Shaun Haney, founder and CEO of RealAgriculture, says farm broadcasting was never the plan.
Growing up in Picture Butte, a southern Alberta community surrounded by feed yards, irrigation, and diverse crop production, he expected to go to law school. Instead, a changing family farm, a growing interest in media, and the early days of YouTube steered him into an entirely different direction, one that now reaches farmers across both Canada and the United States.
“I had no intentions of being a farm broadcaster,” he says. “When I started, I just grabbed a camera, went to shows, and filmed interviews. It was a hobby that turned into a career.”
Today, Haney operates RealAgriculture from Lethbridge, Alberta, hosting radio shows in both countries, producing news and commentary, and serving as a familiar voice to listeners across North America. And at present, he is NAFB’s only Canadian member, representing a unique perspective within the association.
RealAgriculture started in 2008 as a simple blog. The platform quickly evolved as he began filming interviews, expanding from Western Canada into Ontario, and eventually reaching audiences far beyond national borders.
“I can remember going to farm shows with a camera thinking, ‘I hope I never have to do that,’” he laughs. “Now everybody has a camera.”
The digital boom pushed RealAgriculture into new territory. In 2016, Haney launched RealAg Radio on SiriusXM’s Rural Radio 147, giving him a daily connection to U.S. farmers and ranchers. That expansion shifted the company’s identity.
“With content distributed through YouTube, Instagram, and SiriusXM, we really see ourselves as a North American media company now,” he said.
Haney also writes columns, manages all company sales, hosts a weekend radio program on four Western Canadian stations, appears every Friday on AgriTalk with Chip Flory, and joins RFD-TV every morning. On top of that, he speaks at nearly 40 events per year across the U.S. and Canada.
While agriculture is similar on both sides of the border, Haney noted a major difference in broadcasting itself.
“As the only Canadian member of NAFB, maybe the proof is in the numbers,” he says. “There just isn’t the same volume of farm programming here. Some stations have a short noon-hour segment, but it’s not like what you see across the Midwest of the United States.”
Crops also differ. Canada grows 22 million acres of canola compared to 2 million in the U.S., while producing no rice or cotton. Still, shared challenges—margin compression, rising input costs, softer commodity prices—connect farmers everywhere.
Haney believes NAFB offers tremendous value to Canadian communicators.
“It’s a great opportunity to connect with peers,” he says. “Our audiences, whether in Canada or the United States, are facing the same challenges. The learning component of NAFB is incredibly valuable.”
He describes NAFB as a “close-knit community,” something he says Canadian communicators could benefit from as the industry becomes more complex.
Despite the pressures of modern media, Haney sees opportunity everywhere.
“Instead of just TV or radio or print, now there are 15 or 20 ways for people to get content,” he says. “It creates challenges, but also major opportunities to connect with audiences in new ways. It’s a very exciting time to be in this business.”
As farm media continues evolving across North America, Haney stands at a unique crossroads, rooted in Canadian agriculture, yet speaking daily to a broader, united community of farmers and ranchers across the continent.
