Farm4Profit Podcast
Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag
Mon, 7 Oct 2024
We are joined by Clink Fischer, founder of Brain Trust Ag, an innovative advisory firm dedicated to helping farmers maximize profitability and sustainability. Clink shares his extensive knowledge on financial planning, succession strategies, and business growth, offering practical advice on how farmers can navigate the complex financial landscape of modern agriculture. With a focus on long-term planning and adaptability, Brain Trust Ag supports farm owners in building businesses that are not only financially stable but also prepared for future challenges and opportunities.During the episode, Clink discusses how Brain Trust Ag helps clients create custom financial roadmaps tailored to their specific farm operations, whether they are managing a small family farm or a large agricultural enterprise. Topics include the importance of succession planning, strategies to ensure generational transfer, and key methods for improving operational efficiency. Clink also delves into the value of analyzing financial metrics to make data-driven decisions that can increase profitability and long-term success.The episode highlights Brain Trust Ag's mission to be more than just a financial consultancy, emphasizing its holistic approach to ensuring farmers' success. We also explore how Clink's experience in the industry has helped hundreds of farmers across the U.S. implement practical and sustainable solutions to grow their businesses. This conversation will inspire listeners to think critically about their farm's financial health and plan for the future with clarity and confidence. Don’t forget to like the podcast on all platforms and leave a review where ever you listen!Websitewww.Farm4Profit.comShareable episode linkhttps://intro-to-farm4profit.simplecast.comEmail [email protected] to YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSR8c1BrCjNDDI_Acku5XqwFollow us on TikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@farm4profitConnect with us on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/Farm4ProfitLLC/
It is a personal character trait of having that willingness to say, number one, we're recognizing that Junior is capable, has the skill set, has the ability to take over some of our management duties. And then number two, it's that how the heck do you just give up control? And that's just human nature is we want control. And so in order to give up control and
to me it is for that next generation to show their aptitude their skill set their ability to a take over the operation and kind of keep things status quo but also what are they bringing to the table are they bringing some other type of skills and ability or connections relationships to the farming operation so that the owner generation says okay this thing is in good hands
Ladies and gentlemen, farmers, ranchers, and distinguished guests, thank you for listening to the Farm for Profit podcast, where we discuss the latest ideas, methods, trends, and techniques available to help your farm achieve higher levels of farm profitability. Remember, if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.
So here to talk nitrogen stabilizers with a great representative from Corteva, I've got Andrew Luzum here. And welcome back to the podcast. Thank you. Appreciate it. We also know that that soil profile is extremely complex. So do you have any suggestions this fall as we go through harvest as to what our listeners should be doing soil sampling wise?
You talk CECs, organic matter, everything, soils are very complex, right? So we always recommend that we're pulling soil tests, especially within every four years at minimum. With that, you know, we want to make sure that we've got adequate moisture. We're not overly too dry of soils that will throw soil skews or soil test way off.
The other thing is we want to make sure we're striving for accuracy and consistency when we look at these soil tests. You know, we want to make sure we're getting good six to eight inch cores and we want to make sure we're pouring and sending them to a good certified lab who's going to be running those results. You know, I know that fall gets busy for a lot of growers.
I think a lot of guys, even like ourselves, always think, you know, we're going to get to that this fall and 80 other things be coming the way. You know, I always recommend to hire somebody you can trust to make sure that you're getting those soil tests pulled because it is important.
You know, you look at the economics and the farm economy we're in today, you know, fertility really hasn't dropped in price, unlike what we've seen happen on the commodity side. And so we want to make sure that we are knowing what we're going to be putting out there this fall. There's a lot of guys looking at cutting back from a fertility perspective. I get it.
But let's make sure we're dialed in and putting out what we absolutely are going to need to raise crop next year.
As we get these soil samples, what do our listeners need to do with those results after they come back?
So using a certified lab, they're going to help give you those results and then help make recommendations. If you're not using a good certified lab that's helping you do that, please use a good local retailer who is well aligned to be giving you or helping you with those results. I know Iowa State Extension also is really good at helping through those at times if guys need additional help.
But make sure you're using people around you, resources. Even folks like myself or other people that work for Corteva are happy to help work through those recommendations.
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. 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.
And listeners, welcome back to the Farm for Profit podcast. You got Tanner sitting here. Corey's here too. You're really close to me.
I was trying to get in the frame because our guest didn't know how to expand the frame.
He does now. He's living in the moment, kind of like you. Are you ready to do this? I am.
I need this show more than people know.
Okay. I like that. Right? We've got a great guest ahead of us, one that we've been tracking both our direction and his direction for a little bit. Listeners, kind of like you, I'm glad that you are listening to our podcast, especially if this is the first show. I know we say that every once in a while, but truly, thank you.
Whoever told you about us or however you discovered us, make sure you tell them thank you. Or if it's a social media platform, you spend more time there because obviously you discovered something great.
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.
Yeah. You can send us text messages, 515-207-9640. I do like getting those. Been interacting with a couple of you this last week. Really good guest suggestions, and that's what we like to see because the content right now is going to be just as important as we can. Yeah, we should really plug this in. Somebody's calling us right now. Wow. Take a live call. It is. Oh, my gosh.
I don't know if this is... Do it. Do it. Do it.
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.
Okay.
Well, sorry. Text him and say, hey, we're live right now. Do you want to do a call?
We just told our guests today we were going to put our phones down and stop dealing with that. Thank you. That's the type of stuff that makes this show entertaining. But now, the last thing I can say is every advertisement that we put out, go buy their stuff.
Yeah.
Oh, wait. I can't say that. Thank you. Support them. Thank you. That's how our podcast continues to do what we do, upgrading equipment, upgrading content, exposure, and opportunities. So thanks for bearing with us.
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.
I kept them all, but none, nonetheless. All right. It's time for a what's working in ag segment. And I think the topic we're going to talk about today is working, whether we realize it or not. Oh yeah. You think so? Is that we should be working when we don't think we're working?
No, I think the item that we're going to talk about is extremely important to all of our listeners' operations, and it's working every day for them even though they don't realize it.
Yeah, maybe something that gets overlooked quite a bit.
That's right. Our pleasure to have our guest joining us virtually today. We've got Donald here. He's coming to us as the Director of Product Management for North America in regards to Wix filters. Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks. Appreciate it, guys.
Donald, where are you coming from today?
Hey, I'm live and in person here in Gastonia, North Carolina, just a couple minutes outside of Charlotte.
Is that the headquarters for Wix Filters?
1939.
That's a lot of history there.
Been here a long time. When I first started, I'm dating myself, but when I first started working for the company, it was in an old cotton mill that they had bought many years ago and turned into a factory. And it's got a lot of history here in this location.
Wow. So we're literally talking filters today and why they're important. Yeah. Why this is something that we need to think about as we go through every day of our operation, not just peak season. but ultimately making sure that we understand the importance of having a quality filter to protect our engine.
So as you think about that, Donald, when you start off a conversation with somebody, how do you get it going?
I think it's, we as a group of people have become so accustomed to having everything instantaneous. And so we get in our car in the morning or a truck and we started up and we don't even really think about all the things that are happening there. Right. So you've got,
a fuel pressure that's coming up to an injector that squirts into a cylinder that fires off automatically with a spark plug, and we just happen thousands of times over and over, and we just take it for granted. And there's lots of things that have to happen to make that take place.
And the same thing happens whether it's your equipment, whether it's your skid steer, your tractor, whatever the case is. All those internal combustion engines kind of operate on the same principle. And we have all these parts, pieces, and protection that have to happen simultaneously. And one of those obviously important things is to make sure that is the fuel clean? Is the oil clean?
Is the air coming in clean to that engine? And that's where the filters come into play.
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.
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.
Absolutely. That's that's exactly what we do is we want to make sure we're where it counts. And if you've ever had the fun of turning into an engine or tearing a piece of equipment apart because some little thing happened to not do its job, you'll you'll know that, you know, you shouldn't have probably tried to save a buck on that particular oil filter instead of spending the two dollars.
You only spend a dollar. So, you know, how much time did you waste rebuilding that? You know, so that's why we offer quality products at a great price each and every day.
Maybe this is your problem, Tanner. That's why you guys always have an engine problem.
No, not the case. We will be running all Wix filters after this conversation because I dug into this a little bit more, and that is one of the things you take pride in is the quality of filter that you produce.
Absolutely. Like I said, we've been around since 1939. We started out just taking the waste out of the cotton mills, and that's what became what we call a filter media in the early versions. just to kind of strip off the junk and whatnot that was in the oil.
And as things have progressed, we've started making different things over the years, whether it's passenger car filters or heavy truck or off-road or whatever the case is. So there's a whole litany of things that have evolved and changed over the years. And the quality of the products has always been, you know, top of the shelf when it comes to our designs and our production.
I think they need a t-shirt that's like earth, wind, and fire because they do air, oil, and fuel. There you go. Yeah.
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?
That's a great question. Corey, the big thing about filters is usually the things that matter you can't see or you can't understand because It's the media, the pleated, you know, as you see the zigzags in the filter. If you have it in front of you where you can see it, some of them are in a can. Obviously, you can't see that. But the media is really the magic of the filter.
Obviously, you've got to have seal gaskets and all those kind of things that matter. But the media is what does all the work. So it captures the contaminant. It gives you the amount of efficiency that you need. And it also allows you to have the right pressure drop over the high pressure side of the pump to the low pressure.
So what that is, it's a good way to say there's a lot of science and engineering that goes into what that media is. And so just because they may look exactly the same, but one costs a little bit more than the other, there's probably a reason for it.
Yeah, all the science that goes into it. How do you test to make sure that this is top quality?
Sure. Yeah. We have a huge laboratory here in headquarters. Um, and there is all kinds of tests we do from what are the particle sizes that go upstream versus downstream and multi-pass testing. We look at how much contaminant it holds.
We do all kinds of things like burst tests, salt spray tests, uh, you know, if someone's going to be on a piece of equipment for many years, uh, you know, is there going to be a rust inhibitor that, that can, you know, keep that from happening? Um, you know, we do look at things like, um,
impulse fatigue so how many times that engine cycles all in all all in all can that particular product stand up to it will it collapse under you know any kind of you know extreme environment there's just a huge amount of testing that our engineers do each and every day so going back to the media side you mentioned you started in the cotton country are you guys still using a cotton media No, no.
So that was, uh, back in the, uh, in the late thirties, early forties, back during the war, that was just one of the few things that you can get to. Nowadays, you basically have two different types of media. You have a cellulose based media, which is effectively made from, you know, trees and other plant materials. Uh, like you would make a piece of paper, very similar in that respect.
Uh, and then the other one is a synthetic. So that is a more of a a spun bond type media, or it is a full synthetic fiberglass type situation where multi-layers are stacked on top of each other. So there's a tremendous amount of technology that goes into just manufacturing media these days.
And what's preferred? Is there one preferred over the other or is that per application?
It depends on the application. Yeah. So a lot of your passenger car stuff you're going to see is more cellulose based. And then as you get into the more our specialized type environments, you're going to see more synthetic. And sometimes you can blend those two things together. And so it just really depends on the application.
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.
That's right. That's a great opportunity. I didn't realize that your filters even come with a limited warranty.
Yeah, so one of the things, obviously, that we pride ourselves in is our quality, but we also, like many manufacturers, have a warranty on our products. So if anything goes wrong, our product is covered fully by the warranty. So let's say we screwed something up and it blew up your engine, we'll cover that with our warranty and replace your engine.
How does someone find out that it was actually your fault that it blew up?
So we have a very good process with a very lot of smart folks that will go out. They'll take the product from that particular customer. And when there's a problem, they'll send it back. The lab gets into the weeds looking at each and everything. And we'll figure out, is it a user error? Was it something we manufactured wrong? Was it something that the engine did that nobody could have predicted?
So we have a lot of very smart people that get into that to figure out exactly what happened.
Yeah, I can imagine that that's something that is a very scientific method and approach because I even return stuff to Amazon when it probably shouldn't be returned. I certainly assume that those types of situations help with Wix. But is it something that we go strictly and directly to a Wix supplier or are you distributing these filters across the country through a different network?
We sell our products all through distribution, so we don't sell anything direct. So all of our products go through our distributors. I mean, there's the famous ones like O'Reilly's that carry wigs each and every day right out there on the shelf. And then there's a lot of mom and pop distribution channels that are out in all pockets of the country.
So we sell everything within the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and a lot of export products as well. So it's everywhere. It's kind of like Visa, everywhere you want to be.
I didn't think about that, being sold outside of the U.S.,
Well, yeah, it's a worldwide company, I would imagine, right?
A caterpillar is a caterpillar, or a deer is a deer, you know? So they happen to live in Brazil or Malaysia, just like any other place in the world. So guess what? We make a product for it, and somebody needs it.
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?
Yeah, so that's a great question. So we do a lot of OEM. Mon & Hummel, our parent company, is a huge OE supplier to lots of big names in the ag industry. John Deere being one of the biggest is one of their great customers. So we do a lot of OE product and we also sell the Wix version in the aftermarket. And sometimes those are exactly the same products.
Sometimes they're a little bit different because of contractual agreements. But regardless, they're still made by the same great manufacturing line and great people that are on the line each and every day. So you can trust whether it's the OEM or whether it's the Wix, you still have that same trust from all of them.
Is there a way that we can tell that the OEM is a Wix filter?
Sometimes you can look at it and just you can tell. I mean, they're spitting image each other just happens to be the label on the outside. And there's other times that you wouldn't know that that happened to be the Wix filter. So, no, there's no easy way to do it. And there's no magic button to go and push and say, OK, show me a list of these things.
So it makes it tough on the general public, I know.
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.
Sometimes, yeah, you know, and sometimes you obviously can buy the Wix a little cheaper than you can the OE. And, you know, and sometimes it's easier to get a Wix than it is an OE depending on where the dealer might be. So it really depends on the situation.
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?
Yeah, I think we have a little bit over a million different cross-references at the moment in our database. So you can obviously access that at any store that sells our products. If you want to look at it on wixfilters.com, it's there every day. Then we also have the Wix Filters app that's available. So if you want to look at it on your phone. All those cross references are there.
You want to look up a filter by size. You have the length and width of dimensions that you need to figure it out. And you can't see a number that's worn off or something. You can look it up that way. There's lots of little tools like that that we offer for folks to be able to figure out what they need.
Great. That's good. I mean, you are talking to two guys here in the state of Iowa. And probably my only complaint about a Wix filter is it is Hawkeye colored and not Cyclone colored. We need some cardinal and gold packaging instead of that black and gold.
Yeah, unfortunately, our packaging is a little rigid when it comes to those kind of things. So it's hard to deviate. But I understand the Hulk.
That's fine. We'll get over it. We'll still go buy our Wix filters. But if a listener wants to look you guys up because for some odd reason they've never bought a Wix filter before, what's the best way for them to figure out where to get one close to them?
The greatest place to go is onto the website, wixfilters.com. Go to the where to buy section and put in your zip code. It will show you all the places that are close by and what's available for you in your particular location. That's great.
Well, is there anything you want to share with our audience before we close out?
No, I just wanted to thank you guys both for the time and for letting me speak with you. Obviously, we're really proud of Wix and all the things we've done over the years. A lot of great people, a lot of really hardworking Americans here in North Carolina and in South Carolina and other locations here that support you and your teams every day. And we appreciate the business.
Hey, we appreciate you sharing some insights I learned in a short 15 minutes. And I know our listeners are going to learn, too. So thank you for your part.
Thanks. I appreciate it guys. Thanks Donald. Take care.
Well, Corey, we had Todd Dale on here from Estes Concaves to talk to us about getting our combine set for soybean. Yep. But now let's jump into those that are starting corn harvest.
Well, corn, corn's kind of, I mean, it's the same type of thing because a lot of the time you're killing the plant by running the combine through it. Same thing with the soybeans. There's a lot of green left, especially early on. So corn, The other thing that really helps with corn is a lot of air, a lot of air volume on your cleaning system.
So there's several different theories out there with setting a cleaning system for corn. I subscribe a little bit more to the theory of if I'm setting a combine and I want clean grain, if I'm putting in my own bins, I don't want a lot of cob. I don't want a lot of stalk. I want that stuff to get out of the combine. All I want is whole healthy kernels.
So if it takes me running a fan speed of 1250 or 1300, and I can keep it in a combine at that, I'm good. I like that. The more air, the better. If I have to chaffer clearance, I want it to be as far closed as it can possibly be because that's going to minimize my trash and damaged material that's getting in there.
The one thing that a lot of people disagree on or don't agree with or whatever is running your sieve. A lot of people think you need to run your sieve, your bottom sieve, wide open to allow airflow. And while that may be true that it does allow more airflow,
If I'm getting little chunks of cob or if I'm getting little stalk pieces, things like that in my sample, and I can get rid of that by closing my sieve down and running it through the return again, I'm doing it. Because unless it's damaging a high percentage of kernels again, and I know that that damage is coming from the tailings and the return, I don't see the negative of it.
If our listeners want to learn more about the XPR-3s and what you guys have in store, how best do they look you up?
Just probably Google Estes Concaves. I mean, it's going to be, it'll pop up and everything. Our website's estesperformanceconcaves.com. All the information that you should, I mean, a lot that you need to get started on the investigation process, if it's something you want to move forward with, and then give one of us a call. We've got phone numbers listed on there. We'd be happy to talk with you.
Awesome. Well, thank you much for your time. So let's get into our guest today. Excited to have this conversation that should be timely for you as a listener and probably the best way to consume this content is listening by yourself and sharing it with somebody else. So excited here to have Clint Fisher. Clint like Clint Eastwood without the Eastwood Fisher. Welcome to the podcast.
Well thanks gentlemen.
Sorry you had to deal with our long long intro.
First of First and foremost, I need to recognize that Corey's wearing a shirt from Runnings that I bought three, four years ago. And, man, those things deteriorate over time.
The old pearl snaps?
No, I'm wearing pearl snaps.
Oh, okay.
Right? Yeah. And the tanners weren't just showing up professionally. He's ready to rock and roll.
This is actually our shirt. We just had these custom designed. These are farm for profit, labeled, tagged. This is our shirt.
Yeah. Well, I think Braintrust Egg needs to join forces and get in touch with those shirts. But, Corey, I'm sorry, but that shirt is just not doing it for me.
What if I do that? Well, take a little button down.
I'm just going to reserve judgment for the lack of chest hair that I just saw.
I know. It's pretty baby butt smooth there. I'm not a very hairy individual.
And from that point forward, all right, hey, I'm Clint Fisher. And, yeah, let's talk about my world, which is estate planning. succession planning for farmers and ranchers, and it's just helping build better farm businesses. The podcast is called Farm for Profit.
It is.
Which to me is a little bit counterintuitive because if we're not farming for profit, what the heck are we doing out there?
We won't be farming for long. That's what we say.
Well, we won't be farming for long, but however, I do recognize and I help a lot of folks who don't care about the profit side. So young people who have a hobby farm or, I mean, growing up, I grew up on a hobby farm and the profit didn't matter. But where I'm focused at, where I actually can connect with folks is how do we make profit?
And then how do we build that farm business into something that we can transition to the next generation?
Right.
And so as an attorney in South Dakota who works with farm families daily, that is primarily my, my, uh, my focus is how do we effectively do that? And obviously there's tax implications. Um, there's family dynamic in implications. And so those are the things that I talked about on Twitter or X, sorry, and, and elsewhere. But, um,
Yeah, so I'm just really passionate about, one, helping farm families transition in operation to the next generation. And then number two, how the heck do we incentivize or inspire non-farm folks to get involved in agriculture and kind of go that route? Yeah. So that's a bit about me.
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.
What got you to this point where you want to do this stuff right now?
Yeah, I grew up on a hobby farm. And frankly, folks... I rode the school bus from 10 miles north of where I went to school all the way to school every day. And we were the first pickup on the route. So I was on that school bus for an hour and a half.
Yep.
And I rode on there. And all of my friends on that school bus were talking about tractors and yields and farming. And I couldn't relate. This is just me being transparent here. I kind of felt like I was missing out on something. I grew up in the country, but not on a production farm. My grandpa was farming while I was going to school.
And so to answer your question, it was, man, that is really cool. I really want to do that in the future. How the heck do you get into that world as a freaking grade schooler? And that kind of led to me just being like the misfit. Right. So I wasn't really a farm kid. I wasn't really a town kid.
And I mean, granted, town kid means thousand people were, you know, citizens of our of our small town in South Dakota. That has really kind of been weighing on my shoulder since I was a kid. So fast forward years and years and years and years, I got a degree in egg business. I managed some egg retail locations. So for 10 years, I was kind of in that egg retail space.
I owned a fencing company for a while. And one of the things that I saw is that, man, there's a big misconnect from where egg operations are at today versus where The next generation is going to take those over. And that led me to go into law school as a late in life. I was that non-traditional student at law school who everybody just hates because I'm the one who's there to learn.
Everybody else is there just to get a degree, right? And so I'm there and I'm asking questions and I answer. but I'm also not the one who says, yeah, let's not have more homework. Let's get out early because I'm there to learn. So I went to law school, got a degree, and here we are. Now I'm an attorney in South Dakota with a primary focus on helping farm families transition their operation.
But what does that even look like? What does that mean? And to me, it means we need to take this separate idea of we have an ag operation that is separate from our family dynamics our estate planning and let's combine those things into a a comprehensive transition plan so that looks like number one farm for profit means we're treating this thing as a business
Number two, we're going to incorporate that into whoever's either taking over the operation and then adding on to whoever is maybe not taking over the operation and just trying to figure out all of those moving pieces and you got family relationships and just drama that all comes into play there. So all of that long backstory to get into like, what is Braintrust Ag?
Brain Trust Egg is something that started a little over a year ago for primarily the purpose of me saying, hey, these are the tools I use daily. And why don't you come and access them? Which within like a week or two, I realized, oh, now people actually want to connect with other people. They don't just want to access a database of tools.
And that's where this peer group idea of Brain Trust Ag kind of evolved and came about so that a farmer in South Dakota could connect with a rancher in Montana or a farmer in North Carolina and understand what works and most importantly, what doesn't work in their operation. and apply kind of those principles, those ideas and share those ideas.
The other kind of thing that has evolved out of this is, man, we're kind of isolated and maybe a bit lonely in the egg world. Yeah, we have social media, but do we have true connections through that? And so through Braintrust Egg, we've been able to establish and build up kind of these connections. with other people in agriculture who are like-minded because we're not here for everybody.
We're here for those folks who want to understand better how to treat their operation as a farm business or a ranch business or an ag business. We're here to encourage and support young people trying to get involved in agriculture. And then third, we're here to help. figure out how the heck do we transition this operation to the next generation. That's kind of my passion.
Obviously, I talk longer than you wanted me to. You try to interrupt me a few times, but yes, I'm an attorney in South Dakota, but I do a lot of other things besides that.
The fun part about your discovery is the same thing we've discovered here on Farm for Profit. We've learned through social media and through listeners that Farmers, I don't know if isolated is exactly the word I would use, but definitely don't have the connections with their next door neighbors like their grandparents did with their grandparents' neighbors.
100%.
Yes. And to that point, Tanner, so I worked in the elevator world for six years.
And I remember, so I mean, think about small town, South Dakota, there is maybe 50 people in Badger, South Dakota on any given Saturday night, because that's when they take the census and they go to the bar, the one bar in town and they count heads and say, okay, population of Badger is 50 people because that's how many people are at the bar that night.
And, and so our elevator was in Badger, South Dakota and, And I was in charge of managing the feed department. And I would go in there and every morning at about 6.30, we would have 10 to 12, maybe 15 people, local farmers come in for coffee hour. And they would be there from 6.30 until 8 o'clock maybe. And they would talk about all the local gossip, of course.
But then they would also talk about some kind of farm stuff. And what I recognized is none of those people were willing to peel back the layers of the onion of their farm business. to share with their quote unquote competitors, right? And so I'm looking at this as the local coffee hour in a town of, let's be real, 25 people. And so how does that kind of expand out to the general population?
It is every community I've been in, every place that I've sold seed, feed, fertilizer, chemical, I've done a lot of things. They all have their kind of local go-to for, whether it's the gas station or the elevator or the coffee shop, that place where farm people meet, but they don't, they're kind of reserved in how they share information.
So as you, oh, sorry, go ahead.
Well, I'll finish up here. You remove that kind of local competition aspect. And now I've got somebody in Oklahoma sharing exactly all the details to somebody in Kentucky who wants to learn how they compete.
bought ground how they were able to structure their lease agreement from a crop share or from a cash rent to a crop share right like these details are so valuable and that is only facilitated through brain trust egg and through that online component and so that's to me
really the true value of removing kind of that local competition aspect from the coffee shop, coffee hour, to kind of making it more online. And that's so far what we've been doing.
I like that you led into where my question was going. You started hinting at some of the things that get discussed. So what have you witnessed? What are the most common things that these groups end up chatting about once they get comfortable and develop those relationships?
Yeah, I think that's key, Tanner, is you have to develop that relationship first and foremost. And if we're going to be, you know, the three of us, if we were to join some kind of a group that has some payment aspect, well, we can already assume that we have a bit in kind of like-minded, a bit in common. And so the first threshold is,
for these discussions is, are we actually talking with folks who are invested in building better ag businesses? And the answer is yes. And so there's automatically a little bit of a trust factor when folks join BrainTrust Ag, but then we have ongoing like this last week, we had three live events that folks can jump on Zoom calls and discuss things.
We talk about things that are pertinent to ag business management. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, that means we're looking at these things as not a lifestyle. We're looking at how are we being more efficient and effective with our equipment. What are some opportunities from a marketing standpoint? How could I sell some ground and 1031 exchange that into ground closer to me?
And so it's a wide variety of things. The two things that I tell folks that we don't really talk about are, number one, current markets, because you go on Twitter and you can find that. The other thing we don't talk about is weather and how, shoot, we're in a drought. Okay, that's fine. You can go and be worried about that on other social media platforms.
So let's talk about things that we can control, which is how are we managing our operations and how are we transitioning? What are opportunities available to either the next generation or somebody who's trying to figure out how the heck they're going to make a living in agriculture? And so those are kind of the two primary focuses. How about that for a generic answer?
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.
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.
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.
What's the value? What do they get out of it? Right. Right. What, what is the value of sitting there besides feeling like you have a network of being included, you know, feeling like there is a group of people like-minded with you. Yep. Outside of that, how many times has somebody walked away from those meetings?
I will tell you our partner, Dave loves going to those meetings and feels like he gets all kinds of value out of those. But he's got a different perspective. He wants a little piece of information that can pursue and ask more questions outside of coffee.
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.
So you did go a little bit generic there, Clint. And that's not what we do for our listeners. We want some free insights.
I'll retract. I'll retract. Everything's generic, I said.
What's an example of something that has been extremely valuable to your members when they've discovered it in these conversations?
So Yesterday, we had what we call a soil gathering, which is just members getting together talking about some topic. Yesterday's topic was opportunities for first generation and next generation farmers. And so a specific example is a gentleman in Minnesota who he's trying to build up his farming operation.
the question of how the heck can I specifically find people to custom graze my row crop farm. So their row crop operation, they've got a lot of corn stalks and a gentleman from Kentucky said, hey, here's what we do. And specifically described the model, all the points of their contracts, and how they custom graze corn stalks in Kentucky.
And then that gentleman in Minnesota said, hey, I also want to do this with sheep. And how can we kind of reframe this thing? And so I sent him some who I know in the sheep world, and the member in Kentucky sent him his spreadsheet of here's how we value custom grazing for fall grazing, for winter grazing on corn stalks.
And what it allowed him to do, or hopefully will allow him to do, is to take productive ground, corn stalks and figure out a way to charge per head per day to graze on that ground. And those are the types of connections.
Those are the types of discussions that I like to get into the weeds because I'm, I'm, I'm this, this weird blend of, yes, I like the legal side, but I also just like the entrepreneurial side. And so I'm, I'm just here looking at things saying, how do we get people to, Looking at ways to insulate us from commodity, traditional commodity markets and how that impacts our businesses.
A specific example that just happened yesterday.
I like that. I think we should graze sheep on your corn stalks. You might want to upgrade the fence.
But that's the thing that we talk about, Tanner. Okay, so what are the barriers to making that happen? One is fences. The other thing is water source. And so we can get granular about that and say, all right, what's it going to cost? Is it going to cost two bucks, two and a half bucks a foot to put up an appropriate fence?
What's it going to cost to put up a water tank and to haul water or to find a water source? And are those things going to outweigh the potential income, the cash flow that comes from custom grazing some, you know, all quarter of corn stalks.
Yeah. We've shared on here before that my dad will custom graze corn stalks and he's partnered up with a local rodeo outfit. So he's not grazing cattle or grazing sheep. He's grazing Broncos.
And yeah, it was, it's a simple ROI equation and I shouldn't use simple because sometimes they can be complicated to, to some folks is what did it take to make that fence horse tight, being able to provide water and then, uh, generate that revenue or that partnership or whatever it ends up looking after the fact.
I know Corey, you and I've talked about a lot of this, that when we see something on social media, we typically send it to each other and it's like, Oh, do you see what's happening here? Do you see, but when you do that, you don't have the details, right? You don't get the details. It sounds like when you're able to establish a peer group like this, like you said, you can get extremely granular.
This peer group is a service that you provide that you started, right?
Yeah, so I started it just about a year ago as kind of a way to share what I do daily from a tools and resources standpoint. And, yeah, I'm – frankly, guys, I'm just figuring this all out as I go.
Yeah.
Okay? And I'm – what do they say? I'm just the – Everything from the bathroom cleaner all the way up to the head chief in charge. And it's not my day job. I don't make a ton of money doing it. But it's a way for me to be actually involved in agriculture and provide a service that I think is valuable. to folks.
And as soon as it becomes not valuable, I'll just shut it down and I'll just go to being an attorney and move along with my life.
It's also nice.
For the time being, it's got some value there. And I'm just figuring out as I go.
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Having somebody that isn't a farmer themselves can sit back and put that entrepreneurial hat on to remind some of your participants that this has to make sense. You can do it because it's fun, but you have to understand that you're doing it because it's fun rather than doing something to provide a positive ROI for your operation.
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.
Are you guys good if I share two bits of wisdom that are going to upset 90% of the egg crowd?
Yeah. That would be Vance Crowe's Peter Thiel paradox then, right?
Yeah. Number one. And both of these came from my egg finance instructor at SDSU. Number one is that the vast majority of actual production farmers should just be employees. What does that mean? That means that they should be renting out their ground to somebody who understands the business side of the operation and they should be collecting a paycheck plus a rent check
to somebody else because they are really good at steering a tractor. They are not great at spending time in front of a computer, understanding the break evens and the budgeting and the P&L and the balance sheet and how are we running this thing from the back end standpoint as a business. And if I say that out on Twitter, people are going to get all worked up and upset because
Well, it's going on Twitter.
It's going to go on Twitter, yeah.
And that's fair. So that's number one. Number two is that the vast majority of people who are a farmer, rancher, egg business owner, spend too much time working on the $30 an hour jobs versus the $150 an hour jobs. And what does that mean? That means that, kind of similar to what I just said, is... we're looking at marketing, we're looking at What is our insurance policy?
And can I shop that around and find somebody who is going to be more cost effective and more efficient from a cost saving standpoint? What is my marketing plan? What is my cost of production? What are my inputs at? And can I shop that around? And those things all are in front of a computer screen with a spreadsheet and a phone in your hand.
And man, that is different than a lot of people who think that farming is greasing a piece of equipment or fixing fence or, you know, changing the oil in their ranger. And I think that those two kind of concepts, and this is, again, I mean, I was an undergrad 20 years ago. But those things still apply today. And I find those two pieces of wisdom applicable, but it offends people.
And why does that offend people? Because we're treating ag operations as lifestyles versus businesses. Which, to tie that back into my day job as somebody who works with farm families through that transition process I look at, all right, which operations have been most successful?
Number one and first and foremost is the ones who have treated their operation honestly as a business versus tying in all of their lifestyle considerations. And so there's that separation between here's our family, We own land. We own a farming operation. We have business management policies and procedures in place. We meet monthly, quarterly, annually to talk about the farm business.
But that isn't what I eat, breathe, and sleep every day as a family person. those operations are the ones that transition the best because we're looking at things a little bit more objectively versus trying to recognize how does land transition? How does the equipment transition? How are we going to be able to support on-farm and off-farm kids?
And it is much clearer and much more well-defined when we have a separate operation versus those who don't. That's why I'm, I'm kind of tying all these pieces together. And that's what we try to do with brain trust egg is recognize a street. Number one, let's let's build an attractive egg business. Number two, let's transition this thing in a reasonable way to keep all the stakeholders involved.
Um,
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.
Well, you get an instant gratification if your hands are dirty. You get an instant gratification if you just laid down a field of hay. You get instant gratification when you knock out an 80 of harvesting corn. You get that. And then our culture also makes fun of those that
don't get their hands dirty and truly are a farm manager and haven't operated a piece of machinery because we've been around those conversations to where, well, why are salesmen even talking to you because you never run that tractor?
Well, they need to talk to you because you're the one that is independently thinking about the value that this piece of equipment is going to bring to the farm, not necessarily if it's got the massaging seat in it and all the creature comforts.
Yeah.
So sorry, I interrupted his question.
It's just tough. I mean, yeah. Have you, have you successfully been able to transition the mindset to that?
So the answer is yes and no. Uh, typical attorney, right? Just for the listeners, the default answer for an attorney is it depends. Um, and accountants and bankers and accountants and bankers, anybody in professional services world. But, uh, What I've seen, to answer your question directly, Corey, is yes. However, it took buy-in from both the owner generation and the successor generation. Okay.
And I think that is really where we can make that change happen is if I can convince the owner generation who are in their 50s or 60s that you're not going to be doing this forever. You're not going to be 90 years old and still making all the decisions. If you can transition the management duties early enough, then yes, it is feasible and doable and we can make that thing happen.
And so it takes, like I said, buy-in on both the owner generation. The successor generation needs to approach it in a way that is not, I'm entitled to this. I don't have my hand out, but I have skills and knowledge and am willing to work my tail off to make this transition happen.
And so if we can transition the management side of things before any ownership, before any estate planning or ownership transition happens, if we can make that happen, then yes. We can go from this is a lifestyle that I inherited from my folks to this is being treated as a business. We're actually having business management meetings.
We're actually separating these things away from the family drama. That's where I've seen that actually happen, Corey, is when we have buy-in from both generations.
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?
Oh, completely, yeah. So I think that's where people see that. This is no knock on what has happened from the 1880s to the 2000s. This is just, we're concerned right now about the economic future of our operations. And, you know, there's this general consensus out there that we don't want corporate farms. Okay. How do we preserve a family farm legacy?
Number one, you build something that's somewhat profitable to bring in that next generation. Number two is you have a good plan, a written plan to transition it. It's not that complex, but both of those two things are key and paramount to us preserving family farm operations.
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.
And Clint, we've said from the beginning, right? Farm for profit was created to help farmers achieve higher levels of profitability. Why? Because profitable businesses are the ones that can expand, grow, thrive, and survive. You know, they're, They can take downturns like this and they don't complain about low commodity prices because they've already got a plan in place.
And I know that it is extremely painful right now, but this is why our listeners need us now more than anything. I don't know why, but I feel like in the last 30 days, and obviously we're recording this a little bit before it's actually going to come out. I would say the middle of 2024, that switch flipped even harder. That breaker went down for farm for profit and said,
These messages are going to be extremely critical over the next six months. And talking to you is a part of that mission to make sure that our listeners don't freak out. I was talking to somebody this morning that said her husband is losing sleep because he just doesn't know how he's going to survive this. We don't want our listeners to be in a position to where they feel the same way.
And I know that's a lot. That's hot air coming out of my mouth. I don't have a farm that I own. My wife and I own a third of a group of pigs every single turn. That is the amount of the ownership that I have. But we very closely network. You're involved in a lot of the daily decisions. Absolutely. That's the point of when we have these conversations, we talked about building that advisory team.
One of the first episodes we ever did. And maybe we need to do it again because our quality of work is much better now than it was in 2020. Mm-hmm. that advisory team is who you can rely upon to answer the questions.
Just like the peer groups that you're putting together, you now have somebody that you can trust to go about providing you advice, whether you take it or not, giving you that perspective. But I want to know something that you said during that comment section is transferring management before transitioning wealth. How have your clients successfully left a management role as the older generation?
Because it seems like our listeners struggle sometimes to get dad or grandpa to let things go.
Great question. Number one is willingness. And that's not something that your attorney or your banker or your accountant can provide. It is a personal character trait of having that willingness to say, number one, we're is capable, has the skill set, has the ability to take over some of our management duties. And then number two is that how the heck do you just give up control?
And that's just human nature is we want control. And so in order to give up control, To me, it is for that next generation to show their aptitude, their skill set, their ability to, A, take over the operation and kind of keep things status quo. But also, what are they bringing to the table?
Are they bringing some other type of skills and ability or connections, relationships to the farming operation so that the owner generation says, okay, this thing is in good hands.
right and that is primary and there's uh you know there's there's this idea out there which i i buy into of kind of a life cycle of a family farming ranching operation and number one is you start as a laborer then you slowly transition into a manager and then you transition into a leader And then finally, at the end of that cycle, is we transition into an owner. So what does that mean?
That means that we need to develop the skills to be a good employee. Then we need to develop the skills to be a good manager. Then we need to develop the skills to be a good leader. And then finally, we can actually be a capital alligator, which is what an owner is. And so if we're bringing on kids just because of their last name and not because they've professed any of those skills,
I think we're doing more harm than good into our operations. And so that's the way I look at it. Now, you mentioned something, Tanner, about these ideas of, man, it's kind of bleak out there. And the importance of a peer group, the importance of people who you trust and who you can relate to. And I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about this.
So a couple of weeks ago with brain trust day, we had a, every Wednesday morning we do what's called a sunrise sessions. And that's, it's from six 30 until seven central time every Wednesday morning. And we talk about some Bible study stuff. We talk about leadership things.
Um, just, yeah, just kind of talk about like, where are we at checking in as men and women in agriculture from a personal standpoint, not the business side, not the legal side. And, um, I was on vacation with my family, actually down in Iowa, and I didn't prepare anything for that Wednesday morning.
So 6.30 comes around, and so I show up sitting on the dock of this lake, and I just joined the Zoom call on my phone, and I tell people, like, hey, I didn't prepare anything. I'm supposed to be later here. Let's just open this thing up for discussion. One of the gentlemen...
almost immediately, who has been involved for the last seven, eight weeks, said, hey, I woke up last night, about midnight, I woke up my wife and I said, I don't know if I can do this anymore. That's pretty heavy stuff. And do you mean farming? Do you mean life in general? Like, how can we help you? How can we support you as a group? And mind you, there was 13, 14 people on this call.
And he said, I just, the numbers aren't looking good. He says, I just didn't know what the heck to do. I needed to get on this call this morning to hear from other people who have similar issues, similar concerns, but also who are there to have a support network, a support system. And so we talked through that. And as a group, there were people who were contributing to that.
And okay, fast forward two hours after this group call happened, and I got an email from somebody who has been on every single one of our Zoom calls, but has never turned on his camera, has never said a word in any of our gatherings. And he emailed me and he said, hey, that was exactly what I needed to hear this morning. I'm so thankful I was part of that group this morning.
I know that you didn't prepare anything in advance. And I was going down a very dark path. So thank you. And it's like, oh, those things just kind of hit you, right? Right. And so we spend this podcast talking about farm business and transitions and what are we doing as an industry to facilitate some of these things.
Honestly, a lot of what Brain Trust Egg ultimately is, is let's talk about things that matter with trusted people who are there to support you, not chastise you.
Right.
So anyway, I wanted to share that, Tanner, since you had mentioned, you know, some of those other issues that are plaguing agriculture today.
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.
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?
Marriages, family, businesses, it's all bigger than you. Yep.
Yep. Well, and I recognize that I just threw a wet blanket on our discussion, you know, bringing that up. But the reason I bring that up is, is just the importance of, you know, it's something where, yeah, we can have disagreements on, are we going to be no-till, strip-till, conventional-till? Are we going to have disagreements on, do we cover crop?
Do we not, you know, are we raising our cattle in a confinement setting? Are we, you know, grass-fed beef, things like that. But at the end of the day, aren't we all in this thing together? As agriculture, let's support all of the various ways that folks can get involved in agriculture. And man, I think that's really something that we ought to drive home a little bit more than maybe we do.
And part of that is, generally speaking, let's support each other Yes, from a mental health, mental fitness standpoint, and just let's support everybody involved who wants to either get into agriculture, who wants to expand their operation, and who also wants to transition out. And that's what we're ultimately trying to do.
I think that this is ultimately a make-a-choice situation. because we've done motivational episodes. We pull TikTok clips and we get fired up. And typically we put those types of shows out right after a holiday because we know holidays can be tough. We also know that holidays are tough for us to schedule interviews around. So it works both ways.
But ultimately right now, there's a choice that our listeners get to make because we've got vices. People are going to get into the booze more. People are going to find those methods that are going to take their attention away from something that is painful. They're going to do something to ease their pain. We know that divorce rates are going to go up.
We also know, unfortunately, that farmer suicides, which is already a high number, are going to go up when economy and farm times get more difficult. But we can consciously make a choice. It may not be the right choice. We may not be going down the right path, but we can make a choice to do something. We can grow in our knowledge. We can
grow in our understanding of businesses we can grow in our network of people that can support us or build our advisory team we can grow in the number of farm for profit podcast episodes that you listen to to help our ratings and oh no sorry that's sidetracked try a little humor in the middle of a very serious point that we have a choice are you as a person going to grow or are you not
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.
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?
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.
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.
So to that, to that point, Corey, people love him or hate him or have just no opinion on Dave Ramsey. Um, one of the things that I respect about him is that he owns a lot of real estate with cash. Okay. And so in 2008, obviously we had the great, you know, financial issue, but also, I mean, it really affected, it really impacted the real estate world.
And he said, this is a time for me to buy real estate at a bargain on discount. And because he was sitting on piles of cash and, you know, he didn't have those issues. And so he,
the last and this was a couple years ago i looked into it i mean he bought something like 10 15 million dollars worth of of of real estate income producing real estate in that you know right after that 2008 crisis that is now worth you know hundreds of millions of dollars and it to your point corey it's it's is this an opportunity for those good managers If so, then let's capitalize on it.
If you're not in that situation to take advantage of this as potentially an opportunity, what are you going to do from an operational standpoint to put yourself in that position going forward to capitalize on the next opportunity?
Right.
And I think those are the messages that we ought to be sending.
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.
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.
I go back to some of the advice I got when my wife and I were going through birthing classes. A long time ago. We did. We went. Really? Me? You think I would not go? Yeah, I suppose. Yeah. You probably got the breathing down and everything. I went. Yeah. Never needed any of it. But they said, you will never be ready for a baby. Whatever preparation you can have, you are never going to be ready.
You think you are at an income level to where you can support your child, and you never expect how much that child's going to cost. You will never be at a fully ready position to before this child comes, but you will figure it out. It's going to be painful because you're going to not know why the baby's crying. You're going to not know why formula is so expensive.
You're going to have opportunities during that time period that is just like where we're sitting in the ag economy right now. If you make that decision and you go at it a hundred percent with your gumption, it may hurt, but you stick with it and you figure it out.
Agreed.
So Clint, as far as this episode goes, we've covered a lot of things. I'm going to try and do my best to summarize it. But I want you to be thinking about the payoff question that we've been asking our guests for this time period. How have you been juggling work and personal life? So think about that as I kind of go through the topic that we had today. We had Clint Fisher here.
Uh, just sounds like it's spelled. There's no, no worry about that. Clint without the Eastwood Fisher. Well, I don't know. There is a C in there. Fisker. Oh yeah. We already got corrected. We can't say, can't say that, but he's CEO of brain trust ad. He's an attorney from Brookings, South Dakota.
And we talked a lot about how he's taken his professional understanding from the legal side and his desire to learn and provide more input to the ag side to put a comprehensive approach into a peer group that can bring value from across the country. Right now, I think in my notes here, you've got members from 34 or more states that are participating on doing this.
We're helping battle the feeling of isolation. We're focusing in these peer group conversations on ag business management, not the things that we can't control like the weather and the markets. You're coming at these discussions from an entrepreneurial mindset to be able to help your participants grow, to be able to grow in either knowledge or business size or whichever it is.
I thought it was neat how you put the life cycle of a farm employee or family member on a farm. And to complete that cycle, you said you started as a laborer, you go into a manager, you become a leader, you become an owner. And then I would say that hopefully you're still physically able to then, after being an owner, become a laborer again as you transition it to the next generation.
So that was a really interesting thing that I'd put down. We talked about how you've identified some of your successful operations transitioning the management ability, the ability to give up control. And it starts with willingness. And you have to show that there's a desire to take over.
So if you have willingness to give up control and someone who's willing to take over control, then you have to demonstrate your capacity, your responsibility, your skill level, and be trained for that next step in that farming life cycle. But ultimately, the farms that transition the best that Clint has noticed is there's buy-in from all sides and all generations.
They've successfully transitioned management before they transition wealth. And those farms that run it more like a business and have a written plan transition better than the others. So those are the key takeaways that I had from today, Clint.
Love it, Tanner. Great, great summary. And here's my answer to your question. I'm not great at separating or carving off time from business. business endeavors to non-business endeavors. But what I will say is it is crucial and it is something I'm trying to get better at.
And I think it is so important for, especially in the agricultural world, whether you're a farmer or a rancher or an egg business owner, and you have all of these irons in the fire to unplug and to focus on family. And me personally, I focus, trying to focus more on faith and trying to understand there is more out there in this life that we have than just our farming operation. And so
How do I unplug? I have hobbies. I also have three daughters with a son on the way coming in October. Congrats. So a lot of my unplugging is hanging out with them. And I love them. And they're awesome. And I enjoy spending time with them and my wife. And so let's prioritize family. Let's prioritize faith. Let's prioritize mental health. And then the rest will kind of come together.
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.
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.
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.
We found you on Twitter. How long have you been on Twitter, Rex?
Shoot, it's probably been about 18 months.
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?
Yeah, it's not trying to be engaging, chasing the algorithm. I talk about things that are near and dear to ag people's everyday's hearts. And I guess to answer your question is I try to explain here's a real life scenario. Here's a story. of somebody who I'm working with, how does that apply to your life? Because personally, I learn the best from stories. I expect other people do as well.
Therefore, I'm going to present stories of, here's a situation, what do you guys think? I'm not here to pass judgment, or I'm not here to dictate one way or another what is right or wrong. but I want people to think about these ideas of succession planning and transition planning and farm business management. That's been my approach.
It's probably not something that you would Google and find blog posts about or things of that nature, but that's been my approach is just trying to relay stories, real life stories, and How do you interpret those?
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.
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.
There are. There are. And that goes to the point of – which is what we talk about a lot within Brain Trust Ag. But I throw those things out there to say, hey, let's inspire that next generation. Let's not just be all Debbie Downers about this thing and saying that, oh, you can't get into agriculture because you don't have $16 million worth of capital to go buy two quarters of ground.
And let's inspire all of these opportunities that do exist. In my world, working through farm transitions, A lot of it is there's a generation right now that we're kind of facing who don't necessarily have a successor to take over, number one.
Number two is they also don't want to sell out to the next door neighbor who's the big-time operator, but they also don't realize that there's an opportunity to bring on a third-party, non-relative successor to take over their operation. And so how do we promote that more is also one of kind of my focal points.
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?
Yeah. On X, I'm Clint W. Fisher and braintrustag.com. Pretty easy. My email's on there. Yeah, just My DMs are open. Just reach out. I try to respond as much as possible. And then I guess number one, first and foremost, is let's support Farm for Profit and what you guys are doing because it is huge. It is so important, the message that you guys are sharing with everybody in agriculture.
And, yeah, kudos to you.
We appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Listeners, we appreciate you. We appreciate the guests that you send us like Clint. And we appreciate having guests like him provide value for you to take in and put into your operation. So what do you say?
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.
So let's keep that going and just keep, you know, call your friends. I like it.
And until next time, have a good one.
Remember, if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.