A view from Jeremy Ostrander, CEO of AgriVision Equipment & PrairieLand Partners

As we start 2022, I would like to first thank you for your continued trust in the AgriVision Equipment team. If 2021 was a baseball game, it was filled with lots of curve balls, broken bats, and squeeze plays. Despite all of this, I believe 2021 was a pretty solid win for most in the Ag industry and surrounding areas. Despite the stories that you may hear in the media regarding the pandemic and politics, we have a lot of positive things to talk about as we look forward. A year ago in January, we were just starting to see corn with a $5 in front and beans headed toward the teens. Today we find both crops a dollar above last year and a positive outlook for prices going forward. Cattle and hog prices are up 20% and 15% respectively from a year ago. With inflation, we will continue to see input costs higher than we would like. Despite the inflation, profits are still looking strong for 2022, as inflation and South American weather challenges provide support for prices. As I recently celebrated a half century on this earth, I have been considering the amount of change agriculture has seen in my lifetime. I have seen soybean weed control go from a hoe or corn knife and many early damp mornings on the Ostrander farm, to RoundUp, to our current sprayers with individual nozzle control. In the next year, we will get to experience a sprayer that can visually differentiate a weed from a corn or soybean plant while traveling through the field, and only spray the weeds. It will come with a hefty price tag I am sure, but based on our early experience, it will also save us 70% on our herbicide cost in many post applications. In a short article on page 10, our Hamburg store shares their experience in 2021 with Taranis. Taranis uses drone imagery to not only count the # of weeds per acre, but to also use AI and machine learning to identify the species of weeds. It can also count the # of holes in leaves, to identify when bug thresholds justify pesticide use. What can we do in the future if we fly a field to know what weeds and bugs we have where, and then use a “smart” sprayer to spray the right product, at the right rate, in the right spot? There is one truth about agriculture that appears true……change is always coming. I would speculate that agriculture in the next 5 years may see as much change as we have seen in the past 15 years. You may have seen our own Jon Carlo, and Taylor and Emily Nelson (customers from NE Neb), helping John Deere with the rollout of the Autonomous 8R tractor at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Autonomy will be a change similar in proportion to the transition from horse to tractor that many of our grandfathers got to experience. I have heard it said, “In times of change, experience may be your own worst enemy.” I have seen this many times in manufacturing, genetics, and other industry influences. There is also something to be said about experience and wisdom, and not being out on the bleeding edge of change as we strive for success. Success is a journey, not a destination. One never really arrives at success. There is always a better way to do things, and the exciting part of growing crops or livestock, is that we get to try things at our own pace and on our own farms. If you study successful people, you will observe that an overwhelming majority of them succeed in spite of their obstacles. The ability to make the best out of what you have, and manage situations and circumstances in your favor, is a critical success factor. I invite you to join me in 2022 as we embrace change and make the best out of what we have. Many opportunities will be created in our challenges. May we keep our focus on the things that really matter and put our faith in the right spot. We are blessed to be in an industry that gets to feed, clothe, and fuel the world. I look forward to sharing the vision with you as we live out 2022.

Thank you all so much,

Jeremy Ostrander