Farmers, Speakers, and Dinosaurs = Crop Marketing Made Cool

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, folks, welcome to the what the Futures podcast, where we break down complex market trends into simple, actionable advice. It's your quick guide to better farming decisions. All right, folks, welcome into episode number 55 of the what the Futures podcast. I hope you're having a fantastic day. I am still buzzing from the conference last week. I just want to thank everybody that attended. Number one. It was such a blast. And, you know, we put this conference together. It started with the idea in August that, hey, you know, should we get together and have a crop marketing conference? Should we bring in, you know, some of the brightest in the industry, fill the room up with farmers? Should we do this? And by September, early September, we decided, yeah, we got to do this. We got to see if we can help farms just build. Build some momentum in the crop marketing area of their farm business. I know there's all sorts of different takeaways. Each of you have different takeaways that attended, but the goal was to help farms gain a little bit of confidence in crop marketing, help farms learn new skills, maybe learn about some of the new offerings and technology out there as well that can help you in crop marketing. And I'm so excited to do it again. We're full on planning for Mooshjohn in December of 2025. And in this episode, episode 55, Yvonne and I are going to do a little bit of a debrief. We haven't had a chance to do a full debrief of the conference in drum Heller, and so we're going to do that in today's episode. And for those that don't know, Yvonne is the one in the background that handles all the social media stuff now, all the branding, the website, you know, Jack of all trades in the background. And she's the one that executed all the fine details of the conference. It, as I continue to reflect and I get the survey surveys coming back, you know, their anonymous surveys coming back and just reading what people took away from the conference when it came to, you know, even as small as setting goals, as little as identifying who is on your team from a crop marketing perspective, of course, there's all the different tools and options and strategies that we talked about as well. But it, yeah, it was something. And yeah, can't wait to do it, do it all over again here next year. I think we're gonna have to make this an annual, annual thing. And, you know, if you're sitting on the sidelines, I get it. This isn't for everybody. This isn't for every farmer out there either. But if you want to learn more about it, you can head over to the website ryantonee.ca. if you want to talk to farmers that were in attendance, I'm sure we could hook you up there as well. We had a blast. We put together something fun, fresh and exciting, but yet the focus was on getting better at crop marketing. And yeah, we were able to pull that off as well. So. All right, folks, episode number 55, of course, I'm your host, Ryan Denis, and I've spent my career in crop marketing and apparently now in just marketing of events. I was told in Drumheller to quit crop marketing stuff and just, you know, put on events now. And so, yeah, of course, I'm from Saskatchewan originally and I spent my career working with farmers across the prairies. If you are listening to this episode, if you could do me a favor and subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, if you could share the episode with a farming neighbor again, that would help me immensely and I would appreciate it. And it's something you can do for me if you're enjoying the podcast each and every week. All right, folks, let's get into it. Episode 55. So I want to give just a. An extra shout out here to, to our sponsors. You know, number one, you know, upl say first off, upl, you know, the. While the studio is evolving here behind me, you can see over the holidays, this is going to evolve quite a bit more and, and the view is going to change here a little bit. But, you know, both UPL John Deere sponsors of the, of the show also put their hand up to sponsor the conference. And, you know, it's just something that, you know, it's not like the businesses were lined up to sponsor this, to be honest. Right. It was the first. And you know, for those folks to put a contribution in there and to buy us dinner and to buy us lunch, to me just meant a lot there. There was no John Deere people in attendance, you know, trying to sell you anything, Right. And same thing with upl, There was, you know, Matt and Rachel from UPL were hanging around for the day there, but, you know, they're farmers as well, and there was no booth, no pitch, no nothing. And you don't, you don't get that very often anymore. And so for me, I just really appreciated those two just stepping up and putting their hand up and saying, yeah, we'll support this event. And when I went to them and said, hey, you know, no, no, no banners, no, no booths. You know, we're just Keeping this nice and tight. And they both said, yeah, that's great. We'll do it. So I don't know. I just think that's something unique, and I really appreciate that from the sponsors of the podcast and. And of the conference as well. All right, folks, I've got Yvonne Kuch to joining me in episode 55 of the what the Futures podcast. Yvonne is the person behind the scenes. She did all the hard work for the Crop Marketing Made Cool conference in Drumheller, and I thought it'd be fun to do our debrief record our debrief. And we haven't had a chance to talk a whole bunch here the last number of days, so I thought we'd have some fun with it. And Yvonne, welcome to episode 55, your podcast debut. [00:07:12] Speaker B: I'm so excited. [00:07:14] Speaker A: You've done everything in the background forever, but this is your first time on the show. Hey. [00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I don't know if I was excited, but I wanted to make sure that my background was first class, Ryan. And in the process, I have tipped a plant over and there's topsoil all over my office. So after this call, I'll be doing some domestic cleaning. [00:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah, nice, nice. You got that dirt smell going. That's pretty good. It's a farming podcast, so that's pretty good. My background. So I was away at the conference. My father in law, God bless him, he cleans both my garages out. And in the process, well, he doesn't realize that this is a set. So he fills the shelves with, like, I had fly traps up there. I had hand cleaner. There was, like, oil. Like, he just fills the shelves with things, moves the table, moves all the lights, everything. And so I spent, like an hour and a half with the. With the editor this morning, like, trying to figure out, all right, in the shot before, did we have this in there or not? And anyway, we're rolling with it. Rolling with it for this week, but I don't have dirt on my floor. It's very clean in here, so. Yes. [00:08:29] Speaker B: And you've got some beer from the conference, so you got some home. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Okay. I have, like, the guys lined the bottom of the trailer up with the beer. I have enough. I have enough beer. I'm pretty sure that any Lunchbox crew sign up between now and Christmas Eve, I'm very confident that I could fulfill a beer order for all of them. A flat of beer with a lunchbox crew signup. What do you think? How's that sound? [00:08:59] Speaker B: Is this one of those things where you announce it on the podcast. I hear about it when I listen to the podcast and I realize I have to do something to make that happen. [00:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah. No heads up ever. Just. Did you listen to the podcast, Yvonne, or usually you messaging me, hey, okay, so this is what we're doing. Hey. [00:09:16] Speaker B: Heard it on the podcast. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Heard on the podcast. Yep. Awesome. All right, so again, I thought it'd be cool to debrief and so I want to start the conference. Like, I'm still. I'm buzzing. All right. I. I was buzzing before the conference about, you know, getting everything prepared and. And, you know, couldn't wait to get there and. And now I've just been on this high since we wrapped up. But how are you feeling? [00:09:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was the Olympics for us. Right? Like, there was a lot of mental, emotional, physical preparation and, like, you get there and. Yeah, it's. It's time. Go time. And coming off of that is interesting on the body. And I don't know if that's the same as, like, harvest season when everybody's combining all night and then, you know, back to normal life, but it's a huge adjustment. [00:10:06] Speaker A: Well, they talk about the harvest hangover, like, and the spring hangover as well. But, like, when I woke up Friday, so I got home Thursday night in time for bedtime routine, which is awesome. And then Friday, it's my morning with the kids to do preschool drop off and gymnastics. And when I got up, like, I just crawled from my bed to the shower and, like, I could barely stand. I was. I was hurting after. After some great days. And in Drumheller, I just have to maybe work on a few things myself to recover faster. [00:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it took me a couple of yoga classes a day. As you know, I'm a huge fan to get back to feeling normal, but I. I'm feeling awesome. And now, like, I know we're gonna have this debrief, but there's, yeah, so much excitement and momentum now for next year, so it's all good. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, you know, survey results are pouring in, and we'll get to that in a little bit here. But it just. Yeah, my cup remains full, so. All right, so we're heading into the conference. What was one thing that you were a little bit, like, worried about or nervous about on the execution side? Like, was there anything that was just hanging over your head, like, oh, my goodness, I hope that this doesn't happen or that we plan properly? [00:11:28] Speaker B: Yeah, food, I think food. Like, I was so confident in, you know, what you were going to deliver and all the Speakers. But for me, the food thing is always something. A group of farmers eat a lot. We're a majority men. And you remember we had pizza on the setup day. It was so good from that. [00:11:45] Speaker A: So good. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, so good. And I remember thinking, one, enjoy, like, eat this pizza, because if there's a food shortage, you're not going to eat again. And two, save this number, because if there's a food shortage at a meal, we're going to be calling in for pizzas. Like, that was my big fear. And there was. The food was amazing. There was lots. I was so relieved. [00:12:04] Speaker A: Yeah. That guy that delivered the pizza was the owner of the joint as well. And I was like, what time you open? Tell, and how busy are you right now, just in case? But I was the last one to eat at every meal, I would say. And because you're, you know, you're. Well, it was one or you or I. Because I was, like, either just ahead of you or, like, you were just ahead of me because you're going. You're doing the next thing, getting the next stuff ready. And there was always food. Even the high school kids, they were on their, like, second and third servings from Bernie and the boys, and I was after them, and there was still a pile of food after me. So. Yeah. [00:12:44] Speaker B: Awesome. Yeah. Now, what was your favorite meal, Ryan? [00:12:46] Speaker A: Then, like, well, for me, like, the UPL dinner was just so complete, and it was such a huge day, and I was so hungry, and I was just like. Like, that was a meal for me. Like, I, like. And I had some time as well. Like, I didn't have a lot of time before, like, Bernie and the boys. I took, like, three French fries once I, like, tasted the gravy. I'm like, oh, my God, I just need a plate of fries. But I don't have time to eat a plate of fries. So that dinner from Chef Dave was just. I had prime rib, I had chicken. I just had it all. And it fueled me for the rest of the night there. So that was good. All right. So did anything happen that caught you, like, by surprise, Something we didn't think about beforehand? Or you're like, oh, next time we need to do this? [00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah, there was. You know what? There was some things that came up, and I was like, oh, for sure we're going to do that next year. Year. But in terms of. In terms of something coming up where, you know, we were really caught off guard. The good thing about a farm audience is that they're. They were really flexible with, you know, as we needed to shift things around and so yeah, I don't think there was any like, major thing that felt like egg on the face. We learned some stuff for next year. Next year be better. And I hope that, you know, five years from now we can make, make it better, better yet. So that's okay. [00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah, the like for me it was like setup, like setup is, you know, just to get the stage set up and just to get everything set up. You know, that was a, such, such a busier day than I had anticipated. So my, my lesson was like, yeah, just give that time for setup. Cause it take, it does take time and we had a lot of things to put up and. Yeah, and it was, you know, as a family affair as well. Like I've, my, my brother and sister in law are running the merch table. Uncle Glenn is like a Swiss army knife doing everything, you know, set up here, move this, do that, go to the store and grab this, like everything. And then mom and dad handing out postcards and, and cleaning up, cleaning tables. Like it was all hands on deck and very much a family affair as well. [00:15:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's unique. Like, about the fact that you put on this conference. You know, I've worked in marketing for a long time and often it's, you know, businesses putting on events and they're quite removed from the customer. And you know, right from the beginning, like obviously you had a very clear idea of who this event was being made for. And it wasn't every farmer, it wasn't every farmer in Canada. It was for a very specific farmer. And I think it was Chuck who said that often he sees, you know, farm businesses outgrowing sort of the skill base of the farm. And this conference was for the farmer who recognized that and decided like, hey, I want to improve my skills in crop marketing so I can stay in this game. And you know, you have your, you have the pulse on that group of people. So then you could curate an event, you know, that was right for them. And that did involve, you know, your family and the community helping pull it off. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah, like I couldn't even think of doing this event without those elements. You know, like that never crossed, never crossed my mind. And, and that, you know, even the, the dinosaurs we had on night one like that, we were pretty, getting pretty packed in that room. But you know, those kids came up in those big dinosaur costumes and did their thing for a few hours. And you know, Martin's the one who lined that up for us Farms around Drumheller and all the local Groups even, you know, the DJ giving us the recommendation on, on who the proceeds should go to from the silent auction, like things like that. Yeah, I couldn't see it any other way. So for sure. So. All right, we. Well, do you have, is there anything I've asked you, a couple of hard hitting ones here, Anything coming back my way that you want to talk about? [00:17:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. Well, the thing that I know, really everybody listening to this wants to know, especially if you're at the conference, and if you weren't at the conference, you might have to flip over to YouTube. But we all want to know, are you wearing the underwear, Ryan? [00:17:25] Speaker A: Okay, number one, that stuff is, it is comfortable. I know you said during the process that this is like, this is good stuff and this isn't just like junk. And you know, I was wearing mine throughout the conference, obviously. And you know, they're in the wash. [00:17:41] Speaker B: It wasn't obvious, just so you know. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Well, no, you didn't see the confidence I had walking around there. Like that starts with that base layer and so they're in the wash. They're definitely in the wash. But I have a little side note. So for folks. So we had men's and women's underwear at the merch tent. So think of like concert style merch tent with all sorts of things. And I've had so many comments. Oh, you have them there. Oh my goodness. All right, there you go. So we have these. And so that pair that Yvonne is holding in her hands, actually. So my buddy, he. I gotta back this up a second. So my brother comes up to me and he's like, hey, is that all men's or is there, is that men's and women's? I'm like, no, no, that's men's and women's. And he's like, okay, because people weren't really grabbing them off the start. And then he said, once we said it was men and women. So they went in like 10 minutes, they were gone. Okay. So my buddy comes up to me the next, the Thursday and he's like, oh. He's like, I grabbed two pairs of those, of those tight underwear or whatever. And I was like, okay. And he's like, oh, yeah. He's like, I'm going to be wearing those all the time. And I didn't say anything. I was just thinking to myself, I'm like, well, they're boxers. I'm like, oh, he grabbed the women's underwear. And so he believes that these are men's and apparently they're going to Be part of his rotation every week. So I think that is one of the funniest things I heard coming out of that conference. So, yeah, I love it. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Well, I'm really curious. Next, we have to write this down. We have to remember next year to, like, ask anybody to stand up who's wearing the underwear from last year. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Yeah. [00:19:23] Speaker B: I think it'd be fun. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Yeah. But. [00:19:25] Speaker B: But I do have a question about that women's underwear thing, because, you know, in the. In this season of working with you on this, Ryan, and we knew each other from the past, but, like, we didn't. Had worked together a bunch. You have brought up things, you know, you have brought up women in respectful, inclusive ways all along. Like, when I'm not even thinking about it, when the underwear came up, we were at the end at, like, ordering quantities, and you were like, we should get some women's stuff. And when we were doing swag, it was you who said, like, we should make sure there's something for the women. And we did the Stanley Cups that said crop marketing diva, which mostly meant. [00:20:05] Speaker A: And also went right away. Yeah, yeah. [00:20:07] Speaker B: And I hope. I hope you guys, if you're listening, I hope those were given to the women in your life. But anyways, I'm really curious. Like, you. You work with women. Obviously they do, you know, crop marketing, and you work closely with other advisors for women. But where did that respect and sort of like, really genuinely, not just, like, often, oh, that's a check mark. Like, where did that come from for you? [00:20:30] Speaker A: I. I don't know if I have. I, like, I don't know what the. The great answer is here for you, but I, I, like, I believe that, you know, I talked about Chantal and in my presentation and in our partnership, you know, our, you know, being together. And Chantelle's a strong woman and a great partner. And, you know, I have a daughter. You know, my mom's been a big influence on me as well, and, you know, even my. My grandparents. So I, I don't know what the great answer is for you, but I don't think about it at all in any way. It's just, I guess, natural and just part of. Part of how it should be. Right. Part of how it should be every single day. And it's not something that I really think about. I. I knew that we were going to have a diverse group of people. I worked with family farms for a long time, and more often than not, it's the husband and wife at the table. And I've had a Lot of crop marketing discussions with the wives and women and then a lot of farms. The wife leads the crop marketing for the farm. And I just knew that. I've experienced that as well. So I knew they'd be in the. Attending the conference and just to make sure we covered. Make sure we had something for everybody. So. [00:21:58] Speaker B: Yeah, well, bravo. It was a hit. And yeah, kudos to you because I work with a lot of men in ag and construction and it is pretty unique. [00:22:07] Speaker A: Ryan, when I had my team of advisors. Yeah, like, we. There's a skill set that you're looking for, and I know my first hires there was, you know, it was Brittany and Sarah and Sarah and Elise. And again, you're looking for the person. Who are you as a person and how can you help farms and crop marketing and how can I help you help them? And. Yeah. [00:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Awesome. [00:22:38] Speaker A: All right. You got another one? [00:22:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I got another question for you. So leading up, like, the whole time we were planning for the conference, I would hear you say this. You would say, we have our list of things we're working on. And then you say, and I've got to make a, like a backup presentation in case, you know, somebody's flights are canceled or there's roads or something happens. I need to have a backup presentation. And we never really had time. I never said to you, did you do that? Like, what. What's that on? So I'm so. I was always curious, like, what this backup presentation in his mind, did you make one? What was it going to be on? [00:23:14] Speaker A: So I could have. I could have put it together and in a boat, the slides are all made, but they're in different decks. But I could have put it together in 30 minutes or something like that. But with winter travel, we didn't know we were going to have great weather. You don't know what's going to come down the pipeline. But I would have just done an hour of crop marketing. Learnings, stories, things that have happened and how did we respond to them or what did we learn from those experiences? My wife bugs me all the time that I should have written everything down and put together a book of some sort. But there are key things that have happened that can be talked about in that space as a learning opportunity or a great moment or how to. If you're faced with this, how to overcome it. And so, like, that's my automatic backup is just to be like, you've. You've met with a lot of farms over the years, you've learned a whole bunch of stuff. You know, let's put that out for an hour and, and, yeah, see what sticks. [00:24:26] Speaker B: But next year. [00:24:28] Speaker A: Yeah, honestly, like, for my presentation Wednesday night, I went down a path of personal stuff, but, you know, there's always the deck available of work and what we've learned and lots of great examples. So, anyway, yeah, maybe next year. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Cool. Cool. [00:24:56] Speaker A: All right. For positive moments of the week. This is. This is an easy one for me. The. So I'm away for a couple of days. I'm. I'm fortunate. I'm at home most nights. Right. I've got small kids. I'm at home every night. And so to leave and come back, you know, when you open the door and, you know, my little guy, FINN, he'll be two here in January, I got home about 45 minutes before bedtime, so, you know, crack the door open and then just the, the excitement from the kids, you know, the hugs, the, you know, Finn was just jumping into my arms, hopping around like a bunny, so excited to see me. I. I know you don't get that forever or for very long, and it was nice to be away for a couple days. You know, it was great. But also really, really positive and fun to come home, especially when you have little ones, because, I don't know, I'm assuming as they get older, you kind of. You'll lose a little bit of that. So I'm going to try to bottle that up as best I can. Second, positive moment of the week, the interacting. Like, I didn't get to talk to everybody at the conference. I wish. I wish I could have shook hands with every single person there, every listener, everybody that attended. I did my best to chat with as many as I could. And for me, you know, that is extremely rewarding to be there to talk to farms, to learn, learn about your farming operations or some of the successes, some of the struggles that you may have. Also, like, you know, chatting with one, you know, maybe I was chatting with the husband over messaging through the podcast or something. But then to meet, you know, the. The partner, the spouse or, or, you know, the brother, the partner in the operation, that's really, really great for me as well. So just super positive to meet a bunch of farms that came in from across the prairies. And again, that. That's my favorite part of. Of doing these things, putting these things on is just all those conversations that happen between speakers or, you know, at breakfast or in the evening. And I know, I wish I could have got to everybody. Next time I might just stand by the door and try to Catch everybody as they come in or come out. Tried to do that the one night. I don't know if you guys noticed that I was by the door Wednesday night, but I couldn't even get out of the chair. I was just so wiped from the day, you know, finishing off the, the presentation that night, getting off stage at like, I don't know, it was after 10. I think it was a bit of a shift. And I just sat in that chair and I tried to say hi to as many people as I could on the way out. And then the last one for me, so I did my first presentation, which was not like, I. I'm usually talking about crop marketing. If someone says, hey, Ryan, can you do a presentation? It's usually an hour of some crop marketing stuff, but I got to do a presentation about, about me, about a little bit about my journey and journey in life, journey in, in business as well. And, and just some of the challenges that we face in, in our family, at home, here. And like, for me to be able to do that and stand on stage and deliver that presentation. And I was really looking forward to it. And you know, for me, a major event changed my life when we lost our daughter. And. But to be able to talk about her, you don't get to like, as a, as a parent, you just, you get to talk about your kids all. You know, like, I can talk about Finn and Will every single day, but to talk about Eva, we don't get those opportunities. And I think I highlighted this back in the, in the fall as well when we had a chance to, to talk about her story to a group. But for me to be able to do that again, it's just you don't get to very often. So it's just super positive for me to get to experience that with all of you. So I hope you guys enjoyed that presentation. I am trying to track down. The photographer was gone by that time. And I don't know if any of you had your phone out or not, but if you have a picture of a VI or a video of me on stage after 9 o'clock, I was on stage a lot. But Wednesday night after 9pm, if you have a shot of me, I just appreciate it if you could send it over, because I don't know if any pictures exist and I would like to capture that moment if possible. So I appreciate that. All right, so I'll keep it a little bit short here on what's cool in crop marketing for this week. You know, I would say the biggest thing here, well, there's kind of two things that stand out for me in these markets, but obviously the canola recovery, you know, the stats can report comes out. It's been a minute here since you've had a podcast, but the stat scan comes out. The canola production comes in under 18 million tons. I think it's going to be lower than the 17.8 that they put out there. And then you see that bottoming in that market, holding support and then rallying now, you know, it's not, it's not setting the world on fire yet. But when you look at production, you look at carryover, you look at where exports are right now. The, I think, well, exports aren't far from 4 million tons. Now, I know China's, that stuff's still out there for sure. But when you look at ending stocks for next year, the canola situation is quite tight. You know, we're not talking about soybeans here, like we're talking about Canadian canola. I think supply is going to be pretty snug by the time you get in into next summer. So when I see the Cargills here putting out January specials and I see basis improvements, significant basis improvements at Bungie, like this is the smallest canola crop. Don't have the numbers in front of me, but maybe third smallest in the last decade. Third or fourth smallest somewhere in there. And you guys remember those years, right? Like this is when again, with decent exports, which we currently have, we have very good export pace, but decent exports. Crush is going to do their thing. You know, it sets up to be positive basis levels in the spring for many of you and we'll see what futures can do. But it's not as bad, knock on wood, it's not as bad as it seemed. Okay, so we'll see. That's, that's cool. And crop marketing and then wheat, I'm seeing specials prairie wide again. You know, you're like an eight and a half for like a 213 five in central Alberta, you know, 850 a bushel, something like that. You know, lots of stuff in the eights here again, is it paying all the bills? Maybe not, but futures are catching a little bit of. A little bit of. They've cut support now. They're rallying here just a little bit. And I know wheat futures do struggle during the winter months to find reasons to, to rally and to climb. But you know, the, the world's largest exporter, their winter wheat crops going into, you know, dormancy and in poor condition, historically poor condition. Now just there's a caveat here, though. They're going to plant spring wheat, though, if it's. If it doesn't make it, if the winter wheat doesn't make it. So, you know, it's not as bullish as you want it to be, but yet they're going to struggle to grow the crop they grew two years ago or three years ago. They're going to struggle to do that. And it just makes that wheat picture look a little bit rosier, in my opinion. Line companies. Everyone's, you know, everyone's looking for wheat. Some want it in the next couple weeks, someone it during the holidays, some want it in February. Everyone's got their month they're focusing on. But as a line company. Yeah, you're gonna do a little bit of barley, feed barley, right. Your yellow pea stuff's done. Like, if they weren't actually gonna take any canola or very little canola, what are they gonna do? They're gonna have to buy wheat. Right. And so if you want to be a bear on the canola export side, fine. But then you gotta be a bull in wheat exports and elevators that need to stay busy and keep grain moving. It gets more competitive out there, and we're seeing that right now. And I don't think that changes now throughout the winter. What else do we have here? Yeah, I think, I think for what's cool in crop marketing, obviously the USDA report was friendly towards corn. That makes me a little friendlier towards feed grains. I know I bug, you know, my consulting clients on feed barley. Like, you can hold it and it's that slow grind higher. It's not. It's not much. It's a nickel here and there. But again, it is in an upward trend, upward momentum, and at least it's going in the right direction. Feed stocks in the U.S. you know, corn tightening up, you know, maybe that could lead to a bit more of. I don't know if it may be wheat feeding or something like that, but I don't think we're quite there yet. But yeah, so it's definitely a bit more positive on. On the corn side. All right, let's leave it at that. For what's cool in crop marketing. [00:34:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And the next thing I wanted to ask about was, you know, we've gotten a lot of feedback. We did surveys right after the conference, which I was a little anxious about. I shared that with you. I said, you know, this is like we're asking for our, you know, if our baby's ugly, right? Like, are we prepared for that? For that answer. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:58] Speaker B: And you know, and obviously, you know, you have figured out the difference between significance and contribution is something, you know, I've probably struggled with my whole life. And I think of that as like, significance is where we put our work out, but we really need these accolades and contribution is where we can put our work out and be less attached and just feel good about putting our work out. And in your case, the work that you put out is, you know, in various ways, helping family farms. So then these surveys came back and what was that experience like for you? What came out for you? [00:35:36] Speaker A: Well, like, I would, I would say from even from the get go on Tuesday evening, like as the people, as people rolled in, the energy was, was incredible. In fact, it was a little bit intimidating to feel that energy and then be like, holy smokes, we haven't started yet. We got to deliver now. Right? And so, you know, I spoke, didn't, I didn't stop talking for over two days to everybody. And I felt really good driving out of Drumheller, thinking to myself, like, I feel really good at what we pulled off, how we pulled it off. And I was excited to get the surveys out. And for me, what I'm looking for here is I want to do this again. I want to do this again next year and the year after. And I know I teased you about, hey, can you start looking at venues for the year after next. But, you know, and so for me getting those surveys, I want to see, I want to see what stood out. Did it align and accomplish, did the farmers accomplish what I was hoping we would accomplish, but also what really kind of stands out for things that we could work on the next year and what ended up coming back in the surveys, like right away, just wham, like 30 surveys came back instantly. And what people wrote in there and even what people messaged me after was like, incredible. And like I sit there and say, oh, man, like we could have spent like another day or we could have, we got to do this again right away. But that, you know, that's not the answer. But what we did there was, we made an impact. And I don't know, I figured this was going to come up. So I have one prepared. I actually have two things. Can I read the one I have? Okay, so we asked the question in the survey. You know, what was one thing you've learned or experienced that made the ticket price worth it? And this individual says a couple things. The overarching one, though, would be in quotations. No outlook. I found it crazy how positive I felt. And I never received a market outlook, good or bad. All right. And just before I continue having a crop marketing conference and not doing a market outlook had to have sound insane to farmers out there. It had to have. And the point here was to figure out the tools, regardless of outlook. I have stood on stages in front of. In front of groups of farmers and given an outlook, walked off that stage two or three hours later, something has changed. And I was like, man, actually, you know, I did this the other. Maybe it was last summer or in the spring. I messaged the organizer, Tyler, and I'm like, hey, just so you know, I said this in the presentation, but this just came out and it's changed. And can you just tell your group of farmers that were there, like, it changes? And so to see this comment come back just blew me away. And yeah, I'm just so excited to see this. And then the second thing was tools to analyze the market, things to think about as we watch it. A review of its past and tendencies to think that positivity doesn't need to come from just an upward market trend, but that we can be more prepared and have. And have tools to offset downtrends that we just need to get to work on our plan like that. That is an incredible review and just validated the process. The tweet in August to be like, should we think about this? To me, messaging you, September long weekend. Hey, we're doing. I think we're doing this in a way. We went, okay, I want to talk about that. [00:39:54] Speaker B: So you said, hey, we should host a conference. And I was like, yeah, sure, we can host a conference. And I had it in my head that, like, I think even typed in the notes, like, you know, crop or whatever, the conference. And I had like, Jan. Feb. 2025. And then we were on a call and you were like, I really think the conference needs to be in November. And I was like, okay. Like, November 2025 was what I was thinking, right? [00:40:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:23] Speaker B: And then it was like, very clear to me that you meant this November. And I was like, okay, okay. Yeah, like, to pull that sort of thing off in, like, a couple months. And I think I was even away on holidays a few weeks in there. Like, yeah, it was a great feat. And it's, you know, I think that kind of thinking is what has made you successful in all your endeavors and probably will. But you see, like, an opportunity and a need, and you're like, I wonder if it's possible and then you'll bring that idea to you. Know, to people and. And kind of have the courage or the tenacity to even think it's possible where most people wouldn't. So, yeah, that was an interesting journey. [00:41:06] Speaker A: I knew I had the right people, Yvonne. I had the right people involved, so I knew you could do it. Yeah, my, like, Chantal said the same thing. Like, when I brought it up, she's like, oh, yeah. So, like, yeah, I went to her 25, and I was like. And like, no, like, in, like, 10 weeks. And she was just like, what? I'm like, yeah. So anyway, you did it. You did it, Yvonne. [00:41:28] Speaker B: Yeah, all good. Yeah, the feedback was amazing. This was one of my favorite activities. If you're at the conference, you know about it. But for everybody else, we did postcards on the table, and what we did was have people write their address on the postcard, and then we collected the postcards, and then we handed them back out, and we invited people to write the takeaways that they got from the conference. And sometime we're going to mail these out so that attendees will get a postcard from somebody else. And I've gone through the postcards, and we're going to be sharing some of these on our social media, so make sure you check that out, because they were inspiring and touching and, oh, I have goosebumps. But they really spoke. This is in the voice of the attendees of, like, what they took away that they knew, knew they were writing that might help another farmer. And a few themes came out for me on that, so I'm going to share some of those. Ryan. One of them was, it was a really common theme, was just how much they appreciated talking with the other farmers in the room. And likewise, like, I'm a farm girl, I like talking about this stuff. But even outside of farming, I had incredible conversations with people, from discussions about AI to, you know, mental health on the farm, to succession to, you know, being a daughter. Daughters of a man in a male farming industry. Like, just so many great conversations. And that theme came in loud and strong. And I'm. I'm curious. On, like, you put this podcast out, you know, every week, people get lots of advice, but why do you think it's so special to gather as a group in person? [00:43:19] Speaker A: You're in a setting and a surrounding of people going through the exact same thing that you go through and just from a different area. Right? So you get together, you sit at a table with a stranger. And I know the first morning I did the preschool thank you for being here thing that my daughter inspired me with on the. When I was in class Monday. But you know, like, it was like, hey, you get to meet. You're meeting farmers, people going through the same thing that you're going through, you know, prairie wide. And then you learn from each other. And you know how it is. Like if you get together with your peers, it's way different than being on a zoom. It's way different than, you know, an expert telling you something. Like you're talking to someone who's doing the exact same thing you're doing every day of the year. You know, building this great farm. And so to be together, that's why breaks, you know, breaks are so important. Time to get together in the evening is so important because that's where. That's where a lot of good happens. [00:44:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that you did that fireside chat with a group of industry people and farmers. And the message that came so strongly on these postcards and from that part of the event was how I think there'll be a bit more inclination to have each other's back in this industry. Yeah, that was a strong theme that came out through it too, that I think is going to be good for. [00:44:57] Speaker A: The industry overall, that fireside chat. So Christy Friesen, she farms up, up in the peace region. Kyle Sinclair with Producer Profit and Jared Sites with Giddy up, who's a grain broker. Like we, we even right before we went, went up and we're like, should we just wing it? I had made 10 questions. I'm like, should we just wing it? And the depth of that conversation, the, the emotion, the themes that came up, it went way deeper than I was. I was not expecting it to go as deep as it did. And in a lot of surveys, there was mentioned in a lot of surveys about 1. One of the positive moments, which was a throw in like this. We weren't. I was like, let's do a fireside chat of some sort. I don't know who it's going to be with. And just kind of put it together like two weeks before the conference. Right. And yeah, it's cool to see that impact. [00:45:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it was vulnerable and there was transparency. And I think that your audience is used to that. Like that's how you are with them. And so to have a group of people share in that way, it was really on point. Yeah. [00:46:10] Speaker A: I have one more. This is an email I got. Can I say talk about the email? Okay. And so this came from Rachel. And so this, I got this way. This would have been the Monday after the conference. So just want to let you know, I really enjoyed the conference. Not only was there a lot of info to take in, I also found the conference to motivate me to really help her partner dig into the numbers on our farm. We talked all the way home and are still talking about the conference. Thanks for all the effort you put in, you and Yvonne put into this. Really enjoyed it. And again, I talked about this as we were wrapping up the conference about how crop marketing in a lot of farms, the decision can kind of fall down to one person. And there's a lot of pressure there and a lot of stress. And I got to meet this farm a couple times throughout the conference and again, just I wasn't expecting like that to maybe happen through the conference. Like, I wasn't expecting people to. To build or renew their partnership or I don't know what to call it, but to have that theme come out and I just thought that was super empowering. And it falls in with everything in the pre planning that we did. But to have husband and wife, I don't know what they were doing before, but to just take more of a partnership approach to crop marketing, I think that's really cool. [00:47:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. And you know what, I know we're not going to go through this, but I do have the book here that you made, the crop marketing workbook. And it was actually my favorite part of the workbook was where it really outlined like who's on your crop marketing team. And that's family members. Yeah, it's advisors. It's all the things. Oh, I have a funny story about advisors. I want to share too. But yeah, I think that there was some things in this workbook that like one page alone could change what your year looks like. So that there was lots of good feedback about that too. [00:48:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. [00:48:19] Speaker B: So my funny story about that point is this was your idea, but I never shared with you how what happened. So Nathan Kuhn, Saskatchewan farmer, who you had never heard speak in front of an audience before. And I think this is a little bit, you know, maybe speaking out of turn. Nathan, don't hold this against Ryan, but I think Ryan mentioned you were a wild card because he had speak before. [00:48:49] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I don't think he did. This was his first presentation ever is what I'm being, what I'm understanding. So. [00:48:56] Speaker B: Okay, so Ryan's like, and I don't know who Nathan is. [00:48:59] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:59] Speaker B: And Ryan's like, yeah, this Nathan guy is a bit of a wild card. Anyways, Nathan did a phenomenal job and incredible job. [00:49:07] Speaker A: Incredible. [00:49:10] Speaker B: So we're going to find some wild cards for next year too. But. [00:49:13] Speaker A: Oh, like, I already asked him. I'm like, can you come back? Like, yeah, yeah. [00:49:18] Speaker B: So. So anyways, we. He did a great job. And Ryan said to me, he said, go ask Nathan if you can get his agent's number and like, give him a hard time booking him for next year. And I was like, oh, yeah, now Nathan doesn't know who I am. And so he's like, looks got a plate of food. And I'm like, I just stop him. And I'm like deadpan. And I'm like, hey, Nathan, can I get your agent's number? And he looks at me and he's like, yeah. He's like, yeah, I use the same guy as Ryan, but I can give you the number. And he's like pulling out his phone, he's like, you know, do you want me to text it to you? And I was like, yeah. And he thought I meant like crop marketing agent or something, I guess. [00:49:59] Speaker A: Oh, maybe broker. Yeah, broker. [00:50:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And so I said, yeah, if you could text it to me, then I'll reach out to them and see if we can book you to speak at next year's conference. And he looked so confused. And then he realized, then he realized. [00:50:16] Speaker A: You know, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that man needs an agent. The way he again in the surveys, you know, farmer, like standing up there being vulnerable about what he has done in his crop marketing successes and losses. It spoke to farmers. And so Nathan did a phenomenal job. And it to me was also a moment of like, we need more of that. We. We don't need more farmers. Like in the industry, there's farmers that are teaching all the other farmers or, I don't know, talking. Anyways, the way that Nathan pulled it off was phenomenal. We need more of that. Not just not talking at people. I think that's what happens in the space. People just talk at farmers, talk to. At other farmers, but just to. I don't know if that makes sense, but just to. Yeah, just learn, but pass on what you've learned. And for what it's worth, this is what I've learned. I'm here to share with you. I think Nathan did a phenomenal job with that. [00:51:20] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. [00:51:22] Speaker A: All right. [00:51:23] Speaker B: We're pretty big into walk up songs, Ryan, for the whole conference, but if you could give the whole conference like a theme song, you know, what song? Now that it's over, like what song do you think wraps it up? [00:51:37] Speaker A: Oh, man. All right, that is so, like, I had 59 walk up songs that I was trying to work through myself for my presentation. So this, you know, this one is. Yeah, I'm gonna have a tough time with this one. So my walk up song for the entire conference, like, you could almost do, like, Taking Care of Business by bto, you know, like, taking care of Business. Like, we. We went in there, people got to work, like, the notes, the pages of notes. People were taking the action items, people were writing down the questions they were asking. And I felt that the confidence level skyrocketed and people are ready to take care of business. And yeah, like, I think that's. That's one. Like, I could go to some, like, other crazy type song, but I think Taking Care of Business would. Would kind of sum it up for me. [00:52:36] Speaker B: I love that. That's great. [00:52:38] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The walk up songs, it was one of the more. The moments that were. Was a little bit not glitchy, but I had to, like, run around to the other side of the stage to play the song. So it was always like, try to remember what you're saying. Try to walk and not fall and try to go and hit play on the darn song. So it was a little bit clumsy at times, but it was good. And people mentioned that the music was a nice touch. So. Okay, Yvonne, so next year's conference, what is one thing that you're looking at for next year and saying, all right, this is one little tweak we're making for an improvement? Is there one thing that stands out? [00:53:18] Speaker B: Well, next year we have a really cool theme because we're going to be in Moose Jaw with, like, the whole Al Capone thing. And my dad is a huge Al Capone fan, so I hear these stories all the time. And I'm really excited about embracing that theme to, like, new levels and maybe even inviting people, you know, to be part of that. And so, yeah, I'm pretty. I'm looking forward to that. I've got some. I've got ideas. I know you've got ideas. So I can't wait until our meeting. Maybe that's tomorrow, where we're like, okay, there's no bad ideas. And you know what? Even with Drumheller, we had a meeting like this. No bad ideas. And then at the end, I was like, we'll never execute all of this. And you said to me, even if we pull off 50% of this, you know, we'll be in good shape. And so, yeah, I'm excited for the really thematic piece Next year. [00:54:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to see if we can get some characters involved. We already have some characters that are going to be involved, but yeah, it's going to be a really fun theme for sure. [00:54:23] Speaker B: Yeah. How about you? What do you think? [00:54:26] Speaker A: Oh, man. The one little tweak for folks tuning in is that the hotel and the conference center are in the same building. So the 15 minute walk after a few hours in the pub will be a little bit better, faster. So that's my little, like, logistical tweak. But for me, I, I'm excited to, to just make that, make those little tweaks to the, to the speakers. Right? Like, what is, who are the people that we absolutely have to have back? Right? There's a, there's a handful of those. And then also, how else can we round it, round it up? Because there's, there's so many good comments in the, in the surveys. You want to take all the good and just make these slight tweaks for next year. And for me, it's, who is, who's that technology that we're going to highlight and who is, who are those people that are going to stand out as our next exciting speakers that we have to have around time and time again? So I'd say that's mine. And I'm also already thinking of what my presentation is going to be next year. I'm already thinking of the next level of my presentation. [00:55:41] Speaker B: So, yeah, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised how you're wired. [00:55:46] Speaker A: That was the first, like, I had stood in front of farmers and done market update stuff forever. And it was the first time where I stood on stage and did not deliver a market outlook or a market anything. It was just, it was the presentation that I needed the least prep for because it was just about me. But it's the presentation that I did the most prep for. And even after I was like, oh, I want to say this story and oh, I kind of messed up that punchline and like, ah, I'll have another, I'll have another version of it next year for. Yeah, the next level of it. [00:56:25] Speaker B: So, yeah, yeah, it was awesome. I think everybody appreciated your backstory because it gave it all context. Right? Like everything that you, you know, you show up on the podcast and you share about it just kind of laid the foundation of how, how you got here. [00:56:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it was, it was great to be able to tell it and get through it as well. Made sure to get through it. But yeah. So, all right, folks, if you're listening right now, just in the cab of the tractor, if you're pushing snow or if you're driving your vehicle, just join me. Just a. A slow clap for Yvonne Kucha. Because, Yvonne, for the conference, all I had to do is show up. I had to put a slide deck together, but all I had to do is show up. Yvonne did everything. All the little details that you're raving about, the design of the merch stuff. Amanda, you guys never got to meet Amanda, but Amanda in the background doing all of our design, all of our. All the hard. The stuff I could never do. Amanda did such a great job and Yvonne as well. The little details, which I. We talked about this in planning. I said the little details, they're going to matter. They do matter. And you nailed it on the little details, so thank you. [00:57:40] Speaker B: Well, you help farmers and for me to be involved with. Yeah. Someone who likes to help farmers as a farm girl. Like, there's just nothing better. So it's. It's all my pleasure, Ryan. [00:57:51] Speaker A: Thanks for the debrief, Yvonne. We'll start planting moose jaw here as soon as we hang up the call. [00:57:58] Speaker B: True, we will. [00:57:59] Speaker A: Let's not get ourselves. Moose jaw has been. We've been planning moose jar for three months already, so. [00:58:04] Speaker B: It's true. [00:58:09] Speaker A: All right, so for eating your veggies here for this week, I don't have anything prepared for this one. Usually I have a couple things jotted down. But, you know, I would say I still like having a wheat target out there, something for that merchant to aim for. And I've been hinting in Alberta for the Alberta guys to, you know, if you want nine, start looking at where you're going to potentially capture that here. And maybe it's the spring for delivery. But I like having wheat targets out. I think that many of us feel a bit undersold in wheat. You know, give that merchant something to aim for, throw those targets out and try to capture that extra, you know, 25 cents. I think futures can, can do it, too, but. But there's some room in basis as well. What else. What else could we do for eating your veggies this week? I think on the Canola recovery here as well, I would say that I think as of recording, we're trading around 620. 620 futures. I think it's pulling back here tonight a little bit. But, you know, if you. If you felt like you missed the boat last time or you felt really stressed out when Canola went down a 580, you know, I would be somewhere between you know, the 620, maybe a little bit higher. I'd be looking at making a catch up sale, especially if those cash flow needs are high for January and February and into March. Like you can do something here and get more of that cash flow organized for those big cash months. Okay, so I kind of like that. And then what else do we have here? Well, you know what, why not give myself a plug? You know, if you're thinking about the conference, if you, you're seeing what we're putting on social media, if you're talking to farms, hearing good things about it, the Early Bird is going to run till December 24. We're giving all attendees a chance to buy tickets at the cheapest price that they'll be. And, and that's extending out to you guys as well, the listeners. You can go to the website, you can fill out the application. Yes, we're still making people apply because the room for next year that we booked is the same size as the one we just had. And I feel very strongly about that because we are moving into a different area in a different province. So we're going to attract some new people just based off that. But you know, to me this isn't about numbers, about, you know, trying to get 500 people in a room or anything like that. You know, I'm sure we could, but we're going to keep it nice and tight and intimate. We had a really nice flow of crowd. Like, I just think about all the logistics and everything like that. And so we're going to keep it the same size. And so if you're, if you're on the fence or you want to, you know, more information, head over to Ryandini Ca. Again, it's not for everybody and I'm not trying to pitch you here at all. I, I know that every seat will be full, but if you want a spot, you feel passionate about getting a spot, the refund policy is legit. You know, after harvest, if it's not working out, you know, we give you your money back. And if it's going to be in November, then you'll have to find, we'll find a farm to take that ticket. But again, well, there'll be a farm there to grab it. So, yeah, refund policy is pretty solid, I would say. Can't make it for some reason. After harvest, we'll, we'll have that discussion. All right, that's it for eating your veggies for this week. Well, I hope you enjoyed that debrief with Yvonne. That's certainly something a little different for us to do but, but hey, honest feedback, you know, you put something together like this, it's not going to be perfect. It never will be perfect. But I'm really proud of what we accomplished and it was great to, to chat it over today and talk about some of the stuff that went down and some of the fears and some of the successes as well. So. All right, in closing, episode 55, if you found this episode useful, please share it with a friend, farming colleague, something like that. Spread the word, prices can change, strategies can change. By the time we send this out, recordings are done on Wednesday. So just keep that in mind and hey, it was a pleasure. Episode 55, we'll see you next week. Two episodes before Christmas we're going to get that in and then we'll take a little New Year's break. So hey, I'm out.