Dad's wisdom: On the farm with Mark Rust

Narrator: Welcome to a special edition series that we are calling Dad's Wisdom. Enjoy the wisdom and perspective that our senior peers in agriculture can bring. We will be running the series over the next several months, so if you know of a farmer with many years of experience that you feel would be a good fit for an interview, please let us know. Enjoy.

Chris

Barron: Welcome everybody to another edition of the Ag View Pitch, and today we're going to have another conversation with Dad's Wisdom. But today we've got Dad and Mom here, and so this is going to be a fun conversation. We're here in Illinois and we're talking with Mark and Laura Rust. And so you guys farm here in Illinois. Mark, we'll start out with you. Tell us a little bit about where we're located here.

Mark

Rust: Oh, we're in central Illinois here, just a small town here, uh, Loda, Illinois, I guess it is. And, uh, we just do farm around the Loda area mostly and around Buckley.

Chris

Barron: And what part of Illinois are we in?

Mark

Rust: Central Illinois.

Chris

Barron: Central. We're in the, in the heart of where the crops were really good this year, right?

Mark

Rust: Uh, no, I wish they would be, but no, they're not too good in this area, but Hey, we'll get what we can out of it, that's all.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, it's a pretty rough year with all the rain and everything. You guys got everything planted, but there's quite a bit of prevent plant around the area, sir?

Mark

Rust: Most everything got planted. There's a little bit of prevent planting, but not too much. Everybody pretty well tried to get their corn in the ground, and you know, it wasn't that late, I guess. We've been this late before, but with the dry weather this summer, it's just kind of set everything back a little more than what we normally like to see.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, well, sounds good. Well, let's get going on the topic at hand here. We've got Mark, you're, you're 59 and you're working on transition right now, so we'll get to that in a minute. And we've got Laura here, and she— you're real excited about having this conversation. I think, I think you got roped into this by your sons. We just got done spending the day here working on some transition and some business structure. And so, Mark, give us a little history of how you got started farming and kind of when that started, how that went about.

Mark

Rust: Well, I was, oh, worked with my father-in-law years ago. I worked construction beforehand, but helped him after work and Saturdays, Sundays and everything. So we just kind of helped out a little bit, then all of a sudden I got a call from work and he passed away and just kind of got, you know, decided, well, hey, I got to talk to the landlord and see if I could keep farming and get rid of the construction work out of it. And so I just got lucky enough, and they all with me. I was only 20, I think around 23 years old, so in the end it was in 1981, so things didn't look all that great either. But we made it through there. The '80s, like I say, didn't look real great, but with all the help we had and everything, that's what kind of got, got us started here.

Chris

Barron: You bet. So you say, you know, your father-in-law passed away. What, what's the, the backstory there? How old was he and and were you ready for that? And how did you guys deal with that?

Mark

Rust: Well, we wasn't ready for it, but, uh, you know, when I got out of high school, my wife was— Laura here, she— we was high school sweethearts, I guess.

Chris

Barron: So, and you can chime in here.

Laura

Rust: Yeah, I was actually in 8th grade and he was a freshman when we started dating. Wow. And so we dated all through high school. So that's how he became my dad's partner, sort of, so to speak, his helper on the farm. And so then when he unexpectedly passed away at 44, he then kind of got it thrown in his lap, so to speak. And he knew he always wanted to be a farmer. Construction wasn't his thing. And so he just went out and put his nose to the grindstone and prove that that's what you wanted to do and proved yourself to your landlords. And here we are today.

Chris

Barron: So you, you proved yourselves to the landlords, but, you know, a 23-year-old kid, basically, when you think about it, you know, in today's world, looking back, you know, at 59 years old now. So what was the response from the lenders, from the bankers? I mean, did they have any concerns or were there any challenges with with that part of it?

Mark

Rust: Yeah, there was one. Seems like maybe the first or second year there. Well, I guess it was 1988. Maybe things wasn't real good that year. We had a dry year again and they kind of said, well, things didn't look too good. If it turns out the way it was again, that we, hey, we might have to scale back a little bit. Well, We scaled back just a little bit as far as watching our expenses and we kept everything. We had a good year the next year so we got to keep everything. So we just kind of kept our nose to the grindstone and worked with some good landlords where they sold a little ground up north and reinvested land down here. We picked up a little bit more ground with it and all, and that was kind of how, how we got it got started. And they was— did a good job for them, so they was real, real happy with that.

Chris

Barron: So, gotcha. Any, any, uh, what were some of the challenges that you had to deal with, Laura? I mean, during that, you know, you're a big part of this operation and kind of keeping things going, and, and you guys had, had the two boys that are actually very active in the farm today. Talk a little bit about that. That process for you guys? Because you were pretty young taking over a pretty good-sized operation.

Laura

Rust: I think when you're young and dumb is what comes to mind. But, um, because right as we kind of got our feet wet farming on our own, then I think it was 3 years later that Mark's father passed away in a combine accident. And he and Mark sort of farmed together a little bit, and So therefore we were totally on our own, and there, there were some scary days. And especially when you're looking at the drought year in '88 and all those kind of crazy years, it, it's kind of hard to sit across the table and look at the, the guy who is trying his hardest to be optimistic. But, you know, I guess that's the beauty of youth and We made it through. Yeah. And here we are, and, and we're in the process of trying to turn things over to our sons and their families.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, and that must have been a pretty big hurdle for you guys, both, you know, financially, but really emotionally, you know, to lose both your dads in a pretty short period of time.

Laura

Rust: It was, it was tough. And, you know, but you This man has a great worth it work ethic, and he always has, and he never really has ever been told you can't do something because he's going to prove to you that he can.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, well, that's one thing in business I think that's a big deal when, you know, you think about all of the, all of the times that if you're an entrepreneur, which in farming we're entrepreneurial, right? And so, you know, it's being told you can't do something and and just being able to prove that you really can, that's a big deal.

Mark

Rust: So yeah, it, uh, it worked out good for us. Farming's really been good for us. I can't, can't complain about it.

Chris

Barron: Any, um, you know, for those that are listening, you know, if you were to give some advice to some of the younger producers right now, because you know the, the barriers to entry in agriculture are almost impossible at this point in time, and You know, for those out there listening with kids or some of the younger farmers out there, what advice would you guys give them, you know, as young producers and just trying to get through one year to the next and try to hold things together? And, you know, and when you're young, you know, time doesn't go fast enough. You can't get to where you want to go quick enough. But as you get older, you start to realize, you know, well, time actually really does fly. And so, 2 more years or 3 more years of struggling to get to where you want to go is probably an okay thing.

So what advice would you guys give to people in that age range trying to get to that next level?

Mark

Rust: I would be optimistic. I would tell you, you know what, if they just wanted to do it, I'd gamble and do it. I know everybody told me back in the '80s that farming was tough and all, you got to get a job and you got to do this. And I just kind of, I guess, you know, one thing is going to prove them wrong. But you know what, just get your nose down in the grindstone and, you know what, prove everybody wrong. And I would just say, hey, kind of keep doing it. I mean, if you want to farm, you're going to make it. You'll make it.

Laura

Rust: Comments, Laura?

Chris

Barron: Um, you know, and then any advice out there for the young moms, you know, because there's a lot to, you know, raising the family. I mean, the, you know, supposedly, you know, we're out there, the guys are out there doing the stuff, but you got a lot going on in the home front and keeping everything going, keeping everybody in line, and somebody's got to be the glue in the operation, right?

Laura

Rust: Yeah.

Narrator: Yeah.

Laura

Rust: And I was one of the fortunate ones though. I got to stay home with my kids and be a full-time farm wife and mom, which I feel very blessed to have been a part to, or blessed to do that. And I guess, you know, you just have to be your husband's biggest cheerleader. You always have to be supportive whether you really want to be or not, but you can't let him know that. And And you, I think living within our means, you know, I, it's, yeah, that's, it's important to me because this business isn't always profitable. And, you know, sometimes you just have to kind of suck it up a little bit and do without.

Chris

Barron: Well, that's one of the things that we hear in a lot of operations talking about, you know, not only are the margins tight, but, you know, the budgets are kind of tight and there's some years that are pretty lean. And you got to survive through those years, but it's also a time commitment, right? You know, so, you know, it's also understanding that seasonally there's going to be some long days, some long hours. How do you deal with that frustration? How do you, how would you communicate to some of the young wives out there? Maybe some of them didn't grow up on a farm. Maybe some of them had a little different experience. Is there any advice that you would throw to them from mom's advice, you know, on, on dealing with the long hours and the stress? And is there any, any good suggestions on how to deal with that and work through that?

Laura

Rust: Well, um, the one thing that we always did is I always took, um, supper to the field and the boys always went and that was always kind of our time to get to see Dad. And we always tried to make the most out of rain days. And, you know, there weren't a lot of vacations or anything because This man's a workaholic. I mean, that's just the way he is, and I think that's why he's been successful. But I, I just feel like you just have to be supportive and you can't be on their case all the time. And you just know that they want to be home as bad as you want them to be home. But that's just what we have to— they have to do. It's not definitely an 8-to-5 job, that's for sure.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, that's right. So, um, I guess I'm gonna pick on you for a minute, Mark. If, if you could go back in time and give your 23, 25, 30-year-old self advice, what would that be? What would you, what would you tell yourself? And then how would that relate to, you know, today's 25, 20, you know, 30-year-old?

Mark

Rust: Oh, I don't know. I, I guess I would Sit there and like I say, if they had a, you know, if they wanted to farm, I would definitely try to— I wouldn't discourage it. I would always try to be upbeat with it. As far as buying land, I know a lot of guys always want to buy some land too that were, you know, the way the prices are now, it is kind of tough. Everybody says it never will cash flow. It never will. Sometimes you just got to start out slow and maybe You know, bite off a little piece and see if how it works for you instead of jumping in a big, big track of land or anything like that. But like I say, I just, I would try to, you know, nothing else, work with somebody a little bit if you really want to, you know, get into it and stick with it. It'll be good to you. It'll eventually be good to you.

Chris

Barron: What, and you speaking of buying land, when was the first piece you guys bought? And how'd that go for you?

Mark

Rust: The first piece was the home place here where we're at. We bought it off mother-in-law after, I don't know, I guess I think in 1988 was the year of the drought we bought it.

Chris

Barron: Good timing.

Mark

Rust: Yeah, yeah, it was. But it was a good thing. I mean, we wanted to be out of the, you know, we lived in town and we wanted to be out here close to the country, you know, where we were just, you know, shed and the tools that were, you know, the machinery and everything too. So which would work out good. Then we went on and, you know, got that one paid for and we could, you know, another one came up. So we bought it a little bit more and just kind of stair-stepped it as our career went, kept going farming.

Chris

Barron: That's all. Gotcha. So did you ever have any time where you felt like, you know, is this, are we going to be able to make these payments? And, you know, any, any struggling times that you can kind of tell us about and how you got to kind of work through those?

Mark

Rust: Oh, that's about every year. I think it seems like any more the last few years.

Chris

Barron: Hop in here too, Laura.

Mark

Rust: But yeah, it, uh, it's a struggle sometimes. I mean, you know, there— we've— we're not fortunate enough to live in the real good ground, so I mean, it's kind of challenging around this area. So, um, but, but we, we made it through it. Um, I don't know, as far as advice, we have— I guess a guy just Hey, stick with it and, and get a good banker and you'll be all right, right?

Laura

Rust: Great place to raise children.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, that's—

Laura

Rust: I can't think of a better place to raise children.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, that's just it. So let's go there for a minute then. So now, um, we were here today working with you guys and, and we're working on some business structure and kind of changing how things are set up for the operation so that you can start some transitioning over to the boys having a little more control, a little more operation. What got you guys started thinking about that? And you know, you're 59 years old, and so you're, you're doing it a little more proactively than some others. I mean, we see a lot of times people at about 65 or, you know, or even later start thinking, well, maybe should we, we should be transit transitioning this over. Um, kind of what's your thoughts there and, and how's that, that been going?

Mark

Rust: Well, our kids are One of them's 34, the other one's 30, sort of 38. Then I just figured, you know what, I'm 59, it's time to— you know what, we need to probably start looking at it, kind of saying, hey, we're not gonna live forever. And I don't know, read a lot of farm magazines, I guess, and always kind of seen that, that, you know, hey, this is how you, you know, maybe you try to do it. And you just I don't know, you just kind of talk to different peoples and I just kind of thought, well, you know what, we're not getting any younger ourselves and we give it 10 more years and we're 69 years old, well, then the kids are that much older and they're going to say, well, why do I want to go and do this and I'm that old too. So we just thought it was a good time to probably say, hey, it's time to get started on it because it's not going to be a, you know, one-year deal and be done.

It's going to take a few years to get through this all too. So, and you know, that's why you kind of spread the risk a little bit through, you know, for the kids to get started in it more and turn a few more things over. And maybe we can enjoy the rest of our old life together then. Cool.

Laura

Rust: Oh, okay. I'm kind of the boss hog of the group, of the mom that tries to keep the boys and dad and everybody, um, together. And I keep telling my boys how lucky they are. I said, you guys don't know how scary it is to be out in this farming business starting out as young as we were, all by yourself, and you really didn't have a whole lot of help. And I said, you guys are so fortunate to have your dad to be there behind you and kind of setting you up. And, and I think they know they are, but I, uh, I appreciate what he's doing for them, and I, I know they do too.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, and that's, and that's really good and a testament to, to where you guys are at. And one of the comments and things you made today in our meeting, I thought was interesting too, Mark. You know, you're, you're looking at, okay, that next rental opportunity and that next additional opportunity for growth in the business. And a lot of times I see when people get to a certain point in the business, the operation, or the, the business gets to a certain level, stagnation can start to set in where, you know, business growth maybe isn't at the top of mind. It's like, you know, this is working, we're cash flowing, let's just throttle back and coast a little bit here. And I think that's a recipe for the business to go backwards if you don't stay on top of it.

So I was real impressed with your comments that, you know, we're going to be kind of looking for that land and some of those opportunities and growing the business. Talk a little bit about, you know, what, what you were kind of telling me today there.

Mark

Rust: Well, I just, uh, you know, I'm not one to sit back and, and just think, okay, we— enough's enough, whatever, too. I'm always kind of optimistic about— try to be optimistic anyway about different opportunities that's out there. So you know what, if there's an opportunity to, you know, hey, let's put a little bit more land if we can, or possibly, you know, through all this, if we get it through there, Dad might buy a little another 80 or something then too that they could, you know, have down the road there for the grandkids and things like that too. So, so I'm, I don't know, I guess I'm looking for opportunities and a way to maybe cut costs a little bit, whatever I can, and spread some risk out over some more ground or whatever it might be. We You know, got a couple other things we do have going to force too.

So we kind of, I don't know, mix, mix that with a different diversified a little bit here too. So that kind of helps out a little bit too.

Chris

Barron: Talk a little bit about that diversification. Tell us a little bit about, about what you're doing. Cause one, one common thing, theme that we see with a lot of operations is, you know, if you're a crop operation or pork producer or whatever, and there's not another source of revenue, sometimes that really makes the margin tight. You know, if you can have one of the spouses or somebody working off the farm to generate some money to bring back into the operation, it kind of makes things a little bit more, um, able to cash flow, let's put it that way. But you guys have, have some other things you're doing on the side. Tell us a little bit about, about that.

Mark

Rust: Yeah, we, uh, we decided here a couple years ago, it's been, I guess, now, we bought a car wash and kind of run that. So that kind of, you know, gives us something else to do. And it's got some storage units with it too, I guess. So yeah, it gives us something else to worry about, I guess, too. But no, it's been a good thing for us then. And then my other older son's got the trucking business, he does., and it kind of keeps us occupied with that a little bit. And then last year we started selling this TNT Cleaner, so, and that went real well so far with us too. So just, just kind of, I don't know, always kind of look for different opportunities. I did do a little construction stuff then too. We helped, you know, a few people out in town here with construction things, or destruction, I guess. A lot of times better off, but But yeah, I got friends with a guy with construction.

We kind of, you know, did some work together with that and just kind of always looking for a different opportunity to make a little money, that's all.

Chris

Barron: So other ways of bringing additional cash flow into the business is really a big— yeah, it's really a big deal. I mean, you know, like I said, when the margins are as tight as they are, sometimes it's, uh, it's good to bring a little extra cash flow into the mix. So is there anything that I, you know, we're kind of doing this off the cuff, and I— we kind of had to strong-arm Laura here to stand here and have this conversation with us. But you know, dad's wisdom is important, but mom's wisdom is just as important. And so is there anything that I haven't asked or that you guys would like to touch on? Any, any long lessons that you've learned as you've been going through this whole farming thing, or any last comments or anything you'd like to touch on, or, or discuss. And you look confused, Laura, but it's a good life.

Mark

Rust: I really, I can't complain about it. You know, yeah, there's difficult times through it. I mean, it's just like any job is going to have. I think you're going to have, you know, tough times through that too. Of course, we don't see it. We see this, you know, just because we're farmers, we see the farm end of it. But so yeah, I mean, the last few years has been kind of tough again, just just as the tariff and everything going on there. But I'm sure you're going to get it worked out with, with everybody and stuff, I hope. But it's just some challenging times. And, and like I say, you just have to kind of watch, watch your spending sometimes. Don't overspend, or try not to, and just keep your nose to the grindstone. And any time you can try to bring some other revenue in, you know, maybe you have to try that too.

Chris

Barron: So Yeah. Sounds good. Laura?

Laura

Rust: I don't really have much except the tough survive, I guess.

Mark

Rust: I don't know.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. Well, that's right. Farming is a ride, right?

Laura

Rust: It is. It's sometimes a wild ride.

Chris

Barron: Yeah.

Laura

Rust: It is, but it's a good life. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. Well, that's great. And we really appreciate the conversation here and Thank you, Laura, for coming up here and being part of the conversation because I, you know, you guys have a wonderful operation. You're doing a great job. I'm starting to transition to the boys in the operation. And, and, you know, when we do this wisdom thing, you guys are pretty young yet, actually only, only 59 years old. So, um, you know, congratulations on all the, all the things you've done and the success you guys have had. You've done a great job and great family and we appreciate that. So thank you. And again, we will, we will be back again with another Dad's Wisdom, and we'll try to round up a few more moms along the way. This worked pretty good.

Laura

Rust: So, all right, thanks, Chris.

Chris

Barron: You bet. Thanks a lot.

Mark

Rust: Thank you, Chris.

Chris

Barron: You bet. So thanks everybody for listening. And again, if you have a dad or a mom, grandma, grandpa, or somebody that you think would be great for us to have a conversation with. There's definitely a lot of wisdom in, in this generation that we want to pull, pull forward and make sure that we're all learning from. So with that, thanks everybody for joining us, and we'll catch you again next time on the Ag View Pitch.

Narrator: Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Dad's Wisdom. Please make sure to leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts And for any questions or ideas that you would like discussed, please email us at cbarron@agviewsolutions.com. Have a great day!