Are You Dropping Dollars to Pick Up Dimes? | The Granary

00:00:00 Farmer money. We're talking about smart spend. We're talking about dumb spend in the business of agriculture. 00:00:04 You spend a lot of money. Where are you spending it? Well, where are you spending it poorly? What poor financial decisions are keeping you poor? 00:00:10 That's what we're talking about in this episode of the Grainery. You ready For a conversation with some real farmers 00:00:15 about real issues? The best part? You are invited. Support yourself a drink, grab a snack. Most importantly, pull up a chair. Welcome to the Grainery. 00:00:29 Hey guys. Hey there. Welcome to the fantastic episode of the Grain Room. We've got a great one for you. You just heard the topic. 00:00:39 Johnny Rell and Chad Henderson with Extreme Ag and our friend Stephanie Linco, who is a Michigan farmer, as well as the lead agronomist for Agro Liquid. 00:00:47 Agro Liquid is sponsoring this episode. We are very grateful to them. We love Agro Liquid St. John's, Michigan based company of fertility products. 00:00:56 Yes, sir. But You're not here to talk about that. You're here to talk about farmers and farmer money. Stephanie, we're gonna let you 00:01:02 think about this for a second. We're going to the financial guru of Jackson, Tennessee, that he is Johnny Ral. 00:01:07 You spend a lot of money in the business of agriculture. You farm several thousand acres, 00:01:10 you've got a bunch of money goes out the door. It seems to me the farmers will take a a million dollars, $2 million of inputs 00:01:16 and not even really think that much about it. And then they fester over a 23 cent decision. Am I right? Yeah. Well, I mean, you, 00:01:22 you spend so much money in that day. Nowadays, we go to the field, we could spend 20, 30, $40,000 just in a few hours depending on what we're doing. 00:01:29 And so money goes out the door in a hurry. And you're right, we can get hung up on certain things. It seems like the things that we get hung up on are the 00:01:35 things we shouldn't even be worried about. We should be worried about different inputs. But at the end of the day, there's 00:01:39 some inputs we put out there. It could be fertility, sometimes dry fertilize, different things like that. 00:01:45 We'll spend 60 bucks an acre and make 20 in return or get $20 worth of that value that year because of the, you know, the release rate 00:01:52 of the fertilizer, what's actually available. So we'll get hung up on certain things. That's true. That's the farmer way of doing it. 00:01:58 But at the end of the day, we gotta drive nice trucks, right, Damon? I, I think that's it. You drive a very nice truck. John. 00:02:02 Uh, uh, Chad drives a very nice truck tell you that my first time at Kelly Garrett's, he put me in a, like a nine between an 89 Ford Ranger 00:02:09 that the back had rusted off of, and like his mechanic glued on a flatbed. And it was literally falling apart. 00:02:16 We went like 90 miles an hour on those dirt roads sliding sideways. Luckily I had a couple of Coors 00:02:21 and I was a little bit more my, my, my, my nerves were meow as rattled, but I got a, I got a little turf with that, 00:02:27 but he does not drive nice equipment anyway, um, because he's cheat. I saw, I, I speak at farm events, a events, 00:02:35 and I used to sell books in the back of the room. And I had a farmer and his wife stand and look at whether or not they should use years ago, spend $20 on a, uh, 00:02:42 two books and a CD or a $20 package or this, just buy one for 10. And I thought you probably have, uh, 00:02:49 $2 million goes out the door every year, keep your business afloat and you're standing here festering over a 10 00:02:55 or a $20 decision. Maybe you should add more pictures in a book. I probably, I probably should have done that. 00:03:00 I like pictures in a book. What do people do in this business that you think is really smart spend 00:03:06 and what do you think is dumb spend? Well, I got a race car, so I'm gonna pass on that question. Okay. 00:03:10 So which one does that qualify As? That's dumb spend. Yeah, 00:03:12.245 --> 00:03:12.465 00:03:12 You've got a sponsor, agri liquid sponsor. What is my sponsor? Hey, you have a sponsor and we, we run it front 00:03:18 Too. Tell Me about spending from your standpoint, on the one hand you sell to farmers, on the other hand, you are a farmer, so you see it from both angles. 00:03:25 Um, you and Galen both have that going on. What do you think that you as a farmer do smart spending and where do you even think that your life, you know what 00:03:34 business side of me knows this is stupid, but I'm doing anyhow. So for us on our home farm, you know, smart 00:03:40 or smart spend, I think, you know, looking at the soil test and addressing nutrients 00:03:45 that are needed rather than just those blanket applications and things that we've always done in the past, you know, 00:03:51 that's been a switch over the last couple of years. Spoken Like a true fertility person here. 00:03:55 She went straight to fertility And trying to figure out what the emotional span is versus a mathematical span. Right? Yeah. 00:04:02 You know, that's, that's, yeah. Knowing what, where to spend those dollars. There's An old statement that says humans make every decision 00:04:08 emotionally and then sometimes back it up with logic or in this case with finance. Is that true? Yeah, I would think so. I mean, 00:04:14 it's, it, it always seems to come back that Way. The 23 3 cent piece you was talking about 00:04:18 is a hundred percent emotional. It's always emotional. Yeah. What Do you think, um, when you look around 00:04:23 that you've done some stuff? Because we're not gonna point the finger at others, we're point the finger at ourselves. 00:04:27 What have you done? You're like, man, I tell you what, this is a really expensive lesson. I did a really stupid thing financially. 00:04:34 Uh, we talked about this in another episode about the best, the best lessons are the ones you pay for. Gimme a couple. 00:04:39 Uh, probably the biggest one is waiting on corn to go up 2 cents and it dropping 40. Mm-hmm. But It's never wait on the round numbers, 00:04:45 Right? Yeah. The round numbers wait on the round number 4 98, sell it 4 98 every time. 00:04:49 But in reality, a lot of times we do things, you know, if we're not evolving as farmers or changing up what we're doing, you're, 00:04:56 you're never gonna be able to, to sustain some of the financial things that we have going on. I mean, we've talked about fertility, you know, 00:05:01 agri was a big fertility company, but a lot of farmers all across the country are still fertilizing like they did 30 years ago. And we can't, 00:05:09 And and truly the same blend. The same blend, the Same blend And, and getting the same results. 00:05:13 Basically. You know, you, you can work for different companies out there that have blends that they can custom blend for your needs that day, 00:05:19 that time of the year, that actually get you a return. And actually you can see it in the soil test or in the tissue samples right 00:05:24 then and what you're actually able to do. That's what we're needing to do going forward, because we can't put out a blanket blend, like you said, 00:05:31 you know, and, and expect to, to, to maintain or, you know, be able to get through these times. Right Now that we're facing in farming, 00:05:38 because fertility is one of the biggest expenses we have, equipment is one of the biggest expenses we have. 00:05:43 I mean, I guess about everything we're doing right now is, is is a big expense. Is a big expense. 00:05:47 Including that fancy pickup truck you talked About. Well, you always make comments about trucks. 00:05:50 I thought you would, you know, I don't have a cool truck walking up. He was, he was sitting you up for the Yeah. 00:05:54 Yeah. What do you have? A 71 model. So now that's Mrs. Mason. That's Why that's Mrs. Mason. 00:05:58 She gets to collector cars around here. I just, uh, I just have a mason. He can't Even crank 'em. 00:06:02 Him and Matt Miles would get it stuck in his brother. Fifth. Yeah, right. Not a good driver. I'm not really good at anything. Have we already have, 00:06:08 we already figured this out in four years of me working with a street mag. We talked about it. While I'm not good at very much, 00:06:12 That's why you fit in so well here. I mean, like we're, I was asked, we were at Commodity Classic recently, and we were in the agro liquid booth. 00:06:20 And um, I'm brought up something that I think is an, uh, yes, fertility is one of the expenses, 00:06:26 but if you look at the entire, from the land then to the equipment, then if you have manpower, you know, or one power, you have employees 00:06:34 and then you get through everything else, festering over $7 versus $11 of spend on a fertility pass. 00:06:42 Seems to me you're dropping dollars to pick up dimes. I think that, uh, when I think about how to, how to whittle back $6 on, in on fertility reminds me 00:06:51 of the person that has a negative net worth that's broke, but worries about the price of gas. 00:06:55 Like you've made a bunch of bad financial decisions and you're, you're driving a mile outta the way to save 3 cents on a, on a gallon of gas. 00:07:02 You, you, you've got misp prioritizations. Is that accurate? You said fertility is a big expense. 00:07:06 I think it is, but it's also, if you fe if you fester on that, you're losing, it's like pocket accounting. 00:07:12 You're worried about this little money over here. What about the whole table of money? I mean, it is, but it's one of the key pieces 00:07:17 to the whole farming operation. You can get upside down just in your fertility program and it's gonna be very hard 00:07:21 to overcome that all throughout the year. But equipment can do the same thing. You know, one of the biggest, I guess, 00:07:26 best things we could spend money on, especially in our area is land. But me and Chad face, we lose land every day to development 00:07:33 and we can't always pay what land's going for us. And it's, but as far as investments, that's probably still the best thing we can do. 00:07:39 Just might not be where we're located at now, Chad, I mean, that's the honest Truth. I mean, that's the 00:07:43 truth of it. He Grows some divisions better than he does corn now. There's no question. 00:07:47 Yeah. Uh, one of I then on that's pretty for All eight. That's pretty rough. So it's better not different. 00:07:52 Well, he's a pretty good corn producer, but you know what? You have more 00:07:56 ROI is better. Yeah. ROI is definitely better. What do you think, um, when you think about smart spend versus dumb spend? 00:08:04 Okay, we can joke about your racing habit. We get that all of us have a hobby. You know, I've gotten 4,000 worth of golf clubs 00:08:09 and I'm still an 18 handicap. So let's face it, I got problems here, but, uh, what, what do you think when you think 00:08:15 of smart spin down the spin, what have you spent smartly on and what do you think? Oh man, I, I screwed up over there. Well, 00:08:21 Let's just talk about farmers in general, you know, and, and, and I'm, I'm going to include myself in this, 00:08:25 but we, I think we have been a smart spend on better educating ourselves with fertility packages. You know, whether it's no, no be being better at 00:08:35 versus look how much better. I think one generation is from the next of asking for help to read a soil sample or even being able 00:08:42 to read a soil sample, right. Doing some tissue sampling. That's not a hundred percent because that spot is dying 00:08:48 and yellow, you know? But you know, though, I think the farmers educating itself, I think the farmer's doing a better job of, of efficiency. 00:08:56 Yep. You know, there's all kind of things that we're doing better that way and that's the smart spend right now. 00:09:01 You know, the dumb spend is, is in my, uh, experience is when me, and you've talked about it in several episode 00:09:09 of me going out there and clean telephone posts slinging out 1400 pounds of dry fertilizer just to see if it could, 00:09:16 you could buy 400 bush wind, you know, and trying to prove that point of where is the breaking point on fertility 00:09:25 that we've always used. You know, I, you know, we say dry fertilizer like we harp on, 00:09:30 like we're not harping on dry fertilizer. We're harping on the habits that we've never broke. You Talking about this though, farmers are infamous for going 00:09:37 and banging on you over A dollar. They don't do that to the Equipment. I mean, and 00:09:44 I think most farmers are overspent on equipment. Am I right? Are most farmers overspent on equipment? They are, but 00:09:48 Fertility is something that they can change. Like that price of the tractor may change a little bit, but it's not seed can't, or c you can't really change it, 00:09:56 but fertility you can change, you can lower nitrogen or you can add phosphorous or micros. You have more, more flexibility. 00:10:02 Are most farmers over equipped? Do they spend too much money on equipment that is not a good ROI? 00:10:08 Well, I mean, on our operation we, we run mostly new equipment, but we don't have repair bills. So, I mean, I think it's whichever way you wanna look at it. 00:10:15 We run a very, we run less equipment now than we did 20 years ago, and we farm four times the acres. It's not like our friend temple, your buddy temple, 00:10:24 he has tractor that are so old, not a condition. They're not even, they don't even qualify for one of those antique calendars. 00:10:29 You know what I mean? That's how, that's how old the crap he wants, Man. Yeah. He's not here 00:10:32 so I can pick On them. Oh, That's pretty, are you over Equipped? Do you spend too much money on Equipment? I, 00:10:37 I am just opposite of Johnny. So my labor, my service bill Yep. Or my parts counter bill. Like, I'm trying to get him to figure out how to get 00:10:46 that baby where it's like on a roll. Like, you know, Johnny anymore, you know, when you spend a million dollars, you get 3% or 5%. 00:10:54 When you spend $5 million, you get 8%. I think it should be like when you spend a hundred thousand dollars over the counter, then you should get 5%. 00:11:00 And then when you spend 200,000, you get 10%. And like I said, pro re back and I brought this to him, it's like, what still, 00:11:08 what about the rest of us that still pull wrenches? You know? So, But along those lines, if you don't, 00:11:13 you can have the best fertility program, you could have the best land in the world. You have the wrong planter that's not, um, up to date 00:11:19 or not planting properly. Sprayer spray Have a bad Sprayers and sprayers are your two most important things. 00:11:24 And a lot of times they're sometimes the most overlooked. And, And you know, um, we've, we went through a fertility 00:11:28 or management plan, you know, with, with brewer this, this year. And you look at that ratio 00:11:33 and that ratio needs to fit your, fit your farming, you know, you mean The ratio of the gross revenue that to spend? No, 00:11:40 I'm talking about let's, we're talking about equipment right now. Let's talk about the ratio of new equipment 00:11:45 and interest versus the ratio of repair bill. Okay. Because you think, well, I ain't got no new equipment payments, 00:11:50 but I spent $380,000 across the counter counter. Well, wait a minute, maybe I should have bought two combines or maybe I should have bought that sprayer. 00:11:58 May if, if you're three days late on spraying a crop, what did that cost you? Yeah. Plus You have the time to actually do 00:12:03 that Equipment maintenance Yourself. Yeah. Well, who has the time for that? 00:12:06 Or who has, you know, time's the only thing we can't purchase, mom. Alright, I'll give you an example and I, it's easy to say, well, 00:12:11 you know what, you're not the operator. So what do you know? Um, you got a little director smart, 00:12:16 but yet you hired somebody to move a tree in your driveway. Yeah. That's a different story. But yes, thank you for noticing. 00:12:21 Um, we got, we got I think dump spend over tillage, over utilize the d uh, of diesel fuel. I think if a bunch of farms would, it focuses are on that 00:12:29 as opposed to how to whittle you on $3 on fertility, how many extra passes are being made unnecessarily. And you do 00:12:36 That. I made it look so good when It's worked up. Yeah, right. It looks so good. 00:12:39 And you also just, and you can, you just learn $5 diesel. You can, it, it wasn't that 00:12:43 You put hours and you put hours on a piece of equipment that we Can justify anything. 00:12:47 $250,000 piece of equipment and you're putting extra hours on it unnecessarily. What's an hour worth on that piece of equipment? Woo. 00:12:53 200 bucks. Probably well over a hundred. Just Equipment. Yeah. Yeah. 00:12:57 But at the end of the day, what was, you know, you gotta always be willing to evolve because we used to plant our wheat. 00:13:02 Me and Chad were talk about planting wheat on the way up here. And I used to plant wheat a certain way 00:13:05 where I'd actually use like a, a turbo till or something like that to incorporate the weed in the ground because I didn't wanna drill because it 00:13:10 only ran seven days a year. Well now the way equipment costs have gone up, labor costs, fuel and all this stuff, I'm probably gonna revert back 00:13:17 to drills because it's one pass, one person. That's a Mean, you gotta be whole topic of why he's reverting back to the drill. 00:13:22 Mm-hmm. And that's a whole nother episode. But anyway, him and temple, you know, but From a money standpoint, you just reduced a pass. 00:13:29 Well, again, how many hours? And then what's an hour on that piece of equipment plus the diesel? 00:13:33 And that's exactly what we went down and when we were sitting there working it out, it's gonna be 20, 30, 40 bucks an 00:13:38 acre possibly for us all said and done. Saved. And what we would be having, and I guess where I'm going with that is 00:13:42 what works this year will not work the same next year. If we put out fertility like we did 30 years ago when I got outta high school, it will not work the same. 00:13:50 And I mean, you got district, well I guess it's 20 years ago and It will, and it and it will 00:13:53 affect your bottom line. Yeah. But because, but you gotta adapt because how long ago did we not worry about micros? 00:13:58 Oh, you're right. I mean, I mean, whoever put micros in a tube or you know, we go, what, what's 00:14:05 everybody putting in UBA two? What did Kelly always say? The holy grail of growing corn is population than natural. 00:14:11 More population. More na, more population. Natural. There you go. I'm surprised that they had time to talk to each other on the way up here and they drove eight hours 00:14:17 and they were on the phone the entire time I texted. Oh, you texting them. We were in the same, Yeah, I'll tell you. 00:14:22 Um, alright, so talk to me about on the smart spend and dumb spend where you think, okay, um, you're, you're blowing too much money over here. 00:14:30 I already think it's over equipment. And I said on passes, do you make too many passes as lingo brothers farm? 00:14:35 There are too many passes being made. I really want To hear it from the point, you know, me and Johnny's give the farmer point 00:14:40 and she has the farmer points, you know, but I wanna hear it from the perspective of the sales side. What do you see that is hardest for us 00:14:48 as farmers to overcome? You know, when you're talking about sales, you know, From fertility. Yeah. 00:14:54 And from that aspect, it is getting away from the mindset of what you've always done is the right thing 00:14:59 that you have to keep doing that. Do Farmers tend to be fixed in their ways a little Bit sometimes. 00:15:03 Oh, I've never heard that. Yeah. You know, we, we put out 155 gallon or pounds of nitrogen every year, if that works. 00:15:11 Some years we get 140 bushel corn. Some years we get 230 bushel corn. So why should we change that nitrogen rate? 00:15:19 But in reality, there's other things you can do. It can come down to equipment, it can come down to timing. Um, split applications, changing that rate. 00:15:25 Um, so I think, you know, the biggest hurdle from fertility for a guy is always just doing what worked 00:15:31 because they've seen a wide range of yields. It works. Why should I change? How can I ask her? Go talk. 00:15:37 I think you should. You're doing a Better job. I, I think I was gonna ask another question. I think 00:15:39 You're probably a better interviewer than I'm, So tell me this, how hard, because me and Johnny look at it from, 00:15:45 you know, a different set of glasses. I feel like, you know, we think the same way and kind of look at it from d different set of glass. 00:15:50 How hard is it? Or when, what you talk about micros, when has farmers just changed over to, you know, looking at boron, looking at micros, 00:16:01 looking at macros, looking, you know what I'm saying? Like when have they kind of made that jump? And it ain't been just about MP and 00:16:06 KI think it's that education part you talked about earlier is there's more videos like these that are out there. 00:16:12 There's more things on social media. Um, people are talking about it. You know, I always say that I go to meetings 00:16:17 and always surprisingly, how many people are taking pictures of slides? 'cause they want to learn what a soil test. 00:16:22 I still picture slides. What, what a soil test means. So that means they wanna know. And that's kind of that trigger point that says, okay, 00:16:28 maybe there is a better option. Maybe I need to look at micros, maybe I need to, you know, change my mix up. 00:16:33 But it takes that initial step of them wanting to change before they get there. Alright, Nevermind. Nevermind. 00:16:41 I'm just kidding. You don't have, It's the Chad and Stephanie show. It's, it's, there's a whole bunch of money 00:16:48 that does go out the door, uh, and to do this. So I think that you could probably go through every line item 00:16:53 and probably figure out a way to needle on it and, and pull some off. Like I said, it's, I see unnecessary expense. I 00:16:59 Promise you gave them good. I Every line I'm line. Every line. You're, You're. But paying French 00:17:05 is a smart spend dumb spend to be paying for operating money. Seven, eight 80% right now. Yeah, 8%. 00:17:12 Yeah. I mean, it seems like nowadays to make money, it takes money and the way things cost, you're gonna almost have to have 00:17:19 operating line to make it work. And you can't start a crop and not finish it either. So you're gonna have to have, for us, we have 00:17:25 to have operating lines to finish the crop, you know, and it's nothing, no way around it really. And I mean, I don't think when interest was 3%, 4%, 00:17:31 it's almost like farmers didn't have to worry about that interest. Now the interest is actually a pretty much a line item at 00:17:37 your expense at the end of the year. When Galen did a recording with me a couple of years ago, we talked about the last dollar you should spend on a crop. 00:17:46 How do you, and you talk about smart spend and dumb spend. Is there dumb spend going on 00:17:51 because it ain't gonna make any difference? Or is there dumb savings because you give up too soon. You, you and I have talked about that. Yeah. 00:17:58 Which one's the bigger problem? Dumb spend or dumb savings? You gave up on the crop too soon or you spent money 00:18:04 after it wasn't gonna do any good think It depends on the time of the year or Didn't spend money because of emotional. 00:18:08 Yeah. Well remember all decisions are made emotionally then sometimes backed up with logic, I Promise you. But I think in, 00:18:13 when we have an economy like we have today, we're all worried about the ROI that we're gonna be able to make. 00:18:18 When you look at it on paper, it's very thin right now. And the best thing you can do is to build a budget and have a start plan. 00:18:24 And that the weather stays right for us in dry land acres. Like we are know what we can spend when we can spend it. 00:18:30 That's where you come into spoon feeding banding, fertilize. Mm-hmm. You know, Chaz doing strip till, 00:18:35 he didn't do that 10 years ago. We're running basically banding fertilizer with our planters. We didn't do that. And the reason we're 00:18:40 doing that, we're able to reduce our costs. We're also able to put those nutrients in the right area where that can get 'em. 00:18:45 And hopefully at the end of the day, that's gonna be a better ROI for us. But if you don't start, if you don't change on the fly, 00:18:51 it's also not a good thing too. So, I mean, you gotta be, I don't know, you gotta have a plan, but you gotta be able to stick 00:18:56 to it and stay in budget. You put a date on it. August 1st. I make this in July 1st. I make this decision whether to spend or not spend 00:19:03 For, for me and Chad is whenever the rain stops, whether that's May 1st or June 1st or July 1st, that's what really affects us. 00:19:09 As long as we can get moisture, we can make crops. And it's, and I mean that sounds, I mean, everybody knows it takes water to make grain, 00:19:16 but for us, we're like seven days from the next drought for us. And I mean, we can have, 00:19:20 we can have the prettiest crop ever in its seven days. It doesn't even look like a corn crop. I mean, I've seen where his tile lines run out here 00:19:26 and I've seen the dirt they pulled up. I know we can make what he makes. Yeah. He likes to insult my farm ground. 00:19:32 And I point out here, I've got the best farm ground, the grandson of a tenant farmer could come up with. All right. That's just, that's just the way it is. Okay. 00:19:40 Uh, all answer me this smart spend and dumb spend. He's looking at You. Well, I'm, because 00:19:46 I want you to put on your farmer hat and then you're also your business person. Hey, where you tell me where, where's dumb spend happen? 00:19:52 I know you don't like to take opinion by making you take a stand here. Where's, where's where are farmers making, 00:19:57 making stupid financial decisions? I think waiting too late to make decisions. Boom. Mm. There's a procrastination. Yep. 00:20:06 This year's a perfect example. How many people are waiting? Not you, you Look at me like your dog at Me. I look at Johnny, then 00:20:12 Johnny knows, well not, not look good. It's like, woo. We did an episode where Miles was sitting here and, and he and Chad and Temple were over there 00:20:20 and he kept saying so success. He kept point my ways. He says, fail. How many chances I come? 00:20:28 Every time he says fail, he points over here, you and me and the success he points over. And dang you, you just could have did that. 00:20:34 Well, I guess that just happened to be the way I was looking. Sorry, 00:20:38 I'm nothing Personal left now. Just opposite direction of Daniel. That's Right. Waiting too late to make a 00:20:43 decision. Where's the, where, where's where's bad financial decision happen from a farmer standpoint, yours or anybody else's? 00:20:48 I would think overspending on the front end and then not finishing the crop. So that's two ways. Where's the dumb spend happen? Uh, you or anybody else? 00:20:55 I I'm gonna go with both of theirs. Well, you well, can you gotta give farmer? No, no, no. I get it. Like mine is, you know, I, I say what I love 00:21:02 to say what Mike Tyson said, Mike Tyson said, everybody's Got a plan till They get punched in the mouth. 00:21:06 Mm-hmm. You know, and that's just it. Uh, farmers will go to these meetings and we've seen 'em and I've, and then and farmers. 00:21:12 I'm saying me, I'm saying, Johnny, we go to these meetings in January and February, we have a plan. We're gonna do this. We're gonna do it 00:21:17 right boys, it's gonna happen. One rain. Oh, we're okay. Second rain in. All that went out. The wind Windham planted Dane crops. 00:21:25 Stephanie, I ask you a question. Do you think it's wise to go around living by a quote that is came out of a guy 00:21:30 who was a high school dropout with a face tattoo? I'm concerned about, oh, I'm Mike Tyson. Like I'm waiting on that. Are you 00:21:36 making better financial decisions? 'cause you don't hang on to a wheel much, you're more on the office. No, I 00:21:41 Thought he should say, 'cause you listen to Mike Tyson, You're more in the office now. You've got employees. 00:21:46 You're army operation is of the scale where you are really more of a business manager. Well, all farmers are, 00:21:52 but you're, you're less hanging onto a wheel and you're in there looking at, you're looking at desk work. Do you think that makes, do you make better 00:21:59 financial decisions because of that? Don't you run one of the Planters? Yeah, I usually run a planter, 00:22:02 but let Damien go with the story. Well, you know, Story, you're not In the, you're not in the tractor cab as much 00:22:07 as you were 10 years ago. Is that an accurate statement? Yeah. So we, we really track our spendings 00:22:13 on a large scale on our operation. I told about we try to track everything we can. We work with a company that really helps us with that. 00:22:18 And I think a lot of farmers and myself was included just a few years ago. Really didn't have a clue what I had in the crop by the end. 00:22:24 I knew what I had for corn, seed fertilize, stuff like that. Maybe some CP and stuff like that along the way. 00:22:29 But I didn't know what everything else was costing me. Insurance, labor and all that stuff. I had a ballpark number. Now we know exactly what it is. 00:22:35 And you can't make decisions on your farm without knowing what your real cost is. 00:22:39 And so true cost of purchase, I believe farmers need to spend more time in the office. They need to be able to have those talks 00:22:43 with their accountants anytime throughout the year, not in February when they're trying to pay their taxes. I find it interesting that he was so insulted. 00:22:50 I didn't say he doesn't know how to drive a tractor. I just said that you don't hang onto a wheel as much as you probably did 00:22:55 because you're more in the office now. Is that so offensive, Stephanie? Well, 00:23:00 farmers like to farm, so maybe a little offensive. Do You know what I of people sometimes know you're trying. She's strongly nice. So 00:23:07 She's so polite. We, we've been throwing arrows at her trying to get her dive in and you're making, you're like, 00:23:12 I just need you to put your, I just need you put your head. I'm just say what's Yeah. Oh well, you know, somebody 00:23:17 Has to be the nice one. Well you're, you're probably the best candidate For Alright, uh, going 00:23:25 around the table then when you think about financials and all that, it's not your favorite thing. You'd rather be out digging in dirt and, 00:23:30 and you'd really be out doing that thing. But what are you, what are your thoughts? Uh, obviously we're 20, 25 right now. 00:23:37 We're recording this in spring of 2025. Things do not look very rosy out here in the farm economy. I think it's the time you better really start thinking about 00:23:45 smart spend versus dumb spend because it, it can be a difference between break even and losing money. 00:23:51 I think have a budget and stick to it. Create a budget, you know, know how much you're gonna spend. I mean, uh, I I never thought about it 00:23:57 until the last two years when Galen and Stephanie talk about, you know, well the fertility's gonna be 17 to 22%. 00:24:02 I'm like, that ain't right. I get to figure and I'm like, it's right. My, it it's dead on. You know, according to the year. 00:24:08 And they know, you know what, there's On spend to the person listening. 17 to 22% of total spending. 00:24:13 Yes. Of total spending will Be anticipated. Anticipated income. Anticipated income. So anticipated income. 00:24:19 It's been 17 to 22% of anticipated income. No, Not should. Like that's the number that people will spend. 00:24:24 Oh, that is what they do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, mostly not Chad. He's Like, he he's a senator. He's 00:24:28 the hashtag senator. I, I feel, you know, I'm major with 5G but he never Met, he never met a nutrient he didn't wanna throw 00:24:34 more of, uh, in the field. Right? Yep. Yep. I'm trying to do better at that. My name's Chad. I'm trying to spend less. I'm trying to do better. That's 00:24:40 All. Smart spin. Noman, what's your advice? So I think along the same lines of setting a budget, still setting that plan. 00:24:46 Like we always said it, it gets emotional. We've talked about that. If you know you're gonna do a side dress, you know you're gonna do a foliar, you know, 00:24:53 those are kind of set and it takes a little bit of that emotion out of it. Um, if you get a good re then great. 00:24:58 If you think you're getting a better crop, then you can add more. But if you have that plan from the start, I think 00:25:03 that can kind of help you stick with that budget. You Guys are going inputs and inputs. Take me to non inputs, machinery, employees, 00:25:10 real estate capital improvements. What's the smart spend? Don't spend? What's your advice? I I Still like the smart spans, you know, land for sure. 00:25:18 But, you know, equipment's a big piece of it. You need to have really good planters and the sprayer like we talked about before. 00:25:25 'cause that will make or break the operation because we got such short wind to plant nowadays. Mm-hmm. You know, cha started planting yesterday. 00:25:31 We get up here and it was snowing this morning, so it's kind of hard to believe we were planting back home. 00:25:34 Mm-hmm. But at the end of the day, we were talking, he was on the phone on the way up here and I heard him tell somebody he could have 700 acres flying 00:25:39 by Saturday and today's Thursday. So you look at how much he can get done, but it's 'cause he's got good You said he heard 00:25:45 You on the phone. What? You called him? Yeah, I I texted him. You texted him. That's right. But that, that but 00:25:49 couldn't text Max. He was right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Hands free. Yeah. Smartpen do spend, you, you know, 00:25:56 we are obviously in a downturn economy. We hope it doesn't stay that way. But we also know how this business works 00:26:01 because for those of us that have been in it, uh, regardless of where you are, uh, in, in your journey in this business, 00:26:05 we wanna make sure you always pull up a chair here, figuratively, and pour yourself a drink and sit down and talk to us. 00:26:09 We're joined by Stephanie Linco, agronomist with our friends at Agro Liquid. We love Agro Liquid. If you wanna learn more about their 00:26:15 products that can help you maybe, uh, do the spoon feeding approach to meet your budgetary, uh, constraints that you're gonna have. 00:26:21 'cause what we hear here, set a budget and also set a plan. I'd quote you better. I don't remember what 00:26:26 you said exactly, John. I think I don't, Don't buy new equipment, pull wrenches. That's, That's what's what gets to me 00:26:32 because I don't ever wanna be a mechanic. Anyway, John de Chad Henderson, name Linko. If you wanna learn more about Agri Liquid, go to 00:26:38 Agri liquid.com. Agri liquid.com. So next time, thanks for joining us here at the Grammy. 00:26:41.545 --> 00:26:41.965