Farming, family and strip-till

Shay

Foulk: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Today we're going to have kind of a fun video. This is a, uh, probably a 3— no, it's 6 years later, um, from the last time we recorded from Canada at the lake. We're at, uh, Phil Farms Lake, actually Dean Phil, your guys's dad and grandpa. So I'll be introducing these guys here in a second, but I think it was 6 years ago in 2019. So you can go back in the podcast and watch. We did, uh, Quality of Life, Strip-Till, and Fishing in Canada. So we're going to do kind of a recap 6 years later to that. So if you haven't listened to that one, for a lot of you that are new, I'd recommend going back. That one's actually not numbered. I think it's number 40. If you don't get a chance to go watch it, no problem, just watch this one.

So I guess what I want to do first is have each of the guys here introduce themselves, and then I'm going to throw a bunch of questions their way. So So I think we'll start with Brant down here on the end, my brother-in-law. These two guys are my brothers-in-law. And I don't know, what are you to me, Sam? Nephew. Nephew. Yeah, he'd be my nephew. So, all right, go ahead and introduce yourself, Brant.

Brandt: Okay, well, I'm Brant Fehl. I've farmed with my dad and Ben since 2009. My first crop year was 2012. And we're just struggling through it like the rest of you guys are right now.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, the markets are awesome, so that's what we're real happy about.

Ben: Yeah.

Sam: Uh, my name is Sam Fale. I'm 19 years old. I'm going to be in my second year at Iowa State in ag business. I actually started renting a farm a couple years ago, so farming with these guys, um, and then plan to do that in the future. Things are growing great.

Shay

Foulk: And next year we're going to get you as an intern for Ag View Solutions. So Sam's been at I don't know what, you've been at 3 peer group meetings now with us, I think. So he's becoming an expert. So he's gonna follow in Shay's footsteps and be the next expert, and eventually they can kick me out and they can just run the show.

Sam: Yep, getting pretty excited for that.

Ben: Yeah. Uh, Ben Fale, uh, I've rented my first farm in 2003 with Dad, and then 2005 full-time So kind of what these guys said, struggling through it. So it'll get better.

Shay

Foulk: And this is your kid right here?

Ben: Yep, and Sam is my one and only. So happy to have him here and, and, uh, probably be the next one in line here.

Shay

Foulk: So awesome. And one thing you said in the last podcast we did, which I'm gonna just kind of bounce around here, but you'd made a comment about you know, you were wondered if some people thought you guys, like you and your wife, got away too much or took enough time or plenty of time off from the farm doing fun stuff. And your point was, is we've got a son that's playing baseball, which is what Sam was doing. And, you know, that 6 years went by like the snap of a finger, didn't it? Talk about that.

Ben: Yeah, that went really quick. And we were, really good. I don't think I missed a baseball game at all. I maybe missed one since then, maybe, for something, but we went to everything, you know, it was important. And, you know, we'll probably get into it later, but we have an equipment sharing partnership with another guy who's— things are actually going on at home right now because he's there. You know, it's hard to get away, but you need to. So, and it's very important to do the kids' stuff. Very, very important.

Shay

Foulk: Brant, do you have any comments on that? You know, you, in the last interview you said, and your daughter's over here watching us as we record, but you had made the comment that, you know, I've got a daughter that's playing T-ball and he had a son playing baseball. And I think you're a prime example of making sure that you make time for the family events and being there. Talk a little bit about your philosophy on that too.

Brandt: Yeah, I will not miss a game or a swim meet or whatever it is. It's just you, you have to be there.

Ben: It's—

Brandt: you just have to be there.

Shay

Foulk: Well, you got to decide what's important in life, right? You know, I think you and I were talking about that. We were talking about, um, you know, why do we farm, you know? It's for her, right? And him and my kids. And Joe, who's only wants to be behind the camera and not in front of it. And Mac, that's sitting back a ways there too. Yep. And, and, um, all the other boys, Shay, and all the other boys that we have. I can't name them all off because I forget all their names. There's so many of them in our family.

Brandt: I'm— but it's only like 13 sitting on the dock.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, right, right. So I think it's just, it's just important that we kind of start out, you know, the importance of why we're having this conversation is really about why do we farm, how do we make sure we're getting quality of life. And we're going to talk a little bit about the work. I want to quiz you guys on strip-till and some things that you guys have learned in the last 6 years since the last time we talked. And then also just a little bit about brothers in business because we have a lot of clients that farm with their, their dads, or, you know, daughters that farm with their dads. And, and it's tough, you know, farming with family isn't the easiest thing. And I'm sure you guys have always gotten along perfectly and never disagreed agreed ever on anything, but you know, from time to time there's differences. And so I'm going to hit you guys up on that.

But let's, let's, uh, did you have a comment?

Brandt: No, no.

Shay

Foulk: Okay, so I guess what I want to start out with, and then we're going to circle back to the importance of family and quality of life at the end here, as we kind of touched on it in the beginning intro here. But one of the things we talked about last time was strip-till, and it's something that I had made a comment in the last time I interviewed you guys that I'm not sure like if somebody put a— parked a field cultivator in your yard, you guys would probably wonder what it is, you know. It's like, what is this? You know, um, because, you know, it's— you guys have strip-tilled your whole lives. Your dad strip-tilled for what, 25 years? And you grew up with it.

Brandt: And 7 years.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. And there's— and there's just a lot of people that listen to the podcast that I think are interested in it, intrigued in it. And I think Ben called it one time the tillage mafia, you know. Everybody was out doing tillage about 2 days sooner than they should have. And, you know, and it's like, hey, the tillage mafia is out, you know. And so, and so I think it's just something that I think is interesting for our listeners to hear, that those who are strip-tilling and those who are thinking about it— and there's some areas where guys no-till and they're going to no-till no matter what, and there's a lot of wheat and cotton and rice, and you're not going to strip-till in a rice field. But, you know, I think it's important. So one of the things you guys said last time was you just talked about, you know, the fertility, you talked about the soil structure and some of those things.

Whoever wants to go first and kind of talk about some of the things you've learned the last couple of years on strip tilling and what's working good or what's not working good.

Ben: Yeah, just kind of in general, our strip till is simple strip till. You know, a lot of guys will do P&K and whatever else in the strip. We're doing anhydrous only, spreading all of our macros and micros, whatever we think we need or do need. Um, we did do the dry for a while, um, and it's— to us, it's a logistical nightmare, you know, trying to get everything through 2 bars, you know, keeping it fed, all that stuff. Um, never really saw a big increase you know, an efficiency increase because of it. Um, maybe it was there, we went away from it. Um, you know, there's a thousand ways to do every— to do things wrong, you know, and maybe we're doing it wrong, but we're still okay. Um, I don't know. As far as the tillage goes, we actually did trade our 30-year-old field cultivator off here.

Shay

Foulk: Oh, so you know what a field cultivator is?

Ben: We do. Awesome.

Brandt: We traded our 30-year-old for you guys.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, yeah, a lot of guys call them diggers.

Ben: You know, we traded our 30-year-old one off for a 15-year-old one, just more trash clearance and stuff, because we have a lot of trash. If we need, if we need to use it, we need to use it, and it's always going to be in a high trash situation. So yeah, we know what it is, but you know, we've got a 27.5-foot field cultivator that does 100 acres a year. Maximum, maximum, maximum. You know, that's if we need to level out tile lines or whatever. You know, it just doesn't get used and sits in the shed. But, um, but yeah, that's kind of where we're at. Kind of, you know, Dad was always in hydrous only. Then I bought the Montag, I don't know, 10 or 12 years ago, and then went away from it. And that's kind of where we are.

Brandt: I saw a big benefit Um, with Sam coming into the operation, uh, not as a farmer but a helper employee 3 years ago or so, and he started running our broadcast, broadcasting fertilizer for us, and that was huge. We'd be partially through harvest and Sam would be able to start spreading fertilizer for us and did a fantastic job and always has done. So that's been a great benefit for our operation to be able to kind of keep ahead of the curve and have things done when we're not worrying about snow or rain or, you know, what have you.

Sam: So yeah, like one thing about these guys is they talk about the logistics of things and When was the last time that strips weren't done in the fall? Fall strips are just what they do, and I think with the broadcast, it just allows them to get it done. And I think that's been big for them, especially going into the spring, being able to plant early. These guys like to plant beans early, so, um, and then be able to go right into their corn. So the strip-till in the fall, being able to get it done Being, being able to broadcast has been nice.

Shay

Foulk: That's kind of what we see too, is the, um, the ideal way is in the fall. Last year we got in a little trouble just because it was so damn dry, we couldn't get the machine in the ground. It was so dry, so we ended up having to do a bunch of spring. But we're kind of doing it the opposite of you guys. We're putting the fertility or the P&K down, and then we're, we're side dressing anhydrous. So I think probably what, like you said, Ben, you know, there's 1,000 different ways to do things, and what works for one guy right across the fence might be something slightly different. But I think the strip-till system still is a really good way to, you know, to get your fertility where you want it, whether it's the, the N or the P or the K or whatever it is, and just the efficiency of it.

I know Joe Paulsen and I on 19 Minutes, the very first 2 episodes of that, we did an efficiency calculator on how much more efficient it is in terms of cost. I mean, if you got to have— what do you guys have, 2 tractors, right? And you're able to, to do everything. Talk about the efficiency of it.

Ben: Yeah, we have 2 main tractors that do everything, one that basically just sits there, um, but it's kind of needed for that 100 acres of field cultivator work because you can't be hooking and unhooking all the time, you know. But you know, the amount of acres we're running over with 2 machines and just an 8R370 and an 8R410, which is new to us this year, you know, so it's not like we have— for what we have, we are very efficient machinery-wise. And going back to the fall strips, you know, the fall strips this year were way better than the spring strips, and there was a lot of anhydrous burn issues. Actually had to replant some corn, which hopefully is tasseled by the time we get home. But yeah, it's, you know, you just don't need a big horse. You don't need a $200,000 field cultivator. You know, you still have to put on nitrogen one way or the other.

So, you know, and that Fallen Hydras works in our area. It just does until it gets wet and warm in the spring. We don't have an issue. With nitrogen loss. So, you know, that works for us in our area. Chris said, you know, he mentioned their dry fertilizer in their strips and then side dress and high dress. Well, they've got, you know, even though they're only 25 miles away, they have a lot of different soil types than we do.

Shay

Foulk: So we have like 15 and you guys have 2 perfect.

Ben: Yeah. You know, we've got top of the hill, bottom of the hill, and it's all good stuff. You know, we have 30 acres of sand and that's it. It's no, It's just no big deal. So it's what we do.

Shay

Foulk: We have 30 acres in every field of sand. So, um, talk about the— and then we'll get on to the next subject. We already lost some of the audience because the young, the young, the young girls were going to listen to us talk. We talked about family and they were all tuned in, and we start talking about farming and they disappear. So they're gone, but that's all right.

Brandt: Oh, they got to go paddleboarding or something.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, there's important stuff to do. So Talk a little bit though about soil structure. That's the biggest thing I've noticed, you know. The— I think when we first recorded this was about the first year we were strip-tilling because we were learning from you guys. And I think it was, it was interesting, you know, we do a lot of corn on corn, and I think there was a lot of people, you know, doubting whether that works. And we're still mostly corn on corn, and it works just fine. There's some nuances, there's some things you got to do, but the thing we've learned that's so amazing is the soil structure. Because, you know, a lot of, a lot of the tillage guys go out there and they got pinch rows and they're, you know, the tractors are sinking in and you got to wait an extra day or two to field cultivate.

It seems like when those strips are there, those strips dry out and you got soil structure where the tractor is going to go, and we can go about 2 days quicker than everybody. Talk a little bit about that and anything there.

Ben: A perfect example is right now we've had 3 to 5 or 7 inches, I don't even know, because we've been here.

Brandt: 2 on the month.

Ben: So we've had a lot of rain and we're trying— one of the only things we custom hire lime spread and corn fungicide, and corn fungicide all goes on by ground. And right now, you know, with 5 inches of rain or whatever it is in the last week, they're out running right now because they can. If it was a tilled field in our area, I very highly doubt that they would be able to go, and maybe they can, I don't know. But I know that we've got a day or two on that. You know, going back to planting in obviously in the spring, you know, we don't have to go out and dry the ground out with the field cultivator. We've got a 2-inch berm or whatever it is, you know, and it's dry and ready to go. Even if the row middles aren't ready to go, the strips are ready to go and we don't have to disturb it before we get there.

So, you know, as long as the ground can carry us and the strips are, dry, we're good to go. You know, we can go plant corn. We're usually a day or two ahead of most.

Shay

Foulk: We noticed in 2018 in the fall, because of the soil structure, it rained every freaking day. And it was— and, you know, and we had to get harvesting, you know. And I was amazed at how we were able to go out and combine. The neighbors went out to combine and they got stuck just inside the gate because, you know, they were deep tillage and they just sunk out of sight. And we just— we combined a 250-acre field that day. And never even cut a rut just because of that soil structure. That was huge. You know, there's just lots of different advantages. Not that we recommend going out and combining corn when it's super muddy, but at some point you got to go get the crop too.

Brandt: Yeah, we had— I mean, there's— it's in general, to both of your points, during harvest, you know, we might have to park the trucks on the road and bring the grain cart out to load semis.. But we can still have the combine, yeah, tractor and the grain cart in the field.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah.

Brandt: And not hurt—

Shay

Foulk: no issue at all. Yeah, not hurt stuff. Yep.

Sam: Yep. Not only that, but I spent— I've spent some time, uh, in my internship doing some crop scouting this spring, just doing a lot of stand counts. And, um, compaction just is less of an issue in the strip till. I mean, it's just, it's just clear with the deep tillage guys, like, if we're losing stand It's because of compaction. And so being able to drive in between the rows and plant right on the rows, there's just less compaction to ruin that stand.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, I think you get a better stand count also because you're planting the seed in soil and not in soil and residue. You know, that's the big thing I, I noticed that was really huge. But I don't know, any final comments on strip-till? We want to stay on this forever, but I think it's just something that I think people are interested in. We have a lot of people reach out and ask about it and A lot of times when clients are at our farm, they want to go see the strip-till bar, they want to see the side dress bar, they want to talk about, you know, what would that look like? And, you know, I'm a lot of corn on corn. I can't. Well, no, you can. We're making it work.

Brandt: So I guess I encourage guys that are on the fence about this whole deal. Chris and his operation came, came to Ben and I and Dad a number of years ago and learn about it, ask questions.. And I know Chris and his group went whole hog. I know Joe, Joe Paulson and his family went whole hog on this deal.

Shay

Foulk: It's—

Sam: think about it.

Shay

Foulk: I mean, it doesn't work everywhere, but it saved our family operation $40,000 a year. I haven't written you guys a check yet for that, but you know, it's, it was a, is a huge savings just in terms of efficiency.

Brandt: Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: So, yep. So, and so we'll just have to put your phone number in the show notes. We'll have Mac put it in the show notes and somebody, somebody, somebody wants to call you and say— I'll either answer or I won't. Yeah, well, that's all right. They know how to get ahold of me and I know how to get ahold of you guys. So, yeah, 'cause I think that's the case though, is I mean, we can help people in that area and that's cool. So let's roll into the next topic. The next topic I wanted to hit on was, and you kind of mentioned it, you know, we're trying to survive here this year. Commodity prices really suck. And I think there's a lot of people really concerned. You know, especially the row crop operations that don't have other profit centers to subsidize. You know, the cattle guys are doing pretty good as we record this here in July of 2025.

I would also say that, you know, there's some operations that are still doing okay because they don't have much debt, but most of us have debt. Most of us have had a couple of years in 2025 of '23, '24 wasn't great. And that's why there's, you know, there's some payments going out and stuff now to farmers just because of there was a lot of holes in '23 and '24. The funds have driven this market pretty, pretty hard. You know, they've been selling, selling, selling. And so they're pretty short in this market. We're all trying to survive. But I think the thing I want to talk about here is just the mental health of farmers is, you know, I think we got to you know, still go do the stuff we do. We started out the conversation talking about the importance of getting away.

Your dad told me, um, I think it was out on the dock yesterday, he said that he had a guy tell him one day that he— when he was making a comment that, I don't think I can get away this year, I can't get away for a week because I got too much going on. And that guy told him, you have to get away. And I think that's important for all of us because you know, our mental health is important. And if we can get away, we can come back and make better decisions. Do you guys have any comments on, on that and how to navigate that? Because I don't think it's easy for any of us, but it's, it's something we got to do.

Ben: Yeah, I've been really good at that, um, at going on vacations. But that's good, you know, we don't go on a lot, but you just have to go. I mean, most of us, if we're home we're gonna be working, you know. And like, Sandy, my wife, and I were in South Dakota 2 or 3 weeks ago, whatever it was, for the— right before the 4th, for 3 or 4 days. And, you know, Brant was there and Bart was there, and, you know, stuff was still happening at home. And I know that not everybody has somebody like that, but, you know, work the weekend before you go, work the weekend after you get home. I mean, it's just the way it is, you know. You've got to You've got to catch up to what you know should happen next week. And then, you know, you're going to put in the hours one way or the other. Go away for a while. You know, don't think about the farm. We didn't have cell service. We didn't have Wi-Fi.

It was fantastic for 4 days. We were basically disconnected unless we went to the bar in the town of 8 with 2 ice cream stores, you know, and but You know, you just have to get away. We usually go south in the wintertime for 3 or 4 days. You know, we're here last week. I was here last year. I was here 3 times just by happenstance. This year it's only going to be once, you know, and but you just have to go, you know, otherwise you're, you're just going to be in the doldrums of the farm all the time and just reset your mind. Get out of there. You just have to go. That's the best advice I can give to almost anybody, and that goes for any job. That's not just the farm. Yeah, you know, just get away. You can't work 52 weeks a year. That's dumb, right? You know, maybe you want to, but I still think it's dumb.

Shay

Foulk: Well, burnout is— burnout happens and you don't know it, you know. You all— and we see that with a lot of clients, you know. You get to a point where you've outgrown your ability to manage, and then Also, to your point, Ben, I would say that for those listening that think, you know, I don't have anybody to back me up, then get somebody to back you up. I mean, get some— figure it out because you can get somebody. There are neighbors, there's collaborative opportunities, there's all kinds of ways to do that, you know, to get backup. Any comments?

Brandt: I'm in a bit of a unique situation. As my wife is a leisure travel agent, so we travel a lot. Last, last year we were in Ireland, Italy, here in Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica. We go when it works, when it works. I'm not going to leave when it's busy. The— it's always busy, but our busy times, I'm not going to leave when that happens. But what she and I have been able to do with that travel has been huge for me.

Shay

Foulk: And probably your relationship.

Brandt: And our relationship. Yeah, it's amazing just to be able to go and do things by ourselves. Our daughter gets to go with us. Sometimes. She's only 10, so she doesn't get to do everything because when I was 10, I did not go to Italy or Ireland or, you know, but all joking aside, you have to go.

Shay

Foulk: Mm-hmm. Sam, talk about as a kid growing up with parents who got away and what did you see from your perspective as a kid growing up in that environment?

Sam: From my perspective, Never got to go. Well, I got to go to Canada. You know, I got to go to some cool places. You know, I've— they've shown me some cool things, but also I can't tell what this guy is thinking. So I don't know. I don't know if vacation helps him or not. But, you know, it was— I always enjoyed that they went away, not because, you know, sometimes they left me home alone.

Shay

Foulk: That's good.

Sam: But it's just like, as a kid, it felt nice to, you know, parents are in Mexico. Like, that's, that's nice. And I know, I know they're resetting and I know they're, I know they're together.

Shay

Foulk: And you don't even have to be told that, right? You just know that your mom and dad are in a good place.

Sam: Yeah.

Brandt: Well, Ben and I were, Ben and I were kind of shown that as we were growing up, our parents would go to Jamaica or somewhere like that every, every February with some friends of theirs. And it was awesome. It was awesome for them to leave because, all right, we got mom and dad are gone. We're going to— we got rule of the roost. But the best thing was when mom and dad came home.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah.

Brandt: So, yeah.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, that's cool. All right. So we've talked a little bit about, you know, the margins and getting away and that you still need to do that. A little bit about, you know, the mental health side of it. I think when we talk about mental health, part of the problem that is an issue with people is because they don't shut it off, right? It's because they don't do that. And so that's really the message, or I guess the take-home I'm going to take from you guys, is take that time. Even if you think you can't afford it, you can go— there's ways to do things cheaper too, right? There's ways to go somewhere and not spend a lot of money.

Brandt: As long as far enough away where you aren't going to work. You're going to turn around and come home.

Ben: Yeah, all of our vacations are cheap. I mean, this one's obviously cheap because the room and board is pretty much taken care of, but it's paid. Well, like, we went to Colorado Springs— well, I don't even know how long ago. It doesn't make any difference, but I think we paid for 2 things while we were there. We ate out once. I mean, we drove to Colorado Springs, we got the cheapest Airbnb we could find, and it was good enough besides the hailstorm that totaled the brand new car. You know, it was pretty cheap. And we did the same thing in South Dakota. We did the same thing in— where do we go a few years ago? Smoky Mountains. Yeah. You know, when we go south, we go cheap. I mean, it's just— it does not have to cost an arm and a leg to go do something. Like Brant said, you don't have to be that far away from home in order to have a good time and not be home.

Sam: And as a, as a kid, in that perspective, I'd rather go on vacation twice and go on one nice vacation. Like, I enjoyed going to these places. I enjoyed going to— I enjoyed going to Colorado Springs and climbing a mountain. Like, climbing mountains, pretty free. Like, mm-hmm, I enjoyed that.

Ben: Awesome.

Shay

Foulk: So I want to kind of shift gears a little bit. You guys talked about the collaboration, and that's why you could get away, why you're able to do these things, and I know we have, I don't know, we have 18 or 19 clients that are in collaborations, kind of like what you guys are and my family operation is in where, you know, we have one line of equipment that is a service division for the operating entities and you guys are collaborating. So it's kind of a two-part question. You guys have a partner that is not family and then you two guys are family. I know that collaboration started just a little bit before we recorded the last time, and I know, Ben, you were kind of doing a lot of the math at the end of the year trying to figure out who owed who what because there was multiple ownership of equipment.

You guys were able to consolidate the equipment into one entity so that that entity could, could charge a fee back to each of you. Talk a little bit about how you guys get along and work together and what's the process so that you get along, because You know, you'd be surprised how many brothers in business bitch at each other all the time or don't get along that good. And at least from the way I see it, it looks like you guys get along pretty good. You farm well together and you're very respectful of each other, which is really cool. So talk a little bit about what's the magic behind that to collaborate with a third party, be brothers and family, and still be able to successfully work together as a team.

Ben: Yeah, Brent and I didn't always get along very well, but we were young and stupid. So, you know, you grow up and, you know, we don't always all have to be right. And I'm sure I do stuff that drives him nuts, and he does stuff that drives me nuts, and whatever, you know, you just have to let it go. There's just— it just doesn't make sense to fight about stuff because You know, what if he's right 50% of the time and I'm right 50% of the time, you know, when they're at the opposite ends? Well, then that's 100%, right? You know, and you learn from your mistakes. Everybody does, you know. And Bart, who's the, who's the third member, he's, he's more not very involved in the day-to-day stuff, but very involved in the busy seasons. And, you know, but like today, like I said, he's out there walking through the mud, figuring out which fields that the sprayer can go through.

You know, somebody has to be there almost every day, you know, and that goes for—

Shay

Foulk: and there's days you guys are there for him too, though.

Ben: Exactly. You know, he's got stuff. He owns another— owns a business of his own that's pretty flexible for him. You know, so when he can't be there, we're there. And now we can't be there, so he's there, you know. And it's, you know, he's taking care of the business while we're there. And I kind of know what's going on, but I have no idea if there's a sprayer running today. I don't have the foggiest idea.

Brandt: No, I looked at the Ring camera today and there was a pickup and fuel trailer parked next to our fuel tank.

Ben: So hopefully, hopefully they have a key to the fuel.

Brandt: Fuel trailer.

Shay

Foulk: The nice thing is, is not to have to worry about it though, right? Yeah, it's going to get done when appropriate.

Ben: Yeah, exactly. You know, we, we trust him to make the right decisions. And, and the custom applicator that's doing the fungicide has done it for 10 or 12 years. They know the fields. I trust them to make the right decisions. If it's not right, they're just gonna leave, you know. And if Bart says don't go to that field, they're not going, you know. So, so yeah, just, you know, to summarize, you know, we get along fine right now. I know that we don't always see eye to eye, but we don't argue about it. It's just, you know, whatever. Grant's doing this or Ben's doing this or whatever. It's fine.

Brandt: To Ben's point, he said we didn't always get along and we didn't when we were growing up, when we were high school age.

Shay

Foulk: We were both each assholes, huh?

Brandt: We didn't. It wasn't. But so I feel like in every operation, no matter whose it is, somebody has to kind of be in charge. And Ben has taken that role and has done a very good job. So yeah, you always have to have that guy, right? And yeah, he says I'm in charge and, and I don't mean it that way.

Ben: No, he's accurate when he says that, but I'm very passive. I mean, I'm not telling anybody what to do. I'll make a list of stuff and, you know, the list of stuff needs to get done. I don't care who does it. It doesn't make any difference. You know, we all do the grunt work. And thankfully, little buddy over here is, uh, you know, he helped us clean out a bin the other day and does the waterway mowing, which I hate.

Brandt: And I can call Sam and say, hey, I need whatever it is. I don't know what it is. Mow my yard. Mow the shop, mow, go do this, go do that. Do you have time to do it? Yep or no? And it either gets done or, or I do it after dinner. I mean, it's just— but Sam has been a great addition within that.

Sam: Yeah, it's, you know, it's— he's obviously in charge of me. He does tell me what to do. So he does give me a list of things, but it's kind of like, yeah, you do this today and do that tomorrow. But, you know, this summer I've had a— I've had another job just trying to expand my perspectives a little bit, kind of learn from some other people, learn new things. So I haven't been around a ton this summer, but, you know, he's been great. They've both been great. I haven't been around a ton in the last couple summers, just last summer playing baseball, this summer having a job, but they've been great just, letting me be flexible.

Brandt: This summer you've been a couple days a week.

Sam: Yeah, a couple days a week, maybe whenever it works. And, you know, they let me go on a peer group meeting with Chris for a couple days. So they've just been great with letting me kind of learn what I need to learn and do what I want to do and also do the shit work that they need me to do as well.

Ben: Right.

Shay

Foulk: Well, and I think the secret sauce or the recipe here is respect. Yes. Right. I think it also has a lot to do with, you know, just watching you guys, which I think is a lesson for all of us with family members that we farm with is, you know, and you said it, Brandt, is clearly defined roles and responsibilities. And you guys don't even have to talk about them that much because you know each other really well. A lot of operations logistically need to document them, right? Write them down. And I think a lot of times what can happen too is the spouses can indirectly get involved, because if you go home and you son of a bitch your brother, that's gonna make the spouse all of a sudden be protective of that person. And then you start getting into this vicious circle of all kinds of issues. And you guys, back to the respect, you guys are very respectful of each other.

And you do the right thing. You aren't being disrespectful even when you're not with each other, which I think is really key.

Brandt: That conversation has to be had long before something like that comes up.

Shay

Foulk: Well, with each other, you guys are going to address it with each other. If there's an issue, you're not going to go to somebody else and bitch about the other person, which is what gets a lot of people in trouble, right?

Brandt: Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: You know, so. All right. Well, thanks for sharing that, because I think those are lessons and perspectives that a lot of us need to hear just to kind of pay attention. The next thing I want to hit on is you talked about the next generation coming in. We're doing a ton of transition stuff right now. You guys transitioned pretty smoothly from your dad yourselves. Talk a little bit about that transition and then kind of what you guys see yourselves doing in transition. Because the last time we recorded, Ben, you were 41, now you're 47. Isn't that amazing how fast 6 years goes? And then— yeah. And Brant, you were 38, now you're 44. Times go fast and transition can never happen too early. So talk a little bit about with your dad and then kind of how you guys see Things.

Ben: Well, with this transition, they started— mom and dad started really early as far as figuring out what they were going to do, knowing when they were going to do it. And that was kind of a moving target. I'm sure it is for a lot of people and it will be for me too. But it was a good, clean transition. They had it figured out. Brandon and I bought the equipment. It was a pain in the butt accounting-wise, but we got through it. But it was just the accounting, you know. And then ever since the collaboration in the LLC of the equipment, it's just, it's not hard. It's just not, you know, and I own shares, Brandon shares, Bart owns shares. You know, at some point Sam's going to be a part of it, you know, and somebody's probably going to start selling shares to him, you know, as equipment-wise, you know, as far as land goes, who knows what's going to happen there.

But that'll happen eventually, you know, so, so we haven't really talked about that. I mean, like, Bart's older than us, 10 years older than me or so, you know, I'm only 47, Brent's only 44. I'm not going to do this forever. You know, Sam hopefully will be back in the area in a couple of years. He's going to be able to get out of Iowa State in 3 years. We'll be able to keep him busy, probably have some other opportunities.

Shay

Foulk: Maybe we'll steal him to do peer groups or something.

Ben: That would be perfect because I think your timing works out pretty well and he's really good with people, which everybody here knows that. But, you know, it's kind of a moving target at this point. You know, we're still young enough that, I mean, we've, we've got him there to know and he's very, very capable. He's not a very good mechanic, but he's good at everything else.

Shay

Foulk: You don't have to be.

Brandt: We can teach him. Yeah.

Ben: So But everything else, I mean, he could step in and do what I do with not much training, you know, and, and, uh, he's just going to be good at it. He just is, you know. And, and so we've kind of got the next generation is sitting there waiting. And, you know, there's times when I'm way busier than I want or need to be. We just need an extra hand sometimes. So So, you know, he'll pay his way when he gets back.

Shay

Foulk: And I think part of it too, I've done a lot of times, I tell people that, you know, employees or additional family members are not an expense, they're an investment. Absolutely. And so you're investing in the future, whether it's an employee or a family member coming back. And I think a lot of times we think we can't afford it, just like we can't afford the vacation. You can't afford not to a lot of times. And I didn't mean to jump in, Bram, but any comments on transition from your dad and then to the next generation thoughts there?

Brandt: Well, when I was, um, in 2008, I would have been 28. Dad came to me and said, would— do you want to farm? And at that point, um, I was partying and having fun and working a job off farm and having a great time and going to Chicago every few months for trade shows and having a great time. And I said, well, I think so. I didn't know, but yes. So in 2009, I went back to the farm. March of 2009, went back to the farm, and I worked for Mom and Dad full-time as an employee. And It was, it was a little weird for me, and I think that it was definitely weird for Ben for me to be back. Um, and we had some issues but ultimately worked through them. And when I had my first opportunity to rent a farm was in 2012, and That was from one of our landlords that Ben and I have now. And I rented 73 acres that year in 2012.

Couldn't have been the worst year in the entire world to start because it was a drought in Iowa. But we did it. We made it work. And then Dad started renting ground that's when he was kind of— mom and dad were starting to work their way out, and it was good as far as mom and dad said. We had great landlords that would allow us to keep going on that ground.

Shay

Foulk: That was just a good communication transition. I think you guys did though, is you made sure the landowners understood the next generation coming in and got to know them and stuff. Yeah, because I think a lot of times mom and dad have the relationship and then the kid never gets introduced, and then it can get lost pretty easy in the mix.

Brandt: That's right.

Sam: So, uh, I, I had mentioned in the beginning of the podcast that I had started renting an 80 a couple years ago, um, and that is all the flowers to this guy because it was a farm that they had been custom, custom farming for a few years, uh the guy that was running it decided that it wasn't for him anymore.

Ben: It was—

Sam: well, it was too far away. It was, it was, it was this whole thing. So the landowner came to, came to Dad and Brant and said, you know, do you guys want to rent it? And Dad, instead of, you know, Dad saying, I'll rent it myself, he turned to me. He asked me like, do you, do you want to learn something? Like, do you want to, do you want to have your own part of this?

Shay

Foulk: You want an opportunity?

Ben: I think I told you you were renting a farm.

Sam: Yeah, well, he asked me, but it was like He'll ask questions that, you know, are statements.

Brandt: So giving flowers to Ben, though, he did come to me and say, is it— are you okay with me?

Ben: Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: With offering Sam taking this in line, the respect piece.

Ben: And I said, 100%.

Brandt: Yeah, go for it.

Sam: Yeah. And so that's been great. Me having a little bit of skin in the game, it's just taught me a ton. It's lit a fire under me. It really has just just makes me so interested in everything. And I just also think that, you know, a lot of people talk about with this transition stuff how the next generation has to provide value. And lately, Dad knows this, I've been talking to him a lot about how I can bring value to the operation because I don't want to just be a freeloader.

Ben: He wants to buy everything.

Brandt: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of stuff.

Sam: Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. He's not wrong. I just, I want to bring value to the operation, whether it's a different approach to the way we do things, just a different idea, or, you know, adding those acres. It's just something I've been thinking about a lot lately and just, just listen to him talk on podcast, Chris talk on podcasts a lot. And when they talk about, when they talk about transition, just people talk about the new generation bringing value, and I want to make sure that I do that.

Ben: Yeah, and I'll elaborate on that a little bit. You know, Sam was 17 when he rented his first farm. And yes, it was because of me. And that's fine. You know, I mean, I have one child and, you know, what's— what better time to start, you know, to start letting him make money and, and have the opportunity to lose money too. Yeah. Which he didn't do last year. He did pretty well last year. But I heard somebody say the other day that they're not encouraging their son to farm. And I'm like, I'm like, what in the hell are you doing? I mean, how, you know, you've got a good operation and you're not encouraging your son to farm or your daughter. I mean, in this case it was a son. And like, you know, Sam had a pretty big home run last year. He did a pretty— wow, he did a pretty good job. Somebody did a pretty good job. Dad helped him out a little bit. The stars aligned for Sam last year.

He had our highest corn yield on the farm. And marketed it pretty well. Would have been better if he would have done it his way instead of Dad's way, but nonetheless, you know, you can't go to a 9-to-5 job and make the money he did with the investment that he had last year. You just, you know, it just doesn't happen. You've got to give the kid an opportunity to make it work for himself, you know, and You know, I'm not sure if this person was being selfish or not, and it doesn't make any difference to me. It's not my business. But, you know, I just don't feel the need to be— to do that, you know. Give it to him, let him run, let him screw up, let him— let his dad help him screw up a little bit. Yeah, you know, and, uh, you know, you just got to go, you know, and, and he's going to be fine. Even looking at a poor year this year, he's going to be fine.

Brandt: Mm-hmm. To the point of the screw-up, Ben, you've heard this before from Dad. I've heard it from Dad. Let your kids make the small mistakes, but do your best to keep them from making the big ones. Mm-hmm. Whether it's financially, anything. It's— that's our goal, is to make sure they do it right. Let them screw up every once in a while. Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: And understand too that, you know, farming is a little bit like Vegas. The difference is, is that it's controlled risk as opposed to unknown risk. But that controlled risk, there are years probably like '25 is going to be, there's going to be a lot of operations that are going to be lucky to make any money. But you got to look at a 5-year trend and you got to say, you know, we did pretty good these 2 years. And if you average the 5, we're, we're moving forward and we're doing okay. But I think it's, it comes down to discipline, knowing your accounting, knowing your books, doing the numbers, all the kind of stuff that we talk about all the time that we're not going to talk about right now.

Brandt: That's a testament to, to you and your team I mean, before, before I started with having Profit Manager, I mean, I kind of knew what was going on.

Shay

Foulk: Mm-hmm.

Brandt: I didn't have a fricking clue.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. Well, it's scary. Profit Manager is scary because it shows you what's, what's really happening.

Brandt: And it's okay. Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. You can either be informed or you can be happy.

Brandt: You know, I would much rather tell the bank that I know exactly where I'm at than tell them that I have no fricking clue where I'm at.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, right, right. So sounds good. Well, hey, I got two more questions and we're gonna wrap this up. Um, we're gonna go to a, to a fun thing and then a little bit more serious thing, but it's gonna be a fun thing too. So last thing, um, I want to know a big fish—

Brandt: two things.

Shay

Foulk: There's two things. So the first one I'm gonna give you is right now. So, so, um, is there a big fish story that I can get from each one of you? And you can lie if you want, but I would prefer that you, you know, any big fish story. And, and Ben was out today, so we're going to start with him because He was out fishing today, so—

Ben: well, today I caught the biggest smallmouth and I caught the biggest walleye out of our boat.

Brandt: Hmm.

Sam: But other than that, that's because he was sitting there with his LiveScope watching them. Don't let him fool you, he's not telling us where the fish are.

Shay

Foulk: He's only just keeping it to himself.

Ben: Sam was watching too. Yeah, but that's today's big fish story. They weren't huge. Smallmouth was big. It was a good smallmouth.

Sam: Nice.

Ben: Wally was a big eater.

Shay

Foulk: So, so what's your big fish story?

Sam: I guess my best fish story all time is, uh, another opportunity that Dad could have taken but gave to me. Um, got woken up in the cabin one morning, there's a muskie on the dock, and I— he, he decided not to take any casts at it, so why don't I? So I ended up taking a few casts of this muskie and I caught a 44-inch muskie off of our dock when I was like 7 years old, 8 years old, something like that. So that, that's my, that's my claim to fame, you could say.

Shay

Foulk: That was pretty cool.

Brandt: Fun.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Brandt: I think mine was— it would have been 6 or 8 years ago when Carson was here, and we had been over in another lake where these guys went today on jackfish, and Carson wanted to catch another.

Shay

Foulk: And for those who don't know, my son Carson.

Brandt: Yeah, yeah. Carson wanted to catch a northern pike, so I said, well, we're gonna go over here to this spot and we're gonna catch some walleyes so that we have something to eat, but then when we leave, I'll take you to a spot and we will catch a northern. I didn't say you're gonna catch it. I said we are going to catch a northern, and I was ready. And I had my pole ready and I cast it into these reeds. And as soon as that thing hit the water, I caught a 32-inch northern. And Carson looked at me and he said, well, can I catch one too? I said, no, because I just caught him. It's done.

Shay

Foulk: You said we, not he.

Brandt: It's done. I said we, not you.

Ben: Yeah.

Brandt: Yeah. So maybe you guys want to—

Shay

Foulk: maybe Maybe you guys aren't as selfless as I thought you were.

Ben: I don't know.

Brandt: So I kind of felt like a jerk because I, I was ready and he was not.

Shay

Foulk: But well, yeah, it sounds like the fishing is, is as serious as the farming is sometimes, right?

Ben: Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: So, yeah, you know, it's family, fishing, and farming, maybe in that order. I don't know. All right, so last question, and I didn't warn any of you guys about this, and so Um, don't make me cry. So, and I'll try not to make you cry. This shouldn't make you cry, but I want one nugget of wisdom, um, to your life and, um, of what's made your life for your family and your farm and your fishing, you're just your life. What's, what's one nugget that's made your life successful that others can take away something from? So what's, what's one nugget?

Brandt: I'll start.

Shay

Foulk: And I didn't mean to make you cry. If you did, I'm sorry. I'll cry with you.

Brandt: I haven't started yet. I have a very— a wife that's very successful in her business.

Shay

Foulk: Mm-hmm. That's okay. You can go ahead, say it. You're going to Go.

Brandt: Yeah, go to the next one.

Ben: I think the biggest thing for me is just let the little things go. I mean, it just— big things matter sometimes, little things matter almost never. I mean, you know, you just people pick on each other and about nothing. And, you know, something, you know, last year we had a guy running the batwing for us in the fall and he was all upset with himself because he clipped a rock in a fence line. I'm like, well, did you know that the rock was in the fence line? I mean, you don't know the fence lines. You're, you're helping us. And he thought I was going to be mad. Okay, so I have to buy $50 blades again for the mower. I don't care. I don't care. Yeah, you know, you just, just let the little stuff go. That is the number one thing, I think, you know. And I, I don't think that I always did, but if I don't now, it's on accident, you know. So little stuff just doesn't matter, you know.

Smile and move on. It doesn't matter.

Brandt: Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: Life's too short. You want to go before Brand does?

Sam: Sure. So I don't— I said at the beginning of the podcast, you know, I'm 19, I don't have any wisdom, but I do have some advice. I, I do have some advice for, I guess, taking wisdom. I, I have the opportunity to have some of the, what I would say is some of the best wisdom around. I get to be directly involved with Ag View. I get to be, you know, it's part of my family, um, and then I get my grandpa, my uncle, and my dad. I get all the wisdom from all these people. And, you know, I'm very proud of all these people, but I like to seek it out. You know, I like to ask people like, what would you be doing? You know, and I've— and you just try to soak it in. And I like to take notes on these things. There's just— there's so much out there. And I know I'm lucky to have a plethora of it. But what, what people regret is what you should be doing.

You know, people always say like, I wish I took more risk when I was young. I wish, I wish I bought more land. I wish I did this. I wish I did that. Well, then why wouldn't I do it? So that, that's my current view on it. It's just like, take the wisdom and use it because these people know a hell of a lot better than I do. So And I thank you guys for that too.

Ben: Basically saying we made a whole bunch of mistakes and he gets to learn from them.

Sam: Exactly. I get how many generations of mistakes. Yeah, now I get to be the one to like, okay, I can— maybe I can try and fix it.

Ben: Well, and some people hide that stuff, you know, and they won't let you know that that's a big mistake that you're making.

Shay

Foulk: Information is power.

Ben: Yeah, it's just sometimes he wants to do some stupid shit and I'm like, no, don't, don't do that. That's just I already know I made that mistake once. You don't have to make it too, right? You know, and, you know, so for the older generation, don't let your kids make big mistakes. That's just dumb. It's just— it doesn't even make sense. Anyway, sorry about that.

Brandt: The point— the point that I was trying to make: be proud of what you have, keep working hard, we'll be fine. Mm-hmm.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think, Brant, you told me the other day, you know, that This environment we're in is stressful. It's stressful for all of us. But circling back to the first part of the conversation, get away. And this is my takeaway from you guys, but get away, spend time with family, and don't worry about the small shit, right? And if you don't have somebody to take care of stuff, figure it out. Get somebody there, get away, take care of yourself. Take care of your family.

Brandt: Sometimes it doesn't matter if there's anybody there.

Ben: Go.

Shay

Foulk: Mm-hmm. Well, sometimes you're gonna screw more shit up if you're there than if you leave.

Brandt: Who cares if there's somebody there? Right. Go.

Shay

Foulk: Right, right. So if there's livestock, you probably better have somebody there to take care of it, you know. But, but that's, that's doable.

Brandt: I've got 2 dogs and a 19-year-old sleeping in my house for 7 days.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, well, that works too.

Brandt: So yeah, those are my lives.

Ben: Yeah.

Shay

Foulk: Well, the, you know, for those who have thousands of cattle, you probably should have somebody there, you know. But, um, anyway, well, hey guys, I really appreciate your time today. Um, I had to pull you off the dock and get you out of the sun. Last time we recorded this, there was a thunderstorm. It was raining like cats and dogs, and now it's sunny out. So I'm going to let you guys get back to the dock. But thank you, Brant. Thank you, Sam. And thank you, Ben, very much. And thanks to—

Ben: thanks, Chris, Joseph.

Shay

Foulk: And Mac for getting this recorded and not participating, but participating in the way that you guys do all the production. And we're really proud of you guys and what you guys do in the back side of this for all of us. So with that said, thanks everybody. Hope you enjoyed this. We'll put some phone numbers in here if anybody wants to look up strip-till questions or reach out to us or any of these guys. With that said, thanks a lot. We will catch you again next time on the Ag View Pitch.