Agvantage Consulting
When Nathan Stewart finished college, he worked in sales roles for the first eight years of his career, followed by three years as a corporate PCA and agronomic consultant. With his entrepreneurial spirit and experience, Nathan decided to start Agvantage Consulting. Nathan: “My family are third generation cattle farmers, so farming is in my blood and I’ve been around farming in Northern California my whole life. Then when I went to college, I majored in Ag systems management with a minor in ag business and a master’s in business. So, when I decided the time was right to start my own business, it was only natural to combine my passions for agriculture and business with my experience in sales and agronomic consulting.”
When Nathan started Agvantage Consulting back in 2014, he only had 4,000 acres to consult on but was looking to grow this number as fast as he could. Nathan explains: “With a limited network, word of mouth and aggressive prospecting, I was able to grow my customer base and business in 3 short years. This was also one of the main reasons why I was eager to start working with Agworld; the collaborative platform allows me to set myself and my business apart from the competition by enabling me to offer data-driven products and services to my clients. Especially when I started, most other agronomic service providers in the area would have more experience than me, but by adopting Agworld and using it to offer new and innovative services to my clients, I was able to compete and succeed in the marketplace.”
Soon after Agvantage Consulting was started, Nathan found himself growing his business as well as his team. As is the case with any business, being able to scale without losing focus on the quality of the services provided is key. Nathan elaborates: “From when I began the business, I have increased our acres more than 10 times and I have added 4 team members in the process. This is really where I see Agworld adding value: Agworld helped me scale the business rapidly and the platform made sure that my new agronomists knew exactly what was going on in every field while the customer doesn't experience any difference in the service they receive.”
Being able to use Agworld to his advantage, Nathan is very honest about what is involved: “Agworld is a great tool and has acted as a slingshot for my business, but you have to actively use Agworld to reap these benefits. Agworld doesn’t work for everybody and if you are not using it and inputting the information, you cannot reasonably expect good data and results to come out of it. You have to input complete and correct information to make sure that you get the results you need.”
“We use Agworld on a daily basis for record keeping of field information. At the beginning of the season this starts with basic information such as crop, varieties, rootstocks, spacings, irrigation types, soil type, and then from there we continue with creating a plan for the season. As the season progresses, we keep track of all the inputs and actuals. At any given time during the season, we know exactly which inputs have been used on a play-by-play basis. Because we keep track of all this information, every bit of important data is available to us at all times – wherever we might be. It is not just us that have access to this information, the grower can see the exact same information and collaborate with us on Agworld if he chooses to do so.”
Being an agronomic service provider in a highly competitive marketplace such as California, meant that Agvantage Consulting had to come up with innovative ways to provide extra services to their clients. Using Agworld has also added a certain professionalism to his business Nathan says: “When I sit down with a new grower at the beginning of the year, I show them how we create their budget and how we are going to execute on this budget during the season.”
“I can just tell them: you will know at any given time during the season how much you’re spending and I am going to give you very detailed maps of your fields, so they can give accurate drop-off locations to their input providers for example. It sounds basic but it’s amazing how many growers don’t have access to this basic information yet. There are still people doing this on Excel and that’s archaic and a thing of the past in my mind.”
Nathan: “When my team and I use Agworld, we use it for scouting services such as pest counts for example as well as the agronomy component; nutritional planning etc. Our team is able to provide our clients with real time information on their costs at any given point in the season. We are also able to provide them with updated maps of their fields as well as drop off locations for products (which is helpful for them when ordering products which will be delivered by their suppliers). Although this seems simple, digitizing this type of information is still new to many farming operations, which have historically been primarily paper based.”
“Planning in Agworld is another differentiator for us when working with our clients. We are able to build their crop production plan for the season in Agworld; which provides them with an accurate list of their required inputs for the season. This information helps them with forecasting and puts them in a better position to negotiate pricing with their suppliers. I am passionate about helping our growers to be more successful in any way we can - with production as well as cost management.”
Nathan concludes with: “Ultimately, this is the value that Agworld provides us: their data driven platform allows us to align ourselves with the business interests of our growers. So, instead of us being a basic agronomic consultancy firm, with Agworld we can provide integrated data-driven business intelligence services that really add value for our clients. With Agworld, it feels like we become an integral part of a growing operation, and that is when everyone involved in the process becomes a winner.”
"Instead of merely being a basic agronomic consultancy firm, with Agworld we can provide integrated data-driven business intelligence services that really add value for our clients."Nathan Stewart Agvantage Consulting, Visalia, CA.
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