NCI Market Update: Special Edition with Grand Farm
Andrew Jason, Director of Ecosystems at Grand Farm.
The Northern Crops Institute (NCI) hosted another monthly Market Update on September 7th, 2022. This month’s Special Edition webinar featured speaker Andrew Jason, Director of Ecosystems at Grand Farm. Grand Farm aims to capitalize on the region’s potential in the agriculture and technology industries, and is led by Emerging Prairie.
Jason’s presentation began with a video tour and overview of what Grand Farm is, what they do, and some of the work that they’ve engaged with recently. Featuring both Jason and William Aderholdt, Director of Program Management at Grand Farm, this video offered a comprehensive introduction to Grand Farm as an organization.
Grand Farm virtual tour/overview.
Subjects discussed during the video included Grand Farm’s desire and plans to connect the agriculture community with technology resources (and make the Red River Valley a leader in the agriculture technology industry) along with serving as a central hub for each facet of the agriculture technology sector. Grand Farm’s current plans for expansion include two buildings on a 140-acre site in Casselton, ND: an event center with modular offices, a test plot for use in work with their partners, and their emerging digital academy, which is designed to help fill the tech jobs that are emerging in the agriculture field.
Jason and Aderholdt also offered insight into a few of the interesting events Grand Farm participates in, which includes:
The Space Ag Conference (which sees them partner with the University of North Dakota to invite high school students from around the region to explore the linkage between space and agriculture)
Cultivate (which connects agriculture technology leaders with growers)
Autonomous Nation (which connects policymakers with the autonomous industry)
The Innovation Series (which involves smaller events designed to assist with networking and establishing connections in the agriculture technology industry)
In addition to covering these events that Grand Farm hosts, Jason and Aderholdt also discussed a few projects Grand Farm is currently working on. They include a “Herbicide Application Impacts on Crops” project and a “Fertilizer Supplementation on Crop Development” project. Both are working towards the established areas of focus for Grand Farm, and are destined to innovate the agricultural and technology world at large.
NCI Grand Farm Market Update presentation.
Once the video concluded, Jason advanced into his live presentation. His presentation echoed many of the comments made during the overview video. He touched upon Grand Farm’s mission, goals, pillars of initiative (policy, innovation facility, emerging digital academy, innovation platform, and ecosystem), and the conferences they host to connect with the communities they serve.
Jason went further in-depth in a few key areas of Grand Farm, and began with discussing what he referred to as the “Grand Farm ecosystem.” This includes corporates, startups, growers, education/academia facilities, and government entities tied together by Grand Farm at the center. He also shared details of a project Grand Farm is conducting in partnership with the American Crystal Sugar Company: autonomation of their sugar beet pilers. While the project continues to unfold, it’s progressing on-time towards completion in the near future.
$10M grant awarded to Grand Farm.
This and other work conducted by Grand Farm was largely made possible by a $10 million agriculture grant provided to them. This grant was monumental in allowing for Grand Farm to continue work towards achieving the goals they’ve set for themselves, specifically with a focus in agriculture autonomation. It also has allowed them to expand their event output, providing them more opportunities to engage with their community.
The Northern Crops Institute greatly appreciates Andrew Jason, William Aderholdt, and Grand Farm’s involvement and input in our webinar. At NCI, we continue to work towards fulfilling our mission of supporting regional agriculture and value-added processing by conducting educational and technical programs that expand and maintain domestic and international markets for northern grown crops. All of this wouldn’t be possible without the innovative ideas of guest speakers like these individuals.
To watch the recording, click the video below.
For more information about future webinars offered at NCI, click here.