Taranis Technology Boosts Efficiency and Savings for Silver Spur Farms

With farms scattered across Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska, Silver Spur Farms understands the need for efficiency across every facet of the operation. The company is seeing the benefits of Taranis technology.

Jesse Thelander, Farm Manager, Silver Spur Farms

“Taranis was a no-brainer for me,” says Minatare, NE Farm Manager Jesse Thelander, of his first introduction to the leader in AI-powered crop intelligence by Frenchman Valley Cooperative’s Jeff Wessels. “It’s two and a half hours one-way between farms in Minatare and Dickens.”

Implementing Taranis on potato acres in 2023, Thelander has expanded Taranis coverage to the corn acres he manages in Dickens for the 2024 growing season. 

“Taranis scouting shows me the whole field instead of just a section of it, and the dashboard allows me to focus on what needs to be taken care of when it needs to be taken care of,” he says.  

The Need for Efficiency and Accuracy

Thelander oversees and manages around 7,500 acres for Silver Spur’s Dickens location and another 5,000 in Minatare, highlighting the need for both efficiency and accuracy. 

The geography alone makes efficiency paramount, however, when high-value, high-management crops like potatoes are thrown into the management mix, timeliness and accuracy can make or break the crop. 

The ability to scout entire fields quickly and accurately has allowed Silver Spur Farms to allocate its workforce more efficiently. 

“Time management is critical for our team and the crops,” Thelander says. “Taranis adds precision to what we do every day. The data that comes in is so precise, knowing where we have weed issues is important, but so is knowing where we don’t need to focus manpower and resources. When I can see every acre in all of the fields we have enrolled in, I can make a plan for where I’m sending people in the morning and send teams exactly where they need to go.” 

In addition, Thelander says that he values Taranis’ insights because they help him identify and mitigate challenges before they become major problems. He highlights an instance this past spring that could have been a significant yield and ROI robber. 

“I left on a Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, I got a call from Frenchman Valley telling me that there was an issue with a field of potatoes. I came back down the next day and, sure enough, we had blight in a field of potatoes. By Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours after I got the call, we had an airplane over the field spraying for blight,” he says. 

Making the Most of Crop Inputs

By combining Taranis’ AI-powered insights with Frenchman Valley Coop’s Acre Plus program, Silver Spur Farms has optimized its resource allocation, particularly in fertilizer application. 

Wessels, who leads Frenchman Valley Coop’s Acre Plus program works to help farmers maximize the potential of every acre, which often includes helping them to make critically important input application decisions. 

“We discovered that some of the fields that were close to a feedlot were very high in phosphorus, but we needed more potassium and micronutrients. That information allowed us to reallocate dollars to work with fertility in a much more information-driven way,” he says. “What we see and the way we are able to apply it makes us all more proactive in how we approach inputs and in-season challenges.”

Future-Proofing Farm Operations

By adopting Taranis technology, Silver Spur Farms is positioned for long-term success. 

Tim Spector, Vice President of Agronomy at Frenchman Valley Coop, says the full-picture approach is one every operation should be considering. 

“With the complexity of markets and with the price volatility, every operation needs to manage every acre. Taranis allows a producer to see the entire field, so they know when they’re making a decision, it’s based on science, it’s not based on the section of the field.”