Innovation Takes Root On The Farm

Mar 17, 2016

What comes to mind when you think about innovations in agriculture? Most people’s thoughts tend to focus on the shiny new products agriculture companies roll out each year, like new hybrids inputs and precision-ag applications.

While technology plays a major role in moving the industry forward, innovation also emerges quietly and consistently on the farm, from farmers who embrace newer ideas and drive change.

Here are three farmers breaking the mold to help advance the soybean industry, leading by example through implementing change on their farms.

Water wise

Annie Dee, from Aliceville, Alabama, has been an early adopter of numerous farm innovations, from broadcasting cover crops over live corn to installing a repeater tower for improved internet connectivity. She’s focused recent innovation efforts on using water wisely.

“We put in a 125-acre reservoir to collect water in the winter and redistribute it in the growing season, and that’s made a huge difference. We have 18 pivots, which we can control from our phones or computers.”

All in on high oleic

While many farmers are dipping their toes in the high oleic soybean market, Al Osterlund, from Albion, Indiana, has fully embraced the new product by converting 100 percent of his commodity soybeans to high oleic varieties.

“As growers, we need to look at all the opportunities we can to maximize our profits, and this is one that we don’t have to buy special equipment for anything else. To me, it was really a no-brainer.”

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.