Farm Management Canada Board of Directors 2016-2017 Sterling Hilton, Chair – ab (Farmer)

Sterling and his brother, Spencer have recently brought Dane (Spencer's oldest) in to the 10,000 acre grain farm operation which in 2010 celebrated its homestead centennial. Sterling and Spencer's wives round out the 5 person management team which, along with personal roles and responsibilities, requires consensus on all major farm decisions.

"It's great to see so much excitement around agriculture right now. Young people are being enticed back, and need continued learning opportunities to enhance their management as well as leadership skills to move their farms into the future. I want to help Farm Management Canada provide this for our future leaders at the farm gate."

Sterling served as a delegate for the Farm Leadership Council from 2008-2010 and then as a director from 2010-2012. He also served as President of the local community hall board from 2007-2012.

During the winter months, Sterling enjoys helping coach his daughters in hockey and ringette. Sterling and his wife, Lianna have three beautiful girls.

During his extensive research of management strategies and control systems employed by large scale agricultural enterprises in Eastern Europe and the CIS – mainly in Russia – he got to see a wide range of farm operations in this part of the world. Besides the work on his PhD thesis Joërg consulted large scale farms in Eastern Europe and the CIS in the area of Business Management for more than 7 years. Starting in 2002, he built up and co-owned a 2,000 ha (5,000 ac) farm in Samara, Russia, where valuable lessons about practical farm management were acquired.

Between 2005 and 2008 Joërg developed a seed sales network in Northern Kazakhstan and managed an affiliated 2,000 ha (~5,000 ac) demo farm in this area. Shortly after that, Joërg joined a US-based investment fund with large farm operations in Eastern Europe and the CIS, where he planned, analyzed and benchmarked the farms owned and operated by the fund.

His pioneering days in the agricultural sector of Eastern Europe and the CIS were concluded, when he and his family settled in Winnipeg, MB in 2009. After a position in International Sales with Ag Growth International Inc., he most recently was managing the International Sales Support Organization for the same company. He introduced new processes and built up a team responsible for the design and price estimation of grain handling and storage systems as well as order fulfillment and international logistics.

Joerg keeps close ties to German agriculture as he is involved in a 4,000 ha (10,000 ac) farming partnership in Eastern Germany operating several independent farms including his own.   

Going back to his passion Farm Management, Joerg started his own Farm Management Advisory business GlobalAgAdvisors Ltd. in 2013, where he works with his farm clients in Western Canada on strategic planning, goal setting, cash flow management, financial analysis, income projecting and more. Joerg facilitates a peer group with farmers from North Dakota and Manitoba and holds a number of board positions with progressive farms. In his low season, you can see Joerg operating a combine on his neighbour’s 6,000 acre farm.