Over the past decade, many farms have been facing the challenges of diminishing labor forces, increasing labor costs, chemical-resistant weeds, increasing demands for organic commodities, and regulated pricing models. 

Due to these pressures, Stout AgTech has been working directly with farmers over the past few years to develop and perfect a weeding and cultivating solution that will work on almost any farm regardless of soil type, previous crop rotations, or bed configurations. 

“These pressures have created a natural push toward mechanical weeding solutions on the farm, like the Stout Smart Cultivator,” said Paul Nagel, Chief Revenue Officer of Stout AgTech. “The Stout Smart Cultivator is a mechanical implement that fits very well into organic farming because it mechanically removes weeds while cultivating at the same time. There are no chemical herbicides needed.”

Nagel added that keeping up with weeding on an organic farm can be quite costly, especially in areas where weed pressure is very high. The Smart Cultivator addresses this challenge in a cost-effective way by reducing the need for labor.

“The Stout Smart Cultivator is a mechanical implement that fits very well into organic farming because it mechanically removes weeds while cultivating at the same time. There are no chemical herbicides needed.” -Paul Nagel

According to the company website, "the Smart Cultivator utilizes artificial intelligence and cutting-edge vision technology to eliminate weeds and cultivate ground in a single pass. It starts with a robust, agriculturally proven mechanical platform combined with a state-of-the-art computer system to eliminate weeds and reduce weed pressure in diverse farming operations. It also decreases the reliance on ... skilled labor and chemical inputs, all while improving farming practices."

Paul Nagel, Chief Revenue Officer, Stout AgTech

The company has been working with organic farmers since it initially launched the Smart Cultivator two years ago, and those customers have found great success in their organic fields.

“With organics going more mainstream across the country, it provides us with additional opportunities to introduce the Smart Cultivator to their farming operations,” Nagel said. “Stout True Vision, which powers the Smart Cultivator to perform as well as it does today, opens the door for us to continue to work with farmers on future applications that will allow them to meet the demands for higher yields in the years to come.”

Stout Smart Cultivator

Stout True Vision captures high-resolution images of plants and soil, enabling the machine to differentiate between the commodity and the weeds accurately from early to late stages of growth.  

Nagel explained that even if the weeds are the same size or larger than the commodity, the vision system can still differentiate between the plants, which allows the machine to remove the weeds and leave the crop unharmed.  

Stout True Vision captures high-resolution images of plants and soil, enabling the machine to differentiate between the commodity and the weeds accurately from early to late stages of growth.  

“With ... an increasing demand for organic products and the need to keep production costs in check, we see a very natural fit between what we have built and the organic farming community,” he said.

The company philosophy at Stout is to hire the best and brightest employees to build high-quality, intelligent machines designed to be dependable and last a lifetime.  

“A company like Stout is important because we collaborate with other organizations to truly identify and understand the problems they face,” Nagel said. “We work closely with our customers to ensure we are developing a solution that fixes the problem without creating other difficulties for their organization.”

“A company like Stout is important because we collaborate with other organizations to truly identify and understand the problems they face.” -Paul Nagel

“Our main strategy for 2021 is to increase brand awareness and be the number one choice of automated cultivating and weeding machines in this newly expanding market,” Nagel said.