The Scoop Podcast: How Data & Tech Are Changing Ag Retail | 2 Rising Leaders Share Their Playbook

Hi, thanks for having me.

Really appreciate it.

So my understanding, and you correct me and expand upon, your job is really to help Simplot Grower Solutions and that retail network drive decisions from data and really connect what you guys can analyze into making more strategic decisions at the farmer level.

But tell us a little bit more about your role.

Yeah, definitely.

That was a really good description of it, actually.

I would say in addition to that, a lot of what I feel like we strive to do by helping to make those decisions and bring data to various members of our team is to just help cut down on the amount of time our crop advisors have to spend doing, not that they would do extensive research on their end, but just like cut down on the time it would take for them to find kind of the same findings and the same information that we can really more easily package up and give to them so that they can spend more time with their growers.

So I would say it's all about working in efficiencies and helping those around me who are definitely better suited to work directly with growers, help them do what they're good at, right? Which is help their growers.

So what tools are you guys using to kind of make that magic happen?

Yeah, we use, I think, the two main tools right now that we use are Power BI, which is basically an analytics tool that really brings, I would say, a lot of really good visualizations to some underlying data, allows us to bring in huge sets of data as far as like our sales data, all of that kind of into a really easy to understand format.

And Giving that to our crop advisors allows them to really quickly see, OK, what was I selling last year to this individual? Are we on the same time frame this fiscal year? How has the growing season changed? Is there a different product that I should substitute here compared to last year, what we were doing? Things like that, I think, are really what we use that tool most for.

And then in addition to that, we build it out with some more complicated things.

analysis for definitely some of the leaders on the team and things like that to go over, you know, how many platforms are people buying across, you know, region by region, which of these should maybe we be marketing towards, things like that.

And then in addition to that, we also use a tool called ArcGIS, which incorporates a ton of like spatial data.

So it helps us see, like right now we're definitely using it to Try to map out and show kind of where all the growers are for a crop advisor so they can see, okay, if I'm going to visit this grower, I can also visit these other two that are within a mile of them instead of having to bounce back and forth across, you know, a 20 or 30 mile radius.

And then combining that with we've got some like specific field data that we're trying to pull in all into one map so that they don't have to go into multiple spots or even not have this type of data for their day to day lives.

So those are the tool, the two really great tools that we're using.

I think about the digitization of the ag retail business and maybe in the early phases, it had to be all about data collection, whether that be soil sampling or remote sensing.

And then we moved into a time of really using that data for decisions, which is so much of what you and your team are doing every day.

What's something that you guys are able to do today that would have surprised you just a few years ago was possible.

I think, um, I think definitely using mapping tools is something that's very new to us.

So that ArcGIS tool, two to three years ago, even just talking to crop advisors that have a lot more knowledge of what the tools were maybe 10, 15 years ago, just being able to see all of their data on a map and be able to pinpoint exact fields and things like that allows them to get really precise data that maybe they were guessing at or kind of had a feel for in the past.

And we can actually visualize that.

So I think that's probably the number one thing that when we show it, we get a lot of oohs and aahs, especially when it comes to mapping data.

And just like a lot of really good ideas.

Hi, thanks for having me.

Really appreciate it.

So my understanding, and you correct me and expand upon, your job is really to help Simplot Grower Solutions and that retail network drive decisions from data and really connect what you guys can analyze into making more strategic decisions at the farmer level.

But tell us a little bit more about your role.

Yeah, definitely.

That was a really good description of it, actually.

I would say in addition to that, a lot of what I feel like we strive to do by helping to make those decisions and bring data to various members of our team is to just help cut down on the amount of time our crop advisors have to spend doing, not that they would do extensive research on their end, but just like cut down on the time it would take for them to find kind of the same findings and the same information that we can really more easily package up and give to them so that they can spend more time with their growers.

So I would say it's all about working in efficiencies and helping those around me who are definitely better suited to work directly with growers, help them do what they're good at, right? Which is help their growers.

So what tools are you guys using to kind of make that magic happen?

Yeah, we use, I think, the two main tools right now that we use are Power BI, which is basically an analytics tool that really brings, I would say, a lot of really good visualizations to some underlying data, allows us to bring in huge sets of data as far as like our sales data, all of that kind of into a really easy to understand format.

And Giving that to our crop advisors allows them to really quickly see, OK, what was I selling last year to this individual? Are we on the same time frame this fiscal year? How has the growing season changed? Is there a different product that I should substitute here compared to last year, what we were doing? Things like that, I think, are really what we use that tool most for.

And then in addition to that, we build it out with some more complicated things.

analysis for definitely some of the leaders on the team and things like that to go over, you know, how many platforms are people buying across, you know, region by region, which of these should maybe we be marketing towards, things like that.

And then in addition to that, we also use a tool called ArcGIS, which incorporates a ton of like spatial data.

So it helps us see, like right now we're definitely using it to Try to map out and show kind of where all the growers are for a crop advisor so they can see, okay, if I'm going to visit this grower, I can also visit these other two that are within a mile of them instead of having to bounce back and forth across, you know, a 20 or 30 mile radius.

And then combining that with we've got some like specific field data that we're trying to pull in all into one map so that they don't have to go into multiple spots or even not have this type of data for their day to day lives.

So those are the tool, the two really great tools that we're using.

I think about the digitization of the ag retail business and maybe in the early phases, it had to be all about data collection, whether that be soil sampling or remote sensing.

And then we moved into a time of really using that data for decisions, which is so much of what you and your team are doing every day.

What's something that you guys are able to do today that would have surprised you just a few years ago was possible.

I think, um, I think definitely using mapping tools is something that's very new to us.

So that ArcGIS tool, two to three years ago, even just talking to crop advisors that have a lot more knowledge of what the tools were maybe 10, 15 years ago, just being able to see all of their data on a map and be able to pinpoint exact fields and things like that allows them to get really precise data that maybe they were guessing at or kind of had a feel for in the past.

And we can actually visualize that.

So I think that's probably the number one thing that when we show it, we get a lot of oohs and aahs, especially when it comes to mapping data.

And just like a lot of really good ideas.