It’s been a busy week here at Precision Farming Dealer headquarters as we put the finishing touches on the upcoming winter edition of Precision Farming Dealer, which will include the new Precision Benchmark Study report, a Day in the Cab visit with a Wisconsin Deere dealer and an in-depth look inside Precision Agri Services in Minster, Ohio, the recipient of our 2026 Most Valuable Dealership award! Be on the lookout for those stories in the coming days.

Before I clock out for the weekend, I want to take some time to reflect on our Precision Farming Dealer Summit, which took place in St. Louis last week. It was great to see many of you there and make some new connections as well.

We drew a sold-out crowd of 171 attendees, including a whopping 102 first-timers! While the general sessions and classroom presentations were top-notch, those first-time attendees also learned the true value of the 12 roundtable discussions. Moderators guided the discussions as dealers shared their insights, questions and challenges on pressing topics.

Special shout out to Mason Gukenberger from Wisconsin New Holland dealer Swiderski Equipment, who did a great job in his moderator debut for the topic, “Recruiting & Retention: Building a Winning Precision Team.” Here are some of the top tips, insights and ideas from the discussion, as documented by Mason in his notebook.

• Find people with the right personality for the job. You can’t teach character, but you can teach skills and technology.

• Your team has to be diverse so they can work together. Having a team with good adaptability helps retain quality people.

• Internships and partnerships with schools are great ways to get students interested in precision ag.

• There needs to be a good partnership between the dealers, OEMs and educators.

• Money keeps people working in precision for the short term, but work-life balance becomes more important as time goes on.

• It takes good management to push the importance of a work-life balance and to guide them, so they don’t burn out.

• Develop a career plan for internal growth. Everything a precision specialist does can apply to parts, service or sales.

• Precision specialists who earn respect across the organization typically succeed because the team supports them.  

• Make sure new hires have the tools needed to find solutions.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll have more insights and presentation/discussion recaps from the Summit in the coming days and weeks.

It was great seeing dealers from different brands, regions and backgrounds in the same room exchanging ideas. No one has all the answers, but the goal was to pick up a few ingredients to add to your unique recipe for success in 2026.

Let me know what some of your key takeaways from the Summit were, and what you’d like to see on the program next year in Indianapolis. Email me at NNewman@LessiterMedia.com.

Check out sights and sounds from the Summit in the above episode of On The Record.