Welcome to the FarmBits podcast: a product of Nebraska Extension digital agriculture.
I'm Jackson Stansell, and I'm Samantha Teten. And we come to you each week to discuss the trends,
the realities, and the value of digital agriculture. Through interviews and panels
with expert, producers and innovators from all sectors of digital technology- we hope that you
step away from each episode with new practical knowledge of digital agriculture technology.
Welcome to the fifth episode of the FarmBits podcast. For this episode, we are joined by Dave
Crompton CEO of OPI Systems. OPI Systems is a grain storage management technology company based out of
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. OPI Systems has been in the grain storage industry for 36 years
and they primarily service customers, whether farmers or commercial operators, through dealers
and grain service outfitters throughout Canada, the United States and 38 other countries worldwide.
You'll hear Dave describe his founding of the company in more detail during the episode.
But, OPI Systems was founded out of a personal need he had for measuring the performance of
drying systems that he was selling. OPI Systems has always provided temperature and moisture
measurement through in-bin sensors. Over 36 years in the industry, these sensors have grown
into automated control systems that integrate with weather data and other information to turn on fans.
Ultimately resulting in optimized grain moisture management. Through his years of experience in
the grain storage industry, Dave has developed a breadth of knowledge and insights about the
industry. At the end of the episode, we will discuss Dave's perspective on the future opportunities
for grain storage and marketing, particularly how growers can get more value out of their products.
Here's our interview with Dave Crompton, the founder and CEO of OPI Systems.
Dave, we really appreciate you joining us this morning. Would you mind just giving us a little
bit of a background on OPI Systems? You know if we go to your website, a customer would see that
you guys have been around for more than 30 years, started with on-farm bin monitoring systems in
Western Canada. And now you've moved into automated monitoring and alarm systems and also have a lot
of different sensing technologies available for growers and co-ops whoever might be needing some
sort of sensing technology for grain management. So what else can you tell us about the history of the
company, we'd love to hear it. Yeah Jackson thanks for inviting me to your podcast.
And the reminder that we have been around seems like forever. OPI actually officially started
in 1984, so it's been over it's 36 years now. Yeah we have the fortunate um we're very
fortunate having survived you know to see a whole generational change. We first started the business
it was the advent of like fax machines. It was just a novel idea about how you would
send in documents across the ether and the personal computer was just coming around. And so
now we're still here to be seeing the next transition into the whole area of you know
cloud-based technology and uh you know all the technologies coming to the agricultural space. So
we uh have been at the forefront of developing storage monitoring storage management technology
pretty much since we started. We brought digital based sensing technology to agriculture in the
late 90s, and that's basically the backbone of our platform now. It's all digital based.
Which allows us to do a lot more things and make for a lot more simplistic installations,
not having to deal with a lot of wiring in the old analog systems they will thermocouple analog
systems. And we've also been able to get our technology into about 70 countries.
Both farm and commercial around the world. So we've had a lot of experience we've actually brought
monitoring and management technology to countries such as India and China. So we're quite proud of
um of that you know transitioning them from a bagged system you could imagine all the
friction in a in a bag versus a bulk system. Both in you know managing the prop as well
as getting it to market. So yeah we have a long history. Can you also expand then like what
is going on today with your technology- what technologies are really offered by OPI systems?
Right so our forte is storage management so monitoring and control systems. Our two legacy
products that we've had for quite a long-couple decades now- is the storemax handheld monitoring
system. So first smaller on-farm storage you walk up to the bin take a reading it stores the data
it shows you the trends. But you have to go and get the data as opposed to our other legacy system,
we call the integris platform that does automated monitoring alarms and automated controls. So if
you want the system to turn your fans on and off automatically it's the integris platform.
And we have about 30,000 customers on those two platforms, and now where all of our energy is going
into our new blue cloud platform. And we use we basically build uh off the existing cabling
systems so you don't have to replace. You can just add on to your existing legacy systems.
But you get once you get in the cloud it really opens up a lot of opportunity as far as
how to access the information it's is is on any technology on your phone, your laptop. It's you know storing all the data so then we start to look at how we
actually use that data both up and down the value chain on from the production side
and precision ag, down to the marketplace side. Since you've been in this industry for a while,
and as the founder and ceo of this- can you talk a little bit about
how you changed the design over time? And I don't know- the function of the remote monitoring and why
that's so important. So what were the priorities as you work through the design of your products?
Well in the early days it was a little bit more you know evolutionary than intentional. I
mean we just brought products into the market in the foreign market and we modified them
beefed them up for the larger scale, commercial storage. And then over time we evolved into the
the automated side of monitoring and then alarms and control.
So it's been a progression and you know over the years, for instance,
you know- developing the digital based technology, which is now the backbone. So we actually can
put a lot of different kinds of sensors into a system on a single twisted pair of wires. So you'd
be measuring temperature, the humidity, moisture level. All on a one twisted pair. So we've really
built on that technology technology platform. We brought other technology out as well. So in
sector for instance electronic detection system, so really beefing up all of the
sensing inputs and control outputs. We put a lot of work into the grain management side as far as
developing the control strategies, so that you can do different things whether you want to
dry with air dry with uh supplement air with something like heat whether it's conditioning
whether it's you know taking the last couple points out of the grain when it comes off the
dryer so that you can um you know increase dryer throughput. Instead of using the bottom you know
core of the dryer for for just for cooling. And then of course aeration for longer term storage. So,
all those control strategies- we continue to build on just making it simpler to be able to
hit specific targets instead of you know having to be an expert on you know grain management per se.
We want our customers to be focused on what really matters to them as far as their market
opportunities are concerned. So they download the market opportunities and then we help make sure
that the system is going to work effectively um to to hit those targets in that time frame.
Who is your target customer for your technological solutions right now and and what are the biggest
opportunities for them to realize savings uh in your eyes. From the technology that
that OPI systems offers? You know we work with any grain storage practitioners whether it be farm or
commercial. But, I come out of the farm side that's how we started the business. I was uh
as a sideline selling aeration and drying system, natural drying was really just
taking off in the early 80s, in western Canada. And it became very popular as a
more simplistic lower cost you know your drying system for taking safe five points off of cereal grains.
So, I've got a sweet spot for the farm market. We really enjoy working in farm space. It's the broader number of folks that are out there managing grain. But you know we
like to work with anyone that wants to enhance the value of their store crops. So if it's the
they give us department that's selling out to the commercial elevator we want to make
sure that they're selling at at the optimum value. Which gets to your other question about
what you know where what's the biggest savings or what's the biggest return on investment. And
there's basically three major pillars to our value proposition. First and foremost, it's insurance okay.
So you want to protect the quality once the grain comes into the storage, you can't really
enhance the quality. All you can do is hold it. And what we want to make sure is you don't lose it.
Because downgrading um you know having problems around trusting. We hear about you know issues
around entrapment with confined space entry. Well that gets the second point around best practice
you don't want to be going into the bin if you don't need to be going into the bin. So bringing
the information out, being able to readily see that information- manage it- really helps optimize the
quality and in in the safest manner. So that really quality is probably the biggest driver as far as a
return on investment from the from the technology. And then we start talking about moisture is
probably the next biggest driver. Because you know grain is sold by weight, so water is money.
That's one of our old saws and as a farmer you're not optimizing your moisture um take it to the
highest level that's a permissible for sale. Then you're being taken advantage of because you're
either going to be discounted for being over dry or you're going to be penalized for being
tough. So you know you don't want someone else blending and getting to that moisture you want to
be able to hit yourself and get the maximum value. So quality first, moisture optimization second.
Being able to store longer with confidence because you've got a quality grain and you've got a good
monitoring and management tool. It's really important and there's two elements to that.
One of them is around um being able to hit market targets. So thinking of storage as a
profit center, think about storage as a market maker. Whereas, you know you can hold
and get target markets instead of having to get rid of your grain at the low prices. So with
that comes the opportunity for carry. So you can actually be paid on particular contracts to store
grain longer with confidence into the next spring, summer. So that you can hit those premium markets.
And then after that, I think the biggest part you've actually asked specifically about savings.
But the you know around savings we're talking about electrical savings. You can imagine you
know if you um have storage spread around a couple different locations, and you know you're having to
jump into truck and drive out to the storage to turn on a fan and then you forget to turn it off.
You have both- you have waste you know both in in terms of electricity as well as um shrink.
Because anytime you run the fan- typically you're going to drive a little bit more moisture out of
the grain. And it's really a lot harder to get the moisture back into the grain once it's
over dried. So you don't ever want to get it down to that place where you're inadvertently removing
more moisture. So electrical labor fumigation. Less fumigation, with confidence again when you store
you don't need as much. So I would say those are the biggest drivers as far as savings
and return on investment. That is an awesome overview of how important these systems are.
What about on the inventory management side so is this helping farmers make a decision on if whether
they should store it on their farm or whether they should take it straight to an elevator?
How is this technology potentially helping a farmer make those decisions at harvest?
Great question, Samantha. So this gets into the whole area of um supply chain.
Which is more towards the commercial side like the co-ops um for the farmers to understand what
their inventory is. Of course, they know both the quality and the quantity of the of the commodities
they're storing. They can make they can share the data, they can make better market decisions. They can you
know capture a better market opportunity. But when you start working with, for instance, your local
co-op. Now all of a sudden you know you know the co-op could be looking at going hang on a second. We
know that that that the best quality of storage is gonna be on farm. You know the farmers could
do the best possible job, typically smaller bins better air systems, better there on-site. You
know they've invested interest, you can't get better quality than that. So when we keep the grain
on farm longer and then we can route directly. So for instance if it's accordance going to an
ethanol plant. Why should it go through the handling and then the loss? You know half a
point or point loss every time grain is handled. So when you take it out of the bin at the farm
and you move into the co-op or the commercial elevator- there's going to be losses and costs.
And then you turn around and ship that grain out to say an ethanol plant why not just have a drop
ship why not just have the contract for the farm. Farmer to have direct shift to the ethanol plant.
And it saves everybody, it frees up the capacity in the system.
And it allows for efficiency in supply chain. I mean the bottom line is that you know the better
the information systems, the more readily available that information is
like for example on your phone on your combine. The better the decisions you can make is that
is that bin full? You know what's what's the condition of that uh is it dried yet?
You know can I actually sell grain the way it's sitting right now.
That came out of the dryer got pinched in the bin. You know you can make decisions way better than
than guessing or having to go and check the bin, which is really not going to happen.
Given you know, what all is going on at harvest. So you know the more available you think about
these these are what we call real-time systems. I mean, basically the information's you know
some measurements being made and information being shipped up the cloud, and then it's instantaneously
available. And so to be able to turn your fans on and off and to be able to see what the condition
and the level the bin is. You know to be able to share that data if someone is
someone's looking to find markets and it's a buyer or someone helping you sell the grain.
If they have access to the information, they can leverage that information to you know identify
and capture opportunities that come up. Where do you envision the biggest growth opportunity
when it comes to grain storage management- is it the connecting you know what you have stored to
a customer or is there something else that you really think we should be looking forward to
in the future of grain storage? Yeah you know there's there's the evolution of
of sensing technology and there's CO2 sensors are coming out now. And there's even you know um
wireless technology that it's supposed to be able to measure the moisture across the bin. But
the biggest win is is in applying the technology for better management.
You know having the automated controls that I just alluded to a moment ago.
And then having connectivity to the broader value chain, I think that's really where it's going.
How all these different systems are connecting. So you don't have all you know a different
you know precision system, in a different inventory management system, in a different marketing,
accounting system. Where everything is whether it's under one umbrella or whether it's just
interconnected. Such that the data is flowing. That you've got the traceability, so that you can um
stand that data and allow um stakeholders such as you know grain brokers or buyers or people who are
supporting you with your grain management. We're bringing a module out in our platform now that
we have a you know really solid platform we can build onto it with you know bringing sample grain
management services. So if a farmer wants to take a holiday or if he doesn't want to be climbing
the bins or checking the grain himself. He can outsource that component. Because farmers are
are challenged. I mean they got you know it's hard to find really good help sometimes. And or um you
know to keep up with all the different demands of a very complicated business when you think about
farming. How many moving pieces there are. To manage effectively. So you know be able to have
someone else watching over your brain for example. In general just having connected systems allows
us to do a plethora of different things. And I see that's the direction that we're heading.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the it's more important it's not just about
collecting all this data, it only matters if you're using it and applying it. So I think
that's awesome. We talked about that all the time in digital agriculture. So I'm really glad you have
you know talked about that. Yeah the biggest thing now though is that I mean included earlier is our
cloud-based platform. Which is really exciting because that opens up endless
possibilities as far as connecting us into the overall agricultural value chain. And so
we have one project that uh um multi-year project that we're just running with
uh precision company by name of Farmers Edge up in Winnipeg. Whereby, we're specifically focusing
on protein-based crops so if you want to dial in specific uh characteristics and you want to
sell into protein markets, for example. But really it's as much about it's sort of a precursor to
traceability and uh you know being able to know exactly what um kind of conditions the
grain was grown in and um what the main quality parameters are whether it be
protein normal starch you're going to get specific market opportunities. So connecting
producers with with buyers, processors. You can do that a lot of that.You know the storage
itself has been a bit of a black hole. You've got a lot of technology a ton technology upstream on
production agriculture. With precision ag you've got a lot of emerging um interesting things
happening on the marketplace side. But storage itself has been somewhat disconnected component.
And so by having a cloud-based offering we can connect into the overall value chain, so we can see
that whole piece as far as pulling data up and across and moving it downstream to the marketplace.
So we can do it with partnerships. I mentioned Farmers Edge. We're developing a large ecosystem
of partners, whether it be you know from the grain cart getting the actual yield and volume
right out of the field. And tying that directly into the bin.
And the more that we can actually pull data in an automated fashion, the more reliable this is
going to be. Because of course you know relying on manual intervention for data entry especially when
you know producers are really busy for example at harvest. The more automated we can get,
you know the more accurate, the more calibrated the sensors, the better the information, the better the
management that comes with that. So building up our partner ecosystem with this cloud
blue cloud program is really where we're going forward over the next couple of years.
So when you think about you know trying to have traceability with fields and working with farmer's
edge- I imagine one of the biggest challenges there is is trying to match the grain and and the field
that that grain is coming out of to the actual bin that it's being stored in, and and kind of tracking
that grain over time, so how have you all been able to overcome that challenge- I know you're talking
about automation, but I imagine that's a big a big challenge still? Yeah excellent question Jackson.
I mean that's that is the challenge and that's you know we're just early days in this project.
So that's one of the goals the longer term goal of this project over the next couple years is to
really look at what kind of technology we can tap to be able to um automate that as much as possible.
Because you have to you know at the end of the day you have to rely on the manual component to say
yeah sure I know exactly that that bushel of grain came out of uh you know that part of that field,
at that moisture content uh et cetera et cetera. But you know at the end of the day when you're out
that cart maybe even to um a truck that then goes to the um to the bin. How do you know that
that's the uh indeed um you know where that grain came from? So we're looking at different there are
different technologies we're always looking for folks that are developing solutions like that.
But that's one area right now where we have to oftentimes have to consider the manual component
to make sure that um that the grain did in fact hit the target to be anything downstream.
You know when when there's a contract um how does the buyer know if they've made an agreement
on a particular grain? How do they know that that's where that grain came from?
So these are the kind of things that we need to solve um going forward. I have heard a
few things about blockchain potentially being an opportunity within you know grain logistics
and marketing kind of locking in contracts and having those on the blockchain. Is that another
opportunity that may be available here in terms of that automation to make sure it's traceable?
Absolutely absolutely that's a big part of the uh the surety the traceability blockchain will
definitely be an element that we'll be looking at and partnering with others that have that
expertise. We want sure to think about it, I mean if you have a a producer that um could contract
directly to a buyer. You know they both want to build up that trust. So you want to have mechanisms
like blockchain and but other trust build systems right like um you know the producer has a profile
of being a trusted supplier. And that you have the data to be able to actually show
that linkage through the system. Can you kind of talk about how you're planning on getting this
technology to farmers that are trying to match their protein levels and what that means for them
as farmers? How is this technology working for wheat farmers? Right so
um you know coming from Canada of course, we're into a lot of small grains right. So
less of corn, a little bit of beans but a lot about um you know canola, wheat, barley pulses etc. So the
same basic tenets hold true no matter what the grain type or the characters you're driving for.
I mean, if you're specifically looking for protein- that happens to be the sort of genesis of this
program that we're involved with. But really it's it's about um you know traceability, blockchain
what you know is it's any any type of grain any kind any kind of characteristic that you're trying
to drive for. If specifically you're looking at protein you might want to have a protein
meter on your combine. There is that technology out there today that you can actually literally
drive through your field and cut out you know specific um protein if that's if that's what you
know you're after. You know with your wheat. But it could be anything. You could be you know
getting barley to a malt. It could be any characteristic that you're really wanting to
hone in on on for a particular value added market opportunity. When we were at the American society
of agronomy conference last year there were several presentations with people talking about
basically protein mapping in wheat fields. Which I thought was really interesting because I was
not aware of that capability. And I think there's actually a project right now that is trying to get
started doing some wheat protein mapping here in Nebraska with one of our extension educators. So
that's an exciting opportunity if you're really able to get high resolution on on that that data.
You know it'll tie right into what's I guess planned with farmer's edge.
I mean at the end of the day it's uh it's the old saw right. And great data. And we're amassing so much data and there's a real question about what what is the value of that security that your data is not
going to be used against you. That you know there's a value there and if you're gonna be
investing in systems whether it be precision or otherwise you you've got to see where that
roi really really makes sense. But we're making more sense of the data and the more data that we
store, you know the more that we can go back and back flash and apply things like ai you
know artificial intelligence. Or to to or machine learning to to actually mine value out of the data.
So the nice part about our technology is that we're not putting the systems in for the data.
That's just sort of a very pleasant side effect of the systems that we need that data to be able to
monitor and optimize but and control. But by in so doing we end up collecting a lot of data that we
build up over time and it's cheap to store data. So we have multiple years of historic data that
we go back and look at. And the really cool thing about data is that the this is one of the rare
commodities where the more you use it the more valuable it becomes. So the more things we learn
about the data the more things we can do with the data. So and then that helps sort of it's sort of a
you know a self- prophesizing value driver in the sense that that then you can justify
you know spending money on systems that will collect the data. But again, I mean it's a nice side
effect because we're already pulling a lot of data just in the virtue of the operation of our system.
Is this with the idea that eventually farmers won't have to just be price takers, that they'll
be able to kind of leverage maybe specialty crops or leverage different quality of their grain?
In a way that they can kind of ask for a higher price or a premium? Absolutely
I mean anywhere you can find a value-added opportunity anywhere you can differentiate.
Anywhere where you can actually even maybe could join like you know if you have other
producers that have similar product but you yourself don't have enough
volume to fill the contracts. Whether it be farmers getting together whether it be brokers that are
organizing these activities again. Because you know if you think about a grain of broker something
that's helping you with your grain marketing. They have access to the information you can let
that you know uh information on particular bins or or types of grain or whatever and help them
try to find um market opportunities. So anywhere you can differentiate and get away from
the you know commoditized notion of uh you know especially with you know crops like
corn. The better off you are to identify where you can find those kind of markets.
I hate to say it as well, but the reality is if you look at when we talk about marketplace. I
mean that's technically a word that's being banded around around the whole disintermediation of the
um system from producer to buyer. And so if you can cut unnecessary
steps out of that chain that the value can come back to the producer. If the producer isn't having
their grain commingled to especially on export to a lower quality standard.
You know they can enjoy the benefit of the higher value with a higher quality product.
Because typically the farmers are shipping a really high quality product with
really low levels of admixture of fm and uh but that's not exactly what the buyers necessarily see
once it's gone through the system. So who's benefiting from that and who should benefit
from that? So do you see the direct consumer- direct to you know whoever the value adder is.
Do you see that market growing quite a bit right now and is that really enabled for the
data? It is it already is through in in in real you know niche uh market opportunity areas that
we're connecting to more much more directly. Absolutely, already happening.
I don't know how meaningful is happening but certainly the uh I believe the trend in that
direction. So can we talk about how far out do you think that this is to be like commonplace?
Because like you're we're starting these partnerships right or right now and it's
getting there slowly but how far out do you think we are from this being like really common practice?
Common practice that's a great question you know uh one of the biggest opportunities for us is the
US on farm storage market. You know I would think that some type of monitoring system is
going into a better percentage of the new storage that's going up. But historically uh you know
the safe number is that less than 10 of US on farm storage has any kind of monitoring system in it.
And so you know we have to get we see that as a huge opportunity. But then it's also a
paradigm that we have to get beyond and say well where do people see the value in better
management. I think that ties back to do we see better market value-added market opportunity.
So it's sort of hand-in-hand had a glove with um you know how we develop
these markets and create the infrastructure to be able to um capitalize on these types of
opportunities. And, for instance, in the Canadian system it's already kind of set up that way and
said in the sense that we have smaller storage. This this lends itself more easily to segregation.
You know so you start putting grain into a you know a quarter million half million
bushel bin, and you know it's getting it's getting blended down to its you know whatever the common
quality denominator is. But the you know it's where you can find these opportunities like,
for instance, with farmers loading grain into secants you know and back hauling secants to
Asia. I said that said those are smaller lots we're talking like 25 lots. But selling standalone
monitoring systems but being connected into the overall value chain, I think that helps too.
Where producers can make sense out of how they can, you know, not just get information on their
phone as opposed to having these monitors. They can't remember where you know where they left
them or um you know that the information's coming to them that it actually connects
into a into a into a bigger system whatever they're using for their farm management.
So if a farmer like I said, say a farmer is listening to this and they want to learn like
how to get started how to reach out to somebody at OPI Systems and think about getting started-
what do they need to know? Like is this something that they should think about for their new grain
systems can they retrofit it onto their old ones? But maybe more importantly like is this
customizable for their operation or what do you recommend? I don't know does this make sense of
what should a farmer really know about getting started with a grain advanced system? Yes it's
not a um you know it's not a simple kind of a product that you just got by off the shelf.
It's got to be fit um to the bins. You know all farmers have been to different sizes and
whether the bin is um you know got a structural roof or not whether it's a new construction.
Which is much easier to install systems into when the bin roof is on the ground you know the
pin is being jacked versus a retrofit application where you have to get in to figure out how to get
installation done on a pre-existing bin. Sizing the system up, how you're going to integrate into
you know controls for for automated fan operation. It's best to talk to someone um
that is really um boned up. That's a you know that is very conversant in the space. So you
know we've got uh some great dealers like uh construction out of southern
Nebraska. Not to be excluding anyone sorry but if I did. I would recommend
that conversation both from a standpoint of you know get somebody's knowledgeable
they go through a bit of a consultative process to say well really what are you trying to do with
the system? What are you trying to do with your grain? More specifically, you know what
would you like to be able to accomplish, and so that the writing system is matched up to
the needs of the opportunity and then and then logistically the right equipment is installed.
Thank you, Dave, for joining us today on the FarmBits podcast. Grain storage is often overlooked
aspect of farming and digital technology, but in reality plays a vital role in preserving the
commodity that you worked all year round to grow. And it directly influences your bottom line. So
my favorite part was his comment that creating all this data doesn't really matter. It's about
the decisions that you make from that, so in making those decisions in a way that the grower doesn't
have to take the time to really think about it. It's a system that really makes farmers
and commercial operators lives easier. For sure. And I thought you know one of the most interesting
aspects of the interview is his discussion of their new partnership with farmer's edge,
and working to connect precision agriculture data that's collected in the field
to some of their grain bin management data that they have. With the ultimate goal of creating
greater value for farmers products through these value-added market supply chains. I think that's
going to be a really big opportunity in the future of agriculture and precision ag specifically. I
think that's something everyone can get behind is a higher value commodity. No doubt. If you are
interested in learning more about OPI advanced grain management systems please check out the
website and contact information included in the show notes and podcast description.
Thanks for joining us and hopefully we'll see you next week. Thank you for taking the time to join
us today on the FarmBits podcast. We would like to thank Nebraska Extension for their support
of this podcast and their commitment to providing high quality informational material to members of
the agricultural community in Nebraska and beyond. If you enjoyed this episode, and it sounds like
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