Dad's wisdom from North Dakota with Del and Lloyd Gates

Chris: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we are here for another Dad's Wisdom. I am in Lorraine, North Dakota, sitting next to a dad and a son, but, uh, They also have sons that are coming on, so we got 3 generations here, and we're going to do this Dad's Wisdom, and we're going to start with Lloyd Gates and Del Gates. And Lloyd, we just was talking about it offline, you're the one that got this whole party started, aren't you?

Lloyd

Gates: I guess so.

Chris: So, so tell us a little bit about yourself. So we're in Lorraine, North Dakota, northern part. You said how far are we from Canada?

Lloyd

Gates: 9 miles from Canada.

Chris: Okay, hold that mic just a little bit. Claire, okay, Canada. Okay, awesome. And so you're the one that started this whole party. When did you start farming? In 1948. 1948. So did you— you probably farmed with a little different equipment than what these guys are running today.

Lloyd

Gates: Yeah, all foot cultivator and drill.

Chris: Yeah, yep. So what crops were you growing when you started here?

Lloyd

Gates: Mainly wheat and barley and Rye.

Chris: Okay. Okay. Any livestock or anything at that time?

Lloyd

Gates: Oh yeah, we had some, but not too much. My brother had the farm there that, well, we did when we first grew up out in the farm, and then my dad ran the elevator for 35 years in Lorraine.

Chris: Okay. Interesting.

Lloyd

Gates: So we milked cows in Lorraine and I delivered milk.

Chris: Okay. So you had a lot going on then.

Lloyd

Gates: Oh yeah.

Chris: Yeah, so, um, talk a little bit about your family. We're going to pick on Del here, your son, here in a minute. Um, so one of the things, and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna hit you up on this, but how old are you?

Lloyd

Gates: I'm 90.

Chris: You're 90 and you look like you're 60, so what's the secret?

Lloyd

Gates: I don't know.

Chris: Well, I don't know, you had a couple of secrets. There's none that you can say online anyway.

Lloyd

Gates: Probably not.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. Well, that's good. So anyway, how many kids did you have?

Lloyd

Gates: I had two. Our daughter was killed when she was 21 in a car accident.

Chris: I'm sorry to hear that. So Del is sitting here with us. Do you want to— should we introduce him?

Lloyd

Gates: Yeah, you might as well.

Chris: So Del, go ahead and introduce yourself a little bit, and then we'll pick on your dad here a little bit more.

Del

Gates: Del Gates, uh, I'm a little younger than he is at 65, so, but we've farmed together all my life and, uh, it's been a wonderful dream, I'd say.

Chris: Yeah, and so we're sitting here and, and your two sons, Del, and your grandsons, Lloyd, are sitting here listening to us. So they're gonna, they're gonna get to listen to it on the podcast and listen to it in real life here. So, so, uh, I guess, uh, Del, I'm gonna— I'll pick on you here for a second, then we'll go back and we'll stay picking on Lloyd here. But, um, talk a little bit about, um, some of your experiences and, and kind of how you got started. And when did you start?

Del

Gates: Well, started when I was 17, I guess, 18 years old. Um, rented 5 quarters from a landlord that we had for years, and and bought that property. But, um, yeah, just working together with, with mom and dad to where we just developed where we, we came. We started from raising some seed to where we're pretty much devoted to the seed production.

Chris: So you have a seed business now in the, in the local area and stuff, and so your boys are helping in that and helping on the farm operation now, and you're learning how to delegate and elevate their roles and responsibilities.

Del

Gates: Yeah, that's correct. Education never stops.

Chris: Yeah, so sounds good. So back to Lloyd here for a minute. Let's pick on you. So, so talk a little bit more about, about your operation as it grew. You know, you started in '48. What year did you retire? Or you're not retired yet, right?

Lloyd

Gates: If I have retired, I'm just retarded.

Chris: Well, what What year did you start slowing down, or did you never slow down? Because it sounds like you still do a lot of work around here.

Lloyd

Gates: Whenever they kicked me off the stuff, then I retired.

Chris: I see, I see. So talk a little bit about, you know, some of the challenges as you were farming. You know, if you think back, whether it's financial or family or business or, you know, other businesses in the area, talk a little bit about a couple of the challenges or some of the key lessons you learned.

Lloyd

Gates: Well, yeah, I had to buy land or rent land, buy land through the Farmers FHA, two quarters of land that way, and I got started and stuff. And it's been a challenge all the time.

Del

Gates: So, mm-hmm.

Chris: So like during the '80s when interest rates were high, we're starting to see interest rates go up now, nothing like, you know, you know, I see you smiling there, nothing like we saw in the '80s or whatever, but But, you know, talk a little bit about that. There were some tough times then.

Lloyd

Gates: Oh, really some tough times. And I got put into one bank and because I paid an FHA loan, I paid it 2 years at one. So, instead of getting 4.5%, they turned me over to a bank in Mohall and I got charged 13% interest. So, then I told that banker to go straight to HEW.

Chris: Yeah.

Lloyd

Gates: And moved to West Hope. And the best move I ever made over there. Okay. Bill Munn over there was the banker, and he said, we'll do 6% simple interest. If you can't make the payment, we just run it another year.

Chris: Yeah.

Lloyd

Gates: So he never ever did anything.

Chris: So is that one of the lessons then for some of the younger guys listening is make sure you got a good banker?

Lloyd

Gates: Well, and make sure you don't pay off a loan like that. They said, well, if you'd have put it in the in your bank and just paid it, you know, as a fallback, been fine. But I thought it was money ahead when I paid a year in ahead, and then no, and then I was too good an investment for them.

Chris: So I see. So that has a lot to do with working capital too, though, right? Is keeping, keeping your powder dry, keeping the cash. And, and you might feel flux, and that's going to happen this year, I think, with a lot of farmers because in a lot of areas anyway. There's areas that'll be an exception to this, but I think there's going to be a lot of farm operations with where commodity prices are at, they're going to have a very strong cash position. And the thing I think you're saying is be super careful not to accelerate those long-term loans, especially if the interest rate's good on them, right? So yeah, that's what I think. Okay, so any other, any other good— that's a really good one there.

Lloyd

Gates: Well, then the service for for 2 years, from '52 to '54, and I spent 18 months in Korea.

Chris: Okay.

Lloyd

Gates: And then I came back and I met Del's mother at a New Year's Eve dance in '54.

Chris: Wow. Well, that's a good deal.

Lloyd

Gates: I went to school with her sister, but I never knew her until I come back from the service.

Chris: Huh. Was she older than you or younger than you?

Lloyd

Gates: 5 years younger than me.

Chris: Oh, well, that's probably why you didn't know her then.

Lloyd

Gates: Yeah, right.

Chris: When you were a senior, she was in 8th grade, maybe.

Del

Gates: Yeah.

Chris: So now that's awesome. So talk a little bit more about any lessons. And I guess the question I would— go ahead.

Lloyd

Gates: It just, you know, we learned a lot from the way we farmed. And my dad brought me up a good way and told me lots of stuff on how to watch out for the prices of land and stuff. Cause he'd went through the Dirty Thirties and he remembered all this stuff and They just relayed it on to Del, and he's been doing everything ever since right, and we've been doing good.

Chris: Well, that's good that you do everything right, Del. My dad never told me I did everything right. Is there anything you can find that he does wrong?

Lloyd

Gates: No, I can't. He's always done good by me, and I'm always proud of him and the two grandkids and everybody else.

Chris: Yeah, well, that's awesome. So if you could go back and tell your 25-year-old self something, um, what, what's one or two things you would tell yourself now, knowing what you know now? Is there any, is there anything that comes to mind that—

Lloyd

Gates: No, I'm glad I done what I did and I'm glad everything turned out the way it is. Yeah. I lost my wife two years ago.

Chris: I'm sorry, sorry to hear that.

Lloyd

Gates: And by myself now with Dell and the grandkids.

Chris: Yeah, and they just keep making you work. Yeah, yeah, that's about it. Yep. So, um, I guess, uh, trying to think here, I was going to ask you another question and I can't think of what it was right now, so I'm going to come back to you because it left my— it left my mind. So we're not done picking on you yet, but, um, let's, let's go to Dell here for a second and, um Talk a little bit about yourself too. And we're sitting here with your two sons coming back to the farm. We got three generations here. Talk about some of the things that you've, you've learned from Lloyd here, from your dad, and, and kind of what you hope to do passing things on to the next generation.

Del

Gates: Oh, I think probably doing a good job and being honest has been probably the biggest thing. I've been on several boards, I guess, over my lifetime and enjoyed virtually every one of them, and I've always learned from them. One of the biggest things, I guess, I think when you go into these boards and work on crop improvement, NDSU, some of the advisory boards, is, you know, you go in with the thought of making agriculture better and not having a personal agenda. And I think that's always worked out well. It's When you go in and with a group and, and come with decisions and then leave there united under one, one idea and carry it forward, that's meant a lot. And if agriculture gains by it, you should gain by it. It's, it's been fun all through it.

Chris: So it's a lot about service too, like Lloyd said, you know, serving in the military, that, that's That's a huge commendable service, but it's also serving in the community and doing things to give back. Yep, that's right.

Del

Gates: Yep. You get back what you put into it.

Chris: Yep. Yep. So talk a little bit about your operation. Tell the listeners a little bit about, you know, I said we're in Lorraine, North Dakota. Talk a little bit about your operation and how it's set up.

Del

Gates: Well, we've, uh, yeah, just started growing commodities way back when and then switched slowly to into the seed production. And now we grow, well, a lot of NDSU varieties, uh, over the years. And, uh, AgriPro is one of them, um, of the commercial ones. And, uh, then Syngenta on some soybeans, but we raise NDSU soybeans too.

Chris: So nice.

Del

Gates: We're kind of diversified into Awesome. Yeah, different baskets. Awesome.

Chris: So, so you have the two boys and you have a daughter as well, right? Yeah. So, and are your kids as perfect as you are? Because Lloyd didn't have to say you did anything wrong. So are your kids just as perfect as you?

Del

Gates: I might have been overstating.

Chris: You can think of a few things that weren't perfect then.

Del

Gates: That's right.

Chris: Okay. Okay. Well, if you could go back and tell your 25-year-old self something, At 65 now, you know, that's 40 years ago. And what, what's that, take you back to the, to the '70s and '80s? It doesn't seem like that long ago, does it?

Del

Gates: The '70s and stuff.

Chris: Yeah.

Del

Gates: Yeah. Late, late '70s. But, uh, yeah, I guess, um, I don't have any real regrets other than, yeah, if there was some other opportunities maybe to, um, that passed by where he could have purchased another quarter of land or two at Everything kind of seems like it, it all fell into place.

Chris: I'll have you hold that a little closer.

Del

Gates: So yeah, it's been an interesting ride, the changes that have come from the seeding units we used to have, pull drills, to where we're at with the air seeders. And yeah, it's just, who'd ever dreamt to where we are? And yeah, technology.

Chris: Yeah, you talked a little bit about, you know, purchasing land, and Lloyd, you'd mentioned that too, you know, the importance of of that. Is there a, is there a guideline that you think is appropriate as far as like debt management? Because, you know, like Lloyd brought up, you know, you got to manage the loans for one thing, but you also got to decide how much debt is, is right. You know, do you feel like you manage that good, or do you feel like maybe, you know, more or less debt? And in any kind of management strategy there that you think is, is wise consideration?

Del

Gates: Well, I think kind of as we were talking through the day, yeah, the markets, how they vary, that's, that's where it's a hard one. You always wonder if you're going to get into the catch of the down market, right? You're buying, and, and that's probably the biggest struggle or the biggest thought that you have, or fear. And basically somehow it always works out. But yeah, if you could always be in the upswing when you purchased, and yeah, I've left it had some pretty fancy debts at times and came out of them. And yeah, there was other land sitting there and I thought, well, you couldn't afford to buy it. Well, now you kind of should have.

Chris: Yeah, right, right.

Del

Gates: Should have, would have, could have.

Chris: Yep. So I guess I'll ask you this question and Lloyd's had time to be thinking about this. Keep thinking, Lloyd, here. But, you know, for not only for your sons, but for the listeners here, if you could think of one or two pieces of advice, things that, you know, from the things you've learned over your years of farming, what things would you recommend the listeners, you know, the 20-somethings, the 30-somethings, the 40-somethings, be careful of? Or what, you know, things stick in your mind that maybe they should pay attention to and manage?

Del

Gates: Yeah, I don't know, the times change so, so much, it's hard to put a finger on something something that to forecast or to see that, that's the— if commodity prices would stay where they're at and, or where they should, and they won't. Yep, we know that. And yeah, that's what gives you the, the, um, fear factor and right in the decision-making you do. And yeah, you just got to work within your bounds and, and things will work out.

Chris: Yeah, and things are becoming a lot more sophisticated, aren't they? I mean, it's just getting to the point where I know today, you know, in our meeting we talked a little bit about working in the business versus working on the business, and that's something that, that at least at Ag View we've really seen that's changed. How has that changed during your career, you know, working in the bit, you know, doing the, the day-to-day stuff versus, you know, the executive level things that we need to be doing?

Del

Gates: Well, that's hard. Back then it seemed like in the— when you were 25 years old, you just worked worked every day at doing the job at hand and, and paid your taxes, did your thing. And, and here it's just, there's much more into thinking the liabilities and protecting yourself as well as working on the next day. Yeah, I mean, there's so much more into it, that exposure that sits there.

Chris: And yeah, and part of its transition too, I think Lloyd looks like did a phenomenal job since you did everything right. But, but no, seriously, You know, he did a great job of transitioning. Now you're in that stage where you're going to have to start thinking about transitioning over to Parker and Chase. Um, any lessons that you learned from him that, you know, that worked really good, or I'm going to do this different, or did he do everything right too?

Del

Gates: No, it kind of all worked out. Yeah. However we did it, I guess, like say when we were working together, him and I more close, uh, I don't think we had an unwritten or written law to kind of follow. We just did our things, and yet we knew where we were all headed. We wanted to achieve.

Chris: And well, that's one of the things, and I get that question a lot from a lot of people we work with when we're working through these transitions and business structure, is that, well, man, we transitioned the last generation. I don't remember having to do all this stuff. Yeah, but it's a different world now, isn't it?

Del

Gates: Yes, it is. Yeah, you can definitely see it. And you got to prepare for it, I think.

Chris: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, let's hand back to Lloyd here for a minute, and we'll get close to wrapping things up. But if you had time to think of anything, any additional stuff?

Lloyd

Gates: I would say is I got to give credit to my wife, Del's mother, because she kept us going. She always had good things to say about it. Yep. Kept us working together, and I'm so proud of her. Dell and the grandsons and everybody now, they followed through in the step.

Chris: Yep.

Lloyd

Gates: I'm just lonesome without her.

Chris: Yeah, well, and I appreciate you doing that because I would say, and your wife Vicki too, Dell, I mean, it's a lot of times the spouse that is the reason we get done what we get done, right? Right. We don't do this stuff without them supporting us.

Lloyd

Gates: Right. So gotta give them the credit.

Chris: That's right, that's right. So sounds good. Well, anything else? You, you know, you got everything else that you needed to get out, right?

Lloyd

Gates: I think so. I just said if my dad could be around now and see the machinery the size of it was, he'd just say, oh my, oh my.

Chris: Yeah, right.

Lloyd

Gates: Never anything bigger than a 14-foot header or anything back in those days when he was alive.

Chris: Right, right. Is there any— one last question for you, Lloyd. Is there anything that your dad told you that sticks in your head that's like, I'll never forget him telling me that, or anything along those lines?

Lloyd

Gates: There was lots of things.

Chris: What's one or two of them?

Lloyd

Gates: There was a couple things he talked me out of buying land, and he come and said afterwards I shouldn't have, but he said he remembered the Dirty '30s, and he said That was a lot of money at that time.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. So sometimes it is managing that though too, right? That's right.

Lloyd

Gates: Yep. But I never begrudged him that because he was always so good to us.

Chris: That's awesome. Yeah. So, well, thank you very much, um, Lloyd. We really appreciate you, you being here. And, and, uh, I'll have you hand over to Del. We'll finish up with him. Thank you very much, Lloyd.

Del

Gates: You're welcome.

Chris: So, Del, um, Del Gates, thank you very much. Any, anything that, that your daddy's sitting right here that he told you that sticks in your head that's like, I'll never forget him telling me that?

Del

Gates: No, I think the part is, yeah, he always worked on the, the cautious side probably, and it, it's turned out to be fine the way it is. I mean, that's the part, uh, we've been blessed and very grateful for the opportunity to have a business and be an Ag.

Chris: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's for sure. We're all pretty blessed, I think. And so Lloyd Gates, Del Gates, sitting here with your sons Parker and Chase, who are being quiet at the other end of the table. So with that said, thank you for this Dad's Wisdom. Really appreciate your contribution, even though you really didn't want to do this, especially Lloyd, I think. But we really appreciate it, and Thanks everybody again for listening to this Dad's Wisdom. If you have a dad out there or grandpa or somebody that can contribute to this, let us know and we would love to have a visit with them. Again, thanks everybody and we'll catch you again next time on the Ag View Porch.