Ten agricultural startups will go head-to-head for the top prize of $100,000 in the 2026 Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge. The American Farm Bureau Federation, in partnership with Farm Credit, aims to encourage agricultural innovation through the challenge. The competition is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to present to a panel of judges their emerging ideas and businesses in the agricultural industry, with a chance to earn $100,000. Farm Bureau is offering a total of $145,000 in funding throughout the course of the competition. Two Iowa companies, Terraform Tillage and Renner Ag Solutions are among the 10 semifinalist teams, who will participate in a virtual pitch competition. Terraform Tillage of Eldora was founded by Josh Jeske in 2020. His patent-pending SmartProbe System technology makes traditional soil penetrometer mapping more efficient and effective. Renner Ag Solutions of Klemme is an ag safety company founded by Caleb Renner that is developing a replacement for bin sweeps that saves farmers lives and limbs. The net automatically unloads a bin and the farmer no longer is required to enter during the load out process. The four teams advancing to the final round will each receive $10,000 and will be announced on Sept. 10. The four teams will compete on Jan. 12 at the AFBF Convention in front of a live audience of Farm Bureau members, investors and industry representatives.

The other semifinalist teams are:

• Agriwater, Illinois
• CryoBio, Inc, New York
• FarmSmarter.ai, Louisiana
• Gather Agriculture, Inc, California
• KinnanFAB, Nebraska
• KiposTech, Pennsylvania
• Verility Inc., Indiana
• Vivid Machines, Washington