Magazines summer cover crop | Page 6

Ryan Meister named director of Servi-Tech Expanded Premium Services Tell us a little bit about yourself. to monitor multiple locations of soil moisture in a field. Advancements in hardware technology have reduced the cost of monitoring soil moisture so that now it is affordable to monitor multiple locations within a field. The efficiency of the LoRa radio technology will allow us to expand the types of sensors in the field as well. We have recently launched the Rain Station which is a wireless rain gauge to compliment the ProfilerPlus or be used alone in rain fed environments. We are currently testing other sensors this summer for an anticipated fall product launch. CropView is another key component of the STEPS platform. We deliver imagery, which can indicate areas of potential stress in a field and be overlaid with the location of a Profiler Plus to allow the customer to better understand the crop health in the area where soil moisture is being monitored. I live just outside of David City, Nebraska. I grew up on a row crop farm that fed a few cattle and had a cow/calf operation. My wife and I have three daughters who are in grade school. How long have you worked at Servi-Tech? I graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2003 and started work with Servi-Tech shortly thereafter. I have worked at Servi-Tech for 14 years, 7 years as an agronomist, 3 years as a Territory Manager, and the past 3 1/2 years in my current role with STEPS. Why were you interested in being the director of Servi-Tech Expanded Premium Services? I enjoy working with a forward-thinking team. STEPS has assembled a group of uniquely skilled people that help make our offerings impactful to our customers. Our team consists of individuals who understand technology and have a farming background. I find working with the STEPS team, to build tools in which our customers realize value in, is rewarding. Where do you see STEPS heading in the future? Our goal for the future is to provide meaningful information to the right decision makers on the farm. Advanced analytics will provide early detection of stress in the field saving producers, agronomists, and managers time and money as they determine what tasks take priority over others. With a continued increase in access to information from the field, offering an easy-to-interpret, yet powerful decision making tool will be our main objective. The agronomic knowledge within Servi-Tech will be instrumental in building reliable techniques. What is STEPS? Servi-Tech Expanded Premium Services brings together different technologies to one platform. The ProfilerPlus allows our customers The Cover Crop Summer 2018 6