By Sean Pratt | October 1, 2026
https://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/daily/fbn-google-create-advanced-ai-farming-tool/
Glacier FarmMedia — Farmers Business Network is partnering with Google AI Futures Fund to bring advanced artificial intelligence innovations to farmers.
Most AI tools provide farmers with generic advice.
The tool FBN and Google are developing will be specific to a farmer’s soil type, their crops, the weather patterns in their area, the local market and their specific equipment and financial positions.
“These agents will be built on an integrated, 360-degree understanding of their farm,” FBN said in a press release.
Why It Matters
Farmers are keenly interested in how AI can improve their operations.
Charles Baron, chief marketing officer and cofounder of FBN, said the firm collects a lot of farm-specific data in addition to offering growers grain marketing, crop input buying and other services.
The firm’s new AI agent will be able to conduct a “cross-domain analysis” of the data and the services, resulting in “executable actions.”
“An example of that would be running a yield prediction that then connects to a farmer’s marketing strategy and then be able to take that next step and purchase the product or sell grain or hedge,” he said.
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The tool will provide agronomic, grain marketing, equipment and farm business advice and marry that with the firm’s existing digital tools for trading grain, buying inputs and equipment parts, qualifying for regenerative premiums and other services.
“That’s very unique because now a farmer can say, ‘help me make the decision,’ and then take action — buy the products, sell the grain, capture the premium,” said Baron.
He stressed that a farmer’s personal data will remain within the domain of FBN.
“We’re not sending any farmer’s unique identifiable information to Google,” he said.
Second kick at the can
FBN was at the forefront of deploying AI, launching its AI system, Norm, three years ago. It was named after Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution.
“That was more of a chat interface,” said Baron.
“It didn’t connect to your farm’s data, and it didn’t connect to also being able to take an action. You couldn’t tell the AI to go find the best priced herbicide and then buy it.”
But it was still a popular tool with FBN’s more than 140,000 members in the United States and Canada. They asked it tens of thousands of questions.
FBN conducted an AI training session at a farmer-to-farmer event in Omaha, Nebraska, earlier this year that was standing room only.
“There is a lot of interest from growers in using AI,” said Baron.
“You’re just seeing an explosion of that around all of farming right now.”
Partnership with Google
Google has been a partner and an investor in FBN since the early days of the company. The new agreement further cements that relationship.
Google has agreed to provide FBN with early access to its pre-market AI models.
“We’ll be able to build and train and test our AI systems on the most advanced models as they’re being built,” said Baron.
Certain aspects of the new enhanced AI tool will be available to FBN members in the coming weeks as the company rolls out early versions of personalized AI analysis of their farms.
That service will be free to all FBN members.
Over time, the firm may add more powerful features to its AI agent that will require extra yet-to-be determined fees.