TJ Masker

Lucky to be able to get to do what I do and provide for my family. But no greater job in this world than Dad. And I got to be it uninterrupted for a whole week.

@corn_porkNbeans Could you please try to farm harder please?

I am such a bad farmer…I should have picked this up bending at the hip, lift, and twist. Claws gotta eat

I recently spent time in Austin at the @AgVendHQ Partner Summit with over 250 industry leaders. There was the usual talk of margin pressure and farmer profitability challenges, but what was most compelling to me was the sharing of the product roadmap. I think the roadmap for a software company that penetrates 35% of the North American retail market provides an interesting signal into the future of ag retail: What problems it believes are worth solving, where it's placing its bets, and if you read between the lines what it thinks the next chapter of ag retail looks like, including heavy emphasis on one of my favorite subjects, friction reduction, and team efficiency that leads to better outcomes for retails, crop input manufacturers and ultimately better results and experiences for farmers, too. A few product components that caught my eye: 1. CRM+ and the Death of "Dead Time" CRM initiatives in ag retail usually fail because data entry is tedious and the "next step" after entering data is never clear. AgVend is attacking this with a Voice AI Agent. Now, sales reps can now have a conversation with an AI agent while driving. The AI structures the notes, logs them, and creates tasks based on the conversation with the farmer, that is relayed to the agent. 2. Loyalty & Programming Historically, retailer-led loyalty programs have been an Excel nightmare. By leveraging real-time transactional data, retailers can now embed incentives directly into the purchase flow and give customers an up to date understand of where they stand and how they can unlock further rewards. Interestingly, pilot results showed 25% higher agronomy spend among participants. 3. The Power of the "Control Point" This is one of my favorite strategic concepts and I came across it a few years ago when I was trying to better understand what software strategy in agribusiness should look like. By owning the "Control Point"—the mission-critical software driving daily workflow—AgVend earns the right to integrate complex layers like Program Management (tracking those notoriously opaque manufacturer rebates) along with other capabilities, like their Nexus product suite, to be able to touch all points of the value chain. When these products get utilized in ag retail, AgVend becomes what I would call Digital Infrastructure, for not only the retailers and cooperatives, but the value chain. By solving for inefficiencies, such as misaligned forecasting, lagging incentive data, and slow reconciliation they can become an irreplaceable node between the manufacturer, the retailer, and the farm gate. I’ve shared a full analysis of the roadmap, in the @UpstreamAg article.

Build a snowman. Get out the lawn chairs. Enjoy ice cream in 50 degree weather. Welcome to Iowa.

College Basketball experts talking about Mackey Arena. A place where Iowa State dominated.

@sanegrain Ain’t a lotta boys named Cullen these days.

@sanegrain Rosemary Beach, FL

This is a Top 2 All Time Iowa State basketball team and it ain’t #2.

@StumpGuyTy How did you establish the right vendor to purchase from? Who’s the best in your opinion thinking of quality vs cost?

Just bought $18,000 of candy for our Swedish Candy biz. Ask me anything.

@sanegrain Great tune. 👌

Merry Christmas drop your meat pics in the replies/quotes

🥩 😅

Fun fact: gas prices today are roughly where they were 20 years ago.

First time ever Iowa State has won Football, Wrestling, Women’s Basketball and Men’s Basketball in same year! Appreciate you all! Cyclone State. 🌪️

@_AlexGookin Where we are at here.

6 7 ??? 🤷🤷🤷 LOL just keeping up with the kids these days! Anyone want to eat tide pods with me?

Any person making some kind of snap decision on Iowa hoops after getting blown out at #7 MSU is a novice. That’s the most difficult game they’ll play all season.

There is no better customer service than what you get from @recteq_official - walked me thru the issue I was seeing with my grill and helped get me what I need. Anthony is good man!

Finding time to remind myself “these are the good old days” with a messy house and kids music blaring in the background. It’s chaos but right where we want to be.

Our goal as parents is for our girls to have a heart for Jesus. There is evil in this world, no doubt. We as a country need to get back to living in community with another.

"It was Americana. It was collegiate. It was college football – and I loved it." @joelklatt recaps a memorable win for Iowa State over Iowa in Ames.