At Agtegra Cooperative, “innovation” isn’t a buzzword stuck in the tech corner. It’s a daily, whole-co-op habit— grain, agronomy, energy, feed, and every team in between looking for ways to serve members better, faster, and with more peace of mind than they realized they were missing.
That mindset shows up in big moves, like precision platforms and data systems built for real-world farms, and in small ones, like a propane keep-full monitor that quietly removes a winter headache. For Agtegra, innovation is only worth chasing if it improves efficiency, profitability, and service for the people who own the co-op.
To dig into what that looks like on the ground, we sat down with Brent Wiesenburger, Director of Ag Technology Services, to talk about how Agtegra decides where to push next, what’s changing (and what isn’t) in ag retail, and why the future of precision ag in the Dakotas is about trustable data, smarter tools, and practical ROI—not noise.
About Agtegra Cooperative
Agtegra Cooperative is an innovative, farmer-owned agricultural co-op headquartered in Aberdeen, South Dakota, serving producers across eastern North Dakota and South Dakota. Formed in 2018 through the unification of South Dakota Wheat Growers and North Central Farmers Elevator, Agtegra is built on a long legacy of local cooperative service while operating at modern scale. Today it supports roughly 6,800–7,000 memberowners through a network of 70+ locations, offering a full suite of grain, agronomy, energy, feed, and farm supply services, along with precision ag and technology support designed to improve efficiency, profitability, and quality of service on member farms.
Q&A with Brent Wiesenburger
Q: When you think about your Co-op’s identity, what does “Innovation” actually mean?
A: To me, Innovation from our co-op’s perspective means every division finding ways both internally and externally that can increase our level of service and triggers the, “I didn’t know I needed this, but I do,” thoughts from our employee’s and/or patrons. For instance—I am a propane customer and a simple innovation they provided for me was a to keep full monitor 75 miles away from my house at my parents’ shop. This guarantee’s the tank never runs dry, and dad can blow snow in the middle of winter and not worry about the tractor not starting. This was peace of mind I didn’t know I needed. I also believe we need to drive innovation within the companies that sell us goods and services as well. The more efficient they can be, the more cost savings we can pass on to our member owners.
Q: If you had to explain your co-op’s approach to innovation to a member at the coffee shop, what would you say?
A: Agtegra’s primary focus is on products and services that will improve efficiency, profitability, and service for our member owners!
“The truth is that the ag retail fleet (not only agtegra) struggles to keep pace with spring fertilizer applications. The big three manufacturers need to bring us bigger, better solutions.”
Q: What’s changed most about your co-op in the last 5–10 years, and what hasn’t changed at all?
A: We have grown thru unifications/mergers, so we continue to grow, with that growth, we added regional dispatch groups to control workflow of our custom application fleet. This has been instrumental in efficiency and machine utilization across our footprint. What hasn’t changed fast enough is the size and speed of self-propelled fertilizer spreaders and application equipment. Growers continue to have larger and faster planters that are capable of hundreds of acres a day. The truth is that the ag retail fleet (not only Agtegra) struggles to keep pace with spring fertilizer applications. The big three manufacturers need to bring us bigger, better solutions.
Q: What pressures or opportunities (markets, weather, policy, tech, labor) are pushing you to think differently right now?
A: From an Ag Tech perspective, trying to drive costs out of the crop production cycle is a definite opportunity. Whether it’s split application of Nitrogen, or using yield data to identify nutrient removal’s instead of soil testing, I believe there are ways to use “data” to achieve these goals accurately. The accuracy of weather models and disease monitoring tools are getting better as well. These can help our growers and agronomists make more informed decisions on crop protection investments in real time.
Q: How do you decide where to innovate?
A: We have an amazing employee team that have great ideas. We also have patrons that have great ideas. I think the ability to innovate is only held back by the amount of money you want to throw at it. Ultimately, the decision must be made on where the biggest opportunity is with the challenge you are trying to solve. So, I guess it comes back to whatever provides the best improvement with efficiency, profitability, and service for our member owners.
Q: When you look 5–10 years down the road for your members, what problems are you trying to solve now so they’re ready then?
A: Again, from an Ag Tech perspective, the ability to leverage AI to solve data problems and interoperability is big. Pointing an AI tool at an ag database today is pointless if it’s bad data. Every field we touch in our Ag Tech program needs post processing to fix data collection issues from planter data to yield data. Scaling this post processing is a big opportunity we are working on. Only after we can trust this data can we start to make better decisions for our producers that are sharing it. I am very exited for the future in this segment of our tech portfolio.
Q: What’s a recent innovation that you’re proud of?
A: I am very proud of the formation of FieldReveal in 2017. FieldReveal is our Ag Technology platform that handles VR prescription writing and zone management creation, soil sample analysis storage, and yield data analysis. This important decision by Agtegra, Central Valley Ag Cooperative, The McGregor Group, and Winfield United allow us to be isolated from all the noise in the Ag Tech software space and ultimately drive development of solutions from the ground up with real users. Looking at all the acquisitions and door shuttering in FMIS systems in the US, Agtegra and the rest of the owners are fortunate to not have to undergo these changes to their Precision Ag Platforms and deal with the training of new systems and the challenges association with data transfer between them.
Q: What role do digital tools (apps, portals, precision ag platforms, etc.) play in how you serve members?
A: We are constantly monitoring this space and actively evolving in it as well. Whether its accounting information served instantly to our patrons, historic customer sales data served to the grower’s salesperson, or automated alerts from tank sensors letting our fuel department know a farm is low on fuel on propane, every segment of our business is actively engaging with our customers more efficiently and accurately. From an Ag Tech perspective, there are exciting opportunities leveraging AI on historic datasets to bring grower specific solutions to the table—this is a real opportunity as well. The Ag Tech sector has been promising value out of the data growers and retailers have been collecting and in my opinion under delivering on that promise. AI will help us change this narrative in the future I believe.
Q: Are you partnering with any tech providers, startups, universities or others to test new tools or practices? What does a good partnership look like to you?
A: Agtegra has been very open to assist in product development or research. This is vital to moving the agricultural industry forward. Whether providing soil tests for university research, feedback on product or hardware performance, or simply go to market strategies, we participate in all aspects of innovation. We want to only promote truly valuable products that bring ROI to our patrons; this strategy helps us identify those next big opportunities in Ag.
Q: What’s unique about where you farm that shapes the way you innovate?
A: Our high adoption of no till and historic weather variances as driven variable rate adoption within our footprint to very high levels. Growers really understand the importance of targeted application rates to drive profitability. This keeps us keenly focused on the next value proposition relative to our Ag Technology portfolio
Q: What’s one big bet you’re making about the future of ag in our region?
A: I believe we are seeing a transition in weather patterns that is shifting the “Cornbelt” west in the US. The yields have been phenomenal the last couple of years. So, I bet we see continued yield increases in corn, and a higher utilization of Ag Tech programs like zone management and VR crop nutrition and seed scripting. The Dakotas have always been very supportive of Ag Technology, but with increased yields, comes increased inputs—this makes Precision Agriculture a vital part of crop production
Q: What keeps you up at night, and what gives you the most optimism, when you think about the next generation of your co-op?
A: From my perspective a big concern is the ability find help that understands the long hours, and work involved in providing a great experience for our Patrons. What gives me the most optimism is the Innovation happening in autonomy. Whether it’s a tractor or spreader working unmanned or possibly an elevator that requires less people, there are great things coming relative to technology. It will be exciting to participate in the evolution.
Q: Are there any statistics you’d like to highlight about your cooperative?
A: I have talked about our VR adoption of fertilizer and seed, a ratio that is unheard of in the industry. We generated nearly 700K acres of VR crop nutrition recommendations for the 2025 crop year. Nearly 92% of those fertilizer recommendation had a VR plant population map get imported to a grower’s planter display to match planting rates with crop nutrition rates. Our agronomists provide a tremendous amount of value to the growers utilizing this technology. I am so proud of the team that helped us generate these numbers.
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