Highlights of 2024 and what’s ahead in 2025

I always enjoy this time of year. People stop by the farm and drop in for a chat, most of them thanking me for providing them with seasonal work. It really means a lot to know that our operation is helping people in rural Saskatchewan provide for their families and do meaningful work that they enjoy. It’s also great that we can employ young people from as far away as New Zealand and Germany and help them learn about agriculture in different parts of the world. I appreciate feedback on how the year went (good and bad) and what I heard from most of them was how smoothly things ran.  We truly appreciate our team and everything they do for our operation as well as the communities we live in.

It’s funny. People assume that it must be sheer chaos at our size, and it’s quite the opposite. The bigger the operation gets, the more people we hire, and the smoother things run, thanks in large part to Jeff Warkentin, our Chief Operating Officer. There was very little drama during seeding and harvest, likely because more people meant shorter shifts, so team members weren’t as tired and cranky. Jeff and I are getting better at delegating, and I find people are more invested in things that they’ve directly influenced.  We still use the term “organized chaos” fairly regularly, but that is simply due to the sheer volume of tasks that get accomplished.  

I did what I usually do—establish the projects, finances, and help find the right people, and then get the hell out of the way. My team feels empowered to run with my ideas and make them happen, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.  There are days I still struggle with guilt of not being shoulder to shoulder with them on a daily basis, however once we do our reviews of each season and I can see how awesome they have done as leaders the guilt retracts.

This year I was able to travel and attend several speaking engagements. Going to Calgary in the spring for the Business Council of Alberta and the Productivity Summit in the fall were highlights for me. In previous years, I never would have considered leaving the farm in spring and fall, our busiest seasons. 

Another big milestone this year was selling Global Ag Risk (GARS) of which I was the Chairman of the Board, an insurance company that we’ve been involved with for the past 20 years. Personally, this clears up my schedule and headspace (a little!), but more importantly, Hub International acquired GARS, which is big news. It’s a good sign that a global company wants to invest in Canadian agriculture and also confirms our belief that farmers need more choice when it comes to insurance products. Weather is one thing, but as equipment and people working on the farm increase, liability is another risk farmers need to protect against. Listen to our interview with MNP’s Dean Klippenstein where we dive into this subject. 

 

Looking ahead to 2025

I say it all the time: Policy will continue to be our biggest risk. With the USMCA set to be renegotiated in 2025 and President-elect Donald Trump at the helm, it is going to get very interesting. I believe the next 12-24 months will bring some of the biggest policy changes we’ve seen in agriculture in recent years, and I’m honestly not quite sure whether they will have positive or negative consequences. 

Faced with policy uncertainty, volatility, and geopolitical issues, it’s even more important for producers to focus on what they can control. 

We’re seeing our Farmer Coach clients struggle with analysis paralysis because they don’t have good processes in place. The market is so volatile, and the decisions are so complex that they’re almost afraid to make them.

We’ve been working on helping our clients get better at prioritizing and decision-making. Once they get that nailed, then they learn to focus on cash flow and human resources. Following that, I believe it’s important to focus on building your network. This is highly undervalued in agriculture. One of my most popular blogs this year was the Conspiracy of Awesomeness, the idea that we can all help each other by building relationships and doing what I call “favours” for one another.

Hats off to Evan Shout and the Farmer Coach team—the program is growing, and we’ve found our stride in structuring it best. We now have three different levels: Foundation, Executive, and Masters. Our fall sessions were sold out, with 94 producers attending and committing to leveling up their management skills. 

Trends that agriculture needs to follow closely 

I think AI will revolutionize agriculture in 2025 and beyond. I recently listened to the book The AI-Driven Leader on Audible, and it’s clear that AI won’t replace good ideas and creativity, but it can speed up data collection and help you make decisions. 

Most leaders are stuck in the operational weeds of their business and struggle to find the time to make better strategic decisions.

We are already looking at using rock-picking AI software and I’m hopeful this will reduce the number of people hours spent on this task. This is just one of many examples where I think AI is going to help our farm be more productive.

Lastly, I am jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon. I’ve been on it for a while, even before it cracked 100K. I enjoy following and learning from Michael Saylor, the Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy, the world’s largest holder of corporate Bitcoin. While I don’t have a digital wallet yet, I do find his strategy and recent acquisitions interesting. I’m curious to see if confidence in the value of Bitcoin continues to grow and if more corporations adopt and buy into it.

You may think this sounds far-fetched, but I think Bitcoin presents huge opportunities for agriculture and could be a way to access abundant amounts of capital in creative ways.

Curiosity is something that defines me; it gets me up every morning, and this is definitely something I’m going to be investigating more next year.

Happy Holidays from all of us at HGV.