Hi there.  My name is Dave Norris and I started Norris Crop Consulting in June of 2014.  But there’s obviously more to this story.

I was born and raised on family grain farm south of Delisle closer to the metropolis of Donavon.  I was heavily involved like most farm kids my whole life.  At 14 I became the full time combine driver, I loved driving combine but looking back I can see why dad handed over the reigns, hours and hours of driving a pull type IH 1482 can wear on a back and neck, but when your young the lack of FM radio seemed to more of an issue.

1988 was a terrible drought on our farm and it was a driving factor to continue my education and apply for the College of Agriculture.  I immediately gravitated and chose to major in the soil science program and In 1992 I graduated with an agriculture degree majoring in soil science.

After graduating times were tough and jobs were scarce.  I applied everywhere and did whatever I could to break into the industry.  My first job after graduating was working at Ace Vegetation as a hand boom application spray specialist.  Yes, I sprayed well sights in farmers fields as well as the 80 acre refinery sites from the back of a half tonne with a hand sprayer.  It was a dirty job but it got me started and I’m glad I did it.  Most employers didn’t challenge my work ethic after seeing that on the resume (lol).  I got my first brake in the agriculture market with an independent retail near Saskatoon called Custom Ag.  It was essentially a combination of sales, forklift driving, moving equipment and sweeping floors. However, my passion was sales and following this I broke into the ag chemical sector with a 9 month contract with Zeneca Ag to help launch a new product called Achieve.  This contract led to one of my clients offering me a front counter sales job with the local Ag retail (Alberta Pool in Vermillion). Within 9 months there was an opportunity of a lifetime.  AgrEvo was looking for a sales rep in the Saskatoon area.  I applied and because of previous contacts with the sales manager (while I was at Custom Ag) I was offered the job.   This opportunity was the break I needed.  Years of moving and taking whatever contract was offered has paid off.  I was know able to move home, work in a career I enjoyed and all the while learning that I missed the farm.  I bought my first quarter of land and began to farm on nights and weekends with my mom and dad.

Fast forward, it’s now 1997, I’m married, were moving to the farm. I was still working with AgrEvo, my wife was a nurse, my mom a substitute school teacher, my dad a school bus driver and all the while we were farming about 3500 acres.  By 2005 some major decisions had to be made.  I was burning out, spraying from 5:30-7:30am, working at Bayer all day, spraying at night.  My kids were 5 and 3 and I was beginning to miss out on there activities.  Dad and I talked and the options were to expand or retire.  We both agreed that him retiring and me continuing in sales was the best option for both families (I don’t regret it but you always miss it).

Now that I’m actually focusing more of my time on my career I wanted to pursue bigger challenges and opportunities.  After 13 years with AgrEvo, Aventis and Bayer I left and took a position with MANA Canada.  They were one of the world’s largest true generic manufacturers.  This was considered a step into the “dark side” and very controversial and somewhat alienating.  However, the challenge of bringing true generic competition into the Western Canadian market place was intriguing to me.  I believed it was also important that growers were offered more choice and opportunity.  So, for 3 years I worked with MANA Canada and learned so much more about distribution, global products, marketing etc.  I am proud to say that the company made it and today is considered mainstream in the market place.

In 2011 I was head hunted and interviewed for a job in a new, exciting market place.  Precision ag was becoming the next big thing in agriculture and I was offered to be the Canadian manager for a company called Geosys.  It was such a huge learning curve from traditional agriculture.  The products revolved around utilizing satellite imagery and ground breaking software.  I traveled around all of Canada promoting the technology and products.  Variable rate was the most common but also looking at predicting yields by the field all the way to 30,000′ level.  The programs that stats Canada and others are still looking at today were and have been available since 2011 and even prior.  Having the opportunity to visit the global office in Toulouse France and see what is all involved to make this magic happen and to have input on features and future products for growers.

Oddly enough, 3 conversations led to Norris Crop Consulting forming in 2014.  One was with a grower (now client) about the fact growers are getting what he called decision fatigue.  He was bombarded with decisions on a daily basis.  He went on to say that he loves to farm but cannot keep up with all the information on a daily basis and still make an educated decision and that there was an opportunity in the market for unbiased recommendations.  This resonated with me because my dad and I had the same conversation while we farmed back in 2002.  I remember the day, the conversation like it was yesterday.  We were having coffee in the a.m. planning our day and he looked at me and said, “I can’t keep up with all the chemicals and marketing, I love to farm, I just want to farm but I want to look after that”.  I said “How about you look after the machinery and maintenance and I’ll do that”.  We agreed and that partnership worked great.  The 3rd and last conversation was one with my kids.  I was giving them the you need an education blah, blah, blah speech and also added that they should also consider having there own company when they get older.  Everyone promotes kids to be a teacher, nurse etc but rarely do they say “start your own company”.  It hit me, I just told them to do it and I was hesitating to make the jump.  So, I did.

I’ve taught my kids many things over the year but the ones that applies to business are:  #1-always have goals #2-your don’t have to be an expert at everything but having contacts that you can call upon anytime is just as or even more valuable.

Long story, but that’s how it all began.

Dave