This time of the year, seed is being delivered and field by field product placement is taking place with the last tweaks to where and to what product is being planted. I’ve spent a lot of time in the office creating variable rate prescriptions and putting planting books together. Product placement is crucial so as we approach planting, I like to make sure that we are on the same page as to where each product needs planted.

Of course, since the weather holds the trump card in farming, my daily tasks are always subject to change. One day I may be attending an educational meeting and the next I may be visiting with current customers and prospecting for new ones. That windshield time, which can be a lot, gives me time to think. After thinking about the important and serious matters of life, my thoughts always seem to find a way around to the humorous things that don’t really matter, but make life a little more fun.

And I thought the amount of miles that I have to drive is bad! Did you know that Frisbee the elf has to fly to the North Pole every night to tell Santa if the kids have been good or bad? Whew!!

If you aren’t aware of how Elf on the Shelf works, your elf (which you name) then flies back and positions himself in a new place to be found by morning…every morning. Did you hear the long pause there? Eeeevvveerrryyyy morning. Oh and if a person ever touches your elf, he or she loses their magic. Don’t touch the elf! Our elf, Frisbee, has become a wonderful tool to help promote good behavior. The only down side… our elf is kinda’ ornry! Here are some of the places we found Frisbee this month.

In the past few weeks, I have been driving a lot visiting customers in IL, IN, and OH. However, my largest driving challenge took me only a half mile up the road.

There I was. It’s always kinda’ funny when you start a story like that. But, it’s true, I was there…at Starbuck’s that is. I had an appointment with a great customer and friend at Wakarusa, IN. I needed to get there, but nature called. I had also needed to stop for some coffee after a restless night’s sleep. But, you know when you have to go so bad that the hair is standing up on your arms? It was like that.

Every dog has a story. The majority of the farms I visit seem to have a farm dog. It seems like these dogs are usually a mixed breed. The more I think about it, I very rarely see a purebred version of man’s best friend. From my own experience, the more mixed the dog, the more brains God put in his head.

Sometimes the life of a traveling seed salesman takes me to places on back roads, meeting interesting people along the way (which I love). But, sometimes you just have to get out of here and take a break. This winter has taken me to a few places that one could say were, uhhh…. pretty much polar opposites of one another.

“People don’t believe they exist, but they do.” Those were the first words out of a man’s mouth as he approached me at a farm show a few years ago. I was standing behind a sales counter when he came up and started the conversation with those words, followed by, “Can I have one of those yellow bags?”

Well, of course I said yes. But, I wasn’t about to leave that odd introduction alone.

I’m Ryan McAllister and I’ve been an agronomist with Beck’s in IN and OH. Currently, I am a Farm Business Advisor for Beck’s selling seed and working with large farmers over 5,000 acres in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

So what is this blog intended to become? I don’t know. That’s the fun part. I’ll probably talk about these very unique things that happen to me during my life as a traveling seed salesman. There are always things to learn, even life lessons, through these encounters that I have too. So I’ll be sharing some of those as well.