MSU Pushes Precision Ag Tech

Aritra Roy Choudhury, director of the Montana Seed Potato Certification Program, and Carrie Kondratuk with the Montana State University potato lab pick a door prize for a lucky attendee.

January 27, 2026

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Story and photos by Dave Alexander, Publisher

Scott Short from Spraytec Fertilizers displays the company’s new Fulltec adjuvant.

The Montana Seed Potato Seminar brings growers from Montana and Idaho to Missoula every November. This year, the seminar was held Nov. 12-13 and featured speakers, receptions and a trade show. Among the speakers was Paul Nugent with Montana State University (MSU) who gave a rundown of what the MSU Precision Ag Department has been working on.

Mike Wenkel, chief operations officer at the National Potato Council, outlines H-2A employer costs for growers at the Montana Seed Potato Seminar.

A primary focus for the department is irrigation decision support and how to apply water more precisely in the field. The team at MSU is using information gathered to figure out things like runoff and water stress prevention, where water is needed and where the best economic return is for water used.

Kate Vogel with North 40 Ag blends custom pasture grasses and perennial forages for customers’ areas and needs.

To make these irrigation decisions, MSU uses satellite and drone-supplied spectral sensing and commercial weather stations in the field that measure both crop stress and weather parameters. This setup allows real-time evapotranspiration (ET) measurement and tracks how much water the crop is actually using. From there, decisions can be made on how much water to put down.

Paul Nugent, a Montana State University precision ag professor, addresses attendees in Missoula. His department at MSU is working to revive agricultural engineering at MSU, focusing on data science, robotics and automation.

MSU flew its drones approximately once a week, but sometimes weather-related flight gaps stretched to two weeks. Even without real-time data, the team has figured out how to use their previous measurements to predict how things were changing in the field and do it very accurately. They can put out two sensors, take measurements, then make irrigation recommendations based on those measurements and try and optimize irrigation across the field.

Chad Christopherson (right) with BioSafe Systems explains the benefits of new BioPhyter to a seminar attendee. BioPhyter is an endophytic Beauveria bassiana, which supports plant performance and vitality, minimizes abiotic and biotic stressors, and complements pest control solutions.

“I find this very, very exciting because even a lot of commercial applications out there aren’t really doing something like this,” Nugent said.

Phytophthora and Potato virus Y pocket test kits are available from Potadaho Seed Services and can be used in the field to verify pathogens in suspect plants.

MSU is also working on identifying Potato virus Y-infected potatoes with hyperspectral imaging; a potato yield monitor that will identify, count and size objects on the conveyor leaving the harvester; autonomous robots; spray drones and virtual cattle fencing.

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