Tires = profitability

Shay

Foulk: Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Today you have Ben Paskowitz here today from NTS Tire Supply. Ben, how are you?

Ben

Paskowitz: Doing well. Thank you for inviting me on the podcast.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, absolutely. And we had actually met up at the Yield Academy in Rochester, Minnesota, and Ben came up to me afterwards and he said, hey, thanks for the presentation. I really want to talk to you about tires. And I was like, okay, I don't know about this. But I was very intrigued because what we look at is the practical applications and the decisions that you can make in your farm operation today that have an impact on your bottom line immediately. And then when you, when you sent me some of the follow-up information and we kind of talked a little bit about simple things, you know, adjusting tire pressure and what's your inflation levels when you're on the road versus in the field and how is that impacting compaction, it all made sense, you know, all the lights were aligned there. So tell me a little bit about your history and how you got into this space.

Ben

Paskowitz: Sure. Yeah. Really, my core belief is that farmers are— they want to be the best farmer. It doesn't necessarily mean the biggest, but they want to make the right decisions. And, and they want to have a successful operation. And, and I learned that early on. And when I, when I started out in the, in the business, you know, really, I was trying to understand where we fit in the market. And, and we really carved out a place where, you know, essentially our, our, our mission is to help farmers drive their farm forward by getting the right tire system on their equipment. So originally we were a tire shop. Well, we've evolved a long way from there. You know, we used to do automotive oil changes, all that, alignments, and, but our passion has really always been the agriculture side. You know, my brother and I, Stewart ran the service truck.

I was more on the sales side and, and, and as we're going out to these farms and just asking questions and learning about their operation and some of their challenges, And also working with the equipment dealers, what we found is a lot of them were not familiar with, with some of the benefits they could get, improved performance on their equipment and reducing soil compaction just by changing the air pressure in their tires and getting the right tires on their equipment, the right size, the right technology. So really what we, we took a lot of time and educated some of the more progressive farms in our area. And they loved it. And they said, hey, um, and then, and then we had a lot of farmers calling in, and as we educate them, they're like, wow, you know, why hasn't my local tire shop told me this stuff? And can you come on my farm and just tell me what else I need to do?

So that's really how it started. And, and from there, we've just really focused on, on educating farmers, helping them make the right decision and get the right tire setup on their equipment. And it makes a world of difference.

Shay

Foulk: I would argue that most farm operations that have a, what they would call a good tire supplier, is someone that can find the right tire, has timely service, and is giving them a slew of options from cheapest to most expensive. And that's kind of where the service begins and ends. So I commend you guys on recognizing that that was a need for the farmers. And I loved what you said there. We are always a fan on the Ag View Solutions side of building things that the farmer wants. And what they ask for. And to find that avenue, your market opens itself up because you're solving real problems. And sometimes those are problems that, like you said, people didn't even know existed. What are some of the basic things when you were having those conversations initially?

And I know you mentioned inflation, but then there's also some different technologies out there that farmers may not be as familiar with. Can you talk through some of those?

Ben

Paskowitz: Sure, yep. So the, the big thing is, is getting the right air pressure in the tires. And so a lot of times you might think of flat plate area or how much footprint there is. But really the simplest way to think of it is how can I get my air pressure down? Because if you've got 30 PSI in a tire, that's going to equate to roughly 30 PSI of pressure on your soil. If you've got 15 PSI, now you've dropped that down to 15 pounds of pressure on per square inch of your soil. It's not an exact correlation, but it follows the same exact trend. So if you can get your air pressure down, you're going to reduce your soil compaction. And so one technology that helps with that is, if you think of the evolution of farm tires, it started out with the old bias tires, and then it went to radial tires. Radial tires was a big step forward.

Because the way the tire was designed, the, the, the tread, the face of the tire, the ply is separate from the sidewall. So the sidewall could flex while the face of the tire stayed flat and spread out on the ground more, almost like a track, if you will. Mm-hmm. So IF technology was invented probably almost 20 years ago now, and that stands for increased flexion. Michelin is the one that invented it originally. And so with IF tires, that's the next advance in tire technology after radials. And that means you can run 20% lower air pressure and carry the same load. So now all of a sudden you've, you've dropped that air pressure down and got a longer footprint. So it might be the same size tire, but you've lengthened out your footprint because that tire is designed to take more flex in the sidewall. Without, without wrecking the tire.

And then VF technology was the next evolution of that same technology. And that means very increased flexion. Not very creative naming.

Shay

Foulk: They're, they're on the right path.

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah. And so VF means you can run 40% lower air pressure and carry the same weight. But on a lot of these farms, honestly, It's, it's not easy to calculate air pressure. I mean, it's, it is actually easy, but it's, it's, it does take some math because it's based on weight and speed. So if, and you have to take worst case scenario with whatever piece of equipment that is. So let's say it's a sprayer. Or let's use a planter as an example. When it's folded up and you're going down the road, all of your weight is on them 4 center tires. So they have to be high pressure, you know, maybe it's 80, 90 PSI. Well, when you get in the field, you drop that planter down and you read, you now taken a lot of load off of them tires, plus you're not going as fast.

So when you reduce weight and speed, technically you could drop your pressure way down to 20 or 30 PSI maybe, which, you know, again, we're talking the difference between the 80 pounds of pressure on your soil versus 30 pounds of pressure on your soil. The one thing that is, if you can get your air pressure down to 15, 12 to 15 PSI, is where you've pretty much eliminate your, the damage to your root growth. So when people talk about pinch row compaction or things like that, if you can get below 15 PSI, you're going to not see much impact from compaction. Unless it's a totally, you know, you're driving and then right after the rain or something.

Shay

Foulk: But so let's talk about that on the planter because I mean, what you just said was you might need to be running 80 to 90 PSI going down the road on, call it, your 4, you know, center tires there that are on your 40-foot or 60-foot planter. But then when you get in the field dropping it down 20 to 30 PSI, that's a, I mean, that's a drastic reduction. You're running 30% of the PSI that you would down the road. How does that play into what equipment manufacturers have as recommendations on PSI? Is— are you looking at it from, I'm the tire expert, I want to do what's best for the tires and best for the compaction versus maybe what the equipment manufacturers recommend from, hey, we have to look at this thing as a whole system. You know, there's a reason we want 40 to 50 PSI in those tires when you're in the field or How do you think about that dichotomy there?

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah, that's a great question because traditionally tire shops, yes, like you say, they would play it safe and say, hey, we'll just put it up to the max pressure on the tire, 30 PSI, because then you're safe. Well, what they're not realizing is they've just cost you maybe 3 to 5% yield loss. It's, it's, it's significant yield loss from compaction. A university study in Minnesota, North Dakota is about 20% of your yield, which is huge, because about 70 to 80% of your field gets driven on every year. Well, you're never going to eliminate all of that because you have to drive on your field. But if you can cut that down, we've seen where we can cut it at least 5% pretty fast. Well, if you're talking, you know, 5, 6 bushels an acre, just by adjusting your air pressure, that, that is a lot of money in your pocket.

And so by a tire shop or an equipment dealer just telling you to, you know, bump the pressure up another 5 PSI to be safe and save the tires, well, they've actually maybe cost you $10,000 in yield loss just by doing that, even though— but, and maybe saved you a couple thousand in damaged tires. So yeah, actually had some farmers who, as they've understood this, they've actually a lot accepted that they might wreck their tires and ran lower air pressure. Hmm. Because they, they did the, the ROI is bigger on lower pressure. So, but variable air pressure, if you can adjust your air pressure from road to field, that's, then you can get the best of both worlds. The problem right now is that with tires, you still have to have 'em inflated up to what you need for going down the road on that planter because you can't afford to have a tire blowout on your planter when you're going between fields.

Shay

Foulk: So I'm going to, I'm going to come back to the variable air pressure there. I want to go back to what you said about people are willing to ruin their tires running as low pressure as possible because that has a greater ROI impact. That's just something a tire guy would tell you, isn't it? Come buy more. No, I'm just kidding. I'm totally kidding there. But, you know, I want people to think about that, though, because as farmers, we're so used to we have to have properly inflated tires. You know, I'm probably checking it once at the beginning of the season, maybe, maybe once a week, or if we think that we have a flat tire here. But as long as it's running that 40, 50, 70 PSI, I'm not even thinking about it.

So, Ben, what you're saying here is farmers are in a loving way maybe being a little absent-minded or just haven't thought about it, of what does it do from an impact standpoint on yield efficiency? I know we're going to talk about, you know, power efficiency and things like that here as well. What does that do to your bottom line from a fuel consumption, a horsepower efficiency? And then on top of that, yield. I mean, that's a, that's a pretty eye-opening thought process probably for a lot of people here that haven't haven't taken time to wrap their minds around the impacts that that could have. So, and I know people are listening, they're saying, well, Ben, tires aren't cheap. Well, neither is a 5% yield reduction.

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And, and that's where, you know, a lot of times, like, what we do is, is, you know, if, you know, first of all, find, is there any low-hanging fruit where we can just adjust air pressure down on a farm? And that doesn't cost anything with the tires they've got. But if there's an obvious one, like, like, let's again, going back to a planter, a lot of times they come with truck tires. They did unlike the DB planters. Well, now they are coming out with the VF tires, VF implement tires, which are like steel-belted radial VF tire. And those are way more flexible than a truck tire. I mean, that's when you, when you're on it, when you're running a truck tire through the field, you're creating a highway of where that compaction is. You know, it just packs the soil rock hard. So by just switching them over from them truck tires to VF implement tires is a big win.

And it's not a lot of cost on that. And that's where, you know, we trade in what's coming off too. So that always helps because we can allow better trade value than than a lot of tire shops because this is what we do. And, um, the, uh, and but the, the, the variable air pressure, I guess one other thing I'd like to touch on today is the Central Tire Inflation System because that's, that's getting to be a big thing. A lot of farms that are using it are now that have been kind of the early adopters, if you will. Over the last 3 years, we've been selling the system out of Germany. Where you can adjust your air pressure from the cab of your tractor in, in your planter and your tractor, or, you know, if it's a sprayer, you can do it from the cab of your sprayer.

So as you drive into the field, you can push a button and deflate your tires down to a preset pressure that you've calculated per axle. And as you go back onto the highway, you push a button and it inflates them back up. So that, that way you're not, you know, otherwise you're kind of stuck with setting your air pressure what you need to make the tire survive driving down the road. Well, that's not your ideal air pressure in the field. So now you can adjust it per application from the cab of your tractor very simply. And so that's been a big deal that we've been— the farms that are using it are now coming back and saying, hey, this is awesome. The ROI might have been the reason they put it on, but what they're finding is it's— the tractor is pulling that planter way easier because now you're not sinking down an inch and a half into the soil and pulling through that.

You're floating on top because your tire just got twice as long and it's floating over the soil. Yeah, so it makes it way easier to pull. It's a better ride on the tractor. And so they're coming back and they're saying, hey, I want to put this on my sprayer, I want to put it on my four-wheel drive tractor for tillage even. And it's, it's fun to watch it. When a farmer does understand the benefit of reducing air pressure, they get addicted to it. And it just makes sense because they can see the results.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. So is the Central Tire Inflation System, the CTIS, that you mentioned, is that different than variable air pressure? Or are they one in the same?

Ben

Paskowitz: They're one and the same.

Shay

Foulk: One and the same. Okay. And I just ask that because, you know, when I think variable air pressure, I think, is it actively changing air pressure as it goes through different soil conditions? Is there any sort of sensing that's saying, hey, you know, you're in a tilled part of the field versus a non-tilled? That's okay. That, that maybe that's the next evolution. Maybe that's a very increased flexion of the tire adjustment world here.

Ben

Paskowitz: So CTIS is kind of the term we use for Central Tire Inflation System, but At this point, it's not that advanced. They are talking about the next evolution of making it where it automatically adjusts based on the speed you're driving.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. And I guess that's kind of what I was referring to, whether it's soil type or speed or the payload that you have on. And I want to make sure I don't miss this. A lot of people— we're recording here September of 2025. So coming into harvest, a lot of operations, Southern Illinois, Missouri, Indiana have started to get into the field. Grain carts are top of mind. And I could see, you know, having a system like that on a grain cart, when you need to be cooking down the road, you need a totally different than when you're in the field loaded down with 80, 100, 200,000 pounds with some of these grain carts here. Do these systems work as well on a grain cart? Or talk to me a little bit about that.

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah, that's a good point. On a grain cart, I mean, it would, it would definitely help. But honestly, on a grain cart, I would actually recommend going with the track system. Because, and I don't recommend a track system in a lot of other applications, because the one problem with the track is that you've got a high pressure point where the mid rollers are. So, so you might think that a track is great because it's got a big footprint. Well, actually, soil compaction doesn't care about the size of footprint, it compares, it cares about how much pressure there is that down pressure per square inch. So every time you've got this belt, and by every mid roller, you know, there's this compaction point. So tracks are great for floating, getting through mud, but they're actually not great for soil compaction. They equate to about the same as about a 20 to 30 PSI tire.

So if you can get a tire, like I'm talking on a tractor, a powered machine. So if you can get a tire, a powered machine down to that 15 PSI, you're actually better off, you're creating less soil compaction than you are with the track machine because of the mid rollers. But on a track, on a, on a grain cart, that's a little different because a grain cart, you can get a massive track on that. And where you can't get that big of a tire, you know, so a powered machine, you just can't get that big of a track because, you know, it's, it's got to turn and twist and, you know, it just doesn't, there just isn't powered machines with that big of tracks. So, and the other thing about a, um, a grain cart is you're never going high speed with it. Like, I mean, when it's fully loaded.

Shay

Foulk: What's high speed? Because there's some people here that would argue with you on that.

Ben

Paskowitz: So what, what, um, I guess, I mean, yeah, I guess it would go pretty quick down the road. But so like with a, with a track machine, it depends on, on the on the size of grain cart, I guess. But the, um, you know, the, uh, the— I think the, a track on a grain cart is probably better because it's just so much bigger, you know, you can, you can get that, that down. But otherwise, but yeah, the, the next best thing on that would be a big tire with a deflation system on it. So I guess the other thing is if you are going a long ways with the grain cart hauling the grain down the road, then, then a tire is always better on the road. Tracks do not do well on roading. So I guess there's a lot— it depends. But in some cases, I'm thinking of a grain cart where you're, where you're literally just driving it to the side of the field and loading your grain trucks.

So that's what I'm thinking of when I'm saying it doesn't ever go fast. But if you are pulling it down the road to the to that elevator, then yeah, then a tire machine would probably be better.

Shay

Foulk: And that's a little bit tongue-in-cheek on my end because, you know, everybody's always yelling at the grain cart operator. He can't get there fast enough. He can't unload fast enough. He can't get back to the combine fast enough. And so, you know, we— and not necessarily in my operation, but in a lot of operations, they're running 10 to 12, 13 miles an hour loaded across the field depending on how much horsepower they have in that machine. With 80, 100, 150,000 pounds behind them. And then they hurry up and dump on the truck and then they're doing 16 miles an hour back across the field to go catch the combine so they don't get yelled at by the radio operator in the combine. You know, so yeah.

Ben

Paskowitz: And when it's empty, the speeding in a ma— you know, then, then that's, but yeah, when it's fully loaded, if they're going 20 miles an hour down the road, fully loaded, they're going to wreck a lot of stuff, I think.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, no, absolutely. So on that, on the CTIS, then there's a couple different monitor systems for that. There's more of a standard standalone digital system and then there's also an ISOBUS connected system to where you can actually just sit in the cab and make those adjustments, correct?

Ben

Paskowitz: Correct.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. So guys are saying, Ben, I have to get one more stinking monitor in my tractor. Well, if you can, if you can hook it into an ISOBUS terminal, is that a separate display, or are you able to run that through current display systems?

Ben

Paskowitz: Yep, it's, it's, um, it's, it's, um, the software is designed to integrate with ISOBUS, so it works right on your same screen. Perfect. Uh, there is a more mechanical system if you don't want to have the electronics, um, and the, and the, and the associated challenges. You can get a more manual system too that literally Works off of air pressure, but then you would have, you would have a control box in your cab. But it's, it's, doesn't have any electronics.

Shay

Foulk: Talk to me about tillage implements. You know, we've hit on sprayers, planters, power units with tractors, I guess tillage and combine, those are kind of the two that we haven't touched on here yet.

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah, so we have had people put them on combines, like on the, even on the rear tires and that. But the, the, the, and on the four-wheel drives, we've had people put them on them too. But there's not always as big of a benefit there. As far as ROI, it's more about the equipment's performance at that point. Because the ROI on a four-wheel drive, you can usually run them down pretty low air pressure without having a CTIS system. You know, you can usually get them down to 12, 10 PSI. So, you know, with an inflation system, you might get that down to 6 or 8. But it's not a big difference. And the same with a, with a combine. A lot of times your heaviest load is in the field anyway. So that's where you've got to have your highest air pressure regardless. Where, you know, so the equipment that you've got more load going down the road and speed where you can have less in the field.

Like, let's take a sprayer, for example. You know, in the field, you're not going to be going as fast as you are down the road, so you can drop it quite a bit when you drive into the field. So where there's a big difference between weight and speed from the road use to the field use, that's your best application for the variable air pressure system. So a 4-wheel drive tractor and a combine probably aren't my first choices for it. But like I say, the guys that, you know, we've got a couple customers that started out with it on their planter and tractor setup, and then they went to their sprayer, and now they have it on their four-wheel drive, and they just love it on there. Again, like I say, more because of the performance than ROI necessarily.

Shay

Foulk: I mean, I guess I think about like wet falls, and for most people listening here in 2025, we're not looking at a super wet fall, at least I should say east and south of areas in Iowa. Now, you said you guys can't avoid rain up there in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. So does, you know, thinking of that combine in particular, the heaviest load is while you're in the field, but that's also the time when you want to reduce the footprint the most, correct? Or am I thinking about that?

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah. Yeah. One example where you would love that CPIS system is if it was a wet harvest and you see you're driving into a wet area, you're going to drop that pressure down below what it maybe should be and you're going to roll through that like nothing. And, and you get to the other side, you're going to inflate it back up. Well, you're not going to wreck a tire doing that, you know, I mean, for a short distance. So if you've ever gone out, done off-road mudding in your truck, when you get stuck, that's the thing you do, right, is you go out and you let half the air out of your tires and you drive right out of it. It's the same thing in any application. That's, that's how you get through mud.

Shay

Foulk: So let's talk about that a little bit. That was maybe one of the last questions that I kind of had here is there's always a maximum air pressure listed on the tire. You're the tire expert. Why isn't there a minimum air pressure or has industry just not looked at, hey, there's opportunity on this? I'm assuming, you know, people have questions they could call you guys and say, hey, what, What's the bare minimum I want to run? Like you said, weight, time, speed, load is probably calculated into that, you know, variable loads throughout the season or whatever. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, minimal air pressure, minimum air pressure.

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah, there actually is a minimum. The Tire Association, which is basically the, the big tire manufacturers that get together and make kind of standardizations across the industry, they They claim that 12 PSI should be the minimum when you're running singles and 6 PSI the minimum when you're running duals or triples. The reason for it, I think Titan, Titan Tire kind of lobbied for that heavily, I would say, because with the big LSWs early on when they first came out with them, that's actually was after the LSWs were on the market is when they made that change because it used to be 6 PSI was kind of the minimum. Whether it was duals or singles, and then switched it to 12 for singles, which I don't necessarily agree with.

But because with LSWs, we had these big 1400s on four-wheel drive tractors, and when we dropped them down to 8 or 10 PSI, the twisting and turning, sometimes the bead would pop off the rim. There just wasn't enough pressure holding it on tight. Yeah. So on those, I agree. But on a, on a, on a tire like a Michelin where the bead sits a lot tighter, and, and you don't, and the tire can, isn't so stiff where the flexing will pop it off the bead. Those you can run 6 PSI all day long and you never will pop that off the bead. You know, if, if, um, so, so the Tire Association says minimum 12 PSI on singles, 6 on duals or triples. Um, you know, if I'm advising a farmer, I'm gonna say, look, you know, I'm gonna warn 'em about that, but I'm also gonna say I wouldn't be afraid to run this particular tire lower. With singles.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, that's good to know. Interesting, interesting outlook there. And I think it's good to have that minimum set. So, you know, we've covered a lot of ground here. I think the actionable items is just thinking about how can you reduce that tire pressure as you head into the field or, you know, as you go down the road, what's your impact that you're having? In both scenarios from a fuel efficiency standpoint. Maybe what we didn't hit on here to wrap up is just the difference that you see in wear and tear as a result of that. You know, are you with that higher air pressure, are you looking at reduced wear and tear going down the road? Are you increasing your wear and tear by having higher pressure or lower pressure in the field? You know, what impact does that have on that entire lifespan?

Ben

Paskowitz: Yep, that's a good question. Yeah, so it saves about— but by having where you can vary the air pressure between field and the road saves between 10 and 12% on fuel economy. You know, we start with that because in the field when you drop it down, you're creating less rolling resistance because you're floating along the top. So you're using less horsepower. In the road, by infla— you can then inflate it beyond what you might have ran it when you're trying to, you know, find a happy median. So you might inflate it all the way up to the max air pressure because that's gonna reduce your, your, um, you know, it's gonna reduce the, the length of your footprint. So now you've got less rubber on the road, meaning that there's less rolling resistance there. Yeah. So it's, it's weird because it's the opposite on field and road.

You want less rubber on the road on the— when you're going down the highway, because then it can just hum along, you know, like a car tire. Um, so as far as the wear and tear on the tire, it does also save life on the tire for the same reasons. When you've got a long footprint on, on the road, as you turn, you're scrubbing a lot of your tread off. If you can narrow that up, it turns a lot easier and you're not scrubbing the rubber off. Same in, in the field. If you're not if you're reducing your slippage in the field, because with a longer footprint, you're gonna— your slippage, you're gonna notice it on your monitor, visibly notice it where your slippage goes down with a longer footprint. So the other thing is wear and tear on the equipment.

When you're in the field and every rut you hit, you're bouncing along and, and you drop the air pressure down, the ride quality is phenomenal, the improvement of it. So all of a sudden now the machine is floating over the soil a lot smoother. So you've got, you're actually reducing the wear and tear on your equipment as well.

Shay

Foulk: So people listening, they're saying, hey, you know, I don't know if I have the money for a central tire inflation system. But I want to try this out. What's your recommendation? Step 1, do they, do they play with it on their tractors this fall? Do they make adjustments on the grain cart? Is this looking ahead to, you know, planting in the spring? What can people do today that are listening?

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah, so, um, in one sense, I would argue that, that you, um, that maybe, um, you can't afford not to, to do something. And I think Winston Churchill once said that never let a good crisis go to waste.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah.

Ben

Paskowitz: And, and I think that a crisis like we're in here with agriculture, where there could be a couple years of, of continued depressed price commodity prices, I think it's an opportunity, a huge opportunity for farms to reassess their operation, look at things differently, and find ways to fine-tune their operation. And farmers are are smart, and they're going to look at it and they're going to find ways to adjust things. And if putting an inflation system on means you can run a smaller horsepower tractor or go away from a track machine, you're actually putting cash in your pocket.

So you, you know, you're actually saving money, you're not costing upfront even, you know, if you're spending You know, if you're saving $60,000 on a tire machine versus a track machine or maybe even a smaller horsepower machine and then put an inflation system on it, you know, for half that or less, you're gonna, you're putting money in your pocket and you're getting better results, better performance, better yields.

Shay

Foulk: And maybe even a baseline of just, you know, what type of tires do I have? Am I looking at IFVF technology? On that increased flexion or the very increased flexion as they so aptly named it. Even just doing an initial outreach there and saying, am I running the right type of tires? Can I have an improvement on that end? Because everybody, everybody has tires, you know, I did a count one day, I think we have like 136 tires in our farm operation to manage. So I'm not sure we want to change all 136 at once. But it is a, you know, maybe 30 or 40 of them are due for a change. And that's something that I need to seriously consider.

Ben

Paskowitz: Yeah, when you know there's something that you need to change. That's where, you know, our team here, our product support team, the way we've built our business is we've hired people that have an ag background, you know, that grew up on a farm, or, you know, they understand farming. And then we've educated them on this conversation we just had. So they're doing these changeovers and working with farms, helping them optimize their equipment all day long. So, you know, we're getting between 100 and 150 inbound calls a day, and we're just helping them. So that's what we do. And we're good at it, you know, I mean, just because of doing a lot of it. So, but the team we've got are, they understand farming, and they can make good recommendations.

A lot of tire shops you're going to call in, and they're the local tire shop, you know, A lot of times the owner is great, you know, but he's a busy guy and he just doesn't have time. And the guy behind the counter, you know, he's more of a— more about cars and fast trucks and things like that. He doesn't really understand maybe the farming operation as much, or, you know. So essentially we no longer do anything with automotive or truck. We just strictly focus on agriculture and off-road agriculture tires and wheels and tracks. And these inflation systems. And we've just got really good at, by being laser focused on helping, helping farms really get the right tire setup on all their equipment.

Shay

Foulk: And you guys have a really excellent website. Komandia on that. If people want to go check that out, visualize, learn a bit more about, you know, what you guys do, where can they go see that at?

Ben

Paskowitz: Yep. So nts-tiresupply.com. And we are opening service hubs now to extend our reach. We do ship, you know, all over the country, all 50 states, and even into other countries. And, um, and then we ship trades back, you know, we're doing changeovers like that. But the thing is, if we can actually offer the service— because we've got, we've got like 6 service trucks right now, 3 in Redwood, and then we've got 3 other remote service hubs the trucks are based out of. And the remote service hubs, we just started a year ago, so we're— we'll be adding another 4 more next year. And just expanding our reach by having service trucks in, in different areas. So coming to your area soon.

Shay

Foulk: That's awesome. Yeah, well, I'm glad to hear that. And it's a service that's much needed. Any final comments here, Ben, as we wrap up?

Ben

Paskowitz: No, I think it's a huge opportunity for farms in the, in this time of crisis, you could say, to, to make changes on their operation that set them up for massive success when the prices do come up. And I think it's a big opportunity.

Shay

Foulk: Awesome. Well, Ben, thank you so much for the time, and thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. We will catch you next time.