AGCO 2014 Operator of the Year winner

Dec 05, 2014

Brent Klein Recognized for Dedication to His Profession and Community

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Praised for his quality work and strong customer relationships, Idaho professional farm applicator Brent Klein has been named by AGCO Application Equipment as 2014 Operator of the Year. He was selected from among four finalists for

the prestigious honor at the 2014 Agricultural Retailers Association Annual Conference & Expo held Dec. 2-4 in New Orleans.

Klein, with Simplot Grower Solutions of Ashton, Idaho, has 17 years of application experience, applying up to 38,000 acres annually. Customers specifically ask for him to perform their applications, and he is recognized for his commitment to do a professional job, even during the longest and hardest days and weeks in the fields.

Klein praised the Operator of the Year program for showing appreciation to application professionals. “The guys with their wheels on the dirt sometimes are the last to get recognized,” he said. “I was kind of speechless when I was announced as the winner, because these other finalists are just as deserving.”

Candidates for the annual AGCO Application Equipment Operator of the Year program are nominated by agri-retailers throughout North America based on their overall professionalism, customer service and support for their communities. Klein received a new Harley-Davidson® motorcycle and all nominees were presented with a certificate of recognition, letting them know their professionalism and dedication are not going unnoticed.

“Operator of the Year winners are the best of the best, the go-to guys whom retailers and their customers rely on to get the job done,” said Conor Bergin, tactical marketing manager for AGCO Application Equipment. “Brent certainly meets that impressive standard. He’s highly valued for his overall professionalism, commercial application experience and dedication to help his customers maximize their crop production.”

Around his busy schedule, Klein is also active in his community, working with his local 4-H to support the Fremont County, Idaho, Fair. He also assists growers who have their own application equipment by providing advice and troubleshooting tips.

Now in its ninth year, Operator of the Year is designed to pay tribute to the top custom applicators throughout the U.S. and Canada who spend long hours in the field every season, skillfully applying fertilizer and crop protection products over thousands of farm acres while operating sophisticated application equipment.
The other 2014 finalists were Jeff Hammond of Henderson, Mich., Jeff Morris of Hammond, Ill., and Jerry Deese of Marion, Ark.

Source: AGCO

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.