For nearly a decade, Stealth Ag in Harmony has been involved in dirty deeds. Or more accurately, deeds having to do with the dirt that raises our local crops. Brent Hjelmeland recently gave a glimpse inside his work and company.
Explaining how his company started, Hjelmeland stated, “It was 2010. My family and I had moved back to the area a couple years before that. I grew up just across the road, and my family farmed, but originally that wasn’t the direction that I was going to go. I went to college to do business administration. I wanted to come up with an entrepreneurial venture that suited the area and fit a need. It was a time when technology was advancing in agriculture, so there were some niche opportunities there. So, in 2010, it kind of originated with the idea that it was going to be a geo-reference soil sampling business… there was a need and that’s how we jumped into it.”
To outline what his business is all about, Hjelmeland summarized, “The intriguing value add of collecting and analyzing geo-spatial data, within agriculture, is that we are able to make far more detailed decisions. Imagine a farmer with a 100-acre field. Before, the farmer would have picked every input that went into the field based on the entire field’s average capability to grow a crop. He would have picked his seed, fertilizer, et cetera based on how the 100-acre field did as a whole. Now, with the ability to collect and analyze geo-spatial data throughout the field allows the same farmer to determine that he/she might have 30 acres that produce a tremendous crop, 50 acres that produce an average crop, and 20 acres that struggle to produce much of a crop. With that information, the grower can now determine whether or not he can improve the 50 acres of modest ground to make it tremendous, and he can also evaluate whether the 20 acres that struggles is worth investing in to improve. Once those decisions are made, the grower can adjust his input plan and invest more heavily in seed and fertilizer in the good ground, and less in the poor area of the field. The end result is the good area will be maximized, and inputs will be saved on the poor areas, thus maximizing the production capacity and profitability of the field.”
Hjelmeland said he started out as a one-man operation, but, “It really only lasted about the first year that it was just me on a four-wheeler, and I’d come home and do the computer side of things at night.” Nowadays, he said, “From there, it’s expanded to where we have typically eight crews going in the spring and fall.”
Each customer determines how many soil samples are taken, and how often. Hjelmeland said most customers typically have the samples taken every two to four years. But he stressed that because every grower’s needs and goals are unique, Stealth Ag adjusts their services to each grower. He also pointed out that since Stealth Ag is not affiliated with any products, the data is not skewed toward any particular solutions of seed or fertilizer. The data allows the grower to make whatever decisions he or she wants.
Regarding the growth that Stealth Ag has seen, Hjelmeland said, “We started out within an hour of Harmony,… at this point though, we travel throughout Iowa, we’ve gone out to the Dakotas occasionally, through southern Minnesota some.” But he adds that acreage might be a better measure of growth, explaining, “Year one, I soil sampled six or seven thousand acres… Last year, we soil sampled over 120,000 acres.”
Spring and fall are Stealth Ag’s busiest times, although Hjelmeland said winter allows him a chance to catch up on the data processing and analytics. When asked what he expects in the future of this industry, Hjelmeland replied, “I think the data that gets collected,… is very difficult to layer or get combined… but more and more we’re seeing the ability to layer the data” in a variety of ways to give the grower a fuller picture of what the soil conditions and needs are.
Hjelmeland said Stealth Ag really doesn’t advertise much in the traditional sense, but testimonials and referrals have been their best means of attracting customers. The goal is to provide detailed, quality data to allow growers to make the best decisions for their land. If that works, word is bound to spread. Anyone interested in hearing more is welcomed to check out the Stealth Ag website www.stealthag.com.
Photo by Rich Wicks
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