When it comes to agricultural innovation, Total Acre doesn’t just work with companies offering the latest trending products. We test them, track their performance, and deliver unbiased, data-driven insights about what actually works in the field. For the companies that collaborate with us each season, the Total Acre Trials Program provides more than visibility. It offers a transparent, farmer-driven environment where products are proven under real-world conditions.
We spoke with Brian Mattix, Total Acre’s Product Trial Director and Chief Financial Officer, to better understand how the program works, what sets it apart, and how partners benefit from a structured, performance-focused approach to product evaluation.
From Engineering to On-Farm Innovation
Before joining Total Acre in 2017, Brian spent over 30 years in the automotive industry, working in engineering, manufacturing, quality control, and purchasing for companies like Honda. That background shaped his approach in agriculture.
"I came from a world where you couldn’t fix what you couldn’t measure," Brian explains. "And that’s exactly the challenge in agriculture too."
This process-driven mindset laid the foundation for how Total Acre trials are designed. Whether evaluating seed treatments, biologicals, or nutrient strategies, the program emphasizes structure, data integrity, and consistent execution.
Bringing New Products to Market with Confidence
For ag companies looking to move from traditional R&D to real-world adoption, Total Acre offers a unique opportunity to validate products in production-scale environments. Trials are conducted side-by-side with grower standards, across a variety of soil types, regions, and cropping systems. “Our partners bring products they believe in—but we don’t just take their word for it,” Brian says. “When you run a trial with us, it’s going to be fair, transparent, and rooted in grower-driven conditions.”
Total Acre uses its proprietary Yield Management Software (YMS) to collect spatial data, monitor plant health, and track performance throughout the season. The result is a complete performance picture from application through harvest—helping companies identify where their product fits, and where it may need further refinement.
A Structured Framework for Product Validation
Partners working with Total Acre follow a well-defined trial process designed to generate reliable insights. Each trial includes:
Strategic placement based on past yield data, field variability, and agronomic fit
Collaboration with Camp Hosts and growers to ensure proper protocol execution
Consistent documentation of application methods and timing
Ongoing monitoring through tissue samples, visual evaluations, and in-season data tracking
Post-harvest analysis that focuses on ROI and agronomic performance—not marketing claims
“We don’t just assign trials at random,” Brian says. “We place them where the data will be meaningful, and where the grower is genuinely invested in the outcome.”
Real Data, Real Conditions
In the current growing season, Total Acre is supporting:
75 unique trial protocols
420 trial locations
23 participating companies
140 grower cooperators
6 crop types across diverse U.S. and Canadian regions
Products range from seed treatments and soil amendments to foliar inputs and biologicals. Trials are not conducted in controlled research plots, but in production fields, managed by top-performing farmers. That’s what gives the results their credibility.
“We’ve had some home runs, and we’ve had some dumpster fires,” Brian notes. “But either way, our job is to deliver clear, actionable data that helps companies move forward with confidence.”
More Than a Field Demo
Total Acre Trials are not one-off plot demos or testimonial campaigns. They are designed to help companies:
Build product credibility with growers and the market
Refine targeting based on real-world performance
Generate field-level data for marketing, sales, and regulatory support
Identify fit and function across a range of growing conditions
At Total Acre, our goal is to help good products prove themselves—and help great ones earn their place in the market. We believe that what matters most isn’t the promise of performance. It’s the proof.
Interested in running your next trial with Total Acre?
Contact our team at support@totalacre.com or visit www.totalacretrials.com to learn more about how your product can be evaluated in one of the most trusted on-farm testing environments in agriculture.