Fargo, ND (June 12, 2025) — Today at the Cultivate Conference in downtown Fargo, Grand Farm unveiled its 2025 Regional Agriculture Pain Point Report (RAPPR), a summarized analysis of the most pressing challenges facing growers across North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. The report highlights key barriers to productivity and innovation, and is intended as a blueprint for researchers, startups, policymakers, and industry leaders to develop solutions that solve relevant agricultural challenges for our region’s producers.
Making the announcement were Stetson Urlacher, Grand Farm’s Regional Ecosystem Coordinator, and Kathi Luther, a grower from Cass County and member of Grand Farm’s Grower Advisory Board.
Now in its fourth edition, the RAPPR was developed through a rigorous process involving direct outreach, literature reviews, and analysis of over a dozen commodity councils and grower organizations. This report is also based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award #2315315.
The report identifies four priority areas of challenges:
- Pest Management
- Agricultural Equipment Development
- Soil Health
- Site-Specific Crop Management
Each challenge is analyzed in terms of frequency, urgency, economic impact, and regional footprint, with the goal of creating a shared foundation for collaborative problem-solving.
“The RAPPR is a tool to focus our energy where it matters most,” said Stetson Urlacher, Regional Ecosystem Coordinator at Grand Farm. “It’s built from the input of the region’s growers and ag leaders and is meant to serve as a roadmap – so startups, researchers, corporations, and investors can align their efforts around the real-world needs of producers in the Upper Midwest. This report wouldn’t have been possible without our partners and growers and their trust in this work and our organization.”
The report makes clear that growers in the region face increasing pressures from herbicide resistance to rising input costs to equipment compatibility issues. It also identifies opportunities for innovation, including improved digital tools, site-specific data applications, rural workforce development, and targeted soil health strategies.
“This isn’t theory, it’s reality,” said Kathi Luther, Cass County farmer and Grand Farm Grower Advisory Board member. “It’s validating to see our voices turned into action. If AgTech ecosystem stakeholders take this seriously, it could drive real progress for farmers like me.”
The full 2025 report will be available to the public at grandfarm.com/growers and can be found here.
