A strong bench – Canola Digest

John Bergen
Carman, Manitoba

John Bergen hires an independent mechanic every winter to give the tractors, sprayer and combine a complete inspection and make any repairs required. “He moves his trailer and tools into our shop,” Bergen says. “It takes a good three weeks.”

Bergen likes having the same set of eyes on his machinery every year. The challenge, Bergen says, is that electronics and diagnostics on newer equipment make it harder for old school mechanics. “So I don’t know how much longer we can keep this going,” he says.

The next expert on Bergen’s list is his marketing advisor. He uses Grain Shark, which gives him timely text updates on his four crops: canola, corn, soybeans and oats. Grain Shark provides daily opening and closing prices, and market trends and highlights in condensed text form. Recommendations to sell are based on charts and technicals, not on a farm’s individual cash flow or storage needs. However, the advisor will answer specific questions. “If I’m short on bin space, he will give me suggestions on which crop is best to sell or store based upon a commodity’s upside and current pricing,” Bergen says.

If Bergen were to add one more expert it would be an independent agronomist he can hire on an as-needed basis. “I have lots of independent agronomists around who are really good, but they want all of our acres all year long,” Bergen says. Bergen would rather pay an independent agronomist $250 per hour and sit down for four hours to hammer through fertilizer recommendations, for example. Or if Bergen sees a problem in a field, he and the agronomist could spend three hours sorting it out. “I don’t feel I always need full service,” Bergen says. “I would expect to pay that higher per hour rate for ad hoc.”

Cheryl Westman
Vermilion, Alberta

Cheryl Westman hires a Decisive Farming agronomist to set seed and fertilizer rates unique to each seed lot and field. “Our agronomist used to teach at Lakeland College and she is very smart,” Westman says.

Another essential expert is their accountant, who stays on top of the books and advises on government programming. “There’s so much to good bookkeeping, and we don’t have the time to stay on top of it,” Westman says. Her husband, she says, is “super strong with numbers and math, but this is over his head.” The Westmans connect with their accountant often, even weekly, with questions about business decisions. The accountant knows what the farm needs, which is how, for example, the accountant knew the Westmans could make use of a recent government program to support grain drying upgrades. “The accountant flagged this for us, and we redid our grain dryer based on the money available.”

If the Westmans could hire an expert to take over one job on the farm, it would be a grain market specialist.

“We had a good one, but he left to go work at an elevator,” Westman says. “We really miss him.” The Westmans met with him a couple times a year to work on marketing strategy, and he sent regular texts and emails when sell opportunities came along that matched their strategy.

“We liked having that personal relationship,” she says. “We tried sticking with the company after he left, but we weren’t getting the same level of service.” So they gave it up. Now Westman’s husband does the marketing, and he wishes they had a trusted advisor to help them.

Margaret Rigetti
Langbank, Saskatchewan

Margaret Rigetti operates a large grain farm with her brother and cousin. They use a lot of outside expertise, including agronomists, a marketing analyst and advisors on insurance, accounting and law. “At this moment, we don’t need anyone else. We have most areas covered,” Rigetti says.

Each farm partner has an area of expertise. Rigetti is the marketer and the financial manager. “Part of my role is to help our farm move through the governance issues that come up as our family farm grows and changes.”

The farm is currently restructuring to sort out estate planning. With growing families, it was time to think about how to restructure the farm for a smooth transition. The process started with an advisor who was “pretty helpful to get the conversation started” and now includes lawyers and accountants. “It has taken three years to get this work done and another generation of succession will be coming right on its heels,” Rigetti says. “The business and succession is continually evolving.”

For general farm planning, the three partners have regular yearly discussions with their accountant to put everything on the table. “With a multi-family business structure, having good transparency in financial reporting is important,” Rigetti says.

They also work with Terry Betker of Backswath Management to analyze the business and provide ongoing reporting. Backswath takes a longer term view to track the business over time. Rigetti also belongs to one of Backswath’s farmer peer groups. “With the peer group, we’ve been able to learn from the expertise and experiences of other farmers,” Rigetti says.

Evan Michel
St. Gregor, Saskatchewan

Right now, the farm’s most important expert is the accountant. For the past five or six years, the family farm has been transitioning ownership from Michel’s parents to Michel himself. His mother is a chartered accountant and is the farm’s regular accountant, but farm transfer requires a specified level of expertise.

“There are so many different ways to roll a farm to the next generation. If you don’t work on that every day, you won’t be familiar with all of the insights,” Michel says.

Evan started a partnership with his parents in 2014. Since then, he has bought corporate shares from his parents, and is now working toward a complete take over. “It involves different landowners, different assets with a lot of value, and we have to keep all sides happy,” he says. “It takes a lot of planning to make it as fair as possible.” Evan has a brother and a sister who are not farming. In fact, his brother works for IG Wealth Management, which is expanding into succession planning for farms. “My brother is giving his perspectives as well,” Michel says. “Fortunately my family is very understanding.”

If Michel could hire an expert to take over one other job on the farm, it would be a grain marketing expert. Michel follows information from a couple of grain marketers, but he still likes to make his own decisions.

“Last week, canola went up a buck for no obvious reason, then fell back off,” he says. “It doesn’t seem to matter how much information you have, markets will go up and down unpredictably.” He would like someone who can accurately predict those unexpected spikes so he could hit more of the highs. He realizes that is a tall order.

Jeff Frost
Olds, Alberta

Jeff Frost runs a grain farm with his father. The first expert that comes to mind for Frost is the agronomist. Frost’s father hired the agronomist 20 years ago to put together variable-rate prescriptions, and the relationship continues.

“He operates a one-man show, so we have the same person checking our fields over and over year after year,” Frost says. “That consistency is incredibly important.”

The agronomist helps with crop planning, soil testing, in-crop scouting and management recommendations. This year, the agronomist discovered cutworms in the area that needed spraying, so he checked the Frost farm closely. “Dad hadn’t seen them in 30 years,” Frost says. “We didn’t need to spray our fields, but it is a comfort having that an extra set of eyes.”

The Frosts pay the agronomist a fixed amount per acre per year, half in spring, half in the fall. “He is 100 per cent on his own schedule. We’ve been working with the guy for this long, we know he’s always out there looking. He’s a professional. We don’t have to micromanage.”

When asked about an expert to take over one other job, Frost answers “a succession specialist” – like a general contractor for succession. The family has a lawyer and an accountant to help with succession planning and farm transition. “But there are so many different variables and moving pieces. I would like to pay someone to make it all happen with the least amount of tax and best results for the family,” Frost says. “The dollars are so large when it comes to farm transition and it can make for touchy conversations. It feels like going down a dark tunnel.”

Andrea & Sheldon Guthrie
Reston, Manitoba

Andrea Guthrie has an agri-business degree and worked in the agriculture industry before putting her focus on family, farm and their seed business. Her husband, Sheldon, worked as an agronomist in Alberta and Manitoba before returning to the farm.

While they are both experts in these fields, they do use outside experts for accounting, legal, marketing and weather services to help with farm business decisions.

The Guthries subscribe to Drew Lerner’s World Weather. Odds of rainfall and estimated accumulation are important forecasts. “We make decisions on what fields to seed and when based on potential impacts of weather events such as rainfall and temperature,” Andrea says. “We make fungicide decisions based on the current environment, crop quality, rain received and the potential forecast to best understand our disease risk.”

Sheldon likes to see the big picture. “How big is the system? Where is it going? Where is the heaviest precipitation?” Up until mid-July 2023, when the Guthries did this interview, total growing season rainfall at their farm was only 60mm. “We’re probably the driest pocket in the area,” Sheldon says.

If Andrea could hire another expert, it would be for jobs she doesn’t have time for. “We try to ensure we make time for family in July as you only get so many summers with your kids,” Andrea says. “During the busy season when we are in the field in all capacities, we rely on our village – which includes family, friends, babysitters and after school recreation programs. They say it take a village to raise a child and we truly believe this.”

John Bergen Carman, Manitoba

Cheryl Westman Vermilion, Alberta

Margaret Rigetti Langbank, Saskatchewan

Evan Michel St. Gregor, Saskatchewan

Jeff Frost Olds, Alberta

Andrea & Sheldon Guthrie Reston, Manitoba