Barn Talk - Farm Equipment, Auctions, and the Importance of Diversification w/ Greg Koch

Episode Date: August 18, 2024

Welcome to Barn Talk! In this one, we dive deep into the world of farm equipment and ag business with our special guest, Greg "Kentucky" Koch. Greg, who owns a small farm and an equipment auction busi...ness, brings a wealth of knowledge as we explore the current trends and challenges facing the industry. We'll discuss the strength and potential decline of grain carts, semis, and hopper trailers, and speculate on crop size and quality amidst various environmental factors. Kentucky shares his insights on the downturn of the equipment business and how his diversified model sustains through changing markets. We also tackle the rise of semis in farming operations, the decline of big gravity wagons, and the ongoing challenges of running a business, including customer management and utilizing social media effectively. Get ready for a lively discussion about cattle prices, hay market fluctuations, and the invaluable skills taught through livestock work. Use code BARNTALK for 10% OFF your next order https://farmergrade.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq   LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  ITUNES ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 Support the show, leave reviews, visit farmergrade.com. 10:36 Started business quietly in bedroom, then expanded. 16:16 Consolidation in equipment dealers; less inventory. 21:34 Limited travel, hated job from young age. 26:21 Limited demand for large farming equipment, new preference. 32:00 Farmers optimistic about grain prices despite challenges. 33:38 Ag economy struggling, hope diminishing, situation worsening. 39:01 Diversified retail dealer with focus on livestock. 47:39 Sales success from prospecting and networking. 50:38 Struggling with business growth and leadership development. 58:47 Motivated by family, balancing work and compassion. 01:03:33 Middle America built on farm kids know-how. 01:06:56 Story about rebuilding a car engine summary. 01:11:44 Encouraging audience engagement and promises future content. ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone els... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a guest episode. You know, we haven't had a guest come on the show in a while. Usually we like to keep our cadence to, you know, a Q&A, a hot topics, then a guest. and that's kind of the cadence we like to stick on, but sometimes you just got to go with the flow. And here and there,
Starting point is 00:00:46 we'll have four episodes of just Dad and I shooting the shit, and then we'll have four episodes back to back of guests coming on the show. It's just kind of how it rolls sometimes. But today we got a good guess in store for you guys. But before we get into it, you guys know the drill. Share the show with the people that you know if you get any value. You can get value from laughing about something,
Starting point is 00:01:08 learning something, us on something. However, you got value from the show, all that we ask is that you just share it. The more that you guys do that, the more that this show can grow, the more people we can reach, the more episodes we can make, the more guests we can get on. And it's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. Another thing that you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is leave a review on Spotify or Apple. The more that you guys do that, the more it gives our show credibility because from outside the podcast world, if you look at podcasts, people are going to judge you on one thing, and that's your reviews. So the more reviews you guys leave, good reviews, hopefully you leave, the better chance we can get more guests on to improve the show and the more episodes we can make.
Starting point is 00:01:57 So it just helps to show out a lot. Last thing you can do to support us here at Barn Talk is support our direct-to-consumer-grade. Farmagrade.com. We're running a cut of the week. We run a cut of the week every week, but our cut of the week this week is dry-aged filet mignon, 20% off. We got American Wagyu on there,
Starting point is 00:02:18 pasture-raised chicken, pork that we raise on our farm, dry-aged beef, all from American farmers and ranchers showing what they do on social media that you can buy for you and your family from a trustworthy source. So that's what we got going on.
Starting point is 00:02:35 That's awesome. Everybody needs to hop on there and get something because the way it's looking right now, that off-farm income is going to come in fairly handy because the on-farm income, eh, I don't know. It's a little iffy. It's a little iffy. The USDA report came out, way more beans, way more ending stocks, pretty much way more. And they're just beating that like none other.
Starting point is 00:03:04 the corn, 183 bushel average. To be expected. To be expected. And so that's the trend line. If you are in an area of Iowa that didn't get just piss pounded or the Midwest, if you've been out and walked your fields, there's going to be a lot of corn out there that's going to be a lot better than that. And there is some crazy estimate numbers, at least in our neighborhood. and I'm sure a lot of places. Now, none of that matters till it is in the bin goes over scale,
Starting point is 00:03:40 but it's going to be pretty good. So we're thinking, you know, it's going to be nip and tuck, whether we're going to make it. We may have to have a sale, just cash out. Never. Okay, well, we might need another wagon or grain cart. That's right. Probably do need another wagon.
Starting point is 00:03:58 Probably not this year, but sometimes. Probably not. But we thought, damn, you know, we talked. talk a lot on here about land prices, machinery prices, and what's going on, what's up, what's down. And I think that's going to be with the slowdown. You've seen it. Kensie laying off, deer laying off, all these majors laying people off because this ag economy is slowing down. So we thought we should get somebody on here. We need a professional. And we couldn't find a professional. So we decided we'll bring in the ringer. And so. So, so we decided we'll bring in the ringer.
Starting point is 00:04:32 and so without any further ado let's get started Greg cook welcome to barn talk thanks glad to be here never knew this existed just like this when you only live yeah it's all under it's all under wraps we only let special people get over and like I said in the intro we couldn't find a true professional so we had to bring in the ringer still looking right you're on the bubble you're on the bubble we'll see how you perform today all right Okay. See if I measure up. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:05 So for people that don't know who you are or what you do, give us a little background on KDK and Greg Cook specifically. I'm still looking for who I am and what I do. Well, we all are. But yeah, I live here in Washington County and my wife and I farm a little bit. You know, there's BTOs around and we're kind of an LTO, a little tiny operator. and we farm a little bit, have a small cow herd, and then we have this equipment business in town
Starting point is 00:05:35 and grown a lot over the last seven, eight years. Yeah, when did you start? When did you start out here? How did you get here? Here? Yeah. This chunk of hardware on my ring fingers. Okay, she reeled you back.
Starting point is 00:05:51 She begged me and begged me, and, you know, I just... Soft. Put the sales pitch on me. Yeah, here I am. So she's the true salesman. She is way better than I am. Okay, well, that brings up an important point. You're not from Kyoto, Iowa, but yet you have, you have this nickname that, like, precedes you like you would be from Kyoto.
Starting point is 00:06:13 So you're thinking of Kentucky. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. How, how, why Kentucky? So, yeah, that's, and do you want the 100% accurate truth or do you want Greg Cook's version of the truth? We want the most entertaining version of the truth. It's way more entertaining when my wife's here to punch me upside the head when I give my slant to it.
Starting point is 00:06:36 But so I'm originally from Missouri, born and raised in southern Missouri, and I went to college in Kentucky. Okay. And I lived there for a few years. That's where I was when we got connected. And we were friends for several years. But the way I tell the story, and this is true, I swear, she was dating about five or six other Greggs. At the time that she met me, and her friends kept me straight by calling me Kentucky, Greg. Okay.
Starting point is 00:07:06 And then it got shortened, and it was to the point where at our wedding, her maid of honor stood up and said, I didn't even know Kentucky's real name was Greg tell her read it on the napkins, and that is true. And a lot of people in my personal life don't even know my real name. Yeah, no, that's true. That's true. And it, it, uh, it threw me because I knew you by Greg before I knew Kentucky. And when, uh, because you're on the, you are a member of the beef, uh, beef producers. I've been with the cattlemen's board locally, yep. And we have a, we have a deal here in our county that's like a commodity, it's a commodity dinner.
Starting point is 00:07:46 And, uh, I was on that, I'm on the corn growers and people be talking about Kentucky. Kentucky this and Kentucky that. And I knew Greg and it took me like a few meetings before I realized that all of the speaking about Kentucky was actually Greg, which was good because then I put it together. I'm like, okay, yeah, that sounds about right. So that's good. Well, you're, you're the legend, the legend, you're building your own legacy. There's way worse nicknames you can have. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's 100% right. It's got to the point now where you know, in some professional setting, my wife will refer to me as Greg, and I'm like, who's this other guy you're talking about?
Starting point is 00:08:32 Is that your, so is that your, is that your nodding? If you've screwed up, let me ask you, are you ever referred to as like, if it's real bad, does she say Gregory or somebody in your family that would go, Gregory, or is that never been a deal? That's never been a deal. Okay, well, that's good then. That's never been a deal. You've never screwed up that bad then. Oh, no, I, I'm sure there's wind-driven snow.
Starting point is 00:08:53 from the earliest times. Okay. We're digressing already. We are. So you come back, you come back here, you get started here in Washington, but how did you start in auctioneering? Was that always a passion? Was that always what you? I always liked the auction business and I've always been, I've always been a participant at auctions and I always love that method of selling. It's true price discovery, right? And it was kind of a bucket list thing I wanted to do. I didn't become a license auctioneer until later in life. And just something I always wanted to do. And I think it was 2015 or so. I went to, I went to auction school. Yep. And I thought, I'm just going to do some hired gun stuff and work for, you know, Dwight or somebody on the side. And I need an extra guy.
Starting point is 00:09:49 I need an extra guy to help out and thought it'd be a fun thing to do and not make a career out of, but some hired gun stuff. And that's kind of how that started. As far as the business, six, eight months after that, I have a son with some medical issues. And I'd always wanted to run my own business at some point. That was always kind of a dream of my wife and I's. and we when this we're faced with this medical challenge we we we kind of maybe this is our impetus to not work for the man right naively you're going to have way more time and freedom and blah you know
Starting point is 00:10:30 to running your own deal so let's just start something and and uh the flexibility of owning your own business yes the big lie right we uh um started this side to tell everybody we started this business in our bedroom and everybody kind of raises their eyebrows like oh no where's this conversation going but i really did because i have i have five other children i have five children and at home and and the only place i could talk quietly on the phone was in the bedroom you know away from all the rackets so we did we started in our house and and um i worked for another for another ag retailer in the area for about 10 years and sold equipment for them and i gave myself an exit an exit window of three years or something like that. But three months later, I walked in, shook hands and
Starting point is 00:11:18 thanked for the opportunity and we were off and running. So that was July of 2016. We started mid-July and I think about into September, early October is when I was full time on my own. Yeah. Where can people find you if they want to find out more about your business or what you guys are doing we're everywhere our our website is kdk group dot com real simple and uh we're we have a social media presence facebook instagram and uh we're affiliated with machine repeat and tractor house and all the big machineo tractors in all the big platforms yep how many auctions do you typically have you know in a year or how many auctions or do you have a big auction coming up or something do. So let me let me, I'll just kind of back up just a second and tell you the scope of our business.
Starting point is 00:12:13 Yeah. And we do, a lot of people drive by and, you know, our auctions get the most press because we splash stuff everywhere and hang flyers up and banners and that kind of stuff. And, and people tend to think that aren't involved intimately in the equipment business that we're just an auction company. And that's really not how we started. And, but we do four major auctions a year and a lot of little clean-up auctions or timely auctions that, you know, I can do an auction on any one. Wednesday. I use auction time as a platform and that allows me to do an auction at any time. But we have four big auctions a year. March, our Memorial Day hay season type auction, September and end of year. Yep. We've got a September auction coming up. We call that our pre-harvest auction. September 18th,
Starting point is 00:12:57 19th, it'll probably extend three days, depending on how much equipment flows in. But, but, uh, but you also, you also deal equipment too. We do. So we started, we started as a consignment only business and our niche and how we how we really really one of the things that grew this is we offered both listed advertisements and auction or auction so we could you know you could list it for a while roll it to auction you could list it only we got auction only just two different tools in the toolbox to help make a consigner feel as comfortable as possible with a you know with the process and maybe have some control through it not always risk an auction or list it for a time period and time the auction to the market pressures. And so that's kind of how we started.
Starting point is 00:13:43 And it gave us a little bit of advantage over companies that they're auction only. Yeah, right. Take it or leave it. Well, yeah. So like a question that I had was, you know, this whole online auctioning thing has kind of come, it's sped up and gotten bigger as time's gone on. And you think that as that sped up, you know, in-person auctions and, you know, companies like yours might slow down, but it's kind of been the opposite of that. Why do you think that is? Kind of answer that in one word. Yeah. The pandemic. Yeah. I'll say that the ag sector is, from a technology standpoint, has typically been a slower adopter historically. The construction industry was 15 years ahead of the ag industry when it came to online auctions and equipment
Starting point is 00:14:37 liquidations via an online platform. So I think the pandemic led farmers, not necessarily dealers, but farmers kicking and screaming into the, and I'm generalizing, right? Because social media would have done that eventually anyway. Right. But it jumped start. It really was the motivator that moved a lot of the guys that would have taken a lot longer to get into. of that arena into the digital or electronic form of marketing via auction. And therefore, while there was some concern that we would, the live auction would totally go away. And it did for a while.
Starting point is 00:15:15 Yeah. But it's really coming back. People want that personal touch, personal touch with the equipment. And there'll always be an online component to that going forward. But I think the live auction is here to stay with an online. component. Some companies like us, I mean, we're primarily all online. Yeah. I was going to ask that. Are you doing some online stuff then too? It's all online. Everything's online. We, I do some live bid calling for occasionally some charity stuff or I've helped a couple other auctioneers here and
Starting point is 00:15:48 there, you know, with with their online stuff. But, but as far as our platform, it's, it's much easier with the size of our lot and where we're at to not have to handle traffic. And, you know, and, you know, everything, logistics from porta potties to load out, you know, all that kind of stuff that comes into play on a live auction day. You don't have your own lunch trailer? Oh, no, but that would be the least of my problems. Well, you know, I was just thinking something else that has really changed in, I mean, it's been, it's gone for a while, but today you see a lot of these dealers, as there's been consolidation in, equipment dealers. But the other thing that's changed is, like when I was a kid, so many of these implement dealers, I mean, they held on to stuff a long time.
Starting point is 00:16:42 Like, when you drive around a lot of these dealers, they really do not have much inventory. But when I was a kid, every one of these dealers, I mean, they had oodles of stuff. and a lot of them, they owned that. Like, they didn't, there was no floor plan like there is today where John Deere financed it or case financed it and you had a floor plan. A lot of those guys, a lot of those earlier implement dealers, I mean, they owned the whole shoot match. I mean, granted, they might have a line of credit on it, but it was their stuff. And today there's none of that. So you see so many annual or semi-annual bigger dealers that they just have an auction.
Starting point is 00:17:32 Like they're only going to keep stuff so long. Every couple years a lot of times. And they've got to turn it because they don't want that money tied up. Well, not only that, that equipment ages so quickly. We call it lot rot. Yep. But it, especially with technology on it and stuff and electrical connections and that kind of stuff, when that sits, draws moisture, especially here in the Midwest.
Starting point is 00:17:50 That stuff has to turn and has to be put into use. or the problem is exponentially magnify. Right. Yeah. Eats up your, or skyrocketed your overhead if you're, if it's sitting on your lot and you've got to fix it after you've already traded for it or whatever. Right.
Starting point is 00:18:08 So to your point about inventory, you know, a lot of people, that's a social thing to do is run through the lot and see what's there or kick tires or whatever. And that's one cool thing about our deal is we have regulars. Oh, sure. Almost like clockwork. Everybody from just old guys with nothing else to do to even kids that their moms drive them through after school just to see what's new on KDK's lot. Right.
Starting point is 00:18:36 That's kind of cool. And a lot of people comment on that. Because there's not that. There's not that at these dealers anymore. Right. There's just not much used equipment. So, yeah, no, that's pretty neat. I'd be one of those people.
Starting point is 00:18:48 I always like perusing through. Well, you can. Why don't you? I do. Go kick some tires. Because the predatory, the vultures that are sweeping on it. Do you go pick up all the nails that are laying in our... Throw them out there.
Starting point is 00:19:03 Throw them out there. You used to. Help out the tire store. Yeah. I just pick up that tray that's sitting on the counter at grinders and then take it out there after hours and throw it out. So they can pull them out again. Yep. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:19:16 It's like stimulus. You call them grinders too. I still call them grinders too. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, Hirshberger.
Starting point is 00:19:24 It's forever grinders to me. Yeah. You get used to something. It's hard to go away from it. Yeah, I just can't keep up. You know, I'm stuck. I'm stuck. It's only getting worse.
Starting point is 00:19:35 So did the cattle come first or the equipment business? For me, personally? Yeah. I've always been a cow guy. Yeah. I mean, I come from Missouri. We, you know, we have half inch of topsoil and a bunch of clay and rock underneath that. And it's hay country and cow country where I'm from and timber.
Starting point is 00:19:52 Yeah. And I, cattle have always been something I really enjoy and like and appreciate specifically cowcalf type operation. And I kind of grew up in that environment. And if I'm in agriculture and can't be in anything else, that'll be part of what I'm in. So. Okay, so Calcalf guys, how are you feeling? I mean, these cattle prices are, outrageous. So the calves, or if you fatten out what you what you calf, you're feeling pretty good about that. However, your input costs high, but hay prices have kind of collapsed, have they not? They sure have last three months. This year, a year like this just makes hay fast. It does. So that, that probably, that's probably a help. But is it good quality hay?
Starting point is 00:20:47 Yeah. You know, I see you got into hay business. Yeah, yeah, you know. get a horse and you have to bail there's probably what 50 round bales out there that 20 i think there's 30 round bales and there was like 50 or 60 squares yeah she just needs two rounds and about 50 60 squares get her through the winter and then he'll eat on grass the rest of the summer bartered that out with the neighbor to get that done yeah so oh yeah out there with the square balers yeah yeah yeah i uh have not so fond memories of bailing four racks a hay and then coming in and and unloading it into this barn and then going back out and bailing two or three more depending on. Oh, we can talk all day about square bail stories and I've got that.
Starting point is 00:21:33 I was not like, you know, we didn't go anywhere. We didn't go anywhere. Like, we didn't take vacations. And so I wasn't a, I wasn't a well, uh, traveled kid or very bright. But even a young age, I knew that this job sucked. Like, you know, it's like people say, oh, we didn't know any better. Uh, you knew that job sucked no matter what your frame of reference is. I don't know what you made for bailing hay when you're a kid, but mine was, it was a dime of bail. And that was, there's no mechanization to it. It was picking them up off the ground, loading them on the rack, getting them to the barn, getting them in the barn, stack them in the barn. And it was, it was, three dollars an hour when we did it. It's the way we got paid. And this barn was a Cadillac barn because it's got the
Starting point is 00:22:19 forks in it. And so you'd pick them up off the... Oh, so you had an easy childhood. Pick eight bales up and come up, run down the track, and then you'd yell, drop them, and you pulled it, and they would drop where you wanted them. So growing up here, bailing hay thought, this sucked, and then you'd go bail for somebody that had the elevator, and you'd carry them all the way to the back, and then you're like, oh, wait, this is, this is really sucks? So, but yeah. Where I grew up is a lot of, you know, six, eight, 11-acre hay fields, cross creek. You couldn't put a rack behind the bailer.
Starting point is 00:22:56 You pulled a trailer in behind a pickup and slung them on. It was bad enough stacking them once, let alone stacking them and restacking them when they roll off the rack. No, I don't blame you there, 100%. So what do you think is the cattle business is a tough deal. And historically, cattle guys make money. wants every nine, ten years. Right.
Starting point is 00:23:23 You know, and if you can string a couple years together in a row, that's a success. Yep. And looks like we're going to do that. Then everybody wants in, but we're not getting that. Suddenly everybody, yeah. We're not getting that. That's the thing I think that is most interesting is, now, you know, like maybe they've learned a page from the hog guys,
Starting point is 00:23:42 and they're not going to just slit their own throats by just expanding like crazy. because the hog guys, they only need to make money. Isn't that in human nature, though? It is, 100%. I mean, we have such short-term memories when it comes to, you know, all of a sudden, hey, I'm making money. Double it up. Double it up.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Yep. See money and expand. Yeah. Well, but part of that is agriculture, and we've talked about it on here, you're only, it's like you're only, everything costs more every year. And so as a farmer, your only mechanism to keep. your standard of living the same is to grow because you're growing or you're shrinking it's that's business yeah that's just just business anyway and so it pushes you know it it just by nature it pushes
Starting point is 00:24:31 it pushes everybody to get bigger um i mean you'd like to think you're getting better but you think part of that's our tax code too hey that's not going to get you got to buy a new piece of equipment every year or you have you know you're getting bigger so there's always some bottlenecks somewhere because of this piece I've improved it. It's got faster or bigger or more capacity or whatever it is. So you've got to upgrade this and then you just continually growing. Yeah. And then the cost is greater so you need to run more acres through it,
Starting point is 00:24:58 which starts the wheel all over again. So then you just start doing custom work because that'll pay for it. Right. That's another popular fallacy. So yeah, it's not going to get any easier. So this year, as we've seen, we talked about on the intro, all of your big equipment manufacturers are cutting back
Starting point is 00:25:22 because they see what's coming. So from a machinery standpoint, what are you seeing? Like, what's the trend as far as equipment? What do you think's going to take the biggest hit? And what do you think might be the best, the worst as far as bright spots for the equipment market? I wish I could say this with 100% certainty because then I might be in a different line of work.
Starting point is 00:25:50 But there's big equipment. I think you mentioned before, X-9 combines or class 9, class 10 combines, 24-roll planners, stuff like that. That's taking the biggest hit and going to for the foreseeable future, especially. And you look back at 2013-14, same kind of thing. The big OEMs, there's only one major buyer for those really big pieces. Those guys, when they have aged that out of their operation, whether it's two years or four years or the row and one year leases or whatever the thing is, the secondary market for those is always horrible. Yep.
Starting point is 00:26:42 Because no operator of that size really wants to invest that much, that close to new in something for that size of operation. They're going to go new. Right. So, and the same with these big combines. And that's where the most bleeding is, is the larger class, larger horsepower combines, because that's what a class is. You know, it's horsepower and fuel tank capacity or however they rate that. But that's the biggest hit. Combines in general are rough.
Starting point is 00:27:21 Application equipment is taking a pretty good hit. Your class 5, 6 combines, especially when you look at maybe more modern machines but pre-emissions type machines, they're pretty, they've plateaued. There's a big foreign market for some of those machines because the technology doesn't require as much. Yep. Tractor is the same way. I mean, if you're sitting on an 80, if you're sitting on a 20 series or 30 series, John Deere. Or 10 series.
Starting point is 00:27:59 Or 10, yeah, any of those. The resale on those is pretty good right now because people like that, people like that horsepower without the emissions. sold a lot of 10 series with north of 10,000 hours that still looks pretty good and they you know you rebuild them yep keep right on ticking yep and the the value is not going to decrease as long as you keep it in reasonable shape for the next five six eight years yeah that's something that is really it's got to be a real quantity of a real problem in the equipment if you're the manufacturer because there was a time in there and a lot of things have changed. I mean, part of that is tax code, part of that is interest rates, whatever, but there was a time in there where, you know, guys would go buy a new, let's just say, $9650, buy a $9650, or they would trade a $9650.
Starting point is 00:29:02 and the dealership already had somebody that wanted to buy that two-year-old combine, and that guy was going to trade in maybe a 9600 or something like that. And there was a guy that that appealed to. And there was just this, there was this cycle where it all worked. But now, because of scale and because of interest rates and because of, lot there is this there's this group that requires that size of equipment but the pool of people that require that size of equipment is way smaller than what it was at the scale we were 10 years ago and so there's this gap and that jump there aren't near as many people that look at that and go yeah i think
Starting point is 00:29:55 i can yeah i think i'm interested in that and so that all has to get sorted out and your your point about what you love about auctions is it's true price discovery some of that price discovery over the next year or two may be kind of painful for some parts of the market we're having those conversations now yeah so our september auction i'm telling you know i'm straight up with folks there's it's it's it's going to be painful it's you know and you know everybody we talk about everybody wants to get into the expand the cattle business or you know because if things are good well it's same in the auction business you know and with online stuff everybody with a pickup truck a laptop and a cell phone camera can go around and do an online auction, right, or think they can
Starting point is 00:30:39 if they get hooked up with the right platform. Right. And when when things are like this, in the pandemic, you had a lot of that coming in. But now that's a little tougher, where those guys at now. Yeah. But and I forgot where I was going with that, but, but, oh, price discovery. And you see that these conversations, that we're having with with with our customers now and I say it's a lot easier to have those when things are up but now they're used to these and just a very short it's not like it's a gradual decline it is falling off a cliff and that is that's something you know that I think with the supply chain issues we had during the pandemic lower interest rates all it kind and and and it was easy
Starting point is 00:31:24 to floor plan stuff all these orders kept getting pushed in pushed in pushed in all of sudden, boom, it all comes together at once. Interstrates are like this. There's a glut of inventory out there now that's coming in and it's, you know, nobody wants to buy. Right. Well, one of the few things I took out of college that I remember was the simple economic supply demand curve. Yeah. And here we are, boys. Yeah. I also feel like us as farmers, we haven't helped that any because we, We really liked. We really liked $7 corn, and we really like $14 beans. And when we came off of that, you know, we had $5 corn for a few seasons.
Starting point is 00:32:15 And then if you really marketed well last year that you could have gotten that, you know, not saying that you did or you didn't. But we really like to put our heads in the sand. And going through last fall, in a winter, everybody said, the numbers were there that we were going to have a crop and we weren't moving crop like we should. But I feel like a lot of guys just held on that like,
Starting point is 00:32:47 we're not going to break below $4, you know, we're not going to break below this. And we kind of all had this mentality that somehow, hope and a prayer, we were going to hold all these grain markets together where we were they and i'm as guilty of it i am because i looked at the ukraine thing from the time that started i looked at that ukraine thing and i'm like okay the wheat market where's all this wheat going to come from because i don't know about you but i don't feel like running my
Starting point is 00:33:17 combine through a wheat field while uh while somebody's firing missiles back and forth over whatever and you got ukraine and uh western russia that, you know, big grain producing. And I'm like, okay, that's going to drag these, that's going to drag these grain prices up. Never happened. Never happened. And to this day,
Starting point is 00:33:38 I can't quite figure out how it is that we've had that whole thing going on as long as it has. And it really, it really hasn't. I mean, wheat spiked for a while, but it was, it hasn't held together. And now then it's, it is what it is. It's drug everything else down to. Granted, we've got a lot of beans.
Starting point is 00:33:57 I guess all of that to. say, we've all had a lot of hope that somehow it was going to be whatever. And over the last few months, I feel like the whole ag economy and the how people feel has everybody's been kind of propping themselves up. And then all of a sudden, we're all like, oh, this is kind of a shit show. And, you know, then you have the announcements about layoffs and then you start seeing these auction because auction prices had held up pretty well. In most segments they had. And then tractors were the last one to fall off. Yep. Yep. And I, I kind of think, I've been wrong before, but I kind of think we're going to, for harvest equipment, combines and that kind of stuff,
Starting point is 00:34:46 we're going to plateau for a while here for a month or two through at least the first half of harvest. Yeah. But I think we got further to fall. Yeah. And some of that. Some of these green carts, some of these, you know, harvest-type semis, hopper trailers, that kind of stuff's going to stay pretty strong here for, well, relatively speaking, for a little bit, a couple months, where it falls off. Well, yeah, because I think if you weren't affected by this shitty weather, we... There's a big crop out there. Right. And you're sitting there and you're thinking, should I might need another hopper. I might need another, I may need a bigger grain cart. I may need another wagon. And so I think that's
Starting point is 00:35:21 going to help. Is there as big a crop as we think, though? Or is they, or is there saying? I don't know. I honestly don't know. You and I talked about that earlier. I can't help but think that we have got nutrient deficiency out there because of all the rain we've had. Over the last, you know, for this area, over the last five years, I mean, you can pretty much know that the fertilizer you put out there
Starting point is 00:35:52 is going to be there because it has the fucking rain. wasn't going to leach out. And I feel like we all kind of gotten lulled into being like, yep, good. And this year, I mean, I quit my rain gauge tally deal only goes to 10 inches. And I pass that up. I don't know how long ago. But we've had a lot of water. And I just keep looking at this corn. And I know that I'm deficient out there in places. Maybe not everywhere. We're pretty lucky in the fact the hog manure we have for my money it's a better quality uh fertilizer and it stays a little better but that doesn't mean that it stays through all this so i don't know i mean uh a lot of guys are going and snagging ears and doing the math and there's some big numbers out there but i don't know what it'll be it's
Starting point is 00:36:47 it's easy to about anywhere you walk into the crop now you can you can find just some hellacious ears and and look at it and say, holy crap, you extrapolate that out over the whole field, starts adding up. But I guess what's telling to me a little bit is if you get above the crop, I've talked to some aerial applicators. I've got a drone. I've put over some stuff.
Starting point is 00:37:11 And you kind of look at all of a sudden, there's some stress spots, some holes, some drowned out spots, some other stuff that, you know, I think it's going to be a good crop. But is it a bin buster? We'll see. Yeah, and it depends. I mean, we've had so much variable weather problems across the whole Midwest.
Starting point is 00:37:34 And variable planning dates. There is an estate. There is an estate in the Midwest that I feel like you can look at and say, yep, that's, now USDA thinks, what, there's five states. They're going to have record bean crops according to their deal. Not us. Not us. No, definitely not us.
Starting point is 00:37:53 So, I don't know. I'll tell you, the corner in Illinois looks really good. I've been across it a couple times, and I've had a hard time finding holes from what you can see at 70 mile an hour. Let's go back a little bit. I wanted to ask you, so with this downturn kind of equipment, as a business owner being in that field, what are you,
Starting point is 00:38:16 does that worry you at all? Do you feel like there's going to be, because I know you do like air equip dealing, you know, and stuff like that. Like, how are you going about approaching this kind of downturn? And what are you like telling your team? And how are you going to go about making it out the other side? So one of the things that I kind of, you know, we talked about,
Starting point is 00:38:37 you're either growing or shrinking, right? But one of the principles that I've always used in handling cattle or whatever, and I apply it to businesses, slow if, you know, slow is fast. Fast is slow. And, you know, I want to. to grow, but I want to do it right. I don't want to explode and, you know, outkick your coverage. And so one of the things with us, we have diversified. So we carry, we're a retail dealer as well for about eight or nine different product lines. And, you know, a lot of those product lines deal with
Starting point is 00:39:13 livestock, deal with cattle especially. And so, and to your question about the downturn, one of the beauties of our business is things are good. You can sell equipment. You don't have to try. Last couple of years, I've told my sales staff through the pandemic, hey, it's common, guys. You're going to actually have to sell, not just answer the phone and have it. And we're seeing that now. But the beauty is, it's easy to sell it when it's good. When things are bad, you have to sell our consignment, you know, platform kind of shines. And so, Are those conversations always fun? No, but we're positioned to where we are a needed value for the ag community or construction community. We handle all that stuff too in, you know,
Starting point is 00:40:08 in whatever market happens to be. So am I worried? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's what business owners do. They worry all the time about everything from meeting payroll to managing regulations to the markets to, you know, mostly stuff they can't control. but in terms of my business i mean i think we'll be all right yeah uh one thing i thought about was i'd say this is probably changed even in the time since you started your your business but the the amount of the amount of semis hoppers that are dealt now through the ag side over the last 10 years.
Starting point is 00:41:00 I mean, today, there's, I mean, arguably the days are numbered for the guys buying big gravity wagons. Is that a true statement? Mostly. It depends on how far away are from the terminal. You know, if you have a local integrator, whatever, that's two miles down the road, you can wagon that stuff way easier, way cheaper. you know, no specialized license, no extra insurances, fewer headaches to do that.
Starting point is 00:41:34 So there's always going to be that niche. That spatial market for big wagons. But more people integrating semis into their operation? Yeah. Absolutely. Because if you drove by your auction by your lot today, I'd say you got more, you have more semis, straight trucks on there than what I've seen before. That ebbs and flows.
Starting point is 00:41:58 I cannot wrap my head around why at some point. Sometimes I'll have rows of tractors sitting there and some, you know, like right now we have not that many tractors and tons of semis. So I don't know what necessarily drives that part of it other than just luck of the draw. But from the ag side of things, yeah, more people are integrating semis in their operation. I think the thought is a lot of times, well, I'm pulling a hopper eight weeks out of the year with it. Yep. And, and, and, and, and, but I'll maybe I'll, maybe I'll, maybe I'll buy a flatbed trailer and I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll haul something for somebody or I'll, you know, haul something for the, now that's, you know, hold something for the, now. Now, that's the, when I was selling buildings, one of the, one of the, one of the, I guess you'd say, culture shocks that I had when I first started going down there. And it's, it's, it's moved north because there's more farmers in the state of Iowa now that have gotten on that dozer deal. Everybody wants to backfill their own hog building.
Starting point is 00:42:57 Motherfump. But it was the damnedest thing. Well, you're exactly right. Because when I went down there and started selling buildings, it's like every Tom, Dick, and Harry down there had a freaking dozer. Every Missouri farmer had a dozer. And that was like, that was just a weird deal to me
Starting point is 00:43:17 because you didn't see that up here. And it's gotten to be more so. But I guess it's just because there's so much shit to push around down there. And they evidently, they all must think that there's black dirt underneath all that red dirt. If they just push enough of it away that they'll find some. You got to push it back up the hill.
Starting point is 00:43:34 So over the time it washes down. I guess. Something like that. Yeah. And if I had a nickel for every guy that would be like, I'll dig the hole myself. And then you'd be like, okay, we're going to pour you. We're going to pour you a five inch floor.
Starting point is 00:43:50 And it's got to be in within a tenth. And they go, a tenth of a foot? I'm like, no, a tenth of an end. And they're like, well, we got a trans in around here somewhere. And I'm like, no, buddy, that's, that's not going to get it. That's not going to get it. You need to hire somebody to at least finish it. So you find that in every, in every facet of business.
Starting point is 00:44:14 You always have people that, you know, and some can. Yeah. You know, I have that in my business. I mean, people think, oh, I can put some pictures on Facebook marketplace and sell it. Yes. You might. Yep. You might.
Starting point is 00:44:26 you can't offer all the same things that we can offer but yeah you might you might find the guy or you might wade through all the scammers and that kind of stuff to get your deal sold but yeah you find that and yep that's with everything well we get it the same shit well anybody can do this yeah that's right it's easy as this whole social media pod it's easy it's easy just go out there and try it out for yourself a monkey could do it i'm living proof they can't that's right now there better be somebody else. Better believe it. Does know what they're doing,
Starting point is 00:44:56 but I can do it. Yeah, there you go. As long as you do all the hard stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I believe in you. Yep. Really pull the weight behind the scene. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:04 I was going to ask, so what do you think is how do we, how do we come out of this downturn? Like, is it just the economy's got to get better? Farmers need to make more money. Interest rates need to go down. I mean, we need to get a better president. You know, what do you think?
Starting point is 00:45:22 Oh, geez, that was a solid. off ball. You don't have to hit it. You don't want. I don't know. That's that's that's that's that's a lot in one question. I don't know where to hit that one. Um, there's a lot there's a lot going to happen in the next six months. I don't know what that is. But without getting political, I think no matter which way the election goes in November, there's going to be. some kind of corrections too soft of a word. But there's going to be some kind of unrest or somebody, there's going to be a lot of people that really aren't happy for one reason or another.
Starting point is 00:46:10 And that concerns, that concerns me. Yeah. And I think, I think whoever's, you know, the powers in place right now are going to do what they can, whether it's artificial or not influencing the markets to try to keep things on as even keels they can for the next few months. Katie bar the door come January or November or whatever that is, you know. I don't know how to answer that question because I don't really know. Yeah, I don't think any of it.
Starting point is 00:46:40 So what you're going to do to solve is just pick up the phone and start dialing, start calling. We're going to work as hard as we can, keep putting one foot in front of the other and control the controllables. I tell my customers that all the time when they say and they want to control an auction or what I, hey, we do the things that we can control. We control in the right way and the things we can't control tend to fall in. in the place most of the time. Yep. When you started your own business, was it during a time? Because, you know, I'm young.
Starting point is 00:47:09 I don't know the equipment trends of high, low, high, low. I know we just went through a period of super high. Now we're coming back down. But when you started, was it a time where you did have to pick up the phone and call a bunch and a bunch and a bunch because it wasn't so. I think any business you start, you're going to do that, especially in some kind of sales. You got to beat the streets. You got to pick up the phone.
Starting point is 00:47:31 You got a cold call, you got a prospect. Now, I personally, I don't do any of that. But, you know, I've sales guys that do, especially when they first come on until they build their book of business and then you have people that you get your name out there and they kind of come back to you. But, yeah, there's a lot of that in the beginning, Sawyer that I would be driving along.
Starting point is 00:47:53 I'd see something for selling the highway. I got a couple, not a state, but retirement sales that way. Driving along, there's a combine sitting out there with a sign on. I'm not with my card in it. Tried to call the guy. He didn't answer, but he called me back later, and we wound up getting four tractors and combine the grain cart. And, you know, I just, and you start doing that and doing a good job at it
Starting point is 00:48:15 and working hard for people and showing what you can do and taking that chore off their plates. Yep. And, uh, sometimes it's as easy as just being the one to ask. You'd be amazed. Yep. Just. And one of my favorite things is the, devil's in the details and that just doing the little things right the the the the simplest
Starting point is 00:48:39 dumbest things you can think I mean just doing them right even as simple as hey I'll call you back in two hours and you call them back in two hours yep and uh during the pandemic that said a lot to a lot of people and my business experienced tremendous growth during the pandemic not I think because you didn't have to be a salesman during the pandemic in the true form of serving your customer and and so consequently a lot of your you know salesmen that worked for maybe OEMs or other companies just they didn't have to try so they didn't but we continued to push that and to try and to try and to continue doing true, bona fide, proven sales techniques, responding professionally, timely, prompt communication, you know, even stuff. I mean, I'm particular about how stuff is
Starting point is 00:49:42 spelled. I'm a grammar Nazi internally when, you know, don't send that out. It doesn't look right, you know, and just those little things is really over time, it snowballs. So you've had to make the transition because when you started, you were the same. salesman. You were the guy taking the pictures. You were the guy writing the description because you were a two-person shop, really, you and your wife. How much of a challenge has it been as you've expanded because as you said now, you're not the guy doing that because you have people that you're responsible for. So how hard, how hard or maybe it wasn't hard, to learn those skills to become the manager instead of the salesman.
Starting point is 00:50:31 You act like I've learned them. Well, I know, but this is like a lot of people struggle with that. I struggle with it. Yeah, it's part and parcel to business. And I've always considered myself good at representing equipment and selling equipment. That's what I like to do. Yeah, right. But part of the growth trajectory of a business is you don't get to do what you like to do for very long, if it's any kind of successful at all.
Starting point is 00:50:58 And so I've had to learn. I continue to learn everything, you know, leadership, managing business, managing people, managing employees. And I am nowhere near an expert on that. We keep trying every day. And there's certain things you get frustrated with, and there's certain things that you have to learn to let go as part of that personal and business growth that,
Starting point is 00:51:21 hey, that's not the way I'd do it. I don't like it, but I got to be okay with it. and that's hopefully that answers your question but it it uh i think other business owners can can relate to that that that uh yeah i don't i don't know that i've learned it but but trying every day trying every day right what was who what position was your when you started to grow what was the first position that you hired a full-time person for so i don't know if you remember the little red shed at my house when we when we when we grew out of of the bedroom, which didn't take very long.
Starting point is 00:51:57 I went up to Klona, and I bought one of those portable buildings. Yep. And made a pad there at the house and ran electric to it and everything. And we created an office there and then did work out of the farm shop there on my barn. And I hired a, I hired a girl there, I want to say 2017-ish. Yep. And she was part-time at first, then grew in the full-time pretty quickly. and she was she did everything from some of the bookwork.
Starting point is 00:52:28 Heather still did a lot of that. My wife did a lot of that, but she did some of the bookwork, all the invoicing, you know, answering phones, a lot of the uploading data on, onto the internet.
Starting point is 00:52:39 Yep. And she was your executive assistant. And more. Yep. And more. And she stayed with me until just this past January. And, um,
Starting point is 00:52:52 went on. and want to be closer to home and close to her kids. She was driving 45, 50 minutes one way. But that was the first person I hired. And I, that was that mostly because, well, probably because you felt it was, you needed to be out meeting with the cuspers and finance. Once it starts to grow, you can't,
Starting point is 00:53:17 you can't, if you get bogged down in the, in the invoicing and you're missing stuff, you're missing tons of stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, you have to have somebody that does that. And that's, that's the most important thing and doing it, doing it right, too. Yeah. Yeah, if you can't bill, you can't receive. If you don't receive, you're going to be out business pretty fast. Right, right. And if you get bogged down in the, and it's, it's unfair to call it minutia. Yeah. But, but, but the, all those little details that are super important, but you can easily get bogged down in, then all of a sudden you're going to come to a screech and halt. Because. you're bogged down in that and you can't sell you can't bring in more stuff you can't you know you can't market it all that uh what about balance do you have everybody wants balance nowadays do you have any of that as a as a business owner that's something i really struggle with uh and you will continue to
Starting point is 00:54:11 work life balance is pretty much not a thing for for what for us anyway probably a better one to talk about that topic you know the work the work the work life balance is very tough and it's especially for a business as young as ours, right? I mean, we're 2016 and now. We're eight years in, a little over eight years in, and that's young on the business spectrum. It's tough. I got younger kids,
Starting point is 00:54:40 and it's, it seems like you bounce from, from work to ball practices to 4-H meetings, to get in the grass mode to cattle, cattle chores, to whatever, you know, and I don't know, is there a work life balance or do you kind of go from one fire to the other at times? Yeah. It's part of the phase you're in that you just got to, I think, and I've found this out recently or been studying it recently, it's you've got to start systemization. You're going to start building processes in to make me not as important to the business, right? Yeah. You do that in the
Starting point is 00:55:18 business and then do you also do that kind of in your personal life too? Because I feel like for me, I tell Cat all the time, for us to have a personal life, like we got to be on our shit when it comes to our time so we can build time to even have time to like just hang out her and I, you know? You do that too? Like, do you feel like you have to be? So you're going to get a horse? Is that what you're saying?
Starting point is 00:55:39 Hell no. Hell no. We don't need another thing to take care of. No, no chance. Time management, yeah, is critical. And something I'm becoming more aware of. we're we're doing some you know some business development type stuff right now and log in your time i've found it's pretty eye-opening when you see where your time's going
Starting point is 00:56:03 and where it's getting bogged down and what's what's really slowing stuff down is it's kind of kind of cool to see in a way so future yeah so when you sit and you think like what what's where do you want kDK to be five years from now where do you want you want to be, do you want to be sipping on a Mai Tai or on a beach somewhere or do you want to just raise, do you want to have a nice cattle ranch? It's really hard for me to just sit still. Like my wife loves to go to the beach and she can, I mean, you ask her, she'll sit on a beach for a week, read a book, sip a drink and that's her idea of heaven. Yep. And I've done that with her a couple of times, but a couple hours, and I'm looking for a hill to go climb or something.
Starting point is 00:56:53 I wonder what that boat's worth. Hey, you want to sell that boat? There we go. Might have an auction by the end of the week on the beach, you know, line them all up. Yep. But so I always got to be doing, got to be doing something. And as far as the future of the business goes, we want to continue to grow it at the right pace. we'd like to do some things like add add some land sales to it to what we can offer we currently
Starting point is 00:57:25 do some strategic partnerships with with some other guys on on so we can offer both land and equipment sales for retirements or estates or or whatever like to maybe grow that segment of the business as you you've said to me multiple times my lot's too small I don't know that I would trade that location for, you know, it's super easy access, super high visibility. Yep. But that's something that may need to be addressed in the future. But ultimately, I would really like to get my business to the point where I'm not as important to it.
Starting point is 00:58:01 Mm-hmm. And that's going to take some changes. That's a good goal to have because I think that right there is a catch that a lot of business owners fall into. Oh, it ain't easy. They build a business. With the intent and mind of freedom. Right.
Starting point is 00:58:20 Except they are such, they're literally the linchpin of the business to where they wake up. They're working a job. Yeah, and they want to remove themselves to the business, and then they realize they can't because they are the glue of the business. They don't run it. Yeah. And so knowing that. up front that's that's a good thing my kids are young my wife reminds me a lot that that
Starting point is 00:58:51 we don't get that time back and and uh a big motivating factor for me is you know i i do have i have i have one son with some hearing and vision issues that are going to progressively get worse and that's that weighs really heavily on me and uh um i do definitely want to you know um get my business to a point where it allows me to spend some time with all my kids and help them grow and and experience, you know, some stuff that I was blessed enough to experience. Yeah. And, you know, at the same time, not let my employees down. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:59:32 I take that responsibility very seriously that they got families to feed. And, you know, I feel like we have a service to perform through the community, too. And so you've got to balance all those responsibilities and prioritize them and hopefully that and make the right decisions going through all that. Land prices. Yeah. What do you think about those long term? What do you think they're going to come down or you think they're going to keep going? Are we top or are we not top?
Starting point is 01:00:04 And we're never at top. Depends on your window. Depends on your window. Depends on your window. If you're going to look at land over the next two years, yeah, we probably topped out. Yeah. I'm sure we are. I mean, we're falling off 20, 30% right now.
Starting point is 01:00:21 Statewide, I'm guessing, but I'm not far off. Maybe regionally, you won't see those numbers, depending on where you're at, what, you know, is county wise. County wise, you won't see that in Washington County, especially if it's a, you know, a square flat 80 with no hog building pressure or whatever. but but uh or or who's surrounding it you know what kind of money surrounding it and who wants to add it their operation uh who can cash flow it uh but but overall i i i definitely think we've we've at least plateaued and and probably falling off um but i think we saw this and was it 20 or 2008 yeah for sure and and and uh then again kind of was it 2014-ish um you know you kind of a dip but then it's back up and it depends on interest rates right now with interest rates the way they are the the it's kind
Starting point is 01:01:14 of taking the investor buyers out of the market because those those folks can get a return on their money in the in other markets safe they can get a pretty decent return and a pretty safe investment outside of land right yeah if we see interest rates fall they'll be back at then I think they'll be back at it depends on administration and policies and that kind of stuff but overall i i i don't see it's falling off hard on land right now unless something catastrophic happens because i think i still think land is a good investment yep it's like anything else you got you got to you got to 18 months 24 months kind of thing well said yeah wow that's high praise that was some you strapped some shit on everybody today that was a good one real good
Starting point is 01:02:00 you told him you're the ringer yep i think if you i was just i was going to say i forgot what i was going to say when you're talking about you know want to be a part of the you know take a step off back off the business eventually and you know step away and maybe find some more time i think you could die happy just in a cattle pasture is that is that a good assessment yeah it depends i mean it depends if you just natural causes or a cow kicks you right square in the gut i've got some scars i can show you where that's happened but i i like my cows and uh kids like them too you know it's and it's one thing about raising cattle livestock in general anyway but but but but especially cattle that that I think get to be you know with the cattle there there's close to
Starting point is 01:02:52 real world life and death as far as nature yeah that we can that we do in as in production agriculture yeah because you know least in my frame reference they're on pasture um and and and So that tends to help teach kids more about life and death and outside influences and and even a business approach to it. And I want that for my kids. Yep. Absolutely. Well, we definitely don't have enough farm kids.
Starting point is 01:03:32 We don't. So we've talked about this many times. but so much of, so much of middle America society has been built on farm kids. And if you were a, if you were a business owner, I don't care what business. In my, like, we're kind of the last of that generation because it was just an un, it was like an unwritten rule. If somebody hired you to do something, they found out you were a farm kid, they're like, oh, go. hook on that trailer go hook on that trailer or hey can you weld this or oh hey go do this because you're a farm kid so chances are you might not set the world on fire but you knew how you knew
Starting point is 01:04:21 how to hook up a trailer you probably knew how to weld you probably knew a little carpentry skills you were just a well-rounded and and you didn't realize it at the time i mean as you just didn't realize it but today our society does not produce near as many young people that are well-rounded. And agriculture is one of the last places where they can get that kind of experience. So I don't know if I 100% agree with that. Okay. And I see a lot of farm kids and I have, I have farm kids that apply to work for me. And I've had some good ones. I got some good ones now. Yep. But it's getting harder and harder to find. I don't make the assumption anymore that a farm kid knows what they're doing.
Starting point is 01:05:11 Oh, no, I agree with you 100%. That, and there's, there's so many, just because they're a steering wheel holder and a tractor that does everything for you. Yes. Does not mean you can figure out what costs something to break down and rig it together with something that'll get you through the end of the task, you know? No, I agree with that. You, yes.
Starting point is 01:05:33 My generation, no. And I'll be the first, admit it. I, fuck, I wouldn't know how to do that, you know. I wasn't raising. that way because it all the tech you weren't here one but the technology you know you can't just start ripping shit out of a tractor and fixing it yourself now i mean you you can't do it right but yeah i've always thought like there's got to be something that maybe this is just trade school but like there's got to be a way because you know i think urbanization's also done that you know there's
Starting point is 01:06:01 just less farms less farm kids in general yep but look at vehicles now yeah vehicles all but drive for you and some of them drive for you. You got lane assist where your seat vibrates if you get too close to the white line. I mean, I have that. My wife rides there and she tells me when I'm getting too close. Yes. I hope she don't listen to this. But, I mean, you have, I mean, they parallel park for you.
Starting point is 01:06:27 They, I mean, I hate getting in a rental car. Yep. And I have my cruise set on 75 or 80 because I'm in Montana or faster. And like, why is this dead gum thing slow in? me down to 72 mile an hour and I look 300 yards out and there's a car up there. Well, it's, I, I, no, let me think. The software doesn't understand drafting. There you go.
Starting point is 01:06:49 But technology thinks too much for people and you don't have to problem solve. And I think that's what. Yeah, I don't know if I've told this story on here or not and you stop me if I have. But, you know, you forget about stuff. You just don't think about stuff that you did as being anything, like, whatever, but you talk about vehicles. Like when I was 16 years old, a buddy of mine had a 327, no, bought a GTO that had a 455 in it, and he decided that he was going to rebuild it, punch it 30 over, rebuild it. So he went and got the, he went and got the, how to overhaul your
Starting point is 01:07:38 455 book from Chiltern's or whatever and in a dirty garage up by Colonna Wellman area just pulled that thing out somebody got a you know an engine hoist pulled it out and between him and all of all his friends I don't think any of you really knew what we were doing but we all you know knew what end of a wrench was what tore that whole thing down took it to Napa had him you know do the machine work put it all back together, put it back in there. Like 16 year old kids. Pass everything with a gas station.
Starting point is 01:08:14 You couldn't, like, if I opened the hood on my Jeep, I'd just close it. Because I wouldn't even drive it. Same here. Yeah. Same here. And that's part of the world that's different. But it's also kind of a mentality. There was a, I've seen people talk about how like owners manuals of cars in the 50, 60, 70s,
Starting point is 01:08:38 like in there they told you how to set the valve timing how to do this how to do that because people actually worked on their own stuff yeah i was going to say i would argue with you that even if they were as easy to work on now as they were back then i guess not easy but accessible to work on i still don't think you'd have 16 year old kids doing that because your you're your buddy probably got bored enough yeah that he needed something to stimulate his mind that he needed to do something and he couldn't be on this thing all fucking day long and we had tight-ass parents that if he went to his parents said hey uh i want to soup this car i want to soup this car up will you pay for me to take this thing to the hot rot shop mom would go hell no you're not
Starting point is 01:09:27 doing any that but if you just said hey uh we're going to rebuild this and they're like oh yeah what you just don't bother me you know and use your own money then they'd let you get by with it I know a couple of mechanics that there are age, you're my age, that had it, that timed it, they knew how many minutes it would take him to change a clutch. Sure. In a whatever. And I know a guy that works for cappers that, from Kyoto, if I know what I'm talking about, but he's like one year for prom, we was out the night before, we tore a clutch out of something.
Starting point is 01:10:02 And that afternoon we had new and shoved in there. Yep, off we went. In 45 minutes or whatever. and off they went to prom, you know, and shoot. Yep. Not anymore. Yeah, so it is. It's just everything, everything changes.
Starting point is 01:10:17 And we have a hell of a lot of things that are much better that I'm very thankful for. Technology's wonderful. Creature comforts. Yep. Life has definitely gotten easier. But is that necessarily a good thing? I don't know whether that's better or not. We're softer.
Starting point is 01:10:33 That's for sure. We're definitely softer. Better get them out there in that pasture. We are soft. Better get him in the hog barn. Better get them out there with some cows. Yep. Better teach them how to take a fuse and wrap it and tinfoil and put it back in
Starting point is 01:10:47 and see if that'll run on that. I don't think you've made me do that yet. For a little while. For a little while. All right. Well, that's going to wrap it up, guys. Hey, okay. One more thing.
Starting point is 01:10:58 One more time. When's your auction and how do people find you? Yeah, so we've got an auction coming up in September. It's our pre-harvest auction. We're going to have lots of cool stuff. a couple retirements on there. One thing you mentioned earlier, there's a 1976 Mercury Marquis,
Starting point is 01:11:14 Eurodn as a youngster. Don't mention that. I don't need more competitive bidders. Cool car. Cool car. Anyway, that's just one of the things going to be on our auction. But we got lots of cool stuff to look at.
Starting point is 01:11:25 You can check it out at KDK Group.com. Give us a call the office. Go buy the combine next to it. Don't bid on. Buy the combine next to it. That's a nice local-owned combine. You bet. We always have a wide variety.
Starting point is 01:11:36 and we can still can sign our auction deadline is August 30th so we can we can still take them and we sure will all right well I don't think I got to say much else I'm just going to wrap it up guys if you got any value from the show share it out with who you know leave a review go check out kDK and we'll see you back we'll see you guys next week for another episode

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