Steve Harrison

In a good partnership. Everybody wins, and any one of my people will tell you that the first person that needs to win is the grower.

If it's a tight partnership with the grower, we can actually create a revenue stream for some of these growers by doing certain practices...

And it comes down to data.

Dusty Weis

Welcome to the FARMSMART Podcast, presented by Nutrien Ag Solutions, where every month, we’re talking to sustainable agriculture experts from throughout the industry.

As the leading source of insight for growers on evolving their sustainability practices while staying grounded in agronomic proof, FARMSMART is where sustainability meets opportunity.

Ryan Adams

So we don't just talk change. We're out in the field helping you identify products, practices, and technologies that bring the future to your fields faster. I'm Ryan Adams, our director of digital sustainability.

Sally Flis

And I'm Dr. Sally Flis, director of sustainable ag programs. And today we're joined by Steve Harrison, Northeast division manager at Nutrien Ag Solutions. Thanks for joining us, Steve.

Steve Harrison

Good morning.

Sally Flis

We're here recording at the New York Farm Show in Syracuse. It's an event that's been showcasing equipment, seed, technology, crop protection, everything Ag related for the state of New York for over 40 years. Given your background in the northeast, what does it mean to be able to be here with the Nutrien Ag Solutions team displaying what you guys have to offer to growers?

Steve Harrison

Well, it's great to see the crowds. It's great to see your participation with our reps, our folks that left their regular day job and came out to greet customers, explain what we do and interact in a way that we typically don't interact with our growers.

Ryan Adams

Excellent. So, with your background in agriculture, you've been working here for more than 40 years. Could you give us a little history of your time in agriculture?

Steve Harrison

I went to an ag college, graduated in 1983, and started with a legacy company of Nutrien Ag Solutions in June of 1983 and started sweeping floors, spraying fields, spreading fields, mixing fertilizer, bagging fertilizer, moved into sales, did a stint in sales in western New York, Pennsylvania, northern New York, and moved into management in the mid-80s. Just stair-stepped my way up to being the division manager of Northeast Division.

Sally Flis

Steve, in that time, what are some of the biggest changes that you would highlight as a strong forward movement in agricultural production in the northeast?

Steve Harrison

Well, if you look at when I started back in 1983, in western New York, I would say the average corn yields were sub-115 bushel. Now we've got growers tipping at 300. And that's based on technology, equipment, seed technology, genetics. It's phenomenal to be sitting here and seeing the progression of agriculture. 25 years from now. We're going to have 10 billion people that we need to feed, and we don't have any more arable land.

We have to find technologies and ways to increase that yield to feed the world.

Ryan Adams

Steve, I know a lot of our podcast listeners aren't necessarily going to be here at the show or in the Northeast Division. So, you touched on corn yield there, but could you tell us a little more about the diversity of agriculture that you work with here in the northeast?

Steve Harrison

The diversity is crazy. It's extremely interesting. We've got branches that specialize in just cranberries. We've got branches that specialize in broccoli and potatoes. We've got branches that specialize in turf and ornamental. We have a quiet presence in the turf and ornamental business in the northeast that is embedded in our existing business, ag business. That helps us keep full trucks going, helps the efficiency.

And we're taking care of golf courses, landscapers, lawn care. It's phenomenal. We've got dairy, we've got beef, we've got chickens. Just about any kind of agriculture you want in the northeast. And the economics are tempered for the most part, where one crop may have a tough year, we may have a banner year in cranberries, for example.

Sally Flis

So, Steve, when I first moved to Western New York, we used to live up in Plattsburgh, just south of Montreal. But when we first moved to Western New York, out near Niagara Falls, across the street from my house is an enormous field that once every three years they grow cabbage, which I never knew cabbage was produced at a 60 to 80 to 100 acre rate.

How do your crop consultants and your business work with producing things that most of us think about growing in a garden or a greenhouse at that scale of production?

Steve Harrison

So, we've got probably close to 80 crop consultants. Each crop consultant is an expert in something, and we've got a few that excel in cabbage. We've got some that specialize in just onions. We've got guys that I call them “tree climbers.” They specialize in primarily apples and that's pretty much all they do. And that's how you become an expert.

Grapes, wine grapes for the Finger Lakes. It's a huge industry. Everybody can go to a liquor store and find New York State wine. But we've got people that know how to grow that. All I know is how to drink it.

Ryan Adams

So, with that immense amount of diversity in the area you manage, how does your role come together to help lead that team? How's that go?

Steve Harrison

It's all about finding the right people with the right attitude that want to learn, that want to help growers that are willing to put themselves out there and learn the industry. I do not know how to grow grapes. I do not know how to grow cranberries. But we've got people that do, and it's getting the right people on the right bus and the right seat on that bus.

We've got a lot of great crop consultants, advisors, salespeople. Every grower wants to engage differently. So, we try to be agile in how we engage with the grower.

Sally Flis

So, what does sustainability mean to you, Steve? And what do you guys hear across this variety of crops that you work with about sustainability from your grower customers?

Steve Harrison

Everybody looks at sustainability a little bit differently. I look at sustainability from the standpoint that in 25 years, that ground still needs to be farmed, and in 25 years it's probably going to be another generation. And that the next generation we have to take care of that soil.

We have to take care of that ground. We have to take care of the Earth, so they have an opportunity to continue doing what they're doing.

And from a high level, I look at a consumer and a consumer buy from people that they feel are supporting the environment, feel like they are supporting their political views. The end user is dictating what they want in a product, and we have to start at the ground level, being able to give that to them.

Ryan Adams

So, from the experience we've seen, are there certain things that are working or not working in the sustainability sense?

Steve Harrison

I think we're at a very, very early stage in the sustainability journey. Just about every food manufacturer has a sustainability message and they have to figure out how to get there. I look at Nutrien Ag Solutions as more or less a one stop shop and being able to help them get there from a technology standpoint, from a data standpoint, from the accountability standpoint.

Dusty Weis

Well, Steve, you mentioned the food manufacturers, and very often we wind up talking about downstream partners here on the podcast, how they can capture value from sustainability and how that value can get passed on to growers. And so, coming up after the break here, we want to talk a little bit about exactly how that process is playing out in this part of the world.

There is more with Steve Harrison coming up in a moment here on the FARMSMART podcast.

Dusty Weis

This is the FARMSMART podcast presented by Nutrien Ag Solutions. I'm Dustin Weis, along with Sally Flis and Ryan Adams, and we're talking today with Steve Harrison, Northeast division manager at Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Sally Flis

Steve, you mentioned in the opening segment, we started talking a little bit about the food companies and the downstream consumers and what they want to see from agriculture. So, what do you feel like are the things that we are bringing to those companies, to the consumers, with the products, practices and services Nutrien Ag Solutions can offer, especially on the variety of crops in the northeast?

Steve Harrison

Well, I think there's a whole plethora of things that we can offer, and a lot of that depends on how closely the grower wants to engage with us. If it's a tight partnership with the grower, you look at some of the offers that we can actually create a revenue stream for some of these growers by doing certain practices, accounting for those practices, documenting those practices.

And it comes down to data. There's a lot of companies out there that are trying to mine this data and get to that point. I don't feel that there's anybody that has the vast product offering the people, the data centers if you will, to be able to account for that for any downstream partner better than Nutrien can at this point.

Ryan Adams

So Steve, kind of building on that, and I think you're just alluding to it, but what are the challenges you're seeing with those downstream partners in achieving their sustainability goals?

Steve Harrison

That's a pretty deep question.

Sally Flis

You mentioned data, Steve, and I think that's one that we touch on probably on every podcast, Dusty. What are some of the tools that you have that your crop consultants have or that you would like to see? You've got the digital sustainability director here … that you would like to see or think we need to make that data collection piece easier so we can answer the questions for those downstreams.

Steve Harrison

I'm not sure that we can make it easier because it's such a complex system. Nutrien Ag Solutions is working hard on the digital piece to make it easier for the crop consultants to enter the grower’s data. We've got a lot of wireless transmission that we can reap the information after it's grown, but we have to start with the soil sample, crop plan, tissue analysis and follow through with the sustainable products that we're actually trying to trigger that effect.

Sally Flis

So, Steve, another thing that makes the northeast unique compared to a lot of our other divisions is you guys do a fair amount of custom application for your customers. So what are some of the tools, technologies, practices that you're employing to help build that efficiency in the field with that higher level of touch and a lot of custom application in your business?

Steve Harrison

The more control we have on what's going on that ground, the better we can account for it. We can report that to the downstream partners. The more control we have with custom application, we can get the right products in the right place at the right time.

Ryan Adams

And so, I want to jump back to your comment there. You're talking about crop consultants being able to enter that data and be able to capture it on behalf of the growers. In the earlier segment, you were talking about that relationship that your team has with their growers across this diverse amount of agriculture.

Just curious what your thoughts are on who should be enabled to enter that data required for these sustainability projects and capture it?

Is that the crop consultant or is it just a grower, or do you see it as a partnership? Where does that lay for you?

Steve Harrison

It's got to be a partnership. It can't be an adversarial vendor or customer relationship. It's got to be an unequivocal partnership. In my past as a crop consultant, I had people that just wanted a price. I can't do the best job for a grower without being an integral partner with that grower. On the other hand, I had customers that would call me at 5:00 in the morning and ask me what they should eat for breakfast, and somewhere in the middle, I think, is the right partnership.

Sally Flis

So, Steve, you mentioned that kind of spectrum of customers that you have dealt with and that your crop consultants deal with today. And one of the things we've introduced in the northeast is a couple of programs related to some of our downstream partners in Ardent Mills or Campbell's around wheat. And so how does having a program that talks about sustainability or offers some resources for data collection, a new product or new practice use help change that conversation with the grower in the field?

Steve Harrison

I call it stickiness. There is a revenue stream available to the grower that wants to engage in a situation like that with an Ardent or with a Campbell's. There's a multitude of companies that want to be in on this level. I think it's exciting. I think it's going to be a revenue stream that's meaningful to growers moving down the road.

Sally Flis

So what's the message that you guys give to your crop consultants or growers, or that we help give to your crop consultants and growers about getting involved in the program?

Steve Harrison

In my opinion, there's no reason not to get involved in the program. The easier we make it for the grower, the easier we make it for the crop consultant. The more participation I think we're going to have. But again, it's how tight is that partnership? The tools are there. We just need to be able to engage that grower, willing grower to make that happen.

Ryan Adams

From your experience up here, are there any hurdles you see in engaging those growers? Any barriers?

Steve Harrison

There's still some growers that look at a relationship with fertilizer, ag chem, seed producer, as an adversarial relationship. There's consultants out there that are saying, we're going to make your recommendations. All they want to do is sell you product. In a good partnership, everybody wins. And any one of my people will tell you that the first person that needs to win is the grower.

And if we do everything right, we will win also. It really doesn't have to be adversarial. It's got to be a lockstep relationship with the grower.

Sally Flis

Steve, you mentioned something there that I heard earlier this week. That is one of the things that for the 20 years that I've been doing this is driving me crazy. This idea that we can't work with private retail because you guys are just trying to sell products. So how do you guys train your crop consultants on the ground to have that conversation about being successful with the grower, and not just the product conversation?

Steve Harrison

I'm not sure that you can train it other than coach it. I mean, it's a constant conversation. The grower always has to win first. After that, our shareholders, who also steer some of these conversations because shareholders buy from companies that they trust, they buy stock from companies that have the same beliefs that they do. Being honest with a high level of integrity, there's no reason to even question that.

Sally Flis

We've got some newer products and services coming out this spring: a soil microbiome test, different nitrogen management product, the N-FINITY product around how do we manage that nitrogen efficiency in the field. What are some of the things that are coming this spring that you guys are pretty excited about, and that people are able to communicate with your field team or see here at the Farm Show?

Steve Harrison

Well, there's a lot of new technology, and I'm going to kind of shy away from that question a little bit because I have not been in the agronomy field. I've been in the management field for 20 years, so a lot of the agronomy has passed me by. So, I'm not going to get out over my skis on that.

But yeah, the N-FINITY product looks to be tremendous. If somebody wants to cut back nitrogen because the efficiency is there, we can get you a better ROI. You look at some of the other bio-catalyst products that are out there. You look at something like a Titan XC. We're getting 35 to 40% more utilization out of what we're doing in the field.

And ultimately, we could possibly save application… save it from running off. Make it available to the plant. There's a lot of opportunities out there.

Ryan Adams

Sitting here in the Nutrien booth, and you mentioned it earlier, but we got a whole fleet of fantastic colleagues that are experts in those products. If anyone wants to come by and have a chat about it, that's what they're here to talk about.

Steve Harrison

Every one of them is an expert at something.

Ryan Adams

Absolutely. So one other question that kind of comes to mind is steering back to our sustainability programs is if you talk to a grower who's interested, what do you want to say to that grower who's interested in participating in a sustainability program?

Steve Harrison

This is a venture that we're both entering into, and we're going to learn along the way. Ultimately, it's going to make you more profitable and us more profitable. It's a win-win.

Dusty Weis

I would say so. And I've got to say, Steve, the time that we've gotten to spend even just the short amount here in Western New York over the past days since I flew in, it's been a lot of fun for me to see your crop consultants working with the growers that they've had here. It's clear that there's a deep relationship there, and that they're building up the trust that they need to help steer those folks to a better ROI and a better year of growing here.

And so I just want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. Thank you as well for your hospitality while we're visiting here in New York.

Steve Harrison, the Northeast division manager at Nutrien Ag Solutions, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the FARMSMART Podcast. Thank you.

Dusty Weis

That’s going to conclude this episode of The FARMSMART Podcast. New episodes arrive every month, so make sure you subscribe to The FARMSMART Podcast in your favorite app and visit nutrienagsolutions.com/FARMSMART to learn more.

The FARMSMART Podcast is brought to you by Nutrien Ag Solutions, with editing by Emily Kaysinger.

The FARMSMART Podcast is produced by Podcamp Media, branded podcast production for businesses. podcampmedia.com.

For Sally Flis and Ryan Adams from Nutrien Ag Solutions, I’m Dusty Weis. Thanks for listening.