Ryan Augustine has plenty to keep him busy these days as a sixth-generation crop and livestock farmer, business entrepreneur and dad to his three sons, all under age 3.

The 26-year-old won the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge in January for a product called AccuGrain, which uses X-ray technology to accurately measure the weight of flowing grain in real-time. The award came at about the same time as Augustine was ready to launch AccuGrain for sale commercially, providing good exposure for the new product.

"That was a good experience," he said. "We got to talk to a lot of people and get out on more of a national stage."

His main clients today are high-volume commercial users who are...