Farm Manager of the Year: Built to Serve As a Bridge
The 2022 Professional Farm Manager of the Year is Skye Root, which is a recognition from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers and sponsored by Syngenta with support from The Scoop.
“This is a very special award—it means a lot to be in this elite fraternity of leaders in my specific line of work,” Root says. “I look at the people who have received this award, and those are the people I’ve looked up to for the last 15 years.”
Root has been an Accredited Farm Manager for 10 years, and a member of ASFMRA for 15. He founded Root Agricultural Advisory four years ago, which is based in Boise, Idaho.
Root credits his upbringing as the son of a first-generation farmer, his education economics and policy, and previous work in water management as being the springboard for his professional ambitions with serving as a farm manager. He previously worked as a Senior Vice President for Westchester Group Investment Management, the global farmland asset manager for Nuveen. Prior to Westchester, he was a water rights consultant for WestWater Research, a leading advisory firm in the water rights industry.
As a professional farm manager, he sees the role as being a bridge to the farm level—from investors, to real estate brokers, to appraisers, to attorneys.
“It’s my favorite part of the job—to work with farmers on an individual level and be a bridge to their livelihood,” he says.
Today, the work he and the team at Root Agricultural Advisory provide is centered on the key drivers for their geographic area’s agricultural industry, which is spread across the western U.S.
“We are connected to approximately 45 different crops,” Root says. “So we are in the weeds on the macro issues—export trade negotiations, water/drought issues, etc.”
Related to water, he shares how technology has become a great tool in managing the resource.
“In some places, we use 50% of the water we did 20 years ago because of irrigation technology,” he says. “It’s an example of what’s possible with the technology that is being developed for farmers.”
And on the flipside, he says technology has also changed his business—in terms of information collection, sharing and storage. However, he says the most important tool for a successful farm manager is to stay connected to the field.
“It is about using our fundamental knowledge of farmland, water, soil, crops and climate and understanding how technology helps us stay relevant. But it’s the fundamentals that brought us to the dance—and we can’t get lost in any new technology sacrificing that.”
Education and Accreditation:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Brigham Young University
- Master’s Degrees in Public Policy and Business Administration from Oregon State University
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
- Accredited Farm Manager (AFM)
- Accredited Agricultural Consultant (AAC)
- Accredited Land Consultant (ALC)
- Certified Sustainability Professional (ISSP-CSP)
- Real estate broker in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado & Utah
Personal Details:
- Serves on many boards and committees, including the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA), CFA Society of Idaho, Young Investors Society, Boy Scouts of America, BYU Management Society, Farmer to Farmer, and Realtors Land Institute.
- Enjoys teaching and farming.
- Taught economics and personal finance at the university level
- Along with his wife, Becca, and their four children, still runs cattle with his parents and helps when he can on the family operation
- Hbbies include church service, snowmobiling, airplanes, and triathlons