Purdue Food and Agribusiness Executive Summit

Loftus Ranches

Data in agriculture is ubiquitous, data science is not. Despite the significant amount of time, energy, and money to collect data, the promise of data driven agriculture continues to prove illusive. However, data by itself does not provide enough insight to drive the business decision-making producers desire. In 2019, Patrick Smith of Loftus Ranches in Yakima, Washington began a journey to address the mountain of data, but death of data science, on his 3000+ acre hops, apples and specialty crops operation.

Investing in talented people to redesign the operation’s data structure and, in turn, developing a series of analytical tools driven by the data resulted in surprising insights. Patrick and his key partner, Tim Raiswell, have since expanded the scope of the data science team beyond Loftus Ranches to become Loftus Labs. A wholly owned subsidiary of Loftus Ranches, Loftus Labs offers data structure and analytics consulting to a number of agribusinesses in the Northwest. What first motivated Patrick and Loftus Ranches to make this investment? What were the driving factors that lead them to create a separate business unit? What benefits do they see in sharing the capabilities they have invested so heavily in? Where does Tim, see the future of data analytics and agribusiness and the future of Loftus Labs?

Allan Gray will be joined by Patrick and Tim to explore the first application of data science within Loftus Ranches and branching out to several other applications since the formation of Loftus Labs. Mini-cases will give first-hand knowledge of the transition from data collection to data management to data analytics, and finally, to data insights that drive decision-making.

In recent years, the business discipline of SCM exploded into popular news headlines. Some declared global supply chains “broken”, but many more fought diligently to recover from the unimaginable global disruption of shutting down and then restarting entire developed countries! Today, many companies are evaluating supply chain resilience and recovery and are working to implement supplier risk assessment and business continuity plans. These are important and good SCM activities, as “black swan” events will happen again.

Although much hype and attention are given to major supply chain disruptions, this session will explore how supply chain management is continuously tasked with meeting customer expectations in uncertain supply and demand environments. Day-in and day-out, SCM success is measured by customers, created by building supply chain capabilities aligned with business strategies and maximized when considering the complexities of uncertainty.

Managers in supply chain functions are often asked to provide outstanding customer service AND improved efficiency. Is this possible? Yes, such pareto moves are possible, but difficult. Bobby Martens, Dan Oh and Doug Lenhart (AgCertain) will discuss how many supply chains designed to be efficient and low-cost struggle to provide outstanding customer service because of uncertainty. For success, complexities of uncertainty must be considered when (re)designing and managing supply chains. In food and agribusiness sectors, distinctions such as animal and plant biology and unique consumer expectations create additional constraints and opportunities.

ESG (environmental, social and governance strategies) has been growing as an important C-suite focus over the last decade, now representing a $27T market growing at 17% per year. As this significant topic gains more visibility, how will agriculture determine which strategies will add the most value to the food and agribusiness ecosystem and ultimately, the shareholders?

Dora Lutz, ESG strategist says, “While other industries are beginning to realize that managing the ecosystem’s health is the right thing to do in order to sustain their long-term business, agriculture inherently understands the importance.”

In this session, Dora will be joined by industry guests: Natasha Cox, Farm Credit Mid-America; Rob Aukerman, Phibro Animal Health; and Gregg Halverson, Black Gold Farms, for a conversation about how their organizations are addressing ESG. She will also discuss the new questions emerging as ESG pressures continue to grow. For more information around these questions and steps an organization can pursue, read Dora’s recent blog: Creating Social Impact with an Eye Towards Profitability.

Climate FieldView

Over the last couple of years, an overwhelming number of agtech organizations have been attracting investors. According to AgFunder, an estimated $15 billion investment has been made in upstream startups in 2021. Undoubtedly, there is competition, as well as collaboration, to lead the way and provide value in this space.

As a result, companies across the globe are developing digital solutions that are assisting farmers in using data to make decisions that drive efficiency, sustainability and, ultimately, profitability. Bayer’s Climate FieldView (CFV) is an example of a platform designed to help farmers take data and information to insights and recommendations, adding value to their operation.

Alexandre Pimenta, Head of Climate FieldView Latin America, and Nick Ohrstrom, Director of Global Product Marketing at Climate FieldView, will join Luciano Castro and Marcos Fava Neves for a discussion exploring the challenges and opportunities for digital agriculture in the Brazilian and U.S. marketplaces. Participants will have the opportunity to share their perspective and experience in this quickly expanding world of digital business models.

As innovation and technology adoption in the agribusiness sector have evolved, many new ideas have become mainstream while others are so disruptive it still isn’t clear what form they will ultimately take. During the summit, Aidan Connolly of AgriTech Capital will further investigate some of these trends and challenges with this thought in mind: While agriculture has innovated over centuries to feed a planet of 8 billion people, the pace of change and the pressures to disruptive traditional models have never been greater. How will agribusiness support, sustain and eventually accelerate this innovation to continue producing abundant, affordable food?

Connolly’s session will also include Arama Kukutai, CEO of Plenty (and formerly the CEO of leading agritech VC Finistere); Bill Buckner, CEO of Harpe Bio (one of the leading startups in the field of crop biologicals); and Anna Rath of Vestaron (and executive committee member of Biotechnology Innovation Organization). The group will explore the shape of the future in agritech and agri-food with a discussion centered around innovative ideas, new concepts and thought leadership across an array of agri technologies.

Be sure to download Connolly’s recent book, The Future of Agriculture, where he captures challenges, trends and recommendations for moving forward.

Lachlan Campbell, CEO and Founder of ProAgni, is a producer who collaborated with three other industry experts in different parts of the supply chain – Fiona Soulsby, Robert Bell, and Warren Lee. These four entrepreneurs co-founded ProAgni, an Australian-based company providing nutrition for cattle and sheep without antibiotics. This means producers can utilize feed more efficiently by reducing induction time, particularly in feedlots, which translates to significant cost saving implications for the producer. Being able to produce more with less is important economically. As ProAgni also has the capacity to reduce methane emissions, the results have positive impacts for the environment.

Damien McLoughlin (UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School in Ireland) will be joined by Lachlan Campbell and Warren Lee to discuss how they built their team and developed their technology, how they initially built their business in Australia, and how they’re looking at a business plan for a go-to-market strategy in the U.S. The discussion in the room will focus on how producers and industry experts can develop new business models. More importantly, ProAgni will have the opportunity to learn from participants in order to further grow its business.

Just last year, ProAgni was awarded Grow-NY®’s $1 million grand prize in its annual competition that attracts innovative, high-growth food and agriculture start-ups from across the globe.

After our many intense strategic conversations, we will wrap up the Purdue Food and Agribusiness Executive Summit with Jay Akridge leading the group through a discussion summarizing key takeaways and action steps.