
by either of those apps.
Yeah.
At this time.
Brant, last thing, housekeeping item here.

(56:32):
You're doing something cool.
We are launching a Gradable app herein June, so for our partners that we
work with, POET and ADM, they'll bothbe promoting this app over the summer.
And again, the goal of the appis to try to help farmers better
manage their, their grain marketing.
So I hope that if any farmersthat are listening to this, I hope

(56:53):
please try out the Gradable app.
It links up with yourPOET and ADM account.
And the goal is to help youbetter market your grain.
If, if you have any questionsreach out, to reach out to me and
we'll put it in the show notes.
There we go.
Oh, perfect.
Well, I think we've covered pretty mucheverything we thought we were gonna cover.
We
And more.
And, and I think we've just runout of things to talk about.
We should just go back to our office.
There's no way we've runout things to talk about.

(57:20):
We hope you've enjoyed theconversation that we had with Brant.
I learned a lot afterknowing Brant for decades.
So even after decades,uh, I learned a lot.
I feel like it was a reallyhelpful conversation.
So we teased in the intro that we knowthere might be more than one listener.
Yes.
So this is the first timewe're gonna make this plea.
The plea being, we, we've told youwhat our objective is to try to

(57:43):
understand the ag economy, to havethese free flowing conversations.
So if you or someone you know, youthink would be interested in engaging
with this podcast, send us a note.
If you're willing to come to campus.
We're at Purdue University.
In West Lafayette, Indiana.
We'd, we'd love to havea conversation about it.
Uh, we'd buy you a mediocre ortwo pretty good cup of coffee.
Yeah.
Depending on your tastes.

(58:04):
Yeah.
We think it's good.. Youmight think it's mediocre.
Yeah, that's true.
But I don't think it's poor.
No, no, it's not bad.
Yeah.
We're all in agreementthat it's better than poor.
So tell your friendsthat this podcast exists.
Uh, like and subscribe.
And we will see you again the next time.
And feel free to tune intothe previous ones we've had.
If you're just joiningus for the first time.
We got some really good ones lined up.
We're gonna keep talkingabout ag investing space.

(58:26):
We're gonna talk to somepeople about farm management.
And businesses and how they'vegrown over time or changed.
So we've already learned a lot.
We got some in the can for you, butwe're always looking for new ones.
Should we tease that wemay be going on location?
Oh yeah.
We're taking this on the road.
We're gonna go visit some farms ina different part of the country,
uh, where we know very little.

(58:46):
We're gonna learn a ton, uh, but we thinkeven our Midwest based listeners will
enjoy it 'cause they'll learn something.
But we think the southern basedlisteners, if nothing else, will
enjoy laughing at how little we know.
Nice, nice, nice tease.
Yeah.
So where in the southare Todd and Chad going?
Oh, that's gonna be,that's a surprise to come.
It is.
But I know.

(59:06):
Do you know where we're going?
I do, yeah.
Okay, good, good.
So we know, so that you'll find out.