Are Farmers Too Loyal to Brands? | The Granary

00:00:00 Are farmers brand loyal to their own detriment? Does it cost them money? 'cause they just get too committed to the brands they love. 00:00:05 Next thing you know, they're spending money they shouldn't spend. That's what we're talking about in this very exciting 00:00:09 episode of The Greenery. You ready For a conversation with some real farmers about real issues? 00:00:14 And the best part, you are invited, support yourself a drink, grab a snack. Most importantly, pull up a chair. Welcome to the greenery. 00:00:27 Hey guys. Alright Guys. You heard the, Uh, topic, uh, as I should probably remind our viewers, nobody knows the topping until they sit down right here. 00:00:40 That way we keep it authentic. I am lying because they know it by about a ten second warning because I blew the opening 00:00:46 and now you're watching the second opening. So anyway, talking about brand loyalty, it happens a lot. Obviously I think we can all come up 00:00:52 with the most blatant example ever and involves a certain brand of machinery, might be a certain color 00:00:58 and the brand loyalty that goes with that with farmers. But I think it doesn't stop there. You can talk about what brand of truck they drives. 00:01:03 You can talk about it. It goes on and on and on. Our farmers, and by the way, Brian Adams is sitting here and he is with Volunteer Ag Services slash North Delta Bio. 00:01:11 He is with, uh, business partner with our friend Johnny Verell, who's an Extreme Act guy. And we're joined by Dean Ladner, who is 00:01:20 with all bought and fitting. We're talking about branded products because Allbaugh, after all, is a leading manufacturer 00:01:26 of post patent crop protection products. So thank you very much for your sponsorship. Absolutely appreciate you join the table. Alright, you're 00:01:31 around farmers, you've been around 'em a lot. Our farmers brand, loyal to their own detriment. Um, I I see it in some, not so much in others, Damien. 00:01:40 Um, you mentioned machinery color as one. I feel like it's pretty heavy in the seed industry as well. Um, you know, in a past life I worked for, um, one 00:01:50 of the larger seed companies in the world. Um, you get regionally, you get locked in on certain seed brands. 00:01:57 Um, and I'm not gonna say there's not some significantly different regional performance among seed brands. 00:02:03 So some of that's warranted, but it's always good to have, you know, to, to be checking yourself. Mm-hmm. 00:02:08 Do nod your head. I'm gonna let you think on that for a second. I'm gonna go to Johnny. He's a, 00:02:13 a seasoned veteran here of the greenery. Do you consider yourself to be brand loyal in your purchase decisions? 00:02:20 I, I think we do, especially in machineries. The trucks we drive, we all have our favorite ones, but you know, a lot of times we're doing that 00:02:26 'cause of the service we get too. And then you tie it into some more of the inputs and stuff like that. 00:02:30 I might not care so much where I get a certain fertilizer as long as I'm getting the fertilize I need, 00:02:35 we go into the input side with the chemical side. You know, there's times where we seem to be using all the name brand stuff, 00:02:41 the newest, the latest and greatest. But in economies like we are right now, that doesn't work the best when we're in a price sense 00:02:47 of economy, especially on the input side. So I think farmers are adapting faster and faster away from it. 00:02:52 But I do believe that sometimes farmers do get hung up on especially equipment side. 00:02:56 This is the brand I am, this is what I'm gonna run. Well, I'm just gonna say there's an old thing in marketing classes that humans make every decision emotionally 00:03:04 and then back it up logically. Maybe you just did that when you said, oh no, it's not about the brand, it's about the service. 00:03:09 Maybe you actually are an emotional decision maker and you're saying, well, but no, I I make really good decisions. 00:03:15 It's because of the service. I mean, there's always that's A possibility. Yeah. Service 00:03:18 is key though, when you're trying to buy some of these inputs we have. What do you think Dean? I think you can zoom out 00:03:24 and think about it from the consumer level also. Like I think about myself going to the grocery store. Um, I, I used to be strictly only brand name 00:03:32 over the counter medic medication. For instance, I, you know, all I buy is the brands now. I find myself, you kind of talk about some 00:03:38 of the economic times and kind of the, the, um, economic conditions that we're under. Comparing labels, looking at labels. 00:03:44 I mean, if you got the same same actives Yeah, same actives, you know, I'm a lot more prone to, to lean toward that, uh, 00:03:49 you know, generic or that alternative offering. So yeah, I think it's, uh, I I think there's definitely a tide shift happening. 00:03:57 Okay. I'm gonna bring a truckload of Mahindra tractors to Rell Farms and I'm gonna give you a better deal on those than one 00:04:05 of the bigger national brands. Are you gonna switch over to Mahindra? Probably not. Oh really? Yeah. 00:04:10 And you're gonna tell me it's because of service? Yeah, I say, but you know what? There's a dealership, a a across the road from your farm, 00:04:18 biggest US Mahindra dealership across the road from your farm. Are you gonna make a switch? Then? We might talk about it, but I think at the end of the day, 00:04:23 it's what farmers know too. And you go back to some of the things we talked about, active ingredients. 00:04:27 Active ingredients can be the same one product to the next. It's a different brand on it. 00:04:31 I think when you start talking about trucks and tractors, that's not always the same, just 'cause it's got a different color of paint 00:04:35 doesn't have the same thing under the hood. Oh, I don't know here. What do you think? Uh, the way you positioned that though was a, 00:04:42 a full scale swap and Yeah. You know, there's gotta be some checks and, and some checking out. Uh, no, 00:04:47 This is my show, Brian. I pretty much see what I want. I'm sorry. You're mad at me on here. 00:04:51 So I get argue way I'm one, but no, I I I get 110% of what you're saying. Sometimes a full scale swap can, 00:04:59 can really scare the crap outta Somebody. I think they called a false comparative is what I did. 00:05:02 Mm-hmm. Is that what they did? A false comparative? Is that So you're not comparing apples and apples? I mean, I 00:05:06 Didn't take philosophy classes or debate or anything like that. Yeah. So I was just going on there. 00:05:10 I'm not comparing apples to apples. You're right. You never took debate. No, it's natural. Everything you see is God given. No, 00:05:16 I'm saying Let's get into the thing. Um, it, it's, first off I'm gonna throw out there, we have a consolidation going on with the companies 00:05:29 that supply farmers. So there is no more Alice Chalmers. There is no more white. 00:05:36 There is no, I mean, so start naming all the, you know, um, brands that say equipment that don't exist anymore. 00:05:43 So at some point, maybe it's just you boil down to the ones that are left that then you have the easiest 00:05:48 access to, to your point. Yeah. I I think that's what you're coming down to. And I mean, farmers are, 00:05:54 you know, creatures of habit it, right? We're gonna do what what we've done before and what's worked before. 00:05:58 Doing whole swaps doesn't hardly exist right now is too much of a risk. Mm-hmm. So you gotta go back to your basics, find stuff 00:06:04 that works for you, and if it can be in another brand and be the same active or be in another brand and be something else, then you can do that. 00:06:09 But whole swaps are definitely out. Most People are brand, most people are creatures of habit. Yeah. It's not about farmers. 00:06:16 Every, every person doesn't, they don't, they obviously humans don't do change very well at all. I used to actually judge people to go 00:06:23 to Dean's point here about, you know, going to the store. I used to say, oh, these idiots are all 00:06:27 influenced by marketing. Who would ever do that? You know what, I have no brand loyalty that dawned on me. 00:06:33 Coors Banquet, Coca-Cola, Nestle Quick. That's just the ones that begin of the cut noise. Charming. That's the similar consonant, but different, different 00:06:42 Sound. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. What do you see you sell to these people? Um, some of 'em are all just about money. 00:06:51 Like the seriously, they'd sell their mother for a nickel. They don't have any brand loyalty. Or do 00:06:54 they, is it really some of those? 'cause I see people that are as cheap, as tight as the bark on a tree, except for when it comes to this, 00:07:01 I'm, they'll never haggle over the price of a Chevrolet. But they'd haggle over, you know, they'd sell their kid. 00:07:07 I feel that if farmer, if a farmer in particular a, a purchase of products, if they have intimate familiarity with X, Y, or Z, so take seed for example, they'll, 00:07:21 you know, they're gonna stick to what they know. If it's something that's new to them, they're not gonna haggle over that. 00:07:27 They're gonna go with whoever they trust and, and whatever it is, it is, they're, you know, that's where it comes to, at least from my standpoint 00:07:35 as a salesperson, being able to communicate agronomic need, understanding and value of, 00:07:41 of any given product, whatever that might be. Damien. And, and because of that, I feel like that's where you start 00:07:47 to maybe get away from brand loyalty. But on the flip side, that's where you start to build brand loyalty as well from, from the bottom up. 00:07:54 I guess that's a double-edged sword. And these guys are nodding their head. And I'll say that what you just described is things like the 00:08:01 agronomics or the absolute the economics. And again, that's the part that is the logic. But if you've taken branding 00:08:07 and marketing classes, because I have done that. No, no debate, but, uh, emotional decisions drive this 00:08:14 and they'll pretend that they base it on the miles per gallon, but they base it on whether they think the, 00:08:19 that car's gonna help him get, get laid. I put in a pause 'cause he might edit that out. Uh, get get looks. Anyway, he just made a decision. 00:08:29 He is made a comparative that was about, uh, really if it's a new product, it all comes down to either the trust factor or the economics. 00:08:37 And I think it does. 'cause you gotta look, we talked about the seed industry, so the seed, the same variety's not there, we just a few years. 00:08:44 So we're always taking the next chance of what the next variety's gonna be. What's the next greatest and best, you know, 00:08:49 I think it goes back to some of the other inputs we use that the the basic parcel are the same. They just might be rebranded. It's a little bit easier. 00:08:56 Seed's a little riskier when you think about it. Sometimes if you swap from one brand to a whole other brand, that's a big change on your farm. 00:09:02 You don't know if it's gonna work the same or not. See, I would make the argument that I could take 50 bags of seed and it's all the same stuff. 00:09:11 I could make the argument. I don't think there's any difference from one label of seed to another. I, I don't know how there could 00:09:16 possibly be that big of a difference. We've been breeding this stuff for 90 years. It's getting to where it's all the same. 00:09:22 Would you agree with that Mr. Former seed guy? Absolutely not. No. We can, we're not gonna agree on a lot of stuff today, but we can have a, we can have a debate. 00:09:28 I got you messed so down. It's not all created equal. I'll go with Brian on that. I mean, it's not, but I mean, a lot of things 00:09:35 that we do do in farming can be created equal. 'cause it goes back to what they're made of. You know, and at the end 00:09:40 of the day it goes back to what you're comfortable with. If you think it would be viable on your 00:09:44 farm, if you can make that work. And if you can't, because that's what's gonna come down to at the end, we gotta make a profit. 00:09:49 I got it. So that's goes back to the other thing. Do you think that these operators are actually brand loyal to their own detriment? 00:09:55 The title of this episode? Because instead of purely looking at the bottom line, I mean I've heard, I've heard this thing before. 00:10:03 Yeah, I'm not gonna buy that brand or I'm not gonna buy that generic because you just don't know. 00:10:08 And that's why I'm gonna stick with this. And what they're really doing is defending their rigidity and defending their fear of change 00:10:19 with some kind of fact. Ah, you know, I tried that once before. There's a lot of people that a lot of people 00:10:25 where there's farmers or otherwise do, do an experiment only to prove that they were right to begin with. 00:10:31 I tried that and it didn't work. Yeah, you did everything you could to make it fail. Yeah, there's that too. 00:10:35 So to Johnny's point from earlier, I thought I would say this has been a gradual progression over time. 00:10:39 This is not seeing where the numbers are changing every year. I mean, this is a, an an AI 00:10:43 and active in gradient that's been the same since the seventies. I kind of similar to your the the beer can example we had 00:10:48 from before we started recording, you know, that got, people have been introduced to generics and it's been a, it's been a process, um, over the years to 00:10:56 where they try to try to generic a product maybe had good, good, a good experience or a bad experience. 00:11:01 Um, so it's not just a wholesale, you know, all of a sudden we're a hundred percent branded to all of a sudden we're a hundred percent generic. 00:11:06 It's a process that's happened over many years. Appreciate you bringing that up. That, uh, you, you like that? Yes. 00:11:12 Heck, you like that generic beer. This was on the shelf at the grocery store in about 1979 when, uh, the economy was bad. 00:11:18 And uh, your blue collar, your blue collar guy, one of the six pack of beer and this was the cheapest thing going, 00:11:23 but it was made by, uh, the same company that had, uh, and this has happened all the time now. Store brands, right? Store brands are still made by Proctor 00:11:31 and Gamble or whoever makes it for Proctor and Gamble. That's, that's right. Yep. Yeah. Different Like electronics, TVs. 00:11:37 Yeah. So let's go back to this thing. You and I are pretty much agreement all seeds the same. I wanna just go and reiterate that. 00:11:43 All right, let's go back to you Brian. Back to you Brian. Where do you think the first place to switch off is? 00:11:50 Well, uh, uh, the easy one is, as Dean mentioned, is, is chemical post patent ais. Right? They've been around for 20 years minimum. Yeah. 00:11:59 By the time you guys start with 'em mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. At, at minimum. And a lot of times longer than that, you already understand what that, what, you know, 00:12:06 X herbicide or, or y it's X out, what it's designed for, what it does, uh, what it's good at, 00:12:11 what the limitations are. That's the first that, that's the easy button swap because AI is AI going back to whether it's, uh, 00:12:18 acetaminophen or Tylenol off shelf at, at Walgreens doesn't really matter to me. Um, it, it's gonna do the same thing and 00:12:24 It's been tested and proven. Yeah. You know, it's not like it's something totally different. 00:12:28 Let's go around the farm and talk about where there's greater difference between a branded product and, and an unbranded product. 00:12:32 You already said, uh, crop protection, no difference. Machinery, you already said probably a difference. Maybe it's perceived, maybe it's 00:12:42 'cause you grew up with a green hat on when you're a little kid. Maybe it's service, whatever, whatever. 00:12:45 That seems like the one that there's biggest reluctance to switch. Yeah. Well and I think it goes back to this. 00:12:50 You don't see some of the name brand equipment companies rebranding their equipment with a different color. 00:12:55 No, they don't do it. So it's not the same. And I think that's where you go into on the equipment side, not everything's created equal. 00:13:00 Whereas in some of the inputs in the chemical world, they really are. 'cause the actors are the same. Are 00:13:06 You one of those people that, like you think gas brands matter? Like if you're pulling in and it's a shell 00:13:11 or a Sonoco, do you think there's a difference? 'cause I think there's absolutely a commodity product and there's zero difference period. 00:13:15 It's just a matter of which one's gonna have the best, uh, Coco and Tap. I buy, um, I buy my gas based on ease of getting in 00:13:22 and out back onto the road. Smart man. I, I do not care. Smart man. Me too. Same clean bathrooms. 00:13:29 Does that matter? It does. Travel stops matter. Yeah. I wanna be able to turn right as long as I can turn right. I'm good. It's 00:13:35 Important. Alright, keep going around the farm. Uh, all right. Tires, we've, we've, we work with tire companies. 00:13:41 I see the ads on rural on, on, on uh, ag media and all that. Is there difference in tires? I I think sometimes there is, 00:13:47 but when you look down to it, how many miles can I get out on? Is what I'm going after? Do you have brand loyalty or do you just go 00:13:52 with the guy at the company that comes out and takes care of the best care of you? Yeah. Doesn't matter what the brand does. No. 00:13:57 Does not matter. Where do you see, where do you see, uh, almost no difference at all to where it's all the same on a brand situation for farmers 00:14:07 branded fertilizer products, they matter. Branded, uh, you know, uh, a machine. I'm just going around the farm and thinking here, what, 00:14:15 what doesn't, what, what is it? What is the stuff that doesn't matter to an average producer? 00:14:19 Don't care what it's just line it up. Just deliver it here. Struggling On that One down here. I'm too, 00:14:25 Yeah, you set it up. So, so these farmers are pretty well brand loyal. There's certain things that they like to do. Yeah. 00:14:30 Alright, here's the next question. We'll move forward with the pace of everything getting better. 00:14:36 In fact, everything's becoming almost commoditized. Does this matter less and less? Does this matter less five years from now than it did 50 00:14:45 years ago when it was harder to make stuff and harder to make stuff good. It mattered more five years from now? 00:14:52 Does it not even matter? It's still gonna matter in five years? Does it matter less? I, I think probably so. Yeah. 00:14:59 Um, especially I think if we see the economic trend in the farm community continue on the way that it's going, 00:15:06 I do think we start looking for anywhere we can cut corners in terms of cost and still get by with the same quality of the, 00:15:14 or of a, of an equal or even better output. Okay. So eventually we get to where we've, we've uh, we've, uh, got the spend out as best we can 00:15:23 Until the economy gets better and then we go right back into our same habits, I think. Mm-hmm. I think that's a human condition. 00:15:31 So if you are an agricultural brand, are you scared right now? Depends on how big my brand is. Uh, certain ones. Yeah. 00:15:40 I I would be, um, I think there's fair reason to be, uh, concerned and I think it depends on maybe which specific, 00:15:49 which specific part of the world, uh, or, or world or which specific part of the industry you're in. Um, but yeah, if I'm not a, if I'm not a major company 00:15:59 with a stranglehold on some market share, yeah. I'm probably a little concerned right now. Or A product that the farmer has to have. 00:16:04 Mm-hmm. Because that's what farmers are trying to figure out right now. What I have to have to put that crop in at 26. 00:16:09 So if you don't, if, if you're, even if you're saying if it's on the verge of a luxury good peripheral 00:16:14 Yeah. You think that those are the ones that Yeah, if they're, It's, you know, we talked about earlier, 00:16:18 if it could be in the same brand at a cheaper price, I'd be more concerned if I was at the top tier of the market right now, if it's the same, you know, 00:16:25 same product and that could be in a different brand. I would add in new products too. Yeah. A new product would be a would be a place 00:16:31 where a brand would matter. Well, Innovation. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So all of a sudden, 00:16:34 here's this new product, X, Y, Z corporation rolled out this brand new thing and oh my God, they're revolutionizing, uh, 00:16:39 crop production again just like they did 31 years ago or when they came out with this or whatever. That's, that's the, the big part. Yeah. 00:16:46 That makes it harder than for a non-branded item. Yeah. Inno is innovation easier for a branded? You're in the space. If I, if I'm, if I am known as nobody 00:16:55 and I come out with this amazing innovation, then obviously failure, adoption doesn't happen and all of a sudden I can't make the thing work. 00:17:03 Absolutely. And then I think you get into government constraints related innovation, it costs so much money. Yeah. And so many years to bring a new product. 00:17:09 That's really what stifling innovation is. The, is the, the dollars and cents of it and the time of it. Well that's on more in the product lineup you work with. 00:17:16 It's not necessarily the case. If I came out with a, a gadget that, uh, that, you know, electronic, there's not as much restriction on say, 00:17:24 an electronic gadget or something like that. Right. Guiding, guiding my combine or whatever that thing should be 00:17:31 Versus EPA regulation of pesticides or something like that. Crop Protection. So which one it affect 00:17:35 us the most though? The EPA regulations probably what they do. They slow everything down Probably. What 00:17:41 do you not brand loyal about at all? What don't you care about? Chrissy comes home and says, you know what? 00:17:45 We're switching from crest to aim. That's the toothpaste you're gonna have now. Now. Yeah. I don't change toothpaste. 00:17:52 I, I would say on our farm fuel is one thing. We shop it out pretty hard. Um, You View that as a pure commodity? Yeah. 00:17:57 Tires, same thing. You know, pure commodity. Yeah. That's kind of how I see it. Yeah. I Think tires is a good example. 00:18:03 I think service is is the point. That's tires. I'm still buying the tires for the same guy. Right. It's just what does he have the better deal on? 00:18:08 Or is this tire gonna get another 5,000 miles? That's what I want. What's He got in stock that day? You 00:18:12 blow a tire, you need a tire that day. Yeah. What's he got in? Yeah. Because farmers are efficient. Yeah. 00:18:16 We about as efficient as we can be on a lot of our equipment and stuff like that. We gotta start trimming up our inputs 00:18:21 and like if we can buy a $300 tire and it can go 50,000 miles, or if we can buy a $300 tire and it's gonna go 60,000 miles. 00:18:27 That's what we're looking at. Now I've read Stuff 'cause I try to keep up non-ag media and it talks about the future brands will 00:18:32 matter less or not at all. And I mean, I kind of started believing some of that. And then also when you got knockoffs. Okay. 00:18:37 Uh, it was a big thing starting even in the eighties. Uh, they weren't really Adidas. They were Adidas knockoffs. But then, you know, you see somebody on a news report 00:18:46 and says, okay, so we went to a different third world country and had to make pretend Adidas as opposed 00:18:52 to the place right next door that's making real Adidas, which is also just made in a third world country. And it does make you wonder, is there truly a difference in 00:18:58 quality or is it just a matter of perception? And I started reading this years ago when I took a marketing class. 00:19:04 Eventually brands go away. Do brands go away? I I don't say they're gonna go away. I think they gotta evolve all the time though 00:19:11 to stay at the next trend or whatever it is. Whether we're talking an ag or apparel that we're wearing. I Mean, we've seen it. If you work an 00:19:17 ag, I'm old enough to remember a new idea. Corn picker. You guys remember a new idea? Corn pickers, that was their thing. 00:19:22 None of you even remember it. Well guess why? You know where they Went away? They stopped having 00:19:25 a new idea. Wow. Uh, the brands go away. Um, they can well Seed. Okay. You worked in the seed 00:19:34 business. How many seed brands have gone way, Brian, just in your career? A, a path through, I would argue more than half. 00:19:41 I mean, through consolidation and, and understand. I don't even see it. Like a lot of you guys in the Midwest, maybe even from the south, the regional corn seed brands 00:19:50 that, that I won't say dominated a landscape, but were a huge part of the landscape throughout the Midwest. 00:19:55 There's never really as big a deal in the south. But, but through my time in working through seed companies and understanding the timeline of 00:20:03 companies being bought out, consolidated, rolled up, merged, whatever it may have been, a lot of 00:20:08 that's happened in the last 15, 20 years. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and so that, but uh, let's think about, you know, 00:20:14 there was a certain auto manufacturer Super Bowl commercial sometime about 10 years ago that, uh, the, 00:20:20 so God made a farm of the Paul Harvey story. They haven't been talked about nearly as much since then, right? 00:20:25 I mean the brand hadn't gone away, but is it fallen by the wayside maybe in the farm community the way it's looked at? Of course 00:20:31 You sold a truck to every farm, you still would sell it a trucks. That's why I always wondered why they went 00:20:36 that direction on a branding thing. I, I mean, it was the third quarter of the football game. I was about dozing off and I heard Paul Harvey, 00:20:41 God made a farmer talking about Dodge Ram trucks. And I thought, this is cute. It's clever and it's heartfelt and it's touching. 00:20:46 But if you sold a dodge truck to every farmer, you still would sell trust that many farmers. But it pulled at a bunch of heartstrings in rural America. 00:20:52 We made a bunch of other people wanna be farmers that day. Yeah, For sure. Speaking 00:20:56 of branding right there, I mean this is, uh, something that will and I have talked about, uh, the brand of farming, the brand of agriculture, 00:21:01 which apparently was still strong enough that a major manufacturer of trucks wanted to tie their brand to the brand 00:21:07 of American agriculture. That's pretty Powerful. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Where did the, where does the future go? 00:21:13 Um, there gonna be more companies like yours selling stuff that is 40-year-old, uh, 00:21:17 40-year-old technology re re concocted, repackaged and put it with a, a, you know, fresh take and a couple of new adjuvants and ingredients in it. 00:21:24 I think it'd be easier to do that than it is to come up with the new ones because of the regulations. So I think yeah, we're gonna start looking at that 00:21:29 and going back to where we had one product that did everything for us and how we got five products that we hadn't used in 20 years 00:21:35 that can do the same thing. Just might take multiple modes to do that. Where do, where do farmers make bad 00:21:41 decisions when it comes to brands? You've been around it. It's a loaded question. 00:21:47 Um, I would say I feel like from my opinion, outside looking in, a lot of times it, it goes back to the paint color, 00:21:59 like right of machinery. You get so locked in and there's, there's such discrepancy. He is been on the flip side, Johnny mentioned this. 00:22:07 You might have a, you know, the dealers are all becoming to network now in a specific region. 00:22:13 You might have a really strong dealership in one color and a really weak one in another. And you go see red being more popular 00:22:19 over here, green over there. I do get it. But at one point, does that cost you money because you're not shopping 00:22:26 'cause you're not willing to look. Mm-hmm. You know, when does it become from a brand loyal thing where I'm gonna run this one color to 00:22:31 what it's gonna cost me to run this combine on an acre, that's when farmers are gonna start making these decisions. It's gonna be a per acre cost. Mm-hmm. 00:22:38 I think you run more numbers than the average producer does. I think you are better in touch with that than the average. 00:22:44 I think the average producer and just like the average human is much more emotionally driven or habit driven than they are pencil pushing driven. 00:22:52 Well, everything's a per cost, whether it's chemical, whether it's fertilizer, whether there's seed, the equipment. 00:22:57 I don't think a lot of farmers have seen it as a cost basis. But that's one of the biggest cost per acre we have. 00:23:02 It's gonna come down to it where it's gonna be multiple color on every farm because it's going, this company here's got the cheapest combine. 00:23:07 This company here has the cheapest planter. And that's what we're gonna put our crop in with. When you say economics gonna make cause everybody 00:23:13 to get better, everybody's gonna be more like Johnny. Yeah. Look, every input, every cause everything that's going on, 00:23:17 You're gonna see more happening in the next 12 months than we have in the last five years 00:23:21 as far as on the economic farmers. We've gotta figure it out in a hurry right now. You believe that? You believe it. No. Yeah, I do. 00:23:27 Yeah, he's from the delta. He, he sees it and he believes it. I mean it's, it's crazy down south. I, yeah, 00:23:32 I don't know if they're gonna change human behavior as quickly. Economics, you say do change human behavior, 00:23:37 but, uh, it's, it's a slower grind than you think. Did we decide you're gonna switch tooth bra, toothpaste, brands? 00:23:43 Uh, I recently swapped from Crest to Colgate. Real happy with my decision, so I'm okay with it. But Johnny, knowing what I know about Johnny Sense, 00:23:50 Johnny ain't swapping sense. Uhuh No, not it's something he's got taste. Mm-hmm. See, I I'm a crest guy also. I was too for you. Cool. 00:23:57 Cold quick crest. I've got this cuff thing. I'm afraid that maybe I ever got. So issue you Need to add Q-tips in there. See, 00:24:03 I'm, I'm diversified, charming Bush light. Colgate, I'm different. I I appreciate your divers. I, diversity, 00:24:12 diversity of branding, Brian. Absolutely. Right. And how about trucks and cars also? Uh, I've got a Ford and a GM parked in my house, so, 00:24:20 and I'm loyal, but if so is my wife and our loyalties are, are not aligned. Got it. All right. So we asked the question, 00:24:28 are farmers brand loyal to their own detriment? And the reality is you say probably not and you think they're gonna keep switching over. 00:24:34 And then obviously we're sponsored by a company that, um, is is a generic manufacturer post patent. 00:24:39 So that's where we think is gonna be more room for some of that stuff. But I don't think that brands are going away. 00:24:43 I I posed that question. You know, I said I read that article. I don't think it is because of the familiarity of the, 00:24:49 I mean, brands that really are based on the fact you can talk about loyalty. 00:24:52 There's a guy that I know that's a marketing guy and he says, you know what? Great brands do great brands 00:24:56 make you feel good about yourself. And so there's that thing a brand that makes you, I'm a Coors guy, I'm a Ford, you know, whatever, 00:25:05 I'm a Chanel woman or whatever those things are. I think that that's why branding doesn't go anyway. I'm convinced that it will not because of the familiarity 00:25:12 and the fact that it, it tends to make people put themselves into a camp and folks like to do that. 00:25:17 So that's my assessment that brands stay around for a while. But you are in the business of selling against brands. 00:25:22 What, what challenges that present even in, in a poor economic environment? We're talking right now that all these farmers are gonna 00:25:28 lose money on every acre they farm and yet somehow they're still gonna be low to the brand. What do you face? Well, I 00:25:32 Think you hit on it right there. I mean, brands are emotional people. People buy brands for a reason 00:25:37 and a lot of times it's not price. It's because the brand gives them a feeling. Um, I, I would go back to, 00:25:42 to Johnny's comments from earlier kind of about economic conditions that that, that some of that is changing behaviors. 00:25:47 Um, you know, I I, you know, the, it's it's not getting easier out there. It's not costing any less to farm. 00:25:53 So, uh, guys are gonna make some tough decisions regardless of how it makes 'em feel. In times like this is when farmers are really talking 00:25:59 about using companies, you know, that are gonna make the generics of the cheaper ones out there in the market. 00:26:04 You don't see it in times when you got 15, $16 beans as much. But I think when farmers learn what we're doing now, 00:26:10 it's gonna stay that way for a long time. Probably so. Yeah, probably so. They're gonna be in a depressed farm economics situation. 00:26:15 But I think that getting people switch is very challenging no matter, I mean, I, again, 00:26:18 we just talked about the economics. Uh, you know, my wife and I go through it. Are you gonna switch off of Coors 00:26:24 and go down to Keystone Light? Every man's gonna have a standard, Damien. I mean, you have to Draw line somewhere, 00:26:33 The light somewhere. That's right. Thank you very much. That's why you're my good friend Brian Adams my good friend. He joined by Johnny Ral 00:26:39 and we're enjoyed here by Dean Ladner with our sponsor in this show All Ball, if you enjoyed this, you know what? 00:26:44 Pull up a table, a chair at the next time we sit down here at this Grainery table. Chair this so somebody can enjoy it along with you. 00:26:50 You know what, we've released more than 40 episodes of this, uh, grainery show and we have more to come. 00:26:55 So we want you to join us. It's Frank Talk with Farmers, with Friends right here at the Grainery, 00:26:59 and again, go to our YouTube channel, hit subscribe if you aren't already. So much. Thanks for being here. 00:27:03 Until next time, from the Greenery. 00:27:06.035 --> 00:27:06.525