The Truth About Ag

Kristjan and Evan kick off the episode with a wide-ranging discussion on the major challenges impacting the agricultural industry. They share insights into evolving global market conditions and practical financial strategies farms can use to navigate policy shifts, manage finances, and plan strategically. 

Then, live from Ag in Motion, they’re joined by Craig Davidson, CEO of Taurus Ag and the newest sponsor of The Truth About Ag. Craig shares the story behind Taurus as the company marks 25 years in business, his roots on a fifth-generation farm, and the philosophy that has shaped much of the company’s approach to agronomy and fertility: think like a plant. They dig into plant health, biologicals, fertilizer availability, salt load, phosphate and sulfur, and why measuring the value of fertility by tonnes purchased can miss what actually matters to both the plant and the farm’s margin.

The conversation also moves beyond agronomy into how Craig thinks about business, relationships and the future of agriculture. He talks about the value of challenging customers and being challenged in return, supporting rural communities, being willing to fail in pursuit of something better, and the potential for AI, better data and emerging computing technology to help agriculture make faster, more precise decisions.

Live from Ag in Motion at the John Deere booth, Kristjan and Evan are joined by Deanna Kovar, President of Deere's Ag and Turf Division. She grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, started as a summer intern decades ago, and has since worked her way through nearly every corner of the company. It's a chance to talk shop with someone who's both run the numbers on a combine's R&D budget and filled the drill herself.

The conversation ends up being less about any single product and more about how Deere thinks. How a company built on iron became just as much a technology company, why that bet on precision ag decades ago still shapes everything they build today, and how they're trying to earn farmers' trust with their data while actually making it useful. Trade policy and tariffs come up; so does the long road from "nobody wanted to touch Operations Centre" to "I can't run my farm without it," and there's real talk about right to repair, retrofitting older equipment, and where the next wave of value on the farm is actually going to come from.

It's a wide-ranging, honest conversation from someone who clearly hasn't lost the farm-kid perspective despite the corner office — capped off with a few personal questions that get at how she thinks about leadership, decision-making, and what she'd want for the future of North American agriculture.

Evan and Kristjan sit down with Dick Wittman, farm management consultant, educator, and longtime faculty member of Texas A&M's Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP).

The conversation takes a hard look at an uncomfortable trend: using a proficiency checklist tracked over 25+ years, Dick reveals that farm operators, even massive, sophisticated operations doing hundreds of millions in sales, are scoring worse on basic management fundamentals today than they were two decades ago. We talk through why: gaps in agricultural education, a generation that hasn't been tested by a truly bad year, and an industry-wide habit of avoiding the "boardroom conversations" around budgets, job descriptions, and strategic planning until a crisis forces the issue.

But this isn't just a story about what's going wrong; it's about the fixes. We cover succession planning as a daily discipline rather than a one-time event, hiring outside your family, the generational shift bringing more non-owner managers into leadership roles, and why building SOPs and a culture people actually want to work for matters more than ever. If you've ever wondered whether your farm would pass its own report card, this episode might change how you grade yourself.

The episode opens with Taylor Phillips setting the table on AI and tools in a practical way: what they are, how they are used, and why the starting point should be the problem you are trying to solve, not the technology itself. That carries into the full conversation with Nick Horob, who joins Evan and Kristjan to discuss farm software, AI, and the difference between building something interesting and building something useful. Farms do not need more disconnected tools. They need better ways to see their numbers, manage information, and make decisions with less friction.

The conversation pushes past the broad excitement around AI and gets into where it can actually help. Nick talks about large language models, hallucinations, trusted sources, custom GPTs, and the importance of starting with the outcome before building anything. Whether it is equipment knowledge, grain marketing, SOPs, invoicing, or field-level financial decisions, the value comes from using AI with guardrails and farm-specific context.

When the cost of building software keeps falling, the harder skill is knowing what should be built in the first place. For farm leaders already acting as the human router between employees, managers, advisors, accountants, and data systems, AI has potential but only when it is tied to better decisions, clearer workflows, and a farm that is easier to run.

Bryce Eger returns to The Truth About Ag for a wide-ranging conversation on professional capability, leadership, follow-through and why the ag industry needs to get more comfortable being uncomfortable. From basic networking and follow-up to the difference between credentials and real knowledge, Bryce challenges the idea that experience, titles or confidence automatically equal capability.

Evan, Kristjan and Bryce talk about what separates valuable advisors, salespeople and industry professionals from those who are simply showing up with a pitch. It comes down to asking better questions, respecting people’s time and teams, solving problems the customer actually believes are problems, and doing what you said you were going to do. The conversation also touches on risk, decision-making, action items, hard conversations and why agriculture cannot afford to keep talking about the same issues without taking steps forward.

Bryce also shares the story behind his book, Course Corrections: Building the Pre-Shot, Post-Shot and Recovery Habits of Leadership, and why golf became the lens for exploring leadership, learning and self-awareness.