[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=”When farming gets high-tech” header_fullscreen=”on” header_scroll_down=”on” scroll_down_icon_color=”#000000″ background_overlay_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ title_font=”|700||on|||||” title_text_align=”left” title_text_color=”#e0b25e” title_font_size=”50px” title_letter_spacing=”2px” title_line_height=”1.1em” content_font=”||||||||” content_text_color=”#FFFFFF” content_font_size=”20px” subhead_font=”||||||||” subhead_text_color=”#000000″ subhead_font_size=”20px” background_image=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSCF1313.jpg” custom_margin=”|||” custom_padding=”100px|50px|100px|50px”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n Ottawa\u2019s FarmLead has been called the \u2018eBay <\/span>By Menaka Raman-Wilms [\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″ module_alignment=”right” custom_padding=”8px|0px|0px|0px”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”22.75px|0px|3px|0px” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_font=”||||||||” header_text_color=”#000000″ max_width=”70%” module_alignment=”center” custom_padding=”0px|||”]<\/p>\n Alain Goubau knows his grains.<\/p>\n In his downtown Ottawa office overlooking corporate towers and condominiums, he pulls jars off a shelf on the wall showcasing different crops. There are dried chickpeas and red spring wheat, yellow mustard and tiny canola seeds. A jar near the top, which is filled with what looks like caviar, actually contains beluga lentils.<\/p>\n \u201cOur solution today is focused on grains that are harder to buy, or harder to sell,\u201d Goubau says. \u201cPeople think of us as eBay for grain.\u201d<\/p>\n Goubau is the co-founder and chief operating officer of FarmLead, a startup company that brings farming together with the high-tech world of software development. It\u2019s one of a number of Ontario companies that have broken into this space.<\/p>\n FarmLead celebrated its fifth year in business in 2018, a milestone achieved by only half of [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/foodforott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/farmm.jpeg” alt=”Photo by: Dexter McMillan” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n FarmLead has created an online marketplace for farmers to sell their grains. Photo by: Dexter McMillan<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_font=”||||||||” header_3_font=”||||||||” header_3_text_color=”#000000″ max_width=”70%” module_alignment=”center”]<\/p>\n FarmLead has built an online marketplace that lets sellers offer wheat or seeds, and lets buyers place their bids. Their app has almost 10,000 users across North America.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t sell software, we sell liquidity,\u201d Goubau says. \u201cWe sell access to buyers or sellers of grains and oilseeds.\u201d<\/p>\n The company was founded in 2013 by Goubau and his business partner, Brennan Turner. It is free to sign up for the app, which charges both buyers and sellers a fee if there is a successful connection. It exposes farmers and grain merchandisers to a much wider market, Goubau says, than they would otherwise have by posting grain for sale online on their own.<\/p>\n That wider market has benefitted grain merchandisers like Martin Charlebois.<\/p>\n Charlebois uses FarmLead to sell grain on behalf of farmers: he posts the grain for sale on FarmLead\u2019s online marketplace, then monitors the bids as they come in and finds a buyer. Much of the grain sold on FarmLead is sold by grain merchandisers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can put all the information there and leave it,\u201d Charlebois says, emphasizing how the app lets buyers come to him, and saves him the work of actively marketing the grain.<\/p>\n He also added that the platform has been improving every The buyers are often agents working for larger corporations, and purchase grain in bulk on their behalf. Quaker Oats, Goubau mentions, usually [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.17.6″ max_width=”70%” module_alignment=”center”]
for grain,\u2019 and it\u2019s changing the way farmers
sell.<\/p>\n
Nov. 23, 2018<\/p>\nThe modern business of farming<\/strong><\/h3>\n