FarmSmarter.ai
FarmSmarter.ai
MONROE, La., April, 2025 – FarmSmarter.ai, an innovative agricultural technology startup founded by Louisiana State University students, secured the top prizes at the fourth annual Louisiana Pelican Cup hosted by the University of Louisiana Monroe. The startup won the $50,000 grand prize and the $2,000 elevator pitch, competing against dozens of teams from eight universities across Louisiana.
FarmSmarter.ai transforms complex agricultural documentation and regulatory information into clear, actionable insights, benefiting growers, agricultural consultants, and ag businesses. Colin Raby, co-founder of FarmSmarter.ai, explained the vision behind their innovation: "FarmSmarter aims to be the world’s best virtual agricultural expert. What we do is we take millions of pages of up-to-date agricultural documents and regulations and turn them into actionable intelligence. Louisiana has incredible agricultural and technical talent, and we aim to leverage this prize to lead the charge in revolutionizing an industry that our state has excelled in for generations."
The 2025 Louisiana Pelican Cup selected 6 teams from around the state to compete in the final round of live pitches. The final round consisted of each team giving 20 minute pitches to a pannel of judges followed by 30 minutes of questions from the judges.
CTO Grant Muslow expressed excitement about the company's future, stating, "To have won both the elevator pitch and the overall competition completely changes the trajectory of our company. This funding will let us develop AI-driven tools that can significantly improve farmers' lives not only in Louisiana but nationwide."
FarmSmarter’s CEO Colin Raby giving the elevator pitch that won 1st place.
Raby emphasized the company's commitment to expanding local opportunities: "As FarmSmarter.ai grows, we hope to expand our team. If you're graduating in AI or computer science from Louisiana’s top universities, we'd love to help retain that talent, provide technical opportunities, and lead in building the future of the agricultural industry."
The startup originated from LSU's groundbreaking class ‘HNRS 3035: Large Language Model (LLM) Development and Deployment for Real-World Applications.’ Founders Colin Raby and Grant Muslow helped to start this class at LSU and were among the students in the class’ first semester. LSU Ag Scientist Prof. Stephenson came to the class asking whether AI and modern systems could be used to make accessing the critical research done by LSU and the Ag Extension easier for growers and Ag consultants throughout the state. After successfully building a system that could answer complex questions using the information out of LSU’s research, the team had the idea to massively expand the information that the system had access to and began building the FarmSmarter.ai platform.
Raby says “the foundation that the LLM Class gave us to build an advanced system like this is incredibly valuable. From LSU leaders like Provost Haggerty, to top-teir professors like Prof. Ghawaley and Henry Hays, to the business guidance provided by our advisor Fahimeh Abbasi, LSU innovation park’s Jason Boudreaux and Adam McCloskey, and the LSU community has been incredibly supportive.
The FarmSmarter.ai platform launched its first product ‘Farmer AI’ last month and has access to a wide array of information critical to agricultural decision making. This includes access to over 16,000 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved pesticide and herbicide labels, extensive research documentation tailored to each state FarmSmarter.ai provides, and live tools like weather integration that allow the system to produce tailored, specific, and relevant application plans for growers, consultants, and Ag-Businesses.
The team plans to use their winnings to expand their team, accelerate research and development, and extend their technology and services. They seek to soon roll out advanced GIS mapping capabilities, the world best multi-model plant and insect identification engine, and a tool for growers to easily ensure compliance with new and complex Endangered Species Act (ESA) guidelines. They encourage anyone interested in contributing to their vision of modernizing agriculture to contact them at support@farmsmart.ai.
FarmSmarter’s first version of Farmer AI is live and available try out at https://farmsmarter.ai/. If you are a student or part of the LSU Ag center network, you can email the FarmSmarter team to get a reduced-priced access.
The founders of FarmSmarter are LSU Alumni Colin Raby, LSU Master’s student Grant Muslow, LSU AgBusiness Major Cole Lacombe, and LSU Biological Engineering student Julius Pallotta.
The FarmSmarter Team receiving the 1st place overall trophy as shown on a local news (https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/ulm-hosts-fourth-annual-entrepreneurship-pelican-awards/)
LSU students and alumni have created a new, AI-powered tool called FarmSmart that put
Baton Rouge, La., August 6, 2025 – FarmSmarter.ai, the Louisiana startup turning cutt