Farm4Profit Podcast

Equipment and Land Values with Machinery Pete

Episode Summary

Join in on a conversation with Machinery Pete and our own resident expert David Whitaker. The two of them talk about how the equipment market and land market have trended throughout 2020. They then put their predictions together for 2021 and help you plan for buying or selling opportunities that would be right for your farm! All this happens after from learn from Zach Smith the "StockCropper" about his idea for maximizing the acres on your farm.

Episode Notes

Introduction

• Thank you again for suggesting topics for us to talk about on the podcast and keep them coming.  Send those to farm4profitllc@gmail.com or find us all over social media.
• Remind the listeners how we do a profit show one week and a fun show the next
• Share our favorite episode from 2020 (or two)
• Commercial
  • FlyingAg – Drone Kits (2nd of 5)
• www.flyingag.com – FARM4PROFIT for free battery with your order

What’s Working in AG

• Zach Smith – StockCropper - https://thestockcropper.com/
• 1 – What is Stock Cropping?
• Stock Cropping is a dynamic farming system that that combines livestock and crop production in the field at the same time so that multiple species of plants and livestock can coexist. This allows to grow healthier animals, healthier soils, and a lower carbon footprint.
• 2 – How do you accomplish this?
  • We plant strips of corn and soybeans with pasture. We graze the pasture strips with multiple species of livestock in a mobile barn that autonomously moves through the strips daily throughout the season.  The animals consume our diverse pasture mix while stimulating the soil with their hooves, snouts, beaks, and microbiomes, leaving behind a rich mix of manure to feed the soil. 
  • The row crops grown in between the pasture strips benefit from this arrangement by having more access to sunlight up and down the plant canopy.  We do all of these things while giving consumers a front row seat to the show with our webcams and livestreams so they can see and participate with the production of their food. 
• 3 – What’s the Benefit of farming this way? 
  • The end result is a diverse high quality mix of animal meats that we market and sell directly to consumers through various creative avenues allowing farmers to maintain profitability driving the sustainability of rural communities.
• 4 – What did you learn from your first season?
• 5 – What is your goal for the StockCropper in the future?

Main Topic

2020 Market Wrap Up – Two Outstanding Experts

Greg Peterson has over 25 years of experience in the machinery business. His website, MachineryPete.com, is the premier, online destination for farmers and dealers, providing a comprehensive used farm equipment search experience with tens of thousands of farm equipment listings, searchable for free. His auction pricing database totals close to 500,000 auction sale prices on roughly 70 categories of equipment, making it the most comprehensive and complete of its kind. He authors regular columns for Farm Journal, Implement & Tractor and Top Producer magazines and blogs on AgWeb.

David, World Champion Auctioneer, grew up immersed and involved in agriculture and started his career off by attending Missouri Auction School in 2008. He then acquired his real estate license in November 2010.  He is active in the Realtor Land Institute, National Auctioneer Associations and a number of State Auctioneer Associations. David and his wife Ann run the auction company, “Whitaker Marketing Group”.  In June of 2020, David took on the role of the Area Sales Management position for Farmers National Company.  David is a licensed Sales person in Iowa and Nebraska and currently the Chairman of the Board of the Iowa Auctioneers Association

 General Questions

• First let’s start by comparing last year to this year.  Have there been more or less sales in 2020 than 2019?
• Have these sales been for more or less money than 2019?
• What do you think covid has done to the equipment market? land market?
• What has the election done to each market?
• Overall do you feel the current market and recent sales are stronger or weaker than a year ago?
  • Why, if not answered before?
  • Is there a sub category that is stronger than others?
• IE: Quad tracks, JD 1000 series, square flat and black ground
• What is not selling well right now?
• Who have the sellers been?
  • What has been the method of choice for selling?
    • List, live auction, online auction etc….
• Who have the buyers been?
  • What do you think the main driver is for these buyers?
• What’s your favorite part about what you do?
• When you reflect on successful sales.  Is there something sellers have been doing that has really been working? or set their sale apart from the rest?
  • What is your best advice for a seller?
  • Is there a best time of year to sell?
• How about flipping the script.  What is your best advice for a buyer
  • Best time of year to buy?
• Do you have a prediction for 2021?
  • Can be anything - Prices, number of sales, outside of your industry.
• Who have you met that you most enjoyed because of your profession?
• What is a common trait or characteristic that you have seen among the most successful people you know?
• Anything else you’d like our listeners to know?
• Reminder to share CONTACT INFO and say thank you

Summary

Challenge

Closing 

Reminder to like, rate, and review.  Send us your favorite episode from 2020 to help us wrap up the year!