North Dakota awards $500,000 for five ag tech trials

By Olivia Hart

The NSF AgTech Engine will award $500,000 to five projects for North Dakota farm trials, selected from almost 90 proposals.

Applicants can seek up to $100,000 each in one of five focus areas. The projects range from early research and field testing to preparation for commercialization. North Dakota will test tools on problems facing producers large and small, while the program links rural expertise with innovation through strategic partnerships, research and real-world implementation.

The NSF AgTech Engine brings together communities, producers, researchers, entrepreneurs and industry partners. Its stated goals include developing and scaling technologies that address food security, create workforce and economic opportunities, strengthen the region and reach beyond it.

Hollie Mackey, CEO of the NSF AgTech Engine, said: “Farmers know what will work on their farm. We’re putting these tools in their hands early — in their fields, feedyards and elevators — and taking their guidance to improve technology development.”

A panel of agricultural producers with expertise in livestock and row crop grains, together with independent agronomists, selected the five companies from almost 90 proposals.

The funding areas are:

• Quality, nutrition and value-added markets
• Regenerative systems and crop protection
• Breeding, genetics and predictive biology
• Intelligent operations and logistics
• Water and resource resilience

Which technologies enter the field?

Elevator of Things: automated grain sampling

Champaign, Illinois-based Elevator of Things has field-tested a system that uses cameras and computer vision to automate the probes grain elevators already own. Live camera footage gains a real-time data overlay, making each interaction traceable.

The company says this transparency can reduce sampling disputes, ease customer frustration and protect margins. North Dakota testing and production engineering will prepare the system for market. It is expected to reduce the time spent on repetitive manual grain sampling at harvest.

Global Neighbor: weed control without another pass

Xenia, Ohio-based Global Neighbor is pioneering directed-energy treatment through its combine-mounted Weed Seed Destroyer. The system uses dual-wavelength, nonlaser directed energy to alter plant and seed growth and keep weed seeds from germinating.

The proposal targets herbicide-resistant weeds without a chemical treatment or an extra pass over the field. It also aims to increase agricultural yields and reduce herbicide use, giving growers a nonchemical option for weed control.

Scanit Technologies: disease alerts before spraying

Fremont, California-based Scanit Technologies has developed SporeCam, a monitor that autonomously collects airborne particles and detects harmful fungal pathogens. Artificial intelligence algorithms classify pathogens using a database trained on years of analysis.

Scanit will install SporeCam monitors at eight North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network stations to detect six crop pathogens in real time. Free grower alerts will pair pathogen findings with weather data to provide early warning of disease risk.

Farmers could use those alerts to time fungicide applications before an outbreak, or skip a spray pass when disease is absent. The North Dakota deployment will generate regional performance data for judging whether those alerts support spraying decisions.

Seismi: illness signals in cattle ear tags

Seismi has developed a retrofit sensor that clips onto existing cattle ear tags. The device tracks heart rate and monitors respiratory conditions, with the aim of catching bovine respiratory disease at its earliest physiological signals.

The sensors also record each animal’s activity and behavior. Seismi will trial them at a family farm and a large commercial feedyard, testing whether detection days before visible symptoms allows earlier, less costly treatment.

NDSU: a cultivator that targets individual weeds

Researchers at North Dakota State University’s Peltier Institute for Advancement in Agriculture Technology will build a tractor-mounted cultivator. Cameras and artificial intelligence will identify weeds and engage individual tillers only when needed.

The cultivator is designed for tractors farmers already own. Trials in the Red River Valley will measure weed removal, crop protection and how much soil remains undisturbed, providing evidence on whether targeted cultivation limits disturbance without sacrificing control.

What will the trials establish?

North Dakota trials will give the developers regional performance data and producer feedback for the next stage of development. That matters because the five projects address different bottlenecks rather than one shared production problem.

Elevator of Things already has a field-tested system, but North Dakota production engineering stands between it and market release. Each technology carries a different test: SporeCam must provide reliable pathogen detection and usable alerts; Seismi must identify illness before symptoms; the Weed Seed Destroyer must prevent weed-seed germination; and the NDSU cultivator must control weeds while limiting soil disturbance.

The practical value is local verification. Farmers should watch for trial results, commercial-availability timelines and decisions on field deployment, because the $500,000 awards finance testing rather than certify savings, yield gains or reduced spraying.