Industry Veteran Keith Whitaker Joins Performance Brokerage Services Equipment Division

May 23, 2024

Performance Brokerage Services, North America’s highest volume dealership brokerage firm, welcomes industry veteran Keith Whitaker to the team as Partner for the Equipment Division.

Keith received an engineering degree from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota. He comes to Performance Brokerage Services with 35 years of experience in the agricultural equipment industry.

Keith began his career at John Deere, focusing on tractor design and testing. He later held management positions at Case Corporation, gaining M&A experience, and leading post-integration efforts. As VP of Sales & Marketing at an equipment OEM, he expanded dealer distribution and introduced retail financing, facilitating a successful transition to a strategic buyer, Kuhn, where Keith served as President of the new company. Keith transitioned to retail, serving as an interim CFO and General Manager for two John Deere dealership groups. Thereafter, he joined AGCO and became CEO of AGCO-Amity JV, leading its operational performance and strategic acquisition by Vaderstad in 2021.

Recently, Keith obtained his Florida real estate license, and is using his past M&A experience to help businesses create value through improvement in operational performance and preparation for ownership transition, including supporting them throughout the process. Performance Brokerage Services is proud to have Keith on the team and excited to work alongside him in the future.

Over the last 5 years, Performance Brokerage Services has advised on the sale of over 300 dealerships, making it the highest volume dealership brokerage firm in North America.

Source : Farm Equipment

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.