Meet Your Partners in Growth Series: Daniel Terry

Daniel Terry, Vice President – Director of Ag Products and Sales

As a third-generation Holloway employee, Daniel Terry is no stranger to Holloway and its relationships with growers in the Central Valley. His father, Vard Terry, currently President of the company, has been with Holloway for almost 50 years. Collectively, the Terry family has over 200 years of combined service as employees of HM Holloway.

“I remember going with my dad out to the gypsum mine and playing,” Daniel recalled. “He would have me tag along lots of times.”

But oddly enough, even with the strong family connection to Holloway, it was not Vard who got Daniel involved in the business, it was Dan Allen, another long-term employee of Holloway and current COO.

“I was coaching private baseball lessons and I was working with Dan’s son,” Daniel said. “Dan knew Holloway wanted to make the move into more direct sales, and he thought I would be a good fit. We talked about it and I thought it sounded like a good opportunity to build a division that had not previously existed.”

Even with this family legacy at Holloway, joining the company was a bit of a curveball for Daniel. He had planned on playing professional baseball and was well on his way with a developing offer from the Padres. Daniel played middle infield, but the Padres wanted to sign him as an outfielder.

He made the transition, but one night during a game, he dove for a ball and landed on his elbow. This caused a chain reaction, breaking his collarbone and throwing his shoulder out of place. Daniel ended up popping the shoulder back in place and played for the next six months, not realizing the state of his injuries. When he finally underwent surgery, there was significant damage, forcing him to all but hang up the cleats.

But Daniel turned disappointment into an opportunity. He went into the medical field as an EMT, and then went on to become a physical therapy assistant. He really enjoyed physical therapy because he was able to work one-on-one with patients and see significant improvement over time.

He relates what he did in the medical field to what he does for Holloway now.

“The parallels between what I do now to work with growers to improve their soil is very similar to working with patients to get them healed,” Daniel said. “In the medical field, you work with people and see improvement and feel like you’re helping. With growers, you start to see improvements in the soil, which leads to improvements in the crops.”

It is important to Daniel, and all the people on his team, that they have a strong relationship with the grower and that all begins with trust.

“I want an actual relationship with the growers, because if they don’t trust me it will never work,” Daniel said. In fact, Daniel is so connected to growers in the community that every week he has coffee with a few of them.

When he first started with Holloway five years ago, Daniel had a big job. Holloway Ag served a huge territory and he was the only direct sales person. Daniel hired a second sales person and then brought on Jordan Burt. From there, he built the team regionally. Jordan started managing the northern territories and then moved to manage Services, a new endeavor for Holloway at the time.

“We have grown tremendously in the last five years that I have been with Holloway,” Daniel said. “When I first started, we were just doing amendments and nutrients. Now we have expanded to an entire suite of services for the grower.”

Daniel and Jordan work very closely to ensure the right solutions for growers. Holloway’s Services division started with materials delivery using Holloway Logistics trucks, and then moved to agronomy with the addition of Steve Lenander to the team. This was followed by material spreading and then removal and grinding, and other redevelopment services.

“I like challenges and solving different problems constantly,” Daniel said. “Growers have daily challenges and it is our job to provide products and services that makes the soil, and trees, and crops stronger.”

And Daniel doesn’t see Holloway’s growth and innovation slowing down anytime soon. As our world is faced with limited resources and other environmental challenges, Daniel and his team are working on ways to help growers be more sustainable and improve their soils for future seasons and generations.

“There are lots of new innovations in the works at Holloway all around the reduction of greenhouse gas, conservation and sustainability,” Daniel said. “Sustainability for the next generation of growers is a core value of Holloway’s.”

Holloway’s next innovation is exploring ways to clean up our air and CO2 emissions by mirroring the natural processes of plants and trees. The captured carbon will then be put into usable forms or sequestered.

“This is all very new, but I am excited for the possibilities,” Daniel said. “As we continue to grow, we only bring more solutions, products and innovations to the growers we serve.”

When Daniel is not helping find solutions for growers, you can find him fly fishing in Mammoth, coaching private baseball performance lessons, or hanging out with his new son, Liam Mason.