Growing the Future

By Dan Aberhart , Terry Aberhart

CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER.   

The Growing the Future Podcast features conversations on innovation, entrepreneurship, and personal and professional growth in the agriculture community.... more

11 ratings

FAQs about Growing the Future:

How many episodes does Growing the Future have?

The podcast currently has 191 episodes available.

Best of Growing the Future

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Know Your Numbers: See Where You Stack Up
Most operators assume the best farms in their region are spending a lot more to get a lot more out of their land. The data says otherwise. Travis Girard, a farm management consultant with MNP, and Dean Klippenstine, also with MNP, return for the second session in the Know Your Numbers benchmarking series, drawing on a database that now covers roughly 1,500 farms and 8.5 million acres across the Prairies. What's Inside - Why the production expense gap between top performing farms and average ones came in at just seven dollars an acre, not the twenty five to fifty most people guessed - Seven years of profitability data across the region, including the one year almost everyone assumes was the worst, and wasn't - The three things Dean Klippenstine says separate profitable farms from the rest, starting with crop selection - Why labor, power, and machinery costs come down to mindset more than acres under management - What bringing your three worst fields up to your own farm's average gross margin could be worth in a year Resources Mentioned MNP MNP Know Your Numbers benchmarking series Connect with Travis Gerrard: Travis Gerrard Connect with Dean Klippenstine: Dean Klippenstine Linked In: Dean Klippenstine Connect with Growing the Future Website: growingthefuture.ca YouTube: Growing the Future Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast LinkedIn: Growing the Future Subscribe to the Growing the Future Podcast wherever you listen, and register for Convergence Conference 2027 at convergence.ag. Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.
August 25, 20261h 5min
Number 2: Canola Prices and the Washington Policy Fight
Canola is priced off documents written in another country, and most of the people growing it have never read one. Susan Stroud spent more than fifteen years in the cash grain business, buying by truck and rail and loading out on barge, before building No Bull Ag into a grain and oilseed analysis service. She joins Dan and co-host Ryan Bonnett of ABB Solutions for a working session on the policy machinery underneath the canola market. What's InsideHow a California low carbon fuel standard, commissioned by a movie star governor, set off the renewable diesel boom that built Canada's crush capacityWhat a RIN actually is, what a small refinery exemption does, and what happened when the hardship calculation was quietly rewritten this SeptemberWhy canola oil fell off the tax credit map entirely in 2025, and the single amendment that brought it back for 2026Where canola meal goes, why meal has overtaken oil as the profit driver in crush, and what broiler chickens have to do with your basisHer read on why the risks are stacking bullish, and why she still tells producers to keep selling into strength rather than sitting on their handsResources Mentioned No Bull Ag market insights, with a two week preview AgVentures international tours Connect with Susan Stroud: No Bull Ag: nobullag.com X: @SusanNobull Connect with Ryan Bonnett: ABB Solutions Connect with Growing the Future Website: growingthefuture.ca YouTube: Growing the Future Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast LinkedIn: Growing the Future Subscribe to the Growing the Future Podcast wherever you listen, and register for Convergence Conference 2027 at convergence.ag. Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.
September 17, 20261h 14min
Number 3: The Crop Is Ready. Is Your Yard?
A $1.2 million combine is only as fast as the slowest part of the yard behind it, and for most harvests, that slow part isn't the field. It's the space between the combine and the bin: the trucks, the augers, the dryer, and the person running between all three. Dan Aberhart brought three operators together who've each solved that bottleneck a different way, from a hundred-thousand-dollar retrofit to a fully automated grain-handling site eight months and one generation in the making. What's Inside • How Brennan McArthur built an automated grain-handling system near Watrous that dumps a legal Super B in about eight minutes, and what actually pushed him to build it • Vince Pawluski's remote-control retrofit kit that lets one operator run more than one machine, and the real dollar cost of an idling tractor • Trevor Scherman on why a magnetic drop pan is still the cheapest data-collection device on the farm, even as combine automation does more of the calibration itself • What each guest thinks won't be automated for years yet, and why the combine seat is the last one they expect to see empty • Where smaller automated units fit against Western Canada's big-iron reality, and why swarm technology hasn't earned trust yet If the data side of this conversation landed for you, look for the back-catalog episode with sprayer specialist Tom Wolf on calibration and coverage. It's the same instinct Trevor brings to a drop pan, applied to the boom instead of the header. Resources Mentioned • SureGain (Trevor Scherman's harvest data and drop pan work) • LV Control (Winnipeg-based grain handling automation) • John Deere Operations Center (JD Ops) • Agromatix Pro • STARS Air Ambulance Connect • Connect with Trevor Scherman: SureGain • Connect with Vince Pawluski • Connect with Brennan McArthur Connect with Growing the Future Website: growingthefuture.ca YouTube: Growing the Future Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast LinkedIn: Growing the Future Subscribe to the Growing the Future Podcast wherever you listen, and register for Convergence Conference 2027 at convergence.ag. Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.
August 20, 20261h 4min
Number 4: Farm Succession Planning Canada: Are You Prepared?
Picture the one person your farm cannot run without. Now picture their chair empty tomorrow morning. Can someone else access the accounts, make payroll, or explain what the farm owes and why? If those answers only live in one person's head, the farm is not prepared, no matter how good the balance sheet looks. Jace Young grew up watching his grandfather's 55 year, multimillion dollar Kansas farm operation collapse into bankruptcy in 2005, then built Legacy Farmer to help other families get their financial house in order before the same thing happens to them. Jolene Bolding, Manager of Advisory Services at Farm Credit Canada, has her own story of a farm sale her family decided on before she ever got a seat at the table. Wade Berlinic, Associate Broker with Hammond Realty's Ag Exits and Acquisitions Strategies team, sees what happens when that conversation gets put off until the land is already on the market. Together they walk through why only 12 percent of Canadian farms have an actual transition plan, what it costs a family when nobody has one, and the five stage process Jace uses to move an operation from financial blind spots to a plan everyone in the family can actually see. What's Inside - Why a farm can look bulletproof on paper and still not be prepared for one empty chair - The story behind Jace Young's grandfather losing a 55 year, multimillion dollar Kansas operation, and what it did to the family afterward - Why only 12 percent of Canadian farms have a written transition plan, and what that gap actually costs - The five stage process Legacy Farmer uses to move a family from financial blind spots to a real plan: Position, Production, Profit, Protection, and Prosper - Why the conversation almost never starts with the numbers, it starts with pride, ego, and who is willing to ask for help - What $55 billion in Canadian farm assets transferring in the next decade means for every family still putting this conversation off If this conversation hits home, go back in the catalog for our episode with Elaine Froese on farm family transition and communication, one of the clearest voices in Western Canada on getting these conversations started before they're forced. It also pairs well with our conversation with Robert Andjelic on where farmland capital is actually moving right now. Resources Mentioned Legacy Farmer's five stage framework: Position, Production, Profit, Protection, Prosper Connect with Jace Young LegacyFarmer.com Connect with Jolene Bolding Reach out to your local FCC field office to connect with a business advisor Connect with Wade Berlinic - Hammond Realty Connect with Growing the Future Website: growingthefuture.ca YouTube: Growing the Future Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast LinkedIn: Growing the Future Subscribe to the Growing the Future Podcast wherever you listen, and register for Convergence Conference 2027 at convergence.ag. Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.
August 11, 20261h 1min
Number 5: Independent Agronomist Jaeda Hoppe: Going Out on Your Own at 24
Every farmer has somebody they call. The story we tell about that is a farmer who doesn't know what he's doing, hiring someone else to think for him. Jaeda Hoppe thinks that story is wrong. She went independent at 24, after two of her clients tracked her down through her mother's hair salon and asked her to work for them privately. Four years later, she still has the same five clients she started with. This conversation is about what she actually gets paid for, once the theory runs out. What's Inside - What a producer is actually paying an independent agronomist for, once the theory runs out - Why she recommends every young agronomist start in ag retail, even though almost nobody treats it as an end goal - The built-in objectivity problem when a retailer's margin depends on which product they recommend - Why she's seen close to zero measurable results from the biological products she's evaluated - Compartmentalizing stress: the skill she says separates the farmers and agronomists who last from the ones who don't - Her weekly Sunday text subscription sharing field observations, and why she built it Connect with Jaeda Hoppe Hoppe Agronomy Connect with Growing the Future Website: growingthefuture.ca YouTube: Growing the Future Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast LinkedIn: Growing the Future Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.
August 10, 20261h