AquaSpy: https://aquaspy.com/

On the show today is Bruce Moeller, before buying AquaSpy in 2009 Bruce was already a serial entrepreneur, a former president of a publicly traded company, and an author of two books. He successfully grew and exited Culture Works and Drive Cam, which was an early dash cam company. He decided to apply the idea they used at Drive Cam to use technology to capture what hadn’t been easily recorded previously, to agriculture. Specifically in-situ monitoring of soil conditions around a plant’s roots.

So Bruce and his team bought AquaSpy, a company out of Adelaide, Australia in 2009, so really early in this part of agtech, and they’ve been operating it ever since. Bruce is not from an ag background, but as you’ll hear he looked at this as more of a feature than a bug.

To describe AquaSpy, Bruce uses the analogy of the ecosystem of the rhizosphere, this area of soil around the roots of having it’s own weather. And AquaSpy being a tool to check the weather down there, which has all sorts of applications, especially with their latest feature, which allows them to also measure in-situ nitrogen in real time.

We talk about how AquaSpy is approaching their technology and the problems it solves for farmers, and we talk about how AI is enabling them to move in a more predictive direction with the data they’re collecting.

Five Questions About The Ag Robotics Revolution (FIRA 2024 Reflections)

The Next Great Ag Equipment Brand will be Autonomy-First with Charlie Andersen of Burro

Autonomous Sprayers with Gary Thompson of GUSS

Making Spot Spray Technology Accessible With Jaisimha Rao of Niqo Robotics

The Path To Superhuman Farming with Curtis Garner and Brent Shedd of Verdant Robotics

Category Design with Dan Schultz

THE BIG REGRESSION (by Jason Fried on X)

I attended FIRA USA a few months ago, which is a great event focused on agricultural robots and autonomous solutions. Like I did last year, I wanted to share some reflections on the current state of the ag robotics sector.

Today you'll hear from AgTonomy CEO Tim Bucher and Ecorobotix CEO Dominique Mégret on today’s episode about how autonomy in agriculture is much more than a way to reduce labor needs. It’s about re-thinking what it means to farm better.

And while these solutions are finding their footing, we’re still a long way from widespread adoption. We talk about both the opportunities and the challenges of ag robotics and automation on this episode!

Podcast episodes featured:

1. Where Will Demand Come From? | Damian Mason Podcast
2. Will China’s cheaper tractors disrupt ag equipment? With Lachlan Monsbourgh | Agtech - So What?
3. Reducing Weeds and Pests with Regenerative Mulching Systems with Erwin Westers | The Regenerative Agriculture Podcast
4. Field Intelligence: Elliott Grant on AI in Agriculture | Fresh Takes on Tech
5. Ag's Efficiency Preoccupation Problem with Andrew Hoelscher of Farm Strategy | The PaceSetter Podcast
6. Rethinking Food and Ag Investments - The Quiet Trends Reshaping The Industry | The Modern Acre
7. Genetic Progress Made Simple: Feed Intake, IVF, and AI Tools for Cattle | Farm4Profit

For the third year in a row, I contacted the hosts of seven different ag podcasts to see if they would identify one of their episodes from this past year that they think is most indicative of where the agriculture industry is headed in the future.

Once again, they all came through and I’m excited to share clips with you from these seven podcasters. Some of the themes are similar to last year like genetics and AI. Which I think is a good sign. If the themes changed every year it would probably be an indication that were wrong. Haha. But there are new themes that I think you will definitely find interesting. Themes we will be discussing today include the struggling farm economy, the growth of foreign agriculture equipment, the rise of systems-based thinking and regenerative approaches on farm, where artificial intelligence is making an impact in agtech, Food as health and what that means for agriculture and how genetics is changing the game in cattle and really every area of agriculture.

Other Episodes Referenced:

1. Where is Agriculture Headed in 2025 and Beyond? Insights from 7 Different Ag Podcasts
2. FoA...