Future of Agriculture

CattleMax: https://www.cattlemax.com/CattleTags.comCattleScales.comCattleDNA.comRanching.comTerrell Miller is the Founder and CEO of CattleMax, the most widely used cow-calf management software in North America, trusted by producers in more than 70 countries. A cattle rancher himself, Terrell has spent over 25 years focused on practical, producer-first record keeping that supports better decisions and usable data. He also leads the team that publishes the Ranching.com weekly newsletter, reaching more than 95,000 producers, and brings the cow-calf producer’s perspective to collaborative efforts across the cattle industry.

Rancho Gordo: https://www.ranchogordo.com/Today’s episode is a real treat for me. Some of you know that I grew up on a small farm in Northern California that sold livestock, poultry and pumpkins directly to consumers. Then most of my career has been spent in large scale commodity agriculture. Which is why I’ve always been interested in how e-commerce can be used to scale direct to consumer business models. Admittedly there aren’t a ton of great examples of this. But we definitely have one for you today in Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo. Twenty five years ago Steve started growing heirloom beans and selling them at a local farmers market. That led to conversations and the realization that he could build a business by as he says “imposing his taste” for heirloom beans on other people. That has grown by leaps and bounds and I think you’re going to be blown away by the success of his company, Rancho Gordo. This episode also offers a ton of lessons about finding and creating true fans, beanfreaks as Steve calls them, and building a thriving business by surprising and delighting them time and time again.

Subscribe to Upstream Ag Insights: https://upstream.ag/"33 Mental Models For The Modern Agribusiness Leader" Upstream Ag Insights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@upstreamaginsights2821This is probably long overdue to host Shane Thomas on the show. Shane, as many of you already know, writes the very popular newsletter Upstream Ag Insights. He has been providing extremely detailed analysis to subscribers for several years now, and I have been lucky to know Shane since I believe before he started the newsletter. We met at a seed conference in Chicago I think back in maybe 2019. For the past couple of years Shane has been able to go full time on writing his newsletter, and I highly suggest you subscribe if you haven’t already and take it a step further to become a paid subscriber to support the incredible work Shane does every single week. In addition to Upstream, Shane has a background in agronomy, ag retail, sales, marketing, strategy and precision agriculture. This allows him to bring together all the latest news in agricultural technology and business to articulate how it impacts the industry. He’s based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This episode came about around the first of the year when I revisited his 2025 post titled “33 Mental Models for the Modern Agribusiness Leader”. I think all 33 of these are important for every listener of this show to be aware of. I didn’t think listing all 33 would make for a very good podcast episode, so I choose a handful of them. I think we get to six or seven today. Most of these ideas, Shane dug up in his extensive research that he does, and found really clear ways to apply them to agribusiness contexts. Some are combinations of ideas, and there are probably a few Shane originals in there as well.

Follow Josh on X: https://x.com/JLinvilleFertStoneX website: https://www.stonex.comYouTube Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLseYUvaoguNifbmL84zX3plTPt4HGt-MFJosh Linville is the vice president of fertilizer at StoneX Group Inc. Growing up in northwestern Missouri on a family farm growing tobacco crops and cattle, Josh brings a unique perspective to the fertilizer markets. With over 20 years of experience in this industry, Josh has operated in roles that have given him market perspective as a North American Logistics Specialist, US-based Nitrogen Producer, and General Manager of Commerce in Melbourne, Australia. Josh and his team, which spans the globe, have worked hard to educate the market on how to use the fertilizer futures markets to not only offset price risk, but also to be able to sell produce to farmers much sooner. for fertilizer producers to start their physical sales programs.

Stock Cropper website: https://thestockcropper.com/The StockCropper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheStockCropperFollow Zack on X: https://x.com/zebulousprimeConnect with Zack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-smith-5681911b7Today’s episode features a repeat guest: Zack Smith of Stock Cropper. Zack is an ideal guest because he’s both an independent thinker and a doer. Someone who is putting his own skin in the game to make his vision for the future of agriculture a reality. Today we talk about his company’s recent pivot to focus on what they call the drive. No, not a computer drive, and self contained motor that can be mounted on any moveable poultry or livestock pen to make it autonomous, solar powered, and still secure from predators or the potential for escapees. Think of it like a trolling motor for rotational grazing. I loved the idea of stockcropping and the first product which was called the clustercluck. And I have to say I’m even more bullish now with how he has adapted his technology to this more consumer-friendly product. It seems like a real gamechanger and inflection point for Zack’s young company. This story hits on a few really interesting trends: first of course is regenerative agriculture, which talks a lot about livestock integration but there are very few options out there to do this at scale. Another is this trend of food sovereignty - the homesteaders and others that want to play an active role in producing some of their own food. Brining tech to these trends is super interesting and I think you’ll be really compelled by Zack’s story. Zack Smith is a farmer and agricultural entrepreneur who's been focused on coloring outside of the lines of conventional agriculture since 2020 with the creation of his company Stock Cropper Inc. Stock Cropper over the past 6 years has created a regenerative farming system called Stock Cropping that intersects row crops and livestock made possible by an multispecies grazing barn solution called the ClusterCluck 5000. The system and invention was featured in the 2024 film documentary, "Food Inc 2 Back for Seconds." as well as at Precision Plantings PTI farm in Pontiac Illinois where the Stock Cropper system in 2024 and 2025 have shattered the all-time site production corn records at 426.7 bu/A and 434.9 bu/A as well as the highest profitability compared to all other innovations at the PTI farm. However, because of the limitations of independent meat processing options for farmers, in 2023 Stock Cropper began to pivot away from the top down approach of feeding the world , to the bottom up approach of helping people feed their families by developing devices to reduce the pain points of growing their own protein. Since then they've developed the ClusterCluck Pico and most recently ClusterCluck Drive and have launched a venture capital campaign in March to bring these products to market in the coming year.