Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Mike Smith, Ag 1 Source
July 19, 2023
By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
A businessman in Oregon is considering a new job. He is connected to this potential position by a recruiter based halfway across the continent. That recruiter is the founder of an executive placement company that serves clients across the nation... from rural Kansas.
At right: Mike Smith | Download photo
Mike Smith is the founder and chairman of Ag 1 Source, a national agricultural recruiting company. Smith grew up on a farm near Long Island, Kansas. He commuted to Norton High School because of its outstanding agricultural education and FFA program. He says his ag teacher and FFA advisor, Bob Broeckelman, had a lifelong impact on him.
Smith went to Kansas State University where he met his wife and returned to the farm, but this was during the farm crisis of the 1980s. He took an opportunity to work for Collingwood Grain in southwest Kansas.
“It was a great decision,” Smith said. He enjoyed agribusiness and rose through the ranks of the company.
As he considered further advancement, he was introduced to a man who worked for a recruiting company. The recruiters proposed numerous job opportunities to Smith, but none was a fit. Finally, they suggested: “Why don’t you just join us?”
Smith did so. He opened the Kansas office for that company and found he enjoyed the job placement and recruiting work.
When the president of the company died suddenly, Smith and a co-worker decided to go out on their own. In 2002, they created an agriculturally-oriented recruiting company that they named Ag 1 Source.
Smith and his wife also considered relocating. She was from central Kansas originally, and they were looking for an ideal community in which to raise their children. They chose Hesston. “It was hand-chosen,” Smith said. “It had that small town environment we were looking for.”
Through the years, Smith and his coworkers built the business. “Our mission was to really work in depth with clients to make sure they got the people who fit their culture and would stick,” Smith said. “We want to listen to our customers and build a long-term relationship with them.”
Ag 1 Source targeted businesses in the nation’s major agricultural production regions, beginning with the High Plains. Today, Ag 1 Source also has recruiters located in the west coast, southeastern states, upper Midwest and eastern corn belt.
Some specialize in agronomic jobs and some in the livestock industry. “We put people in the area they know,” Smith said.
Ag 1 Source collects resumes of interested job seekers and helps agribusinesses fill their open positions. It’s a type of employment match-making. The company focuses on helping clients fill mid- to upper-management positions, up to the senior executive level, in businesses that are a step or two from the farmer in the supply chain.
Clients might be such retail businesses as independent farm stores or cooperatives, or companies working in animal nutrition, genetics, agronomics, and many other specialties.
Whatever the company, Smith and his staff work hard to find people who are a good match with the business. The process begins with finding the right cultural fit, even before job skills or education.
In 2008, the company added a second brand for non-agricultural businesses. Called Career 1 Source, this fast-growing branch focuses on private equity and health care companies, for example.
At the end of 2022, Smith retired from the company but continues to help with the business. His daughters and grandchildren are in Kansas City, so he and his wife are there now, where Smith also deals in real estate. He is also giving back to those who helped him achieve success, as he is incoming chair of the Kansas FFA Foundation Board.
Today, Ag 1 Source serves customers from border to border and coast to coast. That’s quite an accomplishment for a person from a rural community such as Long Island, population 137 people. Now, that’s rural.
For more information, go to www.ag1source.com.
The businessman in Oregon took that new job in Kansas, thanks to the good work of this rural recruiter. We commend Mike Smith and the people of Ag 1 Source for making a difference by matching people and positions properly.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
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