About This Episode
Shay Foulk takes a few minutes on the Friday at the end of March 2023 to make a case for connections, the ones built locally, professionally, personally, and across the ag community. His prompt for listeners heading into spring field work or wrapping up office work is to name the biggest challenge in front of you right now, then ask whether you are asking the right questions about it and whether you have done enough to get past it.
When a problem stonewalls you, he says, the move is to go back to the network you have built and ask who else can help. Foulk describes the consulting side of the work as acting as a conduit, carrying information and resources between farm operations and between entities, and says that even when they do not have the direct answer themselves, they usually know the person who does. He and Chris Barron covered the same ground on a recent 19 Minutes episode.
He closes with a live example. An Ag View client in North Dakota employs a South African H-2A worker Foulk has worked with directly, describing him as independent, strong with technology, and good on a team. The gap between the H-2A program and the green card path creates a problem the operation wants to solve by keeping him stateside through certification. Foulk asks any listener using H-2A labor who needs winter help to reach out, noting the process crawls and then moves fast.
“We kind of tell people that we like to act as a conduit, you know, that carries the information and that carries the resources between farm operations and between entities.”
— Shay Foulk
Key Takeaways
When a challenge stonewalls you, first ask whether you are asking the right question, then ask who in your network can answer it.
Foulk frames the consulting work as a conduit that moves information and resources between operations, not advice from a single desk.
Even without a direct answer, someone in an ag network almost always knows the person who has it.
A North Dakota client is looking for winter work for a trusted South African H-2A employee while he goes through certification.
The gap between the H-2A program and the green card path creates real disruption for good long-term employees.
Commit early if you can use winter labor, because these processes move at the speed of a snail and then all at once.
Full Transcript
Shay: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Today you have Shay Foulk with you just for a few minutes here. Wanted to talk about an important topic in agriculture, and that is connections. The connections that we make not only with our local network, but those that we develop professionally, those that we develop personally, and those that we develop within the ag community are so critically important. And I think sometimes we maybe don't give it as much credit as we should. On a daily basis. With that being said, one thing that I want to prompt you here on today, Friday, the end of March, as we head into planting season for some of you, or spring field work, or if you're wrapping up office work, is think about what are the biggest struggles and challenges that you're facing right now in your operation or in your life.
And sometimes when we face these challenges, we feel that they're overwhelming or we get stonewalled or we just hit this barrier that maybe we're not able to get through. And we have to ask ourselves, is— are we, are we asking the right questions and are we doing enough to overcome this challenge? And one of the best ways to do that is to reach out to the network that you have built and say, is there someone else that can help me? We talked about this a little bit on the 19 Minutes podcast Chris and I did here the other day. But what I want you to think about is, okay, here's our main challenge. How do we address it? If we don't have a solution, who can we reach out to to find a problem to that solution?
So if you have a challenge right now that you're like, man, I have no idea how I'm going to get over it, or I need some inspiration, or I need some help, or more importantly, I need to make a connection somewhere. That is a big part of what Chris and I do in the consulting world that provides value back to you as a listener to this podcast or provides value to the clients that we work with is just making those connections. We kind of tell people that we like to act as a conduit, you know, that carries the information and that carries the resources between farm operations and between entities because we've been blessed with the opportunity to meet so many great producers out there. So I just encourage you right now, if there's something on your mind, if there's something that you're struggling with, reach out to Chris and I.
There's probably someone that we can connect you with, or if there's not, we know someone who can connect you with someone. I mean, that's the beauty of, the beauty of agriculture and the beauty of this ag space that we all work in is if you don't know a direct connection, you know someone who can find the answer to that. You know, people joke or you've seen on TV shows, oh, I have a guy. Well, generally speaking, we do. We know someone, a guy or a gal that has a connection for these answers and for these problems that you're facing. So just wanted to hit home with that message.
Also, with that being said, and what kind of prompted me on thinking on this is we had a client that we work with, a really awesome operation out of North Dakota that utilizes H-2A employees, and they have a South African employee that's been with them for several years, is a phenomenal worker, great with technology. Highly independent, but works really well with, you know, team. I've met this employee, worked with this employee through some team building exercises and is just a great worker. And some of the nuances of the H-2A and then versus the visa program maybe create some disparity or some challenges when you go from moving from the H-2A to the full-time green card program.
So one thing that we would like to reach out to this network through the Ag View Pitch and to those who are listening is if you are also utilizing H-2A employees and need someone for winter work, please reach out to us. Because of some of the challenges in this process, this operation would like to help the employee stay here stateside while they go through the certification. Probably don't need an answer immediately. But of course, as you all know, um, these things happen at the speed of a snail sometimes, but also at speed of lightning at others, right? So having the commitment early on, being able to say, hey, I could definitely use some winter work, especially from a trusted employee. If you've been listening for a while, if you know Chris and I, we don't make these recommendations lightly.. But I can guarantee that this is a great worker, a great employee.
So if this is something that you think would be valuable to your operation, if you would like to make a connection, please email me. That's shay@agviewsolutions.com. And hopefully I'll get some emails from others of you that are looking at specific challenges and saying, hey, is there someone that you can connect me with? I'm traveling here this weekend. I'll have some road time. Would be happy to make those connections for you as we move forward. But hopefully you all are enjoying some, some warmer weather or maybe some less brutal weather as we head into spring here. I ask everybody, you know, if you could stay safe this weekend. You'll be hearing from Chris on Sunday with the Sunday Market Outlook. I know he's going to be recording that here this afternoon and We just, you know, we want to make sure that we're continuing to provide value and perspective to you as listeners.
So I hope this message finds you well. Thank you for taking a few minutes to listen, and we will catch you next time on the Ag View Pitch.