Dan: [00:00:56] super stoked to have a very young, uh, exciting upcoming individual in the agricultural space with me today on the show a young farmer by the name of Jake Ayer. How are you doing there today? Jake?
Jake: [00:01:07] Good. Dan, the man what’s, uh, what’s happening with you?
Dan: [00:01:11] I’m just keeping it real in the agricultural hood. Been working on lots of crazy stuff and exciting times, and I’m super stoked for our conversation today. It’s going to be awesome.
Jake: [00:01:18] Yeah me as well. I’m looking forward to it.
Dan: [00:01:20] Yeah, it’s going to be good. So, uh, we’re going to get into you and your background, your story, but I’ve laid it out, uh, for really easy listening. Um, and also for us to keep track of where we’re going with three easy sections today, Jake I’ve given them all titles and might give you a bit of a hint where we’re going to take it.
Uh, so the first place we’re going to go is entitled the prodigal son, prodigal son. Boom. Okay. Okay. You get where I’m going with that. And then second part is going to be, see how the carbon tax launched my career into politics by Jake Ayer, the third section. So you were going with it. It’s going to be called the hunger games. And the, the, the actual movie title behind the hunger games is going to be trumping Trudeau. It’s going to be about, uh, some, some politics and farming and stuff like that. So, Jake, you’re a young man, but you’ve got a long storied history in agriculture with your family and farm with your, uh, your dad and your, your mom and your sister out in a mental there. You have a history going all the way back to the 14 hundreds tell us about who you are and the history of the farm a little bit.
Jake: [00:02:38] Yeah. So like you said, we’ve been farming. The Ayer is of course had been farming for generations. We did our family tree 10 years ago. And from as far back as we kind of lost track 14 hundreds, it got kind of muddy, you know, I guess they didn’t keep as good of a records back then or something.
But as far as far back that, uh, we could trace the areas as being farmers in the Southwest of England. Uh, the County. Devonshire Dan, I don’t know if you’ve been to Devonshire.
Dan: [00:03:08] I have not. Read about it in storybooks though
Jake: [00:03:11] It’s supposedly one of the most beautiful counties it’s right on the Southwest. It’s very well known for its agriculture.
And for a travel destination, cause it’s right on the coast has the best surfing beaches in the United Kingdom. Um, so I literally are, when we moved from a farm, we were a livestock, sheep and grain operation in England. Um, and I moved from a farm where you literally went up to the top of the lane and they went down a Hill up another Hill.
And boom, there’s the ocean.
And you came to Canada in 2002? You said?
Yea, 2002. I was six when I came.
Dan: [00:03:53] Okay. So you have some memories.
Jake: [00:03:55] So I, I do remember, and we go back often because all of my family’s there. Uh, I have a sister who just had a daughter, so I have a niece. Um, we, unfortunately haven’t been able to go and see them because it COVID, we were, that was the plan.
We were going to go fly over there. But yeah, so all my family is actually in the United Kingdom. I have a cousin who’s there in the military. They’re stationed in Canada right now. But other than that, yeah, I grew up with all my family in England. And we’d go back there.
Dan: [00:04:24] So why is it that you guys immigrated. What was the impetus there?
Jake: [00:04:28] See, I always ask mom and dad and the answer I typically get. Is opportunity. Cause I mean, I was six. I hadn’t, I had no say in matter.
[They tell us the story of apparently the day we were going, I had my suitcase and I had a temper tantrum, said I’m not going. And I stormed back off into the house, you know, adamant that I’m staying here, but.
That’s probably more the redhead gene, Dan than anything the ginger temper,
Dan: [00:05:02] We’ll we’ll get into that the ginger gene.
Jake: [00:05:05] Yeah. So, uh, like they say opportunity, um, and, uh, BSE hit in England and think of that was. Ooh. What was that? 2000, 2001, a real bad disaster in the cattle cattle industry in the United Kingdom. Um, our farm wasn’t directly affected, but a loss of the surrounding farms where, uh, it took a lot of toll mentally on the whole industry and really depressed cattle prices.
[So it was, it was tough sledding. Um, so I think that was kind of a factor. And dad also talks about, he came to Canada when he was 17 to Southern Ontario of all places. Uh, he had a great unquote there and he want it to live that, I guess, almost like the pioneer dream, you know, get a piece of land, wide open space and try and make a go of it.
Dan: [00:05:55] I think that’s what makes everybody here. So great. I mean we’re yeah. All from that background one way or another, but it’s amazing that you go so far back in history, but for yourself, you were telling me that farming wasn’t always the absolute clear path, but, uh, you found out through your various endeavors that, that it’s a great life.
Jake: [00:06:12] So I went to Bosing, graduated from there and the plan was to go to university because mom said to me, mom, that was mom’s like adamant thing was you need an education, no matter what you want to do. She said, I don’t care if it’s underwater basket weaving. She didn’t say those exact words, but she was kind of, that was her thing , its just a mom thing, she’s like, well, you know, in case something changes.
Um, right. So she said go to, go to college or university, get like trade. She didn’t, she knew she wasn’t hung up on, you know, university or college. It was just do something postsecondary. So I went to University of Manitoba. Um, not really the hot clue, what I wanted to do. Uh, business marketing, um, Agriculture was kind of in the mix, but I was like, Oh know, I want to kinda see, see what’s around and figure it out.
[00:07:10] And so funny enough, I went to university and geez, now I kept hanging out with all these rural kids and all these farm kids. Just, I kind of seem to gravitate the way it was almost like growing up on a farm. You had something in common
yeah. I don’t know. It was kind of strange. It was like, you know, you can meet a farmer from Swan river and you’re like, Oh look, you guys drive tractors too.
Dan: [00:07:35] You didn’t relate to the inner city kids quite the same.
Jake: [00:07:38] Honestly, I, at first I found it tough, like, because it is, I mean, It’s different environment, right?
Like he knew you say the environment you grew up in, it’s not your fault. You just that’s what you know. Right. So it was tough at first to relate to, you know, people who grew up in Winnipeg because it’s a different, it’s still Prairie, but it’s a different mindset, you know? Um, so anyways, I went there, I ended up hanging out with the farm kids.
It gives them these great Aggies and kind of thought, huh? Like these are some pretty cool cats. I remember sitting there one night and, uh, someone had a test like they’d gotten marked and got back and sit in there and like, kind of let’s anyway, let’s say. And then, Oh, that was my test from last week here.
I just looked at it. I’m like flipping through, flipping through. Oh, I know that one. Hi. I know that this is kind of interesting. And then they’re looking at me like, did you just call a test interesting from that point? Huh? Maybe I should probably be studying this if I’m interested in it and perhaps have a bit of background knowledge. So that was kind of when that light bulb went on. As my mom likes to say, I like to do everything the hard way, you know, I have to figure it out for myself. So that was me.
Figuring out for myself when I’m, I’m pretty sure my mom told me she’s like, yeah, you’ll probably end up in agriculture.
So that’s how I, that’s how I, I studied it. Um, graduated, uh, diploma class of 2017. Right. Uh, co valedictorian. So it was actually two, two gingers are the valedictorians. That was,
Dan: [00:09:19] Those Gingers are not on the decline. They are on the rise in some sectors.
Jake: [00:09:24] I think we had six gingers in the class of 78. So like they say it’s a 1% thing, but I don’t know if those skew the stats.
Dan: [00:09:34] I thought they were going to extinct that. I mean, I got like three and a half of them.
Jake: [00:09:39] Aparently not. We’re still, we’re still thriving. So anyway, so I graduated there and kind of worked around for a bit and woke up one day and realized that, you know, I was like, I always helped out in the farm in summers and stuff, but I, I woke up one day and I realized like I miss being on the farm.
I miss working with the land. The diverse job we do. I miss the people. So, uh, yeah, so I came back and now I, uh, farm and work on our family business, uh, rent some land of my own and just kind of doing my thing here.
Dan: [00:10:14] Absolutely. No, that’s really cool. So tell us, tell us a little bit about, uh, your farm and, and, and working with your dad and the businesses that you have and how you guys work together.
Jake: [00:10:24] Yeah, so we are a seed growers. Um, so predominantly the crops that we grow, so like wheat, barley, oats, uh, soybeans they’re pedigreed. So their seed production, uh, we also grow stuff like corn canola and like the conventional soybeans for cash drops. Um, we have a seed plant on site with a color sorter. So typically the crops that we grow, we, you know, we’re registered see to salvage them.
We process them on site. Um, and then we sell them to farmers in the surrounding area. Uh, so we sell them out of our yard. Um, we also sell, um, pedigreed seed for Pioneer. Um, we sell fertilizer, inoculants, biologicals, all that fun snake oil stuff. And we, and we do a bit do some custom work too. Like, uh, you know, we do custom planting, custom seating, uh, custom spraying, that kind of thing.
So, yeah, it’s, uh, it’s never a dull moment here. There’s always, always something going on. Me, me, dad, the family, and, uh, you know, we have one full time staff. Um, We rely on some, some seasonal help or a, you know, someone who can give us two, three days a week during the busy times,
Dan: [00:11:48] what is it that you really like doing on the farm right now?Like you’ve got all these different jobs. You can be selling, you can be spraying, you can be sorting seed. What do you like to do?
Jake: [00:12:00] Let’s think about that. I know I have this fantastic sprayer that some guy told me a few years ago, what he’s doing. I don’t know what he’s doing here. He’s doing a podcast.
Dan: [00:12:11] First equipment salesman. When I’ve ever heard, spoke of highly in agriculture community directly from a farmer. This is unprecedented. We’ve got to get this on the internet.
Jake: [00:12:19] Yeah, I don’t know. I think his name is like Dan or…,
Dan: [00:12:26] Oh that guy with the German name, strong like Bore
Jake: [00:12:29] and his shoes were just so… like he must just dumped a liter of oil on them. I’m thinking like, they were so shiny, those salesmen shoes
Dan: [00:12:40] or the tricks of the trade. Uh, Hey, will you shout out John Deere? That’s awesome. That you still use it, that’s cool. Yeah,
Jake: [00:12:48] no, we, uh, we actually, one of the big things we did on our farm this year, where there’s, we retrofitted that with, uh, no free ads, JD link.
Um, so it’s really good for recordkeeping. So any application that we do with the sprayer, it sends it to the cloud and then they have their platform and it gives you exact gallons applied to speed. Um, size of the fields and it’s all like on your dashboard and stuff. So it’s really good for us to see, like, if we’re experimenting, because we put our nitrogen down in form of 28 is the sprayer.
Oh, you mean some spots? You know, I had a little bit left in the tank. I’m like, ah, got a bit more nitrogen here. We’ll see how that translates. So it’s cool. Cause we can see like, Oh, that’s a hundred foot strip that’s in the back corner that you think, aw, they’ll do something. Well we’ll see harvest time. Cause we have yield mapping.
So, I enjoy doing ] that.
Dan: [00:13:40] I remember when that came out in the early two thousands, I was trying to place exactly what year, but, um, at the time I think they had actually come out with a program for it, IP, which tract, you know, which is meant to sort of attract all your production to the end user. But that was way too early on the curve, but it’s good to see.
I always thought this stuff had to be automated before it’d be any, any use.
Yeah. And I think moving forward, I think that’s, that’s what our consumers are demanding,is. They want that traceability. So I think programs like this and stuff like this moving forward. Yeah. It’s going to become the industry standard. I think you’re gonna, it’s going to get to the point where, or upon point of sale, you’re going to have to have record as you know, seeding, um, crop protection applications, fertilizing.
Like it’s going to be a requirement, I think. And I don’t know. I can’t put a timestamp on it, but I think I’ll definitely see it in my lifetime. For sure.
Dan: [00:14:35] Consumers are demanding.
Jake: [00:14:38] I think that they want to know who’s behind their food. I think it’s the conversations changed now from, you know, I want food to what’s the story behind my food, there’s a quote, somewhere that they want to feel good about their food. They want to know where it comes from and who produced it. And I think that’s, we’re seeing that more and more, especially in ag. So
Dan: [00:15:00] love it. Okay. Well that kind of wraps up the prodigal son section. So we’re about a third of the way through here.
You’re doing great. Now let’s circle back to your last year of U of M, where you’re just ripping it up with everybody that was there to learn. And you got into a debate about the carbon tax, which is obviously a heated topic for everybody in Western Canada, especially agriculture. Uh, and it kind of helped launch your career into politics now, where you’re representing farmers. Tell us about that.
Jake: [00:15:31] Yeah. So I’m back, I’m still in school. Um, Keystone ag producers, who’s our farm lobby group in Manitoba came to our classroom and they kind of gave us the spiel of who they were, what they did, um, who they represented, that kind of stuff. And they talked about their policy work and what they do, and, you know, meeting with government and advocacy policy, that kind of stuff.
They actually, they invited us to their annual meeting, which had kind of been going on with the diploma program for a few years inside us to their annual meeting and said, bring a resolution with you guys. Like, you know, um, so we kind of like resolution like what’s. And so they went, they went, worked through us and they kind of said, okay, like, what are some policy issues or what are some things going on, you know, say directly off your farm that affect your farm.
That’s what I kind of explained it. So, you know, it’s not the fact that that. No the back 40 it’s a, it’s got a few ruts from that night when dad went out there and the pickup truck is a little wet. Yeah. It seems to be a little bit of standing water there. And, uh, you know, ever since that night, I feel doesn’t mean right late.
It’s not something like that. It’s in the sense of, you know, like a government policy or something like that. So at the time, this was when, um, the carbon tax was just coming out where it was like, boom, everyone was talking about it in agriculture. Um, so this is what something our class came up with. Um, And drafted a resolution.
Um, and the gist of it basically was that, you know, moving forward, we’ve identified issues like the public trust. People want to know about their food. We want to be part of that conversation. Uh, we feel that, you know, we want to work with governments and industry on this issue. We don’t want to. Um, you know, be seen as being stubborn.
We want to be progressive. We want to be ahead of the curve and isn’t it better to be at that table discussing. Rather than, you know, standing standing one way or another and refusing. So that was the gist of it. So we drafted that. I got voluntold to speak to it,
Dan: [00:17:46] popular guy
Jake: [00:17:47] Which, back to, I know I bring up Ginger’s a lot, but like I said, it was three gingers who got voluntold to speak.
What are the odds? They must’ve just not liked us.
Dan: [00:18:01] natural selection that you’re outspoken or did you become outspoken? Cause you’re always, you know, being singled out as a ginger, like how does that work?
Jake: [00:18:08] I think it’s Scottish blood, whatever’s left of that are running, running through my veins, you know the Bravehart running through the Hills.Scottland, Scottland
Dan: [00:18:21] you see yourself as Mel Gibson, like in your mind, running over the Hills and then killed.
Jake: [00:18:26] I was going to say in that movie, I don’t know if I’d say Mel Gibson. Now he’s going to get quite a bit of bad press. So anyways, presented. We went to the meeting. We had a district support, so they moved it.
So it was, it was governance. It was, it was procedural and we prepared or we spoke and, um, obviously quite a bit of debate. And that was, that was interesting to see. Cause I’d never seen that before. Uh, in regards to policy or ag policy, I’d never seen a debate gone back and forth. It went on for quite some time and.
We, I mean, we gave our initial piece and we were kind of sitting there cause it was that first experience. And we were sitting there thinking like, you know, are we allowed to speak again? Like what’s the, and uh, I remember looked over at our Dean and she went, yeah, get out there, get out there guys, look, this is, this is you.
This is your piece, right? Like it’s better to take. Your thoughts express them rather than sit there and think, Oh, I woulda coulda shoulda right. So we’re about to get up. And then someone got up and in their speech, they said, um, You know, I’m doing this for the young people and pointed at us. And it was a complete opposite, like lost the point, nothing to do with what we’d said.
And we’re like, that’s putting words in their mouth. So we, you know, we got up and we rebuttaled and whatnot, and in the end, the, the policy passed. So that was, that was a really cool experience to be a part of. And that’s what got me interested in ag policy and politics was being a part of that process.
Um, I said to you before, like my parents always encouraged me. They said, be the change that you want to see. Like, if you’ve got an opinion, if you’ve got a thought, if you’ve got something you want to do. Do it because, you know, especially when it comes policy and whatnot, if you, you don’t say something, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago on the line, when that policy becomes law, when it’s legislated, you know, you’ve lost your opportunity, you’ve lost your window.
So it’s kind of always had that mindset. And then I kinda, um, when I worked around for a bit still kind of kept in touch with the group and eventually it came back. I was on our district board. Then I, uh, sat on the board of directors representing our district. And then just this past February, uh, I was elected to vice president and I also, I co-chair our mental young farmer program.
Dan: [00:21:01] Well, I want to circle back. I want to circle back to. Speaking out, that’s an important point and I’m sure there’s lots of people listening that are thinking like maybe they have something they want to speak out about. Um, you know, cause everybody feels passionate about topics. Is that something that you really had to work at or you’re kind of a natural at and you’re just getting better at?
[00:21:25] Or what would you say to somebody who wants to speak out, but finds it difficult?
Jake: [00:21:28] I would say. Plan out what you’re going to say. Do your research first, like educate yourself. Like I’m always, I’m challenging myself to learn about a subject. I don’t understand. Or, or further my knowledge I’m reading, you know, trying to expand my horizons and I like to read, try and find both sides before I myself, um, form my opinion on something.
But I would say read, plan out what you’re going to say. Um, I would say one of the biggest mistakes people make, if it’s an, a, an, a medium where you’re speaking, find what works best for you. Some people like when they’re speaking, I know for me, I hate reading word for word. Like, if I’m going to say something I’m not, I can’t go to that piece of paper.
When I speak, I jot the main points down. And I kind of go from there. I guess the big thing is get involved, whether it’s with a farm group, whether it’s four H whether it’s your town council, whatever the medium is, just get yourself involved, try your, try something new, push yourself. If you go into those environments, you’re going to get an opportunity one way or another.
Right? So I say that’s the first step is to get involved because you never know what opportunities are going to arise.
Dan: [00:22:45] Hey, that’d be awesome. If somebody heard this and wanted to, uh, take up arms about something that they were passionate about and make a difference in the world and good on you, it takes a, it takes courage and talent to do that.
So, and that’s what happens literally that situation you were illustrating is if. You’re not going to get up and speak. Somebody’s going to speak for you that may not represent your views at all. So congratulations on that. So we’ll move into the third part. We were joking about Keystone agricultural producers, sort of being like the hunger games with 12 districts.
And you’re in district one a lot like Katniss, just, you know, different sex and, and various other differences, which been probably not pertinent to the conversation illustrate today. And I’ve got trumping Trudeau in there, cause this is about politics. But tell us about the Keystone agricultural producers, your role there and what you guys are working on.
And you were just making a speech to the house of commons and you’re really using your voice for some good with this and this organization. Let’s. Let’s hear about that.
Jake: [00:23:39] Yeah. So Keystone ag producers is, uh, One of the, if not the largest, uh, producer, you know, policy lobby group in Manitoba. So they represent a variety of different farmers in Manitoba.
It’s grain farmers. It’s like sheep producers. We have like vegetable growers, fruits, like there’s a whole big list. We are a producer funded. And producer oriented and producer directed organization. So, um, whatever, whatever policy producers come forward with and, you know, once it’s debated and passed goes the organization and, and it kind of goes from there.
Dan: [00:24:17] Take me inside that, that board meeting. Did you guys have every couple of months, what does that, what does that look like to attend one? And what kind of discussions do you have there?
Jake: [00:24:27] Um, well, I mean, definitely scary for me. My first one, it was like, I’m, I’m a young guy. There’s, there’s no hiding that.
And just the quality of people in the organization. It just astounds me. Like, we’ve got people who have been leaders in their field. They’ve been national leaders and they all care. Like they’re there to truly help our industry. They’re encouraging. There have been great to me, really encouraging of young people.
They want more youth involvements. It’s, it’s, it’s interesting to go there and the quality of discussions, like, um, you know, for an issues and you know, all your standard governance stuff. Approving, Yes, no. Hand up, down kind of stuff, but it’s, uh, And it’s great to go there and the discussions and the work that they do, and I’m, I’m excited to work and continue to work with the organization.
I think it’s a great group and they really do have the best interests of Manitoba farmers and agriculture at heart.
Dan: [00:25:28] So, what are some of the things that you’re most proud of having worked with them or the organization has done has done? And what are you guys working on now?
Jake: [00:25:37] So one of the kind of cool things, um, Manitoba, I don’t know why Manitoba cause it’s awesome.
Right? Dan? Manitoba is awesome.
Dan: [00:25:45] Number one, except when I’m in Saskatchewan then Saskatchewan, no I love them both. it’s cool. I love them both
Jake: [00:25:52] Manitoba actually has the highest percentage of young farmers. So yeah, young, young farmer is defined by Stats canada is farmer under the age of 40.
Dan: [00:26:01] That’s interesting.
Jake: [00:26:02] So they’re seeing this resurgence of young farmers in Manitoba.
And, uh, kind of, one of the things I noticed is we have subcommittees that deal with, um, you know, meet on different issues. So like green zone seats, pulses, uh, transportation committee, livestock committee, environmental committee, uh, taxation committee, probably gonna miss a couple. So I’m just going to go with those five and then, and then in, uh, 2019, we formed a young farmer committee.
Um, our young farmer policy committee got the opportunity to meet with, um, federal minister, Bibeau. So the federal ag minister. So we got, I can’t remember how long the meeting with her, but that was, that was an awesome experience to be a part of that group. And then to have that group go and do something to meet with the federal ag minister in our country.
And, um, we received lots of positive feedback on that. So that was. That’s probably been two of the most cool things I’ve been a part of so far.
Dan: [00:27:03] That is awesome. I was just thinking, as you’re talking you’re year acceleration in your life and your career, just by virtue of hanging out with all these people, being surrounded by, you know, that kind of mentality is a, is a really good opportunity.
And I guess that would be pretty good opportunity for anybody that wants to be a part of a board on almost any level. You know, it’s a great. It is great to be surrounded by really passionate people that are intelligent leaders and caring and everything. So speaking of rural internet, I don’t know if that was the cause of it, but you’re a recently trying to connect with you should have been talking about rural internet access, because,
so, so, uh, I was asked to, um, present to the house of commons committee on ag, which, woo that was. I don’t get nervous for a lot of things. I was pretty nervous for that. This is the show, man. I’m, you know, I’m a place on game seven of, uh, Stanley Cup Final here. Like I can hear the Winnipeg whiteout.
Yeah. So I’m going to go into this. So it’s virtual committee because obviously they’re not sitting. Um, and I I’d written a submission and I was going to speak it. Cause you, I mean, you have to, if you’re speaking, you have to submit for translators. I compose the documents. Uh, they were doing a study on business management, so like insurance.
So Agro insurance, Agro invest Agro stability Agro recovery and Agro risk initiatives. So those are the five business management programs offering to Canada. Um, so speaking on that as, as a young person, um, it’s like five minutes before I’m supposed to be on the call. And my internet is still down and I’m like, just losing it.
Come on. This has to happen when I’m supposed to be. So my phone rings, you know, no caller ID. I’m like, this is someone from the government answer to like, um, is this Mr. Ayer. Yup. Are you aware that your supposed to be in a committee meeting right now? I’m like, yeah, just like holding it and I’m like, my internet crashed and I’m kind of panicking, so I’m trying to get this together. No, the lady’s like, Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m like, yeah. She’s like, do you want a tech to call you? I’m like, sure. So the tech calls me and he’s just like, Oh, Mr. Ayer,I’m like, yeah. He’s like, so you have internet problems. I’m like, Oh, I’m like, I am having internet problems 100%.
And he’s laughs, have you reset.., like, yeah, I’ve reset my router. I’m like, I’m literally just waiting for it to reboot. It lets me in the meeting. And so you’re like, Oh, so all of this, this roller coaster, I haven’t even gotten into the meeting at Dan. So I get into the meeting. I, you know, I had my attire on, a dashing sport coat and a collared shirt on . So someone, two, individual speak.
And then, okay. the chair says, Mr. Ayer, you’re speaking. So time starts now. So you have seven minutes. It’s okay. I’m like, hello, start doing my thing. All of a sudden, somewhere in these headphones. And I hear my headphones, this quiet voice
Mr. Ayer, Mr. Ayer stop speaking and I’m like, Oh. So I stopped. So a lot of the meeting, um, it was in French and. Uh, like I can understand a bit enough to get by and I knew what they were saying stop. So I stopped and then I, their interaction. And then they say, um, the translators can’t hear what you’re saying.
[And they’re finding it hard because they’re watching my mouth. Right. They’re finding it hard to translate and they need you to adjust your microphone. And then Oh, Mr. Ayer your videos quit. Oh, Mr. Ayer… we can’t and I’m like internet crashed again. No way.
Jake: [00:31:08] So it stopped. Um, and then I rebooted it and in the end actually, I tethered off my phone, to get the connection, so I tether it, and then they said, Mr Ayer, you have three minutes to my time cut and I lost my place and I’m like, uh, put all this effort in, but it went in as a written submission.
Um, But it was just kind of frustrating. I was like, man, I came here to talk about business management and I actually, I got one question from the NDP ag critic and he said, these, like, all I felt bad for you. You said you knew were prepared and you said, that’s not your fault, by the way. And then he asked me a question and I said, yeah.
I said, well, I was trying to elaborate that in my. In my presentation, but, um, internet kind, then they all laughed, yeah, I should have been talking about rural internet. I should go to that committee.
Dan: [00:32:04] Well, that very event just it just speaks volumes about, you know, the nature of reality when it comes to our connection with the East.
And it’s unfortunate, but at least you’re stepping up and having some conversations. So tell us, like what, what were you, uh, Sharing with the committee, there the house of commons. And what were you hoping to achieve? I read your speech. It was awesome by the way. And then it’s just such a shame that, you know, you weren’t didn’t get the opportunity articulate, like in normal circumstances, I guess you would have physically been in there in your suit and tie and they see what a nice young gentleman you are, and you could have talked about your family history and pasture week. Look them in the eye, like kind of like if you want to convince a jury or something, and unfortunately we’re all in this COVID situation, but you did the best you could. So what were you trying to achieve there?
Jake: [00:32:48] Yeah, so, I mean, you’re looking for input on businesses management. Um, and so I had a couple points, um, like Agora invest was one. Yeah. Like it used to be, uh, the portion was 3% like the eligibility. So I’d said like 3%, that’s something I could agree with. Um, and then basically. I told the story of like 2019, the Harvest from Hell, which for many producers across Canadian praries.
When I say Harvest from Hell, they know exactly what I mean. Um, and I talked about how on our farm, we had all these accrued costs. So like, Drawing our grain, pointing on airation fans. Uh, we, I put tracks on our combine. Like we rented tracks, put them on our combines. Um, we actually ended up, we rented another combine to finish.
Uh, so we, we, we, we harvest with a neighbor farm about the same size. And we share like, you know, labor resources, just so it’s efficient for both of us, we get harvest done as quick as possible. Um, so we rented this Columbine, so it did dry grain airation fans, tough grain, uh, crop, the got left out in the fields, you know, using a propane torch to defrost our combine header.
Like basically I talked about all these points and how it added doc to be. You know, dad and I did some preliminary cost estimates. And here’s the thing though, Dan. And you’ll you’ll know farmers are good people for the most part, everyone I’ve met has been a great individual that, you know, that mighty neighborly expression, everyone helped out everyone last year and, you know, kind of sit down, don’t worry about it, or we’ll sit down and square up later that kind of, you know, that kind of mentality, which is.
Still very true in agriculture. Um, so there’s a lot of, a lot of trades of things and, and that kind of stuff, or I’ll, we’ll, we’ll sit down later, figure it out. Well, to no avail, we have not sat down later and figured it out yet. So like some of these costs, you know, it’s, doesn’t figure it out and we gotta, we gotta do that.
Um, but like I said, my point was we spent probably close to, if not, it’s going to be more now, like 90 grand on, um, Just between the rentals machinery repairs that like basically costs additional costs to take off this harvest from hell. And my point was, if Agro Stability and Ag recovery do not account for these costs, there needs to be some serious revisions and changes because in my mind, you know, that weather events and the wet weather, and then that snow, that two and a half feet of snow that we had, um, Causes a lot of costs and stress to people.
And if our programming can account for those costs, I’m like, well, it needs to be revisioned like I said, I’m not asking for a government handout. I just want it to be able to better guarantee, you know, ensure if I have to pay more for more insurance, I am happy. I just want to be able to guarantee my insurance level.
So that’s on my kind of my main piece was that, you know, we had all these events happening in these programs are supposed to be a backstop for when circumstances beyond your control happened. And in my mind they didn’t. So that was my point.
Dan: [00:36:11] What’s wrong with the insurance right now.
Jake: [00:36:13] Okay. Well, a couple points.
AgriStability is very complex. Like, I don’t know. Oh, everything I know don’t claim to know everything. I struggled to wrap my head around it. And like the reading it, and we’ve been to meetings with our accountants and even they’re kind of like, well, this says that, but this says this. And so maybe,
Dan: [00:36:40] well there’s $400 an hour for them to figure that out.
Jake: [00:36:42] Yeah. Yeah. So the complexity and that was my, was this program needs to be, you know, simple, easier to understand. Cause that’s when you talk to people, those are the two things that come up. It’s complex. I don’t understand it. Um, and it doesn’t work for operations. Like I hear all the time, people who have say, you know, grain farm in livestock, they’re like, it doesn’t work for me.
It has never paid out. So why would I enroll in it? So I think the uptake isn’t quite what it should be. Um, so I see that as a problem, if you have a government program that’s supposed to be the answer and people are like, yeah, Nope, that’s a problem there. Right. Um, so it’s complex, um, you know, costs are changing and agriculture, nothing, nothing is cheap anymore.
Um, I mean I’d love a new John Deere, Exxon gumline. If someone wants to, you know,
Dan: [00:37:36] are you out there?
Jake: [00:37:39] Yeah. Like costs the costs and agriculture costs have risen. Like it’s, it’s no longer, you know, you hear stories of farmers, you know, they took off a half section of flax and I know 19. Stick to the too would just try to put a year on it.
And no, but I’ve heard stories like, Oh, I took off that half section of flax and with the profit on that half section, I bought the combine that ran that I’m like, Oh, that would be slick. But the cost of everything now I’m and the margins are. Tight ever since Dan left machine prices have just skyrocketed
Dan: [00:38:12] You know I saw the writing on the wall. It almost made me look smarter, but it was probably not that, that plan. But yeah. Now if you take off a crop, I mean, you can be proud if you make the payment, you don’t go buy something. He was like, Oh, I made my lease payment in the game.
Jake: [00:38:27] Yeah, it’s at the point now everyone is, is leveraged, right? Like, you know, leveraged by their assets.
It’s kind of, it’s not a realistic picture. It’s like everyone is, you know, credits and going to the bank and loans and. Um, I feel like the climate has changed. So it’s, it’s a different game and the costs like my whole bottom line is just, if I have to pay more for more insurance, I’m happy. I just want to be able to get more insurance.
That’s my point.
Dan: [00:38:57] Well, that’s a good one. I think there can be good tools out there and if they were simple and usable that you could take some of the risk out of it. For sure. So. This is awesome, man. We covered a lot, a lot of ground. We could talk a lot, a lot longer and maybe you could come on again, you know, as you’ve covered some more political ground and had some more experiences, I think it’s a really good conversation.
Uh, you know, wrapping things up here. What’s next for you in terms of agriculture, the farm, and working with Keystone, agricultural producers and all that. What are your goals? What are you focused on?
Jake: [00:39:32] Yeah. So I guess the farm, uh, thing, cause it’s been hot lately. Let’s look in like, we’re probably going to be fungicide here on the weekend, on our barley.
Um, and then as far as Keystone, we have. Our, um, advisory council. So that’s a summer policy session. We’re just kind of working on finalizing the date, looking like end of July. So that’s going to be on Zune is obviously we’re still under, uh, guidelines, restrictions for amount of people in a room, that kind of thing.
So there’s that that’s our policy session. Um, and as well, this is my pre-interview, but here’s my plug. Um, I’m also this year I got the opportunity and it’s, it’s a charity that I really. You know, believe in, and it’s important to rural. Um, rural Canada is a stars and Stars are Ambulance.
Dan: [00:40:25] Nice love it.
Jake: [00:40:26] So they, uh, their big fundraising event is called rescue on the Island.
Um, so I got the opportunity. I am going to be on the Island, so I have to fundraise some money to get off the Island. So, uh, hopefully there’s enough people out there that maybe, I dunno, they don’t have to like me. And is that like stars would maybe possibly be able to donate? I know this is the service, like in, in my life.
Um, we haven’t had to utilize it, but in agriculture, I’m sure, you know, Dan, you talk to anyone or you hear that word stars. Everyone knows what you mean, right? Like they know about the air ambulance, they know have a family member, or they’ve heard a story about how it’s truly benefited them. Um, so yeah, so I’m, I’m, I’m doing that charity event.
Um, perhaps I can give you the link or something. There’s a page where if people are able to donate, um, that’s something I’m pretty excited about is that September 9th is that event.
Dan: [00:41:25] Please do. And I’m sure that a lot of people will be cough up some cash to save a ginger, you know, given their relative rarity.
And the fact that they’re going extinct to me, we can’t afford to lose many more gingers. I mean, you gotta. You got to get out there and you got to proliferate young, man, you can’t. So you kind of hold those jeans back procreating.
Jake: [00:41:42] I like that, Dan, but I’m worried that what you’re saying that people are thinking, get rid of that guy.He can, he can stay there.
Dan: [00:41:50] He’s hasn’t had children yet. And we’ve got to bring this guy back. I mean, we were, we were gonna have a segment on, uh, we were gonna have a segment on farm dating and I don’t know if that has anything to do with internet connectivity, but I mean,
Jake: [00:42:02] That’s, that’s not, that’s a whole nother, we do a whole podcast on that one. Dan it’s it’s a little different in the farm world, uh, in downtown Toronto.
Dan: [00:42:11] Do you have, do you have any stories about when you were like swiping rights on potentially like a life mate and then your internet died?
Jake: [00:42:20] Internet died. Yeah. Mid, mid texting of conversation and it just gone. Yeah. I’m sure it was the internet.
And, and not the fact that, uh, this, this lady looked and saw the picture of a ginger and went, no, it wasn’t the fact that it was an accident. It was I’m saying it was the internet, a hundred percent pure internet just crash. So
Dan: [00:42:41] I feel that your brother, every, every time I get ghosted, it’s it’s internet.
Jake: [00:42:46] Yeah. Oh yeah. Just must’ve been out for the past week. She just hasn’t been able to talk. I’ll I’ll send her a telegram.
Dan: [00:42:53] Oh, another one loses connection. I thought we had a, such a great connection and she lost her connection.
Jake: [00:43:01] That’s great. Dan.
Dan: [00:43:03] We had a lot of fun. A it’s a last Manitoba ag days. We’re going to have a lot of fun at the next one.
Even if like we’re, we’re socially distanced. I’m hoping it’ll still happen, but we’ll see. But.
Jake: [00:43:12] Yeah, I re I really hope. I mean, I guess you guys would be the same, right? With depending on guidelines and what the plan is moving forward, but I really hope something happens for Ag Days, its a fun time, great learning opportunity and networking opportunities.
You get to meet a lot of people from all over the world,
Dan: [00:43:29] but I think your voice is going to ring through the halls of, uh, of, uh, the decision makers in the, in the years to come. And you’re on a great path to be surrounded by such good people. So keep up the good work. I appreciate you coming on the show.
I say hi to your dad for me. And I guess one last thing you said per capita, we got the most young farmers. Did you know that we got the most, we also in Manitoba have the most cottages per capita in the world?
Jake: [00:43:55] No, I mean, we got a lot of beautiful lakes. That’s yeah, a lot, a lot that I haven’t even been to it.I know there’s some up North, but
Dan: [00:44:02] yeah, you guys are out at the Lake of the Prairie. You say.
Jake: [00:44:05] Yeah. Yeah. Like at the Perry’s ask specifically, that’s kinda been the winter stomping ground when we were kids growing up, flying down the ski Hill. And, uh, of course we met up with your brother and his wife a couple of times and I love it up there.
It’s a great place. I still actually, when I’m not doing 10 million other things. Yeah. I bartend there in the winter too, it’s just kind some fun yeah. Something to do. And you’ll come Christmas time where. Yeah, I got a house full of family. And maybe you need an escape. Maybe I didn’t say that bar is a good place to work.
Dan: [00:44:40] Well, let’s have a shot this winter. If I don’t see you before then share what sounds good, man. Thanks for coming on the show. I appreciate it. Take care of Jake. Keep it real.