Grand Farm started with a community challenge and has grown into a nationally recognized platform for agricultural innovation.

In 2017, entrepreneur Barry Batcheller challenged the region to define its “major,” a specialty that could attract innovation and new business. The answer was agriculture technology. What followed was a shared vision to create a place where growers, researchers, startups, corporations, educators, and public leaders could come together to solve real agricultural problems with applied technology.

Led by our parent organization Emerging Prairie and supported by local leaders, that vision quickly gained momentum. By 2019, Grand Farm had land, early partners, and active projects. That same year, the Grand Farm Test Site was launched with support from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Senator John Hoeven, and partners like Microsoft.

In 2022, Grand Farm received a $10 million grant through the North Dakota Legislature and Department of Commerce to help build the Grand Farm Innovation Campus near Casselton, North Dakota. Since then, the campus has become a hub for field trials, research, demonstrations, events, and collaboration across the AgTech ecosystem.

Since opening, Grand Farm has continued to grow in both scale and reach. In 2025, UGA Grand Farm in Perry, Georgia launched its inaugural growing season, extending collaborative research and testing into the Southeast.

Today, Grand Farm is a network of more than 2,900 organizations working together to solve problems in agriculture through technology and innovation. With Phase II of the Innovation Campus now underway, the next chapter is focused on expanding capacity, deepening collaboration, and creating even more opportunities to test and scale agricultural innovation.