Nutrien’s Must-Have List for Its Technology

Taking technology to the field via its 1,000+ retail locations in North America, Nutrien leaders say the company is trying to strategically optimize technology across its fleet of machinery and team of advisors.

This was highlighted by the company’s recent announcement of a collaboration with John Deere, which aims to streamline data sharing across software and equipment connections. 

That’s just one example of the strategy, says Margaux Ascherl, senior director of digital product and user experience at Nutrien.

“It’s about making it easier for the grower to drive outcomes with the agronomic insights they need,” Ascherl says. “Our Crop Consultants have to be empowered to measure the outcomes from their recommendations and to share that data seamlessly through whatever system is being used by our customers and our teams in the field.”

She highlights how Nutrien and growers alike use mixed fleets of equipment, therefore ensuring connectivity is top of mind to simplify workflows. According to Ascherl, generating, storing and analyzing data for insights will be paramount as crop consultants pair their knowledge in technology and agronomy with their ability to support growers. 

“We recognize that to serve our growers, our information must be accurate and precise as precision ag goes from a field level to the plant by plant level,” she says. “Our crop consultants will depend on the accuracy of that data to make the recommendations growers need to best manage their crops.”

The possibilities with future products and services demand such connectivity says Cameron Holbrook, vice president of digital at Nutrien. 

“The ability to transmit data wirelessly is table stakes,” Holbrook says. “For our agronomic advisers, it’s important to be able to share field boundaries, send variable rate recommendations and review as applied data.” 

Holbrook says data transfer is foundational for agronomic services as well as Nutrien-specific services such as Digital Hub, eChelon precision ag, and Agrible sustainability services and notes e-commerce capabilities have been foundational to Nutrien’s investments over the last several years. 
“As an ag retailer, we know how critical it is to make transacting as easy as possible,” Holbrook says. “We live in a world constantly changing, evolving and progressing. There’s a lot of movement, and our goal is to serve and support growers as much as possible.” 

As such Nutrien launched its Digital Hub in 2018 and had $360 million in revenue flow through the platform. That grew to $1.2 billion in 2020, and $2 billion in 2021 in addition to growers moving to online payments.

“The reality is we are an agronomic company. Beyond the e-commerce standpoint, we need to provide the best agronomic recommendations, which is an investment area focus as well. It’s about making recommendations, sharing those recommendations with growers, and measuring the outcomes,” Holbrook says. 

The technology the leaders are watching spans through seed, crop protection, and soil fertility. One recent area of focus Holbrook says Nutrien’s team is gaining experience with is of John Deere’s See and Spray Ultimate technology. 

“We will continue to learn more about See and Spray technology in the 2023 growing season,” he says. “We recognize it’s a new technology, and there can be opportunities to benefit growers.” 

The leaders say technology is a “dynamic landscape” and they are committed to help Nutrien enable the local agronomists to best serve the farmers in their geographies. 

“Technology can be a huge win to help growers pivot when they need to,” Ascherl says. “And that’s something Nutrien does really well—work with our agricultural partners to serve growers. We have the localized touch points with boots on the ground.”

The machinery and technology is enabling rather than overpowering in Nutrien’s viewpoint. 

“Really, the technology is just in the background. No doubt, digital tools can do really cool things. But it’s the way our team uses them and how they empower our crop consultants to help growers farm in the most efficient way possible,” she says. “Our goal is when a grower walks into our branch office, they get the support they need in a way that best serves them.”