Veterans Day, markets, controlled drowning

Shay

Foulk: And it all comes down to this. Two on, two out, bottom of the ninth. The Farmers lead by one.

Brian

Split: Full count. Here comes the play at the plate.

Shay

Foulk: And it's the Ag View Pitch! Thanks everyone for tuning in to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Before we get started here today, first of all, we just kind of jumped into the conversation with Brian Split. Uh, the conversation just kind of starts, but we get talking on markets and talk a little bit about Veterans Day. Thank you to all the veterans out there who have served appreciate your sacrifice and for those of the family as well. Also, before I forget, be sure to check out agviewsolutions.com. We've made some recent changes on there. You can go to the useful tools tab, look at a cover crop decision tool that Chris and I developed, and be sure to check out some of the articles and videos that we have posted in addition to our most recent podcast.

Brian

Split: Enjoy.

Shay

Foulk: How things going up your way? Busy day, huh?

Brian

Split: It was a busy day. It was a good day. Um, just happy to see prices continue to go in the direction they are. But man, uh, it's taken the USDA a while to come clean with where we really are. So that's frustrating because I think producers could have done a lot better marketing if we weren't making revisions to last year in September and then losing a couple hundred million bushels. And that, you know, all that stuff affects how prices go and If we knew that information earlier and more timely, our summer highs might have been better, maybe we wouldn't have gone as low as we did in spring. So that's the frustrating part. And it's like, man, just in August, the USDA was saying 2.7 was our corn— going to be our corn carryout. And granted, some of it was a yield reduction, but a lot of it was demand, right? And so now we're at 1.7. That's a billion bushels in 3 months. It's Crazy.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, well, and I think too, a lot, a lot of the conversations Chris and I have been having with guys is, um, people are really frustrated of course with all this because they're like, well, you know, we made— we feel that we made good marketing decisions with the information that we had, and now all of a sudden we're out, uh, huge profit margin percentage. And it doesn't really help, uh, heal the wounds, you know, just sitting there licking your wounds. It doesn't make people feel better when you just say, well, focus on, you know, 21 sales and what can you do moving ahead. That doesn't, uh that doesn't solve the dollars that you lost out on.

Brian

Split: No, it doesn't. Um, and I don't know if there's a good answer to that. I mean, it's almost like, do you, do you try to trade your way out of it? I mean, you can make it a lot worse. I mean, at some point you do have to move on, right? Um, and, and I suppose it is a lot of mindset, like, right, we can't get those dollars back, but if you think about how your future of farming has changed in the next few years, just in the last couple months, and what type of revenue we're looking at now compared to how dire things looked, uh, we should be happy about that. But yeah, you're never going to get that dollar, dollar and a half back. You just have to live with that, right? That's the tough part.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, uh, kind of exciting. My wife and I actually just made our first sale here on our first farm that we're going to be farming next year as looking at everything. And so we put out 6,000 bushels on Dec '21 and pulled the trigger on it. So kind of a, kind of interesting with how things are coming along, but what a time to be alive.

Brian

Split: Well, congratulations on your farm, by the way. That's exciting in and of itself. Yeah, thanks. That this is kind of where we were talking about starting for our firm's guidance as well. This kind of zone between about $4.04 to $4.12 on Dec '21 was our starting point, right? Um, but, uh, I don't know, I'm seeing Deuce make some new contract highs at this stage in the game. Um, $440-ish is probably the next major technical objective, which would be highs that we had in, uh, '15 and '16, that $38.75, $39.25. Um, you get through $440, then I would suppose your, your high from last year at $464.25 on the continuous chart would be your next step. And if you take that out, you'd actually have a huge yearly reversal, meaning we, we traded below last year's lows.

And then if we— if the December or March contract gets through this $4.64 and a quarter by the end of the year, that's a yearly reversal. So took out last year's lows, then you take out last year's highs. That is a huge sign of a change in momentum. So that would be Pretty incredible if we could do that. But, uh, we're not going to get any government reports. Well, we're going to have a government report next month, but traditionally December doesn't make any changes. So the market's also going to be left to its own devices really until the January final numbers. And with the tone that we have right now, as long as demand stays good, I would think that, uh, the expectation was that that report could be on the friendly side. So we'll see how the next 2 months go.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, and it was, it was a thing from our standpoint, you know, of just getting some bushels out there and, and looking at that profit margin. I think that's so crucial, is every operation's different, and we're, you know, in a little bit of a, um, you know, not unique— I don't want to say that— but just a different position as we get started here, looking at where our costs are in line, you know, working with my father-in-law on the operation, everything else like that. And yeah, just I I mean, having the opportunities to do this, and I think you said it really well there too, of looking at, you know, when we were looking at $3.30 corn or even less than that here not all that long ago, 6 months ago, a pretty dire outlook. And now to see the price opportunities that we have is pretty incredible, I think.

Brian

Split: Well, and so that's the tough part, is mindset and As a, as a speculator, you know, you'd say, wow, there's all this stuff going on. And that could really push prices higher. But you're not a speculator for a living, right? So you are a grain producer, your operation, your business is growing grain. Yep. And then selling for more than it costs you to grow it. That is the whole point of what you are doing. And so, you know, we're looking at it the same way. We have, you know, software that we use. I know other firms have software. Maybe it's just a spreadsheet that you're using, but it is so important that you really keep an eye on what your costs are. And they're never going to be perfect. You really don't know your true cost per bushel until you actually grow the bushel and know how many you have.

But that doesn't mean you can't try to get as close to a ballpark figure as you can. And the thing is, is on the inputs, you know exactly what you're spending. Yes. You know, if you got your feed cost, you got your chem cost, so You keep track of all that stuff. And then the target, the moving target, is any additional expenses down the road that may be unforeseen. And then the biggest moving target is the bushels. And when you know the bushels, but you have to make assumptions, and you're good at what you do. Uh, American farmers are great at raising bushels, proving that year after year, even in crappy weather conditions. Uh, so you have to make assumptions that you are going to have a crop to sell. And I think most will at least market off of APH bushels, which— yes, traditionally we're raising above APH, so marketing off of APH seems to be a safe way to go about it, right?

Shay

Foulk: Well, and we see that it varies so differently among different producers because, um, I was just having this conversation with some guys online here the other day is, well, what if you, you know, don't buy into crop insurance and choose to utilize that money elsewhere? And we see that not very many clients do that because the little amount that you spend on that versus the amount of assets that you're protecting or the value that you're protecting out of that crop, there's a huge disparity there. And with those dollars, sure, you could be using them to work elsewhere and maybe, uh, drive revenue and income in other areas. But what we see is those operations that choose to do that don't necessarily set it aside as a savings or a rainy day fund. They find a way to spend that money elsewhere.

So in the event you have a derecho that comes through in Iowa 2020, you have these catastrophic events, um, you know, what's your safety net? Do you have the, the money, the capital, the liquidity in your business to be able to handle something like that? And, and not, not too many operations can do that. Some can, we've seen it. Um, but yeah, it all ties back into that marketing decision of are you marketing off of your 85% coverage, APH, getting those bushels priced out and then making decisions from there. When you see, you know, if you have speculation in the market, you got extra bushels to work with.

Brian

Split: Right. Well, and I think you made a good point in two ways of how operations are different. And in one respect, and you had mentioned the crop insurance, and I think that's purely You know, when you think about what your risk is, what you're paying for it versus what it's providing for you, you know, obviously there's going to be years where you don't need it. But man, it's the year that you do need it to where you really wish you would have had it. But every operation is different in the respect of, you know, what is $4 corn and $4 corn for one operation on a cash basis is going to be a completely different thing for $4 corn for another operation. You know, cash rent is going to be a huge thing whether you pay that. But also geographically.

And when you think about a producer in, let's say, North Dakota, for example, versus a producer— I've got a producer in upstate New York that consistently will get 50 over the board for basis. So when you think about 50 over versus potentially, you know, North Dakota basis can be pretty raunchy. And so it's a completely different market. So that's where, as a, you know, helping people market, I can't just say, hey, everybody should be selling 404 you know, for their first HTA or futures because that doesn't make sense for some operations. So you really have to, I mean, marketing off of the charts and marketing off of your cost of production and your revenue figures are two different ways of going about it. And I would like to think that when you're marketing off of charts and you're at profitable levels, then the decisions get a little bit easier.

But man, it's a tough pill to swallow when you've got everybody out there saying, hey, you should start selling corn at $4, that's a great place to start. But you're like, well, my cost of living and everything, I need $4.30. So you got to base it off of your operation and do what you can.

Shay

Foulk: Or, or you see it the other way too. Maybe your cost of production is $3.35, and when you were looking at profitability, or, you know, we were looking at $3.60 corn there here all not all that long ago, and then you tack on MFP, CFAP payments any other, you know, maybe you're enrolled in some environmental programs, all of a sudden your actual revenue or your actual income on that, you might be $3.96 a bushel. And if that's meeting your margin target, you have to, you have to ask yourself, you have to look in the mirror and say, hey, why am I not making sales right now? And I like what you said about that, of there's lots of different programs out there. Of course, we run, we run Profit Manager here at Ag View Solutions and, and work with a lot of clients in that, but We have people that use all different kinds of software systems, spreadsheets, programs, and things like that.

If you can print off your, your corn marketing chart at your different breakeven levels, and you know what your yield is at each, or what your breakeven price is at each yield level, like you alluded to earlier, once we know what those bushels are, you have to look in that mirror and ask yourself, you know, why am I not making sales right now? And is it speculation? Is it Do I have my profitability locked in? And what decisions do I make moving forward? It's so crucial to the conversations, I think.

Brian

Split: Yeah, and I don't have a problem with clients speculating. It's inevitable. But I think you have to also keep it in the realm that you don't have to speculate with your whole crop. So, you know, an average person out there— I mean, I have a client that's a chiropractor, right? And he just likes to be involved in the market, but he's not trading 100,000 bushels at a crack. You know, he's keeping it in line with what to him is a reasonable speculative risk. And so if you can kind of get that mindset here where— sorry, I'm using my hands in front— if you can get that mindset where, you know, you're marketing based off your production but you're keeping your speculative positions tame inside, I think that would help out quite a bit because I think that's kind of how the mindset shifts is now when I'm bullish, I can be bullish on a speculative mindset.

I'm being bullish with my marketing, and it completely changes the way you're doing things, right? Uh, one of the things that I think our clients have found with our software and the app that we're using is that when you make a sale and then you look at how that sale affects the breakeven on your unsold bushels, right? So, you know, when you started marketing, and I know we were selling this year's crop about a year ago when we were just about $4, and that was our first sale, and then that was our only sale for a long time. You know, we, we had COVID take over, the market broke really hard, and we were sitting there, 30 sold at $4.04 for months and months. And so, but one thing, as the market did start to recover and producers were using the software and saying, hey, those sales that we have at $4.04 I'm more comfortable with my yield projections right now.

I gotta take a sip here, hold on. Mm-hmm. That's the thing when you're on the phone all day, at about 2:30, 3 o'clock, your mouth does not want to talk anymore. But what I was getting to is that when you realize how your initial sales affect your breakevens, once you know where your bushels are, it actually makes it a little bit easier to stomach selling at a lower price because you can see, hey, because I have those higher sales, my breakeven on my unpriced bushels is actually now at lower levels, and I can make sales lower than that first sale and still be profitable. Now this year we're making sales that are higher than our initial sales, and that's a great spot to be in. But I think when you run the numbers and you see it in the software, it does help you mentally sell at prices lower than your last sale because you can see where your breakeven is.

Shay

Foulk: And the other thing that I want to say on that too is, you know, we, we use the term breakeven, and I think people can be a little bit misguided by that. And, and maybe it's just a condition of, uh, how the market's been over the last, well, you know, 6 years essentially, aside from a couple of highs that we've seen, is not only do you know where your breakeven is, but then ultimately, what's your mark— what's your margin target, right? Right? So if your breakeven's at $3.65 and your margin target is, you know, I want to see a 10% margin target on that, and maybe you need $4.02, $4.03 corn, how does that tie into, like you were saying, the marketing decisions of what are my unpriced bushels sitting at in order to hit that margin target? And so there, you know, there's two different ways. How do we cover all of our expenses? How do we cover everything that we have into this crop?

And then what are we hoping to make out of it too? And I think a lot of producers maybe don't take enough time to consider what they want their margin target to be of putting in targets out there on contracted bushels and saying, hey, when we hit, you know, $4.30, I want to make 10% sales at this dollar amount. It's kind of a wake-up call of, okay, we've hit our margin targets. Maybe it's a small amount for what we were originally planning to sell, now what should we do moving forward? And I think that can be a good strategy on that, that we see with some of the clients that we work with too.

Brian

Split: Yeah, Shay, I don't think anybody in the industry, when they say, you know, protect your breakeven or sell your breakeven, they're not really looking at your actual breakeven of what it is to just grow the crop. So, right, you, you're, you're looking at what it is to grow your crop You want to have your, your cost of living in there, obviously, and then whatever your built-in target is for your margin, right? And so that's where you want to— once you have that target, it makes your decision-making a lot easier. I think also emotion comes into play a lot, and so if you can help yourself make these decisions when you're in a calm state of mind versus making these decisions when the markets are acting volatile and you're getting emotional and that fear of missing out starts to set in. Man, I know I can't sell it here because tomorrow we're going to be up another 10 cents.

So if you can try and set your plan and get those targets set before all those emotional mindset decisions start to creep in, that'll help you quite a bit.

Shay

Foulk: No, absolutely. Um, you know, I guess looking, um, if we wanted to kind of dive into, uh, how things played out here today, you know, November 10th, uh, you used a keyword there, volatility, and everybody's, uh, that's been a hot button word here over the last 5 to 6 months. When you look at it from a volatility standpoint, what do you think of, um, with what you saw kind of in the markets here today?

Brian

Split: So I will kind of give you a technical recap of what happened today and maybe leading into today. Corn, for example, we're still looking at December '20 as far as the front month contract. And if we think back to going into the August report, we were making lows at $3.20. That's the contract low. At that point, the USDA had given us a carryout they were projecting of 2.7 billion bushels, and the market started to rally off of a bearish report, which I suppose was your first signal that maybe at least at that point an interim low was made. Now we know with hindsight being the benefit that was the low, but Fast forward, we had a bullish quarterly stock report at the end of September. At that point we were starting to interact with the highs that were made in July, so that was our summer high at that point.

The 200-day moving average was there and so we had punched through that area in front of the quarterly stock report. We went back, we retested the 200-day, we retested the July highs, got a bullish report. The stocks were several hundred million bushels tighter than expected, which was the same thing that they did last year. And that sent us on a trajectory up to $4. Now you look at where we are today, we had a contract high that was made last July on this December '20 at $4.23.5. We did take that out today. We traded up to $4.27.25. We did close back below the contract high. I think just based on the amount that we've moved up into this report and the buying that we saw on the report, we're maybe could potentially going to peel back a little bit, go look for support again.

I think your first support area is this $4.15 to $4.17 zone and the long-standing uptrend from those lows that we had back in August is going to come in at about the $3.98 area tomorrow. So I would say that this market really with the carryout assumptions that we're working off of right now 1.7 billion bushels. We're not going to get much data from the government for the next 2 months. So demand and South American weather are going to be paramount. We really shouldn't go below $4. So I do think that end users are going to continue to support the market on setbacks.

If there's any, you know, outside market influences, whether it's election volatility that that whole story doesn't seem to be over yet, resurgence in COVID cases and if there's talk about shutdowns in metro areas or whatever it is, we've seen those headlines creep in, you see quick rounds of profit taking but so far the trade has continued to buy into them and I would expect that to continue right now as we head into the end of the year. Looking at soybeans, back in August we were looking at the potential of at that point a 610 million bushel carryout. Today's number was 190 million bushels, which is down 100 million bushels from just a month ago. The USDA last month kicked the can on yield and didn't change bean yield. They dropped it today and that was where the reduction in carryout came from. So we still have questions on whether there's potential for extra demand to come in.

And we keep talking about South America. So we have that La Niña bias right now. We had a weather expert, we do a Monday webinar every Monday, and we had a weather expert on last week and so he was talking about the bias for La Niña. His concern is going to be the lack of moisture and that is really southern Brazil and Argentina. Northern Brazil not as much confidence, but if we start You know, really getting into the idea that we're losing production out of South America, that's going to continue to cause more demand for the U.S. product, especially if we see production losses in Argentina because it's a little different there. They will crush the majority of their beans for export and then export it as meal. And so what happened in 2016 when we had flooding in Argentina is the market really went crazy on beans, but The thing that really took off was the bean meal.

And so today we had December bean meal trading $400 a ton because we are looking at tighter carryouts. Um, but if we see something happen in Argentina, this meal market could get really interesting. And it has to because world meal demand will cause a scenario where our crush margins need to be strong enough for us to crush ardent meal domestically. And so you're going to have our internal crush market fighting with our export market for the supply of soybeans. So I think that would be something. And we don't know, obviously, how Argentina crop is going to go, but if Argentina goes south and if Brazil goes south, there's a lot yet that can happen over the next several months.

Shay

Foulk: So, I mean, you know, I've heard from a few different people, and, and now listening to your perspective as well too, is when it comes to soybeans, you know, maybe buckle up and see what happens here. And I think that weather is going to be such a crucial aspect of that.

Brian

Split: Truly, it is. I think soybeans— and when you think about how the balance sheet and soybeans move as a percentage of the expected carryout, it moves a lot faster than the corn balance sheet does. So when you think about losing 100 million bushels on the corn balance sheet right now, that's significant. But we're, you know, you're talking maybe losing 100 million bushels from a 2 billion bushel carryout versus losing 100 million on a 290 million bushel carryout when you're talking soybeans. So I'm a big believer that anytime you make a major decision in bean marketing, you have to back it up on the other end with an option. And so what I mean by that, for example, you look at November '21 soybeans, we hit $10.30 today on the board. We're at levels where we should be seeing producer interest.

And so I had a producer and he said, you know what, based on the bean yields, I'm confident I can grow, especially after seeing my bean yields this year with the weather that we had and lack of moisture. I'm going to plant aggressively beans next year. And he sold some $10.30 beans. And he did it on about a third of his expected APH bushels. That's a major decision in marketing. Yep. But we backed it up by going into the options. And we went into November, we kept it on the same contract. November of '21, we bought a $10.60 call, we sold a $12 call, we spent 30 cents for that. And so now he knows if that option position goes to zero over the next year, his bean sale is a $10 sale, worst case scenario. Yep. But if he adds value from his call spread, then maybe that $10.30 sale turns into an $11 sale or $11.10 depending on what we can add with the options. Yep.

Um, but we don't want to make a decision that big in soybeans without covering our butt in the other direction, right?

Shay

Foulk: No, I, I think that's crucial. And, and this might be a little premature, but we were already looking at potentially a significant switch in soybean production, uh, to soybean production from a lot of producers that we're working with, especially when, uh, corn was down in that $3.20, $3.30. And like you alluded to, up in the Dakotas, uh, up until the last few months, basis wasn't all that great. And then we've seen obviously a huge strength in basis kind of across the Midwest here and really all over the United States depending on where you're located regionally. With that being said though, especially again prematurely looking at this for acres for next year, we have had a lot of folks talking about increasing their soybean production. Any additional thoughts on that outside of the situation that you just mentioned there, Brian?

Brian

Split: I think we are hearing some of our own clients trending in that direction, additional soybean acres. I think producers seeing the type of yields that they can get now on soybeans is helping drive that decision. The input costs— now input costs on corn have come down, so I think if we can get corn to be above $4 and maybe get closer to $4.20, even if soybeans are, are moving closer to $10.50 at the same time, I tend to think that those acres may go back to corn. But this is going to be a year that we haven't seen for a while where I think we could see a good old-fashioned acreage battle this year, and we probably need one, right?

Shay

Foulk: No, I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think we would be remiss here if we didn't talk about wheat at all. This is not an area of expertise on my end, but I just wanted to see if you had any comments there and, and what that's looked like over the last couple months, Brian.

Brian

Split: Well, wheat definitely has had its own issues. I think probably the largest issue consistently has been dryness in all of the international growing regions of wheat. We're seeing it here domestically with the Southern Plains having dryness issues that has not fixed itself. The Russians were really, delayed planting because of how dry it was. But funny things happen when prices go up, and we saw that last year for corn. You get to a point where prices go up and you're going to get it in the ground no matter what, and that seemed to be the case for Russian wheat this year, where they were concerned a lot of the acres, especially in northern Russia, weren't going to get planted, but prices continue to go higher and incentivize the planting. So, you know, and that's me alluding back to the flooding last year.

But, you know, the contract for December corn worked its way up to a high enough price where we didn't see the prevent plant, we saw the acres get planted. But I digress. Going back to wheat right now, I think when you look at the report that we had today, wheat really wasn't bullish. The domestic numbers were only a little bit lower than what the pre-trade or pre-report trade estimate was. I think 4 million bushels, you know, trade estimate. You compare that to, you know, what, 40 million bushels below the trade guess for soybeans and 300+ million bushels on corn. So I think in the short term, we might see wheat be kind of the weak leg of some spreading. So if the buyers want to come in and buy corn, they may come in and buy corn and sell wheat, buy soybeans and sell wheat. But in the very biggest of pictures, I think the rising tide will lift all boats.

So it's going to be more of a relative thing where we see corn and beans outpace wheat, but wheat will still follow. I think we're, we're at a point where we are losing production globally on a number of different products. And so right now I know that's got the interest of the funds. The fund manager and the fund overall is at very record levels and can continue to get bigger. We saw record shorts this year in corn when things were going bad. Why can't we see record length when the fund sniffs out a story there? So I think as you If we look at wheat right now, if we continue to see dryness globally, we'll continue to see that market advance higher. Looking at, at the KC variety, the hard red, $6 a bushel on the continuous chart is an average major level.

So there should be a mindset for the producer that's looking at their production for next year really keeping an eye on that $6 level, maybe finding a way with some options to lay off some risk on next year's crop. But I think you want to do it in a way where you're also leaving the upside open because of what's going on around us. And if we can get through $6, I know you look at some of the bigger picture upside targets on wheat are several dollars higher if we do go into a bull market mode. So I think we're at levels that you can't ignore. And you have to find a way to protect it in one way, shape, or form, but probably in a more conservative way where you're completely leaving the upside open and just knowing that you have a little something under you in case things change and go wrong.

Shay

Foulk: Right. No, I appreciate the insight on that. And it's one that I know folks have been watching closely, particularly with weather, as you mentioned there at the beginning, just those dry conditions. And, you know, sending prayers to the folks in those areas that are that have been plagued by drought. And hopefully we'll see some moisture moving through here shortly in those areas as well. From a market standpoint, anything else kind of that either from today or that you've seen over the last week or so that you'd want to make a comment on before we kind of wrap up on the marketing side of things there, Brian?

Brian

Split: Sure. Right now on soybeans, and you've probably heard this, I've heard a couple other forums or other analysts say that, but it's not a secret. We don't spend a lot of time between $11 and $12. And so kind of the thought on soybeans is that if we could get through $11 that we would pretty quickly go to $12. And so I think the report today being bullish would solidify that thought process that this market is going to want to go to $12. That high we had in 2016 was $12.08 and a half. So I think this market at this point has another 50 cents of upside potential to get there. Same thing if we see a little pullback in the short term, I would imagine they're going to be willing buyers of that dip thinking that we're headed to $12. Beyond that, we're watching the dollar index. That's going to be another thing to keep an eye on for potential for inflation.

The dollar has been trending higher for the last 9 years. The last 4 months has been riding right along that uptrend. And so if we see the dollar break down below that uptrend and take out the lows that we had in 2018, I think that would be another signal that we're going into a rather inflationary environment in the bigger picture, regardless of our own fundamentals on the grains.

Shay

Foulk: No, I appreciate that insight. And I gotta say, Brian, I, I love that you stick numbers to things. Um, I, I think that's so important. I think from a farmer's perspective of of not being wishy-washy about that stuff. You know, I really appreciate that perspective from your end of just looking at it. And with the markets too, you know, I'll come out and say it here on this standpoint, as everybody knows, nothing that we're saying here is offering advice or making recommendations or suggestions. This is all just what are some things that you should consider, what's some perspectives of what's going on in the industry. And I really appreciate your insight from that standpoint. I want to switch gears here a little bit, looking at the calendar. Today's November 10th here when we're recording this. Tomorrow's Veterans Day on that end.

I was wondering if you could give just a little bit of a background on kind of your time in the service and what that's looked like. And, you know, I'd like to just have a little dialogue with you on that, on what that means from a veteran's perspective, I guess.

Brian

Split: Sure. So I'll start by saying happy birthday— to, uh, my fellow Marines.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, we'll forgive you. We'll forgive you for that.

Brian

Split: That's okay.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, didn't mean to cut out on you there, but yeah, so 240—

Brian

Split: 245th birthday. You cut out. Can you hear me right now?

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, I can hear you now. So, 245th birthday of the Marine Corps.

Brian

Split: So, uh, happy birthday to all my, my fellow Marines. Um, I enlisted in the Marine Corps in, uh, 1999 and, uh, went to boot camp in June in San Diego, June of '99. Uh, Marine Corps boot camp is, uh, basically 3 months, and so, um, that was, uh It was probably some of the, the most fun I've had in my life. Once you get used to how things work, you know, you got to behave a certain way, you have to speak a certain way. So once you figure that, the basic stuff out, it's actually a lot of fun going to the rifle range, going through swim qual. And so swim qual was an interest of mine.

I was always good in the water, and eventually when I got to the fleet I had my master gunnery sergeant came up to me one day and he said, "Split, you want to go work at the pool?" And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea." He didn't tell me that I had to go through 3 weeks of absolute hell in order to go work at the pool. I had to go through a course, actually it was 5 weeks because I went through a course that was called a combat water safety swimmer and that was a 2-week training evolution. and then that bought me my seat at the pool house. And so I got to the pool house and the next day the instructor at the, at the pool house got pulled by his unit. He was in the 11th Marine Regiment, which is artillery. So he got pulled to go and he was going to go on a deployment to Korea. So they were going to go to the South Korea, North Korean border.

And so it was myself and another guy at the pool and we were both safety swimmers, which meant there was no instructor. One of us had to go through the course. I just went through the course, so as far as being in the best shape to go through a course, I was already in that shape. Uh, and the other guy just had his appendix taken out, so that really disqualified him anyway. Uh, so then I went through 3 weeks of a Marine Combat Instructor water survival, and, uh, it was essentially a lot of the stuff I did for the safety swimmer, but from the perspective of now the person that has to teach it. So instead of being the guy going through the course, I'm now going through a course to learn how to teach the courses. So once I graduated that, I was at the 11th Marine Training Tank at Camp Pendleton. We ran swim qual.

So that was any day, maybe 10 Marines on the low end to 150 Marines on the upper end as far as the amount of Marines we would have on deck on any given day. And we ran swim qual, which was teaching the basics of how to just survive in water. You know, take your camouflage utility blouse, blow some air in there, and just keep it wet, and you'll float. Take your trousers off, tie the ankles together, put it over your head, disturb the water at your waistband. You know, that'll make a little life vest for you. So that was the basics of that, to working with our reconnaissance Marines. Teaching them aquatic confidence skills. Back in Vietnam, what they were doing with prisoners of war is they would, instead of shooting them, they would tie them up and throw them in the river. So that's where our aquatic confidence skills came from.

So we have on the, on the pool deck, there'd be a 15-foot, 25-foot, and 35-foot tower. So we would go to the tower, we would We would bound their ankles together. We would bound their wrists behind their back, push them off the tower. They had to perform different skills in the water while they were bound. So it was a 15-foot deep pool. They would have to let all their air out. We would have boots at the bottom of the pool. They would go down to the bottom, grab a boot, surface. They had to show the boot. They had to perform 2 consecutive forward flips and 2 consecutive backflips. Underwater without breaking the surface. We had to do a 50-meter swim while bound. And so that was the aquatic confidence skills. And then everything that an American Red Cross lifeguard had to do, we had to be able to do it but in full combat gear. So you know what that entails for battle rattle.

You're talking your utilities, your flak jacket, your LBV, your Kevlar, Uh, we would train with our rubber rifles to simulate at least the weight. Um, and so all of those rescue techniques that an American Red Cross lifeguard would have to do, we'd have to be able to do that proficiently in combat gear. So of course, my man, right?

Shay

Foulk: And we're talking 50 to 80 pounds of gear, you know, or, or even in excess of that for those who don't have familiarity with that. And I think people listening to this are probably getting a workout just thinking about some of the stuff that you're talking about here. I mean, what a neat experience for you to be a part of that. If Grant's listening, he's probably having flashbacks to that, you know, Combat Water Survival Course and the instructor side of that as well. You know, he told me stories on that too, and just awesome training to go through there. And I think part of what you said is the camaraderie, and whether it's walk, talk, look, feel a certain way, being a part of that, there's pride that goes along with that. And with people that you serve with on that end.

And for those that are listening that are veterans here today, we, you know, we want to take a minute here just to truly, you know, thank you for your service. And I think sometimes that phrase can get watered down. You hear it day in and day out, and sometimes you maybe don't feel as though it's something that you earned. Or, you know, when you're in a subway and someone, you you know, finds out that you're a veteran, they want to buy your meal, it can make people feel uncomfortable. But when we look at the sacrifices and the freedoms that we enjoy in this nation, for those that are out there, there's something like 23 million living veterans that are out there today, with a huge portion of those having served in Vietnam. And then of course, as we look today, you know, the Global War on Terrorism over the last 19 years, and all the conflicts in between those time periods.

It's a huge amount of people, 23 million Americans, you know, 10% of all living folks out there are veterans of the military. And the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day is Veterans Day, we're honoring all folks that have served honorably in wartime or in peacetime, thanking them for the sacrifices and more importantly too, for the sacrifices that their families have made because it goes well beyond just the individual soldier in that mindset. And then of course Memorial Day is a focus for those in arms who we've lost along the way, and we honor them on Veterans Day as well too. But just to extend that thank you, true heartfelt thank you, you know, from everyone from our side for all that everyone's done there. You know, truly just thank you for the service. Do you have any other comments on that?

Brian

Split: Yeah, well, you know, it's very easy to be thankful for veterans and their service during wartime when we have troops deployed. And so, you know, when I think about when I got back from Iraq, and I deployed there when we invaded in 2003, and, you know, the mindset when I got back, everybody was, oh, you know, thank you, and it helped me, you know, land a job when I got back. And then sometimes, you know, troops come home and we still have troops deployed. Let's not forget that. But we're not in a major, you know, we're not at war with Iraq. We're not at war with Afghanistan as far as the type of buildup that we had previously. And sometimes, you know, you have to remember that we're still, we have individuals in harm's way, you know, that no one's talking about or thinking about right now.

And so we got to remember that we have people sacrificing their normal way of life for us to maintain our normal way of life every day. And so, yeah, I thank you for your service, Shea. You mentioned Grant, and I was really happy to see— I think I saw it on Facebook months ago— that he actually became a Makwes during his enlistment. So that was really neat because that Mukwees is the water survival instructor for those that don't know the, the, the, gosh, what am I thinking? Military vernacular. Yeah, but I think about, you know, on Veterans Day, all that have gone before us, you know, that you think about the generation of World War II. My grandfather, he was a Marine during World War World War II, still alive, God bless him. Sharp as a tack mentally. You know, his body isn't what it used to be, but he's still there.

And, you know, I think if, if we could just continue to strive to be as good as the generation before us, our country is going to be in good shape for a long time.

Shay

Foulk: And the other thing that I want to make a point of today that, you know, people know they learned along the way and maybe just haven't thought about in a while is when it comes to Veterans Day, we, we commemorate that on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour. That was when the armistice was signed at the end of World War II— or World War I, excuse me— in 1918. And it was the most atrocious war in modern history, um, you know, that people had remembered up, up until that point. And it was to serve as a reminder— as of 1927, this day has been commemorated— is to serve as a reminder that we will not fall back into the violence and the tyranny and the atrocity that we saw during that time frame.

And so not only does this serve as a reminder and a thankfulness of, as you said, the people that are out there protecting and defending it to this day, and I think about that quite often, and it's not frustrating because I understand how it is and the reason it is, but especially when you look at a lot of the special operation units that are out there operating today It is so easy for people to forget that we are still at war, and it's not necessarily that we're invading Iraq or invading Afghanistan or, or any of these other countries, but we are still out there fighting terrorism, fighting evil for the forces that wish to bring harm upon our country, upon our people, and among our way of life that we have here in the United States.

And so just to be thankful for that, again remembering all the way back to World War I, in 1918 there and looking at the liberties that we've been able to enjoy for 102 years for those folks that have continued to serve. Truly a special day and thankful, you know, that you're able to join me here on this and give a shout out to Sloan out there too. Sloan's still out on the East Coast trooping it up with the Marines. I sent him a message here the other day, asked him how he was getting along, and he said, "Well, I just came out of the field after being out for a few days, so I need a shower." So Being thankful for the simple things we have in life, like hot water at home and a roof over our heads.

Brian

Split: I haven't seen Sloan. It's hard for me to actually picture him as an adult in the Marines right now because I just haven't seen him for so long. But I can't wait to see him when he, when he gets back from, from— what is he at, Lejeune right now?

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, well, out east. I don't know if he's at Lejeune right now, actually. He'll tell you. I'll have him reach out to you. He'll give you a good talk on it. But no, it's, you know, it— and again, just thanking everybody who, who is continuing to serve and who has family that's serving at this time right now. It doesn't go by the wayside for our thoughts and prayers. So, Brian, any, any last thoughts on that on Veterans Day here?

Brian

Split: I usually don't thank veterans unless it's one of the generations before me. I kind of like For guys our age, we kind of do it jokingly to each other, I think, you know, thank you for your service. I always make a point to thank the parents of veterans. Yeah. So when I see somebody that, you know, has a bumper sticker that says, you know, my daughter or son is a Marine, I'll always honk and they roll the window down and I say, thank you for raising a Marine. And they always kind of get ticked by that. But, you know, it's not just the individual that's serving. Their whole family is making a sacrifice. And I know you said that, but I think that's worth saying again.

Shay

Foulk: I agree 100%. Well, yeah, Brian, thanks so much for the conversation today. Again, shout out to everyone out there here on Veterans Day. And hopefully we can have a conversation again here soon.

Brian

Split: I'm always here whenever you want to chat, my man.

Shay

Foulk: All right, thanks again, and thanks everyone for listening to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we will catch you next time.