An Oklahoma Farm Bureau plan to develop agricultural businesses has announced its inaugural group of 12 startups for the accelerator program.
Each business is in a community with less than 50,000 population and was selected from a large pool of applicants. The nominations were made in June and the owners went through a ‘business bootcamp’ held across several days either at the Farm Bureau headquarters in Oklahoma City or at their local career tech center. The presenters at the bootcamp were national and statewide partners who guided the new entrepreneurs in best practices for business development.
There are two divisions in the program – Cultivate Oklahoma which deals with on-farm or production agriculture innovation, and Activate Oklahoma, which is for any rural based business with an innovation or product that creates economic opportunities in Oklahoma communities.
Cultivate Oklahoma partners with AgLaunch/Ag Ventures Alliance, a farmer co-op that invests in ag tech startups that are based on farmer-focused and farmer-led development. The businesses can apply for a national accelerator program which offers assistance with testing and more.
The 2023 Cultivate Oklahoma members are from Stigler, Coalgate, Hochatown, Noble, Broken Bow and Watonga. Each developed a product or idea that is ready to begin production.
Unsurprisingly, the Watonga member is Black Coyote Manufacturing, owned by Bill Seitter. He recognized a problem in his own cattle production program and when he went to purchase a piece of equipment to solve the problem, discovered there wasn’t anything available.
Over the course of a year and multiple builds, rebuilds, improvements and redesigns, all intended just for his own use, Seitter developed a streamlined bit of technology for on farm use in cattle production.
Eventually it occurred to him other cattle ranchers could use the same item, but there was no way he was going to stand in his farm shop and build each one. At an event at Chisholm Trail Technology Center during a conversation with Dan Craig, the small business manager, Seitter was pointed to the small business development center at Canadian Valley Technology Center, where he could get assistance writing a business plan. The center also pointed him to the next steps in building Black Coyote Manufacturing and guided him through the process.
That process next sent him to Oklahoma State University’s new product development center, where a report on his prototype included patent research and computer a ided drafting illustrations of the gizmo he had built in the shop.
There was also a stop at a patent attorney – the most costly part of development, Seitter said. The rest of the work was at very minimal costs because it was done through career tech and university systems.
Once all the moving parts were in place, the small business development center suggested he apply for the Farm Bureau program through Cultivate Oklahoma.
Through the whole process at each step a non-disclosure agreement was signed and in force. That prevents anyone involved from scalping the idea and developing it themselves. Similarly, very little about the technology ready for production by Black Coyote Manufacturing was revealed for this article.
Whether the product meets wide appeal and is one day found on almost every cattle production facility in America or it never takes off at all, Seitter has nothing but good to say for the process.
“I enjoyed it and learned a lot of new stuff,” he said. “Cultivate Oklahoma is there for you, they don’t just leave you hanging.”
He also emphasized that the process would work for anyone who has a product ready for manufacturing, that it isn’t hugely expensive or difficult and the career tech and university systems are in place to benefit the people of Oklahoma, not just students currently in attendance. It is something nearly anyone can do.
For more information on the accelerator programs, go to okfb.new/accelerators. For more information about the business development services, contact Angie Lewis at (405) 4222207.