Alberta Grains’ First Executive Director is in Learning Mode

Feb 13, 2024

In the world of Alberta agriculture, leadership is pivotal. Mike Flynn, the newly appointed executive director of Alberta Grains, steps into his role with a wealth of experience from diverse sectors. His transition into the ag sector, albeit recent, has been akin to “drinking out of a firehose,” as he describes it.
In an exclusive interview with the Alberta Seed Guide, Flynn shared insights into his journey thus far and the path ahead for Alberta Grains, formed last year after the merger of Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley.

“I have been the executive director for other organizations, that were all from completely different sectors. So, I know kind of the mechanics around working with the board and volunteers and that sort of thing,” he says.

“I’m happy to bring a fresh perspective to the agricultural sector, but I’m learning a ton and just impressed at every corner of what I’m discovering about the people that make up this organization.”

Flynn’s career spans more than 20 years as an executive director across diverse sectors. Notably, his tenure as executive director of the Calgary Police Commission and the Urban Development Institute underscores his adeptness in handling intricate policy formulation, facilitating public outreach, and fostering collaboration among community stakeholders.

“I think one of the most pleasant surprises for me, and it speaks to my inexperience within the ag industry, is just the willingness of the agricultural community to use new technologies and embrace them, and also their interactions with the scientific community and their embracing of science,” Flynn says.

“I don’t know why, but I had a preconceived notion that there might be some rejection of the technology and science. That’s been a real eye-opener for me.”

As an experienced executive director, Flynn is aware of the challenges inherent in fostering unity and collaboration among stakeholders. In his role with Alberta Grains, his strategy is centered around recognizing Alberta Grains’ leadership role within the industry and leveraging relationships effectively.

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Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators