Dad's Wisdom: Tom Husnik

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: Tom might not have been a farmer, but he grew up on a farm and worked with farmers for over 40 years. He was one of those guys that worked with my dad and worked real close with him and had an influence on my life. One of those guys that's like a father figure but is really a mentor for your whole farming career. And that's why I wanted to have Tom on here for Dad's Wisdom. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we are making a video of this podcast. So if you're listening to it, that's great, and if you get a chance and want to watch this on YouTube, go ahead and do that.

And so today with Dad's Wisdom, we have a new special guest with us that's actually He's not directly a farmer but grew up on a farm and is an individual who I had a lot of years of experience with, and I can get into that in a minute, but I want to first have you go ahead, Tom Husnik, have you introduce yourself and tell us where you live and where you're at today.

Tom

Husnik: Okay, well, I'm Tom Husnik and I currently live in Vinton, Iowa, but I was born and raised north of the Twin Cities, north of St. Paul, Minnesota, about 30 miles on a farm there. So that's where I started out.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. So my experience with Tom was started in about 1972. Is that about right?

Tom

Husnik: I moved down here in 1977.

Chris

Barron: '77. So what? So it would have been '70. Okay. Well, I was off a little ways.

Tom

Husnik: Well, time gets away from you.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, it must. But anyway, so, so I just remember you, Tom, as being the first account manager. So my dad was a Pioneer sales rep And he started in about '72, so maybe that's why I'm thinking '72.

Tom

Husnik: He started, yep, he was, yep, before I came down here.

Chris

Barron: And as a little kid, I remember, you know, going out and seeing customers and talking to farmers and stuff with my dad. And I remember, you know, you being there as kind of in my memory the first account manager and sort of boss that my dad had, which was kind of fun watching somebody get to boss my dad because he was always bossing me. But, you know, it was great because during the course of your entire career, we had you in our pioneer agency, which my family still has today, as our account manager the entire time, with the exception, I think there was 3 years where we had Kendra Van Sloten for a short period of time when there was some changing of areas and stuff. But you stayed really in close contact with our farm operation and our family. And so there's a close connection there and And so that's why I wanted you to be on Dad's Wisdom.

You know, when I first called you, you're like, well, I don't farm and I don't, you know, but, but you have been one of the most influential people in our operation from the standpoint of just information and paying attention to us and making sure we're more focused on our business and thinking out of the box and staying on top of things. And so I think there's some big wisdom that you can share with us and with the audience here that we work with through the podcast and with Ag View Solutions on just some of the things that you've experienced over your entire career. So let's, let's start to dive into that and let's have you kind of tell, you know, that first year you were starting. Well, actually even go back a little further, kind of where you grew up and tell us a little background on yourself.

Narrator: Okay.

Tom

Husnik: Well, I grew up north of the Twin Cities, so about 30 miles north of St. Paul, Minnesota. And as I look back on our operation, my dad farmed with his brother and they started, of course, during World War II. So things were pretty tough at that time, you know, because of all the things going on with World War II and the ability to get tires or tractors or equipment. So they made it through that. But our farm was really unique because they looked at what the opportunities were for their area.

Narrator: Yeah.

Tom

Husnik: And so when I, I had some older brothers and stuff and they started out in the livestock area, but then they soon went to cash grain and they were one of the first farmers to try soybeans in that area back in the '50s. And that was a totally new crop, especially for that part of the world. And so they had the first experience there. And then really when they started going to cash grain, they started thinking about how are we going to keep fully employed for the whole year. So they started some other businesses, custom bale hay, baling. So we had 2 balers, small square balers, and they traveled a wide area because there was a lot of farmers around there that had hay that they needed to make for forage and they couldn't afford a baler. And my dad and uncle were experts. At baling hay. So they had a summer business. All summer, that's all that they did was go around and bale hay.

And then on the sideline, my mother raised chickens. So we sold eggs and we had customers that came from the cities. And we also had a big strawberry patch. And it was kind of unique because back then people would come from the cities and they wanted to come out to a farm and they picked their own strawberries. And so that was a good summer business. And obviously we had a big garden, but we raised— at that time all our corn was raised on the ear. So we had ear corn and so we didn't have livestock. So then they were thinking through how would they market this grain? What were their marketing opportunities for ear corn there? And very, very resourceful. They found a new feed mill up by Lake Superior, which would be about a 4-hour truck drive up there. That was a new feed mill that needed grain. There was no grain grown in northern Wisconsin.

And they wanted ear corn so they could grind for the dairy farmers up there. So all during the winter they bought a truck that was set up to haul ear corn and all winter they'd haul ear corn up to this elevator and of course they were paid a big premium. So they went out and searched their own market and developed their own market with that. And it was a tremendous relationship. And then while we were in the baling business, we would bale 20,000 to 30,000 bales in our own farming operation. And guess what? Around the Twin Cities, there was a lot of small horse farms where people had a couple horses. So they developed a horse hay business. So during the winter, we would deliver horse hay, 40 or 50 bales at a time, to a smaller farmer where they were, or to a hobby farmer that had a few horses.

Then in the fall when it would freeze up, we were in a kind of a low-lying area, swamp area, and there was this reed canary grass and it would grow 5, 6 foot tall. We'd— once it froze, we would go in there and cut it and bale it. And we had a covering hay business. And what was that for? We would sell it to the different markets in the cities. And we would take a bale of the covering hay and they'd take that bale and break it up and put it in small paper bags. And then they would sell it to those people that had rose bushes so they could cover their rose bushes for the winter. Wow. It's called covering hay or they'd use it to cover, say, some concrete that was poured. So very diversified. And they made sure that we were employed the whole year round. So a lot of things that could still apply to today's agriculture.

Chris

Barron: So pretty massively on the leading edge.

Tom

Husnik: Well, the thing of it is, because it was a big transition going from dairy to livestock to crops, you know, thinking, well, crops, you know, you're busy in the spring and you're busy in the fall.

Chris

Barron: What are we going to do the rest of the year?

Tom

Husnik: Right. And they figured out right away that they needed to do something. And then it worked out. It worked out very well. But a lot of it, they they looked at the opportunities in our location. And because of the opportunities we had for horse hay or covering hay or hauling this corn to northern Wisconsin, they took advantage of those things.

Chris

Barron: Wow. So they had 4 other profit centers besides just the crop operation and they were synergistic with the farm.

Tom

Husnik: And then in between times, my dad started selling seed and that's how I got wound up with Pioneer Hybrid because my dad in 1959 since he knew all the farmers because he was out baling their hay, he knew all the farmers in the area, plus we raised a lot of corn and they used a lot of Pioneer, so they, he was hired as the Pioneer sales rep for that area. So that was another sideline that they worked in, and that was kind of the January, February part of the year. So during the worst months in the winter, he was selling seed.

Narrator: Wow.

Tom

Husnik: A little different than today.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, yeah. Just a little, but that's pretty amazing though. You know, when you think about today's operations, you know, so many of us, if we're purely just corn and soybean production in Iowa, or say corn, soybean, wheat in a lot of the other states besides Iowa, the margins have been massively tight the last 6 years. You know, since, since we went from about 2008 through 2012, We had some rising commodity prices. Now we've seen these lowering commodity prices, and that's just great wisdom, great thinking to try to figure out how do we generate extra revenue in our farm operation. 'Cause you can cut costs, but you can't save yourself to prosperity. You can't cut enough in a lot of situations to be profitable.

Tom

Husnik: Well, that's one thing that I always appreciated working with you guys is every time that we saw a new opportunity that you could maybe get into, whether it was crop insurance, or into technologies or whatever. I always made sure that I went to farmers and offered them those kind of opportunities for additional income, plus the value of what you would learn from that particular aspect of the business.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, because there's always synergy and additional profit centers. You got to be careful. You don't want to do a thousand different things, but you figure out what you're good at and then ask the question, is there synergy in this endeavor that, you know, might kind of tie in, you know, to what we're already doing. That's kind of what your family was doing with, with the baling, and it got the relationships going. It tied into this, to seed sales, that tied into, you know, relationships with the horse people and all that kind of thing. And, and probably gave you some pretty good premiums on the hay.

Tom

Husnik: Oh, there's no doubt about it. They sought their market, and those are the same kind of lessons that we could do today. If you For example, and I know you guys have taken advantage, if you can raise high-quality corn that maybe is a little heavier test weight than your neighbors, there's a market in Cedar Rapids for that. Maybe a dime a bushel, but if you know that and they can depend on you to deliver, and that was the key, we did the delivery. We delivered the product to the feed mill. We delivered the hay to the horse farmer or to the garden center. We were able to take, get the right product to the right place at the right time.

Chris

Barron: Right.

Tom

Husnik: And that's pretty crucial to any business.

Chris

Barron: Right. And you were, you were basically farm to table before farm to table was even a topic.

Narrator: Right.

Tom

Husnik: I mean, they were way ahead of their time, but a lot of it was because where we were located. They took advantages of the population center and the situation they were in.

Chris

Barron: Right.

Tom

Husnik: So those were some good lessons that I think we can still use today.

Chris

Barron: For sure. So that's awesome. So tell me a little bit about, you know, let's transition a little bit into, okay, that's your family business. How did you then start working towards Pioneer and becoming a lifetime employee and being an account manager throughout your entire career?

Tom

Husnik: Well, of course, my dad started selling Pioneer in 1959, and I was actually one of his helpers and did a lot of the paperwork. Because he wasn't too excited about doing paperwork at that time. So I helped do the invoicing. Of course, everything was done by hand. So I got to learn the business pretty well. And the manager that worked with my dad, he was a very good guy and he got me interested in possibly working for Pioneer. So when I went to college, I knew I was going to go into agriculture and I actually went into agricultural education. And I student taught, but Pioneer gave me a call and asked me to interview. They had never hired somebody right out of college because, you know, the average age of the farmer was probably 55 to 60, and I was 22, and they really wondered whether a 22-year-old could work with a 55, 60, 70-year-old that was maybe pretty set in their ways.

So But I was— they offered me the job and so I took the job. So I started with Pioneer in 1975 and then had a 40-year career with them. And so it was a good, good career and very interesting and learned a lot along the way.

Narrator: Okay.

Chris

Barron: So that's where we're going to go next. You learned a lot along the way, right? And so what are some of the lessons along the way that you know, farmers could learn from that you experienced in today's world, you know. So you started as a 22-year-old. One of the things that sticks out to me right away is the generational dynamic difference. And so we see that a lot today where, you know, the old guard's kind of stepped out in some of the instances, whether it's lending, whether it's crop protection, whether it's the seed industry, whether it's machinery and equipment. To where you've got kind of a new fleet or a new set of millennials entering into the workforce on the sales side of things. And you've been there, you did that, you know, you came in as the young buck with some of the older people.

So what are some of the lessons you learned along the way and some things that farmers, you know, both the dads that are listening to this and the sons that are listening to this, what are some of the lessons?

Tom

Husnik: Well, I think the first thing is that you've gotta always be a lifelong learner. And the thing that I would see is as I work with farmers, you could see a big separation between the ones that started to really plan, and I call it strategic planning, where they looked at their operation and determined what their positives were and maybe their weaknesses, and then they work towards putting together a plan. And in the seed business, we always encourage farmers to compare varieties and hybrids. And got them to look at that so we could measure, you know, one variety against another, one hybrid against another, so that they could make a mathematical decision instead of saying, "Well, this is a pretty good corn crop." Because you know what, those days they were still picking on the ear, some had picker-shellers, combines were just starting in the business.

They really never really knew for sure how to compare products. And how to determine. So hopefully that taught them to look at a lot of things and sit down with a pencil and paper and calculate, you know, what's making me the money and which direction should I go. So, and you could see a wide variation in farmers that were looking at that. Farmers have always been hard workers and through the ages, you know, it was always Well, the harder you work, the better you're going to get ahead. Well, it became it's not only hard work, but smart work. And by that, the planning, sitting down and looking at your profit. I mean, I remember one of my good friends, a banker in Vinton, said, you know, he said, if you know your cost of production and you know what you can sell your product for, as long as you're selling your product for a profit, you're never going to go broke.

I mean, it's a pretty simple thing.

Narrator: Simple math.

Tom

Husnik: How long did it take farmers to really know what their cost of production is? And Chris, you know very well that was one of the real things that you guys really started looking at is all your costs and how you looked at individual decisions as to what you do.

Chris

Barron: Right.

Tom

Husnik: And you know, when we were in the seed business, obviously farmers would say, well, I remember when I first started, we were selling seed for $15 to $20 a bag and farmers, you know, that's all outlandish, you know. Then I remember farmers telling me, Tom, if it ever gets above $50 a bag, I'm never gonna buy it again. Well, we had to prove to them that it had value, right? And they learned how it had value. And of course, that's what we were trying to train them is how to make those buying decisions. And, you know, after a period of time, they've started to figure out, once they were able to sit down and do the mathematics and the figuring, that the best products made them the most money. And, you know, that was a lifelong lesson, right? So if they took that to all their other businesses, that was going to help them.

So, you know, we, we hope that we got them to think more strategically on how to make decisions like that.

Chris

Barron: And that education isn't— it wasn't just about their seed purchasing decisions, but it's applicable on every business decision they make too.

Tom

Husnik: And then the other thing that we tried to do was to deliver information because obviously in the areas I covered, usually I had 1,000 customers or more. And I'd be out in a lot of farms. I spent most of my time. And the things that you would see one farmer do that another farmer wasn't doing.

Chris

Barron: Yeah.

Tom

Husnik: But it was a pretty good idea. And then you try to get somebody to think about it. When we had our winter workshops, we always tried to talk about best practices. You know, and basically in our business, it was agronomic practices. Planting rates, you know, what kind of equipment, what kind of herbicide programs. But we tried to take the best ideas that we saw out on the farm and share those with other farmers. And we had the practical knowledge, plus we were able to measure it with yield.

Chris

Barron: Right.

Tom

Husnik: And profitability, because we would show them profitability and yield. So those are lessons that are lifelong lessons.

Chris

Barron: Right. One thing that that, Tom, that you taught me. I bet it was in the '90s, probably early in the '90s, maybe late, late '80s, when we used to do plot tours. And I actually helped sell seed for a number of years. And one of the things you taught me was the difference between features and benefits. Okay. And I've used that ever since in every aspect of what we do. And I don't know if you know that or not. So you've had some impacts on me. Over the years in a positive way. And so, you know, a feature is something that is there. And so you brought up yield, you know, so yield is one component. That's, that's kind of a feature, right? Or another feature is, you know, roots and— right, you know, whatever. Yeah. And so, but the benefits are really what the farmer's looking for, right?

And so you talked about how we make our decisions, we make value decisions, and that's one thing that we always try to get across to our clients is that when we're making these business decisions, we want them to be based on value, right? Not cost, not what we write the check out for, for seed or crop protection or machinery or whatever. It's, it's what is the rate of return on that as an investment that you've, that you've invested that dollar on. So if you invest a dollar and you get back a dollar and 10 cents, that's a 10% rate of return, right? And so, so on the features and benefits, can you real quick just give me some examples of, of some things there where you feel like the features and benefits are some things that, that farmers over the years have learned, or some things that you think are something that we should be focused on in our operations?

Tom

Husnik: Well, and I think you got to think about it in terms of benefits. Well, most farmers, I mean, the first benefit they're hoping for is income security, that they're able to continue to farm and have enough income to take care of their family needs or whatever. But there's other security type needs, you know, that I, you know, I, you know, safety could be a real benefit. So there's a lot of those things, and I think a lot of times we tend to focus on features, but really, what do you want? And we always talked about the value equation, and in sales, yeah, it's price, You know, price, service, and then value. So the price is part of it, the service, but what do you get in return that equals the value? And the value is what you need to make your decision on.

So whether it's buying a new piece of equipment or changing how you, your tillage practices or your fertility practices, those things all have to be sit down and figure that out. For your operation, and there is no one best answer for everybody. And that's by knowing your operation. Exactly. Your soil types. I mean, just working with you guys, you guys were in a situation where you had a lot more variable soil types versus I had farmers south of Vinton that have tame Muscatine soils, some of the best soils in the world, well-drained, have a little slope, where up here you go from sand to muck to pee. And everybody— so I always said you got to be a better farmer up here than you have to be south of town because of the variability you guys had to deal with.

Chris

Barron: Or more creative or something.

Tom

Husnik: Yeah, well, but I mean, your tillage was different and you tended to raise more corn on corn because of your soil types and you're more concerned about erosion and those kind of things. But it was tougher for you to make decisions than a lot of the guys farther south where everything was so uniform.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, and that's interesting for people, I think, in other states to listen to too, that would be listening to this podcast thinking, well, Iowa's— it's easy to grow corn in Iowa. It's not so easy as it is in a lot of places. And we are in one of those areas, like you said, where we've, you know, we'll go a mile across the field and we'll have 8 or 9 different soil types in one pass across the field. So, so every area is a little different for sure. You know, talk a little bit about, you know, some of the things that you've learned from farmers and observed in terms of how they handled challenges. You know, so one of the key things that we talk about in Dad's Wisdom with a lot of operations is, you know, faith and family and the business.

Is, you know, how, how did some of these farmers that you've worked with over the years been the most successful transitioning from one generation to the next? What are some things that that you observed over the years that you could say, you know, this worked but this not so much, or are there any lessons there that you—

Tom

Husnik: Well, communications obviously, you know, because everybody has a little different perspective of things, but sitting down and communicating and really being able to make a, what I call a strategic plan, where you really set up what are your goals. You know, maybe your goal is to grow, you know, to large— more acres. Or maybe your goal is to stay with the same amount of acres but produce a higher value crop or focus on livestock or whatever that may be generating you more. But to sit down, how many farmers could pull out their sheet and say, you know, these are the 6 or 7 goals that we have in our farming operation. And you know, and have thought through them and get agreement amongst the people involved, because everybody's thinking from a different perspective. If I'm 70 years old, I'm thinking about, well, as long as I got enough money to retire, that's all I care about.

But if I'm 40 years old and I got 4 kids that I'm thinking about sending to college, I'm thinking altogether maybe a little different.

Chris

Barron: Or if you're 20 years old, you have a date next Friday night.

Tom

Husnik: Right, and you should be combining corn or you should be planting corn. I mean, and then to prioritize those things and making big decisions like on equipment. I mean, equipment is a tremendous decision. And as you well showed in a lot of your aids about how to make those decisions on equipment. I mean, I remember the days that you spent more time repairing your equipment than you did using your equipment. I mean, I can even remember on your farming operation with your dad.

Chris

Barron: Mm-hmm.

Tom

Husnik: Oh yeah. He kept the combine for 20 years. 20 years. And Rick would be there trying to fix it all the time.

Chris

Barron: Right. My brother-in-law would be working on things.

Tom

Husnik: Yeah, that's a big transition because you know how much— you know what downtime costs you, especially this fall with how critical it's going to be to get the crop out. The crop doesn't do you any good until you get it in the bin. And then you gotta take care of it in the bin.

Chris

Barron: Right, yeah, it's really changed on the machinery side to your point. Used to be a lot of operations ran things for 15, 20 years. Anymore, if you run a combine, a lot of operations run a combine for 2, 3 years. That's a long time.

Tom

Husnik: 'Cause they figured out what downtime costs them and repairs.

Chris

Barron: Right, right. So is there anything else that over the years from a wisdom perspective that you can throw out? I see you brought a couple of sheets to kind of maybe talk through some of the trends that we've seen in ag and some things that, you know, that are applicable today.

Tom

Husnik: Well, I think, you know, being in the seed business, obviously we talk about yield, but, you know, when I think about the 40 years that I served, it's really a tribute to the farmers. But in Iowa, in 1975, when I started, the average corn yield was 90 bushel an acre. In the last year that I was in the business in 2015, the average yield was 192 bushel. Think about that. More than doubled the yield in 40 years. That's a 2.5 bushel per acre increase. And of course, genetics and technologies were part of that. But the way farmers farm, the way they fertilize, the way they did their tillage, the way they changed their planting rates, I mean, there was a lot of things that they needed to adjust to take advantage of those things. And if you were trying to do the same thing that you did 30 years ago, that wasn't going to work. And the same way with soybeans.

We went from 34 bushel average in 1975 to 56 in 2015, and that's about a half a bushel per acre a year. And, you know, that is the average for the whole state where individual farmers could show probably a lot more, more than that. Right. You know, but these are overall averages for the state, but it just shows that tremendous growth. But it was a combination of looking forward and taking a look at what the future was and how that would make a return in their operation.

Chris

Barron: Great. Any other things, or I guess I'll throw you another question here quick too, is You know, we talked about features and benefits, and one thing that I struggle with a lot with seed companies, and you know, you being a seed company representative here, every year we have yield books, right? So they're showing us what the yields are. What would it take to get seed companies to show us income per acre books? I mean, that's one of the things that I constantly am a little challenged with when I see these yield books and say, well, that's great, but what do we have to do to get this really high yield versus, you know, is it always about yield or is it more about margin?

Tom

Husnik: That's right. And so there were different contests that different companies sponsored to do that, but it's always, okay, what did you figure for land value? That was probably the biggest fudge factor, right? Was it Cash rent, was it the value of the land, actual value of the land at 6% interest or whatever it was? So land value is always one of the biggest figures. Fertilizer costs you pretty well could tell, seed costs you could figure, but your drying costs, your tillage costs, and it's really difficult. And that's what we tried to focus in is on your, you know, we focused on the yield and the price of corn, you know, what that amounts to. But each farmer's cost, and unless they— again, it goes back to the point, if they don't know their own production costs, what it costs them per bushel to produce it, and be realistic with that figure.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, and that's the biggest challenge we see as we work with new clients is even the inaccuracy of it. Even with the technology we have today, in today's world, you know, we want to see cost of production numbers you know, get as accurate as we can because if the margin is 10 or 15 or 20 cents a bushel, that's not much leeway to be off, right, in terms of per bushel. And that's where we always try to take all these expenses and dial them back to a per bushel cost. So with seed, even for example, or crop protection, whatever it is, you know, it's back to the features and benefits. I don't care how much I write the check out for. I mean, it's what it ends up at the end of the year. But if we ask a customer, you know, if you asked one of your customers what did they write you a check for, for seed, I bet they could tell you. Oh yeah, they know that.

But then if you ask them what value did they get back from it, right, or what was the cost per bushel, you know, relative, you know, to all of your other expenses.

Tom

Husnik: I think you've pointed this out many a times with your aids, machinery costs. How does a farmer develop what his real machinery costs are? I think that's what most of them probably struggle depending on the age of the equipment and how do you put a figure on what that actual cost is. Fertilizer, you know what you wrote, you know what you wrote for seed, you know, but your equipment is— how do you calculate the cost of equipment?

Chris

Barron: And there's some formulas and that's where we come in and try to help people. But back to the dad's wisdom thing so we don't get too far off target, but I think all this is really good and ties directly in. Is there anything that I haven't brought up or anything that you can think of that would just be good advice to the dads and the sons out there as they go into a challenging harvest season and as we continue to work through challenging market environment on commodity prices that aren't super great here? Any overall advice?

Tom

Husnik: Well, emotions, I mean emotions run high and especially when there's a lot of stress whether it may be the weather is stressful, the crop, the crop may be damaged because of weather events, you know, there's breakdowns, you know, there's different things. And that emotion, when you start getting into a real emotional, two things happen. You probably make bad decisions, and then you also put yourself at risk for safety factors. And I know that you guys really try to work through that. But emotions can really, can really hurt you. And it's, you know, the step back. And it doesn't only hurt you, it hurts your family and your kids and your wife or your spouse. So being able to take that deep breath and think about what's the most important thing in life, you know, you know, and it goes back to really what are your values. And understanding that and as a group.

But farming can be extremely emotional and we know when it comes to selling the crop, a lot of emotional decisions there and that's tough to take the emotion out of. But again, you gotta know your cost of production before you can make those. You can make a better decision. May not always be a profitable decision.

Chris

Barron: Right, right. But I think we take that really well, take that seriously, and appreciate that because, you know, it's easy to be tired, be frustrated, and we work together. And majority of these operations are family operations, and fathers and sons' communication sometimes isn't directly professional. It might be emotional, and, you know, hurt feelings and challenges and You know, saying things you don't mean a lot of times can come out in the midst of that emotion. So that's really good advice to be thinking about that. I think it's been a great conversation. Is there anything else, any final tidbits as we kind of wrap this up?

Tom

Husnik: Well, I just think, you know, we're always going to continue to move on and we don't know what's going to happen 10 years from now, but I've always learned to watch those early adopters. You know, whatever it may be, maybe it's autosteer or whatever it may be down the road, but watch those early adopters and see how they work. And usually they're on the right path, but sometimes, you know, sometimes that doesn't always work. But, you know, having a network of other farmers, and I know that's a tough thing maybe for farmers to do, especially with immediate neighbors, because sometimes they see each other as competitors. But to develop a network. So if you're on the Corn Growers Board or Soybean Growers Board or something that where you get an opportunity to see a bigger picture and network with other farmers. And you'd be surprised, a lot of you are facing the same challenges.

But just knowing somebody that you can talk to helps reduce that emotion sometimes. Knowing that they're kind of going through the same thing you are. And yet, you know, if you hold that inside, it's going to affect your health, it's going to affect your family's health and anybody around you. But I really think it's important for people to get into other things where they can expand their connections and their networks because there's great things. And farmers, they'll tend to help each other, you know, especially if there's a strong network there. I think getting out and going to different conferences and stuff and meeting different people, that's how you get new ideas.

Chris

Barron: Right. Yeah, and one thing we're doing, to throw a plug out there, is we've got several peer groups going, and those peer groups are farmers from various states, and they don't feel like they're in competition because they're from another state, or they're on the other side of the state, but they have similar challenges, similar issues, and then they can they can sit down and talk through those issues and we help them build those relationships and they become long-life friends.

Tom

Husnik: It'll help you make better decisions. You know, you're looking at a new piece of equipment that's new on the market. This guy's got one. Well, how did it work? Well, he's probably going to tell you the pros and cons and then you're going to be able to make a better decision. So that network, I think, especially in today's agriculture and You know, that face-to-face, you know, the media is okay, but having that first face-to-face connection. Right.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, that's really key. So, well, I appreciate that, Tom. It's been a great conversation. And, you know, when I first got a hold of you, you're like, I don't know what I'm going to say or what I'm going to talk about. But, you know, well, you know, you did a great job of, you know, bringing 40 years of experience in agriculture to the forefront, and I think it'll be very helpful to a lot of our clients and a lot of the listeners that listen to this podcast to get some of the wisdom that you've acquired over the years from both yourself and from having the opportunity to work with hundreds of farm operations. You know, I think that's really cool.

Tom

Husnik: Well, we have the same goal. We want our customers and our farmers to be successful, and so that's always the approach I took. We want you to be successful. If you're going to continue to be a customer with us, it's in our best interest that you're successful. And I think when you have the same goals, it's a lot easier to work.

Chris

Barron: A common vision takes everybody to the same place.

Tom

Husnik: Right, and that's important to have that common vision that's thought out that people agree on, and that moves you along.

Chris

Barron: Right, so one other thing, Tom, I want to make sure that we ask you about is your family. So tell us a little bit about about your family?

Tom

Husnik: Well, I married my high school sweetheart, and we've been married for 44 years, and we've been blessed with 3 children, 2 girls and a boy, and they've all been blessed with great spouses, and we now have 7 grandkids that keep us very, very busy.

Chris

Barron: Well, that's pretty awesome then. So your high school sweetheart, huh?

Narrator: Yep.

Chris

Barron: So did you guys go to college together?

Tom

Husnik: She went a couple years to the same college, but We met when I was in high school, was the first time they had Earth Day. So I was part of the FFA organization, I was the president of it, and so we decided we needed to do something in honor of the environment. So we started an organization that was called Forest Lake Improvement, and, you know, we were trying to do projects to help the environment. And so the first thing we thought of was super garbage, you know, garbage that people were throwing out, plastics and things that, you know, that were littering. And that was first one. And then the next one that we worked on was pollution. And of course, where we live, there was a lot of lakes, and we were concerned about pollution. There was sewer systems running into the lakes and everything else. So I would go around to the schools, elementary schools, and show different chemicals.

I I got the name Fish Killer because I'd have these minnows in a little bucket in an aquarium, and then I'd throw in a little soap detergent and a little of this and little things that were household items, you know, like they were going right into the water supply out into the lake. And before it was done, those old fish were—

Chris

Barron: So that's something you and your high school sweetheart were doing together.

Tom

Husnik: We did together, yeah, educating younger kids that what they mixed in the water could ultimately affect things. In this case, we were showing little minnows and stuff, but trying to get them to think about the environment. Dealing in agriculture, we're always thinking about the environment. We're some of the best conservation-oriented people in the world. Probably don't get the credit that we should, but farmers know that they can't destroy the thing that gives them the livelihood, and that's their soil. And their surroundings.

Chris

Barron: Exactly, exactly. And on the family side, where are your kids all at today?

Tom

Husnik: We have my oldest daughter and her husband live in Cedar Falls, Iowa. My middle daughter married a farmer and lives just south of our hometown at Shellsburg, and he has a cow-calf herd and sheep. And then my youngest son lives in Iowa City.

Chris

Barron: Okay, and then the grandkids, they can come over, but they get— they got to go back home again, right?

Tom

Husnik: Yeah, there were a bunch of them over last night, in fact, so I'm running around with a 2-year-old.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, that keeps you young, right?

Tom

Husnik: Yeah, that's right, you bet.

Chris

Barron: That's why you look younger now than you did last time I saw you.

Tom

Husnik: Right, right, that's right.

Chris

Barron: All right, well, thanks a lot.

Tom

Husnik: You're welcome.

Chris

Barron: All right, well, Minnesota farm boy, Pioneer account manager, and long-time consultant to farmers every single year through the good, the bad, and the ugly, right? So Tom Husnik and Chris Barron here. Thanks a lot, Tom, for being with us. And thanks everybody for joining us on the Ag View Pitch, and we will catch you next time.

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.