Adam Gittins, President of HTS Ag, recently marked his 20th year with the company where he began as a precision technician. HTS Ag

Precision Leader’s Career Journey In His Own Words

“Going back to my youth, as a child on the farm with my dad, we had an old piece of a steel cylinder that we wired up on our 4640 John Deere and put a sensor on the front wheel to keep track of acres for custom work.

“I’ve always been a self-proclaimed gadget guy. I’ve always liked electronics and tinkering with that kind of stuff. All the way back to playing with PCs to car stereos and different types of electronics. At Iowa State Univ., where I majored in agricultural business, I thought about a future in farm business management or ag lending, as math was always easy for me. Interestingly, this was not actually getting me into the type of program that would normally lead you to technology.  

“Combining those interests with my interest in technology, during college I did a summer internship with AFS Services in 2000, which was a Case IH division that did crop consulting and scouting, and that got me exposed to my first use of GPS units. We were mapping field boundaries to do soil sampling and that kind of stuff. And so, 25 years ago I was playing with GPS. That was really fun for me.

“The next year at the Iowa State Career Fair, I bumped into the Ag Leader technology team at their recruiting table. I’d mentioned my experience using GPS and how exciting that was. Remember, precision agriculture at that time was just yield monitoring. I was fascinated by electronics. The combination of the internships and the career fair led me down this path.

“That type of technology has always interested and fascinated me, which led to an opportunity at Ag Leader. I got the job there and enjoyed working with the technology and the tech support.” He explains that he went from tech support as an intern to part-time while completing his degree after which he was hired full-time (2002-’04) when he accepted a role as GPS and guidance product specialist leader. This involved testing new products before they were released to the public with a focus on guidance and steering systems. 

Looking to get back to southwest Iowa and his family farm, Gittins notes that being in that area as an Ag Leader rep to help host the training for HTS Ag eventually led to an opportunity to join the dealership.

“I came in as a technician here and worked my way up into sales. From there, I left HTS Ag for a period and was the first full-time hire in the precision ag division of an IT company and we grew that from the fall of 2005 to 10 times the sales volume by 2010.

“The IT company was also growing rapidly. Fast forward to 2013, the IT company was sold, leading to the precision ag division being spun off and becoming a stand alone company. I had been promoted into sales and then into sales management. When we spun the business off, I had an opportunity to buy part of the company at that point, which I did.

“Over time I was named general manager of the company. Then, in January, 2024, I bought out a couple of the other HTS Ag owners — the original founder and his brother who were looking to step back and slow down into retirement. I bought out their shares of the business, which made me majority owner of the company and am now the president of the company.

“What got me started in the industry was my interest in technology. But what has kept me motivated and my current drive is about building up other people and creating the opportunities for good jobs in rural America, particularly in rural Iowa.”