Driving Change with Sustainable Ag, featuring Senior Vice President of North America Operations Jeff Tarsi

With planning underway for next year's crop, there are a field full of reasons why growers should consider adopting new sustainable practices.

From cover crops to nitrogen management, the decisions that will dictate success or failure in 2022 are being made right now. But what's the best approach, and how will your farm's history and geography impact the best practices?

In this episode of The Future. Faster, Tom and Sally take a look at some of the top-of-mind issues for growers who are adapting to include more sustainability in their operations, and lay out some of the advantages, both short- and long-term.

Plus, Jeff Tarsi, Nutrien Ag Solutions Senior Vice President of North America Operations, joins us to discuss why sustainable agriculture has become such a focal point for the organization, and how Nutrien Ag Solutions is positioning itself to meet the needs of growers today and in the future.

Learn more about Nutrien's Agrible platform, which gives you the field-level insights and proof points you need to show partners and consumers that you’re producing and providing premium ingredients.

Episode Transcript

Jeff Tarsi:

At Nutrien Ag Solutions, we're focused on making changes on a daily basis as it relates to our planet that actually create an impact, and most importantly, that can be measured scientifically.

Dusty Weis:

The future isn't just written by the past. It's written by the right now. And right now, Nutrien Ag Solutions is focused on what's next.

Dusty Weis:

Welcome to the Future. Faster. A sustainable agriculture podcast by Nutrien Ag Solutions, with our very own Tom Daniel, Director of Retail Sustainable Ag, and Dr. Sally Flis, Sr. Manager, Sustainability Field. This is your opportunity to learn about the next horizon in sustainable agriculture. For growers. For partners. For the planet. To us, it’s not about changing what’s always worked. It’s about continuing to do the little things that make a big impact...

Dusty Weis:

On this week's episode, Jeff Tarsi, senior vice president of North America operations at Nutrien Ag Solutions, joins us to discuss why sustainable agriculture has become such a focal point for the organization. He talks about shifting consumer expectations for the industry and shares how Nutrien Ag Solutions is positioning itself to meet the needs of growers today and in the future.

Dusty Weis:

But if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed to this podcast in your favorite app. Also make sure you follow Nutrien Ag Solutions on Facebook and Instagram.

Dusty Weis:

I’m Dusty Weis. And it's time once again to introduce Tom Daniel and Sally Flis. And, Tom and Sally you're both in regular contact with the growers who Nutrien supports. And Tom and Sally, it's getting to be about that time of year when growers start thinking about bringing in this year's crop. But while you're talking to growers about their plans, what are some of the topics that you're covering as we move into the fall season?

Tom Daniel:

Really, Dusty, some of the key things that we work with, especially at the retail agronomy level, the crop planning part is going to come into play here very shortly. As you said, we're harvesting this year's crop, but now, we're also looking at what rotations and what cropping are we going to go into in our 2022 season? The crop plan becomes that very important part that we'll start here very shortly. With that said, if you, as a grower, are looking at different projects around the farm or maybe you want to participate in a sustainability project, your farm wants to participate in one, you need to be looking at exactly what your crop plan is going to be focused on for 2022. If you're looking at something around cover crops, for instance, Sally, I think we've seen many farmers will make the plan to go to cover crops but not think about the herbicide program they use previous to the cover crop, and then they set themselves up for failure in a cover crop mechanism.

Sally Flis:

Exactly. Yeah, I ran into that a lot in my early part of my career working with growers that needed to do cover crops because they were in a permit-type situation. But by the time we got around to talking about that need, it was either too late to change that herbicide, or they had already made a purchase, or they'd already made an application, and so the sooner you can talk about that, the better success and more options you're going to have for that cover crop to be planted for the end of the 2022 cropping season. But at the same time, depending on your cropping decisions in 2021, you could still have a potential for a fall cover crop this year if that's something a grower is interested in.

Tom Daniel:

Especially if he's wanting to enroll in some of these different projects that are asking for a farm practice change of cover crops. There's an opportunity to get a jumpstart still in 2021 leading into your 2022 crop year. Another thing to think about, too, Sally, we've got a lot of interest in nitrogen management and managing nitrogen on the farm. And now's a good time in the crop planning process to start looking at opportunities around nitrogen volatilization inhibitors and different products that can be used on the farm to reduce the amount of nitrogen used or to gain more efficiencies around nitrogen, but it's a good time to start making those plans.

Sally Flis:

Exactly. The nitrogen management goes back to what I spent a lot of time on when I was at The Fertilizer Institute. Those 4R concepts of source, rate, timing, and placement, all of which can have an impact on that nitrous oxide emissions. And in some of our different models, we can account for how those impact the emission reduction from nitrogen fertilizer use. But if you're going to switch to a split nitrogen application and you've always done 90% of your nitrogen in the fall as anhydrous ammonia, those are decisions and buying changes and equipment changes that now's the time to start thinking about them.

Tom Daniel:

Yeah, and Sally, even this year, we saw situations where we started talking to growers in January and February around nitrogen management protocols and what we could do to reduce nitrogen rates or maybe change nitrogen sources. But because our customers in lots of cases had already pre-bought or already purchased their nitrogen and we saw the significant price modulations in the market this year, it was hard for them to make a change to go to a better source of nitrogen.

Sally Flis:

Exactly. And the other piece of that from the retail perspective, Tom, is making sure that our retail branches and locations can get the right products and amounts in the right places between now and the time it needs to go on the field next spring, right? If it's an area where you haven't had ESN and your services and products in the past, now's the time to think about, is that something your growers are going to want to add? Or the inhibitor products, the same thing. If it's not something you've carried in the past, where and how does that fit into the retail management side of things?

Tom Daniel:

Yeah, it's real easy for us to talk about using nitrogen inhibitors or to talk about going to variable rate technology on nitrogen, but we always have to address, what are the capabilities of the grower? And not only the grower, but what's the capabilities of retail? Do they have the ability to store that extra nitrogen product in their bin for that season? That's not just something they can make a decision on in January and February. They have to know early that a grower's making purchase indications that he may want to go to a different source.

Tom Daniel:

One other thing, Sally, that I think we're facing this year, especially in 2021, but I think in 2022 and further, as the focus on cover crops become more and more prevalent each year, sourcing your cover crops early. What do you think? Is that going to be a big thing that we need to be thinking about?

Sally Flis:

Tom, I don't remember a year since I've been trying to get growers to do cover crops for the last 15 years that cover crop seed source wasn't a challenge. It's a good practice, and as more people adopt it, we need more seed. But at the same time, a lot of these areas that are having the drought problems that we're having right now are where that seed is coming from. So are we going to be able to get that seed supplier thinking in that 2022 planning light? How can we think about, if growers are looking to diversify a rotation, can they add in something like being a cover crop seed producer at a smaller scale but keeping it local? There's opportunities there. But I think every year we have this challenge of, are we going to have enough cover crop seed? Can we get it here in time? Because we might have enough, but with changes in rail service and trucking availability, we might not be able to get it there to get the crop established at the right time either.

Tom Daniel:

Right, so I guess what we're trying to say here, Dusty, is that crop planning is probably the most important thing that we can get started for 2022 right now because as we look to 2022, you say, "Well, I won't need cover crops till August, September, October. I've got time." Really, we don't. We have to make these decisions early, and we have to let our supplier know, our retail know that we're going to need these products, and we're going to have to have them available to us just like the same choices on nitrogen sources and all those things. The earlier we get the planning done, the better likelihood we'll have success in getting the supply we need.

Dusty Weis:

As you talk about this cover crop seed supply and the issues pertaining to that, is this really just one of those things that the demand just keeps on growing and the supply hasn't quite caught up to that demand yet? And as these practices become more commonplace and more popular, what's it going to take to build out the infrastructure to meet that demand?

Sally Flis:

As with any of these sustainability discussions, Dusty, it's a little bit of everything, right? We've got higher demand. It's not an easy seed or crop to produce because it can have impacts of high moisture or low moisture is going to change the amount of seed or the quality of seed you get. Weed control is going to impact whether or not you have seed that you can actually put onto the marketplace. It's really just a little bit of everything, as we see with most all of these practices. It's not just a supply-demand thing. It's all the pieces that go into making seed.

Tom Daniel:

It's also, Dusty, finding a supply that matches up with what your needs are. If you're in a market like where I live in Kentucky, we have a lot of winter wheat that's produced, and you start using rye grass as a cover crop. A lot of rye grass is produced in different parts of the country that will have perennial rye grass varieties mixed in with the annual rye grass. It may be resistant to glyphosate, so we need to find sources of the seed that don't cause us more problems as far as noxious weeds and things on the farm. As Sally said, we have to look for those sources that match up what our needs are.

Dusty Weis:

That's good information to have, but as we're thinking about that crop planning process right now, are there other things that growers ought to be considering so that they can get engaged now?

Tom Daniel:

Especially if a grower is looking, Dusty, for something to be involved in around sustainability projects or things that may be in his geography, by enrolling today in the Agrible platform, which is a Nutrien Ag Solutions digital platform for sustainability, we can actually help the grower look for opportunities around sustainability. It could be carbon in some of the geographies of the marketplace. It could be nitrogen management protocols that are available that he could participate in. There may be multiple different sustainability projects that we have going on with some downstream processors. In those cases, if he enrolls into Agrible and makes himself identifiable that we know he's interested, then we can start having those conversations.

Dusty Weis:

And we will put a link in the episode description where people can find out more about Agrible and how to sign up for that. And certainly that's something that we can ask Jeff Tarsi about in just a moment as well. He's coming up, the senior vice president of North America operations at Nutrien Ag Solutions. That's in a moment here on The Future, Faster.

Dusty Weis:

This is The Future, Faster, a sustainable agriculture podcast by Nutrien Ag Solutions. I'm Dusty Weis, along with Tom Daniel and Sally Flis, and we're joined now by Jeff Tarsi, senior vice president of North America operations at Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Dusty Weis:

Jeff, thanks so much for joining us. We often hear you speak about positive environmental change. Can you elaborate a little bit on exactly what you mean about that from Nutrien Ag Solutions' perspective?

Jeff Tarsi:

Absolutely. I'm glad to. And first of all, let me say that I'm tickled to be joining the podcast today and been looking forward to doing this. And yeah, in reference to your first question, when I look at this, and at Nutrien Ag Solutions, we're focused on making changes on a daily basis as it relates to our planet that actually create an impact, and most importantly, that can be measured scientifically. And I want to emphasize the importance when I say measured scientifically. In business, we use KPIs to measure our performance, and when we think about positive environmental changes and some of the things that we're out working and recommending to our growers, I think what differentiates us is our ability to capture and measure some of these responses and then being able to use that information to educate our growers, to educate our communities and the public and such.

Jeff Tarsi:

And so in a normal day for our company, look, it's our goal to support our growers. And we do that by providing solutions that include practices and programs and products that create positive economic and environmental impacts on the farm. We like to call that solutions, that we provide solutions to our growers and those solutions are across a very broad platform. But at the end of the day, when we look at what it is we're striving to do, is we're looking to leave the land in better shape than we found it in. And at the same time, we're looking at creating a return on investment for our growers, which is vitally important as well.

Tom Daniel:

Jeff, as we look at Nutrien Ag Solutions, we've got such a huge footprint not only in North America but around the world, and sustainability is one of those broad terms. How do we meet the needs of all the various growers that we have within Nutrien Ag Solutions today?

Jeff Tarsi:

Yeah, and Tom, first of all, we cover a tremendous geography. And I know the area that I'm responsible over is North America. And if you think of all the different types of farming operations that exist in North America, whether we're out in the west with permanent crops and we're in the Midwest with broad acre crops or into prairies of Canada and such. And so first of all, what we need to understand is that sustainability is local. Everything around it has to be broken down and evaluated and prescribed based on the local environment and the conditions, and each of these geographies I've just discussed is different in a lot of different ways.

Jeff Tarsi:

And when I think about it, that's what makes our job so challenging every day, and it's also what makes our jobs so rewarding every day is that it is not the same old thing every day, and these things change as we move around, and the needs are different in each specific geography. And because of that, sustainability will always be measured and analyzed differently in each geography. And the other thing that excites me about that is no one is better positioned to lead in this arena than Nutrien Ag Solutions are. And I've had the privilege of working around the globe. I've spent extensive time in Australia and South America as well, and each of those regions differ greatly as well. But we've got those same opportunities as it relates to sustainability no matter where we on this planet.

Sally Flis:

Jeff, why is sustainable ag so important to Nutrien Ag Solutions as a retail business?

Jeff Tarsi:

The word sustainability is used so much today, and as I think about it and as I was preparing for the podcast, one of the first things that came to mind for me is we didn't just start with our practices that we now refer to as sustainable ag. Tom, you know this. The many years you and I have worked together, sustainable ag has been a practice that the majority of our retail team has been conducting for years.

Jeff Tarsi:

And I'll give you a few examples of that. We manufacture and we apply fertilizer efficiency products, whether it's our ESN products or some of the stabilizers we use with nitrogen. We utilize variable rate application technology to make sure that we apply the correct amount of crop nutrients. And if I think today versus just 10 or 12 years ago, 10 or 12 years ago, most of those would have been blanket rate applications, and today, with the sophistication of the tools that we have to analyze soil health and with the technology that we have on the application equipment today, we very rarely do a blanket rate application, and it's all some kind of a variable rate application. And again, we're analyzing this data to make sure that we're applying the right products at the right time in the right place.

Jeff Tarsi:

And look, these practices have been going on for years. And the great thing about it now is we learn more about how we can be more sustainable with our products and our applications. We already have these tools, and we're used to using these tools. And again, I think that's what puts the retailer and puts Nutrien Ag Solutions in a really great spot that we're in today. But as these new technologies are developed and as they're introduced into the marketplace and into our growers and those that work in digital and people like Tom and his team that work in sustainability, it's our job to become experts on these practices, and it's our job to train our teams so that we can aid our grower customers with their adoption of these practices.

Jeff Tarsi:

Our customers look to us to provide that information and to keep them on their farms being on the leading edge as it relates to sustainability.And some of the benefits that we give back to the planet and the community but then some of the benefits through our customers as well. And when we look at these new technologies, look, we have an opportunity to increase the products and services that we offer our grower customers at the farm gate, and we have an opportunity to become even more connected with our customers in the community like I just said. I call this stickiness. People in the network hear me say that quite often. We want to become really sticky with our customers.

Jeff Tarsi:

And at the end of the day, we're focused on being the agronomists of the future to accomplish this goal of growing more with less. And our agronomists and our retail staffs are crucial to the success and adoption of sustainable ag. We refer to ourself as a retailer of the future. Part of being a retailer of the future starts with being the agronomists of the future as well. I probably gave you a bit of a long-winded answer on that, but that's how I look at it. That's through my lens is how I see it.

Sally Flis:

Yeah, that's great. And a follow-up question to that, Jeff. On a lot of our podcasts, we're talking about that consumer pressure for talking about sustainability. Just curious, what's your vision around how do we help growers and ag retail as a company tell the story of all the good stuff that you're talking about the growers are already doing on the ground and this long-term commitment that our customers as growers and our agronomists have to sustainability in the field?

Jeff Tarsi:

We have a large platform across Nutrien Ag Solutions, and I think we're looked at as a leader in the field of agriculture. And again, I mentioned all the tools that we have that allow us to measure what we're actually doing and the successes that we have with it. And I think that we're a connection point to some of the food companies today, Tom, that we work with out there today. And I think that the sheer fact that when we look across that platform and we look at the tools that we have to offer our growers, number one, I think that we're going to see more grower demand and more interest in this area. And again, as we work with the food companies, I think the food companies will identify Nutrien Ag Solutions as a preferred retailer.

Jeff Tarsi:

And then, at the same time, not only Nutrien Ag Solutions but the ag community as a whole has to do a better job of communicating and has to do a better job of telling that story of what we do. I know sometimes even internal in the organization I'll mention things we do, and people look at me like with a blank stare. "Really? We do that?" Generally, it always comes down to communications. How do you express yourself? How do you put that information out there? We work with a lot of the leading farm groups out there today.

Jeff Tarsi:

And I think, again, that we've got something to talk about. We've got something to shout off the mountaintop about. And I think we've started that. Our communications plans today look good to me, and I think we'll see an increased emphasis on that as well. And look, I'm like anybody else. I've got kids. I even still have a young kid at home. And it's very important to me that I'm illustrating to my youngest daughter the things that we're doing to make the planet better. And like you said, how do we leave this place better than what we found it? And I actually think our generation today has that opportunity.

Tom Daniel:

Jeff, one of the key components that we see today is we know that there's a lot of growers out there that are very engaged in sustainability and they always have been because just like my dad told me, they're not making new soil today, so you better take care of it because if you take care of the resource, it'll take care of you in the future, right? Same thing you've heard. My question is, we're looking for those key growers that we can tell that story. We're defining them as sustainable ag champions. How would you describe, looking out in the field today of the growers we work with, what is a characteristic or what does a sustainable ag champion look like?

Jeff Tarsi:

When I think about a sustainable ag champion, and my answer might be a little bit different from others, I look in areas of, first of all, you better be pro-planet, and you better be pro-environment. And if you're breathing air, I don't know how you're not pro-planet and not pro-environment. I think a lot of our grower customers would fit in that category, okay?

Jeff Tarsi:

But then secondly, you've got to be identified as somebody that's open to change. Okay? And you've got to be identified as somebody that a lot of times maybe is a first mover. And Tom, through our careers, we could always go into a geography, and you kind of always knew who those first movers were. And the first mover around sustainability was likely the first mover around GMO or the first mover around auto-steer and those type things and technologies that come on.

Jeff Tarsi:

And then when I look at it, being open to change and then doing what's in the best interest of both the stakeholders, our communities, and again, the best interest of that soil. Look, all of this starts with the soil. And I can tell you this. I don't think there's a grower customer out there that doesn't consider that the most valuable asset he has is the soil. Okay? He can go get another tractor. He can trade them yearly if he wants to. Some people do. He can change varieties of crops that he plants and such. But what he can't do is he can't trade that soil off. And so I think that being very conscious about how we treat that soil, and in respect to that, how that treats the planet, that's how I look at champions. Again, it's an openness to change. It's a keen interest in your community, and it's a keen interest in the environment and how we treat it.

Sally Flis:

Put two questions together here, Jeff. One, how do we make this not scary for our growers and our crop consultants in the field? We've got a lot of tools. We've got a lot of technologies. We've got a lot of pieces available from Nutrien Ag Solutions to help move growers down this path. But there's lots of questions about who's going to use my data? What is it going to cost me to do these practices? Is it worth it? Who's going to enter all this data? How do we make this a little less scary for crop consultants and growers to be involved and active in telling this story about sustainability so that there's real opportunities for the growers and for our crop consultants?

Jeff Tarsi:

First of all, I happen to believe or I accept the concept that I think farming sustainably is table stakes. Okay? I don't think that there's going to be an option down the road of whether we do it that way. And when I hear that things are going to be table stakes in my business that means I generally better get in gear. And again, we want to work with our grower. If I look through the value chain of agriculture, there's no closer relationship with the grower than with that retailer, that branch. I like to say [inaudible 00:24:19] and our agronomist there.

Jeff Tarsi:

And I think the way you don't make it scary is, first of all, what becomes scary is when you try to go to a one size fits all and you try to push something that doesn't fit. Again, what we bring to the table is we understand the local environment, and we help those growers find the solutions that match not only their local geography but their farm. And it's crucial in that process to meet to identify specific challenges that growers face on an individual farm, and we address them accordingly. There is no one size fits all on this piece of it.

Jeff Tarsi:

Secondly, we have a sustainable ag team. And again, that's part of that broad platform that I've talked about. And so our sustainable ag team's role, as I see it, is to simplify that process, to analyze and support our retail while navigating the many sustainable ag options out there, and then let's help us identify and implement the correct ones that fit those specific practices. And I'm encouraged, to date, Tom, as I sit on some of these regional calls, we've got a sustainable lead in all of these regions, and on a weekly basis, that teammate are sharing ideas with our teams.

Jeff Tarsi:

And look, again, a lot of these concepts are not new. Matter of fact, most of them aren't new, and most of the products are not new. There are different ways we can fit them in from a solution standpoint, and we can better identify to that grower, what's that causing to occur, and how can we measure it, and how can we measure what it's doing from him from an ROI standpoint as well on that side of it. To me, it's always education. Okay? It always comes down to education, and I don't think I'm different than a grower. Anytime I hear something new, I seize up just a little bit, and say, "Man, what is this going to mean?" And generally, you overreact. You generally overreact. And then when you sit down and you find out specifically what it means, you go, "Oh, hey, I'm already doing a lot of that today. I just need to document it. I need to collect the data. I need to analyze it. I need to be able to prove it," and such. And so that's the way I see that.

Tom Daniel:

The key thing, Jeff, is they need to start getting credit for what they're already doing, and that's the whole deal.

Jeff Tarsi:

Tom, that's exactly right. And look, how many times in our career in agriculture have we said that about a farmer? That they need to get credit for what they're actually doing or the general population needs to actually understand what they're doing and how they're stewards of the land and stewards of the planet. There's no one that makes a larger investment in our planet and our environment, in my opinion, than a grower does on an individual basis.

Dusty Weis:

It's exciting to see, and it's exciting to hear about all the programs that Nutrien Ag Solutions has percolating right now as far as this goes. And you sang the praises of the sustainable ag team, and I've certainly got to know Tom and Sally a whole lot over this past couple of days here, and I see why you're singing those praises. But this has been a fantastic conversation. Jeff Tarsi, senior vice president of North America operations at Nutrien Ag Solutions. Thanks for joining us on this episode of The Future, Faster.

Dusty Weis:

That is going to conclude this edition of The Future, Faster, the pursuit of sustainable success with Nutrien Ag Solutions. New episodes arrive every other week, so make sure you subscribe on your favorite app and join us again soon. Visit FutureFaster.com to learn more. The Future, Faster podcast is brought to you by Nutrien Ag Solutions, with executive producer Connor Erwin, editing by Doug Russell, and production oversight by Larry Kilgore III, and it's produced by Podcamp Media. Branded podcast production for businesses. PodcampMedia.com. For Nutrien Ag Solutions, thanks for listening. I'm Dusty Weis.