CAC Testimonials
ASAC members who choose to pursue and obtain the Certified Agricultural Consultant (CAC) certification are motivated by the prestige and recognition the CAC title conveys.
"ASAC's training curriculum and vast network of experienced agricultural consultants across multiple disciplines made me strive to get my CAC designation. Once involved in the organization, I was able to see that its values of honesty and integrity were a perfect fit for me and my clients."
"I've had my CAC designation since 2008, and I am able to bring more value to my clients by staying current on technological trends and market changes up and down the food chain."
Moe Russell CAC,I became a CAC ( Certified Agricultural Consultant) because those who have the designation have very impressive and diversified experience through years of helping clients get what they want.
Having spent 20 years in the consulting profession I wanted to join those with that distinguished designation. Having started and managed Russell Consulting Group I was most appreciative of receiving the CAC designation.
Ib Hagsten, Ph.D., CAC
Why am I a CAC Certified Agricultural Consultant through ASAC?
My obvious initial response is WHY NOT? Why wouldnt everyone want to be? Yet, I may require a bit of background to be seen in context, so here we go.
I joined ASAC in May of 1977, while I was a consulting nutritionist for a small regional feed company in Illinois (and the ASAC president of 1998, John Jackson, CAC, was a customer of our company and where our paths first met). Since I worked for a company in those days, I could only join as an associate member.
During the years from 1977 till 1998, I as an associate member, served as a board member on five two-year occasions, thus I was intimately involved in the organization and learned to know and appreciate well many of our great former presidents and colorful/distinguished ag consultants, whose practices covered the globe. Those were exciting face-to-face after-board-meeting dinners in smoke-filled rooms, where stories were abundant.
In late 1998 I was relieved of my corporate duties, and Patricia and I started our own ag consulting firm. I immediately asked to be reclassified as a consultant. Following a couple of autocratic presidents, John (from above), and Ida Hurley, CAC (our first female president in 1999), strongly encouraged the milder-mannered me to enter the officer track, which I did.
During the three years of the officer track, I participated in the then required consulting courses held all over the country, in order to be a CAC president. It made no sense not to be a CAC, and it sure didnt make sense to be the key representative of the organization and not be a certified member. So, now you have the context for why the societys longest-standing member, also proudly is a CAC.
ASAC membership allows opportunities to collaborate with like-minded consultants across the nation. Current membership is well versed in a wide variety of agricultural specialties including financial planning, agribusiness, agricultural production and management.
The Certified Agricultural Consultant (CAC) designation and the educational opportunities offered are also very important to myself and my business.
My primary focus is managing agricultural assets in a sustainable and socially responsible manner based on long term appreciation. Membership in the ASAC allows me another avenue to better serve my clients.
A veterinarian friend from New Jersey invited me to join ASAC during early 1980. A major attraction at that point was the ability to obtain Certified Agricultural Consultant [CAC] status...which was an extremely important credential for a relative newcomer to agricultural consulting who was not known widely.
My primary professional disciplines are a somewhat strange combination of micro financial analysis of large scale farms and ranches involving both financial turnarounds and expansion...lender and producer training...plus vertically integrated breeding/production operations involving turkeys, swine, and dairy goats both domestically and abroad. I am also the editor/publisher of two nationally distributed, subscription, agricultural business/financial newsletters, one a weekly and the other a monthly.
Perhaps the leading honors of my professional years have been those times when selected to serve ASAC in every officer and director capacity except Secretary/Treasurer.
Valuable professional growth and broadened understanding have also been obtained through the years via attendance at ASAC?s Annual Conference educational sessions.