Production Blog

There's a strip of county highway south of Champaign, Illinois, locals refer to as "Research Alley." Many of the major crop companies have established research centers along this corridor with an eye toward putting crop inputs, seed and all manner of agriculture technology to the test.

On March 20, Nutrien Ag Solutions joined the fold, holding an official ribbon-cutting ceremony on its Innovation Farm near Tolono. The 282-acre farm was purchased in 2019 for the purpose of giving the company a way to collect field insights at a scale that is realistic and transferable to a grower's operation. The past six years have been spent molding the farm into a knowledge center that will look at full-acre solutions across a wide range of practices, products and technology platforms.

The Illinois site rounds out what the company is calling its "Innovation Farm Network." Other Innovation Farm locations include Selma, California; Winterville, Mississippi; and Owensboro, Kentucky. The idea of these centers is to pick up where formal research leaves off and deploy concepts on a farm-like scale.

Practical agronomic answers are almost always top of mind for farmers, but current market conditions require even closer scrutiny. During the recent open house, DTN visited with Rob Clayton, Nutrien Ag Solutions senior vice president of North American retail, about the tight agriculture economy and what that might look like in terms of managing inputs this year.

"The most innovative growers may or may not be cutting back on things, but they are really trying to work hard on how they get more efficiency from the products they do use," said Clayton. "With a product like nitrogen, growers can experience anywhere from 40% to 60% of the nitrogen leaching back into the atmosphere.

"So, a lot of growers are using N-FINITY or nitrogen stabilizers to try to get more efficiency out of that product," he said. N-FINITY is a Loveland Products biologically based nitrogen use efficiency product distributed by Nutrien Ag Solutions.

"Many farmers will try to outyield low prices as their strategy for profitability," Clayton observed. "When corn is at $4.50 and soybeans are at $10, it is hard to get above breakeven and outrun that low price. We see growers looking for ways to make sure the products they use are needed and used in the most efficient way without compromising yield," he added.

Clayton noted that while not always ideal, necessity can force innovation at a faster pace. As an example, he pointed to the ability to use aerial imagery and drones to detect pests and pathogens.

"We have the technology that allows us to detect fungal spores well before the human eye can detect them. By the time you scout and see fungal spores, it can be too late," he noted. "Earlier detection could potentially allow more targeted rather than broadcast applications and save money for the grower in the long run," he said.

"I think in 2025, we'll see some of these kinds of innovation take off out of necessity. A lot of innovation around the world comes when things get really tough. When you literally can't make ends meet because old practices are no longer financially viable, that's when people start looking outside the box and say, "I have to try something else because what I'm doing today is not going to do it for me," Clayton said.

Studies on the Illinois farm will be looking at everything from precision-guided agronomic tools to how to put real numbers to soil health.

"Our goal with our Innovation Farm Network is to grow agriculture by sharing the knowledge that we gather on these farms, not by promoting specific products, but by sharing the practices, products and technology that have been demonstrated to successfully work together as a full-acre approach that is efficient, attainable and repeatable by farmers across North America," said Paul Bonnett, senior director of Nutrien Agronomy.

Nutrien is a global retail network with more than 2,000 locations offering a wide selection of products, including proprietary brands: Loveland Products Inc., Dyna-Gro Seed and Proven Seed. For more information, go to www.nutrienagsolutions.com.

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @PamSmithDTN

(c) Copyright 2025 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.