Growing the Future

Robert Andjelic has been bearish more often than not for three years. In January, he stood in front of a packed room and called a capital squeeze. This time he came back fired up about something different: three converging forces he believes put Canada in the strongest agricultural position in a generation.

What follows is Robert defending three years of public predictions, line by line, before laying out the new one.

Topics and Timestamps

0:00 -- Dan opens. Robert's backstory: escaping Croatia as a boy, building a commercial real estate empire, the Saskatchewan land bet that started at $400 an acre

5:00 -- Audience poll: who's bullish, neutral, or bearish right now

8:00 -- Why farmer suicide rates stay high even when the numbers look good

12:00 -- The fall 2023 call to lock in farm debt, revisited

18:00 -- Mark to market: the Saskatchewan farmland call, three years of FCC data

21:00 -- Why Robert owns zero acres of farmland in the United States

23:00 -- The eight early signs of credit tightening, in order

30:00 -- What a major operator's financial trouble this year means for the rest of the industry

41:00 -- Rent versus buy: the framework Robert actually uses on his own land

45:00 -- Why the smaller rural towns keep shrinking

52:00 -- Why Canada is technically in a recession as of mid-2026

59:00 -- The Hormuz oil shock compared to the 1979-81 shock

1:04:00 -- How the live audience rated Robert's three-year track record

1:06:00 -- The cattle herd rebuild that's still years from equilibrium

1:10:00 -- The bullish thesis: the Strait of Hormuz, a developing super El Nino, and the aquifers running dry

1:13:00 -- Robert's probability breakdown for an agricultural super cycle, 2026 to 2028

1:20:00 -- Why Robert doesn't trust AI to predict what happens next

1:21:00 -- Inside the Strait of Hormuz: vessels waiting, insurers pulling back, years to rebuild

1:29:00 -- Closing: investing by the numbers, not the narrative

 

Resources Mentioned

FCC Farmland Values Report -- cultivated land value data cited for Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta

NOAA El Nino Watch, issued May 14, 2026

Reuters reporting on Strait of Hormuz vessel traffic and tanker movement

 

Connect with Robert Andjelic

Canada's largest private farmland owner, 450,000+ acres across Western Canada

 

Connect with Growing the Future

Website: growingthefuture.ca

YouTube: Growing the Future

Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast

LinkedIn: Growing the Future

Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.

The math of buying in has changed. The math of staying in has too. David Widmar of Agricultural Economic Insights and Eric Olsen of MNP Farm Management bring the US and Canadian numbers together to examine what farmland affordability, cash rent pressure, and the post-ZIRP interest rate environment actually mean for producers running a farm in 2026. Two countries. One calculator. The gap between what land is worth and what it can earn has never been wider.

Topics and Timestamps

0:00 -- Dan opens: the 16-year cash rent stat and what it signals about the moment we are in

0:07 -- David Widmar: how ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) inflated asset values from 2008 onward

0:08 -- New Fed chair Kevin Warsh: five review areas, inflation as priority one, what it means for rates

0:09 -- Eric Olsen: Canadian interest rate outlook -- stable to slightly up, no major jumps expected

0:11 -- David: US row crop squeeze -- lower commodity prices, stubborn cost structure, Iran conflict pushing energy and fertilizer back up

0:12 -- US government ad hoc payments: second highest since the 1920s, and why that carries risk

0:14 -- Eric: Canadian farm support programs -- AgriStability, crop insurance (98% participation in Manitoba), GARS

0:17 -- David: How ARC and PLC work -- risk management programs with a built-in payment delay problem

0:19 -- David: "Musical chairs" -- why ad hoc programs create systemic risk rather than resolve it

0:20 -- Eric: AgriStability explained -- margin-based, plannable, based on your numbers not a county average

0:23 -- Eric: "Farmers are sophisticated businesspeople" -- the $2-3M floor that surprises people outside agriculture

0:24 -- David: The paradox of risk management -- tools that reduce short-term pain can build long-term fragility

0:30 -- Dan introduces the farmland affordability calculator David built for registrants

0:31 -- Metric 1: Down payment years -- Indiana at $15K/acre, $326 rent, 35% down = 16 years of cash rent saved (was 6 in the 1990s)

0:34 -- Eric: Canadian read on Metric 1 -- $8,500/acre in the Regina plains, $180/acre rent, nearly identical ratio

0:36 -- US vs Canada land ownership structure: 60%+ rented in Illinois regions, 70% owned in western Canada

0:38 -- Harry Siemens (audience): How does the farm community make sense of high land values and next-generation transition?

0:39 -- David: Path to equilibrium -- lower land values, lower interest rates, slower appreciation, or some combination of all three

0:41 -- Eric: The case for separating the real estate business from the farm operating business; barriers to entry for young producers

0:44 -- Harry Siemens: Are large corporate landowners (200,000+ acres) healthy for the industry?

0:45 -- Eric: Supply and demand reality -- large land releases will affect prices; the market is starting to work

0:47 -- David: How lenders managed large land holdings in the 1980s crisis and what that signals for today

0:49 -- David Schmidt (Rabobank, Alberta): Are lenders shifting from asset-based to cashflow-based lending decisions?

0:49 -- Eric: Yes -- lenders taking a harder look at business fundamentals; younger producers will feel it first

0:51 -- Metric 2: First-year payment calculator -- US approaching 300% (3 acres to cover payment on 1), Canada at 195-250% depending on rate

0:56 -- Alex Clark (Rabobank): Not tightening so much as asking better questions -- creative lending options, extended amortization

0:57 -- David: Closing takeaway -- about half of US farmland appreciation since the 1980s came from falling interest rates; don't assume you are immune to rate risk if you own land outright

0:59 -- Eric: Thanks, upcoming MNP benchmarking series; Dan previews Robert Andjelic's return next week (bullish on commodities super cycle)

1:01 -- Dan closes: Building Your Operating System cohort update, August cohort opening

 

Resources Mentioned

Agricultural Economic Insights farmland affordability calculator (shared with registrants via event link)

ARC and PLC farm bill programs (US) -- risk management programs for row crop producers

AgriStability -- Canada's margin-based whole-farm income support program

GARS -- private margin-based insurance product for Canadian producers

 

Connect with David Widmar

Agricultural Economic Insights: https://aei.ag/overview

Connect with Eric Olsen

MNP Farm Management: mnp.ca

 

Connect with Growing the Future

Website: growingthefuture.ca

YouTube: Growing the Future

Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast

LinkedIn: Growing the Future

Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses farm financial stress, identity, and mental health in agriculture, including reference to suicide rates in the farming community. If you or someone you know is struggling, support is available. Numbers are listed at the end of these notes.

Three to one is the male-to-female suicide ratio in agriculture. Most of the people carrying the hardest financial weight in farming right now are also carrying it alone, measuring their worth by what they produce. Corliss Rassyle has spent decades working in the space between what a farm earns and what a farmer is worth. Dan built this room for those people.

 

Topics and Timestamps

0:00 -- Cold open

1:30 -- Dan's disclosure: a company erased to zero and what the new start required

4:00 -- Welcome: who this room is built for and the three-to-one ratio in agriculture

5:00 -- Mom at the Easter griddle: "I've done nothing with my life"

6:30 -- Why we get the measure of success wrong and where it starts

9:00 -- Saskatchewan is resource-rich -- so why do so many people in agriculture feel unfulfilled?

10:00 -- Subconscious programming: the belief systems formed in childhood still running adult lives

13:00 -- The 1,111 vision: how Lead Conference Canada came to be

15:00 -- Sitting in the back row of the venue: the moment the number confirmed itself

17:00 -- Workshop begins: Corliss takes the room

22:00 -- The question to sit with: what belief are you holding about yourself right now?

23:00 -- Thoughts create emotions, emotions create actions, actions create results

27:00 -- The Five A's: Aware, Acknowledge, Assess, Affirm, Accept

29:00 -- The five most powerful sentences: I am, I can, I will, I release, I forgive

30:00 -- Acceptance: Corliss's brother and the question "Why won't you let me help you?"

33:00 -- Dan's experience: what happened when a room of men did this work together

37:00 -- Same rain, two different meanings: the drought and the wedding

38:00 -- Corliss's divorce: rebuilding one step at a time from a two-bedroom apartment

43:00 -- Love what you do: Corliss's father and 60 harvests

47:00 -- 86 tickets on launch day vs. a goal of 1,111: what fear does and what vision does instead

52:00 -- Mom gives permission for the TEDx: "You should use it to help people"

54:00 -- You have full power over your story

55:00 -- Corliss's programs and how to connect

 

Resources Mentioned

TEDx Talk by Corliss Rassyle -- search "Corliss Rassyle TEDx" (Dan to confirm link)

Lead Conference Canada 2026: corliss.ca/led2026

Called to Lead (self-paced personal development program): corliss.ca

Do More Agriculture Foundation: domore.ag

Saskatchewan Farm Stress Line: 1-800-667-4442

This episode is brought to you by Bone Trail Originals, Crop-Aid Nutrition, Hammond Realty, and GRIPP.

Connect with Corliss Rassyle

Website: corliss.ca

Lead Conference Canada: corliss.ca/led2026

 

Connect with Growing the Future

Website: growingthefuture.ca

YouTube: Growing the Future

Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast

LinkedIn: Growing the Future

 

CRISIS SUPPORT

If you are struggling, please reach out.

Canada -- Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566

Canada -- Saskatchewan Farm Stress Line: 1-800-667-4442

Canada -- Do More Agriculture Foundation: domore.ag

U.S. -- Call or text 988

Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.

Somewhere between the farm and your plate, the story of how your food is grown got hijacked. Not by farmers. By people who have never touched a seed, never watched a crop fail, never had to explain to their banker why the weather won.

Dennis Bulani is a fourth-generation Saskatchewan farmer, CEO of The Rack -- one of Western Canada's most respected independent ag retailers -- founder of the Trust Your Plate movement, and author of What a Farmer Wants You to Know About Food. He sat in a room full of entrepreneurs in Arizona while a speaker told everyone that modern farming was poisoning the world. He went home and wrote a book about it.

Nine in ten people trust farmers. One in five trust modern farming practices. This is the conversation about how that gap happened -- and what to do with it.

 

Topics and Timestamps

0:00 -- Dan's open: "Somewhere between the farm and your plate, the story got hijacked"

1:07 -- Dennis on the farm right now: wheat year, 1,000 acres, single-crop rotation

1:28 -- The one-crop-per-year strategy and why it works for a busy CEO-farmer

4:15 -- Pulse rotation research: 15% average yield lift across all other crops

5:52 -- Solving phomyces root rot: 5-year research taking peas from 25 to 75 bushels

7:37 -- Published in the American Journal of Plant Science

8:49 -- The Rack's research program: PhD scientist, 6 agronomists, 12 field trials annually

10:00 -- The 100-bushel canola goal and what the "kitchen sink" trial actually proved

13:06 -- How "Rogue" was born: Dr. Bill Brown, manganese-zinc surfactant, and 10-12% yield lift

17:10 -- Rogue in Liberty Canola and what glyphosate actually does to manganese and zinc

18:36 -- Dennis's animal science degree: balancing plant rations is the same science as balancing cattle rations

22:13 -- From Eli Lilly to building The Rack: how an animal nutritionist ended up selling gas

26:00 -- Strategic Coach and the size of the problems Dennis is now willing to take on

30:00 -- The Arizona room: a speaker says modern farming is poisoning the world. Dennis goes home and writes a book.

35:00 -- The trust gap: 9 in 10 people trust farmers but only 1 in 5 trust modern farming practices

38:00 -- The MSG story: how one bad idea gets into the bloodstream of a culture and never leaves

39:39 -- Fertilizer supply chain: urea forecasting, import terminals, and the 2026 seeding sprint

41:13 -- Trump and geopolitics: the Straits of Hormuz theory and what it means for urea prices

43:05 -- Are farmers making money? The 2026 economics at $820 spring wheat

44:09 -- Why Canadian farmers are the most resilient in the world -- and the crow rate story that explains it

47:06 -- "The most advanced, educated farmers in the world" -- how adversity built Western Canadian agriculture

50:52 -- Biological products: the seaweed trial, what the research actually showed, and how to think about new claims

53:48 -- Zinc deficiency in 70% of soil tests -- the right form, timing, and strategy for zinc

59:27 -- Phosphate threshold: 20-25 ppm as the floor that separates good yields from great ones

1:04:29 -- The Rack spends $600,000 a year on replicated research -- and shares results with competitors for free

1:07:00 -- The retail landscape is changing: what separates partners from order-takers

1:08:53 -- AI and the future of ag retail agronomy

1:17:57 -- The novel: 60% true story, Kyrgyzstan, post-communist winter wheat, and Fibonacci numbers

1:20:07 -- Writing the book for "Aunt Nancy from Vancouver" -- and hiring four fact-checkers

1:22:13 -- "Never have we lived longer, never have we been healthier" -- Canada's 84-year life expectancy

1:26:07 -- Aunt Nancy from Vancouver: why farmers avoid the conversation -- and why they shouldn't

1:27:09 -- TrustYourPlate.com as a reference tool for farmers to use in the moment

1:30:42 -- The three biggest myths in consumer agriculture

1:31:15 -- The eyedrop analogy: one-third of one drop per square foot per year is all the chemical farmers apply

 

Resources Mentioned

What a Farmer Wants You to Know About Food -- Dennis Bulani (book, available on Amazon, Kindle edition)

Trust Your Plate -- trustyourplate.com (reference tool for answering food safety questions)

The Rack -- Rack Petroleum, Bigger, Saskatchewan (ag retail, fuel, fertilizer, research division)

Rogue -- The Rack's proprietary manganese-zinc surfactant product (developed from Dr. Bill Brown's research)

American Journal of Plant Science -- published The Rack's pea phomyces root rot research

Ultimate Yield -- The Rack's agronomy division

AgLink Canada -- independent ag retailer association (Dean Falls, Director)

Nutrients for Life Canada -- distributing the book to school teachers across Canada

Dr. Aaron Corey -- PhD scientist, The Rack research division

Dr. Bill Brown -- glyphosate and surfactant researcher, Ontario; Hellfire surfactant

Strategic Coach -- Dan Sullivan's entrepreneurship program

CAAR -- Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers

University of South Dakota / University of Nebraska -- crop rotation and phosphate research referenced

Connect with Dennis Bulani

Website: trustyourplate.com

Book: What a Farmer Wants You to Know About Food -- search Amazon

LinkedIn: Dennis Bulani

 

Connect with Growing the Future

Website: growingthefuture.ca

YouTube: Growing the Future

Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast

LinkedIn: Growing the Future

Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.

On the Bone Trail: What Farming Does to Fathers -- Jeff Bennett, Unfiltered

12 days before Father's Day, Jeff Bennett -- a fourth-generation Saskatchewan farmer whose dad's farm sits 800 feet from his own door -- sat down to say the things most fathers in agriculture are thinking and nobody will say out loud. The debt. The legacy. The math that doesn't add up. Whether the farm is a gift or a burden. And whether he can pass it to his sons without crushing them. No panel. No slides. No consulting-speak.

This is Episode 1 of On the Bone Trail -- Growing the Future's foremost live briefing series built around the farmers who are still standing, still building, and still trying to figure out how to hand something worth having to the next generation.

 

Topics and Timestamps

0:00 -- "12 days from now, it's Father's Day." Dan's open on what the farm costs a father

0:57 -- Platform and partner acknowledgments: Bone Trail Originals, Crop-Aid, Hammond Realty, GRIPP, Convergence 2027

4:47 -- Jeff: "When you're a father, you're also a son. You're living in both worlds -- the past and the future."

6:12 -- How becoming a father changed everything: from "how do I expand" to "how do I pass this off"

7:05 -- The three-son plan: each gets a trade first -- mechanic, electrician, carpenter -- then comes back to the farm

12:46 -- The belt and the combine: two generational philosophies about when to call the dealer

18:44 -- "What did your dad envision for you?" Jeff: "I honestly don't know."

23:51 -- "The problem with farming now is it's not farming then, and I don't think that generation understands it"

26:48 -- 2021: "absolutely kicked my ass" -- the brutal math begins

28:56 -- Input costs tripling: UAN from $100 to $600+ per acre; rent from $35 to $90 per acre

30:05 -- The Manette situation and what it says about the farming model

31:17 -- "I hate owing people money. I'll pay all my bills. They're just not gonna be on time."

31:47 -- Why still want this life for your sons? "Purpose is what drives a man. There is nothing more purposeful than farming."

38:07 -- What Jeff is doing better as a father: being present, being stable, being open

40:56 -- Two years ago bad news broke me. Now I put the phone in my pocket and keep picking rocks.

41:38 -- The on-an-island reality: "My kids are way too young to do this. If I can't do this, there's no one else."

43:43 -- What farming specifically does to fathers: the physical presence advantage

46:12 -- The four dark years: deleting social media, talking to no one, shutting everything off

50:09 -- Dan: "You were a ghost. A shell of a man." And the Farmer Stress Line conversation

49:58 -- The Bone Trail moment: Jeff shows the Bennett Code piece -- "Protect your family, honor the elders, always leave your mark"

53:27 -- The 3D crystal gift: how Dan gave his dad a piece with the farm map and portrait for his 75th birthday

54:53 -- Last question: What do you want your kids to know as a farmer and a father?

55:20 -- Jeff: "You can do it. And it's worth it."

56:29 -- Final word: "The most useful advice my grandfather ever gave my father was: pick that rock. You'll never be closer to it."

 

Resources Mentioned

Bone Trail Originals -- custom laser-engraved glass, wood, and 3D crystal pieces. bonetrail.ca

Farmer Stress Line -- 1-866-327-6701 (mentioned by Dan; referenced in context of Dallas LeDuc)

AgTalk -- domore.ag/agtalk -- anonymous, farmer-to-farmer online space, clinically moderated

Crop-Aid Nutrition -- platform partner, Saskatchewan-based soil health

Hammond Realty -- platform partner, Ag Exits and Acquisitions

GRIPP -- platform partner, farm data and QR code systems

Convergence Conference 2027 -- GTF flagship event, Regina, Doubletree

 

Connect with Jeff Bennett

Bone Trail Originals: bonetrail.ca

Instagram and social: search Bone Trail Originals

 

Connect with Growing the Future

Website: growingthefuture.ca

YouTube: Growing the Future

Instagram: @growingthefuture

LinkedIn: Growing the Future

Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.