Shout To Be Keynote Speaker For 70th Annual Notational Hard Spring Wheat Show, Feb. 1

Evan Shout will be the keynote speaker at the 70th Annual National Hard Spring Wheat Show to be held at the Grand Williston Hotel & Conference Center, 3601 2nd Ave., Williston, Wednesday, Feb. 1. The show is scheduled from 7 a.m.-8 p.m.

Shout is the president and co-founder of Maverick Ag., a western Canadian firm, which offers risk management insurance strategies and financial consulting. He is also the president, co-founder, and lead coach at Farmer Coach which provides coaching programs and education to producers. Additionally, Shout serves as the Hebert Grain Ventures, chief financial advisor, all of which are under the Hebert Group of Companies.

He will be giving two presentations, the first being "The 6% Rule - How Technology, Humans and Agronomy have changed the 5% rule" at 9:15 a.m.

"The 6% rule presentation is based on entrepreneurship and business management, and shows producers how small management changes can lead to large compounding returns," Shout explained. "We don't need to make large changes to be better at farming. We just need to understand our risks and make small adjustments to navigate the path in a better way."

The second presentation "Bet the Farm - Using Data and Technology to win at Farm Management" is at 1 p.m.

"As farmers we have unlimited data sets from our finances, to equipment data, to land and agronomy data, and lastly to human resource and management data. The problem is that most producers don't know where to start when it comes to analyzing data and creating usable information. In our farming operation we rely on data and technology to assist us in all of our large or small decisions, and to remove any "gut or emotional" decisions from our business. Calculated risks are always more effective than emotional risks," he stated.

Shout grew up on a small Saskatchewan grain farm, was a primary producer, and worked as a CPA for MNP, an agricultural accounting firm for a decade.

"I started to see that there was a growing "gap" between the top farms and the bottom farms in the industry. Originally the thought was it was based on better land, or more family wealth, or even just the luck of the weather. But throughout my career in both public accounting and as a producer I began to see that the true difference was in management and the mindset of the ownership or leaders' group around the farm. This was intriguing to me as this identified that the gap could be made smaller through education, training, strong advice, and a push towards stronger management in agriculture."

Maverick Ag. was formed in March 2019 by Shout and managing partner of Hebert Grain Ventures, Kristjan Hebert. They realized they needed a more progressive approach to farm management, beyond accounting and financial services.

"We started the business because through much of our professional public speaking and dealing with other progressive farmers, we were getting inundated with questions about the 'who, what, when, why, and how'. Our past experiences allowed us to start answering some of those questions. The business took on a life of its own after that point and has grown to where we are now."

Farmer Coach was later formed by Shout and Hebert who both travel all over the world to speak publicly and professionally about agriculture and business management.

"We came up with the concept (Farmer Coach) so we could help more producers at once rather than having just the individualized consulting services."

Shout, along with Farmer Coach, believe some of the biggest challenges facing farmers today are policy, labor and logistics, and reasons that weather, commodity markets and cost are all manageable risks with insurance tools and government programs.

'"The unknown seems to be creating the most volatility in the industry and thus the greatest challenge is the management and leadership of the organizations through these times," he commented. "Our goal is to help the farms identify their downfalls or risks, and then educate and have other farms in the sessions help provide solutions to these problems. Think of it as coaching, educating, and learning from your peers and professionals."

For more information about the Wheat Show, visit http://www.ndsu.edu. For more information about Maverick Ag. or Farmer Coach visit http://www.maverickag.com and https://farmercoach.ca.

 

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