Bill Shores’ Insight into ND Agriculture

Growing up on a farm in west-central Minnesota laid the roots for Bill Shores’ career, as he combined his passion for farming with advanced agricultural science at Pivot Bio. With a Bachelor of Science in plant industries management agronomy from the University of Minnesota-Crookston and 25 years in the ag industry, Bill’s experience revolves around fertility, seed, chemistry equipment, and people. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Shores to discuss Pivot Bio, insights for growers, forward-thinking strategies and tactics in the world of microbial products, and much more.

Pivot Bio’s mission, as Shores explains, is twofold: enhancing farm fertility management and contributing to environmental sustainability. “Our primary goal is to fit into the management of fertility on farms and make things better for the grower,” Shores said. “Secondarily, we aim to clean up the environment and help reduce carbon footprint. Others in the company might reverse those in order of importance, but I’ve always tried to do right by the grower first, with everything else coming after that.”

Pivot Bio stands out in the microbial space with its gene-edited microbes, an approach that contrasts with the native microbes used often by other companies. These gene-edited organisms are designed to produce more nitrogen than they consume, offering a more efficient solution to crop fertilization that bypasses the inefficiencies and environmental risks associated with synthetic fertilizers. With 16 patents related to gene editing and no signs of slowing development, Pivot Bio is at the cutting edge of microbial technology, aiming to bridge the gap between lab research and field application.

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A sustainable agriculture company, Pivot Bio delivers farmers patented crop nutrition technologies that harness the power of nature to reliably and productively grow the food the world needs in the face of increasing volatility. We are solving agriculture’s biggest challenge—delivering nitrogen to plants to feed a growing population without the negative impacts of synthetic fertilizer or compromising on yield.”

– Pivot Bio Website

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Q&A with Bill Shores

Q: You’ve mentioned striving towards environmental consciousness at Pivot Bio. Could you give me an example of how you are doing this?

A: There is typically a risk of loss with synthetic fertilizer when applied to the soil. However, we’re not subject to those same events of leaching, volatilization, or denitrification. Once growers get on board with new advancements and become adapted to using microbial products in conjunction alongside synthetics, that will help with a lot of environmental concerns at hand including shipping and our carbon footprint.

Q: Looking ahead, is Pivot Bio consistently developing more patents to evolve growing processes and operations?

A: The entirety of the company is around 500 people right now. Roughly two-thirds of them are scientists in labs, heavy in laboratory development, working to develop the next strain. We have microbes that can produce ridiculous amounts of nitrogen right now in the lab, but our current challenge and goal is to bring them from the lab to the field and help them survive there. We’re going through the steps of ground-truthing them to ensure that they’re going to do what we say they’re going to do in their environment because, as we know, Mother Nature is in charge.

Q: What are some of the biggest misconceptions that growers may have regarding these microbial products at work in the fields?

A: Microbial products all get lumped into one big bucket that tends to not be looked at positively because there have been many other attempts that have come and gone without delivering. I understand the skepticism about microbial products, but if used correctly, they can make a world of difference to both the grower and the product.

Q: What tactics should growers be mindful of regarding crop nutrition, seed genetics, and soil health?

A: Be open-minded, conduct your own evaluation, and do your due diligence. Microbial products, along with other innovative approaches to crop cultivation, are emerging, and we should be ready to embrace them. This perspective is what attracted many of us to Pivot Bio. Familiarize yourself with the microbial conversation and become comfortable with it. Avoid ignoring these advancements as microbial products are on the horizon, and they will be widely available for applications including weed control, disease management, insecticides, and beyond.

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We’re all farm kids at heart. We’re very easy to work with and passionate about what we do, but I would direct anyone curious to our website first and foremost. From there, reach out to a representative or one of us for more.”

– Bill Shores

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Find Pivot Bio on:

PivotBio.com
515-436-4462
[email protected]
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