Adapt-N

Agronomic Technology Corp., the entity behind Adapt-N, provides a sophisticated digital nitrogen management tool for the agricultural sector. The company's primary clients are ag retailers, crop consultants, and farmers who are seeking to enhance nitrogen use efficiency, improve soil health, and increase crop yields. Its business model centers on providing its software as a service, generating revenue through subscriptions and a per-acre fee for utilizing the Adapt-N functionalities. The company operates in the AgTech market, specifically focusing on precision agriculture.

The Adapt-N platform has a rich history rooted in academia, with its initial development beginning in 2004 at Cornell University. The research was led by Professor Harold van Es and his colleagues, Jeff Melkonian and Art DeGaetano. After years of development and field testing, the tool was licensed to Agronomic Technology Corp. in 2013, which was co-founded by Steve Sibulkin and Holly Trytten, for its commercial launch on April 1, 2014. Sibulkin, with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, brought experience in running technology-driven businesses, which was instrumental in commercializing the university-developed solution. The company secured $2.5 million in a Series A funding round in October 2014, with participation from investors like Arthur Ventures, Cayuga Venture Fund, and Armory Square Ventures. In a significant milestone, Yara International, a global fertilizer company, acquired Agronomic Technology Corp. in November 2017. More recently, in March 2024, Ever.Ag acquired Adapt-N from Yara, integrating it into its FieldAlytics digital agronomy solution to provide wider market access.

The core of the business is the Adapt-N product, a cloud-based software that provides precise, field-specific nitrogen application recommendations for corn. It functions by dynamically integrating and simulating complex interactions between hyper-local weather data, soil characteristics, and crop models. The platform uses a high-resolution weather database and can incorporate user-provided data such as soil organic matter content, soil type, and yield goals to generate its recommendations. A key feature is its ability to create variable-rate nitrogen plans, allowing for different application rates within a single field based on designated productivity zones. This data-driven approach aims to align nitrogen application with the specific needs of the crop throughout the growing season, a method shown to increase farmer profits and reduce environmental impacts like nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas emissions by 35-40%. The tool is accessible on any internet-connected device and integrates with other farm data platforms, including its current home, FieldAlytics, to streamline data flow for users.

Keywords: nitrogen management, precision agriculture, agtech, crop consulting, soil modeling, weather data integration, variable rate nitrogen, sustainable farming, farm management software, Cornell University, FieldAlytics, crop nutrient management, digital agronomy, agricultural data analytics, farmer profitability, environmental sustainability, fertilizer optimization, corn production, soil health, crop yield optimization