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Mike Howell: The Dirt with me, Mike Howell, an economics podcast where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by economics.com farming’s go-to informational resource. I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition research, news, and issues helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in. Well, hello again, listeners. Uh, glad you’re tuning in this week, uh, we are starting a series today, uh, on the road here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Uh, we are here for the Calgary Stampede and we’re gonna do a little focus, uh, for the next several weeks talking about Canadian agriculture.
To help us get this started, uh, we’ve got a legend here in these parts with us today. Uh, Mr. Kim McConnell. Uh, Kim, welcome to the Dirt. Thank you very much. It’s a delight to be with you. Uh, Kim, I was looking at your bio and it, it says a lot of things. You were, uh, in the ag business, uh, started a, an advertising company and you were the recipient of the Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame. Uh, you’re a former board member here at the Stampede. Uh, so Well’s, tell us a little bit about that.
Kim McConnell: that’s quite, I, I’m on the board of the foundation. Okay. Okay. Not on the, on the board of that. Okay. So, I dunno whether, uh, there’s, there’s fairly big distinction.
Mike Howell: Well, tell us about that. What, what’s the distinction there?
Kim McConnell: Well, uh, the board of the Calgary Stampede are the visionary of the strategy and where they taken the organization. The foundation’s job was to raise money so that we could. Develop and, and, uh, all the facilities and, and go from there. I should add that we were pretty good at what we were doing.
So we took on all the youth programs that are, uh, organized, uh, at the Stampedes. So from the young Canadians. To the show band, to the four H programs, to whatever it is in that regard, they all flowed in under the foundation, and I chaired that for a number of years.
Mike Howell: Uh, so Kim, uh, let’s, let’s back up a little bit before that.
I know you’ve been in, in this part of the world for a long time. Uh, tell us how you got interested in agriculture and how you started your career here in, in Calgary.
Kim McConnell: Well, I’m a farm kid from Manitoba originally as, uh, uh, when I was growing up, I wanted to farm. My mom and dad said, great, but you gotta do two things before you can do that.
You gotta get an education and you’re gonna have to do something off the farm for a couple of years. So I worked in, uh, in the crop protection industry for, for a little bit. Then I moved in, uh, and started, was one of the first people in our marketing department. Uh. Learned very quickly. There was all these new technologies that were coming on board, uh, whether they be crops or seed or animal health or whatever.
And the companies had the money, but they didn’t necessarily have the marketing experience, et cetera. So in 1984, in the basement of the house with $5,000 in a darn good wife, I should say, that said she would pay the bills for a year. We set up this little, uh, agency, um, just me, as I said, and then we started to grow and grow and grow and that was what, uh, became Ad Farm.
And uh, so I did that for, um, until I was 50 years old. And I had a wonderful run. It was just gr grand. Uh, and then when I turned 50, it was like, you know, this is like New Year’s Eve and I’m, what’s the future take and what do, what do I wanna do? And I, I decided I didn’t necessarily want to continue to run the business.
So I divested my, uh, my interest in that, and I moved into the second phase of my life. If the first phase was operational leadership, the second phase became directional leadership. I became a director of a number of companies, corporate boards, did a lot of association stuff, did a lot of volunteer things, and that’s where I was recognized with the Order of Canada, which is one of, I’m one of few ever in agriculture to receive that, that org.
Well now, as you can tell ’em old. Right. And, uh, my days of leadership I think are probably over, but I’m not so sure my days of contribution are. So I’m now into phase three in my career, Mike, and I like to say I’m into inspirational leadership. So I have eight mentees, six women, and two, uh, two men, uh, in various.
Things where they’re, they’re emerging executives. The CEO or the deputy minister six are in the corporate world tour, in government, uh, has come and say, this is a rising star. Would you spend a little time with them? So now I get to mentor, uh, mentor them, and, and, uh, so I’m, I’m still involved with some of the corporate boards and, and a few things that are doing in that, but.
I just get to play every day, but I play in the field of agriculture and, uh, and food and policy and development like that, and pretty fun time.
Mike Howell: Great place to play around. Oh, Kim, you, you mentioned when you started that you wanted to go back and take over the family farm, but. Unless you’re planning on doing that here in the next couple of years, it sounds like that may have passed by.
What, what happened with the family farm? Did you, did you
Kim McConnell: take that over or? The family farm is still, uh, owned by the family. Uh, it’s cousins that, uh, that are involved in, in, they’re operating that, uh, as our business started to grow and, and we had started to get quite large. Uh, there were a lot of people that were counting on me.
And, uh, so that was, that was where I saw the opportunity to stay on and do that. So I gave up the dream of being a farmer myself. To quite honest, Mike, I probably wouldn’t have been a very good farmer. I think the skillset that is needed there versus skillset that I have in other areas, I probably, uh, uh, through fate, um, chose the right, um, trail.
Mike Howell: Yep. So, Kim, let’s talk a little bit about the, the Calgary of the, uh, stampede and the history. Uh, what can you tell us about the, the history? How long has it been going on? How, how has it changed over the years?
Kim McConnell: Well, it’s, I’m old, but I’m not that old. I can’t quite remember when it started, but it goes back to 1912.
And, uh, it was the, there was an exhibition and a stampede and they came together to what we have today. Uh, there was a, a promoter extraordinaire, uh, um, guy by the name of Guy Ick that brought it all together. And, uh, so that was the rodeo and the trick. Riding, but there was also the ex exhibition where, where you brought your animals, you did all those other things.
So they sort of grew and grew and grew together. Uh, agriculture has always been the heart of the stampede and where, where it is and what it’s going in that regard. But over the period of years, it has changed and changed dramatically. As you can see today, it’s a, it’s a big show with, you know, there’s a, there’s a million and a half people that are gonna come through the gates on that, but that’s only part of it.
Um, that’s what’s happening on the grounds. If you go around here, there is, there’s people coming from all over the world to be able to experience and have fun. But there’s also policy makers. There’s things like that there, people like that. There’s, there’s conferences, there’s meetings, there’s little side deals.
There’s, there’s really probably not too much like the Calgary stampede. The other thing that’s really interesting is how. How the community gets involved. As you’ll see Mike, as you’re, you’re going around, you see everybody from church groups to um, to businesses. They get dressed up, uh, they have pancake breakfast, they have whatever.
It’s Western values coming to the, to the full, to the fullest in that regard. So that’s the, in a sense, the history and where we are today. Um, where we go tomorrow or where the stampede goes tomorrow, I think is a, is a really interesting period here. Yeah.
Mike Howell: Uh, so Kim, it’s obvious that the stampede is focused on agriculture.
Uh, I had the chance to go around today a little bit and, uh, see some of the educational exhibits. Uh, I got to see the, uh, junior steer show today, and now they’re having the auctioneer, uh, do the, do the sale for that steer show. I believe so, uh, a lot of, a lot of stuff going on here, but why, why is, uh, agriculture still the top priority here?
Kim McConnell: Thi this part of the world was cattle country. Um, this is where a lot of, with the foothills and the cow calf and they, they came together and this is where the livestock industry, the cattle industry in particular for Canada sort of came. So it’s natural that that is. Is, is a component of it, but I think Calgary is more than that.
Calgary is also a robust city with great airport, great transportation. Great. Ev So we have the head offices, uh, the, the many head offices in Canada and globally that are involved. So there’s different things that go here. And the, and, and the stampede is the. 10 days of the year when we can all come together, we can celebrate together, and we can flourish together.
And I, I think that’s pretty darn special. Many, many places of the world will have festivals. But not so much where they all come together. Uh, business, social, entertainment, family, everything can come together and you can celebrate basic rural cowboy in a lot of ways, values. And you know what, when you go right down to it, even the, the, those are things that unite a country and unite an industry.
So it’s, uh, yeah, I think it plays a more important role all the time.
Mike Howell: Yep. Kim at Nutrien, we did a study, uh, probably three years ago now when several things came out of that study. But one thing I kind of wanna focus on was the disconnect we found between the farmers that are producing our food, uh, and the, the consumers that are buying that food.
Uh, you know, we having more and more people live in the city now, they’re getting disconnected from the farm. Each generation’s getting further away. Uh, you’ve been around this for a long time. How can, how can we bridge that gap and get the. Get the producers to communicate with the consumers a little more, and the, the consumers to communicate with the, the producers.
Uh,
Kim McConnell: I totally agree with you, Mike. You know, in Canada we spell egg AgriFood. Interesting. We spell it a GRI hyphen FOOD. Now, I would argue that we maybe don’t have an AgriFood industry. We have an agricultural industry and we have a food industry, but too often we are maybe colliding ourselves in that. So this hyphen is often a mountain.
Now the consumer, I think today wants an AgriFood industry. They wanna know more about their food, how it was grown, what is it like, et cetera. And they want this mountain to come down and to become a bridge. And to quite honest, we don’t know how. Now, that’s the kind of thing that the Stampede plays a really important role in.
As you can see here, we, we are all focused on agriculture and food for 10 days. We have a million and a half consumers that are in place. They’re interested, they’re, we have an opportunity. We are, the stampede is a meeting place where this can happen, but it needs to happen in more than just 10 days. And that’s what the future is, is probably about, about the Calgary Stampede as they look at their strategic plans, how do we bring consumer and, and, and the food and agricultural industry together to be able to be more robust, to be more, to be stronger, to be more vibrant, to be healthier in that regard.
And when. Looking around here at this time of year. It is, it is bloody beautiful, isn’t it? It is. And it, and, and, and people from around the world are coming in and then they’re seeing this. If we can’t make this the hub where we can start coming together and trying different things, if it can’t happen in Calgary.
I’m not sure where it can happen. So that’s the focus. I think that’s the focus of the board. That’s the focus of many of the volunteers on the agriculture side and on the food side. And I think that’s a, that’s an interesting component on other areas. Where does education fit in? Where do you fit in? How do we do different things?
How do we learn and let’s make it a melting pot and bringing it together for the benefit of everybody. Yep.
Mike Howell: Well, Kim, I said I, I had the chance to walk around a good bit today and got to go through some of the exhibits downstairs and through the livestock barns, and I was really impressed with the, the people there that were trying to teach people what’s going on.
Uh, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of people coming through here and it’s obvious to tell that most of ’em don’t come from a farm background, but there. They’re in there getting their hands dirty. They’re feeling some of these, uh, grains and they’re, they’re touching a, a cow. So, uh, I think that’s going a long way to help communicate that to the, the consumers.
Kim McConnell: And I think I would add another thing. I think they’re starting to understand that agriculture is more than a farm or a ranch actually. As we look out here, even though people have never been from, or they’re coming from other parts of the world or whatever, they’re looking and they’re saying, gee, anything I like to do, I can do it in agriculture.
If I like, if I like technology and gaming, I can do robotics. If I like science, I can do it here. If I like money, I can do it there. If I like associations and policies and whatever. You can do it in agriculture and, and, and, and we’re an industry with a purpose. We feed people. Wow. Isn’t that an inspiring thing to do?
And I think the stamp beat helps bring that thing together, give them a taste. We’re a teaser to help come
Mike Howell: together. Yeah. Kim, I think we’re singing outta the same songbook. I, I preach that to, to young people every chance I get, uh, you know, you may not want to get your hands dirty out in the dirt like I do every day, but, uh, there, there’s a place for you in agriculture and we’ve gotta get these top quality students into agriculture some way.
Uh. Like you said, whether it’s in the tech technology or accounting or, uh, we, we need agricultural lawyers around, uh, I mean, there’s, there’s just an endless place for these young people to get in
Kim McConnell: and the other way around too. People in the dirt and whatever else that they’re, they’re the specialists.
They also need to see what are the consumer after, what are they do Too often we speak to ourselves. This is the kind of place where we can speak together and come together. Uh,
Mike Howell: so Kim, one of the other things we talk about a lot on this podcast is sustainability. Uh, what can we do to, to help these producers stay in business and, uh, protect our natural resources, uh, so that it’s here a hundred years from now for our, our ancestors to, to take over.
Uh, and, you know, the, the stampede has been here for a while. It’s pretty sustainable, but, uh, what do you see as the LA the largest opportunity for sustainable agriculture here in Western Canada?
Kim McConnell: Sustainability is very, very important. But sustainability is not just environmental sustainability. I think it’s economic sustainability and it’s community sustainability.
Now, on the environmental sustainability front, we have a lot to be proud about. And we have some misperceptions at times that need to be done. I think when we look, as you well know from your, your experience, the technology and the commitment, the, the farmers have to be able to look after their land, to look after their, their, their animals, et cetera.
They’ve always wanted to do that. We’re do we have a strong commitment and with technologies and with better practices, we’re getting even better at. But we also have to be able to be economically sustainable with the new, with the new technologies that are coming. Great. But we gotta be able to afford to be able to use them in that regard.
And that’s where it is. But then the final one, I think is, is, is, is community sustainability. You know, communities are really important. Agriculture’s rural. If we don’t have hockey rinks and we don’t have fun place to be in rural country or rural communities, we’re not gonna have people in that. That’s exactly, and not a sustainability too.
And I, I think we’ve too often put the attention on the environmental side and not enough attention on the economics and the community side in order to do that kind of thing. You know, one other thing, Mike, is that the pillars of the sustainability movement. Have been, uh, have been ESG, right? Environment, social and governance, and.
That isn’t gonna go away. Maybe we’re having the bloom on the roses coming off a little bit in that regard as we move into productivity in some of these other areas. So I think we should have ESG in the new phrase, but the new phrase of ESG means efficiency in a sustainable BA way, it means security in a sustainable way, and it means groceries.
And groceries mean means affordability. How do we do all that? So when we have productivity and sustainability and we all strive to do that kind of thing, that’s when we’re really gonna hit it, hit it outta the park. Uh,
Mike Howell: Kim, I couldn’t agree with you more. Uh, you probably don’t know this. I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to the dirt before, but we did a series back when we first got started talking about sustainable agriculture, and that was one of the points I tried to drive home.
Uh, we’ve gotta make this economical as well. Uh, it, it doesn’t matter what the technology is if the farmers can’t afford to do it. They can’t adopt it because they’re, they’re gonna put ’em out of business. So
Kim McConnell: by the same token, I think agriculture at times and farmers and ranchers need to adopt and understand the needs and the desires of the consumers and, and we’re going to have to use the technologies and to be able to demonstrate that we need to.
Show that the, the talk that we’re talking about is the walk. And we can do that. And I think technologies and the work that organizations like yours are doing is, is leadership in that area. And when we do that all together, then we have a stronger industry and, and one that, uh, that everybody’s proud of as well.
Mike Howell: Yes, sir. Kim, another thing you mentioned was, uh, working with young people, uh, that’s, that’s a passion of mine. It sounds like we share that passion as well. Uh, you know, I, I grew up in the four H program, uh, down in Mississippi. Uh, still try to work with those young people as as much as I can. And, uh, we actually sponsored the, the International Land Judging Contest, uh, here with the dirt, uh, this year, uh, that was in Oklahoma City and got to, got to spend time with 1,204 H and FFA kids and kind of talk to them a little bit about what we do and, uh.
Uh, really impressed with the quality of young people there. And, uh, I you mentioned earlier that you were, uh, judging a scholarship contest today. Uh, tell us a little bit about your work with, with young people and, uh, what you’ve learned from these young people over the years.
Kim McConnell: Well, like you, Mike, uh, four H, if I prick my finger, I’ll probably bleed green sort of thing.
Is, is that’s, it’s been, it’s such. A great rural leadership program. So that’s the basics from which it is FFA. We don’t, we don’t have much of that in Canada. Uh, is even a step further in that regard. So I commend you in that step. I think I, I, I think we need those kind of programs to be able to excel, but I, I think it’s also.
Um, maybe even more. But, uh, youth and, and the next generation have always been important, but today I think they can be even more valuable players than they have in the past. You know, when you have old, old people like me sitting around the table, maybe our technology skills aren’t as good. We can learn more from young people In that regard, young people can learn more from, from, from older people.
So I think my, uh, gray, grumpy old man like myself is a gray hair. Have a role to be able to mentor some of these young people and what they’re doing to inspire them to be able to, to, to open the doors for them to be able to do things like that. So that’s why mentorship to me is so important. But I think that the young people need to be given the opportunity to, to, to move forward, but they also have to step up a little bit.
Just on that part. I, I must say that I think COVID took us a step backwards. Um, you know, networking is really important, how to convey some different things. They’re wonderful with their thumbs, but their networks are not quite as good as they could be, and we need to encourage and be able to do that. So when we have young people and, and, and different genders and different perspectives, we need to have one plus one plus one equal more than one.
Yes, sir. And, uh, and I think that’s what we can do, and that’s the agriculture can be the melting pot. That if you really want, you know, I’m, I’m a leadership guy. I truly believe you don’t learn leadership at home, at school, or on the job. First off, at school. You don’t teach it in a lot of ways. And at home and on the job, there’s always a boss, your mom or dad, your, uh, the CEO or whatever, if you really wanna learn leadership.
Be a volunteer because you’re the head of the company and you’re the teacher and I’m a janitor, whatever, but we’re all working on the horse show. We’re all, we’re all the same, same deal. That’s when you learn leadership and what you can do. So we gotta get more involved and we, and, and old people, men need to mentor them.
When I say old, it’s next to the the current generation and we gotta give the young ones the chance. And the young ones, come on, step up, let’s go.
Mike Howell: Yeah. You know, Kim, I have, uh, young people ask me from time to time, uh, for advice. What, what do I need to do? What do I need to, to focus on in college? And, uh, it, it is hard to answer that question, but one thing I’ve started telling ’em, uh.
Make sure you can look somebody in the eye and hold a conversation with them, and I think that’ll open more doors for anybody. It, it seems like a lost art and people just can’t do that anymore.
Kim McConnell: I would totally agree. I think your, your advice to ’em is good. I would add one other thing. I would, I would challenge every young person today and say, who are the next, who, who are five people you are going to have lunch with this year?
Just who are five people you’re gonna have lunch with? Pick them out. Contact. They can get in to see basically anybody they want. They’re probably not even gonna have to buy lunch when they prepare as to how they’re going to do that and go from there to, to do that, they will leave so inspired and, and the person that they are being mentored with will come away and say, that young woman or that young man, let’s get after him.
Mike Howell: Well, Kim, we’ve covered quite a bit today, uh, in just a short period of time. I really appreciate you taking time outta your busy schedule here at the Stampede to visit with us. Uh, I know I’ve gotten a lot out of this. I know our listeners will as well. Uh, do you have any closing comments you wanna leave our listeners with before we sign off?
I’m
Kim McConnell: not real. I’ve enjoyed my conversation. I, I believe that the agriculture and food industry is the industry of the 21st century. We are sitting in such a great place. North America is the, is the place to make it happen in a lot of ways. I think the challenge is. Let’s live up to our potential, and that means let’s come together.
Places like the stampede that can, can interact and bring it together is, is, is the kind of things that are the, the fuel to make us go even further. So, I’ve enjoyed my conversations with you and, uh, and look forward to, to, to spending more time with you. Uh,
Mike Howell: Kim, we really appreciate it. Uh, listeners, we thank you for tuning in this week.
If you’ll hang around for just a couple of moments, we’ll be right back with segment two. Farming Isn’t Farming without Questions, and now there’s a place to go for answers. At economics. An entire team of agronomists is waiting and ready to help for free. No question is too big or too small. Visit nutrien-ekonomics.com and submit your question with the Ask an Agronomist feature.
Listeners, welcome back to segment two, where we asked one of our agronomists a question of the week. Today. To help answer that question, we’ve got Lyle Cowell, senior Agronomist with nutrient covering the Canadian region back with us. Lyle welcome back to the Dirt. Thanks for having me, Mike. It’s always great to be on the dirt.
Lyle, last time we had you on, we talked about soil salinity. This week’s question is kind of along those same lines, and the question is, what is a salinity reclamation plan and how should a grower get started in one?
Lyle Cowell: Boy, that’s a tough one, Mike. Some saline systems are very hard tree claim. Sometimes it’s accepting that your land is saline and.
Accepting that it’s may have to be managed completely different from the rest of your farm. We would refer to these as marginal soils, meaning that they’re marginal to the annual production that you probably want to, uh, have success with in the rest of the field. But what can you do to help improve those saline soils, or at least stop them from becoming worse?
It’s all about controlling the groundwater. The salts involved in saline systems are usually being carried in the groundwater no matter what the source of the salts are. In the end, it means that you probably have a high water table and that high water table is bringing salts to the surface or preventing the salts from moving.
Down past the root zone. So as the water table moves up and down, the salts move up and down with it. And if they become deposited in the root zone or in the surface where the crop is trying to germinate, then that becomes a problem. So we have to manage that groundwater. There’s two tactics you can take.
I think the best tactic for most farms that works for any farm is to change the crop, change it to, in most often, to a forage crop that is tolerant to salinity. Forage crops have deep root root systems. If it is a forage crop that can tolerate. High levels of salts. That forage crop will actually benefit from the nutrients that are often associated with salinity, and also from that groundwater, if it can tolerate the salinity, there’s a good source of groundwater.
So sometimes forages cannot just tolerate salinity, but be actually highly successful and also. Again, that deep rooted forage is going to help control the groundwater from moving to the surface, not just under the forages, but to the land adjacent to the saline area, so that the salinity doesn’t spread past that zone or in that area of the field.
Now, there is another tactic, and that is subsurface drainage. Tile drainage. It’s expensive. It involves a. A lot of planning to do it right. It requires a place for the water to be drained to, and it may help the land in this case and it may not. So you have to approach subsoil drainage, tile drainage very carefully.
Again, it can be highly successful, but there is one problem that people have to face is that if you want salts to move downward in the profile, there has to be water moving down with them. That might be irrigation water. Uh, and if you have irrigation to push it down, that’s fine. But for a lot of farms and dry land agriculture that is severely affected by salinity, you’re relying on rainfall or snow melt to move that water down through the profile.
And that’s not often available in enough volume to move those salts downwards. So two solutions forages that work for pretty much every farm and for a few farms, tile
Mike Howell: drainage. We appreciate you taking time to visit with us and give us this great information on managing Soil Salinity. Listeners, we hope you’ve enjoyed this episode, and if you have any questions about anything we’ve talked about today, you can visit our website.
That’s nutrien-ekonomics.com. Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with the dirt. Hey guys. If you like what you heard today, do us a favor and share this podcast with someone else. It could be your neighbor, your friend, your crop advisor, or whoever you think would enjoy it. Your support helps ensure future episodes, so please like, subscribe, share, and rate the show wherever you’re listening from.
