Spanning a 282-acre campus, Nutrien Ag Solutions has cut the ribbon on its new Innovation Farm facility located outside Champaign, IL.
Originally purchased in 2019, this location has been developed as part of Nutrien’s Innovation Farm network. These sites provide trials to demonstrate products, practices, and technology. Company leaders say the goal is to create confidence in recommendations that can be shared with Nutrien Ag Solutions’ team of agronomists and crop consultants.
“Our Innovation Farm Network runs off five essential components: equipment, technology, products, practices, and people. In my opinion, people are the most important component out of the list,” says Thaddeus Bates, Senior Manager, Applied Agronomy. “Many people have supported and put in a lot of work to get our Champaign Innovation Farm to where it is today. There have been many hands involved in this project, and we’re grateful for everyone’s support in bringing this vision to life.”
The other locations are Selma, California; Winterville, Mississippi; and Owensboro, Kentucky.
“Our goal with our Innovation Farm Network is to grow agriculture by sharing the knowledge that we gather on these farms, not by promoting specific products, but by sharing the practices, products, and technology that have been demonstrated to successfully work together as a full-acre approach that is efficient, attainable, and repeatable by farmers across North America,” says Paul Bonnett, Senior Director, Nutrien Agronomy.
At the Illinois location, the building will be the headquarters for 16 team members on site and will be used for trainings, team meetings and customer events. Since it was first occupied this past November, 18 events have already taken place.
