Andrew Luzum
Appearances
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Is there a way that we can tell that the OEM is a Wix filter?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Yeah, it'd be nice to know if we're telling people to go buy a Wix filter and they're leaving their OEM that the Wix filter to go buy a Wix filter, you know, like it'd be a kind of counterproductive, I guess.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
What about cross-referencing? I know all these companies have different numbers. Do you guys have a good cross-referencing tool or anything like that to get the OEM filter to a Wix filter number?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
The old pearl snaps?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
We won't be farming for long. That's what we say.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
He's an attorney with a sense of humor. Yeah. That's hard to find. Kind of like bankers with senses of humor. Not very many of them. But that's all amazing stuff, and we definitely want to talk about that. But we need to lay the foundation for, I mean, how did you get to this point? What were you like growing up? You said you grew up on a hobby farm.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
What got you to this point where you want to do this stuff right now?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
I like it because I've always questioned. Look, I've gone to my fair share of coffee shop talk, and I enjoy it. It's a social event, right? It's what it is. It's a morning at the bar instead of a night at the bar. You know, as you get older, that's a little easier to do type of thing.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
I was trying to get in the frame because our guest didn't know how to expand the frame.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
But if you take the weather and the markets out of it, you've just ruined all of the coffee shop that typically goes on. I love that because I've never understood how they can go there every morning, and it's never an hour. It's always, I mean, an hour and a half or two or three, and then they're trying to figure out where they're going to lunch. You know, after that. It's three hours. Minimum.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
To me, as a young farmer, I'm 36 years old now, so I don't know if that's young anymore or not, but... I could never understand. I got chores to do. I got this, like I'm trying to hustle. I could never justify that time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Because his business can take that gossip and go, oh, I heard this person's thinking about selling ground or wanting to sell this tractor or whatever. And Dave can actually latch on to that. Me as a farmer, you know, maybe... go by the ground? But all the other farmers heard that too, I guess. I don't know.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
I need this show more than people know.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
This peer group is a service that you provide that you started, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Yes. And don't forget, we need you guys to go on Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen. Leave us a review. Leave us a comment. That's big. That's big for our validity. That helps push our content out there. And we need to get a lot of five stars. So that's a really easy way for you guys to, if you guys enjoy our content, to kind of pay us back.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Well, an attorney knows what his time is worth more than anybody, so I'm sure it's got to be worth the time, right? Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Yeah. That would be Vance Crowe's Peter Thiel paradox then, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Well, it's going on Twitter.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Answer. Do it. Do it. Do you have the iPhone jack? I do. Yeah. It's probably like, I've been trying to reach you, but your car's extended. Oh, I didn't get to it fast enough.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Have you been able to successfully navigate some farms from that mentality to the business mentality? Because it seems like we always talk about it. But man, it's so hard because farming is a great life. And you live there. You take it in every day. I get why it is that attraction.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
It's just tough. I mean, yeah. Have you, have you successfully been able to transition the mindset to that?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Well, sorry. Text him and say, hey, we're live right now. Do you want to do a call?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Right. I mean, because there's no question that there's a lot of successful farms that are thinking the way of the lifestyle. that have done really well, or maybe mixed some of the business in, because otherwise they wouldn't be where they're at today, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Right. And the one, well, the one thing about corporate farms, the reason why they're, there are corporate farms, I mean, cause no one likes that mentality is they're, they're doing what you're doing. They're running it like a business, right? They're still family owned. Yeah. So we need to adapt and change our mindset to that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Just did a big upgrade of equipment, so we'll see. We actually are running two sets of equipment right now to see if we like it better before the old ex-banker here sends it back if he doesn't like it. That's right. Kept all the receipts. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Yeah, maybe something that gets overlooked quite a bit.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
I think it's a good point, a good topic to bring up because at the end of the day, I mean, your life is worth way more than any farm operation, right? Like if you need to... If the numbers don't work and your farm's going to go down, like, life goes on. There's other things in life to do.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
So just having that peer group, someone to talk to, is bigger than any financial decision or transition or any topic that you're talking about, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
I found myself earlier this week, you mentioned that it was like a light switch. Like, we just went from profitability to not, even though it's just been a slow death all summer long in the markets, which we can't talk about, right? Yep. But just had the realization this week, it's like, you start really looking into... 2025 crop. And you start pricing inputs.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Is that the headquarters for Wix Filters?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
We're not even close to breaking even. And I just started feeling pretty down on myself. And I do a lot of other things off the farm to make the farm work. I feel like I'm better insulated than that from other people. But then I got to talking to my dad and brother, and it's like, you know... These downtimes, I think we look at them wrong. Like this is the opportunity, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Like if we are good managers and make the right decisions in the good times, like everyone can go buy the new tractor and go, you know, maybe take a stab at ground and pay higher cash rent and, you know, try to expand when times are good. But when times are bad, that's when, you know, the cream should rise to the top. I think it's an opportunity.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
And every decision I've made when the times are bad, and I haven't been in farming, I've been farming full time for 12 years. Um, but we've had a couple of down, down times and it seems like always the decisions I've made when times are down have always, it hurt the most then, but it has turned into my best, some of my best decisions that I've made.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
That's a lot of history there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
And I would say, even if you're not in the position or don't feel like you're in the position, one good decision, like if you could just put all your eggs into one basket, even if you don't have that many eggs, one good decision, if you wait for that right opportunity, could just pay dividends down the road, as long as it's a sound decision.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
If you were a good manager, maybe you could do 10 of those. But if you only could do one... Yeah. Type of deal. It might hurt for a while, but it's time to get her hands dirty and put some work in, I guess.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
along with all along for the ride that's great that's great i think we do need more hobbies as farmers you know we've gotten a lot of people say we just go to the lake all summer you know which is a hobby i guess could be if you do that but like i saw both in my grandpa and probably my dad who's getting ready to step back a little bit their hobby was farming That was their lifestyle.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
And it's a great hobby. But my dad had a lot of hobbies, and I feel like they've gone away. I mean, I remember he used to go to bowling league and golf league. Basketball. Yeah, basketball and go to sports games. And it just seems like it's fallen off, and it's just farming.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
now and I think we need to keep up with those hobbies give us something to do look forward to that's off the farm you know get out of that mindset for when the times are bad like this we need that time to just go unplug and not think about it for a while even if it's an hour a day type of deal I do want to ask, though. Oh, nice catch. People watching on YouTube will see that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
We found you on Twitter. How long have you been on Twitter, Rex?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
18 months. That's it? Yeah. He's a baby on Twitter, but he has 12,000 followers. So what is the secret? What have you done that you've found successful to grow those followers and get the engagement that you have?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
It's been fantastic. I love the scenarios. I think that's some of the stuff that Tanner and I send back and forth. You know, we'll kind of talk amongst ourselves or interact with you because everyone's got a little bit different deal. And then the other one I really like, I've seen you put opportunities up for other farmers that... And, hey, we've got someone that doesn't have a successor here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
And, like, that's amazing because there's just not enough of that for the young people that want to get involved or maybe don't. You know, their farm is getting swallowed up by a town or doesn't have the opportunity. Like, there's other opportunities out there. We just – no one knows about them.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Love that. Okay. Well, yeah, definitely. How do people get in touch with you? How do they follow you on X? And what's your website?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Share this with some of your friends. I think it's got some very important information. I think we've got a lot more that we can cover in another show going forward. So I'm guessing Clint won't be a ghost of the show. I'm guessing he'll be back. So... Yeah, I say let's have a good harvest, safe harvest. And remember, you're important, so you're much more important than any business operation.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
So let's keep that going and just keep, you know, call your friends. I like it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Yeah, we... use a lot of engines. We rely on a lot of engines in agriculture, um, from the, the car or the pickup to get us to the farm or, or haul the trailer to the diesel engines that don't have spark plugs that have a lot of oil that we use. And, uh, My gosh, these engines have gotten so expensive. The oil is so expensive. We're working on razor-thin margins.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
For us to lose an engine or have an issue, even if it's just a little part that goes down, is a big deal. So we need the best thing filtering it, right? And I'm assuming that's why we're talking to you today, Wix Filters.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Maybe this is your problem, Tanner. That's why you guys always have an engine problem.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
So when I go to my mechanic or my place that I'm purchasing filters and I look at them on the shelf, they all look the same to me besides the brand name. What sets a good filter or a great filter away from maybe a subpar filter?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
And what's preferred? Is there one preferred over the other or is that per application?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
I think I found another outlet for corn. We can make cellulose out of corn. And Rachel's listening in, our chief marketing officer, and she would probably cheer us on there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
How does someone find out that it was actually your fault that it blew up?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Well, yeah, it's a worldwide company, I would imagine, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Donald, I want you to talk about, you know, we're in agriculture, right? So we have our John Deere's and our caterpillars, like you said, of the world, and they always want us to use their OEM filter. I'm smart enough to know that they're probably not the ones usually producing that, but... Do you guys do any OEM stuff or is there an advantage to go Wix over OEM?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
We went through a warm March. We started to convert nitrogen. And then what happened in April and May? It started raining and it never stopped, right? And so when you look at what we've seen in this last year, we had a lot of falling hydrous trials with NSERV out all over the Corn Belt this last year.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
When we compare those trials, where we had NSERV, we were carrying an average of 5% to 11% more nitrogen in the ammonium form than in nitrate form. You may say, why is that important? When nitrogen is not in the ammonium form and it's in the nitrate form, it's a totally susceptible to loss, right? And we know that 70% of our loss happens below ground.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
So that's why we want to make sure we're using proven products like insert and instinct.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
You know, it's a big conversation always is the fact that we have to remember that our soils are negatively charged. And so when it's in the ammonium form, it's in a positive form. It's reasons why we never talk about ammonium running down our waterways or what we're losing from leachate. It's always in the nitrate form. So corn actually does prefer corn or nitrogen in the ammonium form.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
And by doing that, it's going to allow it to have an easier uptake and hopefully more conversion towards yield, test weight, dry down, etc. in the fall. If somebody wants to learn more about nitrogen stabilizers, how best do they do that? Yeah, they should be able to do that through their local retailer to reach out to a local Corteva AgriScience rep.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
If they don't have success there, please just go to nitrogenstabilizers.com and you'll be able to see everything we've got going.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
I mean, even when we're applying a fall nitrogen stabilizer, the reality is hopefully we're applying nitrogen in the fall when it's below 50 degrees and the soil temps are falling. realistically, we're not using the days of our stabilizer in the fall or hopefully the winter. It's actually we're using those days in spring as soil temps warm up. It's really when we have nitrogen at risk of loss.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Make Better Farm Decisions with Predictive Analytics
And so that's why we want to make sure we're using nitrogen stabilizers both fall and spring. But realistically, you know, you look at this last year, you know, March was actually probably more of our nitrogen loss time period this year. And nobody thinks about that. March was relatively dry for most of the corn belt. And really, you look at what happened this last year.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah, I think some other myth that we hear is nitrogen stabilizers tie up our nitrogen or make it not plant available, right? That's not the case at all. By keeping it in the ammonium form, we talked through that a little bit ago, but keeping it in the ammonium form, the plant can still utilize it in the ammonium form. It actually prefers it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So it's not tying up your nitrogen, but it's going to keep it there in the soil profile available when the plant does need it. You know, we really look at corn needs, you know, the majority of their uptake between B6 and tassel. So it's got to be there when the plant needs it. And if it's lost before that, it's just a waste of money.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah, we've heard that before too, right? And we actually did a lot of work this last year with Trace Genomics, if you've ever heard of that company. Yeah. But they do a lot of biological testing, right, and tell you overall soil health, bacteria, etc. And we did a lot of this testing between where we have N-Servant Instinct and where we don't have it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And the reality is we're not killing these bacteria. It is an AMO enzyme inhibitor, but we're not actually a bacteria. So we're not killing these bacteria at the rates we're using commercially today.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah, they should be able to do that through their local retailer to reach out to a local Corteva AgriScience rep. If they don't have success there, please just go to nitrogenstabilizers.com and you'll be able to see everything we've got going.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Innovative Grain Drying Solutions and Big Equipment Advancements
I mean, I think as we look at around nitrogen being a cost saver, especially in this next year, probably isn't the reality. I think you guys just had Josh Linville on here a couple weeks ago and talked about how nitrogen prices... are staying fairly strong and don't look like they're going to be too bearish here over the next year.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Innovative Grain Drying Solutions and Big Equipment Advancements
You know, so we want to make sure we're starting with a good nitrogen plan. But we talk four hours using the right rates, the right time, right source of product, you know, in the right place. All of those factors come into effect. You know, I still think that fall nitrogen is going to be one of our most efficient or cost effective methods of getting nitrogen out on the acre this fall.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Innovative Grain Drying Solutions and Big Equipment Advancements
But using a good proven stabilizer like NSERV is an insurance policy for an expensive investment, right? I still look at a nitrogen investment on a corn acre this year is probably going to be one of our top two expenses, excluding land costs, right? So we still want to make sure we're doing a really good job around nitrogen management.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Innovative Grain Drying Solutions and Big Equipment Advancements
It's like an insurance policy, right? If we're not stabilizing nitrogen, it's just prone to loss. You know, we know that 70% of our nitrogen loss basically happens below the soil level. And guys say, okay, I can, you know, cheat 20 pounds or I can exclude the nitrogen stabilizer maybe, you know, use an additional 20 pounds of nitrogen. We like to look at it like cows in a pasture, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Innovative Grain Drying Solutions and Big Equipment Advancements
Cows are really expensive today as well. But if you've got a hole in the fence in your pasture, do you fix the hole in your fence or do you just buy more cows? Right? The reality is we're going to fix that hole in the fence. We're not going to just keep buying more cows. It's really no different when we're talking about nitrogen stabilization.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Innovative Grain Drying Solutions and Big Equipment Advancements
Yeah, they should be able to do that through their local retailer to reach out to a local Corteva AgriScience rep. If they don't have success there, please just go to nitrogenstabilizers.com and you'll be able to see everything we've got going.