SWAT 003: Josh Messer: Don't Accept the Status Quo

SWAT Agronomy

Today on the SWAT Agronomy Podcast Tim interviews Josh Messer, a certified crop advisor with AgIntel Agronomy Consulting. Josh grew up on a farm in North Dakota and started his career in ag retail. After taking a national agronomy role, he missed the one-on-one interactions with growers, so he started AgIntel a few years ago.

“We don't have to accept the status quo for what it is. Start gathering information and start questioning whether or not what we've been told for years and years is actually the right answer. Collect your own data, validate it. In some situations it may be the right answer, but it's not in all.”

- Josh Messer, Certified Crop Advisor with AgIntel Agronomy Consulting in North Dakota

Josh Messer goes on to share about his independent agronomy consulting business. We talk about how he tries to thread the needle between agronomics, economics, equipment, and soil health with his farmer customers. We discuss everything from strip tillage to management zones to his technology stack to even a tangent into soybean phytohormones, and everywhere in between.

On Today’s Episode:

1:43 - What is your approach to agronomic consulting?

3:31 - Can you give us an example of adjustments you might recommend? What type of equipment modifications would need to happen?

5:32 - How do you determine the potential ROI an adjustment might have for a grower?

8:54 - Do you address one problem at a time? How do you decide what to attack and when?

9:46 - Why didn’t you like zoning imagery prior to SWAT maps?

11:53 - What do you do to get baseline data? After getting a SWAT map, what else will you do to get started?

12:58 - What is your process as far as the technology you use to get started?

15:19 - What data do you turn to to try to determine where the bottleneck is in production?

18:46 - How do you grow your business while still providing the level of service for the standard you’ve already set?

21:12 - How much more can new technology grow your business?

23:08 - Do you work with irrigated acres as well?

24:58 - If you were to get on a soap box in a room full of fellow agronomists, what topics would be important to talk about?

26:54 - Do you run on farm trials throughout the growing season when looking at new products for your growers?

28:14 - If you’re given the opportunity to go back and farm full-time, is it something that you can see yourself doing?

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If you have a question you want answered on a future episode, send it to us on Twitter using the hashtag #SWATAgronomy.

The SWAT Agronomy Podcast is brought to you by SWAT MAPS, and hosted by Tim Hammerich.