- Cooperative Ventures, a venture capital fund formed by North America’s leading agricultural cooperatives, announced its first investment in Sabanto, a hardware and software company on the forefront of developing autonomous capabilities in tractors. Sabanto, founded in 2018, is deploying fully-automous machinery performing row crop field operations throughout the United States.
- Western Growers and S2G Ventures have announced the winner of the 2022 AgSharks Pitch Competition, with Nutjobs earning a record equity investment offer of $6 million from the event’s judges. Nutjobs transforms nutshell waste into bio-benign plastic alternative products that are bio-based, compostable and derived from secondary agricultural waste. By transforming nutshell waste into bio-benign plastics, Nutjobs creates plastic substitutes that are cost effective and environmentally sustainable.
- Veteran agronomist and seedsman Bob Joehl has been named director of research and product development for Direct Enterprises, Inc. (DEI). In the role, Joehl will be responsible for DEI’s in-house lab as well as multi-location field research.
- Purdue University’s Kurt Ristroph has received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop nanocarriers as an antibiotic delivery system to help plants fend off citrus greening disease.
- Xitavo soybean seed takes home over a dozen first-place finishes as the first rounds of yield trial results start to roll in. Xitavo soybean seed is owned by M.S. Technologies and exclusively distributed by BASF.
- John Deere has been named a CES 2023 Innovation Awards Best of Innovation honoree in the Robotics category, and an honoree in the Vehicle Tech & Advanced Mobility category for its fully autonomous tractor. This is the fourth consecutive year John Deere has received an Innovation Award from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).
- The Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) and the Almond Board of California announce a pilot project to reward California almond growers for conservation practices that result in measurable climate impacts. The project will test and streamline the creation and sale of environmental credits from almond orchards in California under ESMC’s Eco-Harvest program. Eco-Harvest stacks multiple ecosystem services credits, including increased soil carbon, reduced greenhouse gases, improved water quality, and water use conservation as a unique and attractive option for farmers and for buyers seeking high quality carbon and environmental credits.
- The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) inducted Sherman Ward “Bud” Bushnell, founder of Genie, into its Hall of Fame for a broad range of contributions in developing and advancing technologies that support the construction and agriculture industries worldwide.
- Riceland Foods, Inc. and Nestlé Purina PetCare (Purina) announced a new partnership to incentivize Riceland farmer-members to grow rice using sustainability practices starting in 2023. Purina will invest more than $1.5 Million over four years in the Riceland-Nestlé Purina PetCare Sustainable Rice Program. This investment will help Riceland farmer-members with the adoption of environmentally friendly practices, which often take added time and resources that can make implementation difficult. Purina will receive Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas emission reductions that result from the updated farming practices by participating Riceland farmer-members.
- Certis Biologicals announced that veteran sales leader Tim Riley has been tapped to helm the company’s U.S.-based sales team as National Sales Director for U.S. Ag Business.
- During the upcoming Dec. 1 Agri-Pulse webinar, “How precision pays with crop insurance,” participants will have a chance to hear from key leaders who will discuss how utilizing precision data for crop insurance not only provides efficiency but affects premiums and claim experiences. The webinar is free but registration is required. It takes place at noon central time and is sponsored by Farmers Mutual Hail. Sign up by clicking on this link.
