One is an Ag Leader employee who grew up on a farm and continues to farm with his family today while working full-time at Ag Leader; the other employee has no background in ag but became interested in precision ag while at UC Davis.
Andrew Pierce grew up on his family farm in Ogden, Iowa, and today grows corn and soybeans with his father and brother. His interest in precision ag began early, when his dad and uncle installed their first yield monitor and grew as the farm adopted new technologies like autosteer.
Pierce earned a degree in agricultural systems technology from Iowa State Univ. and gained hands-on experience through a 7-month internship with Ag Leader’s Technical Support team in 2013. Once his internship was complete, he continued to work part-time during his last 2 years of college. He joined Ag Leader full-time in 2015, later leading dealer training sessions as part of the Ag Leader Academy until 2022. In 2023, Pierce transitioned into sales where he now serves as a product sales specialist.
For her part, Hope Lewis didn’t grow up on a farm, but spending time at her grandparents’ acreage fueled a love for rural life. Her initial plan was to become a veterinarian. At UC Davis, she initially majored in animal science and management, but she soon realized she didn’t want to be a vet. Exploring her options, she found agricultural and resource economics. Her classwork exposed her to an internship with the school’s precision ag department, where she fell in love with precision, though it included a vertical learning curve. For more than 20 years, her career has focused on the ever-evolving industry of ag tech. Today, she is a territory manager with Ag Leader and covers Nebraska.
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