Every March, the REALTORS® Land Institute gathers the top land professionals in the country for the National Land Conference. It’s where deals get talked through, ideas get tested, and the people who have actually done the work get recognized. This year, in San Antonio, two Ironhorse brokers were recognizedc.
Koby Rickertsen, ALC, Founding Partner and CEO of Ironhorse Land Company, and Brian Reynolds, Founding Partner and Land Broker out of our McCook office, were both named to the RLI APEX 2025 Producers Club. The recognition was presented by RLI CEO Aubrie Kobernus and The Land Report Co-founders Eddie Lee Rider Jr. and Eric O’Keefe at the 20th Annual National Land Conference.
It’s a significant milestone. But to understand why it matters, it helps to understand what APEX actually is.
What the APEX Producers Club Represents
The RLI APEX Production Awards Program is not a membership perk or a participation ribbon. It is a production-based recognition program for working land professionals. To qualify for the Producers Club, a broker must be an active RLI member and close a minimum of $5 million in qualifying land sales in a single calendar year. That floor exists for a reason. It separates brokers who talk about land from brokers who move it.
This year’s program celebrated its ninth year with 299 applicants representing a combined $9.29 billion in qualifying transaction volume, 11,292 transaction sides, and over 2.3 million acres sold. Those are not abstract numbers. They represent farms that changed hands, ranches that found new owners, and landowners who trusted a broker to get it right.
Having two brokers from the same brokerage earn that recognition in the same year says something about the standard being set at Ironhorse.
Koby Rickertsen, ALC
Koby grew up working his family’s farm in Lincoln and Dawson Counties. He was in agronomy classes before he turned ten, scouting fields for a dollar an hour before most kids had a job. That foundation never left. Before founding Ironhorse, he served 13 years in the U.S. Navy Submarine Force, built and sold multiple businesses, including his own RE/MAX Home, Farm & Ranch.
Today he runs Ironhorse Land Company from Gothenburg, Nebraska, overseeing a team licensed across 12 states. He holds the Accredited Land Consultant designation, the most rigorous credential in the land brokerage profession, and he is active in the REALTORS® Land Institute at both the state and national level.
The ALC designation matters in this context. It means Koby didn’t just hit a production number. He invested in the education, the ethics requirements, and the professional development that RLI demands. The APEX recognition sits on top of a career built around knowing land, not just selling it.
Brian Reynolds
Brian runs our McCook office and covers Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota. He brings more than two decades of agricultural business experience to every transaction, including time spent in agronomy, farm management, appraisal, and range management. He has worked alongside producers during planting and harvest. He even has experience with his own cow-calf operation.
That last detail matters more than it might seem. A broker who has run cattle understands land pressure, carrying capacity, water access, and seasonal cash flow in a way that no classroom teaches. When Brian walks a piece of ground with a client, he is not reading from a checklist. He is reading the land itself.
Brian is also a member of the REALTORS® Land Institute, and his APEX recognition reflects the same standard that qualification demands: real production, real clients, real results.
What This Means for Clients
When you hire a land broker, you are making a decision that will affect your finances, your family, and in many cases, your legacy. The broker’s credentials are not a formality. They are evidence of how seriously that person takes the work.
APEX recognition tells you that your broker closed significant volume in the most recent calendar year. It tells you they are active in the profession’s leading organization. It tells you they operate at a level where national recognition is possible, and where peers and editors at The Land Report are paying attention.
It does not tell you everything. Credentials do not replace chemistry, communication, or the willingness to walk three miles of fence line with you on a cold morning. But they are a meaningful starting point. Both Koby and Brian have the credentials and the track record.
What This Means for Ironhorse
Ironhorse was founded on the idea that land deserves specialists. Not residential agents who dabble in acreage, not generalist brokers who treat a farm like a house with more square footage. Land is different. It requires different knowledge, different tools, and a different kind of patience.
Having two founding partners earn APEX recognition in the same year validates that founding principle. It is not something we take lightly, and it is not something we manufactured. It came from the work.
We are also actively growing. If you are a land professional who operates at a high level and wants to be part of a brokerage built around that standard, we would like to hear from you. The agents who fit here are not looking for a logo to hang their license under. They are looking for infrastructure, a team, and a name that means something in the land space. Ironhorse is that. Two APEX recognitions in the same year is one data point. The culture that produces them is the bigger story.
If you are thinking about buying or selling land in Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, or any of the other 9 additional states where Ironhorse operates, we would welcome the conversation. No pressure, no pitch. Just straight talk from people who know the ground.
Reach Koby at Koby@ironhorselandcompany.com or (308) 529-0067.
Reach Brian at Brian@ironhorselandcompany.com or (308) 380-5734.
Or visit us at ironhorselandcompany.com.
