“We believe that Grand Farm is really going to become a major hub of ag-tech collaboration and learning,” shares Joe Heilman, General Manager of Intelligent Ag.
“The way we are able to bring together different companies doing very different and amazing things is a huge asset to a company like ours. Not only does it help give us more exposure, it also helps us connect with other companies to work more collaboratively.”
Intelligent Ag develops state of the art flow monitoring and control solutions for seeding, fertilizer, and sprayer machinery. Partnered with Grand Farm since January 2021, Intelligent Ag has been involved in many events, including launching their own product at Grand Farm. “We were able to combine our product launch event with other aspects which helped draw a larger and broader audience for all entities versus all of us working alone. This is really where the value of Grand Farm becomes real.”
When discussing the future of North Dakota, autonomy, and agriculture, Joe shared his vision of what lies ahead. “I believe Grand Farm will help attract the best ag-tech companies to the region. This, in turn, will help attract the best talent, equipment manufacturers, bio-tech, and chemistry companies to invest in this region as well. It will have a fly-wheel effect on the creation of new technologies and partnerships.” He ends by saying, “Ultimately, this will help all involved in the ag industry benefit tremendously and not only benefit the Midwest, but the world (maybe even outer space).”
Intelligent Ag stands in a position that is making major contributions to the future of autonomy in agriculture. “To achieve autonomy, one of the very first requirements is to be able to measure the performance of the machine. You cannot control what you don’t measure. We have developed some of the most unique, reliable, and accurate sensing technologies for measuring the flow of material such as seed, granular fertilizer, and liquid products. This will help enable closed-loop control of those materials over time and get one step closer to full autonomy.”
Along with setting their sights to the future of agriculture, Intelligent Ag also sees all the opportunities that the state holds. “North Dakota is already unique on the global stage of agriculture. We already produce an extremely wide range of crops and livestock coupled with extremely diverse growing conditions. This diversity leads to an incredible opportunity to develop solutions and test them under a wide variety of conditions. Intelligent Ag is going to play a very key role in helping growers better understand and modify their machinery to optimize performance, accuracy, and profitability.”
To learn more about Intelligent Ag and their work, you can visit their website.
