EarthOptics and Pattern Ag have merged to create a company focused on digitizing soil health for advanced crop management and climate sustainability.

The newly formed company, operating under the EarthOptics name, will lead Predictive Agronomy. It will offer farmers high-resolution data on soil properties, pest detection, fertilization and tillage prescriptions to optimize crop management and input decisions.

The combination pairs Pattern Ag’s lab-based analysis with proprietary field-based sensing technologies from EarthOptics to create a high-resolution digital twin of the soil, giving farmers insights into pests and pathogens, biofertility, nutrients, soil compaction, carbon levels, moisture and more.

“This merger will give farmers the most comprehensive snapshot of the soil under their feet,” says Lars Dyrud, current EarthOptics CEO and the CEO of the merged companies. “Historically, soil measurement insights have been limited in scope and imprecise. We now have the technology to tell farmers what’s in their soil with a high level of precision, and with the addition of Pattern analytics, we can offer them insights into what to plant and how to manage their most impactful decisions throughout the growing season.”

Rob Hranac, CEO of Pattern Ag, adds: “As the leader in Predictive Agronomy, our insights help farmers know their risks and opportunities before they plant in order to create the optimal plan for next season. By pairing this with EarthOptics field-based technologies, we can increase the breadth of soil insights into exciting new categories while amplifying the resolution of most analytics by 100 times or more”.

The new combined company will aim to make it easy to turn soil insights into farm profitability and productivity. With this merger, one soil sample will generate more data and predictive power across physical, chemical and biological soil properties. By integrating methods and technologies, the newly expanded company will deliver more data and agronomic insight to customers while rapidly scaling operations.