Ag Tech Is the Wild West and Nobody Is Rating It

There is no Consumer Reports for farm software. No star rating, no independent read on which platform does what it claims. Brent Nicol calls the state of agricultural technology the Wild West, and he means it as a description rather than a complaint.Nicol went from installing guidance boxes onto steering wheels to running a scouting app that identifies a weed from a photograph, inside ten years. Recorded live at the first AgSmart at Olds College, he argues the pace itself is the story, and that the way through it is not to buy whatever the neighbours bought.What's Inside- The ten year arc from bolt-on autosteer to a phone app that identifies a weed from a photo, and why he calls himself the case study for it- What it actually takes to make a green tractor talk to a Bourgault drill, or pull yield data off a European monitor- Why he tells producers to be selfish about what fits their own operation and ignore what is running down the road- Three things software developers keep missing about farming: the short season, controllers whose interfaces have not moved since 2007, and the handshake culture behind every purchase- Where variable rate fungicide goes when it lifts off the ground and into the air- Why he thinks the quiet story of the next few years is whoever trains the people who tie the equipment togetherConnect with Growing the FutureWebsite: growingthefuture.caYouTube: Growing the FutureInstagram: @growingthefuturepodcastLinkedIn: Growing the FutureSubscribe to the Growing the Future Podcast wherever you listen, and register for Convergence Conference 2027 at convergence.ag. Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.