Cdn. companies enhance farm digitization

Nov 26, 2018

Two Manitoba-based companies announced partnership to better serve Western Canadian producers

By Kate Ayers
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Farmers Edge and Richardson Pioneer Ltd. recently announced a multi-year partnership to deliver digital agricultural products to Prairie producers.

Over 90 retail locations across Western Canada will offer the digital precision technology, a Farmers Edge release said today.

“When you combine two powerhouse companies, one of being Richardson, a powerhouse in crop inputs and grain marketing, and Farmers Edge, a leader in digital and data analytics, it creates a significant value for farms in Western Canada as they become digitalized,” Wade Barnes, CEO of Farmers Edge, said in an email statement to Farms.com today.

“This (support) is going to help growers with their agronomic solutions, (and) guide their decisions around crop inputs, (as well as) decisions around grain marketing. It will move the farm to become digitalized much faster, putting a lot more power in the farmers’ hands, while creating a stronger connection to their partners, such as Richardson Pioneer.”

The companies will integrate Farmers Edge’s tools into Richardson Pioneer’s retail network to combine quality and make it easier for producers to address their farm needs.

Richardson Pioneer offers personalized agronomic advice and access to global grain merchandising.

Farmers Edge has FarmCommand, an AI-driven and comprehensive digital platform that manages field data, the release said. This platform provides producers with real-time data visualization, advanced data analytics, rapid data processing, and machine learning, the email statement said. These tools transform field data into useable information that farmers use to make management decisions.

“With the ever-changing challenges growers face with weather, input costs and commodity prices, growers must base farm management decisions on reliable, accurate, and specialized data,” Barnes said in the release.

“The more innovative partners who can add value to our suite of precision digital solutions, the more successful our growers will be when using our technologies.”

The combined expertise of Farmers Edge and Richardson Pioneer will help producers increase profitability and manage their operations at a granular level, Chuck Cohen, senior vice-president of technology for Richardson International, said in the release.

esben468635 stock photo

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.