Travis Gustafson’s Journey Supporting Nebraska Farmers

Watching scientific principles come to life in the eyes of the farmers he works with is one of agronomist Travis Gustafson’s favorite parts of the job. That, and riding in combines.

Gustafson is an agronomic service representative for Syngenta covering central and western Nebraska. On an almost weekly basis during the growing season, he contributes his expertise to Successful Farming’s coverage of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Progress report. 

Gustafson took some time to speak with Successful Farming about his science background, how Syngenta prioritizes farmer success, and why he enjoys harvest.

SF: Tell us about your road to Syngenta. 

TG: I grew up in Nebraska — my hometown is Aurora — and went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), studying agronomy. I got through my bachelor’s degree, and then I went on and got a master’s degree in weed science. I went into the plant pathology department at UNL as a research tech, looking at foliar diseases on soybeans, and I was really enjoying research. 

I spent six years in plant pathology at UNL and then was looking for a change. An opportunity at Syngenta came up, and they offered me three options of locations where I could go. One of them was back to, basically, my hometown, so I jumped on that one. 

I’ve been with Syngenta for 13 years as an agronomic service representative, and it’s been a good 13 years.

SF: Does your research experience give you a unique background compared with your peers?

TG: It gives me a good, well-rounded background, especially for this job, because I do a lot of work with herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. Having worked in weed science for my master’s degree and then as a research tech in fungicides — I did a lot of work with fungicides — I had a really good background for this position where we’re selling herbicides and fungicides. It made it a relatively easy learning curve to step into this job. 

SF: What’s a typical day look like for you during the growing season? 

TG: During the growing season, I’m out and about in the field a lot, whether it’s servicing complaints — a farmer calls, and I’ll go out and find out what happened — or just making sure the farmer is satisfied at the end of the day. We stand behind our products, so part of my job is doing a lot of field visits investigating things happening in the field.

That’s one part of it. I’m also doing quite a few meetings with co-ops and retailers, making sure they understand how we want to position our products for best performance and get the most success for the farmer. 

Ultimately, we’re about letting the farmer succeed and do a really good job at what they do. Farmers are proud of the work that they do in the field, and we want to make sure that they’re just as proud of the products they use. 

SF: What’s a rewarding part of working with farmers? 

TG: One of the things that is rewarding to me is when I can explain the science to people and relate it to how it helps them grow better crops. One instance is, right now in Nebraska, we’re starting to deal with tar spot, as far as corn diseases go. It’s gaining momentum in our state, and we’re trying to educate farmers on how they need to change their fungicide programs in order to deal with tar spot. 

Last year, we had quite a bit of success in doing some different fungicide programs with farmers and they saw the benefit. They went from, “I’m not going to use a fungicide,” to, “I like what that did for me last year — I used it twice, and I really liked how those fungicides worked.” 

Just being able to use science to flip the switch for some people to say, “Aha! That’s why it benefits me.” To me, that’s the most rewarding thing about the job. 

SF: Which point in the growing season has the potential to throw the most curveballs?

TG: June is usually the most unpredictable month of the year for me. We’re usually in the middle of everything in June, between servicing herbicide complaints and starting to talk to people about applying fungicides. June is all-hands on deck. Everything is happening fast. 

SF: What’s something you look forward to at the end of the growing season?

TG: I always enjoy harvest because it kind of wraps up everybody’s hard work. I enjoy talking to farmers at harvest time because they’re usually a bit more relaxed, and then you can have a conversation about what worked well this year and what they didn’t like. And riding in combines is enjoyable.