Gray's CCA background helps in selling ag equipment


Clint Gray
SALUTE TO CORN AND SOYBEANS
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     “Being a certified crop advisor (CCA) helps understand a lot of this,” shared Clint Gray, manager of the Monticello Bodensteiner Implement Co. “I use being a CCA just to leverage what I do here. As sales people and managers, we all have industry experts we can reach out to. Being a CCA is just one more thing that I can use to help the job here, helping customers with their equipment decisions.”

   Gray has been a CCA since 2017. There are two CCAs who work for the John Deere dealer: Gray and Eli Lawrence.

   “John Deere wanted each dealership to have at least one representative who was a certified as a crop advisor. It was kind of a John Deere initiative that started this,” recalled Gray. “We took it on as a company. We had enough guys who took the test that we could have had 10 CCAs out of all 10 locations.”

   According to certifiedcropadvisor.org, “CCAs are partners with farmers on the front lines of critical decisions in agriculture—the risks are high, and the pressure has increased—with tight margins, new technology, pest concerns, and consumer pushes for sustainability in agricultural supply chains.”

   CCAs have a knowledge of agronomy (crop production and soil management), have experience in their fields, and are committed to the standards of knowledge and professionalism.

   “In the equipment business, we’re also consultants on basically the whole farming operation,” offered Gray. “We try to be as knowledgeable as we can on all of the equipment. There are so many things that we deal with, chemicals and seed, germination, and trying to take a good look at what is or isn’t a good-looking field of corn. It just enhances our ability to go out and help the grower.”

   Gray has been working for Bodensteiner since 2015, but has a history of working for John Deere dealers. In 2019, store manager Jim Haughenbury retired. Gray was then promoted to that role.

   “When I came here, I was in sales,” he said.

   Before coming to work for Bodensteiner, he worked for P&K Midwest, another Deere dealer.

   However, Gray knows the history of “Monticello Equipment Co.” quite well. In 1993, he started working for then-owner, Dean Smothers when the business was called Smothers Equipment Inc. Before Smothers, it was owned by Ed Vanourny. He started it in 1951.

   “Since Ed, there have been four managers here,” noted Gray of the impressive history of the local business. And now Gray is a part of that history…

   Bodensteiner bought the business in 2006 from Smothers.

   “It’s always been John Deere equipment here,” he said.

   Not only does Gray have a knowledgeable history of Deere and their equipment. Not only is he able to offer his advice as a CCA. But he also has a background in farming.

   Gray farmed, grew corn and soybeans, for 15 years before selling John Deere equipment.

   “Having a hands-on ag background for 15 years helped when jumping into this,” he said. “It’s just been a natural progression.

   “We don’t advise from a John Deere standpoint. We don’t advise anybody, we don’t recommend/not recommend any brand of seed, fertilizer, chemicals, etc. That is not our role.”

   Every two years, Gray has to maintain 40 CEUs (continuing education units) He does this by attending workshops offered by Iowa State Extension and Outreach.

   “Extension puts on a lot of these crop conferences,” he said. “They make sure that the speakers have a subject matter that qualifies for CEUs. I go to quite a few crop conferences to where I’m actually around the fertilizer and chemical guys as much the machines. We pick up a lot of ideas from those people about what’s new and improved as far as utility programs, seed and chemical programs, etc.”

   This knowledge helps when it comes to knowing their equipment inside and out.

   Deere is coming out with a new line of “See & Spray” equipment. The latest technology “turns your sprayer into an in-season, targeted, weed-killing machine, only spraying where it’s needed, reducing herbicide usage, saving water, and increasing the farmer’s bottom line.”

   Gray said See & Spray equipment has cameras mounted on the boom that can determine the difference between a crop and a weed.

   “You’re going across the field at 12 mph,” he explained. “The camera identifies a weed. It sees the weeds and sprays those spots. That’s the only chemical that gets applied. It’s targeting just the weed; spraying just the weed. It’s fantastic! It’s the next evolution!”

   Prior to See & Spray, there was “ExactApply.” This equipment offered “precise droplet sizing and consistent application management.”

   “I can take that 120-foot boom across that field at 15 mph and it will exactly spray where I want to and it won’t spray where I don’t want to. It’s all GPS-tracked,” he said.

   Gray’s background as a CCA helps to understand the chemicals used in fields, whether it’s for weeds or corn/soybeans, as well as seed development, crop development, etc.

   “It’s a whole gambit of advising from the whole cycle, before we go into the field, deciding what we’re going to do for fertilizer to the seed we plant, the chemicals we apply,” he summarized.

 

 

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