GOOD PEOPLE.
GREAT EXPERIENCE.

An agribusiness consultant for more than 25 years, Brett MacNeil has a long history of helping his clients successfully profit from the unprecedented transformations in agribusiness.

Brett has a first-hand appreciation for the day-to-day challenges farmers and ranchers face, along with a passion for helping them preserve their way of life.

After putting himself through the University of Arizona (B.S. Agriculture with an emphasis in Animal Sciences), Brett quickly rose to Vice President and Designated Broker for a major agribusiness management company in Phoenix. In this position, he was deeply involved in nearly every aspect of the operation: farm management, finance, marketing, sales, acquisition analysis, contracting and negotiation, as well as government program management and compliance.

During graduate school in the 1990’s, Brett was one of the first to recognize how advances in information technology and finance could be harnessed to benefit producers and institutional farmland investors alike. Inspired by these insights, he launched Scythe & Spade in 1998.

In 2014, after selling portions of the business to key employees, Brett was recruited as Vice President and Director of Acquisitions and Dispositions for Hancock Agricultural Investment Group (HAIG), one of America’s largest and oldest institutional investors in farmland with a $3.0 billion portfolio of more than 300,000 acres under management. There he was responsible for leading HAIG’s farmland acquisition and disposition program, including sourcing, underwriting, due diligence and strategic alliances, giving him valuable experience from the perspective of an institutional investor.

An entrepreneur at heart, Brett returned to Scythe & Spade in 2017 armed with a renewed energy and a wealth of new insights to help his clients prosper in an ever-changing landscape.

Brett is a graduate of the Keller School of Management (MBA), a licensed real estate broker (Idaho, Oregon and Arizona), and an instrument-rated, private pilot. He is a board member of the Farm Financial Standards Council, as well as the Northwest Agribusiness Executive Seminar.

Matt Harrod is an agricultural economics and supply chain professional with over 20 years’ experience in specialty crop production, facility management, contract development and execution, supply risk management and hedging, as well as agricultural policy and investment analysis.

Over the last ten years he has served as a Deputy Agricultural Secretary in Indiana, Agricultural Economics and Strategy Manager for BP’s North American Biofuels group, and most recently Director of U.S. Supply Chain Development for Chemtex International’s cellulosic ethanol projects. Matt has designed and contracted multi-feedstock biomass supply chains totaling over 5 million tons and $246 million across multiple U.S. states.

He has extensively traveled professionally on four continents and has both a degree in agricultural economics and an MBA from Purdue University.

matth@ag-management.com

Brent has 30 years of experience working in agribusiness capital markets and the farmland asset class.

His first 19 years were devoted to the debt side of the capital markets through institutional financing of large agricultural farming and dairy operations in Central California. In his roles as a lender and manager of acquisitions, Brent underwrote and appraised thousands of acres throughout Arizona and California. He has a great understanding of how water, micro-climates, soils and macro/ micro agricultural economic factors impact income streams and farm asset values.

Over the last decade Brent devoted his time to the equity side of capital markets through institutional acquisitions of large farmland holdings in California and the Pacific Northwest. In his role as an Associate Director/Senior Acquisitions Manager at Manulife Investment Management Company (formally Hancock Natural Resource Group), Brent managed acquisition activities primarily in the West and Pacific Northwest where he acquired and directly developed diversified agricultural portfolios of tree nuts, wine grapes, citrus and irrigated row crops totaling over 25,000 acres at a value of $500 million dollars. Under Brent’s leadership at Hancock, the portfolio grew to four billion dollars across the United States. Brent has experience in all the major ag regions of the US, both acquiring and divesting assets.

Brent developed an interest in agriculture at an early age, growing up on his family’s farm near Porterville, California in Tulare County. Brent is a third-generation farmer in California and began his career just as the industry was coming out of the farm crisis in the early 1990’s. With direct experience in production agriculture, he understands the complicated cycles of the industry and is extremely knowledgeable about California’s water resources and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

Brent earned a BS in Agricultural Business from California State University of Fresno, is a licensed California Real Estate salesperson (DRE#01751246) and holds an Accredited Agricultural Consultant designation from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraiser. He also served as a board member/treasurer for the Ag Lenders Society of California.

brentr@ag-management.com

Agriculture has always been part of Addison’s daily life, having grown up on his family’s farming operation in Arkansas and developed an outstanding career in farmland real estate investing throughout the United States.

Addison has extensive experience sourcing and acquiring Investment Grade Farmland in all major production regions of the U.S., most recently with Manulife Investment Management Company (formally Hancock Natural Resource Group). He has sourced, managed due diligence and closed opportunities in irrigated row crops, vegetables and permanent crops and has closed deals totaling over 80,000 acres over a period of eight years in seven states with a book value of over $300 million dollars. During this time, he learned the ins and outs of institutional farmland acquisitions and sales in multiple regions, with highly variable risk and return tradeoffs in both row crops and highly complicated permanent crop systems. This understanding and experience gained in different regional nuances of farming, local markets, water situations as well as relationships with key landowners, investors, and influencers separate his experience from most in this field.

Addison earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas in Agriculture Business (B.S.A.). It was while attending the University of Arkansas that Addison enlisted in the Arkansas Army National Guard and later earned a commission as a Second Lieutenant after graduating. He served over twelve years in the Arkansas National Guard, deploying to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, achieving the rank of Major and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service, the Meritorious Service Medal, the US Army Combat Action Badge and multiple other awards while deployed to Afghanistan and throughout a 12-year career with the National Guard.

He later earned his Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) through the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Addison holds an Accredited Farm Manager designation from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, in addition to an Arkansas Real Estate salesperson license.

Addison devotes his personal time to his family and can often be found either at his children’s sporting events, spending time in a duck blind, or volunteering in the special need’s ministry at his local church.

addisont@ag-management.com

Sidnee supports Scythe & Spade clients both internal and external in farmland acquisitions/dispositions real estate activities, due diligence studies, and market research.

Sidnee has worked as an agricultural financial analyst and production ag management consultant for the past 5 years. Through her previous employment with the University of Idaho Extension and her own consulting business, Spade Bit Consulting, she has analyzed 170+ operations in systems as diverse as bison, logging, and freshwater fish farming. She most enjoys being able to translate complex market information and data into easy-to-understand stories and tools.

Sidnee brings to Scythe and Spade a lifetime of experience in beef cattle ranching in the intermountain west. She and her husband have experience raising cattle and working on ranches in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. She has worked intensively in creating economic and financial models analyzing ranching profitability for both commercial and regenerative operations.

Her diverse background also includes working with municipalities, county governments, and land conservation organizations as a city planner. With this comes a depth of knowledge of land use laws and local government processes.

Sidnee has a M.S. Degree in Agriculture Economics from Purdue University, an MBA from Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and a BS in Agriculture Education from Brigham Young University-Idaho.

With her free time, she can always be found outside enjoying the very best of central Idaho hiking, riding horses, and gardening with her three children.

Gavin comes to Scythe & Spade with over 10 years of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) experience and a background in agricultural underwriting. Gavin most recently worked as a credit analyst for Alabama Farm Credit focused on agriculture underwriting a portfolio of about $1.4 billion in assets. In this role he worked with diverse agricultural clients throughout North Alabama with an agricultural mix of poultry farms, timber lands, corn and soy farms, and cotton gins.

Much of Gavin’s GIS experience comes from his time as a geospatial engineer in the U.S. Army serving with the 10th Mountain Division and 3rd Infantry Division where he attained the rank of specialist and maintained a TS/SCI security clearance . While with the Army, his GIS roles and experience included development of integrated GIS spatial or non-spatial databases for seven countries across a variety of objectives, created web map applications, preparation of topographic line maps, line of sight products, helicopter landing products, geospatial intelligence products, and terrain categorization products.

Gavin also served as GIS Manager for Alabama 811 maintained geospatial data for over 400 different entities with a myriad of GIS users across Alabama’s many utility operators.

Gavin earned his B.S. in Geography with a minor in GIS during his military service. Gavin also has an M.B.A from Samford University. In his free time, Gavin enjoys hiking and kayaking with his family. Gavin can also frequently be found coaching his daughter’s soccer team.

Chelsea Ridenour adds support and value to Scythe & Spade’s current and future GIS analytics capability.

Chelsea is a GIS specialist with 7 years of experience. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Capital University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and a Minor in Mathematics and Computational Science. She later attended Columbus State and received a Geographic Information Systems Certificate.

Previously Chelsea worked at HeartlandGIS, where she created custom StoryMaps for clients such as the U.S. Grains Council, the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, U.S. Wheat Associates, and others.

In her spare time Chelsea enjoys quilting, jigsaw puzzles, and reading alternative takes on fairytales. She lives with her wonderful husband and wanna-be guard dog in Central Ohio.

Rosalie will be supporting Scythe & Spade clients with both internal and external farmland acquisitions/dispositions real estate activities, due diligence studies, and farm management services.

Rosalie brings diverse work experience and a varied set of skills to the Scythe & Spade team. In her 12+ years of farming hazelnuts in the Oregon Willamette Valley, she’s come face-to-face with the many challenges faced by the farmers of today. Her quest to simplify and eliminate some of these challenges is what drew her to Scythe & Spade.

Rosalie got her start in the agricultural industry in 2009 after marrying into a hazelnut farming family. She quickly got involved in the day-to-day operations of the family farm. In 2015, Rosalie and her husband started Wolf River Farms, LLC, and began expanding their farming business. Their company specialized in taking over older, mis-managed farms, and in planting new orchards. Rosalie applied her love of research to sourcing new farming opportunities, hazelnut industry research, and developing farm leases.

Prior to starting Wolf River Farms, LLC, Rosalie spent her early career in the insurance industry and went on to start her own General Contracting company, spending over a decade building custom homes. Her experience in mitigating risks, project management, and business development is a great asset to Scythe & Spade’s Due Diligence team. Rosalie also spent several years as a Property Accountant for Access Property Management, LLC. As a Property Accountant, she was responsible for the accounts totaling over $45 million in assets. She looks forward to applying this expertise to the Farm Management portfolio at Scythe & Spade.

In her personal time, Rosalie can be found exploring the outdoors with her husband and two boys or planning some type of project. Rosalie holds an Oregon Real Estate Broker license and her Mississippi Residential Builder license.