Based on the 2026 State of the Farm data, farmers aren’t looking to replace their advisers with algorithms; instead, they want digital tools that remove the friction from the business side of their operation. The State of the Farm Report is prepared by Bushel with the goal of illuminating trends in three things:
- Farmer tech use
- Payment trends
- Supply chain
The most recent survey had 1358 respondents, and here are some of the key takeaways for farmers and agribusiness.
Killing The Trope of The Technology Adverse Farmer
The survey has been conducted since 2018, first by FarmLogs, which was acquired by Bushel. As Julia Eberhart explains, the overall takeaway of the survey from every year has been farmers are not resistant to technology adoption.
“Year after year, we’ve tracked the same data point—farmers’ willingness to adopt tech. And overwhelmingly the data shows farmers are willing to adopt. But we still have this stereotype that agribusiness says farmers won’t use it. And we see across all age groups, we see a willingness to try new technologies,” she says.
Eberhart points to key tenets to pull out from the results in how farmers prefer to do business.
“It’s valuable to both agribusiness and farmers,” she says.
Artificial Intelligence Has Arrived
While in early days of adoption, the survey proves farmer use of AI has broken through with 14% of respondents say they use AI tools on the farm today.
“20% of who said yes, had more than 5,000 acres,” Eberhart says explaining that perhaps larger scale operations are adopting the technology at an earlier pace. Adoption of AI is highest for respondents under 60 years old.
Using AI is an indicator for tech-savvy farmers as 70% of AI users from the study are also “willing to experiment with new technologies,” compared to 42% of the other respondents.
And 11% of respondents say they are unsure, which Eberhart could be a reflection of farmers acknowledging how AI is embedded in much of the software they use but they don’t directly engage with the AI.
What Does This Mean for Ag Service Providers?
Per the State of the Farm, technology enhances but does not replace relationships, interactions, and payments/transactions.
“It’s about how to make doing business easy,” Eberhart says.
She says to win the farmer’s business in 2026, ag retailers must empower their agronomists with tools to build loyalty, offer a mobile or web platform so farmers can easily review prices and quotes on their own time, and provide flexible, integrated financing options alongside traditional check payments.
The Differentiator Lies in the Relationship
In 2025, when Bushel asked “If the price is equal, what is the primary reason you purchase inputs from one retailer over another?”, 52.3% pointed to the “Relationship with staff & overall customer service.” In 2026, that number jumped up 8% to nearly 60%.
If you’re assuming younger farmers only want to interact through screens, the data shows the opposite–85% of farmers under 40 cite the relationship with the staff and overall customer service as their primary reason for choosing a retailer—the highest of any demographic.
Another demographic-driven trend is farms over 2,000 acres show a higher preference for text messaging and digital business. However, farms less than 500 acres show a preference to handle business in person.
In-Person Trust Bridged with Digital Convenience
“Farmers are more willing to share data than they themselves recognize,” Eberhart says. “Year after year, data sharing is rooted in who provides value, what relationship they are having, and who is providing easier ways to be sharing it.”
Farmers are most likely to share data when applying for a loan, with their bankers and accountants, as well as crop insurance providers.
“Those three are by far they are getting the most data sharing for good reason,” Eberhart says.
When it comes to input purchasing and service orders with ag retail, there is a nuanced shift. Farmers still highly value talking to their agronomist, but they want the actual transaction process to be much easier.
Digital Quoting
The end goal of “frictionless business” includes the final checkout. The Bushel research points out while the preference for how a farmer submits their order has remained relatively stable year-over-year, their expectations for what happens before the order has changed.
“Farmers are increasingly adopting digital tools to manage their broader operation, and they are bringing those consumer-level expectations to their retailer,” Eberhart says.
As such, farmers are seeking:
- Customized quotes
- Product availability transparency
- Price comparison tools
And much of that product information available when convenient to them on a portal or a digital storefront.
Support Traditional Payments While Expanding Financing
Eberhart says the State of the Farm has shown how 80% of agribusiness and farmer transaction is done by paper check.
“Over the years, we’ve seen steady growth of digital tools, and reliance on checks being reduced by 1% to 2% every year,” she says.
She says this emphasizes to meet farmers where they are at while simultaneously making it easier for staff to have simplified processes.
Two other financial trends have been in retail supplied financing and farmer credit card use—illustrating how farmers are seeking flexible payment options and new financing or credit programs.
In 2022, over 20% of farmers said they used a credit card to pay for their crop inputs, which fell to 8% in 2024, and then most recently in 2026 2.6% of farmers said they used credit cards.
At the same time, ag retailer financing products have doubled their use since 2022—going from 4.5% to 9%. And 17.3% of farmers said in 2026 they were using operating lines of credits for input purchases.
Key to Business in 2026
Per the Bushel report, the winning formula for ag service providers in 2026 and beyond is clear: Use digital tools to handle the paperwork so your team has more time to handle the handshake.
