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Farm Business In 2026: Relationship First, Digital Convenience Second

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:48:24 GMT

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.

FBN Spins Out Its Crop Protection Business, Focuses on Marketplace and Technology

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:24:44 GMT

Last week, just a few hours after Corteva announced its spin out dividing seeds from crop protection, Farmers Business Network (FBN) announced it is separating its businesses. Moving forward FBN will focus on its digital marketplace for farmers, and the newly launched Global Crop Solutions will be an independent supplier of crop protection products.

FBN leaders say the timing is coincidental. Their motive for the timing was brought about by the new fiscal year. But they offer both of the announcements together could be a sign of a trend of vertical integration getting unwound in the name of efficiency and focus.

“We’re doubling down, allotting capital on digital innovation for FBN’s future,” says Diego Casanello, CEO of FBN. “FBN’s core business is a digital commerce and fintech platform. We want farmers to be able to buy, finance, and market everything they need while sitting in their combines. These are technology challenges, so the core competence you need to be successful at FBN is different from managing the supply chain of the crop protection business.”

In the past 14 months, FBN has been refocusing its business. First, it spun off its insurance business, then its Gradable business into a joint-venture with ADM. Now with its crop protection business spin out, Casanello says the FBN marketplace will feature GCS products, such as Willowood USA branded products, via a strategic partnership, and GCS products will explore distribution beyond the FBN marketplace.

“The big unlock for GCS is the opportunity to serve the entire retail and co-op industry,” Casanello says. “It frees GCS of any channel conflicts and hits the ground running with one of the largest portfolios of products in the industry. And it frees FBN from similar constraints as we move to an open marketplace architecture. We are onboarding new sellers and their portfolios every week. We provide them the tools to manage pricing, marketing, and placement. FBN is open for business and we’ve had significant interest from additional partners before and after the announcement.”

FBN’s Marketplace Strategy

Currently, FBN says it has 120,000 farmer members in the U.S. and Canada. The business provides a marketplace with farm inputs and supplies, financial services and data-driven intelligence.

FBN co-founder Charles Baron says the FBN marketplace has expanded its product range to include crop protection, seed (with additional partner news coming soon), fertilizer, livestock products, veterinary pharmaceuticals, farm supplies and more.

“To farmers, there’s no change in their experience. And over time, we’ll bring an even broader assortment of goods,” Baron says. “You’ll be seeing announcements from us every two weeks or so about the suppliers coming on the platform. It’s one of the most exciting times in our history.”

The leaders say farmer use of e-commerce has increased every year since they launched, and in 2025 FBN served a record number of customers. “Farmers are really focusing on value right now and maximizing every dollar,” said Baron. And per their analytics roughly 35% of U.S. farmers visit FBN.com to browse inputs, apply for financing, or look for information.

The Future of GCS

As a newly formed independent crop protection supplier, GCS has a portfolio of 250 registrations on post-patent products. The company will specialize in sourcing, managing first mile logistics, developing new products and regulatory aspects.

To lead the business and its team, Amy Yoder, most recently EVP of FBN’s livestock division, is incoming CEO.

“Global Crop Solutions launches today as an independent powerhouse,” said Yoder, in a press release. “For the first time, our extensive portfolio and efficient global supply chain are fully available to all partners— from retailers, to distributors, to co-ops. Our independence unlocks immense growth potential and allows us to be the most reliable and collaborative partner to the entire agricultural industry.”

Why Livestock Operations Are Ditching Spreadsheets for BinSentry’s Smart Bin Technology

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:32:10 GMT

Animal feed travels a very long and winding supply chain, and up to 70% of the total cost of raising commercial animals is directly tied to the simple task of feeding the herd.

In a world where there are literally cameras and sensors everywhere that are able to measure everything, and artificial intelligence running in the background to make those cameras and sensors “smart,” it just doesn’t make sense to keep animal feed inventories on paper or Excel spreadsheets anymore.

Ben Allen, CEO, BinSentry

(BinSentry)

That’s what BinSentry CEO Ben Allen, who grew up in farming on his families’ Iowa farm outside Ames says, adding: “Too many people are still taking feed inventories the way my grandfather used too.”

His company has been on the animal ag scene for seven years and has grown over 100% annually for each of the past three years, he claims, as large commercial feedlots and multinational processors like Cargill add the companies’ bin monitoring technology to automate the logistics of refilling feed bins. Allen says BinSentry’s tech is capturing imagery 24/7/365 on more than 40,000 feed lots across the U.S. and Canada.

BinSentry recently secured a $50 million Series C investment round, led by the No. 1 growth equity fund in the U.S., Lead Edge Capital. Allen says his company will use the funds to, among other projects, expand its technology and operational reach further into South America and Brazil, where BinSentry has an exclusive distribution agreement with Cargill.

“We install a camera sensor at the top of the bin, it’s solar powered and has cellular connectivity and only takes 15 minutes to install, and we can start getting high accuracy inventory reports throughout the day,” Allen says. “That data goes directly into our software where we do a lot more than just inventory.”

Allen says the company uses the real-time bin monitoring data to run analytics mainly to inform the logistics side of the feed operation, and it can also send preventative maintenance alerts if it sees something happening inside the bin that could potentially be a problem. While not as inherently dangerous as climbing into large grain storage bins in the row crop world, manual monitoring is a laborious and risky task that would be better left to technology components if possible.

A BinSentry sensor on a poultry feed storage structure.

(BinSentry)

“We have been working with AI since the founding of the company, and we use it in a very tactical and operational way,” he explains. “Our consumption forecasts are always updating with our AI algorithms; it’s constantly adjusting to conditions like the biological variables of animals and the weather. We can really dial things in and get precise, so you can take better care of your animals, burn less diesel fuel, and then you need less workers.”

Besides Cargill, BinSentry is also working with Wayne Sanderson Farms, The Hanor Company, and Maple Leaf Foods. The company is moving at a breakneck pace, installing between 2,500 and 3,000 new sensors per 30 days, and it has its own service and maintenance teams to keep systems running and the customers happy.

“Our focus is to scale up now — because we’re growing like crazy,” Allen says. “That’s because we solve real, operational problems and we cut costs immediately. Our customer ROI is high and fast; the only way you grow this quickly (in agriculture) is by solving real problems for real people.

“We’re excited about our progress and excited about what we can do in the future, and that excitement centers around being more efficient within the animal feed supply chain, we feel like that’s a good story, because we’re helping create economic and environmental sustainability.”

You can read more about BinSentry’s funding raise here and learn more about the company at BinSentry.com.

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National 4-H Unveils Plans for Its $50 Million Donation

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 20:02:39 GMT

Owner of Amazon and 2022’s third-richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, and his wife of 25 years, Mackenzie Scott, divorced in 2019. The divorce settlement was finalized with a $38 billion share going to Scott.

A devout philanthropist, Scott has since pledged to donate the majority of her divorce settlement, with a promise of $50 million to the National 4-H Council.

Donation Plans

The council announced on Wednesday its intentions for the first phase of plans for the unrestricted gift.

Following six months of “extensive” input from industry leaders at universities and cooperative extension offices, the council has decided, over the course of the next five years, $10 million will be dedicated to workforce and program development plans that include:

• An expansion of the 4-H Positive Youth Development Academy
• A new world-class leadership development program
• A youth-attracting digital platform, Clover by 4-H
• New tools for employee and volunteer retention
• More in-person youth experiences
• An Applied Research Study to “improve” 4-H program quality

According to the council, the remaining $30 million will be preserved to “sustain” preexisting programs and activities.

A Time of Need

Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO of the National 4-H Council, says Scott’s donation came at a good time.

“25 million young people do not have access to positive youth development opportunities, which can provide the tools needed to realize their full potential,” she says. “Many are struggling in areas ranging from academics to mental well-being to developing social connections with others.”

With the use of Scott’s donation, Sirangelo says her team will help “bridge this opportunity gap” and offer support for America’s youth in a time of a need.

More on 4-H:
4-H Steer Sells 39 Times to Honor 18-Year-Old’s Life
4-H Teen’s Community Garden Feeds Local Households
4-H Pig Sells for $17,500 in Memory of Madison Lee