About This Episode
Roger Patterson farms near St. Ansgar in north central Iowa. He grew up on a dairy farm as one of five boys, joined the Navy at 17 straight out of high school, and came home three and a half years later, married and planning to attend electrical school. He asked his father whether there was room on the farm and got the line that framed his start: there is a heck of a lot of work, but there is no money. The milk cows had already been sold while he was away.
His father's advice was to start young, because a young man who makes a mistake and falls down still has time to get back up. Patterson bought his first farm at 22 in 1971 on a 20-year contract from a neighbor, at a price he recalls near $1,200. That long contract carried him through the 1980s while neighbors and friends who refinanced against higher land values did not make it. He bought a tiling machine, drained his own ground, and did custom tiling for uncles and neighbors instead of losing money on cattle.
He credits a woman banker in Lyle, Minnesota who worked through the numbers with him once and told him to arrive with them figured out the next time, which sent him home to spend nights on his own math. His wife, who had never been on a farm, ended up running a tractor with one boy while he ran another, later ran the combine, and insisted on one vacation a year. Asked about handing over the operation, he says he could see his sons wanted to do things differently and backed up and let them go.
“Do it while you're young. If you make any mistakes, fall down, you got time to get back up.”
— Roger Patterson
Key Takeaways
Patterson bought his first farm at 22 in 1971 on a 20-year contract from a neighbor, and the length of that contract is what carried him through the 1980s.
Neighbors who refinanced when land values rose did not survive; he kept the original terms and later added ground next to him when values fit.
Owning a tiling machine turned drainage into both a yield improvement and an income stream, replacing money the cattle were losing.
His banker in Lyle, Minnesota figured out the first loan with him and required him to come in with the numbers done the next time.
What made a farm work when he started, hard work plus a little marketing and finance, is not enough now; marketing, inputs, and machinery costs all have to be managed.
His transition advice is to give the next generation responsibility and real decisions while they are young, then step back and let them run.
Full Transcript
Roger
Patterson: Well, my dad, what he told me when we started farming is, um, do it while you're young. If you make any mistakes, fall down, you got time to get back up. And, um, I bought my first farm at 22 years old, I guess, and had a great neighbor that sold it to me on a 20-year contract. And, and, uh, that's how we begun.
Chris
Barron: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. In this special edition of Dad's Wisdom, today we have Roger Patterson with us from St. Ansgar. How's it going today, Roger?
Roger
Patterson: Real good.
Chris
Barron: Good, good. You were really excited to get up here for this Dad's Wisdom, and so I do really appreciate you trusting me that this wouldn't hurt or anything.
Roger
Patterson: I'll adjust to that.
Chris
Barron: Good, good. So I guess what we want to do is, first of all, in this Dad's Wisdom, Rogers, have you tell us a little bit about where you live now, where you grew up on the farm, and we'll kind of get into some some wisdom from Dad in this.
Roger
Patterson: I grew up on a dairy farm in north central Iowa, St. Ansgar area, and, um, went to the Navy at 17 right out of high school. And Dad sold the milk cows. I was one of 5 boys. I had 2 older brothers and 2 younger brothers. The neighbor had 9 girls, and that's back when gas was cheap and we drove right on by. Spent 3 and a half years in the Navy, got married, came back home and was gonna go to electrical school. And I was home staying with the folks, my wife and I, for a week. And I said to Dad, is there any room here? And he says, there's a heck of a lot of work, but there's no money. Yeah. And that's the way we started.
Narrator: Yeah.
Chris
Barron: Welcome to farming right out of the chute. And so I thought it was interesting you said that, you know, when you went to the Navy, the cows went away.
Roger
Patterson: Yeah. Well, my two younger brothers were 8 and 9 years younger than I, and they didn't know how to do it like we did. So, and then when I came out of the service, my dad had a beef cow herd with my oldest brother, and then he went off on his own. And, uh, we started draining our ground. We bought our own tiling machine, and because we wasn't making any money on the cattle, and it was a lot of work, but it got a lot of benefits out of it.
Chris
Barron: You started to see some big yield increase. Did you guys just tile your own, or did you do some tiling for other people?
Roger
Patterson: We tiled for some of my uncles and the neighbors. It was, um, part of the way we did it.
Chris
Barron: It was a way to get some extra income into the farm, I suppose, right?
Roger
Patterson: Yes, and not losing any money on the cattle.
Chris
Barron: Yeah. And got rid of them. Oh, okay. So you pretty much specialized on tiling and row crop farming then at that time?
Roger
Patterson: Yes.
Chris
Barron: So, um, talk a little bit about as you grew up on the farm, what are, what are some of the key lessons that you got from your dad?
Roger
Patterson: Well, my dad What he told me when we started farming is, um, do it while you're young. If you make any mistakes, fall down, you got time to get back up. And I bought my first farm at 22 years old, I guess, and had a great neighbor that sold it to me on a 20-year contract. And, and that's how we begun.
Chris
Barron: So talk a little bit about that. What year would that have been you bought the that at 22 years old?
Roger
Patterson: '71.
Chris
Barron: Okay, 1971. And so you were going into, um, it was a pretty good time then, and then we went through the '80s, so you would have still been paying on that probably, or just finishing that up going into the '80s into some pretty tough times. Were there any things that you wished you'd have done different, or that were big concerns you had during the payment time of that?
Roger
Patterson: No, I had that 20-year contract, and, um, that's what really helped because some of my neighbors and friends refinanced because their land was worth more and it didn't work for them.
Chris
Barron: Yep. So, well, it was a difficult time, um, through a lot of that. And the key thing, it sounds like you had that, uh, debt kind of spread out over a long enough period of time you were able to cash flow.
Roger
Patterson: And then I started buying other land too that came up for sale next to us.
Chris
Barron: So, and so were you able to do that after land values came down, or were you kind of like a lot of people that had some land that was bought and then all of a sudden land values go back down again too?
Roger
Patterson: Well, no, I didn't have any. I think that one, um, the— I can't remember just what it was, $1,200 probably, and at that time why it was feasible with where I was at.
Chris
Barron: And that's interesting. So what would you tell, you know, young producers today? You know, you bought your first farm at 22 years old. Um, you know, theoretically the same thing could occur now, right? A 22-year-old, if, if you could get a 20-year contract from somebody, you know, those, those are probably hard, few and far between, hard to get, but you know, if you were 22 years old now, or what would you tell a 22-year-old or a young person that's thinking about—
Roger
Patterson: you gotta have a real good banker. I had a lady banker in Lyle, Minnesota, and I went in there and tried to borrow money, and she says, okay, sit down, we're going to figure this out. And she says, I'm going to help you figure it out this time, but the next time you come in you have it figured out. So she's the one that I spent many hours at night sitting trying to figure things out before I went to my banker. And she says, I own this bank and I'm gonna— it's my money and I want interest back. Yep.
Chris
Barron: Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, bankers want paid back, don't they?
Roger
Patterson: Right. And of course it was a lot different then than it is now.
Chris
Barron: But, um, so if you were to go back and tell your 22-year-old or even your 35-year-old self something of value or wisdom that you have now that you didn't have then, what, what type of advice would you give yourself or somebody in the mid-30s that's trying to grow their business?
Roger
Patterson: Well, it's changed so much since, you know, years ago if we worked hard and spent a little time marketing and doing the finances, why lots of times it worked. Anymore, why it's the marketing and your inputs and your machinery costs. There's so many different things now that was— but start while you're young.
Chris
Barron: That's awesome. So talk a little bit about your family. So, you know, we did a podcast with your, your two boys here Talk a little bit about your family raising the kids on the farm. What are some of the, the experiences that you had there and some of the benefits of raising the kids on the farm?
Roger
Patterson: Well, first of all, I married a gal out of Lyle, Minnesota that had never been on a farm, and I took her out there, and there was many days where I would stick her in a tractor and I would have one of the boys and she'd have the other boy. And that's the way we did things. And then she ran combine and with usually one of the boys. And this is the way we did it. We did it together. And we're so blessed to be where we were. And our— we got good land after we get it drained. And Had a lot of good years, didn't have any big wrecks or anything like that.
Chris
Barron: So I'm sure that was an interesting conversation the first time you said, hey, I need you to run this tractor.
Roger
Patterson: Oh yes.
Chris
Barron: So how did that go?
Roger
Patterson: I can't do that. And same way with the lawnmower, you know, she wouldn't run the lawnmower, but she would, you know, she's a very good gal.
Chris
Barron: It just took a little convincing, right? Yes. Maybe it was her paycheck involved, or maybe a vacation or some kind of incentive, you know.
Roger
Patterson: And she insisted that we have one vacation a year. Otherwise, if it had been up to me, why, we'd have stayed home.
Chris
Barron: Yeah, right. So we'll talk a little bit about that. You know, what, what, uh, you know, growing up on the farm, you live and breathe it, right? You know, and so, you know, everybody in today's world talks about the need for balance and all that, which is true, but it also— we also got to, you know, put a lot in into this, a lot of effort into this. And I see your, your boys doing that, putting a ton of effort into it, but I also see that, you know, the importance of family. Talk a little bit about that.
Roger
Patterson: Yes, that's very important. And my wife pretty much raised the boys other than when it came to the farm because I was busy doing this drainage and other things. We had cattle for a few years along with the tiling machine, so I was very busy, and of course, I guess that's the way I wanted it because I could, um, try to get ahead, you know. So, um, yeah, but I'm so fortunate that I've got the two sons that I do. They do a wonderful job, and I could see they wanted to do things that I had done differently for many years, and I thought, you know, I think we can do this. Another way. And so we just backed up and let them go with it, and they've done very well with it.
Chris
Barron: So speaking of that, you know, the, the term that, that we work with a lot of producers on is transition. And it's one of the things that, that having the privilege to get to work with your boys has— it has taught me a lot. And I, I think that the tribute goes to you as to being able to pass over to the next generation authority, right? You know, roles and responsibilities. And sometimes we see it's very hard. You know, I always tell a lot of our younger clients, you know, Dad's going to retire 3 times. He's going to retire the first time by just verbalizing it like, I'm done. And then the next retirement phase is going to be when they— you walk away or you appear to walk away, but you come back and the next generation or the son or daughter is doing something and you're like, why in the heck are you doing that?
You're doing 'You're doing that all wrong,' you know, that's phase 2. And then phase 3 is finally when you just show up and say, 'I can run the combine,' or whatever, 'just tell me what to do,' you know. And so how did, how did that look for you when you, when you phased, phased out? And, and was that tough to give that, you know, that responsibility away?
Roger
Patterson: Well, working with the government, it wasn't hard at all to get out of that responsibility. Chris pretty much took that over, which was great. And, um, but no, it's, um, it's hard, but yet you can see what they're doing, and it's enjoyable to see how they're taking a hold and getting things done.
Chris
Barron: So it's nice to take that pressure off your own shoulders, right, and give it over.
Roger
Patterson: Yes. I mean, I can go home and do anything I want now, and before, why And, and we moved to town 25 years ago, um, so, um, then I was driving to work and it didn't bother me too much either.
Chris
Barron: So a little think time on the way to and from. So sounds good. Well, I think, um, any other things that I didn't ask or any other things you can think of, any advice that you would have for producers, you know, as, as they work through their business development, anything that you know, that you think, you know, if, if you were farming again today, what things you'd stay focused on and work toward?
Roger
Patterson: Well, for the young folks, start out young and give them responsibility so they can do these things and make decisions while they're young. And I think is a big part of it.
Chris
Barron: Awesome. So hey, really appreciate this, Roger. This has been a great conversation. I think you were almost as enthused to have this conversation as your son Terry was. We, we did a podcast with both of your boys, and, uh, and, uh, um, I know this isn't probably your most favorite thing to do, but the wisdom and the success that you've had over your career is very impressive, and I really appreciate you taking your time to be here today.
Roger
Patterson: Thank you very much. We've been very blessed.
Chris
Barron: That's right, and you've done a good job too. So, and celebrate those successes. So, all right everybody, I hope you enjoyed this Dad's Wisdom, and we will catch you again next time on the Ag View Pitch.
Narrator: Thank you for listening to another Dad's Wisdom episode brought to you by the Ag View Pitch. We believe that sharing these stories, experiences, and wisdom is crucial to improving our businesses and learning from others. If you have someone that would be good for a Dad's Wisdom, please email us at cbarron@agviewsolutions.com.