Dad's wisdom with Tom Brink: Michigan farmer

Chris

Barron: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch and the next Dad's Wisdom. We're lucky enough to have with us Tom Brink here today, and he is in West Michigan. Caledonia is the town. And it is in the Grand Rapids area is kind of where it's at. So Tom, welcome. It's awesome to have you here. I had the pleasure of getting to work with your family, um, oh, here a week or so ago. Got a chance to meet you, got a chance to meet your boys. I was so impressed with your boys. Um, I told you that when I saw you. I said you should be so proud of, of the the knowledge, the skill set that, that you've helped them build and that type of thing. And so I'm super excited to have this Dad's Wisdom conversation with you today. So Tom, go ahead first and introduce yourself. Um, tell us a little bit about, a little bit about you.

Tom

Brink: Well, Chris, appreciate the, uh, the invite and the invitation. And, um, and, uh, so yeah, it's, uh Good to be here, and it was good to see you a week ago and get acquainted, uh, some more. So, um, I'm a lifelong farmer, primarily a farmer. We, we do some other things also. However, I'm 63 years old, married, um, 3 children, 2 boys and a daughter. Wife's name is Cheryl. She's, uh, just across the room from me here today. Um, she's a business partner. Um, but, uh, uh, life's been good for us. Agriculture's good. We, we enjoy what we do. Um, Michigan is a little bit of a off the, off the map, I guess, from, for some of you that are listening today, we're not in the Grain Belt or anything else, but yet it's a very diverse state for business. Um, We're only second to California in crop diversity. And, uh, lots of things are grown here. Fruits, vegetables, grains, livestock is huge.

We're on the tip of Allegan County. Um, Allegan County, I think, is the number 1 or 2. Allegan and Ottawa are side-by-side counties. Um, number 1 and 2 in the state for revenue and agriculture. So we're, we're in a good spot. Blessed to be here. And, um, I don't call it lucky. We're just blessed to be where we're at.

Chris

Barron: Yep, that's, that's, uh, that's what we all hope for and all strive for, right? Um, uh, talk a little bit about, um, your getting going in farming and your family, um, and the influence that, you know, you maybe your parents had on you and some of the lessons that you learned and things as you were growing up as a kid.

Tom

Brink: Well, born and raised on a farm. Good parents, good home, 4 sisters and a brother. Only worked off the farm one week in my life when I picked blueberries unsuccessfully at 8 years old. So was on my dad's foot.

Chris

Barron: You couldn't hold the job, huh?

Tom

Brink: Oh, just wanted to be right back home. But anyway, stayed right with my dad, ran on his heels the whole time. He, uh, was a good businessman, good farmer, uh, good, good, uh, good family man. So we got a lot of good heritage. Um, the, uh, got in business on my own alongside my dad with a livestock operation at 17 years old. Um, we've had cattle I guess my whole life ever since then, really starting at 13 years old. Some was, some was as far as boutique, and then, you know, a major feedyard also along the way. And, um, but primarily grain. Um, uh, we, we have some other business ventures that we've started and sold some companies along the way also, but we still wear the farmer hat and much of what we do is based around agriculture.

Chris

Barron: So is there a key lesson that your dad— that you can think of that your dad taught you or two and a couple of things that like, this is something that my dad instilled into me that I carry out today?

Tom

Brink: Yeah, just steady hard work. Treat people right. Do the best you can to keep things in good order, which he always did. Probably, um, he's primarily, probably I would say conservative in his business principles, but, uh, no, just very steady. Enjoyed his peers. Um, can remember as a child he always did a lot of, or at least some visiting, took time for the neighbors, took time for. He was a grain dealer also, so we had some really good ties that helped us grow the farm over the years. So he had a lot of good contacts, a lot of good customers, like you say. Um, and, um, just the lessons of do a good job. Um, he always said about marketing, he said, if we can do all what we need to do, but he always had to just trust the good Lord for the instinct of when to sell. And, and, uh, I would say he was a quality marketer too.

Didn't get everything just right, but overall, um, we always tried to grow products that were valuable and, and desirable. And, and, um, so yeah, a lot, too many lessons to really, to even, even recount, I guess. But I'm very thankful for the heritage.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. That's awesome. That's, that's what, what we're, we all hope for and, and hopefully get blessed with and, With that said too, talk a little bit about, you know, your life then when you started farming, when you got married, and bring your wife into this too, because I think a lot of times, you know, we have our business partners and our spouse, whether they're involved in the operation actively or not, they get to listen to us when we come home frustrated or happy or whatever. You know, and they, they are a big part of, of how we make our success and the family and stuff. So talk a little bit about your experiences there. Any lessons or any thoughts, wisdom there?

Tom

Brink: So yeah, just getting started, um, right out of high school, I opted not to do college. Um, my dad was my professor, I think, and wasn't— I just, I think we talked, Chris. High school and grade school wasn't our favorite. We, we knew where we wanted to be, but, uh, nothing against a solid education. That's not what I'm saying. It just, for myself, didn't have to opt to do that. Had opportunities to start right in after high school. Um, didn't, uh, didn't meet my wife till I think I was 24. Um, she's a girl met through my brother-in-law that I was good friends with, and that all came together just in a, I guess, a very providential way. Started dating, and within a year we were married. And, um, she, she's just a great business partner, works in the office the other day a week at the farm, and, uh, just been a real solid part of what we do each and every day.

So, uh, Shortly after, within a year, I think, uh, first son was born, and a year or two later, a daughter, and a few years later, another son. So, um, just, uh, family is a huge deal. Lots of patience there. We, when we were young, we worked, worked a lot, worked long hours, just go, go, go, go, go. And it takes a family, in our case, a family unit to do that and be and be supportive. So very thankful for that.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, I was privileged to get to meet your boys and, and, you know, talk a little bit about raising kids on the farm and how you interacted and how you brought them in. Because the one thing I noticed is how passionate and how engaged and how wise they already are at a young, pretty young age.— what did you do as you were raising the kids so that they kind of learned the roles, learn, you know, and have the passion? Because passion doesn't just come, right? It develops. Talk a little bit about it.

Tom

Brink: Well, they were— we lived on the farm, right? We live on— I was raised, I told you, born and raised. My folks started the farm in 1955. I was a middle child, so we There was 4 girls and 2 boys. We were fortunate enough to buy that farm from my parents. My dad was very, and my mom was very direct and intentional about how they wanted to do things. They wanted to be wrapped up by the time they were 70. We, Cheryl and I, my wife spent, first of all, I would tell you this for your listeners. My dad said, well, you are not coming into this farm or be a partner with us until we see who you marry. And that was advice from his attorney. And I never bucked at that, but I knew that was important. So, and it turned out it was important.

But anyway, shortly after we were married, we formed partnership with my folks and grew the farm during that time, bought my folks out by the time they were 70, just like they wished. So that allowed us to stay on the home farm which we had bought earlier. But so I was, uh, we raised our kids, our boys, they had the same bedroom I have. And incidentally, Brett's boys, I have 3 grandsons, they are in the same bedroom I lived in. So there we're on the third, let's see, third generation, fourth generation there in the same farmhouse that we still— it's just a That's still the home farm even though it's not. We got, you know, you were at the home farm in Caledonia where the main office is, but it's still a home place, I guess. My parents live a mile from there in a housing development that we built off the edge of the farm and the woods. But anyway, that's been home.

So the kids, how did I, how did we mentor them? I guess they always worked for us. Our boys never worked anywhere else. Ryan went to Michigan State for 2 years, but Brett stayed right, right with me, just like I did. A lot of training, I guess, just happened as we went. They, uh, they were just— they seemed to be cut out for agriculture and farming. And, uh, so yeah, I guess to say I'm just very thankful that they enjoy farming and they are good farmers, they're doing a good job. They They've started their own business partnership together called Brink Brothers. The plan is to blend that into the, the main farm over time here. And we have our estate plan done already where it all gets transferred to them over time through some real good, what we think is a good structure and a good plan.

Chris

Barron: So awesome. Yeah, it's like I said, you know, it's, it's interesting, I think, for a lot of people to listen because, like I told you before, even we started recording, we've got a lot of people listening that have young kids. And, and I think for all of us, we desire for at least some of our kids to be interested in agriculture, to carry that legacy on and to continue to grow the business that we started. And, and like I said, or like you said, you know, your dad was sort of your professor. Sounds like you're kind of the professor now. And we all take our turns of, you know, educating and constantly always being educated ourselves as well. I want to ask you a question that I ask a lot of growers when I very first start working with them, and that is the definition of growth, because for everybody, growth is different.

For some, it's, you know, for some it might be spiritual, for some it might be financial, for some it might be more acres, and it might be a combination of things. And I didn't forewarn you of this question, but I kind of want to get your opinion of kind of what your definition of growth is or kind of where you think people should be thinking in terms of maybe how growth could or should be maybe defined. Hmm.

Tom

Brink: I would say it's a combination of things, of goals that we probably set for ourselves. And I think anyone that wants to, or has a desire to be in agriculture, first it's a faith walk. You said it's okay to talk about faith, Chris. And it's, any business is a faith walk. I'm not, it's just, it's not just farming, but, you know, there's a lot of trust in doing what we do and trying to get things right. But the return certainly is very weather related and supply demand, which is all good. We have challenges in agriculture that, that I wouldn't, wouldn't trade or wouldn't want to be involved with some of the other things that retail people or manufacturing have to face. Uh, you know, I think we all know as agriculture people are kind of amazed at how much, how long a season is or how, dependent you are on this or that.

But, you know, business is business, and there's no, there's no, uh, there's no guarantees, and there doesn't need to be. Um, but it's, it's just staying steady. Um, the— as far as growing the business, um, I guess, you know, as a, as a young person, you always, uh, you want to grow if you can, and we have. Um, acres is one count, but that's probably not the, the big thing for us is quality, um, sales. We focus on sales. We want to, we want to be growing high, high-value crops on our, our farm. We don't sell any number 2 yellow corn. It's all processed either in silage, high moisture corn, or dry, dry ground corn. That's, and that's we worked hard at developing a relationship. So that's, that's our market. And, uh, our wheat is, is food-grade wheat. It's not— it's, uh, and so we have to be fussy with that, and that works well.

Um, our soybeans, uh, as we move on, I'm really not ready to say over the airwaves here what our next move in soybeans are, but it's very specialized. And, um, and then the haylage too, it's, uh All right. We have a, a big forage program. So we've been very focused on staying close to our customer, local, our freight, our freight is almost nothing. Uh, we just don't have to truck our products very far. It's very close to livestock. We're blessed to be in a very strong livestock area. So, um, so that, uh, that has just kind of formed up., just pretty intentional, trying to find and build those relationships. And, and that's been, been good for our farm. So, so yeah, the, the spiritual side, I guess, um, the, the, the revenue, um, we try to grow our, grow our, uh, our gross.

And, uh, my son Ryan, I guess I'll credit with him putting a target out there for having a, uh, profitability grow and, And, uh, when he said the first time what he wanted to see us do, we've made those goals the last couple years, and it kind of surprises me. But yeah, we do need to set that out there for— I think, um, and just, you know, set the bar. Set the bar.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, you know, the, the goals being documented are, are huge thing, and, and being clearly identified. And my takeaway from what you said is is the quality, you know, actually probably is the definition of growth. If you can have quality in everything you do and the diversification you talked about too, I think those are kind of my two takeaways. I think that's really good. I forewarn you, the next question, if you could go back and tell your 25-year-old self something, What would it be?

Tom

Brink: Oh man. You know, it, this game, it's not a game. This business takes patience. This business takes fortitude. It, it does. Um, put your goals out there to take care of, of your family. Be a— do the best you can to be an upstanding person in your community. That takes work. Try not to shove too fast or too far or to get too impatient about things. Just, uh, and that's hard to do as a young 25-year-old. You do have to work hard, you have to be aggressive, but don't cut corners when it comes to your ethics. Or— and I'm not trying to say that we got everything perfect over here, but it's just take the, take the long road in that regard. It'll work out. And, um, the shortcuts were for short-term gain probably will be given back if they're— yeah, just try to, try to do things right. Try to— but set the goals hard, high. I mean, it's— there's a lot of opportunity.

We live in a, you know, I think I tell my boys, just all you got to do is Not all you have to do, but just— we live in a world where they're, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's quick fix, it's quick, quick solve, it's a quick goal. Just work hard and behave yourself and the sky's the limit, really. Because, uh, unfortunately there's too many people that don't want to take that longer road, and it'll pay. I think there's more opportunity for young kids than ever right now because For the hard-working, goal-set young ones, I, man, I just think there's huge opportunities for— I really do. I don't think the good old days are behind us. I really think there's a lot of good things for young folks because of technology and the opportunities out there. Treat people well and and, um, you know, seek out, seek out those who can help you because there's— it's out there. It's out there.

Chris

Barron: That's awesome. I like that optimism because I think always sometimes it's easy to be pessimistic about things, and I think optimism is really the key. Um, I'm going to transition though a little bit differently than that now, and, and another question I, I've kind of forewarned you on is, um, we all make mistakes, right? We all look back and like, I don't know why I did that, or I don't know why I made the decision to do this, or why I made the decision to do that. Um, what was your best mistake? What's one thing that you did that you're like, I can't believe I did that? And it was either costly or it was impactful, and maybe in a negative way, but, but it was a good lesson, and it maybe changed how you looked at things or how you coach others.

Tom

Brink: Yeah, and I'm probably gonna still get caught a little off guard on answering this. I, uh, so made a mistake that turned out okay or avoided a mistake. I guess I, I think business relationships are really, are really important, um, as you look at that or who you're going to consider working with or not. I think at this point, looking back, we probably had an opportunity to do something pretty, pretty major that would have catapulted us forward pretty quickly. And at the time I thought, and it was with a new relationship that I thought could probably be pretty exciting, my dad just said, you know, I just don't think that's an equal yoke for you. And I just, I'm not going to recommend you do that. And for a long time, I guess I thought, not a long time, but I thought, wow, passing up a pretty big opportunity here. But looking back now, I think my dad was right.

It took a while for another and even better opportunity to come along that, that was good for us, and many actually.. But at the time, as a young man, I thought, boy, that would be pretty neat. Still have a good relationship with that person and so forth. But I sometimes wonder what that would've been if we'd have went ahead and did that. But was it— do I qualify that as a mistake? I don't know. Maybe I avoided one. But for a while as a young man, I kind of thought, huh, could have made some hay on that opportunity that didn't take, I guess, if that makes sense.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, it does. And I think it's interesting too, because one of the things we see with a lot of operations we've worked with over the years is, and I even got this question, I was speaking at an event yesterday and one of the questions was, how do you work with family versus, it's so much easier to work with non-family than family. How do you work with family? You know, and, and, and I think the one thing that as an observation with you guys was that I thought was interesting is that you know, I could tell when you guys interacted or when you interacted with your sons, they listened to you and you listened to them. And I think so often, um, we hear each other but we don't listen. And I, and I, so I congratulate you on that. Any comments on that? Because I think that is a, is an issue.

And I guarantee there's people listening right now that feel like, you know, they tell Dad this and that and he's not really listening, or the other way around where, where dad feels like, you know, I'm trying to tell the kids something and they're just going to have to learn it the hard way because they're not listening. And probably somewhere in the middle sometimes is, is the right answer too, right? So sometimes combination. Any comments on that?

Tom

Brink: Communication is, is, is big. It's huge. And those who are blessed with the with that gift, it's a big deal because, uh, you know, some— something said in a wrong setting can be devastating to yourself or someone else. And so watch your— what I would say, watch your tongue. Have we— have we learned that those lessons maybe through some trial and error like everybody else? I'm sure. Yeah. So I appreciate, you know, what you saw with myself and my boys. I would say I hope my boys don't get upset when I say this, but when they were young, I mean, starting out and so forth, they're both very competitive, and they were in a bit of a little scrap, and I just stopped. They were both right in front of me. I just said, well, you want to make me have a bad day, just keep doing what you're doing. And to this day, I've never seen them have a competition confrontation like that again.

They knew I meant it, and they knew it was important, and they are patient with each other. It doesn't mean they don't have good debate and good exchanges and direct— that's all good, but the respect to keep it respectful and watch your tongue is important to me. And I think they, they picked up on that. I've never, uh, we don't have hollering matches at our— we just don't, we don't allow it. We don't tolerate it. We don't. And, uh, it's just policy, I guess, just out of respect.

Chris

Barron: Well, that makes a good working environment for employees then too, because I think sometimes what gets missed is that, you know, there's confrontation, and it might not be that big a deal if, if in fact that's the culture of the family. But that doesn't mean it's the culture of the employee. And sometimes people wonder, you know, how do we do a better job with employee retention and all that kind of stuff? Well, you start by exactly what you just said. It's that respect, it's the, it's the care for each other, and it's professionalism. I mean, that's one of the things you guys, you know, brought up in our meeting is just the importance of professionalism and So, so key. We're getting closer to wrapping up. I have kind of one last, more of an economic question for you. As we record this in the middle of July in 2024, so this will be listened to for probably years going forward.

We have in agriculture, in every business, we have a lot of ups and downs. You know, there's the good days, the bad days. There's the good years, the bad years in terms of financial. I'd like to have you talk a little bit about, you know, at your age and my age, we can remember the '80s and we had some pretty high interest rates and we had to navigate those interest rates. And I think now, in 2024, we've come off of really low interest rates and we're in that 6 to 7 as we record this now, 8, on some line of credit interest rates and probably going to be facing some, some refinance stuff in the next few years where interest rates are going to be significantly higher and a big impact on the bottom line that we maybe hadn't seen the last number of years. Any comments on just managing debt, managing, you know, uh, capital acquisition, purchasing, that kind of stuff?

Any, any, any thoughts on, on what people need to be keeping in their mind on that?

Tom

Brink: Yeah. Um, every operation's different and everybody has different risk tolerance levels and so forth. Um, you know, just on our, on our, in our businesses, I guess, um, and agriculture isn't our only business. So we have business interests that are, that, uh, that are important, aren't important to, but all everything I'm involved in, Um, we take— we keep a really close look or eye on our balance sheet. My dad said there's a— gave me a percentage that he said was always safe for him. We've maintained that and haven't breached it ever, just that ratio. And, um, if we needed to back up or had to do some— something different, that we always had those cards to play, if you will. And things, you know, things do get difficult at times, and you maybe have a regret on this or that. But the balance sheet is a big deal.

Try to— I would say, if I was going to give anybody advice, keep it on the conservative side. Is there times where you can boost it through to get, you know, for an expansion? That works. But long-term liquidity is a big deal. Everybody's going to learn that through their business career. Some hard lessons from time to time, that just happens. That's just the way it is. But try to keep a good plan so you have some triggers that you can have a backstop, I guess. And, you know, when I started at 17, it wasn't long after. This was in the early, early '80s. We started in '78, but, you know, '82 was, was, was, it was a high interest period time there. But if I look at the graph now, I'm going, well, you know, people are talking about this interest rate. My very first farm loan was FHA loan, was 8.25%. My dad just couldn't believe we could get fixed rate money for that. Right.

And it was, yeah. And if that's what it was, and, and it was a, it was a great program. We paid it off right, like we were supposed to in the 5-year window they gave us. It was a livestock, um, facility. Um, worked out good interest rates, but it allowed us to keep that fixed. And, um, interest rates did go to, you know, the 21% prime. But look, just have your listeners go back and look at the graphs. That, that graph went straight up, and it did not— just like any graph, it doesn't— it does stop at some point, and it does not stay flat. Most times it comes right back down, and it was a spike. So how long was that window when it was extremely high? In perspective, it was very, very, very short. It just, it went straight up and came right back down. You just gotta be positioned to get through those, those, those times.

And, uh, I assume that we could maybe see something like that again potentially. But, um, I guess that's my comments on, on that.

Chris

Barron: No, that's awesome. I think it's, you know, it, it, it's like you said, you know, it's different for everybody. It's looking at that debt-to-asset ratio. Um, you know, as Mo Russell used to say, who was always a mentor of mine, you know, he said you need to always try to balance, bulletproof your balance sheet, it doesn't mean that it will always be bulletproof. But the goal should always be to try to bulletproof it, you know, and there's going to be, like you said, those times when you take that extra risk, you buy that farm, or you update some equipment, or you do some things in a growth mode that, that maybe takes that, those ratios and skews them a little bit. But those need to be calculated decisions for a reason, right? And With that said, my last question to you is just to explain kind of anything that you think the listeners can take with them, kind of a final takeaway.

What should they stay focused on? You know, it's about success, but it's about your life and kind of why we do what we do and just kind of get your take on kind of making sure we understand our why and we We, we focus on the important stuff.

Tom

Brink: Oh, you asked some really good question, questions, Chris. And I, I just wanna take a moment too to just thank you for doing what you're doing in the farm community. Um, opening up these visionary lessons for, for, for farmers. It's, it's, it's, it's really neat and I appreciate you doing it. Thank you. And what you're doing and, and what you've established. The farm community's quite small. What are we down to? 1.5% of us are in agriculture anymore. I think that alone brings opportunity just because, and that it's gonna take, you're gonna need to be good at what you do and you're gonna need to be a student. You're gonna need to be sharp to stay in it. Even it's still competitive even though there's so few of us in, in, in some ways. But it'll, I guess consolidation will continue in my, in my view.

It's gonna be very important for you guys to, you know, for our young listeners here to, to build good networks, build good relationships, neighborhoods, your church, your families. That's just pivotal to, to a good business. So, keep those things strong, work at it. You're not on an island by yourself. If you, that's just not a good place to be. It takes a network to build customers, to build vendor relationships, to build friendships. You know, my business network is probably, beside my own family, is most— one of the most precious things I've got. You know, it's powerful and it's a good thing.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, it's about the relationships, isn't it? It's about it. It's about the connection and, and the purpose for what we're doing and why we do what we do. So Um, great conversation, Tom. I really appreciate it. I knew it would be a good conversation too when I met you. I'm like, uh, you have to be on Dad's Wisdom. So, um, I knew it'd be a great conversation. Um, you should be super proud of your family. You should be super proud of your accomplishments. And, and your dad did a good job. You had a good professor. And, uh, I think you'll, you'll be— continue to be a great professor. uh, in your guys' operation. And, and, you know, I was talking— I did a 19 minutes on our other podcast, um, a while back on the transition from leadership to mentorship.

And I think we all eventually go through that transition too, where we go from leading the organization to mentoring the organization. And I think, you know, those are, those are all things that we all want to aspire to get to, to where we can not only be the leader, but also be the, the mentor eventually. So with that said, Tom, phenomenal conversation, really appreciate it. And one of these days, maybe I'll bug you again for a Dad's Wisdom Part 2 or something, you know, but we'll—

Tom

Brink: Well, it's been a pleasure and I, it's an honor. So thank you. And agriculture is a great business. It's a great thing to be a part of., go with that.

Chris

Barron: Yep. Sounds good.

Tom

Brink: Thanks, Tom. God bless. God bless you.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. Thank you. And, and thanks everybody seriously for listening. Um, again, as I say at the end of all these Dad's Wisdom, if you have a dad, a grandpa, somebody that has been impactful in the operation, somebody that can share wisdom and share their experiences so that we can all benefit and all kind of be there for each other. Reach out, let us know. With that said, thanks again. We'll catch you again next time on the Ag U-Pitch.