DRIVEN BY INNOVATION
A JOURNEY IN AG TECH Lukas Koch, upcoming keynote speaker at the Kansas FFA Convention shares his agricultural journey.
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ukas Koch, chief technology officer for Heinen Brothers Agra Services and CEO of Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems, represents a blend of heritage, innovation and forward-thinking leadership. “There are many ways to implement new agricultural technology and stay profitable to successfully push operations forward,” says Koch. “I get to work with large-scale aerial machines that are not your typical four-propeller drones.” Living and working in northeastern Kansas, Koch gets to support dozens of drone designs from around the world and learn alongside companies on the forefront of the technology. “I’m part of a seventh-generation farm family that settled in Nemaha County in 1857, and we haven’t left since,” says Koch, who has five siblings. “We have ties that go way back, and innovation has always been part of that story.”
Roots in the Field Koch plans to be a keynote speaker at the 98th Kansas FFA Convention to share game-changing tech ideas. “The future could hold many possibilities of shared air space with existing lines and integrate new drones for long-range flights to deliver supplies or spray fields in our lifetimes,” he
by Lucas Shivers
reflects. Generationally in a long line of creative problem solving, Koch recalls how his parents, Steve and Denise, played a role in developing auto-steer systems for tractors. Although this technology is now commonplace across modern operations, his uncles and father completed DIY projects with early prototypes. “Growing up, I learned how things worked,” he says. “To keep the farm together in the 1980s and expand in the 1990s, our family had to be creative. We saw all sorts of emerging precision ag tech that could help our operation with features like automatic shutoffs on planters and selfpropelled ground rig sprayers.” Generations before drones and precision agriculture entered the modern landscape of ag, the Kochs knew they needed to adopt technologies. However, the family didn’t always appreciate the high costs and capital needed for mainstream models, so they made their own versions. “In shop class at school and on the farm, we built our own models of these same types of equipment using things like electronic hardware and military surplus trucks,” he says. “We could get the benefits of the newest tech to help the farming operation thrive by getting creative.”