CropFax Team members are only one or two generations removed from the farm. We understand and have a passion for the challenges of today’s farmer. At CropFax we believe that improving farm profitability – especially for the small and medium sized grower – is critical to strengthening our agricultural economy and we understand that selecting the correct seed varieties to plant is one of the grower’s most important decisions because it is a key factor in profitability.

The team behind CropFax has many years of successful innovation in Agriculture and Technology.   Collectively we hold undergraduate degrees in Engineering, Statistics and Computer Science; Masters Degrees in Engineering, Computer Science and Business Administration; Doctoral Degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks.  Team members draw their expertise from 15-25 years of work experience from large firms such as John Deere, Ford Motor Company, Allied Signal, Honeywell, Black & Decker and successful start-up or emerging enterprises such as Pacific Consolidated Industries, Adaptive Computing and JHTech.

With numerous new seed varieties and genetic traits being introduced at an ever increasing pace,  Jim Hall, recognized the need for seed selection decision making tools.  In 2006 he embarked on solving the complex problem of combining all seed trial data sources into one comprehensive analytical system to describe the comparative performance of seed trials within their associated agri-climate conditions. Since then, Jim and his engineering team constructed the nation’s largest and most complete databases on seed performance including:

Seed Traits

• Over 23,000 corn and over 14,000 soy seed varieties offered by over 300 seed companies

Same Field Yield Comparisons

For Corn Seed

• 714,539 Field Trial Comparisons
• Over 14 Million Same Field Relative Yield Ratios

For Soy Seed

• 347,924 Field Trial Comparisons
• Over 5 Million Same Field Relative Yield Ratios

Agri-Climate Database

• Over 20 years of local daily climate, soil temperature and solar radiation data
• This unique dataset contains the most accurate information available on solar radiation available anywhere.

This data is continually updated with the latest seed trait, field trial and agri-climate information.
With the CropFax teams' combined skills in Engineering, Artificial Intelligence Systems, Computer Science, Statistics and Business Administration we created a system that  can  combine and annually update over 300 discrete seed trait data systems, 5,400 agri-climate monitoring sites and over one million seed field trials into one comprehensive soy and corn seed analytical tool.  Each year we add the results of the all new seed trials, new seed trait offerings, and agri-climate measurements to the data system.  

While Jim and his team had solved the engineering problem of seed selection and created the CropFax Custom Report in 2009, he had not solved the problem of how to effectively get these tools into the hands of the growers.  In 2011, David Bitter and a number of investors saw the market need for CropFax and joined forces with Jim Hall’s engineering group to bring these tools to the growers.
Having reached our initial goal of developing an unbiased  system to intelligently select the best seed unique to growing conditions from data collected in recent trials, we are now focusing on making the Custom CropFax Report affordable and available to each soy and corn grower.