Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Agtech topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
CSU Ag Innovation Center pitches farm‑facing incubator, agrivoltaics and manure‑to‑value projects
Summary
Colorado State University’s Ag Innovation Center described incubation services, farmer‑focused events to seed offal and manure innovations, and pilot work on agrivoltaics and manure‑management technologies to support rural producers and reduce emissions.
Spur, Colo. — Jordan Lambert, director of Colorado State University’s Ag Innovation Center at Spur, told the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee that the center is combining research, entrepreneurship and business‑model work to help Colorado producers adopt technologies that address narrow profit margins and climate challenges.
Lambert said the center offers incubator space (wet lab, greenhouses), weekly founder support, founder deep dives, and connection to industry partners; he listed several incubated companies — AIMS Corp (food‑safety formulations), FarmShare (direct‑to‑consumer scheduling software), HerdDogg (Bluetooth cow monitors), NitroCat Energies (manure‑to‑fertilizer electrolysis) and SeedLinked (crowd‑sourced seed data) — and described how those startups have benefited from CSU technical and market connections.
He described two outreach initiatives that aim to create markets and business models for hard‑to‑sell materials: the “offal/awful party” series to develop demand and company concepts for organ meats, and “Poop Shop,” a program to identify and solve manure‑management barriers (engineering challenges with anaerobic digesters, market linkages, and technical assistance). Lambert said USDA, Deloitte and other partners have provided funding and technical support for pilot programs and that USDA funding is available for biosecurity and waste‑milk heat treatment tied to the HPAI response.
In questions, committee members raised agrivoltaics and land‑use trade‑offs between green energy and agriculture. Lambert said CSU is piloting agrivoltaic installations at an RDEC facility, is consulting with NREL on panel technologies that allow photosynthetically useful light to pass through, and is encouraging utility‑producer dialogues to make co‑location feasible. He emphasized site specificity: treatment methods, operating costs and volumes vary widely across mines and farms.
What happens next: Lambert invited committee members to tour CSU Spur facilities and offered follow‑up materials on specific incubator projects and agrivoltaics pilots.
