(upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth-generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

It wouldn't be a farm show if we didn't talk to an ag economist.

Now, I know, I know.

Everybody's like, (yawning).

But this, eh, this show we get to make fun of the economist.

(laughing) Today we're gonna talk with Krista Swanson.

How are you doing, Krista?

- I'm doing great.

How about you?

- I'm great.

You are a lead economist at the National Corn Growers Association.

Whoo, that's a mouthful.

- Yeah, it is.

- Okay, how long have you been doing that?

- So I started this role in November of 2022, so just about six months ago.

- Mm-hmm.

Now, are you a farm girl?

- I am.

I grew up on a farm.

My parents- - Where at?

- Near Hartsburg, Illinois.

My parents- - [Rob] I don't know where that's at.

- It's near Lincoln.

- [Rob] Oh, okay, so.

- Kind of between Springfield and Peoria is a easy way to say it.

- On 55.

- On 155.

- [Rob] Is that, is it really?

- Yeah.

- Is it 1?

- It's on 155.

That runs from, the road that connects Peoria and Springfield.

- Yeah.

- It's about halfway between on those.

The corn and soybean, so just grain farm there.

And now I live with my husband near where he grew up on his family farm, and we still grow corn and soybeans.

- [Rob] In Oneida.

- Oneida, yes.

- Yeah, that's part of the R.O.W.V.A systems.

- That is part of the R.O.W.V.A school district, so.

- Yeah, but you probably didn't play R.O.W.V.A in high school, did you?

You were probably too far south?

- No, we were too far south, yeah.

So, but interestingly enough, R.O.W.V.A now co-ops with Williamsfield for a lot of sports and they actually do, they actually do play a lot of central Illinois schools.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- How do they fit that in?

Will-R.O.W.V.A?

R.O.W.V.A.R.O.?

- RW, they just call it RW.

(both laughing) Yeah.

- That's such a neat area over there.

It's just, I don't, as a farmer, I love it 'cause it, the ground is all flat and perfect.

And y'all don't know how to farm hills at all.

- Well, actually, that's not true.

The central Illinois area is very flat and perfect, I would say.

Up where we're at, we have some of that, but actually we farm some timber soil and creek bottoms and, yeah.

Actually the first time, we started farming that farm in 2016, and the first time I was down there, I questioned if it was really Illinois.

(both laughing) - So your husband, Brett, where'd you meet him?

- Well, we actually met while we were in Louisville for the National Farm Machinery Show.

- [Rob] That's a romantic setting, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- Was it at a bar?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- But we did meet with, we did meet through a mutual friend.

- Okay.

- So, yeah.

- So you grew up.

Did you always have a fascination with economics?

- No, actually not.

I will say that I did have a baking business in high school, so maybe that was my precursor to economics, but I didn't know it at the time.

- [Rob] Whoa, whoa, whoa.

You had a baking business in high school?

- Yeah, so.

- Like, what were you making?

- Anything.

Homemade breads, cookies, cakes.

I sold baked goods at the local farmer's market and, you know, it was my FFA project, so I kept track of all the income and expenses and all of that.

I actually made quite a few wedding cakes.

- [Rob] Really?

- Then in my early twenties- - [Rob] Yeah, you can't screw around with those, they have to be perfect.

- Yeah, they do.

So that's a lot of pressure.

And I didn't love, so I love baking as a hobby, that's why I brought the spatula here, but.

- [Rob] Is that a spatula or is it a spoon?

- [Krista] It's called, I think technically they call it a scraper.

I always called it a spatula, so I still call it that, but.

- [Rob] So, you got kids, right?

- Yeah.

- [Rob] That's a.

- Yeah, so it has, it's dual purpose.

- That's a pay-attentioner.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- In high school, though, did you ever make those, you know, those funny brownies?

- No.

- Sell them to the kids?

- No.

- Make a lot of them.

You wanna talk about economics?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So let me ask you this, a serious question, right?

Trefzger's, have you ever heard of them?

The Trefzger's Bakery here at Peoria?

- Oh, yes, okay.

- So if I were to give you a piece of their cake with their buttercream frosting, do you think you could eventually figure out the recipe for me?

- Probably not.

No.

I did like to do a lot of experimenting, like, you know, not following recipes, but I don't have the skills, I don't think, to recreate, yeah, the palette to recreate.

- [Rob] How is your buttercream game?

Is it a strong?

- I always just mostly used like a decorator's buttercream, which isn't like, it's okay-tasting, but it's not like the really, I'm sure that that bakery, I've heard great things about it.

I'm sure they have like a way better.

- They might, I think they put something in there, you know?

- I'm sure they have a way better.

- Something addicting.

- Yeah, something addicting.

- All right, we should probably get back to you.

So you went to U of I?

- I did.

So, yeah, I actually, so you, I guess how we got sidelined there was you asked me if I always knew I wanted to go into economics.

So I actually went into crop sciences as an undergrad and, you know, wanted to, thought I was going to get a PhD and be a plant breeder.

As I went through school, I started to become less interested in that and more interested in the economic and regulatory side of things.

So that's kind of how I shifted as I had some different internships and classes and, I don't know, one thing I learned is that as you go through that, sometimes you learn more about what isn't a good fit for you and you sort of realign with, you know, finding where, what is a good fit, so.

- So you took some internships, some jobs that you didn't like?

- Well, I actually liked them fine for the summer.

But by the end of the summer I thought, "Well, that was fun for a summer, but it's not."

I could, I started to figure out, like, this is not what I wanna do long term for a full career, yes.

- Like what, which one did you like the least?

- I don't know.

I guess I can tell you some of the things I did.

- Then I can pick which one you liked the least.

- Yeah.

I did, I worked for Pioneer in like kind of plant breeding for a summer.

I worked for Syngenta in more like crop production for the summer.

And then.

- Then Bayer, did you hit them all?

- No, no, I didn't.

But actually during my last semester of undergrad, I did work for what was Monsanto, now Bayer, at their production facility in Thomasboro, that's fairly close to Champaign.

So, yeah, I kinda ran the gamut of the big ag crop companies, so, yeah.

- And you too, BASF, we aren't, no.

- I didn't work for them ever.

- That the railroad.

- That's the railroad, yes.

- See, now they're really mad.

- No, that's BNSF.

BASF is the crop chemical, yeah.

- Yeah, I'm right, BASF.

Yeah, this is where I really wish we could edit the show.

- (laughing) Yeah.

- Anyway, so that wasn't something you wanted to make a lifetime career out of.

- Yeah, I think that those helped me kind of reframe, the combination of those experiences and some classes, like I said, kind of drew me more into regulatory and learning more about the economic impact of traits.

So at that time, you know, we were just starting to have double-stack and triple-stack traits.

And so then I jumped over to Ag Economics as a grad student and I actually did my thesis work on kind of a crossover between crop sciences and economics.

I was evaluating the economic impact of, you know, those stack traits on crop yields.

So that's, that was sort of how I transitioned over and, yeah, never looked back.

- That sounds boring as hell.

- I think it's really interesting.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- That's, you can look at that stuff and go, "Ooh."

- Yeah, so.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- Economists.

Y'all are different, aren't you?

- Well, part of my job now is finding ways to take the numbers and communicate those and translate those into a way that's interesting and understandable to, you know, anyone who may be watching, listening.

So, I think that like actually being a farmer and working in that role as an economist as well, I can do that.

Or, I guess, you know, that helps me be able to make those communications better, sort of try to make economics really interesting to everyone.

- So, who are you, when you're working at the National Corn Growers, are you talking mainly to farmers?

Or do they have you communicating the farmer's information to the general public?

- So kind of a combination.

And I am also doing research and analysis.

So kind of all of the above.

So some of the work I do is maybe for internal use, like investigating.

You know, we have this situation with Mexico right now where they have a ban on GM crops, GM corn specifically, I should say.

- [Rob] Yeah, we had a deal.

- And so, yeah, we had a deal.

We had the USMCA.

- [Rob] Did you tell them that?

Said, "Hey, guys."

- Yeah, so, you know, and fortunately the, you know, U.S. Trade Representative is, you know, working on that and we're very thankful for that as an organization.

But, you know, doing some investigating on what are happening with trade flows, that's more of like an internal use type of document, watching that.

I also do, you know, write articles that go on the NCGA website that, you know, anyone may look at, which may be, you know, farmers, media, you know, potentially members of Congress depending on the topic or, you know, whatever is happening there.

So then that audience is more general.

And then we also have times where we're communicating with farmers.

So it just, it's kind of the whole gamut of audiences depending on the situation.

- What is harder for you to communicate with, the farmers or the non-farmers?

- I suppose maybe non-farmers.

I feel like I can connect with farmers being a farmer myself.

- You speak ag-o-nese.

- Yes, speak ag-o-nese, yes.

- Okay.

- So, but at the same time, I also have quite a bit of experience talking with the non-ag community and, you know, media and just non-farmers in general.

So I don't know, I think I can do both.

- You write a lot of articles.

- Yes.

- It's gotta be hard to, because I've been in ag enough, I know how it goes, right?

If you, like to use a term, dumb down an article enough to where the general person that does not know anything about farming can understand it, then your farmers are probably gonna get upset at you because you have dumbed it down too much.

- Yeah.

- How do you, how do you deal with that?

- Yeah, well, I mean, I think you just have to write in a way that's easily understandable no matter who your audience, even if you're speaking to a room of farmers, you know, you can't assume that they all are at the same understanding level of the topic you're communicating.

So you're always gonna have that where someone knows more about what you're saying than others.

So I think you just do the best you can to hit that middle of the road, you know, especially if that's the goal setting.

I also have been trying to do one new thing that we just did the first episode of last week was, so whenever I put out an article for National Corn Growers, we are also gonna do like a less-than-two-minute video called the "Maize Market Minute" again- - Oh, that's clever.

- Yeah, so.

- Zea mays is the scientific name for corn.

- Yeah, I guess we could explain that.

So, yeah, "Maize Market Minute."

And that is a little bit more high level, like, you know, in the one-pager you're gonna have more numbers along with the text.

That video sort of, you know, takes some of the numbers out of it, just communicates the, what you need to know, the quick takeaways of, from what the longer article would've said.

So that's a good way to, you know, keep up on those things without, you know, if you're not wanting the, all the details.

- So like a YouTube thing?

- It's not a YouTube, it's on, it's just housed on the NCGA website.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah.

- You could put it on YouTube.

Then you get enough and then you build payout.

- Yeah, maybe we should.

- You could be making all sorts of bank.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

- Well, I'm not, I mean, it's the communications person at National Corn's helping me with that.

I don't do the videos.

- You're an economist, right?

You have to know how to embezzle.

- (laughing) No, we wanna, we want to not do that kind of thing.

We wanna stay on the up and up.

- Why are you winking at me when you say that?

- I'm not.

(both laughing) - How many articles have you written?

- So, previously, before I came on at National Corn Growers Association, which I've maybe done six or seven-ish in my time there so far.

And, but prior to that I worked for the University of Illinois and was part of the Farmdoc team for five years.

And during that time I was the author or co-author on 275 articles.

But, I will note that a lot of those I was a co-author on and I can thank, you know Gary Schnitkey, who's an amazing economist at the University of Illinois.

(bell dinging) - [Rob] That's an unsponsored plug.

- Okay, yeah.

- [Rob] For Gary.

- Yeah, so, you know, Gary's really great, and so he was the lead author on a lot of those.

Carl Zulauf, yeah, (bell dinging) was also the lead author.

Both of those are, you know, really great, have been great mentors and people I really look up to and thankful I had the chance to work with.

- Do you, okay, you do, you're in an industry that, number one, you're dominated by generally older males, right?

Have you found that hard to carve your niche to where you're respected, you're looked at as an equal?

- Maybe, but I feel like I've, I maybe came up on more of that more earlier in my career.

So my first job outta grad school was working for the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association.

And I was a field staff person, and so I was a young female, I was new to the area.

And so I think I had a few people I was working with in that time that seemed a little bit resistant to, you know, me handling their accounting and tax work.

But a lot were very welcoming.

- Do you think it was the age or you being a chick?

- I'm gonna go with a combination of both.

- Yeah.

- You know?

- I don't like young people.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Well, and I mean, I can relate to some extent.

I mean, you, when you're, you know, as a farmer and knowing the importance of the tax and accounting work, you know, you want someone who you feel like has experience.

And so, you know, I felt like I hit some of those challenges more in that era of my career and then, then I have maybe more recently.

I feel like in more recent years, you know, people are generally opening to wanting to give me a chance, and I try to prove myself through my work and build credibility that way.

- It's the pit vipers.

- Yeah.

- I don't like when they wear the pit vipers.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

I have a hard time listening to a young person that's wearing pit vipers.

- Yeah.

- So maybe don't wear the pit vipers.

- Okay, I don't even know what pit vipers are.

Should I?

- No.

- Okay.

- You placed fourth nationally at the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Excellent in Ag Award.

Okay, help me with that 'cause I know they do two awards, right?

One's for like a farmer and then one's for like a professional in ag.

- Yeah.

- Which one is this?

- So the excellence is for someone who is a professional in agriculture.

So my husband and I participated in that together as a team.

And so the achievement award is for someone who has, you know, a majority of their income is just from their farm operation.

So, for us, you know, I have my off-the-farm job, my husband also is a seed dealer.

So while we are farming, we do have, you know, other sources in agriculture of income as well.

So anyway, that was that award.

Yeah, so.

- That's pretty impressive.

- Yeah, we got to represent Illinois and.

- What'd you win?

We won a, I wanna say a monetary prize, I think it was.

And then we won a- - Million dollars?

- No, it was like $500, I think, and then a tool cabinet from Case IH.

- Nice.

- So, yeah.

- Too bad it wasn't a Deere one, but, hey.

- Yeah, hey, I know we, we had the (laughing).

We have Deere on our farm, so.

But, you know, it is very nice, and, you know, it's still a good memento of, you know, that process and the honor that that was.

- Well those competitions are, they're stupid competitive.

I mean, it's crazy.

So to get fourth nationally.

- Yeah.

- To win Illinois is a huge, huge deal.

- Yeah.

- It was 2005, I was runner-up in the discussion meet.

- Yeah, well that's fantastic.

- I actually won it, but they're, the judges did not agree, so.

- So you won, you won the debate.

- I did.

- Or the discussion.

- Oh, clearly.

- Clearly.

- Yeah.

- But, yeah, the judges.

- I think they're still talking about it, yeah.

- Sometimes you just don't know what the judges are- - It was a Dodge pickup, a brand new Dodge pickup.

- I know, that's, yeah, the, those, that, those first-place prizes are pretty amazing.

- I think there was some bribery going on.

- Yeah.

- Some ne'er-do-well stuff.

- Yeah.

- But I've let all that go.

- I can tell, I can tell, clearly.

- Doesn't bother me at all.

- Look at you now.

- All right, you're talking to an audience that maybe is not so involved in agriculture.

- Okay.

- What do you want them to know about what you do with the Corn Growers?

- Yeah, so our, the National Corn Growers serves, you know, corn growers across the nation, and that includes both those who are dues-paying members of our state associations, but also any corn farmer who, you know, contributes towards corn checkoff.

And so, you know, what I do is try to serve the organization and our farmer members by, you know, providing economic analysis.

We already talked about, you know, some of what I do is for internal knowledge, some of it is for external communication.

So just trying to, you know, help with evaluating what's happening and keeping up on the corn economy and being that resource for our organization.

- Yeah.

Where's the corn market going?

Tell me, should I have sold already?

- It's sort of looking, it's sort of feeling that way, isn't it?

- It's not looking great, is it?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- It's hard to say.

You know, we have a lot of dynamics going on.

You know, the weather this year is probably maybe what the biggest wild card that can make or break, you know, the crop here.

You know, looking at what's happening in Ukraine and Russia.

I actually, that was my most recent article that I have out on the NCGA website was looking at that, the situation there and, you know, how that might impact.

And then, you know, we just have Brazil has really come on board as a huge competitor in the world market, so.

- [Rob] It's really annoying.

- Yeah.

- I mean we had corn, that was our thing.

- That was our thing, yeah.

But they've really expanded, you know, and they continue to expand their production area.

And so, you know, a lot of times when we think about trade in the world market, like when we had the trade situation back in 2018, and at that time, you know, if trade flows were shifting, we could see maybe corn that normally had gone to China going somewhere else because, you know, you had a limited number of, amount of corn in the market, or soybeans in the market, I should say, it was more of a soybean issue.

But the point is is that sometimes if one nation steps up and starts importing or exporting, you sort of fill in those differences and you just see trade flows shift.

But with Brazil, they are continuously producing more, and so it's, you know, adding more supply into the world market.

So it's definitely affecting the trade dynamics there.

- So I asked you where the market was going and you told me everything but.

So I'm gonna say you are gonna be a huge success as an economist.

- Okay.

(both laughing) - If people want to find you on social media or more about you, where do they go?

- Yeah, well, real quick, Rob, I wanna say that I can't answer that question.

I just was telling you all the different dynamics to consider.

So anyway.

- [Rob] Economist, check.

- Where to, where to find me.

So I am, I'm not super active on any social media networks actually, but you can find me on them at SwansonKristaJ, S-W-A-N-S-O-N, Krista, K-R-I-S-T-A, J.

So that's my handle on any of the social networks.

- [Rob] Yeah, you're on Twitter.

- I am, but I- - I looked you up, we actually follow each other.

- Yeah, oh, yeah?

- Yeah.

- But I used to use it more and I just, I don't.

- It's gotten nasty, yeah.

- And I just don't- - Do you hate Elon Musk?

- No, not at all.

I just don't utilize, really, any social media networks all that much anymore just because like you only have so many hours in a day.

So, yeah.

- In all seriousness, having you as a representative of agriculture is fantastic.

I mean, I've sat here for a half hour and tried to jab at you left and right and you just handle it wonderfully.

You're so poised, you speak so very well, and you're just, you have an ability to explain what's happening in the world, agriculture, economics, to people like myself and to people that aren't in agriculture.

See, even the camera people are nodding, so.

- Well, thank you so much.

- Thank you for all that you do.

- Yeah, well thank you for all that you do.

The same, all, many of the same things could be said about you and, you know, your efforts to feature people in agriculture and get the message out that way too.

- Hey, we got time if you wanna keep going with that.

- Yeah, yeah, so, I mean, there's so many great things I could say, so.

- I'm joking.

All right, I'm a little disappointed we didn't get some buttercream coming in here.

- I should have brought, should have brought a tub of frosting instead of the spatula.

- Well, that, okay, that would've been okay.

- Or a cupcake maybe with some frosting on it.

That would've been a better- - Or like those funny brownies you used to sell in high school.

- That I did not sell.

Yeah.

- Okay.

You know, if you want to email me and go to SharkFarmer.com and tell me about the brownies you used to buy off Krista.

(laughing) Krista, I- - There was never such a market, so.

- Okay, Krista, we'll let that one go.

- Okay.

- All right.

Krista, thank you, Krista Swanson from Oneida, Illinois.

Krista, thank you so very much for everything that you do and for coming to the show.

I really, really appreciate it.

And everyone else, we'll catch you next time.

(upbeat music)