On November 5, 2024, 25 Iowa State graduate students, staff and faculty visited Ag Leader Technology and Blomgren Seed on a tour organized by the ISRC. The center provides opportunities such as this to foster awareness and understanding among the researchers of businesses and organizations supporting soybean production in Iowa. 

Founded in 1992, Ag Leader is a pioneer in the precision agriculture industry and offers a full line of precision farming technology for crop production. According to company founder and President Al Myers, Ag Leader produces high-quality, innovative precision agriculture tools and provides farmers technology to plan, plant, apply, and harvest more efficiently and accurately. Sam Worley, a sales specialist with Ag Leader, described Ag Leader’s operations and led the ISRC group through their facilities, which are located near ISU’s Research Park in Ames.

The ISU group traveled to Boone to tour Blomgren Seed after visiting Ag Leader. Blomgren Seed owner Sean Blomgren hosted the group and answered many questions about numerous agronomy-related issues and provided a tour of the company’s warehouse. Blomgren Seed started in the late 1980s as a DEKALB Seed dealership, but today the company offers specialty seed treatments, warehousing and habitat-management services in addition to selling seeds.