RealAg on the Weekend: Pre-seed decision making, Agracity, & who should own farmland, Apr 4 & 5/26

Get instant answers to your grain marketing questions. 24, 7 Sonoa is your AI grain market analyst available anytime to help you understand prices, basis and market trends so you can act with confidence. Start a free trial and unlock RealAg listener savings at grainfox CA realag I'm Shaun Haney and this is RealAg on the Weekend. Lets get real and get connected with the week that was in Canadian agriculture. RealAg on the Weekend starts now. Welcome to RealAg on the Weekend. I'm your host Shaun Haney of RealAgriculture.com it is great to be with you here today and hopefully you're having yourself a great Easter weekend. Happy Easter to everybody out there in the RealAg on the Weekend audience and having fun with family and friends and whatever you're up to on this Easter week. Just take care of yourselves and enjoy it. It is great to be with you here today as we move into April and it's hard to believe it's already here. We're already in the fourth month of 2026 and it doesn't may not look like it out the window depending where you are, but spring is, it's getting, it's getting closer. We're in the final prep stages here of what is possible for the 2026 season. You may be getting those last little pieces of machinery ready that operations plan, the firts in place, the seeds there. And of course there are some challenges when it comes to things like fertiliser prices and supply. And of course diesel prices are rather shocking as they continue to increase based on what's been happening in the Strait of Hormuz and the war in Iran. And of course we did hear from President Trump earlier this week. It sounds like at least there's two to three more weeks here of some pretty intense fighting and where it goes from there I think is still kind of up for grabs. But there is definitely lots of impact back here in North America and it does impact the industry of agriculture. There is no doubt about that at all. Today on the programme we're gonna be talking to Fred Thune. He is the CEO of ufa. UFA announced the closing of their acquisition of Agri City, an online crop sale company that was in terrible distress, really disappointed customers last season not delivering product and the UFA has made that acquisition. We're going to hear all about that, their strategy behind it. Jason Smith from Corteva will be with us to talk about your different options when it comes to pre seed decision making. If you don't get the pre seed Burn off, done. Then what? So Jason's going to talk about that today and then we've got Nicole Davis from Uncommon Farms to talk about struggling to work with family on the farm and what you can do. And part of that is creating real clear expectations amongst the family group. For sure. It's, you know what the family, the hardest employees you're gonna have. I'm not telling you family business is not easy. It is so rewarding. It is a great experience and it's really what this is all about for a lot of people. You know, the family legacy of working together and the dream of the kids coming back to the operation. It can be tough, though. It can be really tough, especially when people get tired, they get stressed and feelings start to flow and things are said that shouldn't be said. Can we set some ground rules and kind of set some parameters on how we go about communicating or things that we do not do, things that will not be acceptable, you know, behaviours that are acceptable when it comes to especially some of those conflict sort of situations. Reminds me of a reminder farm business we did going back. Oh, man. A couple you will have to be. Probably like five years ago with Kelly Dobson, we talked about managing through conflict and it can, you know, if you're somebody that avoids conflict, you may be potentially making the situation massively worse than if you actually dealt with that area of conflict. So you have to cheque that out. But we're going to hear today all about setting up some of those rules today on the show. Now, if you do have any feedback, we would love to hear from you on this Easter weekend. You can send me an email shaneeyealagriculture.com you can also call or text the Relight Feedback Line. 855-776-6147. Now, there was a piece of data that I published this week, which is quite interesting in my mind, and this was going back to January. We had asked Canadian farmers on like we put out these attitude statements and you have to tell us, do you agree or disagree? And the strength of that. And with the increase in the price of land and outside investor interest in land, because land's been a pretty good place to put your capital, farmers spoke pretty loudly. We asked them, should there be stronger limits on who owns farmland? And 75% agree farmland has been a high returning asset for farmers, individual families or investment funds over the past couple of decades. And while price appreciation has really helped farmers balance sheets by increasing equity, there is concern among farmers about land access for actual farmers right outside Capital is constantly looking for returns and the land market has been a desirable destination which and that price appreciation has also benefited farmers that already own land and made it a greater barrier for farmers looking to buy some any or maybe try and expand their operations. And this ties into some farm succession issues as well. So there are differences amongst the provinces in the rules for land ownership. So for example, in Saskatchewan it requires you to be a Canadian citizen or you need to be 100% owned Canadian corporation, just for example. Now, Canadian farmers strongly agree that there should be stronger limits on who can own farmland. In January, RealAgristudies, the market research Armour of Real Agriculture found that Canadian farmers either strongly agree 45% or some would agree at 30% with this statement. So only 5% completely disagreed with it and 6% said somewhat disagree. So you can see where farmers are landing here. As we dig into some of the demographics, there's some interesting data points for us to decipher where stronger sentiment is raising on this statement. So the ratings provided are a one to five scale and a five is strongly agree. A one is strongly disagree. Really not a lot of difference between farm types how they feel. So whether you're primarily crop primary livestock or a mixed farm, really no difference. It's over a 4. From a revenue perspective, the range of values was 3.74 to 4.29 out of 5. As farms increase in size by revenue, the stronger they feel there should be stronger limits on who can own farmland. So the bigger the farm by revenue, the more likely they are to support stronger restrictions on who can own farmland. Age also provides interesting results as the strength of opinion decreases as the age of the farmer increases. The younger the farmer, the more likely they are to support tighter restrictions on who can own farmland. Okay, the range of ratings was 3.99 to 4.24. Farmers over 65 were 33.99 and farmers under 35 were a 4.24. Geography provided a kind of a slight difference in the rating. Okay, the western Canadian farmer said 4.09 and Eastern Canadian farmers said 4.01. So really not that big of a difference. What I want to hear from you re like on the weekend audience is based on the strong response to the added these attitude statements. In future surveys we're going to be asking about what potential stronger limits may look like. But you can get ahead of the game and you can provide some suggestions to me. Do you agree with the farmers that answered our survey? Do you think there should be a tighter stronger limits on who can own farmland in Canada or in your province or your local area. And what does that actually look like? You can send me an email. Shaneeyealagriculture.com okay, what we're going to do now is we're going to take a break and when we come back we're going to hear all about ufa's acquisition of Agri City, the why, and the what does it look like when we come back. You're listening to RealAg on the weekend with your host Shaun Haney of RealAgriculture.com feel like you're missing a piece of your crop protection plan? From herbicides to adjuvants and everything in between, Co Op's private brand crop protection lineup has what you need. Talk to your Co Op grow team member to find your missing piece. If you're serious about agriculture, Real Ag's got you covered. For over 10 years, we've listened to and shared what producers have to say about everything from policy to agronomy, from coast to coast. 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Visit RealAgriculture.com and sign up for our free daily newsletter covering everything from news, agronomy, animal agriculture and much more. Visit RealAgriculture.com subscribe today. One of the big pieces of news this week was the fact that UFA has acquired the assets of Agri City. Agri City, the online crop protection retailer, really has had 12 or more months of real struggles financially not delivering product, a real just a categorical mess. UFA has stepped up and bought those assets as well as a fertiliser facility as well. Kelvin Hepner of Real Agriculture had a chance to talk to the CEO of ufa, Fred Toon. Here's their conversation. Hi, Kelvin. First of all, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me on today because obviously there's some pretty exciting things that are happening, I think, in Saskatchewan, in Alberta, Western Canada, and obviously for UFA and ultimately the farm community. So, as you said, very exciting to announce the acquisition of Agri City by ufa. And if you think about this deal, it's roughly a $48 million deal. Of that amount, roughly $13 million has been allocated in the legal documents to the Belle Plain Fertiliser blender, with the remaining 35 million going to the assets of Agricity and the registrations that it owns. The thing that excites me most about this deal and the thing that I think differentiates it most in terms of the value to Western Canada, is the way that we've structured this deal such that the farmers who did not receive product that they had paid for from Agri City will be made whole by the UFA arrangement. And I just think that is such a necessary thing when ufa, if you think about who we are, we are for farmers. And this is the one thing I think we could bring to this deal that nobody else really could, in the same way is the ability to say yes, there are product commitments that have been made to farmers and not been fulfilled. And as part of our acquisition purchase price contract, we will be making registered farmers wool with regard to the product that they had ordered. So is that value then accounted for in that $35 million price for the crop protection asset? Absolutely. That was one of the things that was core to our offer, was that make whole arrangement for farmers. Okay, you mentioned the crop protection products, the IP there, as well as the Genesis blending facility at Belle Plaine. How much info can you provide us in terms of assets that are included in this? Are you taking the facility? I believe there's a facility in Saskatoon as well. Distribution of Agri City products, that whole network. What does that mean in terms of integrating into UFA and what assets are all included in this transaction? Yeah, let's talk about what's in there. You mentioned the Belle Plain fertiliser blender. That is part of the deal that is, in my mind, frankly, it's essentially a new fertiliser blender and we're really excited to get that. With roughly 20,000 tonnes of storage capacity. What I want to ensure people are aware of is that the fertiliser manufacturing facility that is currently under construction is not a part of this deal. UFA has only acquired the completed fertiliser blender at Belle Plaint. The other things that we've acquired are most importantly the registrations and the intellectual property for generic agricultural chemicals that Agri City has. And we've also acquired with that Agri Cities fleet and the packaging facility in Saskatoon where they do co packs and do some basic formulation. Okay. For the farmers who are owed product by agricity. You mentioned that the plan is to make them whole there. What do you have details in terms of what that will look like, in terms of how they will be contacted, how they can redeem that? Will it be a credit based type process or what's the plan there? This is again, this is probably one of the most important parts of this deal and there are a number of farmers that are impacted by non delivery of product. So I guess the one thing I'd ask for right at the onset is patients from the agricultural community because there will be a number of farmers that we have to perform this reconciliation with. And I think in a number of cases the product that the farmer wanted last year that was not delivered, they may have already ordered something for this year that is set to arrive. So there's going to be at times some flexibility in terms of how we satisfy that product related need. So I would say farmers contact us, we'll provide a means of doing that. But that reconciliation and rectification of what's owed to farmers is one thing that I think separates this transaction from a traditional M and A activity. Because we do have the obligation to make those farmers whole. And that's one of our initial priorities. So there will be a lot of communication on that front. Beyond that, when I think about the Agri City business, there's two things that I'll say with this. One is the reason why this business was so attractive to UFA is regardless of the fact that it's had a couple of really difficult years and ultimately went through a bankruptcy process. If you look back to the vision from which Agri City was created, it was all about providing high quality generic chemical products to agricultural producers at really reasonable prices. And that's a vision that I can buy into. And that's what really excites me about this. The second point I want to make on this is with an organisation like this, it's been in some difficulty. When you look at day one of the acquisition and beyond, our immediate priorities are all about business continuity, getting in contact with farmers, getting those reconciliations done for product that needs to be delivered to farmers and then lining up that product. The other thing is that it is April 1st and it's going to be hard for us to meet immediate needs in the spring season. But that is the focus of the business is we're here to provide value to the farmer. So we will be reaching out to farmers to see what their needs are and how we can meet them in the timely, most cost effective fashion possible in the big picture. Fred, can you speak to what this acquisition means for ufa's footprint and growth in terms of business and expansion and what you can offer to farmers across the prairies? Kelvin, it's a great question. This is an incredibly significant move, not just for UFA but for the agricultural community in Western Canada. If I talk about UFA specifically that generic chemicals is in my mind a hole that we have in our current offering. This brings instant capacity, credibility and the opportunity to serve a bigger geography than we have in the past with a large customer base in Saskatchewan and Alberta. If I think about the agricultural community, I'll get a bit reflective on that purpose and vision piece of it. Agricity is all about providing quality products at low prices on a timely basis. And this is a good thing because now we reopen that supply chain that was challenged in the last couple of years. But not only that, I think it's very important, just as important that this business is ultimately owned by the Western Canadian producer. So that's actually one thing I'm really excited to bring to the market is a great product, great service, great expertise, with all the benefits of ownership accruing back to the people who use the product. That was Kelvin Hepner of Real Agriculture chatting with the UFA CEO Fred Thune about the acquisition of Agri City. There is more in that interview. We don't have enough time here on RealAg on the weekend. Highly encourage you to go to RealAgriculture.com you can hear the full discussion that Mr. Toon and Kelvin had. This was not a surprise. This was rumoured for quite some time. It took a. It took some time to put this deal together, I guess. And the piece that's not in here is Mr. Toon talking about some of the synergies in terms of the opportunity not only for UFA but also for the Agri City business. Obviously Agri City will be, will not have the challenges, I guess from a capital perspective that they had under their former ownership, but lots to Watch here as time goes on. We're back with more of Rio like on the weekend right after this. 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Wherever you download or stream your favourite podcast, cheque us out on YouTube or visit realityculture.com the Pulse School brought to you by BSF Canada. With some of the snow that's been falling here over the past couple weeks, it does feel a little bit like we're pushing spring off. And it's okay. We'll take the moisture, especially with some of the drought concerns we have in the back end of this season based on many of the different forecasts. So this week on the Real Light Radio podcast, I chatted with Jason Smith from Corteva and we talked about, you know, the pre burn decision. You know, this is the decision that we make to control the weeds that are there before we start to put seed in the ground. Sometimes if we get into a bit of a time crunch situation, we move into some other, some other options. But some of those other options aren't the most ideal. But there are considerations and sometimes we got to do what we got to do. So we're not behind yet, but we're trying to be. We're trying to be prepared for all the different variables that could be thrown our way, including of course, one of the biggest variables of all, Mother Nature. Here's my discussion with Jason Smith of Corteva. Hey Jason, how's it going? Very good, Shaun. Yourself. Hey. Pretty good. Hey. This week from the farmers, we definitely heard across the country, people are looking out their window and they're like, yep, it may Be April, but it sure don't look like it. Spring is not exactly here yet. That's. That's kind of what we heard for sure today. Yeah, I would say that's a sentiment that's shared here in Saskatoon as well. Joked with some friends about we're on to fifth or sixth or possibly seventh winter by now. Like, it's just the winter that just. You kind of think you get a little tease of warm up and she starts to melt and then boom, cools off and she's snowy again. So, like the moisture, but the cold weather can bugger off any old time. Yeah. So I guess how quickly we transition to spring is still. Yeah, we don't. It's up in the air. Yeah. When it comes to weed control across the spectrum of crops that we are tackling, I'm not going to say we're going to have a late spring, but let's just, you know, and talk about as we feel the time pressure of spring, whether we're late in reality or not. Pre burn off is something where we tend to make some decisions where, you know, we've all been there. No, I'm committed to my pre burn before I get out and put some seed in the ground, or I got to get seed in the ground, I'll do the pre burn before the crop emerges or I'll skip pre burn, put seed in the ground and I'll take care of the weeds. And you know, on my in crop, there's more strategies than just those three. There's consequences to all three of those decisions. Yep. Absolutely. So I would say this is the old adage of, hey, no. No plan described or no plan survives contact with the enemy. Right. Like the plan is always we're gonna go out, we're gonna spray, and then we're gonna seed and everything will be great. And then weather hits. You know, whether it's some cool weather, some rainy weather, or, you know, just really gross winds that we tend to get in the spring that, that hold a sprayer back and then all of a sudden we're getting the drill in front of the sprayer and that's where things can get a little out of whack in my mind. Yeah. Really, you know, the best results, the most consistent results that we see from the precede are always when we're doing that application prior to seeding. Even in a really low till environment, you get enough soil disturbance, you get enough damage on the weeds that that mechanical pass is going to impact your level of control. And so if we can get out there. And if we can get that, that pre burn done ahead of time, I very rarely seen a customer that regrets that decision. That's the most ideal scenario. That is the most ideal. And I think the other thing is, hey, you know, in a perfect world it's real nice to time at 24 hours ahead of seating. But when I look at a couple of the products like we that we have with say a paradigm or a Corex where you've got some of that soil active technology, that residual control that you're going to get, you can go a few days ahead of time and be pretty comfortable that you're going to get control of some of those fleshing weeds. Especially, you know, when I look at the biggest flushing weed problem that we have in western Canada, it's still volunteer canola, right? Because it's just so much canola grown. It's such an aggressive weed. And you know, we can be real confident going out that we can spray those products and we're going to get control of that canola that's up and then also that stuff that's coming up as well. So one of the consequences of a decision the to number three that I use, which is skip pre burn and skip the before it emerges and take care of it in crop. We're. We're really allowing those weeds to establish in that strategy, aren't we? Absolutely. Absolutely. Every, every time I've seen that, you know, all the research you look at, I mean corn is probably the best example, but even wheat and canola will show you the same thing that if you start to weeds that are at leaf stage or two or God help you, three ahead of your crop, that's where they can really, really kick the crap out of your yield. So that, that going in early, doing that, that weed removal early kind of resets. It allows the crop to get ahead of the weeds and really sets it up for establishment and really your maximum yield potential. And then the other piece is that takes some of that pressure off in the end crop. Right? Because the problem with delaying that decision for the the weed spray to after the crop comes up typically means you've got a whole pile of stuff that all needs to get sprayed right now. And then it's how do we prioritise it then we're worried about staging. And really if you end up, you know, having to go in and say one leaf on a cereal crop, do some weed application, you get some wet weather after that, there's a high likelihood you could have to come in and do a Second application on weeds as well, because you've got another plush coming there that could really impact your document. So that order that I gave of those three strategies there, are they actually in the order of ideal to less ideal then? Yeah, actually, I would say you've got them, in my opinion. Yeah. Okay, that's it. That is actually interesting. That wasn't intended. Yeah, that was good though. But yeah, that really would be your, your ideal to your least ideal. Yeah. And. And of course the middle one, which is skip pre burn seed, do a pre burn, pre emergence. That, that comes with risk too. Right. Like you've got to, because we're trying to get that seed launched out of the ground as quickly and as evenly as possible. That's kind of counter to what we're doing inside that spray strategy. And so if we have a couple days of, you know, wind, which we, we have no shortage of that, it seems you're pushed from strategy two into strategy three and less ideal. Right. So there's risk with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, anytime that you're doing that post seed, you, you run the risk of the crop coming up a lot quicker than you expect it. Now, you know, if you're seeding in, you know, central Saskatchewan on 28 April, well, your crops probably not rolling out of the ground, you got some time. But if we're on the 22nd of May and you pop stuff in the ground, I have seen crop roll out of the ground in very short order. You get some warm, moist conditions and all of a sudden you got crop broken out. And now you're starting to do the math on okay, how much of this crop am I willing to kill with my pre burn to get the weeds that are here versus, you know, what's the damage I'm going to do to the crop by leaving these weeds that are here to let them grow for another 10 days and compete with the crop. So pre burn, pre seed always, always, always the best choice. That was Jason Smith of Corteva out of Saskatoon. You know, outside temperature also an important consideration as well in terms of some of these different options that we have available to us. And again, it speaks to, we have to have plan A, B and C and know the opportunities, but also the consequences that come with those decisions. And there's. We just try to make in the moment the best decision possible. And then we look back and we'll try to figure out, okay, was that the right one or the wrong one or could have done something different. And we're always trying to improve our decision making when it comes to agronomics. But there's some science to it, there's some feel, there's the experience. And of course, ideally we would always love to do that pre burn, then put the seed in the ground, get it emerged, and then control those weeds early in crop. But it always doesn't necessarily work out the exact way that we would like it. Okay, we've got more coming up here on Reel Egg on the weekend. We'll do that when we come back from this very quick break. Choosing the right equipment for your hay operation is a big decision, and Kubota's dealer network is there to help you get it right. Whether you're looking at mowers, balers, or a complete hay tool setup, your local Kubota dealer can walk you through the options. Head to Kubota CA and click Find a Dealer to connect with an expert near you. Since 2009, the Canola School on RealAgriculture.com has been providing relevant and timely agronomic advice to anyone involved in Canola production. With over 15 years of video content on YouTube, the Canola School has been producers. Go to source for Canola agronomy, research, marketing and more. The Canola School is brought to you by BASF and Invigor Hybrid Canola cheque us out on YouTube [email protected]. I'm Lindsay Smith, host of the Agronomist, and I want to thank you for tuning in for over 200 episodes episodes of our beloved little programme. Join me Monday nights, 8pm Eastern on YouTube for our live and interactive Agronomy Q A. Each week our guest panel will handle some of your toughest agronomic questions live streaming on YouTube, Facebook X and real agriculture.com tune in Monday nights or go to real agriculture.com agronomist and sign up for our email notifications. And don't miss an episode as farmers are about to hit the field. There is a lot of family farms, family operations that are working together. It's one of the most rewarding experiences. It can also be challenging, and this is the case when it comes to family farms. Listen, if you were running your local family hardware store or bakery, you're working with family. There's going to be challenges. Recently, Amber Bell of Real Agriculture was at the Advancing Women Conference in Calgary, Alberta, and she caught up with Nicole Davis of Uncommon Farms to talk about some of those family relationships as we work side by side through the growing season. Well, I mean, I started my career 30 years ago working in a family run business, third generation family run business that I was the first professional HR person ever in the organisation. And by the time I got there the family dynamics were really complicated in the business. And so I got the opportunity as a young professional to step in an environment as an outsider trying to figure out how to navigate those dynamics. Flash forward working in large scale global national organisations and then starting my consulting business where I came back to working with those family run organisations, small privately held entrepreneurial businesses and farms. And I predominantly work with with farms across North America that struggle with how do we work successfully together as spouses, how do we work successfully together as family members and how do we have that be a productive and constructive environment for our employees. Now you have a background in human resources, how would you say that the like large corporation human resources differ from the family farm dynamics? Well, I think what I love about working with family farmers farms as an HR professional is there is nothing that I'm doing on a farm that isn't directly for that farm. They call me when they actually need something for their farm. And so when you're working in corporations you do a lot of big, big stuff that we're supposed to build. When I work with a farm it's what actually translates your vision and your priorities into the things you need for your business to work better. And so I rarely am doing things to say well this is what you have to do. I'm doing the things that they need to make their business better. And that's so fulfilling for my desk. And when I can help a farm get better at their desk, it's such a great feeling. Now you talked a little bit about standard operating procedures and so what would you say are some of the lessons that maybe smaller family farms can take from some of the big corporations and the way they, I think, you know, one of the things about farmers is their ability to assess risk. Environmental risk, market risk, financial risk, all of those things come into play on the daily. But what I find the one area that they're terrible at is actually assessing their business risk as it comes to people and liabilities around employment law. And there's this great and wonderful word we have called farm exemptions that oftentimes farms means well some of those rules don't apply to me. But most farms aren't necessarily clear on what those exemptions really mean versus what they still have to be compliant with and what they have to do for best practises in terms of how to operate their farms to reduce the risk of employment law risk to reduce their risk on safety and liability, which is a huge factor on a farm. And so there are few simple steps we can do to make sure that you fully understand where those liabilities are, you're aware of the risks or how to mitigate those risks, and then you're able to translate that down to your employees so they know what's best for the business as well. And when you say employees, are you speaking to a higher out local kid down the road? Are you speaking to family like other family members? I speak to all of it. I speak to temporary foreign labour, I speak to family members as employees. I have helped too many farms actually fire family members, including their own children or their own parents. I'm speaking about, yeah, the local kid from down the road who's hard to find. And that's the reality, is that we're still looking for that local farm boy and wanting them to fit. And the reality is, more and more often we're finding people who didn't come from a real farm farm background to come onto our farms and learn how to be a farm operator. And so learning how to actually do that and train them and get them there. Always liken it to the farmer who walks by and sees somebody struggling to get a tyre tractor off a tyre off a tractor and it's rusted on there and it's stuck on there and they're doing it wrong and the farmer walks up and he smacks it with a hammer behind to knock off the rust before you try and loosen the lug nuts. And he walks on and he thinks that guy just doesn't know anything. But the reality is, yeah, you saved an hour of labour by doing it for 10 minutes. But if you didn't teach the person what was happening, you're going to do it the next six times. And then guess what, all of your efficiency savings of that 10 minutes is gone. And you're just continuously interrupting your strategic time, your leadership time to continue continually do a task because you didn't train someone to do it properly. A lot of that falls into sort of those standard operating procedures or SOPs. Now, when you speak of those, what would you say would be some basic first steps that a farm family can take on to establish some SOPs? I think where farms get really nervous about SOPs is it sounds like a lot of written work and my best advice is take a lot of pictures, images of what you think things to look like, and checklists are the easiest way to get to an sop. If you have a SOP for Spraying or you have an SOP for seeding. I think it always should start with an image of what a wet field looks like when you drive a tractor into it, what a dry field looks like, what's too deep in the mud, what's not deep enough, what's too windy, what's not. Window. We have so much digital help that can help us do that. We have so many tools that can help us build the checklist quickly, that can tell us this is, you know, safe or not safe to operate. And it can make our lives easier rather than having to do it ourselves every day. And I think that's the important part. Less words, more images and checklists versus big written document documents really make a difference on SOP is and make it easier. I always also tell my farms, why are you writing it? You've got a lot of downtime in the winter. That's when you get your employees in the shop and you get them together and say, what should be in this sop? Help me write it. The people who do it, if they write it, they own it and they'll take more ownership of it and actually follow the process. I really like that. You also mentioned the need to fire people, people, which is always a hard conversation to have now, especially when it's a family member. But where would you say that line's drawn, where it might be a, you know what? This is enough. We need to make this decision and then how soon should that. That process, like, how quickly should that process take place? And I think that's one of the things where our culture of our organisations are defined by the worst behaviour we're willing to tolerate, not the best. We often think the best things about us define our culture, but for our employees, it's the worst things that they see us allowing to propagate and continue. And so for us, we have to know very clearly where those boundaries are of behaviour on our farm. What does good look like and what does bad look like? If we say you can't show up to work having had a night on the town reeking of alcohol, but we're busy and it's season and we got to get everybody in the field because God forbid we actually miss the date, because what if it rains? But we let that guy get in the tractor the first time, he's going to keep coming back, he's going to keep coming back. And because we create organisations that are so closely held, friendships, family, we have a tendency to tolerate that bad behaviour. And so we really have to be clear first, what our rules are. Once we have those rules, then it becomes easier to define. Okay, that's offside and we're not going to tolerate it. Are we a one strike business or are we a three strike business? That actually is a definition for you and it's okay. That was Amber Bell of Real Agriculture talking to Nicole Davis with Uncommon Farms. If you have any feedback on today's show, we'd love to hear from you. Send me an email. Shaneeyealagriculture.com Everybody, have yourselves a great Easter weekend. On behalf of everybody at our [email protected] Cheers everybody. Sam.