InfoAg 2009

Tyrell Fickenscher was born and raised on a dryland farm / ranch in southeast Colorado. He attended Colorado State University and majored to a new concentration in the Soil & Crop Department labeled as Applied Information Technology with Dr. Raj Khosla as the program director. This concentration was developed to help bridge the gap between engineers and sales professionals / consumers for precision ag components. While at CSU he was in the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and served as the Ag Council President. After CSU he went to work for Ag Valley Co-op (North Platte, NE), as an agronomist and plant manager where he helped in implementing precision hardware in custom application equipment and promoting it to customers. At Ag Valley, he began using imagery for variable rate fertilizer prescriptions, which led him to his current position at Cooperative Producers, Inc. (Hastings, NE). At CPI he has served as the Precision Ag Coordinator / Agronomist and has been charged with developing precision agriculture programs and assisting the sales force in growing that part of the business.

Jim has been involved in Ag Retail for over 35-years. He began his career with their family operations, Newman Seed & Feed located in Juda WI. Starting as a custom spray operator in 1974 , cornrows were the preferred guidance system of the day. Finally real technology emerged as they adapted....“foam markers…” Over the next 10-years, Newman’s plant food sales grew from 150 tons in 1982 to nearly 25,000 tons. Two of the plants that Jim and Newman’s built have won Environmental Respect awards from CropLife and DuPont with management attending awards ceremonies in Washington DC. Jim has seen much change throughout the years, not just in technology put in Ag Retail itself. The family sold the Newman’s Ag Retail plants to Cenex/LOL and the names changes. A few years later they were merged into Agriliance, and the names changed. Finally the signs changed again to Landmark Service Cooperative as it remains today. Currently Jim is the Manager of Agronomy for Landmark Service Cooperative supervising agronomy operations from Northern IL to Central Wisconsin. In 2007 Landmark Service Cooperative was presented the “Ag Retailer of the Year”, awarded by the late Jack Eberspacher, who we will all miss. Jim is married with a family of four, Sue his wife, and sons Ryan and Kyle. To many of Jim’s hobbies are mostly centered on the burning of fossil fuels. Jim has been on the Board of Directors with Wisconsin Crop Production Association for years, He has also been involved with ARA, currently involved with their Plant Food Contracting task force.