Collaboration focuses on laying the groundwork for growers to be compensated for good stewardship practices.

October 19, 2020

3 Min Read
grain bins Central Texas

Truterra and AGI SureTrack have joined forces in a initiative marking a critical step toward taking sustainability transparency to a much larger scale in the grain market, from the limited number of small pilot projects that exist today,  to the potential to offer growers an industry-first way to market their grain as identity-preserved based on sustainability metrics, without making any changes to existing infrastructure.

Truterra, LLC, the sustainability business at Land O’Lakes, Inc. also formally known as SUSTAIN, announced the new collaboration with AGI SureTrack, LLC, the technology business of Ag Growth International Inc. (“AGI”), a leading provider of equipment solutions for agriculture bulk commodities including seed, fertilizer, grain, feed and food processing systems.

Through this collaboration, users of the AGI’s SureTrack platform will have the option to access a Truterra Insights Score alongside agronomy, bin monitoring and grain market information within their AGI SureTrack dashboard. The Truterra Insights Score is a stewardship baseline measurement that is generated by Truterra’s best in class technology, the Truterra Insights Engine. AGI SureTrack is an IoT hardware and farm and facility management software platform that includes trusted solutions for bin monitoring, automated grain conditioning, soil probes, weather stations, seed selection, agronomy, operational and financial management. AGI SureTrack provides more than 140 layers of real-time data points, all seamlessly integrated into an easy-to-use platform. AGI SureTrack is an independent platform that captures data across the entire farm in a platform that is owned, controlled and built for the farmer.

This capability helps to position sustainability as an important metric alongside yield, quality, grain content and other factors that growers and buyers of grain consider when buying and selling grain. More and more food, feed, fuel and fiber companies are building sustainability into their sourcing requirements in an effort to reduce environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions. The venture between Truterra and AGI works to ensure growers are well-positioned to meet this growing demand without major infrastructure changes, preserves their freedom to operate, and supports on-farm decision-making that balances profitability and environmental return-on-investment.

“This collaboration focuses on laying the groundwork for growers to be compensated for good stewardship practices – and to deliver new ways for growers to derive value from their farm data – at scale,” said Amanda Neely, senior manager, technology and innovation, Truterra. “Across food and agriculture, there is a lot of excitement about new initiatives focused on paying growers for certain sustainability practices, but, frankly, those projects cover a very limited number of growers and acres.”

Nelly added at Truterra, they believe there is enormous untapped value and potential in the market for sustainability. “What we are doing here is focused on the big picture: building the infrastructure that could allow any grower, anywhere, to use their farm data to market their commodity crops as identity-preserved based on sustainability metrics. Ultimately, we hope to enable growers to tap into premium opportunities with midstream and downstream partners, to the benefit of their farm businesses and to the planet.”

“We are excited to offer users of the AGI SureTrack™ platform an even more comprehensive view of all of the factors impacting profitability, performance and sustainability across their farm business,” said Tim Close, AGI president and chief executive officer. “Looking ahead to the future, this new capability takes us a step closer to a future where growers can market sustainably-grown grain to any buyer, and make it easier for buyers to verify to end users that grain meets specific sustainability standards, using the AGI SureTrack platform.”

Currently, the Truterra network touches 19 states and crops including corn, soybeans and wheat, and harnesses the leadership and support of the Land O’Lakes network, which touches half of the harvested acres in the United States.

This collaboration is part of Truterra’s broader efforts, in addition to its grower-focused offerings, to create the market conditions to drive demand for stewardship by connecting the dots between what is happening on the farm to consumers. For example, Truterra has partnered with world-class companies in the food value chain that are interested in supporting voluntary approaches to helping growers advance their sustainability, including the Campbell Soup Company, Tate & Lyle and Nestlé Purina.
 

 

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