Zach Johnson
Appearances
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
We have the largest shooting event in the world every year with the Minnesota State High School League Championships. And that brings in about 9,000 students over nine days that come in and out of our park. So it's a huge event. We've got the campgrounds, like I said. We've got a skeet field. We're looking at maybe putting in some sporting clays and doing some other stuff out there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I have not raced in Boone because it's IMCA sanctioned, and so for us to come down here and run, see, we're up in Wissota country, so we would need a different engine, and it's just, it's enough different stuff to really make it a pain in the neck to have to come down and run this, but yeah, they got a huge show coming up with Super Nationals.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, yeah. I ran late models for 12 years, and now I've been running mods the last few years. How's the season been?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
mostly terrible actually been one of my worst seasons ever it's been it's we've had a couple of lucky runs um we got two wins on the season but for the most part it's been a struggle it's been difficult mechanical or um no we're struggling with just finding the balance in the car and finding the right setup which is particularly frustrating because we were so good last year we had a really good car last year and we didn't change anything
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And we came out this spring and we've just been chasing our tails the whole season. So I don't know if they changed something in the tires or what's going on.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It's very tall. He's got the cooling on the bottom. Cooling on the bottom. Yep. Yep. So we can dump into the leg from there and hopefully that'll add a lot of capacity because I think we're going to need it this year. Our corn is behind.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah. And so is our 24-14 is as well. I think you could take that to an 18, but I think it would be, we'd have to expand a lot in order to need that on our farm. And what'd you have before that? We had, I don't even know what the model number was. It was a 24 foot double stack.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, we've got a Sukup air system out the back then that delivers it to the bins.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yep. We still have to, the pipes need to be plumbed yet, but it's all sitting there. We just, we need to plumb the pipes for the air system. Got a little bit of electrical to finish and we've got to run a gas line.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Okay, that changes things tremendously. It really does, yeah. It's so much quieter, so much nicer.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Explain that to someone who doesn't know.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Was that your first dryer school? I was. Yeah. And I actually missed the actual formal school. So my dealer and I went down there a couple of weeks later. Actually, just two weeks ago, we went down there and kind of sat through an accelerated school and took a tour of the factory.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It's huge, what's going on with all the buildings and the whole site there. I mean, I don't know how many acres it's on, but there's a lot going on.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
yeah yeah that was something we started a few years ago where um we actually we told our viewers on youtube that we were going to be donating some funds to some local fire departments to help kick in and buy some equipment for for grain bin rescues and grain bin safety training for the departments to be able to have the necessary training and the equipment to to get in and help a farmer out if you get in an unfortunate situation in a grain bin and
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
From that point, a ton of our viewers jumped on and said, hey, how can I do the same? I'd like to help out. I want to give some money up for that. We actually started a GoFundMe. My wife started a GoFundMe. We sent people to that link for a couple of weeks. Then we, from there, after we had raised, I mean, it was like $40,000 somewhere in that neighborhood that went on that GoFundMe.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, we went live on our podcast. It was live on YouTube. And we literally had fire departments sending emails in saying, hey, here's what we would do with the money. Here's what we would want to buy. Here's the training we would take. And we went live on the podcast and people started donating through YouTube then. So We were live on a podcast for like three hours. People kept donating.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
We just kept drawing names out of the departments and we've done that a couple times. Over the course of it all now, we've raised over $100,000 that's all been given out to, it's like 70 some different departments all across the U.S.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It's been really cool to be able to be a part of.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
We had a department in Indiana that emailed us about a year after the initial fundraising that we did, and 100% they saved a life using some of the equipment that they bought with that money from our viewers.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
We have a paddle sweep at the bottom of our new 60-foot bin that we put up last summer, but we've never had the corn low enough to get to it. So I don't know if I'm going to get to use it this year.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
80% of it's covered on the board. Okay. So it's okay. We're planning on carrying a bunch over.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah. Is that something you normally do? Yeah, if we have the room. Luckily, I think our yields are going to be terrible this year, so we'll have plenty of room. I was going to ask, you said it's going to be wet because you're behind, but do you think it's going to be bad? You know, I shouldn't say terrible. I don't know how bad it's going to be. I don't think we're going to have an average crop.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I don't think we'll have an average yield. We've just had way too much rain. It just keeps... It's a total opposite of last year where we could not get any rain. And now this year, like since we started planting, it just does not turn off.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Not when we're drying, but this time of year we make sure that we'll run the fans when it's cool at night. We're trying to cool that corn down and keep the moisture from coming on the top of the grain so that we can prevent the crusting. We'll make sure that we are looking in the bins and trying to keep them cool and keep that crust from coming. The other thing is that we've hauled a lot out.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
So we're going to have 60, 70% of our corn hauled out. And we make sure we pull a lot out of every bin. So the centers are all down. The fines are all out of there. They're all cored. We keep the grain moving. And we'll probably, we'll empty a couple of those bins and fill one completely with, you know, last year's corn.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And just as long as you keep it moving and keep fresh air to it, we haven't had any issues.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, yeah, we do. Most of our bins are tied together. We have one that we can't, we have to load out of just that one. It's not tied into the leg, but we've got conveyors set up and everything so we can blend out of multiple bins.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
we had uh this is just kind of a a way to look at how bins can really pay for themselves but maybe 12 13 years ago we had some really wet corn and a lot of guys were bringing in corn that it was like caramelized because it took so much to dry it down so it was just ugly corn you were getting brown kernels in there and the elevator was docking everybody so bad for that they were totally taking advantage of it right
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
We kept a bin over of that stuff, and then the next year we just blended out of that bin with all the new grain, and they never said a word about it. I mean, we paid for two-thirds of that bin in one year. Just through that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
That's why they were docking people for that corn. They were blending it with other stuff, yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
A tip, farming tip, tech tip, something. Watch your cash flow. Okay. We find that just having good cash flow software and having the right numbers in there and knowing how to put that into place is huge for us. That's one of the things my dad's always been good at. So data-driven decisions, not just gut feeling.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, and actually knowing what your cost of production is and knowing that you can market right and you can get to the point this year where you're not losing money or whatever. At least know where your cost of production is.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Probably the largest eye roll I could give you. What do you use? We use FinPAC. Okay. So my dad actually, he knows the guys that came up with FinPAC years ago in the 80s, and he's always kept in touch with them, and they're still involved in it from what I understand. It's no longer the black screen with green numbers, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
That's DOS. This is what they did. Funny enough, when we bring our FinPAC, our cash flow balance sheet, all of that to the banker, our ag lender, he loves it, but he is always telling us how unfortunate it is that he has to actually take those numbers and put them on what the bank uses, which he says is fine for small businesses in town, but for ag use, he said it's just not where FinPAC's at.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I got the shooting park land a couple years ago. So there's 90 acres of farm ground there. It's not very good, but there's some farm ground there. Right now, we are working on a small, a little bit, yeah. The same piece I was talking to you about two months ago.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I would say last year and the year before, they really went up. Specifically, there's just a few specific sales that everybody who's selling land is looking at, and that's always a benchmark. But, I mean, realistically now it's flat lined or gone down. I mean, if you were to hold an auction right now, I bet it'd be down 30% from last year.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah. No, it doesn't really exist anymore. I forget how many episodes we did. Did we scare you? No, you didn't scare us away. It was just one of those things where it was always on the back burner, and we started it completely for fun, and then it just kind of became work.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And we recorded a couple this spring with the intention of bringing it back, and all we did was really remind ourselves why it's always on the back burner, because we have so much other stuff going on. So it's just like... It's been fun to do, but for some reason, every time I do one, I wake up the next morning with a headache.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And it's just, it's one of those things that takes more time than what it's been worth for me with the way my life is set up at the moment.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I got the silver one at 100,000, and then they send you the gold one at a million. At a million.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
No, it's from 100 to a million. That's the gap, yeah. Whoa. Whoa. It's really, and I think it's pretty easy to see if you actually look up some of these big YouTubers that'll show their, they call it like a gold play button. And it's this, it's a cool looking plaque, but it's really just a piece of plywood with some gold aluminum around it. It's not real gold? No, it's not real gold.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It's not even heavy. They should just put it like a lead sheet inside of it so it feels important, feels quality.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I mean... I don't honestly watch much YouTube or much television at all in general. I was telling some guys last night, our son destroyed our remote in the living room, our TV remote. So he became the remote? Well, no. You can't even change the channel. So instead of getting a new remote, the rest of the family all set up an app on their phone, so that's how they control the TV.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I've never had that app. I don't even know how to turn the TV on in my living room, so I just don't watch TV. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
No, I pretty much do exactly what you're not supposed to do, and I stare at social media right when I'm laying in bed, like right before bedtime.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I do it. That's my way to decompress. Yeah, that's the same here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
When I started that platform, I just decided that I'm not going to care on that side of things, on the TikTok side, who's watching or who can watch. Like on YouTube, I always keep that PG. TikTok, not the same.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Is he really nine, though? I've never met him, but he does not see.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I feel like I'm supposed to get up on the corner buckle and smash the beer together.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, I follow him. But, again, it's like I just don't follow anybody too closely. Yeah. But I do enjoy following what he's got going on. Does he do that every year? Well, he has different races, and they kind of move around, and they do different things, and I can't always keep up with it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
But the last two years, I've gotten to go to Bristol, actually, and race around Bristol Motor Speedway with Crown Vix and all those guys. You know, it's like racing against, like, Cletus and Brad DeBirdie and... Like Travis Pastrana and the Diesel Brothers, those guys. So when Travis Pastrana comes up to you, he's like, oh, I follow you on YouTube.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
My highest? Probably... See, I don't even know. It'd be like probably a... Upper 80s? Okay. Very good.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
But you want to do it here, not in your studio, because you don't want to have to clean that up.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
In the next couple of years, you guys get a little older, it'll come quick. You guys will be shooting 100s.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Sporting clays are fun. Do you have sporting clays? We don't right now. We've actually been looking into what that would cost to add that, and I think that'd be a hit.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And I would say, yeah, I've also noticed that, which for one, I don't really pay attention to analytics, but I have noticed the last five years that there is a higher percentage of female viewers, at least according to what the analytics are saying, right? Yeah. I don't really know why that is. I guess I couldn't answer that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah. Maybe they're too busy doing everything behind the scenes that needs to be done, and the guys are just sitting on the couch.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, and Tanner's is working on the party tonight.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Are you coming to the party tonight? I have a decision to make because it's like six hours home for me. So I'm trying to decide if I want to get home by midnight and wake up in my own bed and get a bunch of work done tomorrow, or if I want to wake up in central Iowa hungover.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And what's on the schedule for the rest of the day for you? So I'm going to go to the Polaris booth after this, which is right over here next to FBN, and then this afternoon I'll be in FBN for their happy hour.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yep. Do you get to drive one of the Polarises? I guess I didn't ask that. I drive them all the time at home, so I don't really need to drive one at the show here. Yeah, but the course looks really neat. The course does look cool. My son and I walked over yesterday, and I was thinking it would be cool if we could each take one and run time trials with it and see who can beat each other.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, I'm guessing legal wouldn't like that very much.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
We could do like Cletus does and get a whole bunch of Crownvics or Cavaliers or something like that, and we just take them out to boon the Speedway out here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And warm it up for their nationals next week.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
All of my partners are my favorite partners. Very good. Yeah. But I have been pretty much diehard Polaris my entire life. Dad was always Polaris guy, and that's just how our family's always been. You got a snowmobile? Yep, multiples. Or are you far enough north that it's called a, what do they call it, a sled or snow machine? Well, we'll call it a sled, not a snow machine.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
You really got to get up north if you're talking snow machine.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Is it a snowmobile or a snow machine? Well, I saw this morning on Twitter he's over at the Mandaco booth, so somebody should go find out.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
No, I'm a ditch banger. I like riding fast and carving the corners and stuff. I know that I would have a ton of fun going out west and hitting the mountains. I've got a lot of friends that do that. But I also know... It would be addicting, and I would end up out there three times a winter, and I just don't have that kind of time. We got two kids in hockey, and I'm gone half the summer racing.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, I'm cutting basketball out of those three. You had basketball, football, and baseball. Football and baseball? Uh-huh. I mean, baseball. I'm going to start baseball.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I mean, I don't play baseball anymore. I did last night. We went over to the batting cages actually somewhere on the other side of town. My son and his buddy are really into golf, and they found a place that had golfing simulators. So Ben and Morgan from Farm Focused and myself took the kids over there. And they did this golf thing. And then we find out they've got a baseball simulator.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
So Ben and I played a game against each other. I lost two to four.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yes, it's in the mall area. And we were the only customers in there. And they had throwing knives and throwing stars and axe throwing, golf, baseball, bowling.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I mean, I can cut the river. I'd rather go to the lake. Oceans are awesome, but if you're going to swim, I'd rather go to the lake.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
The ocean is very intimidating if you get out very far.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Okay. I think I'm going to cut the cores.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I'm going to cut the sprayer. What am I doing with the tractor? Am I like old school cultivating or picking rock? That's a fair question. Or am I planting corn? Let's go planting.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
So I'm a sixth generation farmer from Western Minnesota. Full time on the farm, it's just my dad and I. We've got seasonal guys that help us out. And right now, my wife and I, we bought the farmhouse from my parents. So we are raising our kids on the farm. And in 2016, I started a YouTube channel called Millennial Farmer.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I cannot believe they'd do that. I actually was surprised at that, too. Like, why wouldn't they just have fun with that and kind of cross-promote things? You can see the spot where Corey put his. Like, you can tell it was there and somebody's fingernails had to work to get that off. We're going to have to have a talk. Yep. I don't know who took it off, if it was my dealership or who did that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
But you did one pretty good, though. I was going to say, I don't care who it is. They had to work really hard at that. They did. Yeah. When I saw you guys post that TikTok, I literally stopped the planter in the middle of the field and jumped out at night and used the flash on my phone to try to find those stickers, and they're gone. I like that we have that kind of influence.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
There was a couple of pieces missing, though. Somebody snagged a couple little pieces off that thing. I can't remember exactly what it was. A couple little things missing out of the row units.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, that was Brian, Brian Brown. So he was playing that up, and then we actually did have something missing out of that row. And I messaged him, like... Was this actually, did you actually, did you take this, whatever the plastic piece was missing out of there, right? Like we had to run to the dealer and get it before we could plant.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And I'm like, well, it's a little bit funny, but that's kind of a bonehead move too. If it wasn't him, he didn't do it. I bet it was Kibble Man Sam.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, what day is it? What's the weather like? I mean, I'm wearing tennis shoes today because boots are too heavy, and I don't like walking far in flip tops. That's the same thing Vance says. How about shorts on the farm? All the time. Yeah. And I take a lot of heat for that in my videos, but I don't care. Yeah. Because it's hot out, and I'd rather have a breeze going through.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It is funny that people get all up in arms about that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It's like, it's not your farm? All the time. Oh, I've never seen a farmer wear shorts every day. I don't know, come to my farm. Do you have tennis shoes with the shorts or do you have like a work boot for shorts? I don't know if I'd go that far. If you're wearing work boots, you should probably put your jeans on.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Oh, like talk to my dad. Do an interview with Bob Welker and Duggo and my dad.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And the entire idea behind it was just to try to relate to people about agriculture and what's really going on in the family farms in America. And about a year and a half into it, it just completely exploded on me. And now here I am on the Sukup stage. That's crazy.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Have you guys gone through that process, the transition? Well, we're kind of in the middle of it right now. Actually, where my head is at right now is trying to figure out how and when I can start transitioning to my kids. Because to me, the big concern is the size of some of these farms. How does that next generation really get started?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I mean, for me, I will be totally honest with you and just say that YouTube has been a huge help. But my kids don't have that, so how can I help them to make sure that they're successful if farming is what they want to do? And when do I have to start that? Could they have it?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah. I mean, it's there for them. If my kids decide that's what they want to do, you know, I'll certainly help them out as much as I can. Would they have to change the name of it? Because they're not millennials. They'd be what? Gen Z? Yeah, I think they'd be Gen Z. Yeah. Gen Z farmer? You might have to go reserve that quick. I think there already is one, actually.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
But if that's what they wanted to do, you know, I don't want to start them too young on something like that. But if they decide that's what they want to do and if people are still following me, I'll try to help my kids out as much as I can.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, it can be difficult like anybody else. I mean, everybody's busy, and, you know, if you have young families, it is difficult. So that's, you know, part of the reason we didn't continue with our podcast because if I'm not working, you know, I'm at a hockey game or we're running the kids around or we're doing something to keep them happy.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
We got a little cabin, a little seasonal cabin on a lake near us a couple of years ago, and the girls just love going there. And so we try to split that time up, you know,
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
onyx and i can't be racing all the time we'll spend some days at the lake and keep the girls happy too and so there yeah there's always a balance there's a given give and take cool perfect what are you looking forward to this fall running that new dryer yeah honestly i i am actually really excited to to figure out exactly how that thing works and run it and see the efficiency of it and how how it handles the bushels because i do think our corn is behind right now so we're going to have some pretty wet corn yep and so i i am excited actually to have that thing on the farm and see how it works
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Because we had that put on our old dryer a year ago and it was awesome to be able to roll over in bed and, oh, you know, I wonder what the moisture is or what speed we're going here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, Lowry Manufacturing in our small town, they make 500 bushel dump pits. You pull the truck right over, dump the truck, and you're out of there. Really? And they just empty themselves and then turn themselves off when they're done.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
your dryer your oh yeah we've got a leg yeah yeah that's what we need next we ran out of money for that so then it feeds it priority feeds the dryer and then if the dryer is full and that pipe is full it just overflows into the holding tank into the wet bin okay so you got a big distributor up there yeah yeah is that all automated
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, great. She does all your editing now, doesn't she? She does pretty much all the editing, at least 90% of the editing. That's nice. So she's doing a lot of work behind the scenes. I got the easy job where I just have to carry the camera with me during the day and make it two jobs at once, I guess, throughout the day. And then she handles things from there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
But, yeah, she's back home with our daughters. And I brought my son and his buddy down thinking they wanted to go to a farm show. But when we loaded up to come down the other night, they threw their golf clubs in the back of the truck. So they're up the road at the golf course right now.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
That's one of the things that I've really noticed is that the...
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
sort of that like the age range and who watches my videos on youtube is so broad you know yep when you do like a meet and greet like yesterday and i'll be doing this afternoon over at fbn people come and and it's like it's everyone from the two-year-old kids up to grandpa and everybody everybody's you know coming over to say hi and say they watch the videos so it's been cool that's one of the things i've always tried to do from the beginning is make it so that everybody can sit down and watch it yeah
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Did you add another generation? I did because I didn't realize when I started the YouTube channel and I put it in my biography, I thought I was fifth generation. And then my neighbor actually, who is a big history buff, sent me a whole bunch of information. He was annoyed that I had it wrong.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And he sent me my family tree with all the church records and all the neighbor's records and all the history of everything that's happened in the township and It was a deep rabbit hole that I went down for a few days. How creepy is that? It's not that creepy. Okay. He's a good neighbor. If my neighbor knew that much about me, I'd be a little concerned.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, but he knows that much about everybody in the township.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It's like it's a little corner in the middle of the paper, but somebody will write up, you know.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Carol and Ned went over for supper to visit family.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Hard to say. I mean, my oldest, my son is 14 right now. My daughters are 12 and 9. And so I guess, you know, they're young. It's hard to say. I would say... The son comes and goes with it. He's very seasonal in that way, as most 14-year-old boys are with anything. But the youngest daughter seems to probably have as much interest as anybody right now. So, I mean, we'll just see where it goes.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
You know, I've actually kicked around the idea of... We've got the old Minneapolis Moline on our farm. So it was one of the first tractors that my dad owned. We've still got it. It's a 1971. Dad used to plant with an old case cyclo planter behind that thing.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
And I've kicked around the idea of finding an old planter just like grandpa used to have and hooking it up behind that tractor and getting everything going and setting up an account and having everything ready for my kids to run like 10 acres of their own.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
and uh and just you know here's your 10 acres but you're going to rent it from grandpa and you're going to pay for the inputs and you're going to borrow the money on it and obviously we're going to co-sign but try and teach them kind of how this all works because it's it's easy to grow up on a farm i think and and take for granted everything that goes on behind the scenes without really understanding the whole process of the business right so my brother-in-law
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Well, I guess what I would want to do is make it be like the four-row case cyclo planter, the old school.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, that grandpa had, right? And try to find a good working one. Are you still trying to sell your 8,000?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
So it's a 1971 G750. It's the exact same tractor as an Oliver 1655, which they made thousands of. But because this one's painted yellow and says Minneapolis Moline on it, they only made a couple hundred, and it's a pretty rare tractor. Yep.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Yeah, we've got 151 campsites, I think it is. And we've got, so we have 25 trap houses. We have the largest shooting event in the world every year with the Minnesota State High School League Championships. And that brings in about 9,000 students over nine days that come in and out of our park. So it's a...
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
huge event we got the campgrounds like i said we've got a skeet field we're looking at maybe putting in some sporting clays and uh doing some other stuff out there so it's it's been fun we've got uh tyler which is another one of the owners tyler notch has become our our manager out there and he's really been he's been great to bring on this year to have one of the owners be somebody that's out there managing constantly and keeping an eye on the business and it's it's been uh we've seen a lot of growth doing that has that been a really good investment you're happy with it
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
It will be. It will be. Yeah. So far, I have made zero dollars on it. But it's, you know, to me, I think long term, there's going to be some gains there. It's fun to do. I think the business is growing right now. We're a ways ahead of last year, which was a ways ahead of the year before. And I think we're going to add some stuff to it and hopefully bring some other people in and sort of.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Try to make it, you know, it's a multi-use facility. We do have like a cafeteria and a gathering spot that can hold up to 300 people. So we've talked about having wedding receptions and graduation parties in there and stuff. And it's right on the interstate, right next to Alexandria, Minnesota, which is a pretty good-sized town.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
So if nothing else, I mean, the property itself, just sitting there and cash-flowing itself.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
No, you can pull in as long as there's hours. You have to look on our website to find the hours. But, yeah, anybody can pull in and go through the office and buy yourself a round of clays and go have fun.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Oh, man. I don't know if I have a favorite gun. I mean, I like them all. I like all of them.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
I'm really not. I shoot a Weatherby 12-gauge when I go duck hunting, which isn't that often anymore. But I've had that thing for over 20 years, and it's kind of my baby. Gotcha. Your kids shoot? Yep. Yep. Especially my son. He's gotten really into trap shooting. So yeah, he shoots.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
He's on the school trap team and he's on the league team that we got out there at the park for just for regular league. And yeah, he's shooting all the time. He's racing now too, right? He is. Yeah. And you've been racing all summer? Yep. Yep. So I started when I was 15. He started when he was 13. So he's in his second year right now. And what class do you start at when you're 13 years old?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Johnson - Millennial Farmer
Go-karts? No, I started go-karts when I was 10. But in the cars, I started in a Midwest modified, which down here, guys that follow racing, I guess that'd be similar to a sport mod, like an IMCA sport mod. Okay. So kind of same thing as like a UMP mod or a USRA mod. I was more into the crash-em-up derby cars. Have you ever raced here in Boone? See, we start talking about guns. Oh, my God.