MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Luke Theurer and the Power ofSmart Agriculture

Near South Haven, Kansas, Kanokla member Luke Theurer is showing how agriculture and technology are coming together in powerful ways. What started as a cattle nutrition trial has become a great example of how reliable rural broadband is helping drive the future of smart agriculture.

Luke was approached by Lallemand Animal Nutrition to test a product called Levucell, a dry yeast supplement designed to help cattle digest forage more efficiently and pull more nutrients from the feed they consume.

“Our goal was just to see if it worked,” Luke said. “It’s designed for cattle on a high-forage diet, and that’s exactly what we feed here in our grow yard.”

The trial involved 1,600 head of cattle and ran for about nine months, with groups rotating through the study every 60 days. Researchers tracked cattle performance and studied how cattle behave throughout the day.

Each animal was fitted with a small electronic ear tag that monitored behavior, such as how long cattle laid down, when they drank water, how long they ruminated, and how often they visited the feed bunk.

“It tracks behavior all day long,” Luke explained. “You start seeing patterns you wouldn’t normally notice.”

Those tags generated a large amount of data. Gathering that information from cattle spread across multiple pens required something many rural operations still struggle with: reliable internet connectivity.

That’s where Kanokla came in.

After installing Kanokla Managed Property, Luke was able to maintain reliable internet coverage up to a quarter mile into his feedlots, allowing the monitoring system to transmit data from the far end pens back to the operation.

“The only way we could make the tags work was to have reliable internet service reach those far end pens,” Luke said. “Without that connection, we couldn’t collect the data.”

The technology is already proving valuable when it comes to cattle health. If one animal begins laying down longer than the rest of the group, the system sends an alert directly to Luke’s phone, giving him an early indication that something may be wrong.

“We’ve pulled cattle that looked perfectly normal,” he said. “But when we checked them, they were already running a fever. If you catch it early, they recover much faster.”

Tools like this are part of a growing movement known as smart agriculture, where producers use data and digital technology to better manage livestock and make more informed decisions.

But for many rural producers, the challenge isn’t the technology—it’s connectivity.

Farms and ranches often cover hundreds or even thousands of acres, far from town and traditional infrastructure. That means producers and broadband providers must meet in the middle to make these technologies work in real-world agricultural settings.

“Since 1951, Kanokla has been finding ways to help rural farmers stay connected,” said Jill Kuehny, CEO of Kanokla. “We started by helping families communicate across their farms through telephone service, and today we’re helping them thrive in the digital age with broadband and the technology that supports smart agriculture. That’s what building a Smart Rural Community is all about—making sure the people who live and work in rural areas have the tools they need to grow, innovate, and succeed.”

Luke’s operation is a strong example of how that vision is already becoming reality.

Technology in agriculture continues to evolve. New versions of cattle tags are being developed that will track body temperature throughout the day and send alerts directly to a producer’s phone if something changes.

Even with challenges in rural connectivity, projects like this show how broadband and agriculture are becoming more connected, giving farmers better tools to monitor their operations, make informed decisions, and keep agriculture moving forward.