Kurtis Ginter, Agronomist

Vibrant Career

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"Anybody interested in Agriculture, you'll find it to be a very diversified career choice and a very exciting one.

"Everything is changing every year. If you want to move into a face-paced career that has good rewards and good potential, Agriculture is definitely a career choice for you."

Where I work

I'm self-employed, one of four shareholders for Crop Check Ltd, a Winkler-based company in its tenth year of operations. We provide a range of agricultural consulting and global positioning satellite services to farming operations in south central Manitoba.

We set ourselves apart by being service-oriented as opposed to selling the products we recommend. Our product recommendations are unbiased and we provide the best solution for our client, the grower.

Best Methods

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"We're regularly involved in monitoring crop growth and production. If there are in-the-field problems, we investigate the cause of these problems.

"We study crop production to discover what we feel are the best methods for our clients in terms of planting, cultivating, harvesting their crops, as well as evaluate new methods of growing crops to secure efficient production, higher yields, improved quality."

Diagnosis

A lot of our diagnosis is visual, but we like to have confirmation of more intense problems or diseases that we deal with. For those cases, we send samples to a crop diagnostic lab at the university for a laboratory diagnosis.

We perform soil and tissue testing throughout the seasons. Those samples get sent away to a laboratory in North Dakota for nutrient analysis.

Different seasonal paces

The work changes from season to season. In the winter, I work from an office in one of our shareholder's homes, crunching numbers and researching. I also attend meetings and conferences. In the spring, summer and fall, we spend about 80% of our time outside.

In the summer, even though my truck is my office, I'll walk four to eight miles a day. In the fall, we spend about four months field testing. I can be in and out of the truck upwards of two hundred times per day.

Communication

During the winter, we contact clients weekly by phone. In the summer, there are often daily phone conversations and we meet with them two or three times a week.

Oral communication is very important. We need to be able to communicate our observations, bring them to the grower and make our recommendations understood. We need to value the grower's opinions and take them into consideration when trying to adapt new changes. We make year-end presentations to our clients.

Time outdoors

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"I wish summers were longer to decrease my workload. I could increase my camping. When time off comes, I have to be outside.

"Outdoor recreation is a big passion of mine. I love going out into the forest with an ATV and exploring, either with the guys or the whole family. Camping in the outdoors or any time I can get two minutes of that, I take advantage."

Family history

My great-great-grandparents came from Russia. They originally went to Halifax and then moved to south central Manitoba in the early nineteen hundreds.

Our office is located at the homestead of my great-great-grandfather. My great-grandfather lived there, my grandfather lived there and my parents live there. Our office is located in my father's home, so there is a lot of history to the site.

Family business

My mother was a teacher and my father took the Agricultural program at the University of Manitoba. He worked in the agricultural sector until we came together in this joint venture and started our crop consulting company. He's been in agriculture as long as I can remember.

The only teaching Mom does now is full-time grandmother teaching as my children are home schooled. She also does some of our administrative work.

Manitoba life

I really like Manitoba summers and enjoy the long summer days. It's like the sun never goes down, so you can get a lot done during the day. If you have time to travel, there's beautiful geography in every corner of this province. I love that about Manitoba.

The changing seasons are also great. Even though the winter may seem long, hard and cold, it's a welcoming change to a busy summer. I could do without the mosquitoes, though.

Home and work

When you're self-employed and you run your own business out of your home, making that differentiation between work and home becomes increasingly difficult.

If I can avoid working at home, I do. I try to leave the computer behind and turn off my cell phone because when I go home, there has to be family time. It's difficult but I need to focus on my home life.

Finding solutions

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"We evaluate what they're doing and how they can improve on their production practices. We focus fairly heavily on the fertility aspect. We do a lot of nutrient analysis and determine what's going on in the soil as well as what's going on in the plant.

"We help assist in their nutrient management planning to obtain better yields. These are challenges the grower is facing. How can we overcome them? We deal with weed identification and the insect and disease aspect as well."

Different schedule

In the summer, 60 to 80 hour weeks are common. I work 35-40 hours a week in the winter. In the winter, my day starts at 7:30am and ends between 4:00pm and 6:00pm.

Sometimes I'll start with a breakfast meeting, and then head to the office to return calls and emails. I read research on the computer or in the periodicals we receive. I work on fertilizer plans or write crop production reports. I try to get home for lunch. In the afternoon, I deal with administrative stuff and meet with clients.

Changing business

It's an industry that moves quickly. We've seen fields chewed by insects, where 50 % of the plant is consumed overnight. We need to constantly be in those fields. Things can change in no time.

It's an industry that changes based on consumer demands. We're raising and growing food crops. If the customer's not happy or wants it changed, we have to adapt and change things as soon as possible.

Flexibility

I enjoy being my own boss. I answer to my clients and need to do a good job, but I have the flexibility to make my own decisions and set my own pace. There's ample opportunity for me to get away from the routine of pushing paper.

I could never work indoors all day. The elements can be interesting. After a big rain, there won't be much field inspection so I'll put on my hip waders, jump on the ATV and go check drainage. Weather is always changing, always exciting.

Farming myths

There's a misconception that farming only occurs six months out of the year and for the other six months you have nothing to do. That's not the case. Our winters are just as busy as our summers, but we have more flexibility in the winter.

There's also a myth that pesticide use is damaging to our health. I would challenge that and say it's a fact that we eat some ten thousand times more of nature's pesticides than the synthetic pesticides I deal with every day.

Stressful work

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"We're constantly making recommendations and providing advice to our clients. You need to have all of the background information to give the best advice to your client. The value of the crop that we're dealing with, for me that's a big component of stress; reassuring myself we're making the best decisions possible.

"I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I need to have everything done just right. That's good on one hand but if it's too much, it's easy to lose sight."

Network

I work with potato production and my clients grow potatoes for processors in the province. We're not required to work with processors, but some of them realize the value of our mutual clients having our services.

At the end of the day, we're trying to make the grower a better quality, more profitable product. In turn, that's going to give them a better processing product to work with. It's an evolving relationship. There are challenges to overcome because some of the processors see us as more of a threat than an asset.

Technology

I have a laptop and a pocket PC phone device. We have heavy duty trucks with electronic over hydraulic soil probe equipment designed to give us hydraulic test depths up to four feet. Our trucks are GPS guided.

For field scouting, we use four wheelers equipped with GPS mapping. We do some nutrient testing with electron meters that can test sap for nutrient analysis. Other electronic devices like scales and infra-red thermometers also help for records we keep.

Collaboration

I collaborate within my company since we're small and employee based. I also liaise with other private crop consultants in the province here. These businesses aren't competitors because we're not in the same territory.

Relationships are key in my business. I network with people around the world that grow and deal with the same problems. If I'm talking with someone who has twenty years of field experience, with my ten, I'm bringing thirty years of experience to my client.

Biggest accomplishment

Surviving ten years of business has been a tremendous accomplishment. The first three years we scratched our heads, wondering what we were doing. Year four and five, things started to change.

When you look at North American statistics on small businesses that start up and the percentage that make it and the percentage that doesn't, I think it's a pretty good accomplishment that we're still here.

Supportive family

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"My parents, they've always supported me in the choices that I've made. When I first attended university it was in the Engineering field.

"I took one year of General Engineering and decided I couldn't live a life inside an office. I needed to be outside and Agriculture was the way to do it, so through that change they supported me one hundred percent."

Education important

High school career days and talking with the guidance counsellor helped me realize post-secondary education would be mandatory for a good job and a decent wage. Both are possible with less education but your options are limited. I felt it was necessary to go to college or university.

My friends felt the same way so my peer pressure was saying, "You should go to university." If I were to do things differently, instead of getting a diploma in Agriculture, I would work toward a degree in Agriculture.

Work history

Before starting the business, I went through a transition period. I worked as an electrician at an RV plant. Before that, I worked on a special crops farm for four years doing field work. I was involved with pesticide spraying. I did equipment maintenance and grain hauling.

It was a first-hand look at what's involved in growing crops. Watching plants grow, cultivating them or spraying them became fascinating to me. I did this through high school and university.

More learning

Ongoing training is a key part of our business. We work during the winter to keep up our skills. Two years ago I enrolled with the Agronomy Association of America and became a Certified Crop Advisor. I'm required to attend a certain number of hours of classroom time in different areas of crop production to maintain that certification.

Some courses are offered here, some out of province. I try to make a point of travelling out of province to get a difference perspective.

Volunteer work

I've been actively involved in our church community, working with the local youth groups for nine years. I've also helped work on the Sunday school programs.

Working with youth is important to me. They have the same struggles we do and they need encouragement. Seeing kids grow through the challenges provides me with hope to carry on through the everyday emotional challenges that come with life.

Goals

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"My goal day-to-day is to have a positive impact on everyone I meet. My goals for my career would be to continue this current business, definitely expand.

"I'm looking forward to being able to having more employees and being able to form stronger team groups within our company. In five years, if we hired three or four employees, that would be a gold mine."

Greater impact

In five years I'd like to be more actively involved in global Ag production as opposed to just the local scene. I would like to use the skills I've learned and try to access other parts of the world that don't have that kind of expertise.

Maybe that would involve travelling to those areas to work closely with farmers to develop plans and goals and work with them to product profitable and sustainable agriculture.

Skill development

If I were to go back to school, I'd work toward an Agriculture degree. At this point in my life, with where I'm at personally and financially, I would probably just hire people with that background. I'll keep taking courses through the Agronomy Association of America so I'm up to date.

I'd like to improve my science background to get a better understanding of plant physiology. I would also like to increase my computer skills, particularly with networking computers and web design.

Tropical travel

I love to travel. My wife and I are coming up on a tenth anniversary so we've talked about going somewhere hot and tropical. We've never done that together.

In the meantime, it would be nice to take a trip to the mountains. We used to travel to destinations with mountains regularly before we had the kids, and I miss that.

Future prospects

Both my company and Agriculture have a strong future in Manitoba. There is a positive future for Agronomists. It's a growing industry. In the past five years, Sales Agronomists were promoting crop production and product sales. There is a need for third party Agronomists.

With this change, I can see more skill requirements for the industry for private or farmer-owned Agronomists making cropping decisions. That's the biggest change. It won't be the retail outlets doing it.

Job market info

The links below take you to federal and regional government information on employment, education, salary ranges and long range prospects for this career.

The official title for Kurt's occupation is "Agronomist" and its NOC* code is 2123.

Manitoba Job Futures

Who Hires? - Manitoba Labour Market Information

*Each occupation has an official name and unique number called the ‘National Occupational Classification' code or 'NOC'.

Education

High School

Useful High School Subjects:*

- Biology
- Chemistry
- Math
- English

*Source: JobFutures.ca

Red River Technical Vocational Area
A consortium of five school divisions in south central and south eastern Manitoba. Each offers different technical-vocational courses that are shared among them. The courses cover production of manufactured goods, research and development of products as well as the engineering, production, sales and support of the products. Students are exposed to many different careers along the way. 

For those out of school, Adult Learning Centres can help you get or upgrade your high school diploma, including adding subjects that are required for work or further education. All Manitobans are normally entitled to 4 free courses.

After high school 

University of Manitoba

Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

I.H. Asper School of Business

University College of the North

Business Administration p 27 of pdf

Assinboine Community College

Agribusiness

Business Administration

Red River College

Business Administration

Skills

Useful Experience/Skills*

- Project Management
- Team Project Work
- Proposal Writing
- Making Presentations
- Financial Management
- Committee Work on Environmental Ethics

*Source: Job Futures.ca

There is not yet an Essential Skills* profile for this occupation.

*Essential Skills provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change.

Professional resources

Certified Crop Advisor Program
An American certification agriculture program that certifies agronomists in Canada and the USA

Manitoba Institute of Agrologists
An association of agricultural professionals dedicated to high standards and leadership in the agri-food industry

Canadian Aerial Applicators Association
An organization for the aerial application industry committed to education, safety and communication

National Farmers Union
A labour organization for farmers and their families

Manitoba Chambers of Commerce
An organization providing support and lobbying for Manitoba business.

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