America’s Land Auctioneer
Captivate and celebrate the dynamics of rural America, American Agriculture and inspire and teach others how to live a bold and abundant life in rural America. Background: The intrigue, endless opportunities, and romance of rural life in America have never been more on the minds of Americans. The recent pandemic and civil unrest have Americans of all ages earning for a more peaceful, less hectic life. Even billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest crop landowner in America. As many Americans look for peaceful refuge in the rolling hills and wheat fields they are faced with a richness of opportunities. But where do you begin to look? This show will highlight and feature endless opportunities in every state. What is it that is so unique about rural America, the land and what it produces? How can I live that life? The American Land Auctioneer will tell stories and weave into those stories a place for you to dream, live and enjoy the abundance of all that rural America has to offer.
America’s Land Auctioneer
The Future of Farming: Innovation Meets Agriculture
AgTech Week Fargo stands at the intersection of agriculture's rich traditions and its technology-driven future. This collaborative event brings together three cornerstone organizations – the Chamber, Bushel, and Grand Farm – to create an immersive four-day experience where innovation meets practical application in ways that truly matter for producers.
The journey begins Tuesday with the Chamber's Midwest Ag Summit, where transportation experts, sustainability officers, and policy specialists tackle the complex challenges of moving agricultural products from field to global markets. With speakers including a Federal Maritime Commissioner and transportation leaders from rail and sea shipping, attendees gain crucial insights into the infrastructure supporting modern agriculture. The summit's interactive format encourages direct engagement, allowing participants to pose questions and share perspectives that shape the conversation.
Wednesday transforms talk into action with Grand Farm's Field Day, offering hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge agricultural technology. Imagine watching autonomous tractors work fields without operators, seeing robots identify and eliminate weeds with precision, and exploring sensor technologies that provide unprecedented insight into crop and soil conditions. This isn't theoretical innovation – it's practical technology you can touch, evaluate, and envision on your own operation. The day culminates with the AgTech Week Shindig, featuring live music from the Crop Dusters and networking opportunities that foster unexpected collaborations.
Thursday's Cultivate Conference addresses specific pain points identified through extensive research with regional producers. Focusing on pest management, equipment development, soil health, and precision agriculture, the conference connects innovators directly with farmers experiencing these challenges. Keynote speakers including Brian Hefty of Hefty Seed Company and farmer panel discussions ensure that technological development remains grounded in agronomic reality. For producers, this represents a unique opportunity to influence the direction of agricultural innovation – and farmers can attend free with code GROWER2025.
Whether you're a producer seeking solutions, an agribusiness professional exploring new technologies, or simply curious about agriculture's future, AgTech Week offers meaningful engagement with the people and innovations shaping tomorrow's food production. Register now at agtechweekfargo.com and be part of transforming how we grow food for generations to come.
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Contact the team at Pifer's
Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Steve Link, broker for Piper's Auction Realty, and we're glad you could join us today. Don't forget you can catch up on all our past episodes by visiting piperscom and clicking on the podcast and searching America's Land Auctioneer, or go to your favorite Apple or Spotify site and search us. Before we dive into today's show, I also want to thank our sponsors, pifers Auction Realty and Pifers Land Management. Their expert team of land and equipment auctioneers, real estate agents and land managers is here to give you a free consultation. Nobody does it better than the team at Pfeiffer's. All right, so this week's show is all about Ag Tech Week that's coming up here in Fargo. It's a major event that brings in innovators, landowners, ag professionals and all things tech in the ag world. So we've got a couple of great guests. They're going to talk about that. Jane Frisch is here with Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber of Commerce. Is that the title? Is that the correct?
Speaker 3:title yeah, in surrounding areas, I mean yeah, jane Banks is Frisch, so vice president of workforce for the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber.
Speaker 2:Really, the region, the region, really the region, the region, yep. So you guys, you guys, you guys, not only you handle fargo, moorhead, west fargo, you handle, castleton, you handle, do you get east to get to barnesville and stuff a little bit.
Speaker 4:We collaborate with everybody, all the chambers good, I have to head uh horace here pretty quick, I think I think so yep, exactly, and you just heard stetson erlacher.
Speaker 2:He with Grand Farms and he's helping the Grand Farm Innovative Center part of Ag Week, ag Tech Week as well right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so Grand Farm, we're happy to be one of the three kind of cornerstone members of Ag Tech Week. You know, the Chamber and Bush Hole are the other two there. And, yeah, grand Farm, we're truly a great. You know, we like to see what we do every year for Ag Tech Week. It seems to get bigger and bigger. But my role in all of that is I'm our regional ecosystem coordinator for the Dakotas in Minnesota, so I get to kind of coordinate with our ag groups farmers, ranchers, agricultural retailers and bring them into the work at Grand Farm. It's really my passion.
Speaker 4:So where are you from originally? So I'm originally from Regent, north Dakota, so way southwest North Dakota. So I'm familiar with Piper's through, of course, the land auctions out of the Bowman office there. But truly where I come from is a diversified beef and grain operation where we raise registered Angus cattle and then getting into, of course, here in western North Dakota. So that is wheat, country barley and corn as well. Anything that the cow is elite, we'll certainly try and grow it. So where'd you go to school at? So I went to New England high school and then graduated from North Dakota State University with a bachelor's in ag education here in 2023.
Speaker 2:So what brought you to Graham Farms? How did you get connected with them? I swear it was a dirty trick that got me there.
Speaker 4:No, I interned there actually my senior year of college and just as an events intern, so helping plan events, do logistics, and at that time an opening opened up on kind of bringing in farmers and ranchers and kind of what my role has evolved into being now. It opened up and they kind of said, well, we kind of have the ideal candidate in mind. I'm like, oh well, who is it? And then they said, well, it's you. So if you'd like it, we'll hire you on full time. And it's been a wild ride since then. So I joined the team full time in January of 23. And since then it's just been a great and awesome time.
Speaker 2:I've had some of your team members on before and we've talked about Grand Farms, but for new listeners, can you talk? What is Grand Farms and how do you summarize that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so Grand Farm is a collaborative network of growers, startups, corporations, policymakers.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Grand Farm is a collaborative network of growers, startups, corporations, policymakers, educators and researchers and corporations as well all working together to solve problems in agriculture through applied technology and every well, a lot of people that drive west out of Fargo will see your campus there.
Speaker 4:Talk a little bit about that campus. Yeah, so it's a 640-acre innovation campus and the crowning jewel of that is our 25,000-square-foot innovation shop that we just finished off here last summer, and truly what we try to do there is to create an environment where we can explore and apply practical innovation. And when we say practical innovation, we mean innovation that's got a grower challenge tied to it. It's got interest in the market, and then also there's a startup or a company or a researcher who's truly passionate about not just solving a problem but making a difference in agriculture. So when we put all of those pieces together on that 640 acres, truly amazing things happen. Some of our favorite projects over the years have included a nexus of all of those different groups.
Speaker 2:So when I see the Innovative Center, they talk about their address. Their address is actually Wheatland. Even though it's closer to Castleton, Not a lot of people know where Wheatland is If we had the power to redraw township lines.
Speaker 4:We would certainly love to be in the community of Castleton, but we know that in rural North Dakota, rural parts of the region, your address doesn't define the community you're in. It's how far you're willing to drive, and we love making the drive over to Castleton.
Speaker 2:It's weird because the post office, there's many farmsteads there that have a Wheatland address, that they're way closer to Castleton and I've studied this because I've sold a lot of properties out there and I actually live south of your campus, really close to your campus, and so I hope we're good neighbors.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I hope you're not too loud.
Speaker 2:No, you guys have been great neighbors and we're planning on building an auction facility just east of you, so we're going to be closer. I think we can do a lot of fun things together, and so I'm super excited for that that project to break ground and us to get some signage up there and and and be a part of what you guys do and and you know, auctions auctions have been around a long time, but we've had a lot of innovation in that industry, and so I'm excited to see your guys's innovation and our innovation and it all meshed together out there. All right, so that's Stetson. Jane, you are from a small rural community area as well too.
Speaker 3:Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, so my background. I grew up in a small farming community in Okabena, minnesota, down the southwest corner.
Speaker 3:Dad was an egg lender. My mom worked at the community college but I then married a farmer, traverse County, minnesota. So our farm is near Dumont, minnesota. Fun fact about Traverse County least populous county in Minnesota. So, as you can imagine, lots of friends and neighbors just not very close by. So yeah, so my role with the chamber and I feel so lucky to kind of my two personal and professional worlds collide is not only working on that workforce but we know the biggest driver of our community, one of the biggest drivers of our community is our agriculture, landscape and really working with not only partners like Grand Farm, bushel but the variety of ecosystems that exist between our upper Midwest states to make sure that we have that thriving economy and that's really people are always like. So you're the vice president of workforce and you also focus on agriculture, not only because of my personal background but in addition it is because it's such a big driver of our, of our region.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly that's. That's when you think of, when you think of the Fargo-Moorhead area and you think of West Fargo and all that. It's ag, ag, ag ag. And technology is becoming such a big part of that and it's so fun to see that mesh together. Where did you go to school at?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so North Dakota State University for all three degrees bachelor's, master's and doctorate. So I'm a true bison, also a former student athlete, so I truly do bleed that green and yellow. But I think that's another thing is you know Stetson, individuals like Stetson that came out of North Dakota State University much later than I did, but still that continuing legacy of that focus on agriculture, education through and through, whether that be ag-adjacent careers such as finance, even engineering, and then ag-focused careers like Stetson's. So I went to NDSU as finance, even engineering, and then ag focus careers like Stetson's.
Speaker 2:So I went to NDSU as well too. And and you know the funny thing is what you have a face for TV. Stetson and I are probably more faced for radio, so you got us up on that. But, but I also have a son who graduated this year and he's enrolled at NDSU next fall and so he's going into ag business, and so he'll probably be knocking on both of your doors talking to you guys about different opportunities down the road as well.
Speaker 3:That's so great. My husband, his background is ag econ from NDSU and that has laid such a great foundation for him.
Speaker 3:not you know, his background is, you know, ag Econ from NDSU and that has laid such a great foundation for him, not only to be a producer himself but a fourth generation producer, but in addition really working with those commodity groups, being very active with the United Soybean Board and the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. Those commodity industries, I think, often are one of the things that we forget about within the ecosystem of agriculture too.
Speaker 2:Right, yep. Okay, we don't have a lot of time left here. We've got a couple minutes in this first segment, but what's the first event for Ag Week?
Speaker 4:next week. Yeah, so I think the first conference to lead us off is actually the Chamber's Midwest Ag Summit. So I'll let Jane kind of talk about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tuesday morning 8 to 11, june 10th, we will be kicking off Ag Week with our Midwest Agriculture Summit. We're partnering with a variety of different chambers from throughout the Upper Midwest In fact 32 different chambers not only to bring it in person but also to bring that virtually to the different communities throughout the Upper Midwest. We expect over 300 individuals in person out there at the Butler area, at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so very excited to have that in-person event out there and then also online virtually. If you can't get to us here out at the Butler Machinery Arena, feel free to chime in online.
Speaker 2:Is this the first year it's at the fairgrounds?
Speaker 3:No, no, this is the third year. Third year, okay.
Speaker 2:So Cody Cashman, you know he's in charge of the fairgrounds and he's a castle Well, he actually lives in Emilia, just north of Castleton, and so he's a neighbor friend as well too. So I'm so glad you guys are doing the event out there. That's a neighbor friend as well too. So I'm so glad you guys are doing the event out there. That's a great facility.
Speaker 3:The entire facility out there, the Ag Education Building. I mean corn on the floor. How cool is that If? You haven't been out there. Please do, they're virtual.
Speaker 4:Did you know that's real corn under there too?
Speaker 3:I do, I mean it's real corn that they went and it really does showcase who we are in the Upper Midwest, related to our egg focus and egg industry Perfect.
Speaker 4:How lucky we are to have such a strong facility out there in West Fargo no-transcript.
Speaker 2:Realty and pifers land management. They will give you a free consultation to help manage your farm land or sell your property or equipment. Nobody does. Does it better? We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to.
Speaker 2:America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Steve Link, pfeiffer's Auction and Realty. Thanks again for joining us and don't forget you can listen to past episodes at Pfeiffer'scom and search America's Land Auctioneer. Again, I want to thank our sponsors, pfeiffer's Auction and Realty and Pfeiffer's Land Management. If you're buying, selling or managing farmland, they're the team to call. All right, so we were here with Jane and Stetson and talking about next week's Ag Tech Week and we got only to the first major event, tuesday 8 to 11 at the fairgrounds. Do people need to pre-register for that that, or should they pre-register for that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for that, steve. Yes, we do want pre-registration because there's breakfast. Who doesn't want breakfast right away in the morning, out at the Butler Machinery Arena? Go to fmwfchambercom, click on that events page and you're going to see that drop down of the Midwest summits and you can click right there. Those of you that are members, you'll obviously get a little discounted rate, but others that aren't, you'll see that not yet member price and it's very reasonable to attend and we still have spots available. So right up until Monday afternoon we encourage you to get registered. If your schedule allows, to join us from eight to 11 that Tuesday morning.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm on your website here and it looks like you can also. If you absolutely can't make it, you can live stream. It, is that correct?
Speaker 3:Correct. Yeah, and that's really our collaboration with those 32 co-hosting chambers from throughout the upper Midwest is we want to bring this information not only to those that can join us in person, which there's also those great networking and connection opportunities that we have there's also those great networking and connection opportunities that we have but, in addition, those that are online so you can join online. There will be a live link there right before 8 o'clock on Tuesday morning, so if your schedule doesn't allow maybe you're spraying or something like that we very much encourage you to join in. We have such a great lineup this year. I feel really really fortunate to be able to bring in some not only you know, obviously regionally known but international and national individuals to share their perspectives with us on a variety of different topics.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, let's talk about that. Let's talk about some of the speakers here. You got a, I see the first ones are, well, steve Olson, I can see his name. I don't know how to say Dan's last name and maybe, maybe you can get that.
Speaker 3:And you know I I think that's what's really interesting about this year is we really tried to focus on some of the pinch points and some of that pain point report that came out of Grand Farm as well, to really understand what can we bring to the ag community and the ag adjacent industries to better understand what's happening in the agriculture ecosystem. So we're actually starting it off on Tuesday morning with Dan Maffei he's the commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission and really talking through sitting down with the fireside chat with Steve Olson to talk through the federal shipping landscape. What does that look like Getting?
Speaker 3:our commodity not only out of the upper Midwest but launching that across our seaways. That global trade environment really talking through, what does this look like? What is the future of that? You know there's always those regulatory hurdles. We all know that the landscape is ever evolving and I'm really interested to hear Commissioner Maffei's competitive you know how can we maintain our international competitiveness and really that rural market access for our community? Really really fortunate to be able to have Commissioner Maffei join us. In fact it was a connection through SB&B Foods.
Speaker 3:We all know Bob Sinner out there really connected us to Commissioner Maffei and really appreciate him doing that, continuing that conversation. Then, after that is a panel of transportation experts Kate Ferguson with our Duluth Seaway Duluth Seaway Port Authority, I should say. And then Amy McBeth she's with Burlington, northern Santa Fe. Such a good insight on how they're really utilizing that technology to increase their efficiency, effectiveness but also safety, which I think is something that we forget about with rail, and kind of an interesting perspective. Also, rail is not federally regulated but it's all privately owned and so I think we forget about that with that transportation hurdle, with that. And then we have a local perspective that has really launched innovation to make our community much more efficient and effective Mike Metzger from MnDAC Farmers Cooperative he's that executive vice president talking about some of those autonomous vehicles that they utilize for sugar beet harvest and beyond. So those innovations. And then also talking about some of the policy that goes along with all of their roles rail, sea and obviously trucking so excited about that.
Speaker 3:Then we're going to have some industry insights, two of them. One we're unveiling our community workforce partnership research related to the rural workforce landscape through that NSF AgTech Engine in North Dakota, that award that we received, some of you may know it by farms. Dr Lynette Flage from NDSU Extension is going to be sharing that report. I've been in on that research. It's going to be nothing groundbreaking but what I will say is it's affirming to what we know about the workforce landscape throughout North Dakota and the upper Midwest related to agriculture. So excited to have her.
Speaker 3:We have Kayla. She's from the Bank of North Dakota and she's our sustainability officer. Sustainability sometimes gets a negative context when it comes to rural America and our agriculture landscape. So she's going to talk about what are some of those innovations that's happening through Bank of North Dakota with some sustainable and transformative sustainability practices, some finance that's available for that, some practical innovation. Then, another thing I'm really excited about was we have another industry insight from Beth Richardson. She is the consulate general from Canada and what I can tell you is I've had some conversations with her staff and uh in preparation for egg tech week and she's going to share that view from Canada and I think you know that is a we are really interesting perspective.
Speaker 2:Canada has been a little bit of a topic lately with the smoke that's been coming down and, and so I hope blame her exactly. I hope we're welcoming, I hope we got our north dakota, minnesota nice pants on and and uh. We, like you said, we don't blame her and and uh, but I'm I'm guessing people will ask her about it.
Speaker 3:They won't help themselves yeah, and then you know we're really finishing out the the summit with two um kind of interesting perspectives.
Speaker 3:The first one is from Dr Lardy from NDSU, which we all know is going to be helping us with a fireside chat with Dr Chris Ryan he's the president and chief operating officer of GEVO talking about some of the things that are happening up in Richardson, north Dakota, lake, preston, south Dakota, talking about carbon, talking about the pipeline and some of those things, but also what does that mean for the ag industry and how do we best collaborate and set us up for the future. And then we cannot talk about, we cannot have a summit, I don't think, without talking about policy and what is the both local, regional, statewide, but then also the national landscape when it comes to policy and some of those international policy things as well. So very excited, to wrap it up, that we have Zach. He's from our National Council of Farm Cooperatives. He's going to moderate a panel with Kevin Price and just really sitting down and talking to him about what is the future of the farm bill. Also, colin Peterson, I think we all know that name.
Speaker 3:He'll be up there also sharing his historical perspective on policy, and what does that look like? So it will be a really jam-packed agenda, but worth your while.
Speaker 2:So okay, 8 to 11. 8 to 11. And you're going to talk about transportation, workforce sustainability, carbon policy all of that in three hours.
Speaker 3:I can tell you I have to give kudos where kudos are deserved. Our events team took my ideas and they were able to translate them into jamming everything into that time frame. The other thing that's unique about our summits that I wanted to mention, steve, is you get to interact.
Speaker 3:So if you have questions, even if you're online, if you're sitting in a sprayer which that might be my reality with my spouse right know, if you're sitting in a sprayer, which that might be my reality with my spouse right If, even if you're sitting in a sprayer or you're sitting in our audience and you have a question, we do live question and answer with all of the individuals, and so it's a great time for you to get your questions answered and honestly share your perspective and what matters to you.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is. That is. That is so fun. I, I, I can't wait. This is really exciting. Okay, so once we get done with that, then where should people go after 11?
Speaker 4:Well, I think, for starters I think, just getting everybody on the same page the best resource if you are planning on coming up for more than one day of Ag Tech Week next week is to just go to the Ag Tech Week Fargo website, which is agtechweekfargocom.
Speaker 2:Perfect. I'm glad you mentioned that. We're running short on time again on this segment, so we're going to come around. But I'm on that website. It's a great website. I don't know who built it, but it's a great website. It's got the calendar right there.
Speaker 4:The folks over at our marketing team are going to really love that. You said that they work really hard, but no, I really love that. You said that they work really hard, but no, I think Tuesday we've got a couple of different socials and meetups that are going on. One that comes to mind is there's going to be a Kernza beer release. So if you're familiar with Kernza, actually there's a farmer coming up for our event from the kind of Traverse County area and the Browns Valley area. That was kind of a pioneer in the Kernza industry. So it's kind of nice to see a few different tie-ins.
Speaker 3:Is that Ann? That is Ann. Yeah, Ann, Don't leave me, give too much away. Oh boy, I'm excited.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're again we're out of time already on this segment, so when we come back, we're going to talk more about that, because I'm a beer, I like beer, so we're going to talk about that Me too, all right. So thanks again to Piper's Auction Realty and Piper's Land Management for sponsoring this program, and we'll be back with more insight about Ag Tech Week after this short break.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Steve Link with Piper's Auction and Realty.
Speaker 2:If you've missed any of our past episodes or missed and want to go back and listen to something we've said earlier in the show, go to Piper'scom and click on the podcast tab and you will see them all listed there the podcast tab, and you will see them all listed there. And I want to thank Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty and Pfeiffer's Land Management for your trusted partner in farmland sales and management for sponsoring this show. All right, we were just getting into. We still haven't got past day one. On the Tuesday, the 10th, we talked, we skipped. Actually you skipped to the fun part on that day. You missed bushel buddy. I see that on the calendar and I don't know if you want to touch on that a little bit, or that's Bushel's thing. You want to touch on that?
Speaker 4:Bushel's, of course, a great partner of ours, so we're happy to talk about their conference as well. We'd love to see as many folks attend all three conferences and the various different events that go on. But just as you just thanked your sponsors, we should do a good job and mention our sponsors and thank them. Our premier sponsor for Ag Tech Week this year is Ag Country Farm Credit Services and they are truly, truly a fun partner to work with. This is their second year in a row being kind of the lead sponsor for Ag Tech Week and I think that just speaks to the heart of what they're trying to do. You know they are such a community-oriented farm credit service system and I think when you think about the farm credit system and how that all operates, you know truly a rural-focused initiative and a nationwide effort. The local folks here truly have been great partners for I know both us at the chamber or at the Grand Farm and, of course, over at the chamber as well.
Speaker 4:But getting into Wednesday, bushel's conference is called the Buddy Seek Conference and that's because really it's for their customers to kind of ride along with their staff, truly try to figure out what is coming up for their products, what's coming up new and as well as take in some industry trends and some industry takes.
Speaker 4:They're kind of a really unique industry where they primarily deal with grain dealers and in the grain supply chain. So for them, their conference is really focused on how do we deal with logistics, how do we deal with the software and the back end of these kind of complex or some of these more complex pieces of our ag supply chain. So kudos to them for being able to figure all that out what was it 15 years ago and just be able to continually make new products and make them relevant, make them truly speak to what farmers and ranchers are needing. But there are several other things going on on Wednesday too that I would love to talk about. So we started for Grand Farm. We're hosting Startup Brew, which is our weekly sort of church for entrepreneurs that we love to host in the Fargo community.
Speaker 4:So it is from 8 to 9.30. And that's taking place at the Prairie Den downtown. So it's our offices for Grand Farm and Emerging Prairie and that'll take place. We're going to be highlighting three Canadian startups all coming down through the Canadian Ag Tech Accelerator. It's a fun partnership we have with the Canadian consulate and Beth is also going to make an appearance, so it'll be interesting to see if she's got anything new to say after attending the summit event the day prior.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Beth has a lot of great insight. The consulate general from Canada will be in attendance, as Stetson just mentioned, at the egg summit, but throughout the week just giving her perspective and sharing insights and that view from Canada, as she calls it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've had A Country on, I've had Grant Farms on. Now I have Chamber on. I haven't had Bushel on, so I'm going to have to have them on sometime on the show and introduce them. I'm sure they would love that Well and fun fact.
Speaker 3:Ryan Raguse, one of the founders, is a Traverse County product himself and farms within Traverse County.
Speaker 2:I know that last name as well too. So I get to go to a lot of these communities and I love the local spin that we're having here today. But I also I've been to a handful or better of the startup brews. I love attending those. If it works out on my schedule, I love attending those. I always feel good afterwards. There's great speakers and the people you can meet there is just fantastic. Yeah for us.
Speaker 4:It's really kind of this nexus point, especially when we have these kind of our grand farm takeovers of that emerging prairie program, because you get to kind of combine the folks that are really passionate about ag and agriculture and ag technology and combine it with the folks that have that entrepreneurial mindset and they're used to seeing a variety of different businesses in our local community that we get to highlight. So, yeah, it's a fun time where we get to put a lot of people together that may or may not have a lot in common, but usually one or two cool things comes out of that. But moving on through the morning, as you kind of see on, if you're following along with your AgTech Week Fargo website, kudos to you for one for going and checking it out and two.
Speaker 4:you'll see throughout that morning. We've got a couple of public and really fun events. So we've got a really fun event with North Dakota State University and some of their researchers this Innovate to Collaborate event going on. They are really focusing on pairing up startups that are coming into the region and interested in developing or starting or establishing themselves here in the Fargo community and pairing them with researchers at NDSU to see how they can help accelerate their product.
Speaker 4:Getting into the afternoon, we've got our Grand Farm Field Day. That is a chance for folks to see hands-on, up close and personal and really kick the tires as us farmers like to say on these ag technologies. So we have some really fun demos. Edney Distributing is bringing in some NIO robots, so those are some weed-eating robots. We've got some really fun partners of ours coming in. Farm QA is looking at doing a demonstration A few sensor companies showcasing what they can do as part of both our sensor sandbox plot and as part of what they can do on farms and ranches as well. And then, getting into the evening, then we get into probably the biggest and best party in all of Fargo. It is our.
Speaker 4:Ag Tech Week shindig and that has taken place in the Civic Center Plaza. So if you're familiar with where the Fargo Civic Center is, right there on 4th Street, it's just right there. The big green space it's right to the south of there and we're going to have vendors and some really fun surprises live music. We just got confirmation this morning that the Crop Dusters are going to make a reprisal of their performance a few years ago.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 4:So they're going to be performing that night at the Shindig, so that'll take place from 6 to 9 pm and then, right before that, field day is going to go from 1.30 in the afternoon to about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 2:Fun, fun. Okay, let's review a few of these things, certainly so. The collaboration with the university I love that. I love that I have a son that's going to india see you next year. Um, as we were talking off off air here, I, I really want, I want to go back with him because those those collaborations and those things, those researchers, um, you know I was, I was fairly active, but I feel like I could have been more active, and so I want to redo on that. I don't know if my wife would appreciate the college fun that I had there if I would redo that. I don't think I could handle that.
Speaker 3:I could not do that again Like the old school movie Steve. That's what that would be Exactly.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do that.
Speaker 4:I think that's the plot line for a few different movies of the mid-2000s there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, we can about imagine how that'll go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but your Grand Farm Field Day. So I have been out on the facility a few times and you watch videos of these autonomous things and you think you got it understood. There's nothing replaces going out there and seeing it in person, in action, happening and you're like, well, this can really happen, this can really work, this can really spray, this can really take the weeds and and and pluck them right out of the ground with this, uh, with this machine, I and it it's awesome and the equipment and um are some of the big manufacturers, the, the, the echo and some of them. Are they going to have some of their stuff out there?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah. So we have probably one of the more interesting demonstrations that we're in the final process of wrapping up and we should hopefully have all that information on the Grand Farm website soon. But we're looking to have a reprisal of a demonstration that made its first kind of appearance at Grand Farm back in February. So in. February we hosted the CTO for John Deere, jamie Hindman to talk about the autonomous tractor and the autonomous tillage and see and spray technologies that have all come out in the last few years.
Speaker 4:So we are tracking and we are thinking that we'll have an autonomous tillage demonstration at a Grand Farm during that field day.
Speaker 2:Well, that'd be a lot of fun for people to see and learn about, because that's the next thing coming right.
Speaker 4:Well, and a fun fact for you and for your audience. They've already kind of gotten to work on Grand Farm already. So a few weeks ago we were lucky enough to be a part of the Secretary of Agriculture's visit to Fargo and North Dakota and part of that John Deere came up and did a demonstration of their autonomous tillage. So then after that they were like well, do you guys need or want this thing? So we actually use that autonomous tractor to uh help kind of work in our granular herbicide uh at the grand farm. So that autonomous tractor has done some work.
Speaker 2:So oh, that's amazing. Yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 4:So uh, yeah, yeah, for by the year 2025 we certainly had some autonomous farming going on.
Speaker 2:Yep um, so that, um, and that party that sounds like so much fun. I can't, I can't, I can't wait for that. So, um, that, um, that is your wednesday, and then thursday. We have a few things, but we're out of time again on this segment. Um, no, actually we got a minute here, so let's talk about that. Is there some things going on thursday as well, too?
Speaker 4:yeah, thursday's a big day. Oh, that's called.
Speaker 2:That is our cultivate day oh, there we go, there we go. Okay, we don't have enough time to go through all of that just yet. We'll do that in the fourth segment here, so I'm glad we're not out of time totally in this show. Um, but again, everybody go back to or go to the website and you can see all of this laid out. Really nice agtechweekfargocom, and look at that. You can also Google the Chamber, midwest Summit, agriculture. You can get there. You can get to it from Grand Farms website. Get there from.
Speaker 2:Bushel's website, bushel's website, yep, so all of these areas. So Google it, it, you'll find it and make sure you participate in as much as you can in this coming week. So as we close out, uh, this third segment, again I want to thank pyfers auction and realty and pyfers land management. Go to pyferscom and learn about our staff, learn about we do look at all the upcoming auctions. We're booking out auctions for this fall. I think we have 30 or 40 auctions listed right now. There's also listings on there and you can meet our land management team. You can meet our equipment team and give a call and come out and do a free consultation any time.
Speaker 2:We'll be back after this short break, welcome back to the final segment of America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Steve Link, piper's Auction and Realty, and we're glad you stuck with us. You can always find more content and interviews at piperscom and click on the podcast tab and search America's Land Auctioneer, or go to Apple and Spotify and you can find us there too. Again, this program is brought to you by Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty and Pfeiffer's Land Management. From land auctions to management, nobody does it better than the team at Pfeiffer's All right. So we've been talking with Stetson and Gene all about Ag Tech Week, and we've spent so much time on Tuesday and Wednesday that we almost forgot about Thursday. And we can't forget about Thursday because Thursday Don't worry, Steve, I didn't forget.
Speaker 2:All right, that's Cultivate Conference. Turn it over to you guys. You guys tee this up and tell everybody what that's all about.
Speaker 4:Yeah, cultivate is truly one of my best days of the year. There are a lot of days that I think are in the top five. Cultivate usually takes the cake. The whole purpose of Cultivate is to bring together this ag tech ecosystem that we've built at Grand Farm and that exists here in the region and really kind of give them the tools and the excitement and the togetherness that they need to go in and solve those challenges and solve those problems that we're telling them exist and then helping them figure out exactly what they need. So we're going to get it started actually with the document that does just that, and that is our Regional Agriculture Pain Point Report, which was led by myself and a few of our other teammates at Grand Farm.
Speaker 4:But really what that is is that is a collection of pain points, economic data, best management practices, crop type, scope of opportunity a lot of really key pieces of information that those startups and those researchers and those corporations need. Even policymakers really need that data to be able to say these are the challenges in agriculture and these are the things that you know farmers are struggling with every single day. And we broke it down into four priority areas, with our first one being pest management. So how do we manage our crop diseases, our pests, our insects? How do we manage all of those different pieces? How do we incorporate, you know, new forms of scouting right, because I think every cooperative, from here to anywhere, will tell you that they are hiring for crop scouts and then they are desperate to get new ones. So you know that relates back to workforce, of course.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think we heard Stetson, we heard that and that's some of the things that we're going to talk about that Tuesday morning to set the stage with our community workforce partnership meetings that we had across the state is workforce is people and it's training the people that we have and retraining and upskilling and so that pain report really does hit home in a variety of different things and that's why we talk about workforce in ag. Sometimes we get lost if we're ag-adjacent or not in it every day.
Speaker 2:And isn't it funny. So they talk about workforce, they talk about innovation. Everybody's like, oh, you're going to take the jobs away. There's not going to be any jobs, there's not going to be jobs. Well, the reality is that's not the case. You're hopeful that you can take that workforce and be way more efficient and get way more done. But you're not going to replace them, you're just going to make them better.
Speaker 3:Is that a fair statement? 100 what we need to do between now and 2050 related to feeding the world. That is ever-expanding, and so we need to become more efficient with the people that we have so we can feed the world in a more efficient and effective manner. That's great.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and this regional ag pain point report goes even further than pest management. So our number two priority is the development of new agricultural equipment, which talks about some of those more complex issues like autonomy, and then also getting into our third and fourth priorities, that'll be soil health and precision agriculture. How do we kind of make all of those challenges, how do we make those better? How do we try and solve those? By exploring those practical innovations. Then we get into our first keynote, which I'm really excited about because I kind of I kind of fan out over this guy.
Speaker 4:his name is brian hefty yep some of your listeners probably know who he is. I would think everybody knows who he is. He is the ceo for hefty seed company and he's actually talking about soil health. So he's leading us off with soil health and how it's not just no till and it's not just cover crops, it's a truly a farm and a systems-wide approach that every farmer should take. After that, we're going to go ahead and we're going to hear some updates from our good friends over at the Farm's Ag Tech Engine. So those folks over there are going to get about 20 minutes to talk about all of the things they have been up to since getting that really groundbreaking investment into their work. And then another fun part of our morning is we get to actually hear from startups and some of the startups that are really involved in our ag tech ecosystem at Grand Farm. So we've got three that'll kick us off right before a break and they are Emeo, earnest Ag and Prospect Growth, all of which have plots at Grand Farm this year.
Speaker 4:Coming back from that, we've got Aman Anand from Nutrien and really he is in their innovation team. When you think of Nutrien, of course you think of fertilizer and crop inputs, but, just like any of your other kind of big Fortune 500 companies. Nutrien has a big investment arm when it comes to innovation and they're constantly looking out for again. How do they stay ahead of the curve? How do they know what's coming down the pipeline, whether it's biologics, whether it is advanced prescription maps? How do it thinking through different delivery methods? You know that is really fun to see where his insights are. Then getting into our second keynote for the day it is going to be Pete Nelson with AgLaunch. So AgLaunch is a farmer-focused venture fund that's got a national presence but they're expanding to the upper Midwest, so he is going to actually launch the upper Midwest farmer venture fund for AgLaunch at Grand Farm. Then we get into our third keynote for the day and that is going to be Hiro Iowanaga from Talus Renewables. And Talus Renewables is a really fun startup that is actually based in a few different places, but some of their staff are in Iowa and they're looking at how do we bring closer to the farm gate the production of anhydrous ammonia or ammonia-based products. So they've actually made a shipping container size kind of ammonium production facility that can be either run off of renewable energy or actually connected into the grid. So that's going to be fun to hear how that kind of plays into a big piece.
Speaker 4:But truly the kicking or ending off our main stage content is our grower feedback panel and this has been such a fun piece of Cultivate and it's really why Cultivate exists is to give those ag tech innovators the farmer insights and the farmer perspective that they need to hear.
Speaker 4:So we have Anne Schwagerl, pete VanBadaff of North of Carrington, greg Mueller, another resident of the kind of Moorhead and down into the Traverse County area, and that panel is going to be moderated by the senior editor for Dakota Farmer, sarah McNaughton, and that panel is, I think, going to be probably the crowning jewel of the day, really talking about what those farmers need.
Speaker 4:And then in the afternoon so from 2 to 4, we've got four really fun workshops that folks can kind of pick and choose where they go to, all focused around our big pieces of priority from that regional pain point report, so pest management, precision agriculture, agricultural equipment and soil health. At the end of the day we're going to end it off with a happy hour, more networking, more connections. But yeah, I think we had a short amount of time to get through that Cultivate Day but it's such a fun, fun day and I invite anybody to sit there and come in and if there are any farmers or ranchers listening in the audience, at checkout, when you go to buy your tickets, if you use code GROWER2025, you can actually get your ticket for free. Wow nice.
Speaker 2:Okay, that was a lot to unpack right there um, that was awesome.
Speaker 4:0.5 speed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly this is this is fantastic and we're out of time. I was going to put you guys on on the spot and maybe you can in 15 seconds. Why should our listeners goal attend?
Speaker 3:as a producer, as an egg adjacent individual, you need to be forward-focused. We need innovation, we need collaboration and we need technology to move us forward. This is the week to learn.
Speaker 2:Perfect Stetson.
Speaker 4:Yeah, ag innovation has truly driven the industry to a place where a lot of people thought it wasn't going to go. A lot of those ideas and a lot of those future thinkers are coming to Ag Tech Week, so be a part of the conversation.
Speaker 2:All right. So everybody sign up. Don't do anything else this Saturday morning until you sign up and attend as much as you can Go all three days. I think it sounds like there's going to be something a little bit different on each day. You're going to learn something every single day. Make sure you're there, Make sure you're in attendance, and this region is fantastic. You guys offering this is awesome. It's right here in the heart of the valley and I think that's great. You guys are great champions. So, Jane Stetson, I want to thank you guys again for coming in this morning and, listeners, make sure you go to the podcast. If you didn't catch something, go back and re-listen to it and get the websites and the phone numbers down. So this is Steve Link with Piper's Auction and Realty. I want to thank Piper's Auction and Realty and Piper's Land Management. Until next time, we'll see you down the road.