Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, folks, welcome to the what the Futures Podcast, your quick guide to better farming decisions.
All right, folks, I've got Darrell Kuzan joining me from Connexus Credit Union. Daryl, how's your week going?
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Pretty good. Can't complain. It's only Tuesday, so a lot of week left, but it's gonna go by quick.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Did you follow the Blue Jays? Like, did you get into the baseball thing? Are you a Blue Jays fan, like, normally or. No?
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Well, I like playoff ball.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been to. First year. I've been to two baseball games this year, one in Minneapolis and one in Boston with. With my son going to Virginia. So those are cool games. Live games are way better than tv, for sure.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: That's. That's. Yeah, a couple of nice venues there and.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Yeah, very nice.
Yeah, Wrigley Field was pretty cool.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Okay, so I've got you on the show here this week. We got some stuff to talk about in regards to the conference in Moosejaw in just a minute. But before we get to that, I hear something about Connexus getting a little bit bigger in size here, bigger scale. What's going on?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well, membership voted on a merger between Synergy Cornerstone and Connexus back in. I believe it was in January or February.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that. Yeah. And we was at 80 plus percent approval on the merger. So we're gonna become a $15 billion credit union, which will probably be the biggest one in Saskatchewan. So, yeah, it's pretty exciting.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Okay. From like, a footprint or a location, is this a little bit more west and south then, or what's the.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah, we should cover the whole, whole province, except for maybe that southwestern part, like that Swift Current country. Like, we'll go from Lloydminster all the way across Tisdale, north to La Ronge and south to Assiniboia down to Yorkton.
Yeah, it's going to be a pretty big reach, so members can get us anywhere.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Should be cool.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: So from like, a member perspective, it does anything.
Is there any, you know, kind of changes for, for them to.
To expect, or is that kind of status quo?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I don't expect a lot at the membership level because it won't affect the front line. They won't. They'll keep all the front line, I've been told. So that'll be good. Be the top and positions, likely that will get thinned out. But yeah, yeah, it'll be good. It'll give us more opportunities, maybe be more efficient, come up with better programs and stuff for members. So, yeah, it'll be cool.
Yeah.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: And for, for yourself in ag lending or on the ag side, do you have a few additional colleagues then across the prairies?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Oh yeah, we'll have people all from all over the province, which will be kind of neat.
I don't know how much, how many more advisors we'll have, but we'll find out in January.
Okay. What our numbers will be. So yeah, it's kind of everything's status quo until January and then we get to all meet each other January. So that'll be neat.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: And like, as, as advisors, do you guys like, do you guys get together kind of regularly or have like discussions about what's going on in the space or talk. Oh yeah. Ops and stuff. Like, is that in the background?
[00:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah, we, we talk every month as a team in the ag team. And then we just came back from annual. We have a yearly conference.
That was two weeks ago.
We all got together and yeah, it was, it was a good time. Got to meet everybody again and face to face. We're spread out across the province, so not too often we get to meet in person. So that's kind of fun to meet everybody.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, well stay tuned for more in January, I guess with the bigger. So. So Darrell, I, I want to talk Moosha for a second because I. This has been like a dream of mine going back to last year where you know, a company would, would step up and sponsor some farmers to attend, you know, an educational, fun, exciting conference. And you guys are the first ones to put your hands up to attempt this. So I thank you for that.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah, you're welcome to be pretty exciting to bring a couple, couple of people to the conference and see what it's all about. Encourage marketing and planning for their farms. It'd be cool.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So I want to talk through, through some of the details here as well and in, in regards to how people can participate. But before I do, I just wanted to chat about the conference. Just really quick. We've made a few, a few adjustments here lately, but we've got a couple of action packed days. We, we start off with registration, which is December 9th, Tuesday, December 9th, that's from 2 to 5 is registration. Then we have a kickoff party sponsored by yours truly here at what the futures.
We do the kickoff party that night, which is it just sets the pace for the week. It gets everyone, gets everyone excited and gets that energy level going for, for the week. So that's day one. The next day we kick it off with breakfast bright and early.
We have three keynote Speakers. We have three breakout sessions. Just a packed day. We have crop marketing experts. We've got folks coming in from the industry. We've got some financial leadership as well, even some AI components, some technology components.
It's all geared towards helping farmers, you know, with their crop marketing plan, create that crop marketing plan, execute that crop marketing plan.
And that night, we have a fun tunnel tour and dinner hosted by Brett Young. So that'll be fun. And then Thursday again, two breakout sessions, two keynotes. Pardon me, three breakout sessions on that second day as well. And just a chance to interact with all these great speakers from across the prairies. Also bringing some in from Ontario and from the US first time pulling somebody north of the border for the conference and so excited for that. So December 9th to 11th, we're at the Temple Garden Spa in Moosha, Saskatchewan. And if that sounds interesting to you, let's talk about how people can.
Can participate here. Darrell. So if we go to the WhatTheFuturespodcast CA website or Ryandani CA, either one will get you there.
You will see a form that you can fill out online.
It says, win a seat to the 2025 crop marketing made Cool Conference sponsored by Connexus Credit Union.
And it's as easy as that. You put in your name, first name, last name, email. You know, why do you want to be at the Crop Marketing Made Cool Conference?
And what are you hoping to learn? What connection would mean the most to you? So that's what we're looking for in the the form. It's very easy to fill out. It's going to take you a couple seconds. Just kind of tell us why you want to be there. Why do you want to be there in Musha?
So, Daryl, how many farms are we sending here?
[00:07:25] Speaker B: We got two tickets to give out with rooms, accommodations for those two nights. So you don't have to worry about finding a place. We got rooms for you.
It'll be a good time. And I'll get to be there, too. So be excited to be at that event and see what farmers are learning about marketing grain. Because every year I look at people's margins and I try to figure out how they can make it better. And I'm pretty sure marketing grain the right way will for sure help that.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Hopefully indefinitely. And we'll talk margins in just a second as well. So, folks, again, this is for two seats. Talking about two farms here.
Hotel included, your meals at the conference, Everything's included in this package. You'll get all the swag you'll participate in everything. You'll have a great time. You'll learn a pile of stuff. And big thanks to Connexus for stepping up, sponsoring some farms. Now, Darrell, can anybody apply to this if they're a brand new farm, if they're a seasoned, you know, veteran here, been farming for 40 years. Can anybody apply or are you looking for a specific group?
[00:08:35] Speaker B: Anybody can apply and then see what happens.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: You bet. You bet. All right, folks. There, you heard Darrell say it. Anyone could apply to this thing. We will look to draw for this in the next couple weeks here, Darrell. I think we're aiming for, if I am not mistaken, I think we're aiming for around November 21st. It's kind of our hope. That's a Friday. Does that sound about right?
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Sounds about right, yeah.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: All right, Good stuff.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Perfect.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Okay, now, Darrell, just a second here. We'll park the conference talk for a minute. But what are you seeing from the financial side in the industry? Like, we saw, obviously, low prices and, and, you know, the worry of an average crop or below average crop. Yeah. How have the crops come off in your region and has margin have financial situations? Do they look better than they looked, you know, even back in June?
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. Yields are way, way up compared to what farmers thought they were going to be in July. Guys were expecting well below average because it was so dry, and then they were at likely average plus for yields. The prices aren't there, of course, but there was a big rain that came through north of us, northeast of us that flooded out some areas. So that area took a little bit of a hit for being a little bit wet. But most, most of the area was pretty good.
Northwest was a little dry, so they were probably slightly below average. But around PA saw the PA was significantly better than Northwest and Northeast, I shouldn't say was horrible, but it was average for sure. A little bit better, maybe.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: It was an interesting year.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Prices have, you know, they've come off the bottom a little bit at least.
Are you sensing some urgency for folks to get some business done, some grain sold, or is it pretty quiet on that front?
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Oh, lots of people taking on the cash advances. CCG advances are coming in to help with cash flow.
Quite a bit of grain moved off the combine. When guys saw their yields just because they just maybe didn't want to bag the grain or just want to move some crop because they don't see any real positive outlook on wheat prices especially.
Sure, they're more helpful on the canola, probably. So a lot of wheat Moved versus canola. And usually oats is probably a good time to move it as in the fall doesn't seem like there seems to be much carry out there for oats maybe, but lots of oats moved. I think it's mostly because it's so bulky and you don't want to handle bags in January, February of oats, there's.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: So much of it and yeah, the animals like that. So. Yep.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Once the elk figure out where the old start will clean those bags out quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: So you know when you look at the time of year, it's. It's early November.
When you look at your clients, what sort of things are you tackling right now? What's the.
Are you starting to do some calendar year end stuff or what are you looking at?
[00:11:48] Speaker B: I've got people looking at whether or not they should be buying some land that might be coming up for sale or moving on equipment.
Also going over their 3, 4 year average and seeing what their margins are over the last three, four years, what they got to maintain going forward for their death schedules. What happens if they rent more land, buy more land? We're kind of going over stuff like that.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Okay, planning for the future. Planning for next year then.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Big part of it for sure. Interesting. Well, Darrell, thanks for jumping on the show Before I let you go. You do a little farming, you got some animals on the farm. Hey, how are the buffalo doing?
[00:12:30] Speaker B: They're doing all right. We just shipped semi load out to the States a few weeks ago and I got paid so that was good.
There's no tariff on it, so I'm happy.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Good, good.
And has that market, has it done similar to beef like from where it stands price wise or.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, prices are good. They've been increasing slowly, just like cattle over the last two years.
Hopefully they stay up. Not expecting them to stay up this high forever. They eventually will come back down, but I don't know. Try to save up some money in the good times so you can live through the bad times. I guess. I got a full time job so I'm good.
Yeah, it's not. I don't make my living on it, so that's good.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Definitely a great time to upgrade the tractor and all the fun stuff, right?
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Tractor for sure. Yeah. Keep that thing going.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Shipping down to the US is that. Do you sell to the same customer every year or is that change?
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we sell to the same guy every year. Yep. In Colorado.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Well, I look forward to seeing you in Moose Jaw here in. In just over a month again folks. Ryandenee ca is where you'll find the Connexus logo and the form again super easy name email. Why do you want to attend?
Fill that out. We'll draw for that sometime around November 21st I think that is the day. I don't know the exact time but that day. So we'll give you a deadline of the 20th and we'll pick a couple lucky farms to join us down at Little Chicago. I think is what they call Moosha Darrell.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Oh yeah, for sure.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Little Chicago.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: The tunnels will be cool.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: I've been deep into an Al Capone book here the last two weeks about and he's quite the businessman. Like he, you know, he of course lots of horrible things and terrible things but. But the way he conducted his himself and his people like I don't know if you might hear some of that in some of my presentations down in Mushi.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, that'll be funny. That'll be good.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, man. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for the support.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: You bet.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Thanks, Frank.
