Providing precision ag recommendations
By Jack Criss, The Bolivar Bullet
With an extensive background of 22 years in agriculture, Will Scott decided to take his experience and open his own business in January of this year. The result was Scott Ag Consulting, which is based in Cleveland.
“At Scott Ag Consulting, we cater to a wide range of crops, including soybeans, corn, wheat, rice, peanuts, and cotton,” said Scott about his company. “Our expertise lies in creating customized strategies to maximize net farm revenue on a per-acre basis. We achieve this through a comprehensive set of on-farm agricultural services, such as crop production management, evaluating and integrating new technologies, enhancing operational efficiency using our precision agriculture platform, and facilitating communication between growers and organizations like NRCS or FSA.
Our unique approach allows clients to select services individually, giving them the flexibility to allocate their operational budget according to their specific needs and timing,” continued Scott. “I can sum up the business model for Scott Ag Consulting this way: support farmers with a segmented offering that allows them to determine their acre investment by service. To do this, I’m utilizing my years of expertise and partnering with various local businesses to have a full end-to-end service for growers.”
Scott said that his passion for ag started while he worked as a summer intern for Dow Agro Science – now known as Corteva – in Wayside, MS.
“I grew up in Greenville,” he said, “and while my family didn’t farm, you’re surrounded by agriculture in the Delta, of course. From the smells in the air, to seeing all of the crop dusters flying overhead and the dust clouds of the tractors, it’s everywhere. So, when I went off to college, attending Mississippi State, after my internship, I decided to study and specialize in ag-related areas.”
Scott received his Bachelors of Science in Integrated Pest Management and his Masters of Science in Entomology from MSU, graduating in 2012.
“And while my educational background was in research, I also had experience with precision ag,” said Scott, “and went to work out of school with Cresco, a subsidiary at the time of what was then Sanders, Inc.”
Scott proceeded to spend the rest of his professional career working in a variety of ag fields on a national level with several other major companies. such as Indigo Ag, Wilbur-Ellis and Nutrien.
“I have national and international responsibilities in biologicals, crop nutrition and agronomy testing,” he said. “I assisted in developing products, private and life-cycle management and crop protection products and seeds, spending about four years of my career focusing on seeds as a matter of fact. There was a wide range of things I was involved in throughout my career with these companies and gained a lot of experience.”
It was last year when Scott decided to take that experience and start his own ag consulting business.
“I stepped away from the private sector and it only took me a couple days to figure out what I really wanted to do,” he said. “That’s when I launched Scott Ag Consulting. I had gained all of this knowledge about the industry and its end-to-end business functions and needs and so I designed a business model to support that structure. We provide crop production with seed, herbicide, insecticide and soil fertility and look exactly at what the client needs specifically.”
Scott Ag Consulting provides precision ag consulting, said Scott. “We do this by offering a platform that can be used by the customer for boundaries, record keeping, prescription generation, fertility and on-farm work request. I’ve also partnered with two companies to offer drone spraying and LiDAR surveying for dirt work.”
Scott said he can also support farms through InFR (Indirect Farm Revenue). “I do that by acting as a liaison between growers and NRCS to make sure they are capturing all the money available through government funding or programs,” he said.
“There’s also capital asset depreciation of residual fertilizer, where I help new landowners correctly identify excess residual fertilizer so they can capture that using tax code 180,” he added.
Scott is currently in the process of getting his real estate license. “With this, I can assist landowners in managing their land from start to finish. It’s exciting and brings another facet to my business,” he said.
The father of two boys, Bryson, 10 and Weston, 6, Scott has lived in Cleveland for the past ten years.
“Scott Ag Consulting is still new,” said Scott, “but I love having my own business and helping clients and farmers to the best of my abilities. I look forward to doing this for many years to come.”