North Dakota
Grand Farm opens new building aiming to put North Dakota at forefront of agriculture innovation
CASSELTON, N.D. — Grand Farm hosted the grand opening of their new Innovation Campus shop west of Casselton, North Dakota, on Monday, June 10.
Elected officials, agricultural industry and business leaders came together for the opening to celebrate the culmination of years of hard work between a number of groups and organizations.
“This is a partnership like none other in the world of precision agriculture,” U.S. Sen. John Hoeven R-ND said. “Without a doubt, North Dakota is leading this country, the world, really in precision agriculture.”
Hoeven also announced at the opening that this summer, he will hold a field hearing of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee at the
Grand Farm Innovation Campus
.
“It’s not only because we want to continue to shine a light on exactly what we’re doing here, but also because we’ve got a lot of people that want to come find out about what they’ve heard about,” Hoeven said. “This is really the future of agriculture in so many ways and that’s why so many people want to be a part of it and why they’re so excited about it.”
For Dennis Kemmesat, CEO of Frontier Precision, Grand Farm will help provide them easier access with growers to provide them with solutions for problems on the farm.
Contributed
“Being able to showcase the really advanced technology out here that growers are going to need in the future to be productive and be profitable, I think that’s the most exciting part about it, because there’s not really one place that can showcase all of this technology,” Kemmesat said.
Frontier Precision is a Bismarck, North Dakota, based company that has been in the drone space around the last 10 years and entered the precision agriculture industry around a year and a half ago. Kemmesat said that as a North Dakota-based company, it was a natural fit to join in on the Grand Farm venture and he is excited to see what the future holds.
Kennedy Tesch / Agweek
“We wanted to be part of being a sponsor and help grow that community,” Kemmesat said. “This was really an easy fit for us to be involved with and the ag side is something more new to us, but we’re excited to be in it.”
Grand Farm is also led by a grower advisory board which features a number of growers around the state who will help provide insight into the challenges, needs and issues facing producers in agriculture.
Kyle Courtney is a fifth-generation farmer from Oakes, North Dakota, where he grows corn, soybeans and wheat. Courtney is one of 11 producers serving on the grower advisory board.
Kennedy Tesch / Agweek
“It’s a group of us farmers that get together on a quarterly basis to sit down with them and then explain our problems that we’re seeing in the field,” Courtney said. “They use their connections and reach out to people in the technology department, whether it’s universities, startups — that entire ecosystem, and explain the problems that we have as producers and try to figure out solutions to what we are running across.”
Courtney believes some of the biggest challenges he sees as a producer are herbicide resistance and trained labor, which are both issues being tackled by Grand Farm and he believes the new addition of the building to the campus “is going to be a huge ramp up for their game.”
“It’s great that they’re starting to work with these technologies before they become mainstream. Producers come out and see Grand Farm, what they’re building, and look at these technologies in the field to see if it will work for their operation,” Courtney said. “I think that’s an invaluable aspect and it gives us a glimpse around the corner to see what’s coming so we can prepare operations for those types of situations or for those technologies that are coming down the pipeline.”
The Grand Farm event served as a kickoff for
AgTech Week
, an agriculture and technology focused week hosted by a group of organizations in Fargo.
Kennedy is a reporter for Agweek based out of South Dakota. She grew up on an organic crop farm where her family also raises cattle in eastern South Dakota. She graduated from South Dakota State University in 2023 with a major in agricultural communication and minor in agricultural business. She enjoys connecting with producers and agribusinesses across the region while reporting on all things agriculture.
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North Dakota
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North Dakota
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North Dakota
North Dakota RNC delegates talk state being in the national spotlight over the past year
![North Dakota RNC delegates talk state being in the national spotlight over the past year North Dakota RNC delegates talk state being in the national spotlight over the past year](https://gray-kfyr-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/G77XMUYOMBACHHN26AFIKUY7IM.jpeg?auth=b2d58b893f3c60e4e488e5a92db952b7389bdb6fa3af56fa80e72a263708ef0e&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – North Dakota has been in the national spotlight for more than a year, partly due to Governor Doug Burgum running for President last year, speaking on national platforms in support of former President Trump and even being one of the top three contenders for Mr. Trump’s Vice President.
Although Governor Burgum was not chosen to be former President Trump’s running mate, that doesn’t mean he will not have a position in the Trump administration if Mr. Trump is successful in November or if North Dakota disappears from the national spotlight.
The Republican National Convention may be over. However, the North Dakota delegates had a lot to say about our state being part of the national conversation.
“All the electoral votes are important, and I think it was fun to get some headlines for North Dakota. I don’t know if people know North Dakota exists,” said Ben Koppelman, delegate.
Some delegates said that it was so important that other people around the United States saw what North Dakota offered.
“We have the largest energy, agriculture, we’ve got it all. Our flower mill, our own bank, we can be our own little country. It’s just great that people are actually identifying with North Dakota that we aren’t just a flyover state that we got it all,” said Mary Graner, delegate.
Even for a North Dakotan to be considered was special for some of the delegates.
“North Dakota has a storied history of getting it right and so it’s no surprise that President Trump would look to North Dakota for a potential Vice-Presidential running mate,” said John Trandem, delegate.
For North Dakota to even be in the national spotlight like it has been, is unprecedented.
“We’re not in the spotlight too often on the national stage, but when we are, it’s unique and you have to appreciate those moments,” said Matt Heilman, delegate.
Most of the delegates said it was an honor for the state to have this kind of recognition.
We caught up with Governor Burgum at the convention and he said when former President Trump called him on the phone to say he was not his pick, Mr. Trump said hello Mr. Secretary.
This now brings up speculation if Governor Burgum will be considered for a cabinet position like energy secretary.
Copyright 2024 KFYR. All rights reserved.
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