Pods and Ears

Rob Huston takes listeners into the grain elevator and the merchandiser's truck to reveal how the everyday notes, dryer logs, and originator conversations hiding in drawers and minds can become the strategic edge your operation needs. Through vivid examples, like a dryer operator's 15-minute moisture readings or a merchandiser's quiet phone call, he shows how capturing, storing, and accessing that...

Rob Huston takes listeners inside a common phone call where the price a farmer sees on his phone doesn't match the price his elevator quotes him. Drawing on three decades in commodities and a timely industry article, he unpacks how outdated quoting practices, not technology alone, create slippage, and how simple policy fixes can align elevators with the real-time markets producers use on their pho...

Rob Huston invites you into a different kind of episode — one that stops talking about platforms and markets and starts asking how you actually sell to producers. Through a series of vivid contrasts, real-world field examples, and a revisited LinkedIn insight, he exposes the danger of ‘aggressive’ tactics and paints a clear path for ‘assertive’ professionals who bring insight, adapt their message,...

Join Rob Huston and Chris Sidles as a chance meeting on a riverboat turns into a mission to change how grain elevators do business. Through vivid examples — from a merchandiser’s Rolodex to satellite-flagged grain bins — they trace the journey of federated data from concept to practical tool, showing how privacy-respecting insights can reshape daily decisions. Listen as real elevator managers disc...

In this episode of Pods and Ears, Rob Huston sits down with veteran analyst Dale Durchholz to weave a decades-long story of markets, memory, and method. From a farm boy’s beginnings to the bustle of Chicago trading floors, Dale recounts the moments that taught him to read cycles—how they pair with fundamentals, how USDA data is processed, and why simple technical tools often tell the clearest tale...

Rob Huston breaks down why current grain markets and South American supply are pressuring margins and how grain elevators must operate smarter to compete. The episode explains five practical AI applications for market analysis, customer prioritization, forecasting, risk detection, and document search — and warns about the governance risks of using free consumer AI. Rob outlines a clear phased road...

In this episode, Rob explains why calculating ROI for data unification in grain elevators should focus not just on cost savings but on revenue growth and strategic advantage. He shares a real-world example showing how unified data uncovers missed production opportunities, outlines the three ROI categories—operational efficiency, revenue growth, and strategic positioning—and breaks down typical inv...

In this episode we break down how fragmented data and a government shutdown leave grain elevators, cooperatives, and processors scrambling for reliable market intelligence. Rob Huston reviews recent market moves, explains why basis and export trends matter, and shows how unified data platforms like Microsoft Fabric can turn scattered information into real‑time competitive advantage.