In this episode we have St. John Craner with us – the mastermind behind Agrarian, a New Zealand-based company revolutionizing sales and marketing in agribusinesses. St. John shares insights on how farmers can take their game to the next level in direct consumer marketing.We also discuss the concept of craft farming.

Get ready to be inspired, as we uncover the secrets to breaking down barriers and building stronger relationships between the farm and the consumer.

About St. John Craner
St. John is not just a seasoned entrepreneur and rural sales specialist, but also an author, speaker, blogger, and podcaster – sharing his knowledge and expertise in rural sales and marketing far and wide.  

St John has over 25 years of corporate sales and marketing agency experience in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand working for the like of McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam and Westpac. He comes from a farming family in the UK and is a Lincoln University Kellogg scholar.

We explore a more dynamic and direct way of raising capital for the next project on your farm, compared to making an appointment with your local bank manager.

Austin Maness, cofounder at Harvest Returns walks us through how his business is connecting farmers to experienced passive investors with a passion for agriculture.

By offering an alternative funding option to the traditional bank loan, Harvest Returns have raised more than $30m in investment capital which has helped to grow numerous farms, ranches and agribusinesses.

About Austin Maness

Some of Austin's greatest memories were spent summers as a kid working with his grandparents on their small farm. During a ten-year career as an US Army Officer, he served at several levels of command from tactical to strategic operations. Maness earned a Bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University and completed a Masters at Kansas University.

Today Austin is a cofounder and the COO of Harvest Returns and manages all facets of the company’s logistics, deal pipeline, and human resources.

Have you ever thought that there should be an easier way to keep yourself up to date on news pertinent to your farming business, without having to browse through multiple websites and fight off a truckload of annoying ads and pop ups in the process?

Our guests Nick and Clara from EasyNewZ have developed an app, which helps you cut to the chase and have Ag news relevant to farming right at your fingertips at all times, in a highly digestible format. The app was launched a few weeks ago and is already achieving 6 to 10000 downloads a day.

In this episode of the Keep Agile Keep Farming podcast we learn about how this start-up team with two very different backgrounds came together and how they used their complementary skills to help farmers.

Diversifizierung ist ein wichtiges Thema für österreichische Landwirte. Wir haben Franz und Anna Gerstenmayer zu Gast, von denen wir unser sehr schmackhaftes regionales Kürbiskernöl beziehen.

Es gibt kein Patentrezept für eine erfolgreiche Diversifizierung in der Landwirtschaft. Darauf weist eine große Variabilität bei der Wirtschaftlichkeit hin, gerade auch bei der Direktvermarktung, wie Kennzahlen belegen. In dieser Episode sprechen wir einige wichtige Erfolgsfaktoren für die Diversifizierung an.

Anna und Franz sind gerade mit der Kürbisernte fertig geworden und wir haben den Moment genutzt mehr zu Ihrem Familienbetrieb zu erfahren und wie sie größere Herausforderungen überwunden haben.

Zum Gerstenmayer Hof

Der Gerstenmayer Bauernhof ist in Gedersdorf zu Hause, eine kleine Gemeinde in der Nähe von Krems in Niederösterreich. Dort kann man auch im Hofladen das Gedersdorfer Kürbiskernöl und Vogelfutter beziehen.

www.gerstenmayer-kuerbiskernoel.at 

In this episode we learn how adversity can be responsible for dramatic personal growth in ourselves. Adam Williamson, an Australian thoroughbred horse stud farm manager faced adversity in his own family and farming operation. To combat hardships brought on by extreme drought conditions he decided to go back to University to  study for a degree in Precision Agriculture. 

Adam’s story is a great example of the benefits of education not only early on in our lives but throughout our whole life. Going back to University helped him take control of a difficult situation and create opportunities, including a Nuffield Scholarship.

About Adam Williamson

Adam Williamson is a thoroughbred horse stud farm manager at the Vinery Stud, based close to Scone in New South Wales Australia. Adam also designs and manufactures deep-tillage and feedlot specific equipment through the company Williamson Agri that he runs in partnership with his mother, Rosemary.

In 2022 he received a Nuffield Scholarship, supported by AgriFutures Australia, which he wants to use to combat soil compaction and improve pasture management to support the long-term health of thoroughbred horses.

You can reach out to Adam on Twitter  @amwfarming 

and  www.williamsonagri.com.au or www.Vinery.com.au

The fear of failure can hold us back from trying out new things and making necessary changes. We discuss the concept of failing forward with Emmy Koeleman, who recently wrote an article on applying this concept to agriculture.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception and response to failure." according to the bestselling author John C. Maxwell of the book Failing Forward. 

In episode 11 we look at how failing forward relates to farming and our personal lives. We hope it inspires you and helps to take away the fear of failure when trying out new things.

About Emmy Koeleman

Emmy works and lives in the Netherlands, where she established her own business in 2020, providing services as an editor, storyteller, moderator and speaker in the field of agriculture. She graduated with an Msc in Animal Science from the University of Wageningen and gained more than 15 years of experience as a Chief Editor in leading  international agricultural media brands before she started her own business.

What happens when you keep butting heads on the family farm and good ideas or changes are not implemented because of stubbornness?  We had Andy Caygeon Junkin from Stubborn.Farm explain to us what the underlying causes are and how family farms can make better quality decisions together as a team.

Andy Caygeon Junkin is a leading expert on farm succession and farm debt turnarounds, who is recognized for bringing farming families together solving their issues and smooth the path towards farm succession.

He operates his business online from the US helping save family farms.

In this episode we learn some exciting facts about the carob tree from Dr. Vasilis Symeou. With the increasing reports of drought, heat and forest fires in the current news, we wanted to find a crop that is climate resilient  Vasilis talks us through the advantages of cultivating carob trees in Cyprus and we find out why 2022 is a particularly profitable year for carob growers in Cyprus. 

About Dr. Vasilis Symeou

Vasilis is an animal scientist working for Vettaky Ltd based in Cyprus. specializing in sustainable animal husbandry practices. He works across all livestock species in Cyprus and has also been teaching animal science related courses at the Technicological University of Cyprus in the past 8 years. He comes from a proud agricultural family and his father is a micro-olive and carob tree grower.

We talk to Robert Saik, Founder of AGvisorPRO, who is a true champion for agriculture and serial entrepreneur based in Canada. We wanted to know how AGvisorPRO can make asking for help really easy and highly personalized at the very time you need it.

Rob has founded over 15 companies and has been hailed an agricultural visionary on hot topics in global food production. He is also author of the Amazon bestseller book Food 5.0 - How we feed the future.

Dr. Sam Hoste from Quantech solutions joins us to talk about what matters to livestock farmers in adopting new technologies and where agritech companies still need to improve to become more famer friendly.

Sam shares his experience from assisting companies in their innovations and commercializing digital solutions in the livestock sector.

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