{"id":69,"date":"2022-09-26T19:13:33","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T19:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/?p=69"},"modified":"2022-10-31T15:47:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T15:47:30","slug":"sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/sentinel\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Helps Farmers Fertilize Smarter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nitrogen fertilizer is a key tool in crop production. But producers walk a tightrope to apply it efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They need enough to boost yield, but fertilizer is expensive and overuse can harm the environment. Determining how much nitrate is available to crops is challenging, making precise application a struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Joe
Joe Petsick, faculty adviser for the Husker Venture Fund, stands with Jackson Stansell, founder and CEO of Sentinel Fertigation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To help farmers navigate this dilemma, Husker graduate student Jackson Stansell launched Sentinel Fertigation. The Nebraska Innovation Campus-based company offers a real-time, imagery-based software and management framework that empowers farmers to make data-backed decisions about if and when to apply nitrogen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFarmers don\u2019t want to apply nitrogen unnecessarily, especially when prices are as high as they are right now,\u201d said Stansell, a biological systems engineering student and company CEO. \u201cWhat they\u2019ve really liked about our solution is the ability to have data that backs that decision and gives them confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s N-Time Fertigation Management System, or N-Time FMS, is a web application that quantifies crops\u2019 nitrogen status. It recommends how much fertilizer farmers need to apply through their irrigation systems throughout the growing season. Aerial imagery is the backbone of the software. Based on near-daily satellite information, N-Time FMS gauges crop conditions and predicts optimal timing for nitrogen application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Jackson
Jackson Stansell, left, walks with Brett Gerdes, a senior agronomy student who interns at Sentinel Fertigation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"a
Sentinel Fertigation’s web application empowers farmers to make data-based decisions about if and when to apply nitrogen to crops like corn. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The platform\u2019s focus on timing is unique. Other products recommend ideal rates of nitrogen to apply across a field, but that requires farmers to use variable rate technology, which is expensive and requires expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to meet farmers where they are and allow them to improve nitrogen use efficiency through the timing aspect, which they have control over,\u201d Stansell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stansell capitalized on university resources to form his company. NUtech Ventures, the university\u2019s commercialization affiliate, applied for patent protection for the technology and subsequently licensed it to Sentinel Fertigation. Stansell also participated in NUtech\u2019s Nebraska Introduction to Customer Discovery program, which connected him to the local entrepreneurship community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jackson
Jackson Stansell reviews field data with Brett Gerdes, a senior Husker agronomy student who interns at Sentinel Fertigation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He also participated in The Combine Incubator, a NIC-based initiative providing innovators with business know-how and networking support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2022, Sentinel Fertigation was the first recipient of a $25,000 investment from the Husker Venture Fund, a student-led initiative supporting Nebraska-owned early-stage startups. In May 2022, the company announced an initial $1.2 million round of seed funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nitrogen fertilizer is a key tool in crop production. But producers walk a tightrope to apply it efficiently. They need enough to boost yield, but fertilizer is expensive and overuse can harm the environment. Determining how much nitrate is available to crops is challenging, making precise application a struggle. To help farmers navigate this dilemma, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[26,25,21,30,27,28,29],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-development","category-uncategorized","tag-husker-venture-fund","tag-jackson-stansell","tag-nebraska-innovation-campus","tag-nitrogen-fertilizer","tag-nutech-ventures","tag-sentinel-fertigation","tag-sustainable-food-and-water-security"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}