Over the past 40 years, agricultural scanning technology has developed rapidly from sprayers able to recognize brown bare soil from very green growing plant material to machines capable of guiding moving sprayers to target individual plants and visually sampling a load of grain for moisture content.

The future of Loran Steinlage's operation and the agriculture industry weighed on the No-Till Innovator throughout 2023. David Brandt, Steinlage’s mentor and close friend, died unexpectedly in May, leaving Steinlage with a mission to carry on Brandt’s vision to create a farmer-to-farmer learning center in southwestern Wisconsin.