It doesn’t mean it was easy. Bruce Schmaltz has thought carefully about when to step aside.
As with most farms, DynAgra is about family too, not just business. Bruce himself came on board as the third generation in the 1980s when the company began selling fertilizer and became known as Beiseker Agri Services Ltd. Bruce then guided the company in the late 90s as it expanded locations and services and became known as DynAgra Corp.
Now, when DynAgra wrapped up its business year at the end of August 2008, Bruce, company president, turned the daily management of DynAgra over to his two sons, Tasha and Remi, who have been with the company for the past three years. Tasha is general manager, while Remi is manager of corporate development.
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“In my day it was second nature for me to adjust the carburetor of a ’57 Chevy — it was innate,” says Bruce. “And for these young fellas, the new agriculture technology is the same as that carburetor was to me. The computer, the internet, global positioning systems, satellite imagery, variable rate technology — it is all second nature to them.”
Bruce isn’t a dinosaur by any means, but he says there comes a point in business when you have to face your limitations.
“You build a business over a number of years and it is tough to let go,” Bruce says. “Maybe it becomes something like a benign dictatorship. You say ‘I built this and I can run it all.’ But you get up one morning, look in the mirror and have to realize that you have hit your level of incompetence. You have to realize it is time to let go.”
“The new generation of farmers are interested in this technology and want to see what it can do for them,” says Tasha. “Hopefully, as we bring this new technology to the industry, we also demonstrate our belief that there is a future in agriculture.”
