This is My Story: Sara Yuzak, Climate Business Manager

Sara Yuzak loves to help people – it’s something that has been a part of her identity from a young age. Her passion for connecting with and helping others, and her love of horses and the agriculture industry, make her the perfect fit as Climate Business Manager at Climate FieldView™.

With over a decade of experience working in agriculture in addition to her family’s ties to the industry, Sara knows her way around a farm. Growing up in Saskatoon, Sara was a part of her local 4-H club and rode horses regularly. Her mother worked in the agriculture industry, specifically as an animal geneticist and her father and uncle run a small grain farm Northeast of Saskatoon. 

It was her love of working with youth, however, that led her in the direction of a criminology degree. After convocation, Sara worked for the Saskatchewan provincial government in the youth criminal justice system. She worked with young offenders at a closed custody facility for five years, which she found was a “really fulfilling and awesome experience.” But, the world of agriculture kept calling her name, so when the opportunity came up, she took a job with an ag retail, moved to Unity, Saskatchewan, and “really dove headfirst into the agriculture industry.”

While her formal education was in a different discipline, it was her passion for the industry with which she's had a lifelong connection that helped her succeed. Additionally, her work at a full service retail meant that she quickly became a “jack of all trades” – from buying grain to understanding farm logic – which gave her a “full picture of all the decisions that are made on a farm.”

In addition to her full-time work, Sara’s love of horses and helping youth unites perfectly in her role as a certified Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL) Facilitator. Using horses, Sara teaches teamwork, leadership, and other life skills to youth. Because horses are so sensitive to both their surroundings and non-verbal cues, they are a perfect means of teaching these skills.

Sara’s passion for horses also extends to her favorite equine sports- team cattle penning and team cattle sorting.  She competes in shows at both the Provincial and National level and sits as a Director of the Lakeland Team Cattle Penning Association, where she continues to develop her skills in horsemanship, teamwork, and leadership. Horses are a family affair at the ‘Yuzak Ranch’ – just west of Lloydminster, Alberta, and Sara’s three-year-old daughter Presley has followed in her mother’s footsteps with a great love for horses and has been in the saddle since she was 3 months old. 

After working in ag retail for a few years, Sara took a position with Monsanto, now Bayer as a Territory Account Manager. It was there that she used the Climate FieldView platform on the job for the first time, learning firsthand how it could both save her time and allow her to communicate and collaborate with her team more effectively.

When a position at The Climate Corporation opened, Sara jumped at the opportunity, explaining “it was a no-brainer for me because I was already really passionate [about it] and could see the value it could bring not just to me but to farmers and retailers.”

Sara manages accounts across the province of Alberta, from farmers to retailers, where she develops and implements strategies that increase overall awareness and expertise with the technology. Her position allows her to meet new people and work with a highly-motivated and driven team who are just as passionate about digital agriculture as she is.

In her travels and at FieldView How-To meetings, Sara illustrates for farmers and retailers how FieldView can help you gain insights into every acre on your farm, better prioritize your decisions, and become more efficient by either saving time, saving money or helping to make more money. One of the things Sara loves about FieldView is how versatile it is – every farm is unique, so each farmer may benefit from the technology in a different way. Field health imagery can give you deeper insight into your fields, for example. “Farmers know their fields,” Sara said, “but this takes the emotion out of it by giving them hard numbers to aggregate data or look at subfield levels to get the most out of every acre.”

While one farmer may benefit from field health imagery, another may find value in writing their own prescriptions, and yet another may benefit from aggregating data to see their farm’s big picture to determine what truly is and isn’t working for them. Testing fertilizer blends, for example, is a huge benefit – at the end of the day, a farmer can see clearly from a field region report whether the decision to use a particular blend on their crop was beneficial.

As farms get bigger and bigger, there are increasingly larger teams working them, and FieldView not only helps to facilitate communication on the farm but acts as a central housing mechanism for all of a farm’s data, ensuring efficiency. Farming is, after all, a risk, and FieldView’s technology can help.

Being a part of the Climate FieldView team and on the forefront of digital agriculture is important to Sara, as she noted, “We’re at the cusp of something very exciting.” As awareness continues to grow and farmers continue to share their successes, the industry itself benefits.

“To have so many farmers supporting FieldView, for me, is a special thing to be a part of,” she said.  Sara went on to explain, “I have a lot of experience in the industry and bring something different to the table.”

Agriculture is, after all, about people. “Being able to connect with people on an individual level while demonstrating the value of FieldView - brings it full circle for me.”