By Jim Whitt | Contributing Editor ALERT AGRI DISTRIBUTORS CELEBRATES 40-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
I was on a list with several people who received an email from my friend Harvey Dann on Oct. 29. The subject line read, “Riding for the Brand (Book).” The message stated: “You are invited to attend a ‘People Meeting’ hosted by Jim & Sondra Whitt. Date: Nov 1/25, time: 4 p.m. Location: Lancaster Room (Hilton Hotel). Harvey.” This was how I learned that Sondra and I were on the agenda to speak at the 40th Anniversary Alert Agri Distributors Cel- ebration in Winnipeg. Since that was only two days away, I called Harvey and asked what we were supposed to talk about. “Oh,” Harvey responded,“that’s when we are handing out copies of your book.” That was it. He said nothing else about what he expected us to present. You have to know Harvey to appreciate the ambiguity of his approach. He had invited Sondra and me to attend the cel- ebration and asked me to bring copies of my book to give to some of the attendees. Apparently, two days before the event he thought it would be a good idea to have us do a “People Meeting” and then hand out the books. Our connection with Harvey was the result of him reading my column in the CALF News . We had never met, but he apparently liked what he read and called me one day out of the blue to see if Son- dra and I would come to Calgary to do a seminar for a group of cattle feeders in Alberta. We did and Harvey introduced us by saying that he had figured out how to resolve trade disputes between Canada and the United States.“First, Canada should declare war on the United States. They will defeat us and then they will rebuild our country.” Everyone laughed and then he turned the program over to us. That was more than 25 years ago. Since then, I receive a phone call from Harvey about every three months. We talk about the challenges we face in agriculture, what’s wrong with both of our countries and what should be done to fix the messes our politicians have made. Several months ago, I hadn’t heard from Harvey for a while, so I called him
and left a message. He didn’t call back, which is unusual, so I called his daughter, Jackie, who has worked with him for as long as the company has been in business and asked if he was okay. She assured me that Harvey was fine and that if anything should happen to him, I was on the list to call. Harvey’s celebration spanned an entire weekend. We arrived on Friday night and watched game six of the World Series at an informal get together with some of the other attendees in the hotel grill. Being in Canada, the majority of the group were pulling for Toronto. Since we were from south of the border, someone asked if we were Dodgers fans. I told them not par- ticularly since we were from Oklahoma and considered California to be a foreign country. On Saturday, we attended a session pre- sented by John Fagan, Ph.D., co-founder, CEO and chief scientist of the Health Research Institute in Fairfield, Iowa. Fagan has developed a rapid, economical method for determining the nutrient den- sity of wheat. Instead of the current sys- tem of marketing crops based on quantity, his goal is to create a system where both crops and livestock are measured at the molecular level and marketed based on nutritional quality. Following him on the agenda was our “People Meeting.” Sondra informed me that I was on my own. As I stood up to address the attendees, I opened with this observation,“Harvey Dann doesn’t make friends, he runs an adult adoption agency.” Everyone in the room laughed and nod- ded their heads. That’s because everyone who attended the celebration has been adopted by Harvey over the last 40 years. Harvey adopted us into his Canadian family, and that relationship has lasted for more than 25 years. Harvey put us on the program and gave away books because he believes in what we do and thought we could help the people in attendance and maybe get us some business. Harvey has been successful because he has helped a lot of other people be successful. As I
got acquainted with other people who attended the celebration, I discovered their adoptions were similar to ours. They come from all across Canada and the United States. Harvey has fed cattle with them, bought cattle from them, farmed with them, sold products to them and invested with them. He has been an innovator, investor and promoter of new technologies in a wide range of agribusi- nesses. And, yes, my fellow adoptees receive calls from Harvey on a regular basis just like me. On Saturday night, Harvey treated more than 70 of his adopted family to a prime rib dinner. Afterward, he took us all on a trip down memory lane and shared some of the experiences he’s had on the journey that has taken him to where he is today. After graduating from the University of Manitoba he went to work as a cattle buyer for Canada Packers in 1963. Bill Parrish hired Harvey in 1965 to manage Parkdale Farms, and during his 17-year tenure with Parkdale he built two feed- lots. The farm sold in 1982 and Harvey went to work for CanFax as a market analyst. He left CanFax in1985 to start Alert Agri Distributors with the mission of “Making its clients the most compet- itive in the industry.” The company sold feedyard equipment and represented IBP, buying cattle in Canada. Harvey shared numerous humorous anecdotes about his experiences with the people he did busi- ness with along the way, many of whom were in the audience. The event continued Sunday morning with brunch at St. Andrews Golf & Country Club where Harvey held court and recognized attendees’ birthdays and anniversaries for years they had attended past celebrations. About halfway through the festivities the electricity went out but that didn’t deter Harvey. He simply moved from the lectern in the front of the room to a spot in front of the windows to provide enough light for him to see his notes. The morning wrapped up with comedian Big Daddy Taz providing the entertainment. That afternoon Harvey gave a guided bus
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