Tyler Strachan and his business partner Brad Hunter have opened Core Ag Inputs in Virden, a brand new crop service located on Chester Street North. A former cabinet/carpentry shop has become an office in front with a warehouse in the rear for seed and agricultural chemicals.
Core Ag Inputs held their grand opening on Thursday, April 19 offering customers, suppliers, family and friends pork on a bun lunch and an opportunity to visit and learn about Core Ag’s services for their crop year.
Strachan explains that his business is a joint venture under the Core Ag Ltd. supply system.
“The partnership with Core Ag allows us to be in a buying network and have connection within the industry, into a group of retailers. With that we get a little bit more buying power, a little bit more say in the industry.”
Born into agriculture in the Hamiota area, Strachan made the move to Virden a number of years ago and has been in the agri-business for 15 years.
“I’ve spent the last four years in the supplier side (selling fertilizer). In that role I got to meet with almost every independent retailer in the eastern half of SK and Manitoba.”
Brad Hunter grew up in the Sandy Lake area. Both men have agri-business education through ACC; Hunter has been in the Ag industry for about 20 years.
Local ownership an asset
“We’ve both lived in the community a long time. We both have families here; we’re both going to be sticking around for a long time. We figured that if we’re going to be doing this, why not do it for ourselves,” said Strachan.
Strachan and Hunter as business partners in this new venture bring their years of experience to the farm producers.
“Our main focus is to sell brand name seed and chemicals, and start with direct-to-farm fertilizer.”
Strachan says their agronomy service will include crop scouting, third party custom spraying and custom fertilizer application.
“Being locally owned, we know that we’re going to have a consistent staff.”
As they build an inventory of knowledge from year to year with each producer, Strachan points out, customers are “going to have somebody else that knows their farm, other than themselves.”
Being independently owned, he says, “If there’s a demand for organic, if there’s a demand for anything that we’re not selling at the moment, we do have that option to go the direction that our customers want us to.”
