The tales of young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs launching new ventures out of Silicon Valley are common. But what about three 20-something brothers who live — not in some high tech mecca — but near the small community of Wilderado, Texas, who started a new business venture?

A new “intelligent” sprayer designed and developed jointly by engineers from Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service can reduce pesticide use up to 73 percent by growers while reducing off-target contamination.

After 30 years of rapidly expanding agriculture, South America is turning its focus from developing new fields to taking better care of those already in production. Victor Trucco remembers his father saying that soybeans would never be grown in their area. Yet Trucco became the first person to grow soybeans not long after he returned to the home farm in the mid-1960s.