Shane Thomas, the agronomist behind the Upstream Ag Insights newsletter, walks through where farm technology is actually headed: see and spray systems that identify weeds in real time, the underdeveloped biological side of soil science, and how ag retail relationships are shifting as a result. He also describes the consulting work he did building a product go-to-market playbook with Aberhart Ag Solutions, and the daily reading habit that built a newsletter read by producers and executives in more than 30 countries.
Shane Thomas writes Upstream Ag Insights, a weekly newsletter read by more than 2,700 people in agriculture, built from a simple habit: read everything, write down what it means, and see if he was right later. That discipline is also how he thinks about where farm technology is actually headed.
The conversation moves through see and spray technology that can tell a wild oat from wheat in under 400 milliseconds, the biological side of soil science that's still poorly understood compared to its chemistry, and the retail relationships that are quietly being reshaped by all of it.
What's Inside
- See and spray technology: how a sprayer identifies a weed from a crop plant in real time, and what that changes about herbicide cost
- Why most farm data today only explains the past instead of predicting what's coming
- The biological side of soil science, and why it's understood far less than the chemistry most farmers already know
- How Shane built a product playbook with Aberhart Ag Solutions, and what that process actually looks like
- Why a farm needs a small R&D budget, the same way any other business does
- The habit behind a 2,700-reader newsletter, and what it reveals about staying ahead of a fast-moving industry
Learn more about Shane's weekly newsletter here:
https://upstreamaginsights.substack.com/
Connect with Shane on:
Twitter @shaneAgronomy
Instagram @upstreamaginsights
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