Welcome to a special bonus episode of Ruminate This! In this installment of our “Meet the Team” series, join host Scott Zehr as he chats with Chad Christensen, Regional Business Development Manager at Agrarian Solutions. Discover Chad’s journey, his role in driving regional business development, and his passion for agriculture.
Tune in to learn about the values and culture at Agrarian, and get an insider’s perspective on how teamwork and integrity drive success. Don’t miss this conversation that highlights the people behind Agrarian Solutions and what makes our team thrive.
🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!
Scott Zehr
All right. Hey, welcome back to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions, everybody. I’m your host, Scott Zehr. Today we continue our bonus series meet the team at Agrarian. And I’m excited to have my colleague Chad Christensen join us today. Chad, welcome to Ruminate This man.
Chad Christensen
Thanks, Scott.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. So Chad is one of the Regional Business Development Managers at Agrarian Solutions. I would happen to be the other one over here on the East coast. Chad, Minnesota boy, right? Born and raised, right?
Chad Christensen
Born and raised. Yes.
Scott Zehr
Born and raised. I never hear the Minnesota come out of Chad at all. I got to throw a little, poke there at the up North boys. It’s still north to me. Not by much though. Probably not by much at all. But Chad, you know tell us a little bit about yourself you know, how long you’ve been with Agrarian, kind of what you do as the regional business development manager? And, I guess first and foremost who the heck is Chad Christensen?
Chad Christensen
Yeah. Chad Christensen. I live in, Southeast Minnesota. If you’re familiar with Minnesota, I’m probably about an hour Southeast of Minneapolis, right along the Mississippi river. If you know, Minnesota between Rochester and Red Wing, Minnesota. A small town called Goodyear, Minnesota, and kind of in the country.
Yeah, so I’m five minutes from jumping the bridge and into Wisconsin whenever I need to head that direction. So it’s, it’s pretty centrally located for where I spend the majority of my time. And I’m married for 20, going to be six years.
Scott Zehr
Careful, chad. This is, this is a public platform.
Chad Christensen
Three great kids, two boys and a girl. Oldest one will be 24 here in a couple of weeks. My middle son will be 21 in December and my daughter is going to be 18 in a couple of weeks. So we’re kind of rounding that corner in our life of all of a sudden life is slowing down a little more time on our hands it seems like instead of the the running constantly when the kids were younger. So a little little change for my wife and I. So my wife works full time for the state of Minnesota. So yeah, it’s life is good.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, that’s crazy too. So everybody tells me Chad with, with Brooke and Cooper being Brooks 5, Coopers 2. And I take people very seriously when they say this, right? Don’t blink, right? Cause they grow up fast.
Chad Christensen
It goes fast.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. So what’s it, what’s it like seeing the last one round in the corner?
Chad Christensen
I have been gray and bald for a lot of years, so I can’t really blame it on that, but it’s been, it’s going fast.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. How long have you been with Agrarian now?
Chad Christensen
Full time with Agrarian, it’s been, well, right about 10 years. Prior to that, I had a role with Minnesota Select Sires as a direct sales rep. Within that role I was also a part time Agrarian person as well, supporting that co-op helping the team within that co-op grow the business.
Primarily we, we took off and grew this concentrated business, the DTX concentrate. We all talk so much about, so. Working with feed mills, trying to gain relationships with nutritionists has kind of always been my passion on this side of the business. So and that’s still the role now I’m, I’m in even more.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Yeah. Chad, you’ve had, you know, 20 plus year career so far in agriculture.
Chad Christensen
30 plus actually.
Scott Zehr
Oh yes. 30 plus. I was thinking 10 and 10, but yeah.
Chad Christensen
Yeah. Yeah. I had a stint there for about 13 years where I was a AI specialist for Gen X.
Scott Zehr
Oh, right, right. Yeah. I forget about your old Gen X day sometimes.
Chad Christensen
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. So 30 plus years. I mean, what, what do you attribute as some of the keys to being in agriculture for 30 plus years in particular, the dairy industry? And I asked that question because, it’s a really small industry. It is, you know, it’s like, you go to a conference anymore and it’s everybody knows just about everybody or at least you start talking to somebody and they know everybody you know.
Chad Christensen
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
How do you navigate that for 30 years?
Chad Christensen
I think that’s probably the reason I enjoy it for as long as I have is the people. And it’s, yeah, maybe some of these people have changed roles, including myself. but we’re all in the industry and you get to know these people and it’s the people that make it enjoyable, whether it’s the dairies and the dairymen or the other industry people that you get to know.
Scott Zehr
It’s so true and I, I didn’t mention it at the, at the beginning of the episode, but you know, this meet the team and agrarian series, it’s predicated based on our, our core values relational integrity, strategic, and excellence acronym of RISE. So the reason I wanted to do this, this series is Chad, exactly what you just said.
I mentioned it in another episode. The first ever episode we did here at ruminate this, I was talking with Mark Carpenter, our general manager. I said, you show me a successful business and I will show you the amazing men and women behind the scenes that actually make it happen. This term, Chad this term B2B sales, I, I freaking hate it.
You know? It comes down to the people and I appreciate you. Yeah. I appreciate you bringing that up cause, it’s so true. So one of the questions I wanted to ask you too, is what do you think is special about the livestock industry in general? Why is this such a great place to be?
Chad Christensen
You wake up seven days a week, it seems like thinking about something work related, whether it’s a challenge, it’s a problem you’re trying to solve. Maybe something great is going on. Maybe you’re just constantly running into people in the industry. Weekdays, weekends, nights, wherever you’re at.
But the flexibility is there in the world where you actually, there’s so much flexibility, getting to know all these people in what you do every day that you probably are putting in a longer day mentally for sure, than somebody who goes and punches a clock 40 hours a week. But the flexibility is there and you enjoy what you do. So you’re never working.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, I’m totally with you on that. That’s funny you mentioned it that way, because you and I didn’t have to send emails to each other yesterday, but, could, right. I think some people, that are outside the egg industry, they look at Oh, I’m going to use somebody I know for an example, a friend of mine. You know, he’s like, man, it’s like man, you never have any days where you can just like, I was like, well, but we can, we do. But I guess my perspective on that is look at the men and women across the country working in the industry that we choose to be professionals in. They’re farmers.
Chad Christensen
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
They work seven days a week. My dad works seven days a week. What people have a hard time understanding, Chad, is that just because you may do some sort of work related activity seven days a week means for some reason you can’t, like, be a good family guy.
Chad Christensen
Right.
Scott Zehr
And you know I think you’re living proof for that being different. I mean, I, hear a lot of the stuff you guys do as a family. You know, the vacations, that kind of stuff. And you know, within our company, that’s, that’s encouraged.
Chad Christensen
It is. But we’re never a hundred percent tuned out of work either, which is great.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. I think we take it pretty seriously that we know who we’re working for, if that makes sense.
Chad Christensen
Right? Yeah, we work for a pretty great company. So I think we work harder for them because of that.
Scott Zehr
I would agree. I would agree. Kind of shifting gears a little bit. I’m a big believer that, Hey, you know, what happened yesterday kind of helps shape you into who you are today, that kind of thing. But along, along my journey through the last you know, I’m going to say since I entered the workforce 21 years ago there’s been a couple of individuals that have I’m going to go ahead and say have made a significant impact on the course of my career.
And so I’m always curious when I talk to other folks, like, do you have some people that you felt were mentors, if you would, throughout your career, the last 30 plus years. And, feel free to mention who they are, if you want, or maybe just even talk a little bit about what they meant to you.
Chad Christensen
You know, I’d probably go all the way back to the start of my career. I got into AI, I was young and it was over 30 years ago. I started out in a relief role and, and one of the guys I was doing relief work for, he’s been a leader in that industry for forever and ever for Gen X.
And I would say he was probably a mentor. If I look back, what a lot of the things in my, my values, I mean, this guy worked hard. He worked for his customers. He put them first. He always, always was, had his mind on work every day of the week. Kind of what we just talked about previously. I mean, you never really punched out. Right? Even on his days off, he had a clue what was going on all the time. but I would say he helped teach me a lot of the values about how to service customers, how to build relationships, that kind of thing that just, that would, I’d go back to that one first.
Scott Zehr
That’s interesting, cause my, first supervisor when I entered AI and for those of you that are a couple of generations shy of me, that’s artificial insemination, not artificial intelligence. But, yeah, my first supervisor, Pete Perrin, I framed it up to people like he taught me how to be a professional. Like that’s where I learned it from.
So it’s, kind of funny that, that that was my first foray into, that as well as yours. So how do you think that shaped you? I mean, you mentioned the values, the principles, but how, how did you learn to apply them over the last 30 years?
Chad Christensen
I would say just waking up and doing what you’re supposed to do every day. Don’t take shortcuts. Just get the job done. At the end of the day, it’s not a lot of work if you’re enjoying it and you’re not cutting shortcuts anyway. So just be a good service guy. Just help your customers, whatever your role is, just do it.
Scott Zehr
It’s so interesting. I remember having a conversation with Mark Carpenter. I, I think was actually part of episode one as well. And he was saying like, well, my daughter was like, “Hey dad, well, like, what’s the secret here?” And he’s like, “there isn’t one, just be a good fricking person.”
Like it really is that simple. And I think Chad, that’s what on some level disappoints me with some of the companies within agriculture. Because not every company out there pushes that kind of value system. They might say they do, but actions always speak louder than words. Right?
When I see what we’re building here it gives me a lot of hope for the future because man, the cream always rises, it might take a few minutes, but I think with having integrity as that second letter of the acronym, right? Integrity. What do you do when nobody’s looking? Which is what, basically what you’re saying, like, don’t take shortcuts, just go make it happen and do it right.
Chad Christensen
Would not need to be that difficult.
Scott Zehr
I love it. I love it. Yeah. I guess that kind of leads into kind of the next question I would have for you is we have the opportunity, you and I, especially being out in the field to where, you know, we get called on to dairy farms, maybe sometimes a beef cattle ranch, what have you.
But I’ll, I’ll use dairy specifically since that’s where you and I spend the majority of our time. And I, and I call it dairy farmers, the, the ultimate entrepreneurs, right? They get to be the business owner and like any business owner, they get to wear a lot of hats. Those hats range from, you know, construction worker to veterinary every day of the week and everything in between, right?
And some of these dairies I think they really struggle sometimes with teamwork and culture and that kind of thing. And you having been now with Agrarian for 10 years, you’ve had to have seen some sort of evolution within the organization. I would assume so, in the last 10 years.
What were some keys behind how things have progressed at Agrarian culture-wise? And what are some things that we can pass along to some of the dairymen or, you know, maybe it’s a nutrition professional or veterinary running their own business or, you know, working within a team environment, how can they be successful team building? And it kind of, from what you’ve seen, how it’s happened at Agrarian.
Chad Christensen
Oh, I would say just be open on which direction we’re going. The whole team needs to be going the same direction, right? And if we’re all open about where we’re going and everybody understands why and what we’re going to do to get there, it’s going to happen a lot faster.
Look where we went just in the last couple of years with DTX concentrate sales, Scott. I mean, that thing is, is exploding. We’ve just decided we’re going to we’re going to take that to the next level and we’ve surpassed that already. And it’s not slowing down.
Scott Zehr
I would agree, Chad, that the transparency is phenomenal. I’m kind of glad you picked that. There’s so many farms that I’ve had the chance to be on in the last six years of my career four with Agrarian, two when I was with Premier. And unfortunately there’s a lot of mushroom farmer management practices on a lot of these dairies.
And when I look at, and of course, mushroom, mushroom fire management, right? It’s keep everybody in the dark and feed them shit, you know? And I think hearing you say that the openness, the transparency, I think for me, a light bulb just kind of went off. Like that’s, that really is a huge part of what I think has happened with this company in the last 10 years.
Chad Christensen
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. That’s great insight, man. So, Chad, you know, on this teamwork conversation, what does a successful team look like to you?
Chad Christensen
Just the right people in the right seats, all going in the same direction. It’s kind of the, yeah.
Scott Zehr
That’s the boys in the boat, right?
Chad Christensen
Is it’s, it’s exactly that. Yeah. I guess I, I just, I was thinking that after I said it, I’m like, yeah.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Did you know they brought that out on movie finally?
Chad Christensen
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. I haven’t gotten all the way through the movie. I’ve read the whole book, but yeah. Oh man. What a great metaphor…
Chad Christensen
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
… for building the team. If you guys, men, women haven’t listened to this book I listened to it on audible and I think now the movie’s out probably on Netflix or Amazon, something like that. Yeah. The boys in the boat, check that out. It’s a 1936 U.S., Olympic rowing team. Yeah, pretty good stuff.
Chad Christensen
Analogy is perfect. It’s just, the team has to be going all the same direction, so.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. So Chad we talk about the dedication within agriculture, right? This, this mentality that, Hey, we, I want to say, I would say on call, is a fair way to put it. We’re on call seven days a week. If you would, you know, we’re not afraid to, you know, have to pick up the phone if that’s what needs to happen or so on.
But, I have things that I do outside of agriculture, even, because sometimes I just need to decompress. So what does it look like for you? Like what are your hobbies? What kind of things do you like to do for fun? Or maybe like family activity, that kind of stuff.
Chad Christensen
Do a lot of things for fun. I like to see, you know, living in Minnesota. I don’t like to think of it as the four seasons. It’s, you know, fall isn’t fall for me. Fall is harvest season, bow hunting season, deer shotgun season. Then all of a sudden before you know it, you’re into the holidays and, and it’s snow whaling season and ice fishing season. Maybe even a vacation somewhere warm because you want to get the heck out of here by February, right? So.
Scott Zehr
Go somewhere to get some vitamin D, right?
Chad Christensen
Yeah, my seasons are different than a lot of people’s seasons because it goes by that, you know? You got spring turns into fishing and turkey season and that kind of thing. I like to hunt. I like to fish. Spend a lot of time with family just doing stuff like that, you know? Summertime with boting.
Scott Zehr
You guys had already been up like on the lakes where Larry just went camping and stuff. You guys have done that before. But he, him and his family just did that.
Chad Christensen
And then his family just went up to Northern Minnesota to the what we call the boundary waters. Yeah. We, we actually went to Northern Wisconsin on a family vacation over the 4th of July.
Well, we try and do that every year. We’ve just chosen the 4th of July as our kids get older. We’ve just. Hey, the 4th of July is locked down. This is where we’re going to be. You guys are welcome to come. And of course they always come. So that’s great. That’s what you’re trying to make a tradition.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Hopefully it stays that way for a lot of years.
Chad Christensen
Yup. That’s the goal.
Scott Zehr
My wife and I, we kind of did something like that this year where my in laws have a cottage on Lake Ontario. And it’s, it’s situated right on kind of a little bay. It’s protected by the prevailing wind. So it’s usually pretty calm. So we, we spent the first week of July down there. It’s only 18 minutes from our house.
Chad Christensen
Oh, wow.
Scott Zehr
So it’s like, you can still, you know, shut it down probably about 40 to 50 percent for a couple of days and maybe 60, 70 percent for a couple more days while we were down there.
Yeah, like that’s, that’s kind of one of my goals is to have, do what you got, you and Brandy did. Like we’re going to be here this week. Obviously right now the kids don’t have a choice, but to come with us. But hopefully, hopefully we can continue to make, you know, some memories like that with the kids.
Chad Christensen
So I think they enjoy it. I, I think my, well, my, my middle son, he, he showed up unanounced on a Friday night with six of his buddies. So I guess they must enjoy it if they come. So
Scott Zehr
Awesome, man. But Chad, I, I really appreciate you taking some time today to visit with us. And number one, I, I do mean that genuinely because I know how much you absolutely love this kind of thing and, and being on the microphone and zooming and that kind of stuff.
I definitely appreciate it. You know, would there be any final words you might have for our audience? So some take homes, anything we want to talk about today or to talk about?
Chad Christensen
30 years in the industry, most people that are in the industry already know this, but accept change because change is always happening. Ride the waves.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. That’s really good advice. All right, man. Well, Hey I guess with that, we’ll wrap it up and everybody, we will be talking with you again on another episode of Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions coming your way very soon. Thanks everybody. Have a great week.
