C-Suite: Grain Trail Transformation
Now partnering with more than 2,400 grain facilities in the U.S. and Canada, Bushel amped up its drumbeat to digitize the grain trail and kill the need for the traditional paper trail.
In this Q&A, Bushel Co-Founder and CEO Jake Joraanstad explains Bushel’s milestones and where the business is headed. Larger customers include The Andersons, Scoular Grain and ADM.
What kind of momentum have you seen for Bushel’s software to digitize the grain business?
We’re working with every size of business from co-ops across the country to national grain companies. Our footprint totals 20% of all grain facilities, which means we’re in the early majority adoption stage in the cycles of technology adoption. The first 200 customers on Bushel were early adopters. And the most recent 50 are the early majority who needed to first see the ROI. The laggards are still holding out.
What do you have planned to get the adoption trajectory to move further faster?
By total volume, we have about 45% of the grain volume U.S. farmers sell in total being tracked on the Bushel platform. So it’s likely all farmers have an opportunity to sell to someone using our tools. Our job is to build a digital infrastructure and it requires many players to participate—not just a select few. There is a long tail of businesses we are going after, and in the next two years, we have things coming to make it easy for all businesses to find an investment in Bushel as beneficial for their business.
What technology trend in the general population is eeking over to farmer behavior?
We are placing a bet that farmers don’t want to be paid with a paper check—it’s just been the easiest way they think there is to be paid. And our bet is on providing digital payment that doesn’t require anyone to drive an hour to town. Already, we have research showing 40% of farmers are using digital payments in some other part of their lives, whether it’s Venmo, Paypal or others. Additionally, we have about 40% of farmer customers of our partners using the apps to digitize their grain business.
What is the future of FinTech in ag?
It’s about allowing the farmer to more easily and accessibly pay bills to the ag retailer. That bill payment process is just as painful as the grain piece. In the digital wallet, we’re making sure that is the most streamline experience for farmers. We provide invoices and statements for customers today with integration via API with 15 ERPs currently. And we’ll have more to announce in 2023 and 2024.
What technology trends are you watching?
We are paying a lot of attention on how farmers think about marketing grain. We are hoping for a shift in mindset to not spot price but more forward marketing to take advantage historically of higher prices throughout the year. It smooths out the supply chain. We've seen with customers that have the ability to let farmers give an offer electronically, a solid increase in the number of offers coming in. This is a win-win for originators and farmers - getting more bushels at better prices.
What’s next for Bushel?
We acquired FarmLogs in 2021, and we are still working to organize all of farmers’ data in one place. This includes if they are a seller to multiple grain businesses. In 2017, the first thing we told people was we were trying to make it easy to get your scale ticket. We didn't understand that was just the tip of the iceberg of all the problems from outdated paper process. So since then we've added contacts, settlements, and now retail. As we have progressed in the business, we just keep running into the next problem that needs to be solved. So we will continue to solve the problems we know farmers are encountering.
About the Company
Bushel is an independently owned software company and leading provider of software technology solutions for growers, grain buyers, ag retailers, protein producers and food companies.
A Bit More Personal
Joraanstad spends some time away from work in automotive racing—amateur touring cars. He races a Honda S2000 in the Gridlife circuit. Find the team on Instagram @myriadmotorsports
