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Mike Howell (00:08):
.The Dirt, with me, Mike Howell. An eKonomics podcast where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by ekonomics.com, farming’s go-to informational resource, I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition research, news, and issues, helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in.
(00:38):
Welcome back to The Dirt, everyone. Glad you’re tuning in. Got a little bit different episode set up for us today. When I was travelling in North Dakota a couple of weeks ago, I ran into some people at a meeting from a company called Bushel, and everybody seemed to be wanting to get more information about Bushel, and it seemed like they were doing some really innovative things to help growers. So we wanted to learn a little bit about them today, and see what’s going on. To help us do that, we’ve got Kellie Livernois with us today. Kellie, welcome to The Dirt.
Kellie Livernois (01:05):
Thank you so much for having me, Mike. I’m excited to talk to you.
Mike Howell (01:08):
Kellie, if you will, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, and what you do, and also tell us a little bit about Bushel.
Kellie Livernois (01:14):
Absolutely. Kellie Livernois, I am the director of farm success for Bushel, although Bushel is focused on the agricultural supply chain as a whole, I really focus on the farmer side of things, representing our Bushel Farm software. I actually joined FarmLogs in 2016, and FarmLogs was then acquired by Bushel in 2021, and we rebranded that product, it’s now known as Bushel Farm just this year. I work very closely with farmers on basically adopting technology to reduce manual processes. A lot of people coming off of spreadsheets and starting to track things digitally, and how that really helps them in their day-to-day save time and money. Bushel as a whole is an independent software company based out of Fargo, and it really started as a simple app that a grain elevator could provide to their farmers, but now it’s really grown into a full software suite for the ag business to do better business with their farmers. We’re at over 2,600 grain facilities across North America, got a pretty good reach there. We do a little bit of everything from farmer, all the way up the supply chain.
Mike Howell (02:18):
Kellie, you mentioned the Bushel software, tell me a little bit more about that. What can growers do with that software?
Kellie Livernois (02:23):
We really reach growers a couple of different ways. Bushel Farm is the farm management software where they can do everything from plan their logistical day based on the weather of their fields, and then all the way through field level profitability based on integrations with their machine data, what’s happening there, bringing it all together in one picture, and really having a collaborative platform to work across the farm. That’s one way that we have actually over 50,000 people a month that use that application. And then Bushel also provides, like I had mentioned, the app to grain elevators, grain buyers, to provide to their farmers. It’s a free app that a local elevator or co-op might provide to the farmer, where they can see their scale tickets, cash bids, contracts, and then they can also do things like e-sign their grain contracts, e-signature, so they don’t have to worry about moving paper around. They can place offers for grain. They get push notifications, so communicate with their farmers that way. That’s the other way that farmers might see the Bushel name out there in their software.
Mike Howell (03:28):
Basically, this software is helping to eliminate a lot of paperwork, and save the growers some time. I’m assuming this can be done on their phone while they’re sitting in the combine maybe? Am I correct on that?
Kellie Livernois (03:39):
Primarily that’s where we see it done. You can do it from anywhere, desktop or mobile device, but we primarily see our users on their mobile devices, and that’s because they need to be on the go, at all times. It’s interesting, with the make offer for example, if a grower… They can receive a push notification from either their grain buyer in their Bushel app, or from their Bushel Farm notification that the market’s rallied. If it moves by 2%, they’ll get an alert saying what that means for their exact position, including their break even and all of that. If they get that push notification, decide they want to do something, they can do it right there from their phone, instead of having to stop and call in, and actually decide how they’re going to make time to do that, it’s all right there in the palm of their hand.
Mike Howell (04:21):
To make any kind of decision like that, it seems obvious that they’re going to have to build this database with some personal information, and get things set up before it starts. Is that right? And how much time is it going to take a grower to get set up if they want to do something like this?
Kellie Livernois (04:34):
That’s a good question. I’m going to talk probably on both sides of the fence there, so the Bushel app provided by the grain elevator could have schooler’s name, it could have frontier co-op’s name. If they just search the Google Play or app store for their grain buyer, they can download the app there, and log in, and immediately see their scale tickets, their contracts, their settlements, all sorts of good information about the business that they’re doing with their elevator. So that’s really no setup at all, it’s just the convenience of being able to access the information that they would typically call in to do, it’s kind of their portal there with their grain buyers.
(05:11):
And then the Bushel Farm app that they would find by going to the app store, Google Play Store and searching Bushel Farm, that’s their farm management software, where they’re going to likely, they don’t have to do these things, but they likely will want to map their fields, so uploading shape files, or connecting to John Deere, or Climate Fieldview to bring over those shape files, so that they can start tracking things like daily weather, historical weather on those field levels, as well as their field work, so what they planted, where, when, and what rates those were and then the cost associated. What we do is make it really easy to associate the cost with all of that. There is a little bit of setup and just getting it done the way that you want to, but it can be pretty quick and easy, depending on if you have your shape files, or a machine data connection already in place.
Mike Howell (06:01):
Sounds like some really interesting technology, and a good way for growers to help save some time and effort. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people writing down information on the back of a napkin or something, and then trying to find that napkin a month or two later when they have time to actually do the paperwork. Seems like this is pretty easy and straightforward to do, but with any new technology, we have some growers that really jump out there, and take on this technology, adapt it really quickly, and we have others that are kind of sceptical about it, and don’t want to change. They still want to write everything down, and keep it separate. How do we figure out how to get growers that don’t want to adapt new technology to take on this technology a little easier?
Kellie Livernois (06:39):
I really think it’s about meeting the farmer where they’re at. They don’t need to feel pressured or forced to use technology if they don’t want to, but we do a state of the farm survey and report that it’ll be coming out here relatively soon, and over 1,300, I think, respondents this year had said… Well, 90% of them said that they believe software is on average of importance or higher than that for the future of row crop farming. When you ask the question, “Do you think software is going to have an impact on the future of agriculture?” There’s not a lot of doubt that it will. It’s just about meeting them where they’re at, and if that’s what they are ready and want to do. And the convenience, it’s got to be able to offer value, or a reason for them to want to jump on board with something.
(07:23):
If it’s being able to see everything in one place rather than spending hours and headaches to try and find all that and figure out a way to consolidate it on your own, that’s a huge win for a lot of guys that can then save time and go about doing other things that would make them happier in their day-to-day. The other thing that we just heard recently, I think you had visit us in North Dakota, and we had our Buddy Seat Conference there is, grain buyers as well as the farmer spoke alike, that sometimes they need to be able to cut out the in-between in the talk that can happen and the time that that can take, and the more information that they can have at their fingertips, and the initial value that they can get from that first time using it, is really what then sells them to continue to adapt.
Mike Howell (08:11):
Kellie, you mentioned the Buddy Seat Conference, and I did not get to attend that, I was actually there for another event. Tell us a little bit about the Buddy Seat Conference, and what happened in that conference.
Kellie Livernois (08:21):
The Buddy Seat Conference was hosted by Bushel in Fargo in June of this year, and what it was was really bringing together our customer base as well as a lot of our partners, and really anybody in the ag space that wanted to talk about software in agriculture, and technology and agriculture, really. So we had some really great topics, AI, and how that’s potentially impacting agriculture in the future. Security, and then we heard from our customers about how and why they are adopting technology, as well as the farmer, and what that really means for them. A lot of great conversations just around technology adoption in the agriculture supply chain.
Mike Howell (09:04):
Anything we learned from that? Anything you want to share with anybody about what we learned at that meeting?
Kellie Livernois (09:07):
I think it’s really just that technology’s coming in every space. Sometimes they say that agriculture is behind, but really, what we see in our farmer surveys is that almost half of those respondents that we talked about in the state of the farm are already adopting software, and that 90% of them agree that it’s going to be a part of the future. So what does that mean? What can we do to just help move the supply chain along? Probably a lot of good learnings that I should summarise and get over to you, Mike, but that is, I would say, just that it’s coming, it’s exciting, people are willing to change and they’re willing to adopt, so we just need to figure out the best way to add value to the relationship.
Mike Howell (09:51):
Technology has really came a long way during the course of my career, and I still don’t think I’m all that old, my kids say differently, but I can remember when I first started working in row crops, my boss would send me out to go scout some fields, and I would have to find a payphone on the side of the road somewhere to call back and find out what I needed to do next, we didn’t even have cell phones back at that time. Just think where we would be without cell phones today.
Kellie Livernois (10:16):
Oh, it’s amazing. It’s absolutely amazing.
Mike Howell (10:19):
Kellie, a lot of growers are kind of scared of new technology, and my dad wouldn’t poke a button on a computer if he had to, he’s got a computer sitting on his desk, and it’s kind of a solitaire computer, he plays solitaire on it all day, he knows how to click one button. Do you have services that’ll help growers that may be a little overwhelmed by the technology, help them learn how to use this technology so they don’t mess something up?
Kellie Livernois (10:41):
First, your dad and mine have a lot in common, I’m very familiar with that, that desktop with the solitaire, repeat. We offer a lot of support where it comes from the grain elevator that is actually the one providing the app with their name on it to their farmers, and helping them educate, as well as the Bushel Farms. There’s, like I had mentioned, 50,000 plus people using that every month, and we honestly… It’s always been known, and raved about as easy to use, so it’s pretty intuitive. I’ve got my 80, 90 year old growers that call in and tell me how much they love their rainfall, and being able to keep up with the markets, and… ‘Cause there’s market price feeds, and there’s local prices, and all sorts of different things that they can get there. They love that type of information at their fingertips. And then there’s online knowledge base support articles, there is our support team that is top-notch, that sits in Fargo, and answers calls and emails all day to help any type of our customers, but definitely, our farmers get the most out of the technology.
Mike Howell (11:44):
Kellie, we sure appreciate you taking time to visit with us today and introduce us to this technology. Sounds like it’s something that’s definitely going to be able to help growers spend a little less time doing paperwork, and a little more time doing something that they need to be doing. Is there any closing message that you want to leave everybody with today?
Kellie Livernois (12:01):
As I talk to so many farmers that are just looking to eliminate the headache, and all the manual work of collecting paperwork, and getting it into one place, and that’s what Bushel is very much focused on, is taking out those manual processes, and hoping to integrate and consolidate as much as we can into the locations where they love to already be, live and use. To learn more about the mobile app from your elevator, I would check with them if you’re not already using it, or Bushel Farm is the farm management software, and bushelfarm.com is the best place to learn about that, and we’d love to have you and hear from you.
Mike Howell (12:35):
Kellie, we appreciate you joining us today, and listeners, we always appreciate you tuning in. It is time now that we’re going to move into our second segment where we talk about somebody famous in agriculture.
(12:48):
Now today we’ve been talking a lot about technology, and new technology that’s coming around these days. Today, I wanted to talk about Clarence Birdseye. He wasn’t an agronomist, he didn’t do a lot in agriculture, but the name probably rings a bell if you start thinking about the name Birdseye. Clarence Birdseye was an inventor, and he founded the modern frozen food industry, and Birds Eye frozen food company. He began his career with The U.S. government in the Department of Agriculture, and he was obsessed in natural science and taxidermy as a child. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and his work took him from the Americas, to west, to Newfoundland in Canada, where he became interested in food preservation and fast freezing.
(13:30):
He was taught by the ice fishermen there, under very thick ice, and minus 40 degrees Celsius weather, and he discovered that the fish that he caught there almost froze instantly after they were caught. But when he thawed those fish out, they still tasted fresh. He recognised that that frozen seafood sold in New York was of lower quality than the frozen fish in Labrador, and that this knowledge could be a lucrative invention for him. In the 1920s, in a hunting trip to Canada, this inspired the Birdseye food preservation method. Birdseye’s newest invention, the double steel belt freezer, in which cold brine chilled a pair of stainless steel belts carrying packaged fish, froze them really quickly. He received a patent for this invention, and is considered by many as the beginning of today’s frozen food industry.
(14:22):
Birdseye patented several other machines which aided in cooling produce and fish more quickly, and in 1927 he patented a multiple freezing machine, which was used as a basis for freezing food for several decades. In 1949, he won the Institute of Food Technologists, Babcock-Hart Award. Birdseye was introduced into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005, and he invented at least 12 food related products between 1924 and 1935. So next time you’re in the grocery store and see a package of these frozen vegetables or frozen meat products, remember Mr. Birdseye, and his contributions to this industry.
(15:06):
Listeners, thanks for tuning in. We really appreciate you doing this. And if you have any comments for us, please make sure you put those in the comment section. We really, really appreciate your feedback. If you have any ideas for future episodes, we’d like to hear those as well, or just want to reach out and say hello, that’d be great too. Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt.
