Greetings from hot and dry Texas. We’ve now recorded over 30 days with daytime temperatures over 100 degrees. No rain either. We have received some small “pop-up” thunderstorms in places. Anyone receiving those rains is certainly appreciative.
Whether one is a producer with his/her livelihood on the line, advisors to producers and others who rely on the bounty of agricultural production, these times give rise to a variety of levels of anxiety, frustration and fear. Our rural communities are dependent on the success of agriculture. The multiplier effect of the agriculture economy is obvious to anyone who takes time to think about it. As with anything in life, we should be thankful for what we have and the opportunities to get up tomorrow and keep our hands on the proverbial plow. Whether the weather, or anything else life throws at us, this too shall pass.
We continue to be blessed with membership interest and activity. With three applications just approved, our membership roster now reports 90 members. International interest is growing, with one new addition to the international roster.
Welcome as new members:
Robert N. Gitau – Plantations et Huileries Du Congo – Nairobi, Kenya
Stacy Carr – Farm Foundations, LLC – Flagpond, Tennessee
Robert W. Kupke – Kupke Ranch Enterprises – Orlando, Florida
I’m especially glad to see some membership growth in the Southern Region.
Growing the organization has and will be a primary objective. Our membership is dispersed across the country.
Western Region – 13 states – 22 members
Northern Region – 12 states – 19 members
Southern Region – 16 states – 16 members
Eastern Region – 9 states – 28 members (We have 23 members who consult as employees of Farm Credit)
International – 5 members
As you plainly see, there is no reason we should not have membership numbers of several hundred. I continue to challenge everyone to focus an effort to recruit new members. Each one of us recruiting one new member doubles our membership. Notwithstanding the multitude of consulting organizations with focused member profiles in specialized disciplines, with the breadth and depth of the agricultural marketplace, ASAC is positioned to offer networking, educational, and professional opportunities that can be the gold standard for agricultural consulting.
We have some unpaid dues thus far and the board will be making decisions on these in the next 45 days. If you have dues outstanding, please get them paid right away.
We’re getting our name and brand noticed more and more through a variety of means. Chief among them has been Warren Clark’s TecAGRInews. This medium of information dissemination has been invaluable to the Society. This has not only helped our membership growth, it has also fueled interest in the Fresno conference.
I’m repeating my message each month, I know, but it’s our survival at stake. The Certified Agricultural Consultant program and designation, in conjunction with the Professional Code of Ethics, properly constructed and well-managed with vigor and integrity, is our selling point that will propel the Society to new heights. This will always have to remain a priority Key Action Item for the coming years to get more members awarded this professional designation. It is why we exist.
I also challenge everyone -- long-tenured members and newly joined members alike -- to review the variety of information on ASAC’s website, familiarize yourself with the workings and administration of the Society, and consider where your talents and energy can be put to use in helping to govern, manage, advertise and grow the organization.
Our committee work is the fuel that will power the organization forward. See the list at the end of this article and go on-line to study each one. Contact the committee chair and help in any way you can.
We definitely need new members and long-term members together on committee assignments to get some new thinking and ideas “mixing it up” with some of our seasoned programs. Some members who have recently joined may have good experiences in other organizations as board members, regional directors and officers. Don’t hesitate to step up and consider a governance and management role. We need you....and your experience....and your energy!
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We have received nominees for the open board and officer positions this year.
Eastern Region Director: Ethan Robertson – Farm Credit East, Auburn, Maine
Southern Region Director: Scott Mickey – Clemson University – Columbia, South Carolina
Vice President/Secretary: Abigail Majerus – Snowy Mountain Food & Agriculture Development Center – Lewistown, Montana
A great lineup of leaders stepping forth to lead us.
At the Annual Business Meeting at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the election will be held. We will call for nominations from the floor. If no additional nominations are forthcoming, the slate of candidates mentioned above will be elected by acclamation.
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Take a look at Wittman Consulting’s Family Farm Business Consultant Training Workshop which is being held in conjunction with the ASAC Conference. It will be held Saturday, November 4 beginning at 8 a.m. through Sunday, November 5, ending at 3 p.m. prior to the beginning of ASAC’s conference. Dick Wittman and his daughter, Cori Stitt, along with Lance Woodbury of Pinion Global (formerly K-COE Isom), will present an engaging and educational workshop on developing an effective farm business consulting practice. I have attended it twice and always learn something new.
Hotel room rates are connected with ASAC’s room block. It’s registration is independent of ASAC’s Conference, though we are coordinating with them on the room block to benefit both organizations. A link to their program registration is included on the ASAC Conference website.
Dick will also be presenting at ASAC’s conference on Monday afternoon. You will not want to miss it.
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The Annual Meeting and Conference, planned for November 5 – 7 in Fresno, California, is coming together. Go on-line to the ASAC website and get your registration and lodging locked in.
Fresno County Ag Commissioner Melissa Cregan is scheduled to welcome us Monday morning to Fresno for this 60th anniversary meeting of the Society.
Gary Hirsch, an economic development professional from New Jersey, will inform the group of international consulting opportunities. We have some Society members who have worked in Africa and other regions in years past and continue to pursue opportunities overseas. Gary will have some very interesting observations that speak to the geopolitical aspects of international work.
Don Tyler, from Indiana and our Northern Region Director, will speak on “How to Ask the Next Question.. He focuses his practice on helping families and companies navigate the challenges of strategic business planning and human resource management, meeting immediate needs of the farm business as well as for long-term viability and success.
Rusty Rumley, from the National Agricultural Law Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, returns for an encore presentation with unique perspectives about a variety of policy topics always on the front burner of American agriculture.
Dick Wittman, Wittman Consulting in Idaho, will regale us with Insights and Take-Homes from Four Decades of Consulting. Dick has experienced a career most of us will not come close to matching. He has been part of a multi-generational family farm of several thousand acres and multiple crops, with many transitions. He’s carried that experience from his own family operation to effectively consulting with families and companies across the globe. It’s very safe to say Dick has forgotten more than I will ever know.
Alon Ascher, BlueWhite, an entrepreneurial technology firm in Fresno, California, will tell us about autonomous technology, a fancy term for driverless tractors. I wish I had had that 50 years ago on my old Farmall Super M. Go to www.bluewhite.co for a preview of what he will likely be discussing.
We’ll follow Alon’s presentation with a three-person panel discussing What’s the Big Deal with Water in California? Don Wright, WaterWrights.net; Elizabeth Jonasson, Westlands Water District; and Michael Ming, Alliance Ag Services will bring us up-to-date on water issues in the fruit and vegetable center of the universe. Fifty percent or more of the fruits and vegetables produced in the country come from California and Arizona. Water is definitely a big deal there, and for all of us, whether we know it or not.
Monday’s agenda ends after the panel discussion, to be followed by a reception to relax and mingle amongst the crowd, getting to know one another more, and then, at 6:30 p.m., our ASAC Banquet will commence. Ryan Jacobsen will provide the keynote address. Ryan is Chief Executive Officer of the Fresno County Farm Bureau. Among other duties, Ryan serves as Chairman of the Fresno Irrigation District Board of Directors. Ryan is in the midst of the leadership of the agricultural community in Fresno County, the number one agricultural producing county in America. This will no doubt be an engaging and informative experience for everyone.
Our Tuesday morning session will begin at 8 a.m. with David Magaña, Senior Analyst, Horticulture, from Rabo Research Food & Agribusiness in Fresno, discussing Economic Forces Shaping the Future of Agribusiness. What a great follow-up to being in the heart of the fruit and vegetable industry. David is responsible for covering and analyzing the U.S. and North American fresh fruit and vegetable industries. Prior to joining Rabobank, he served as deputy director of economic research for FIRA – Banco de México, one of the most important agricultural banks in Latin America. While at FIRA, he conducted analysis on the agricultural sector for over a decade. His research agenda and experience include agricultural market integration under the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA), consumer trends in fresh fruit and vegetable markets, food security, food price dynamics, and other related topics. He also has experience as a professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey. David grew up in Mexico and earned a bachelor's degree in agribusiness from Universidad Autónoma Chapingo. He also earned a Master’s and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University. Whoop! Whoop!
Lastly, before ending the conference presentations, we’ll spend time on discussions amongst the group about the process and procedures, timelines and requirements for working on achieving the Certified Agricultural Consultant (CAC) designation. Paige Gilligan will present our required session on Ethics. The Society’s Professional Code of Ethics is the bedrock foundation for our existence.
Finally, at 11 a.m., the Society’s Annual Business Meeting will be called to order to handle the business administration requirements, chief among them the election of the coming year’s Vice President/Secretary, and Southern and Eastern Region Directors.
Tuesday afternoon will be a highlight for the group. We’ll have a box lunch provided at the conclusion of the business meeting and before we board the tour bus. The tour bus will depart at 12:15 and is scheduled to return by 6:00 pm. We have a confirmed tour at the California Water Institute located at California State University Fresno (more commonly known as Fresno State). Its divisions we’ll tour are The Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT), and The Water, Energy and Technology Center (WET). The Institute is a leading research and education center in advancing innovative ideas from basic research to industry application in irrigation, water and energy technologies and management practices. For a pre-tour review of the Institute, go to www.californiawater.org. This will no doubt be an informative tour from which we will take home information relevant to our regions and locales, and land use applications and farming practices.
Tours in the process of being confirmed are:
Caglia Environmental (Green Waste - Food Waste and Organic Recycling)
Toca Madera Winery (Winery - Wine Tasting)
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Member Highlights:
Several of us ASAC members are also members of the Farm Financial Standards Council. This organization’s mission is to educate the agricultural industry on achieving top-notch financial decision-making for farm businesses. Its tagline is “Promoting Uniformity and Integrity in Financial Reporting and Analysis." This mission folds largely into the mission of ASAC with much common ground.
Russell Morgan, Norm Brown, Ken Hilton, Julie Strain, Keith Raynor, Paul Neiffer and I gathered with about 50 others from across the country in Moline, Illinois, on July 26 – 28 for its annual conference. Jean Merry, our ASAC administrator, joined us there. Her husband, Carroll, serves as FFSC’s administrator.
Russell and I followed the FFSC meeting with a trip to Martin, Tennessee, on August 8 – 9 for the 25th Annual Mid-South Agricultural Finance Conference hosted by the University of Tennessee - Martin. Though we officially represented FFSC there as a conference sponsor, we networked effectively on behalf of both ASAC and FFSC. Common missions and opportunities are always present. We had the added honor and pleasure of spending a brief time with Dr. Dave Kohl, world renowned agricultural economist and Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech. Many of you know and, no doubt, have heard Dr. Kohl speak. Dr. Kohl is one of the founders of the Farm Financial Standards Council and has traveled over ten million miles giving speeches and presentations to countless producer, lender, agribusiness and other conferences around the world. He provided Russell and me with quite a bit of encouragement to share with everyone to stay the course in our work, both in ASAC and FFSC, and in all of our professional and personal endeavors.
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Our programs...............
Shop Talk. Contact Jean Merry and Russell Morgan for information to help develop a program. Consider putting something together from your company or industry and hosting one.
Notes from the Field. Russell Morgan accumulates a variety of news articles and other items of interest from around the country (and the world, too) to post for the members' reading. Watch for his postings. If you see something of interest from your area, let him know. He has a form he has made for us to send him links.
ASAC Blog Post. Write an article on something pertinent to our ag consulting profession and submit it to Don Tyler, Northern Region Director (don@dontyler.com). He’s taking the lead on getting content to the website. Keep an article to no more than 600 words.
ASAC’s Monthly Communique. If you have a brief item of interest that you’d like to have included in this monthly newsletter, write it up and send it to Jean Merry. A Member Spotlight on you gives us all a brief introduction to you and to your work. Something of interest from your region will be appreciated.
Standing Committees:
Membership – Ron Rabou - raboufarms@gmail.com
Nominating – Kyle Walker - kyle.walker@peoplescompany.com
By-Laws – Dave Mielnicki - david.mielnicki@nmrk.com
Ethics and Grievance – Ethan Robertson - ethan.robertson@farmcrediteast.com
Continuing Education – Russell Morgan - education@agconsultants.org
Annual Meeting – Keith Dickinson - keith.dickinson@farmcrediteast.com
Finance – Keith Raynor - keith@trpsumner.com
Ad Hoc Committees
Marketing and Promotion – Paige Gilligan - collateralexec@gmail.com
Strategic Alliance – Norm Brown - norm@fbssystems.com
Remember...............
The Sky is NOT the Limit!
Pete Weisenberger
President
