00:00:00 Farmer power. Do farmers have more control, more power, more control over their own destiny and their business than they did just 20 or 30 years ago? 00:00:07 Does consolidation change the odds for farmers? Does it make it worse because there's also consolidating companies? 00:00:11 That's what we're talking about in this episode of the Grainery. You ready for A conversation with some real farmers about real issues? 00:00:18 The best part. You are invited. So pour yourself a drink, grab a snack. Most importantly, pull up a chair. 00:00:27 Welcome to the greenery. Hey guys, I'm Joy you over my friend Johann DeGroot. He is a dairyman in Huntington, Indiana. 00:00:41 Uh, actually Andrews, Indiana. Uh, he farms my farmland and I thought it'd be fun for him to sit in here sitting here 00:00:47 with Kelly Garrett of extreme Ag. Alright, you heard the topic. You're a business guy. You're a business guy. You both are fairly large 00:00:54 scale operators. Um, do you have more control, more power than maybe your old man did or maybe granddad did because you've got 3,200 cows that you're milking. 00:01:05 You've got quite a number of operations, you know, going, do you have more control of power over your business than 00:01:12 maybe you did 20 or 30 years ago? It's hard to say. We've got more power today. 'cause the whole industry's consolidating. 00:01:20 You do have to have today, I think to be able, just like we're cur on shipping our milk to Walmart and to be able to ship milk to them, they want you 00:01:28 to produce a semi-load of milk a day. So if you don't have that semi-load, you don't have that opportunity to have that conversation with 'em. Yeah. 00:01:37 So that means you, the power it used to be when we milled to 16 cows, um, nobody cared that much about, I mean they, 00:01:45 they said they wanted your milk, but if, uh, something got sideways, then, then you were done. 00:01:51 We had no price negotiation power. You have a little bit more power over those things because of producing at scale 00:01:59 On the out on the output side, you still go your, your premium structures. The only thing you can really negotiate the federal order 00:02:06 price is what sets the milk price. And the only thing you can really say, all I got buying powers. 00:02:12 'cause you can buy semi-loads of product versus partial loads or boxes of product Enough. Oh. But there's 00:02:19 enough vendors that say, well we're gonna probably work on johann's terms because he's gonna take literally truckloads 00:02:27 of dry distiller grains or whatever, as opposed to bags of it. Mm-hmm. Those savings you do have 00:02:34 About the decisions you tell companies how you, how things are gonna be, do they accept that Anymore? It's you 00:02:41 on the best terms, you do aach h within seven days and this whole fi I always tell people, you're not my bank. I got a bank to borrow money from that I utilize, 00:02:51 let give the best price and I'll figure Exactly. You have more power and more control than Gene did. I would say Yes in some ways. 00:03:01 Uh, and some of it has to do with the size of the operation because we've grown. But the other has to do with the skillset 00:03:06 and the, the two things bring you more. And I don't know if I like the term power necessarily. I would call it self-sufficiency. 00:03:13 And, and two things dictate that your skillset and your financial security. Mm-hmm. You know, and, uh, 00:03:20 my dad always had a very nice financial security. I feel like things like that because he was conservative. He never got, he never lived beyond his means. 00:03:27 He was very good at that living, living within his means. But the one spot where I think that we have, 00:03:32 we are more self-sufficient now, have more power, is our skillset. Um, my dad is one of the greatest people I've ever seen 00:03:39 with his cows and very self-sufficient. There we are not good mechanics. Mm-hmm. You know, I should never have a wrench in my hand. Mm-hmm. 00:03:45 You know, the guys sh will tell you that Red will tell you he has a full-time job because I'm really good at breaking it and he has to fix it. 00:03:49 Right. It's true. But now with the skillset we have with the team of people that we have because of the operation growing, 00:03:56 we do have a lot more self-sufficiency and we don't outsource a lot of things. And I take great pride in that. 00:04:00 There's not only a savings in that, but also a time factor, which is a savings. And we can be more efficient, more self-sufficient. 00:04:07 So yes, we do, yeah. More control over a lot of outcomes because, uh, Uh, of All the things you just said, 00:04:14 I do. Yes. I don't like, depending on other people, I wanna do it myself because I want it done now. And then you can jump in 00:04:20 and make a big day out of something if it needs to be done. That's right. And get it done. 00:04:24 Instead of waiting on somebody that works at the eight to five mentality, it's A technology that footage you have in your pocket that is, 00:04:30 we just, we've recorded another episode. We talked about information, et cetera. Is that, that put the control back in your hands 00:04:38 because now, uh, pricing, you understand. I mean, I, in the old days, you, you waited on, you had a vendor come out and tell you what things were. 00:04:44 Now you can talk one of your dairy buddies in three states away and find out what the numbers should be. Yep. 00:04:50 And I think that's very important that you do have those relationship with other producers to kind of help keep people honest. 00:04:56 You know, most people are honest, but yet they're still in a sales business. That's their business to get the most for their products. 00:05:02 Like, and so it's our pro or responsibility to keep them accountable and have the information to, so before 00:05:09 We hit record, Johann, uh, my extreme ag guys were giving me a hard time and asked if I was difficult as a landlord, 00:05:15 do you have more control now because of your scale where you can push people like me around, we already know you push me around as a a landowner, 00:05:22 but do you push you, you have more power to push people around like That? I don't think you push 00:05:25 people around. 'cause you can only do that so long. It's all about building relationships and doing what you say. 00:05:32 If you say, Hey, do a don't do something Else. I would say that we don't know each other. 00:05:36 Well, we just met. Mm-hmm. We've spoken on the phone before. But you must be one of the most tolerant 00:05:39 people that I've ever met. Because you have a relationship with Damien. So I I'm really impressed with. 00:05:45 I know I'll take guys like this. Yes. You must be very patient Asking. I'm take guys like this, which I worse to me, 00:05:52 It, it means exactly what I think. You don't take every word serious. Well Sometimes I, sometimes I'm having 00:05:58 Trouble and there's people that can, there people that can't. I, I deal with some nutritionists 00:06:01 and people I can't stand there like, take the good and leave what you can't tell, just leave it to side. You don't need to go drink a beer with 'em every night. 00:06:07 You don't need to. It's not who you bring home at night. It's people you do business with and, you know. Yeah. 00:06:15 I I like getting along with everybody 'cause it's life is so much easier when you do. Yeah. Instead of having people you gotta to worry about. 00:06:21 'cause they, you feel like they'll stab you in the back and hey, life's too short for that. What about by the way, smart ass, uh, 00:06:28 talk about him tolerant me and all that I need you to work with. I'm actually an ag guy. 00:06:34 See the other side that I hear farmers say, you know what, I really wish talking about control. 00:06:38 I just, I like it that, uh, that that, that family is three states away and then none of 'em actually grew up on the farm. 00:06:43 It was grandpa's they just leave me alone. Like Yeah. Also, they don't know anything about the asset and, and they're gonna, they're, they're, they're, 00:06:50 that's a short term thing. I would rather have, if I was, if I could talk about control, if I was a big farmer 00:06:56 and I had a bunch of rented ground, I would want somebody like me as a landowner that's actually in the business 00:07:01 and at least is keeping an eye on the asset and knows what's happening and can have a a, an actual business discussion about it 00:07:07 as opposed to Oh yeah, the granddaughter's up in Schaumburg, Illinois in the suburbs and she has no clue. 00:07:12 She didn't know where this farm is. Because I think at some point those people are not who you wanna do business. That 00:07:16 That's true with some of the absentee landlords and stuff like that. But the people that you have the relationship with 00:07:21 and they just want the check to be there on March 1st, things like that. There's value in that. Uh, there's, you're right. 00:07:27 Dealing with someone like you that has agriculture expertise. There's the other ZO landlords though 00:07:32 that think they have Yeah. Right. Agriculture expertise and that is, uh, that's, that's worse than being absentee. Yeah. Right. Those, you know, like, 00:07:40 and they're not willing to learn. Well and, and you know, we talk all the time about, well this is the way my dad did it. 00:07:44 Mm-hmm. Well now you're talking about people that are two generations removed from the farm and this is the way Grapha did it. 00:07:49 Well that doesn't work anymore. We have, there's new technology. Alright, so we talk about the power and the control. 00:07:55 What do you think is the best thing for you? You've been, you're in your mid thirties, so, and you've been in this game for a while here, uh, 00:08:03 just in your farming career. What, where is it like, yeah, I've got better control over this 00:08:07 now that I did when I started? I think, like he said, because of size. You, you teach people to do certain jobs, you know, 00:08:16 and I see it on the farm right now. The easier things as one person or a couple people can do the same job day in, day out, 00:08:23 the same schedule every week. The what I struggle with is when today it rains. So we gotta change the whole schedule. 00:08:29 But the, the work inside the barn, it's pretty much on a schedule and you can tell, hey, this guy's gonna do breeding. 00:08:34 So you make sure he's good at breeding. Mm-hmm. This guy's gonna do all the hoof trimming. He's gonna be good at hoof trimming. 00:08:40 When you're a certain size, you can dedicate people to those tasks versus this person's to able to breathe precheck, pull calves, you know, 00:08:48 do all those tasks and is limited exposure to those tasks. Yeah. So when you bring someone in to teach 'em, 00:08:54 he's gotta teach all those things. Yeah. So the control situation and, and where size has its advantage is you then can have 00:09:01 specialization of task. Yeah. Just like now we're haul we're Own milk. This guy, this guy just breeds 00:09:05 cows. Now we're hauling milk. I got one guy dedicated to haul milk. If I was only to a haul one load of milk, guess what? 00:09:10 I need a part-time drive. Or he needs to be able haul milk in the morning, drive semi and in the afternoon, be able to wrench on equipment. 00:09:15 Well not you own milk, man. Mm-hmm. You had to buy your own tankers. Mm-hmm. So you, you one guy hauls five tankers a day. 00:09:24 6 4, 4 hour five. We hold super tankers. So we haul 13,000 gallons a load. That's a lot of milk. That's 00:09:32 A lot of gallons. That's a lot of gallons. We have six and 7,000 gallon tankers. Speaking of that. So the other thing about farmer control, 00:09:39 farmer power of your own business, you now branch out. So diversification into other stuff, it's almost like because you got a farmer scale, 00:09:49 you can then branch out and that's good. Your revenue picture is improved because now you've got other stuff. 00:09:56 Yeah. It makes you less vulnerable to the swings in the market. This, I've told you this 00:10:03 before, you know, that's why I wanted to raise my own young stock. So if milk price are good or bad, you keep that barn full. 00:10:09 Yeah. You don't go in that down. More sp spiral when you cattle price are high, but milk price is low so you can't keep the barn full. 00:10:15 Yep. Now you always get that young stock flowing in. You have a buffer built in there. Is it always the greatest return on asset? 00:10:22 Maybe not, but it does give you a little bit more stability in the farm. But You have control because now you control your inventory. 00:10:28 Yeah. Yeah. And there, there wasn't, and There's already money in those assets as well. If you truly put all your, you know, a lot of these dairies 00:10:35 that started in this area, say 25 years ago with an 80 acres and a dairy, the only revenue we had was milk check. 00:10:43 So the feed price went up and milk price went down. You was just much more vulnerable. Very difficult. Yes. 00:10:49 Yeah. And so then because their, their business model was to just buy replacement heifer 00:10:53 or buy, buy, buy bread, heifers. We ready to calve and then they just milk. All they did was milk. 00:10:57 They had no control over quality. Even we, we, we screw up enough cattle too, but at least we have a little bit of in influence on 00:11:04 what we raise, how we raise them. And you know, you're always looking at how can we improve this because we see it on the other end. 00:11:12 Go ahead. Versus this month you bought havers from a and next month you bought from B. Yeah. 'cause that's who had 'em available. 00:11:19 Or you went to the auction, you don't know exactly know nothing. Right. No Course you might be bringing, you can't really, it's easy. 00:11:23 You got some word health issues then all that. So you have used, the thing that you do is diversification even outta the farm, 00:11:31 convenience store, trucking, its, you know, plant food, whatever. Um, that it's almost that continuous. 00:11:37 You were able to do that, which gives you more control over your own business. And then the more you do it, the more power you have. 00:11:42 Yes. That self-sufficiency and that diverse income, things like that. All of that plays into it. 00:11:48 You know, we started with the farm, then we went into the trucking, then we went from the trucking into the 00:11:52 fertility with the plant food. Mm-hmm. That really benefited the farm. 'cause it saves the farm money on fertility. 00:11:57 And I wouldn't say a yield component. Well, we then took the cattle and direct to the consumer with the cattle now 00:12:03 with the meat, now with the meat store and then the convenience store, the product from the meat store 00:12:07 flows into the convenience store. And you, you're, you're going all the way to the consumer in several different areas. 00:12:13 And I, uh, I learned it from you. I, you know, wait, wait. You, you use the term that I taught 00:12:19 and this is my proudest moment. I was doing, you know, I was doing all of those things and I always believed that you need to have some sort of 00:12:26 as symmetry between all these bi one business supports the other and create efficiency. 00:12:30 Yeah. But you taught me the term intentional congruence. And now I, I look for those opportunities in every business. 00:12:38 One thing feeds the next thing and overlaps on the other thing other, Well, it can also build that cash flow to take those next, 00:12:45 uh, a uh, enterprises, you probably, you did not go into the bank when you wanna do something. No. You already got cash flow. 00:12:51 That's, there's profitability that you can then take that power and like, Hey, we're just gonna grab this because an opportunity Aris 00:12:58 and you just do it instead of having to think about it and figure out where a, b and C's gonna come from. Right. How many farmers have a semi or two to haul grain? 00:13:06 And then they're always looking for how do we have added income? Well, we just started using those trucks all year. Yeah. 00:13:11 You know, and, and so now we do that. So the, the trucking expense for the farm is quite low. You know, we, we still have to pay 00:13:19 for the fuel and the time it takes. But those assets are sitting there. They're being used for something else all the time. 00:13:23 Think about farmer power and making sure you can control more of your own, uh, your own business, uh, outcomes. 00:13:29 So you bought another dairy farm, uh, Belleville as we call it, 2324. Uh, December 23. 00:13:37 Yeah. You cow it up at the end of 20. Mid mid to late 2024. Yeah. Permitting and some remodel work that needed to be done. 00:13:44 All right. So I know how you operate. You, you're, you're about to get that one running where you want it to run. 00:13:49 What's next? We'll see what the Lord brings in our lap. Are you done? Are you done cowling? Are you gonna diversify? You gonna be like Kelly 00:13:58 and just get into convenience stores? I Don't know about that. I do like cattle, but I do like everything, 00:14:03 every aspect of farming. But it's hard to say. Sitting here with, this is where we're gonna go to right now. 00:14:10 We just started this dairies. Yeah. It's cowed up, but it's not where it needs to be. People need to be trained. There's still a lot of work 00:14:15 that needs to go around and there's a relationship we need to build. Just gonna take time. So 00:14:19 It's cowed up but it's not running and you need another year to get it really running. Well, You got a lot of heifers that you bought from places. 00:14:24 You gotta sort through that, try to improve that, that herd It's production off of from water should 00:14:29 Did Sterly to say, you know, I I caved in these five, 600 heifers in the last three months and she got a lot of fresh animals 00:14:35 and there's still aspects that need to be, people need trained there to trim cows. And how does that this whole operation fit in 00:14:42 these other two operations? And you know, the relationships that I want to build up with neighbors there and make sure we get the corn silage in 00:14:49 that we need to be able to purchase and get rid of the manure efficiently and make all that work well. 00:14:56 But if tomorrow an opportunity rise. Does it make sense? Yeah. I'll be looking at it. 00:15:00 So there's a lot of people that are larger scale farmers that didn't get the bad rep. 00:15:04 Well the jealous neighbors one thing. But the other part of it is when they start to do I what I've seen and I'm working obviously a lot 00:15:10 of agriculture, I'm big time. And so I'll tell you how things are gonna be. Neither of you two do that. 00:15:15 But my observation is when he talked about relationships, even though you tried to go to him and tried to pick on me 00:15:20 and say that I was a pain in the ass landowner that he had to work with. What did you want Say I wanted to keep good relationships 00:15:26 and he talked about nutrition. The nutritionist complain about me. Or is that something completely different? 00:15:30 Nutritionist, you said Somebody was complaining about me and then you just know how to handle all kinds of personality. 00:15:35 Oh, There's people. Everybody got their own personality. I think you asserted him. I think he, 00:15:39 I think he said Lori complains about Oh That happens for sure. She likes him. She makes him applesauce. True. 00:15:47 You Dutch eat applesauce with damn near. I mean it's like you put a piece of toast down, they want apple sauce. 00:15:52 No, no Pork chop. They want Apple pork good. All the Rhubarb pie. They want applesauce. Every si 00:15:57 they put apple sauce with everything. It's like, it's like Just the warm part's like For them. Mm-hmm. 00:16:01 It is like ketchup, different cultures, different ways of doing. I I think you need to cultivate relationships no matter 00:16:07 the size of your operation. And there's no reason to tell anybody the way it's gonna be. It, it really needs to be a give and take relationship. 00:16:15 Uh, because again, you know, like we talked about, uh, yesterday, three, three things. Quality, price, and service. Yep. Pick two. Yeah. 00:16:24 And, and I always wanna look for a good price, but quality and service have a lot of Value. And 00:16:29 so anytime I tell people the way it's gonna be, I think you're picking price and quality and service go out the window. 00:16:35 And that, that's not for a great long-term relationship. I think Two way street. 00:16:38 It Does. It really does. Yeah. Well I I think you guys are both very good about that. 00:16:43 That you don't just, uh, try and throw your size around and all that. And you see people that do that. 00:16:47 And you always think you, you, you're, when you're over a barrel at some point nobody's gonna come and and help you out. That's 00:16:54 Right. That's the long-term 00:16:55.785 --> 00:16:55.825 relationship we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. 00:16:57 Or make Price concessions. Some of these landlords don't do that. I heard about one of the dos, Hey, 00:17:03 you're having a tough year out here. What, what do you get wrong? You tell about this power thing and all that. 00:17:10 Well and, and growing and scaling up the operation. 'cause it gives you more control of your business and all these things. 00:17:15 What did you get wrong? What? And that and, and that equation you mean? Yeah. I think that you can't be everywhere where you'd like to be. 00:17:26 That's why even right now with the three operation I do, I can't nor, you know, you, you had the one operation, 00:17:31 you saw every employee every day. Mm-hmm. Day shift, night shift. I, I talk to pretty much everybody every day. Mm-hmm. 00:17:36 And I'm losing that. So now I gotta figure out how do I substitute that with someone else that will do that? 00:17:42 Because people still need to be talked to as you know, that that communication is very important. And that's, you only got 24 hours a day 00:17:52 and you need to spend time with your family at home and Yeah. How do you bring balance to all that? 00:17:58 Is that what you got wrong? Yes. You can't, but, uh, you can't be everywhere at once. I can't do all the things that I used 00:18:04 to do. I sometimes don't, Uh, I don't feel like I get to farm anymore because you have to manage all those things 00:18:10 and there's people underneath you, things like that. And they do a great job. Mm. But you can't, you can't pay someone to do as good a job 00:18:18 as you care about d Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. And uh, my employees are great but they, they have other lives. 00:18:24 It's their job and they're Not owners. They're not, they're not owners. 00:18:27 And you can't expect them what you expect of yourself. And you have to realize that and build that in to make that successful. 00:18:32 Um, a lot of them act like they're owners. They, they really care to the full of their ability. But at the end of the day, the responsibility still lies on 00:18:41 my shoulders and I can't be everywhere I wanna be. You get, you get the feel that you created that where there's a lot of buy-in for your guys. 00:18:48 Some of 'em probably more than others, Some of 'em weren't other. But also how do you, 00:18:54 that's why I've been here lately too. What's a fair, what's a good wage? Yeah. And how do you compensate someone with fairly, you know, 00:19:01 I've always raised or I was raised that you do your job as you're told and you are getting a paycheck for that. 00:19:08 But as this, uh, how do you say the people's mentality is changing That job is and a paycheck is the norm. 00:19:17 So how do you motivate people to do more than just what, just what's expected of 'em? 00:19:22 You know, when they see something that needs fixed that they just pick it up and do it. How do you create that, uh, atmosphere 00:19:29 or culture within your business? So when you are gone? Because I always tell my wife the va, when we go on vacation, the vacation departs the cheap part. 00:19:36 Yeah. Right. Exactly. It's the, it is the stuff that backhoe. Yeah. So, But you put try to put things in place and people in place 00:19:43 and maybe a little spare equipment. 'cause you used to be able, when stuff broke, you were able to jump in and fix it five 00:19:48 minutes and they were going again. So now you just need to have a backup piece of equipment sitting there. 00:19:52 I think that people that are watching this show are ag people. I think the people that are not ag people, 00:19:56 when you say words like creating culture and like this case a dairy farmer is talking about employee 00:20:01 culture. I mean it's, it's it's real. Yes. I Try How many employees you got? 35. 35 between the three facilities. 00:20:06 Yeah. And you're five times that. Yes. We have about 150 employees throughout all the different businesses and entities. 00:20:13 And I very much try to create a culture of equality. Mm-hmm. And I want, uh, you know, it's a dumb way to say it, 00:20:19 but my number one priority is to have fun. Mm. And I want it to be a positive environment. I want enjoy the people I work with. 00:20:24 I want them to enjoy their day. I don't want it to become drudgery for them. And it's still a job, but I don't want it to become drudgery 00:20:31 for them because then I don't think they give it their all they, they don't do the extra things. 00:20:35 And, um, I I want them to know that I will go the extra mile for them and I expect it back. 00:20:40 What about the business about, I don't at a certain scale, you, the power structure changes on the vendors. 00:20:49 I mean, I've been to your office. I've been there trying to do business between you and me. And in between you 00:20:54 and me doing our thing, three to four vendor companies, people that you buy from and they weren't even just like, they weren't sweeper 00:21:00 salesmen, they weren't cold. I mean they're actually, well they come there, they want what you have to offer, which is cows, your, 00:21:08 your credit's good, et cetera. So you can kind of be a little bit more in control of those relationships in terms of the terms I would think. 00:21:16 Yeah. But when you go shopping around all the time, you don't have the relationship. You, I really enjoy those long-term relationships. 00:21:22 When you pick up the phone, you know what you got and don't have to figure out, uh, he had the best price this month, 00:21:27 so I'm gonna use him this month. Yeah. But when you're short, you're short and Well, let's see. 00:21:32 When we get the next product, then no. When I'm short of something, I want whoever I've been doing the business 00:21:35 with the last five or 10 years, gimme product. Yeah. Get what I need when I need it and not say, well, I'm sorry. 00:21:44 And it's sometimes tough to do that 'cause there's sometimes there is a big price discrepancy from one vendor to the other. 00:21:50 But I, but I do try to keep everybody honest. And when there is a big difference, I'm gonna make a phone call who 00:21:55 I'm doing business with first. Hey, why am I able to buy here cheaper? Or you know, it's one or 2 cents. I'm not gonna say much. 00:22:01 It's just part of the fluctuation in the market. But when it's just a plain commodity, like you said the Steelers or Beam Mill or diesel fuel, yes. 00:22:10 There's a service aspect to that. But at the end of the day they, it's, it's like me selling, look, we're selling a commodity. 00:22:17 It has to be of quality, but then it doesn't need, it needs to be price competitive. It doesn't need to be price competitive. Now 00:22:25 I've been to your office and there's people coming and going. It's like a beehive, uh, uh, folks that, that well, 00:22:30 well they want, they're there 'cause they wanna do business with you. Yes. And with everything going on 00:22:34 and stuff now, I, I will, a lot of times I don't talk to those people, the salesman anymore. If it's a, if it's fertility 00:22:41 or something for the farm, they're gonna go to Evans and Wind Grove. If it's cattle, they're probably gonna talk to my sons. 00:22:47 Uh, if it's trucks, they're gonna talk to Mike and Sabrina, uh, uh, parks, they're gonna talk to Bryce. Everybody has their, 00:22:53 because I don't, uh, there's too many things going on that I don't know the details all the time. Then you, then You can't. That's one I can't, 00:22:59 you can't. And That's one of the problems that we talked about earlier. But then you depend on those folks 00:23:03 that is an expert in their area. Well, they're not only an expert in their area, but they're also now making businesses. 00:23:08 Do you let people make businesses? Do you let people spend money for Sunshine dairy? I have 00:23:12 herdman that's does on the medicine side. Mm-hmm. But it's about the extent of it. And that's a, especially on the 00:23:18 repair, maintenance side of things. That's something I'm trying to figure out. 'cause I do spend a fair amount of time on the phone 00:23:22 finding parts for the guys. So you need to get, that's your next, your next hire in terms of being more in control of, 00:23:28 uh, uh, where you want to go with. Yeah. Find somebody that enjoys shopping, finding the right parts and is efficient with that. 00:23:34 Get a shop man equipment operator. Yeah. That's, that's Chief mechanic back to side. We're not quite big enough to, you can have a shop foreman 00:23:42 or maybe I could, but Yeah, I'm sure you can. It's a wonderful change Right now. I mean, you know, you 00:23:46 in the vehicle driving between farm and you kind of utilize that time to make those phone calls so you don't feel like it's a waste of time. 00:23:52 But if you hire someone to do that, you can't expect them to be wrenched and making those phone calls. 00:23:56 You have to a mechanic. Yeah. Uh, that arm, the mechanic does it. Yeah. So how many trucks do you have? 00:24:03 Uh, four. Yep. So Two choppers, Two choppers, few payloads. So what about the person listening to this says, 00:24:13 all right, this is easy for them to say because they're larger scale farms. Uh, you know, we got a lot of extreme ag fans 00:24:17 that are normal sized farm operations. I'd think that they still have more control and power, more power of, of business 00:24:23 and more control over their own operation today than we would have. And I think that that's that thing in our 00:24:28 pocket. The information. Yeah, That's what I was just gonna say, you know, like the previous episode we talked about the connectivity 00:24:33 and where your news comes from, things like that. Uh, I think most growers have more control over their operation now because the world is a bigger place 00:24:42 Regardless. Society. Yes. My father-in-law made a living, uh, buying a lot of the cattle from different parts of the country 00:24:47 and bringing 'em back to the Midwest. Mm. And you know, the, the market was different. He could find places that had a depressed market relative 00:24:53 to Western Iowa now with the internet and things like that, that, that's tough to do with him all. Yeah. I think the World is at your fingertips. 00:25:00 Yeah. A a a mid-size farming operation still has probably more control than they did just 20 or 30 years ago because of the information. Mm-hmm. 00:25:09 Well you know what the markets are in different sales barn and you niche, you just know what the market is bringing. 00:25:14 Mm-hmm. So you probably have to differentiate yourself more to be able to get that extra price for your cattle 00:25:21 or price for certain things versus just a commodity. Sure. Absolutely. Is there anything that you think, dear God, I still wish I had more control over this. 00:25:31 Like, man, I'm doing really well over here. Is there something like, oh man, I just, this thing is still too much 00:25:36 of not in my grasp. Is there anything? Not really the Weather. Right, right, right, Right. Well, the commodity 00:25:45 markets is why I wish I could understand better and hedge and you know, it's like lash was a pretty good year for dairy. 00:25:52 We'll see what this year's gonna bring. You know, there's always that we're relying on outside sources what our bottom line is. 00:25:59 Versus you could do everything right. Have good output, good, healthy cattle. Mm. And still lose money because the market moves against you. 00:26:06 Mm-hmm. And that's something that frustrates me more than anything. And The weather in the markets are out of our control. 00:26:12 Yeah. And you're a control freak. Like I Am. Well I'm sure I'm a control freak, 00:26:15 but it does frustrate when you, you anymore, it doesn't matter if you, you know, used to be, if you worked 80 hours compared to your counterpart 00:26:22 that work 40, Hey, you made more money 'cause you were able to put in more time today. That does not, that's not true. 00:26:26 Affect your bottom line anymore. Yep. That's not true. Also, That's a good way to die. 00:26:30 Look at your dad. It's why So you, you can't work 200 hour weeks every, you know, you can't work one hour a week all your life. 00:26:38 Not all your life. Uh, It's, it's a little much. You know, that, That as long you enjoy it. 00:26:45 All right. Uh, last thought, power and control. We asked the question, do farmers have more power and control now than we both, we all three agree that they, 00:26:51 you do on the information front. Uh, you're a price taker by the way. Farmers do like to talk about poor price takers. 00:26:57 Well really So is everybody, I always point that out. I mean, uh, say, oh you set your price. I'm like, it's all, It's all supply and demand. Yeah. 00:27:03 I mean, I could set my price or whatever, but at some point the, the market tells me what I, they're not gonna 00:27:08 Call you in bookie anymore. You can't. You're a price taker. I'm a price taker also because at some point you've gotta 00:27:12 do what the market allows and what the, what the rest of the people are doing out there. Last thought about farmer power control. 00:27:20 You feel like you got, you feel like you got, do you feel like you got things under control? I think so. I think I'm pretty blessed 00:27:25 with the people I have around me. So I'm very blessed that my wife stand beside me. That we can do it together. And now there're being a lonely 00:27:33 reign through doing it all with employees. I think that's, for me that's worth a lot. Yeah. That we can do it together. And you know, she's fine 00:27:40 with coming home late 'cause something broke or hey, you plan on being somewhere and a day goes different and you get a phone call 00:27:47 and you gotta cha change gears. And I had to threaten him. I said, Hey Johann, I did it a lot of times. 00:27:53 Hey, I'm gonna come over, we're talk about some business stuff. I'll be there seven, seven could be nine, 00:27:58 it could be 10, it could be 11. I said, I said, I've got people here to do this production. When I see you get here at a certain time, 00:28:05 you can't make me look bad. I said, I've got people coming here and you showed up on Time. It's possible. 00:28:12 It's possible, it's possible. I said, people in an hour late and I got all my crew hanging out here. 00:28:17 And you say, well I had a heifer having a difficult calving. I'm like somebody else, I'm gonna pull that calf. 00:28:21 Anyway, last thought, not power control. He, he's correct. It's important to have the right spouse that, that understands the challenges of the operation 00:28:29 that we have, things like that. Uh, I am very blessed with the people that I have around me. Uh, I do believe that we have more control that we used to. 00:28:37 I would tell you no matter the size of your operation, the way to gain that control and that self-sufficiency is never stop educating yourself 00:28:44 and to learn more skills and to become, to become more valuable in your operation. So you don't have to depend on other people so often 00:28:50 or other people outside of your team. So often. Or you know, when we tackle something in the shop, the guys tackle something in the shop 00:28:57 that they maybe haven't done before. Like they might look at YouTube or things like that. And it might be a little more expensive for 00:29:03 that repair the first time, but there's value in that education because now we've gained a new skill. Never stop educating yourself. 00:29:09 Don't be scared of it. Don't be scared of it. Talk about Far Power Farer Control. Talk about growth of your operation. 00:29:15 We talked about making sure that you're controlling it to obviously create the operation you want. These are the kind of things we talk 00:29:20 about here at the Grainery. We invite you to figuratively pull up a chair and pour yourself a drink all time. 00:29:25 And anytime you know what, these are all available@extrememag.farm. These episodes are also available at our YouTube channel. 00:29:30 We encourage you to subscribe to that. Go to YouTube, type in extreme ag can subscribe. It doesn't cost anything. You know, in extreme ag.farm, 00:29:36 we also have literally hundreds of episodes of Cutting the Curve podcast And Hundreds and hundreds of videos that guys, 00:29:41 guys like Kelly shoot out in the field to help you farm better. This is my friend Johan DeGroot, 00:29:45 who's also my tenant, Adam Dairyman. And we be coming back sometime. Yeah, we're good. Perfect. He's Johan DeGroot. He's Kelly Garrett. I'm named Mason. 00:29:51 So next time cheers from the Grainer. You did good. Awesome. You did good. Sounds a nice conversation. He's a good dude. 00:29:58 He's all right. You tried to bait him into saying bad stuff about me. 00:30:02.355 --> 00:30:02.645