Down on the farm, Neucadia builds apps for the agriculture industry

Neucadia, a software startup founded three years ago, released its first product, AgraScout, this spring. The firm's focus is on building apps for the agricultural industry and the five-person person firm, which started in Carson City, now has five full-time employees, with two programmers working from Grand Rapids.

Jamison Sheppard, UX Designer describes the functionality of the new app: "AgraScout is a mobile crop scouting app designed to make communication between scouts, salespeople, and growers more efficient. We currently have customers in eight states. What makes AgraScout different from other scouting apps is its ability to aggregate disease, insect, and weed data at a national level -- allowing our users to see a real-time map of the infestations in their area and beyond. This has not been done before, although Monsanto is trying."

Sheppard says the members of the five-person team all have an agricultural background and a proclivity for technology and entrepreneurship. "We started as freelancers, doing whatever odd jobs kept the lights on -- an iPad app for limousine drivers, web development for a seed company, and IT support for a chemical distributor, to name a few," he says.

Brandon Warner, one of the founders of the firm, says the business found its focus in agriculture. "There is a lot done with pen and paper and that needs to be switched over," he says.

The Neucadia team is already working on its second product, Farm Cycle, a manure record-keeping app that automates manure record-keeping and helps farms be prepared for DEQ inspections. Sheppard says Farm Cycle is already being used on a few dozen dairy farms throughout the state.

Moving forward, Warner says the team will be keeping its remote workforce but is looking to make Grand Rapids its home base. "We can get more traction in Grand Rapids thanks to its startup community," Warner says. "Grand Rapids is also central to a lot of agriculture, from blueberries to corn".

To learn more about Neucadia, you can visit their website here.

Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor