US Farm Tariffs, Chinese Drone Bans, and Equipment Market Reality Check with Machinery Pete

Guest [00:00:00] The Ag Tribes report is brought to you by Farm Test, a field trial design, execution, and analysis service that makes it easy to ask your fields which management practices perform best to start your field trials. Visit farm test, ag and Legacy Interviews, a service that video records individuals and couples telling their life stories so that future generations have the opportunity to know their family history. Here's Legacy Interviews customer, Anna Fox, describing the impact of her parents recording their stories. When I told my parents that I had booked them a legacy interview, my mother, you could tell she very much felt special and honored. Now, my father, on the other hand, he was extremely nervous when I first told him about it, you know, I think that was even a good experience in our relationship, just saying like, Hey Dad, even though you may not be proud of certain things in your lives, people who love you are proud of how you handled these situations. And, you know, encouraged him to speak very honestly and candidly during that interview process, just hearing them talk about their loved ones that I had either never met or had met only briefly, and to see kind of the, the twinkle in their eyes talking about those life events that you can really tell were formative. It was an extremely rewarding experience. One of the things that I really appreciated was how they talked about each other and how they found strength in each other.

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Vance Crowe [00:02:21] Welcome to the Ag Tribes report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week I bring a co-host that represents the perspective of one of the many ag tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week I'm joined by Greg Peterson, AKA machinery. Pete, the founder of a marketplace for buyers and sellers of used farm equipment, offering farmers a vast selection of equipment listings in one place with a search tool that makes it easy and fast to find relevant equipment machinery. Pete, welcome to the Ag Tribes Report.

Guest [00:02:54] Hey, honored to be here, Vance. Thanks for the invitation.

Vance Crowe [00:02:58] Today we're gonna be covering how the, the, the farm aid that's going to be offered by lawmakers possibly. We're gonna go through how grain markets might be impacted if the US does end up putting tariffs on, like they're claiming they're just about to do. And we're gonna talk about the DJI agricultural drones that may be banned for suspicion that they are, could be used by the Chinese government for nefarious purposes. We're gonna get to all of that and we'll also discuss the Bitcoin land price report, Pete's worthy adversaries and what is one thing he believes that almost nobody he knows agrees with him on. So to kick it off right off the beginning, we're gonna tar start with Farm Policy news with a headline that is lawmakers considered Farm Aid as Farm Bill remains stalled. So Agri Polse is Phil Brashear reported on Monday that a senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee said that lawmakers are considering attaching a package of farm income support to a farm bill extension that could get enacted at the end of the year. So instead of passing the farm bill, what they're talking about doing is actually just putting a rider on there that would potentially send money directly to farmers. Senator au recognizes that farmers can't wait for another extension. And so all the talk is going, how can we make sure that farmers are staying afloat when there has been a trade deficit of 30 billion this year? And 42.5 billion is expected in 2025.

Vance Crowe [00:04:33] So machinery pre prices are going down. Supply of grains is really high. What do you think about the government doing an end run around the reason to get the farm bill done to begin with, which is to get farmers money? What do you think about their plans here?

Guest [00:04:47] Well, unfortunately seems like par for the course with our political situation here of the last number of years. You know, I've always taken a little hope fans in that at least it, it seemed like it to a much higher degree. Agriculture has been the one area where maybe both sides can kind of work together. But what you described there that kind of tack on extension, apparently that's become more of a, you know, kind of the par for the course, which, you know, if that's to the extent that's not addressing the key issues that need to be addressed in the Farm Bill, that's, you know, very unfortunate.

Vance Crowe [00:05:24] Yeah, I mean, it's clear that even when they were getting excited this summer, like, oh, it looks like we're making progress on the farm Bill. I don't think anybody thought that that was gonna happen until after this presidential election. But the big challenge is it's, it's kind of hard to explain to all of Americans that are suffering, that have high prices and their input costs are high as well, how it's logical or fair that landowners that are sitting out in the countryside deserve to have payments. What do you think, how will this go with the regular consumers out in the world that watch farmers get checks like this?

Guest [00:05:58] Well, people still like to eat. That's one thing from a data standpoint that I guess I've, I monitor every day. So, no, I, again, I, it's interesting. I've been monitoring our market farm machinery values and trends for three and a half decades now. And it's interesting as you, it occurs to me, people tend, you know, we're drifting farther away from the farm. So folks that live in the cities that, when I was coming up, it used to be when my dad was a farmer, my uncle. Now that's maybe moved to the second to third gen. And as that happens, and of course our world has changed greatly with social media and the internet, there's a disconnect there for sure. But even so, I still think that that that pull reality of, you know, what farmers need to survive there, there's still a high level of care there as there should be politically and from people, you know, hopefully understanding the business end, which is very difficult for non-ag folks to understand the business of farming and, you know, government involvement. But no, I guess I'm, I guess I'm hopeful there that it won't go further sideways with how people think about farming and government support.

Vance Crowe [00:07:20] Yeah, I think that you're exactly right about the number of people that used to be connected with ag. It's just, it just every single year goes lower and lower, whereas it used to be my uncle or somebody you were connected with, and now we have less and less people. And I think a lot of that has to do with the hyper-specialization that comes in ag. Even if you know somebody that's related to ag, people don't always make that connection because it's not, it's not the picture that they have in their minds of a farmer raising pigs and cows and raising crops and having the horses to raise those crops so that there's, it's just the people that are working in ag don't always get associated with being a farmer and yet they're still doing ag related work.

Guest [00:08:01] Yeah, I think, well the, you know, one thing that I, I think just again, I'm thinking back over three and a half decades I've been doing this, but I, I think that the non-ag folks, well, I don't know, it is just maybe all the resources out there to get information, but, you know, hopefully understanding just even a little bit better, the risk involved for production agriculture, whether it's beef for, you know, corn, beans, wheat, whatever, that, that risk is just, I mean, to the degree that they just can't, you know, fathom unless they start to read a little bit about it and then it's like, well, yeah, that's obviously we, this, this is, this is not just like any industry. So, you know, like I said, people, people like to eat that. I don't think that'll ever, ever change.

Vance Crowe [00:08:51] Alright, well let's move on to headline two because actually this week all the headlines seem to be kind of going in the same direction. This comes from Joe Vic, from The Grain, from Grain Markets and other stuff. He has a daily podcast that's really exceptional, talking about different markets, and he brought up the subject, will US Tariffs decimate the commodity trade with China. So it's been in the news for months and months. The Biden administration is planning on adding tariffs on China. Back in May, the White House put out a statement saying, American workers and businesses can outcompete anyone as long as they have fair competition. But for too long, China's government has used unfair non-market practices, force technology transfer and intellectual property theft that has made them have control of 70 to 90% of global production for critical inputs necessary for our technological infrastructure. Things like energy and healthcare. Well that seemed like just something they were putting out there as a threat, but as it turns out, not only have they kept all of the tariffs that Trump put on, or almost all of them, but now starting on, I believe September 27th, they are planning on putting a 100% tariff on EVs, 50% on solar cells, 25% on steel, aluminum and other key metals. When Canada did this, it turns out that put, put some tariffs on China. The Chinese just stopped buying canola seed and, and the oils associated with it.

Vance Crowe [00:10:21] And there was a, a market crash around canola. So machinery repeat. What do you think, how will tariffs on these sorts of solar EV stuff impact the American farmer?

Guest [00:10:34] Well, you know, American farmer would prefer to, you know, produce the best product in the world and sell it for a fair price to anyone in the world. And I think on the one hand, you know, the amazing work of like the American Soybean Association back over the decades, longer than I've been doing what I do to build these markets, whether it's China or other markets, hugely, hugely valuable. But, you know, the world has changed and I, like you said, I mean the, the left of the aisle politically now has come around to see value in tariffs to protect industries. So, you know, it puts the farmer in a tough spot. But like I said before, even the Chinese, as far as I can tell, they still like to eat. So, you know, the options if you're not getting your soybeans from, from here, you know, yes, you can shift it around, but you know, it's just, we all want more fluid efficient markets and I think farmers are just, you know, they're used to this now. It's, it's been a number of years. So I did read, I dunno if it was Wall Street Journal or something about that EV issue, you brought up the Chinese, and I don't know frankly much at all about EVs, but I just read that their product was very, very good. But the, the government was subsidizing it to such a level that it scared the bejesus out of, you know, you know, Detroit over here. Like, oh, we can't deal with that.

Guest [00:12:04] So the, it is interesting to see the government, you know, be pretty quick to these issues, to, to help our industries, our workers, again, against unfair competition. And I, one, one last thing on China, you know, again, I'm old, I'm pushing 60 here, but as China became, China, even in, in my sector that I do report on used farm equipment, you can go back 20 years to 2004 and we saw a spike in used farm equipment values. And the reason for that spike was because China's growth back 20 years ago, immense, huge growth, you know, their need and appetite for steel. So that was beginning to affect, you know, cost of new grain carts and grain trailers. So the used ones that I report on, they were just going through the roof. So, you know, the growth of China has been huge there, but, and US corporations wanted a piece of that pie with all the, the rising cost of living with the China over there. I personally, you know, was frustrated all those years by, you know, 'cause it was, China was pretty very transparent. They were like, okay, you can do business here, but we get access to your intel, your, and I was like, well, why would you do, why would you do business that way? And as a board of a corporation or the management of those corporations, yeah, you wanna sell all that stuff, but that's not a good long-term business play to give away your secrets. Just say no.

Guest [00:13:36] Maybe is that naive for me to say that I don't know, but I, you know, now it it, why does it have to be a government protecting, you know, corporations should act in their own best long-term interest too. And, but then again, you've got bonuses set up for, for, you know, management people and they need that Asian market, that Chinese market to grow to hit. So you have to di dive in really deep there and see what are the incentives for the people managing these companies. And I don't think that gets talked about enough.

Vance Crowe [00:14:08] I am completely with you on that, that you know, we need our companies that are from the United States to really be thinking about themselves as u US companies. When Monsanto went to sell to bear there, they, there was so much pressure around them becoming a monopoly that these countries all had to approve the sale, otherwise you'd have to have two separate companies in Russia where instead of them being merged together. And so what these countries did is they said, we'll let you do that as long as you hand over your technology on how you did those GMOs. Or you build a laboratory here and start doing some of your scientific research here. So the Monsanto, which was a national treasure in terms of innovation, you know, their seed ownership, all of the technology that they built, they handed it over in order to make that merger happen. And we'll never get that technological advantage back. That's something that's gone forever.

Guest [00:15:04] Yeah. Again, like I say, look at the incentives. I mean, I live in Minnesota here, grew up here and our state is pretty, you know, it's a liberal state, but the daily newspaper for years it's been interesting. They have A-A-C-E-O pay watch, which they just report on, you know, across all types of industries, AG and every other industry. And you know, our culture, we're at this point where, you know, and we are capitalistic and believe me, I I've built my business for 35 years, I get it. Risk and reward, that's farming, that's life.

Vance Crowe [00:15:39] But

Guest [00:15:40] You know, when some of the management, you know, is incentivized with bonuses or stock options or whatever, I mean, to a level that's like, whoa, you know, does that, how does that affect decisions they make in the short term for their whatever corporation it is? Oh, well we'll dance with those folks because we're gonna sell a lot more. And I mean, so that gets to something that frustrates me. And I try not to be van, I try not to be a grouchy old gray haired guy,

Vance Crowe [00:16:13] But,

Guest [00:16:14] But you know, there's long term in there short term, we, we, we've discounted long term for too long, whether it's politically or business or personally, and it's, we live in a world that's like short term just boom right now. That's all people can see and that's not right. And when you overfocus on the short term, things are gonna get grumbled up long term and that, that ain't good for anybody in my opinion.

Vance Crowe [00:16:39] Yeah, I think that that's at the very core of life is balancing what do you need to do right now and how can you be thinking about the future? And if you are so focused on what's going on today and you sell out everything, it's, it's, it's a bad gig. It's not, not a good way to build a nation.

Guest [00:16:57] I don't, I don't think so either.

Vance Crowe [00:16:59] Alright, moving on to our third and final headline. This one comes from drone life.com, DJI, agricultural drones maybe getting banned. The agricultural drones that have been starting to be used for things like fertilizer applications or pesticides are coming under question as Congress members send a letter to the USDA and cisa CISA, that they have national security concerns about the way these drones are potentially either being operated, how much information they're sending back to China about our fields and could they be used in some sort of attack against American infrastructure. Now this might have seemed absurd just a week ago, but when you consider what was done with those tiny little pagers where their battery batteries were laced with some explosives, all of a sudden you took something that seemed like a regular piece of equipment in people's pockets and you turned it into a bomb. So Greg, what do you think is this questioning DJI agricultural drones? Is this just protectionism for us? Drones a real security threat or something else going on here?

Guest [00:18:10] Well, I, I'm with you Vance on the, our eyes being collectively opened here this past week by the pager issue in, in with Israel and Lebanon there. And I mean, it's a different world and I think in ag country, you know, of course the, the the, the, the fear of Chinese growing influence and control is, is valid and obviously very, you know, legitimate. So drones are becoming an ever more important piece of every industry. We chatted a little bit before we went on air, I've been advocating for the use of drones to help, to help buy and sell farm use farm machinery for a decade. And that seem, doesn't seem to make sense, but I remember a decade ago thinking these drones are gonna change everything. And now obviously with spraying these big huge drones, I mean we're all for the efficiency they can bring as it's, you know, difficult to find people to help on the farms. But yeah, technologically just I guess whatever concerns have to be addressed there,

Vance Crowe [00:19:16] You know, if, if I could interrupt, I'd actually be interested in hearing your state of the drone world right now. I the only, the last time I checked in with drones, there were people flying 'em to be able to map their fields, but how sophisticated have they become?

Guest [00:19:28] Well to me they've gone from, from just kind of a novelty like, oh that's cool that someone could fly a drone over my farm. And almost like a vanity thing, almost like the old days when on farm country where you'd go or you'd see 'em now you'd go into a farmhouse and there's a picture, a flyover picture. So these companies that would fly airplanes and they'd say, Hey, do you, we will, for whatever amount of money we'll give you the cool airplane shot of your farm. That's I think how people perceived drones initially. And my take was just the opposite. I was like, this is a tool. So in my world, again, which is a specific, you know, you know, compiling auction prices, what is a, an asset, a piece of equipment worth might be a 1-year-old combine, sells for 600,000, might be a 80-year-old antique tractor. But when you're talking about people buying and selling things, there's emotion involved. We're human beings. And that's why the auction method of selling has been around for over, you know, a couple centuries and it's still vital and growing is 'cause it's emotional. So when you're looking at selling something, to me, drones were this, you know, the new frontier, I told people 10 years ago, if I were a farm equipment dealer, I would hire a 21-year-old kid and say, guess what, you're a drone guy or gal and you go to these 20 key customers of ours and you film them planting and harvesting to give them the video, which is cool. Like, hey customer Bob, here you go, thanks for being a customer of our dealership. But more so when that guy wanted to trade in that combine and tractor, now it's not just you might, you go to our website now there might be 400 John Deere S six 70 combines for sale, but there's only one that's vance's.

Guest [00:21:12] And if you have video of that thing on a beautiful day in whatever Georgia, Minnesota, South Dakota rolling through, you know, doing its thing, guess what, that S six 70 is now become more attractive than all the other ones. So to me it was just silly not to think about how to utilize drones to help sell things. And now of course, again, on the spraying front, unbelievable things they can do there. So I'm just, you know, I'm a fan of the advancing technology as long as again, it's kept between the buoys and there's not any nefarious, you know, intel being shared with folks that it shouldn't be shared with.

Vance Crowe [00:21:49] Well I think there's gonna be a lot more to come on this because it seems like a really important technology, as you said, as labor becomes more and more complicated. But at the same time, like now that we know what somebody can do, I think our imaginations were just blown wide open for how dangerous trusting another country with your technology can be.

Guest [00:22:11] Yeah, and not just other countries, but the businesses that you choose to deal with. You know, what are they doing with your data? And again, in farm country, these, these awareness, these these concerns have been obviously there with the data piece and farm equipment and yeah, they just seem to keep growing and and sprouting in different directions monthly here.

Vance Crowe [00:22:35] Well that's gonna do it for the news headlines part of the show. If you are interested in a story that you think we should be covering on this, just DM me on X at Vance Crowe now onto the Bitcoin land price report. This is where we try to find a way to figure out what is going on with the price of land when we detach it from the US dollar whose value goes up and down on the whims of the Federal Reserve. So machinery, Pete, what is a a, an acre of good quality farm ground going for in your area?

Guest [00:23:12] Well, I live in southeast Minnesota, van and Rochester, which we're very growing mini metro area here, we're about 130,000 people. So right in my local area on the edges of town, which had been farm ground forever. Those values are for developers have been going crazy as you drift out into farm country. You know, land values have still been very high, obviously so many factors I've tried to anecdotally keep tabs on it these last 35 years because we work with 1100 auction years, we're compiling OC or the machinery values. But land values, you know, around here you might see anywhere from like, you know, 9,500 to 14 five just again depending on the ground. And generally speaking, what I've seen is that land values have held stubbornly high. I mean in ag country they've been like pretty much coming off all time highs. They're coming down a little but not as much as people maybe would hope or seem reasonable with the tightening in the ag economy and that we chatted about it a little bit before Vance, but to me makes sense because we see the same thing with good use machinery, maybe not falling as much as people think it would've, but to me what this signals is there's, there's a lot of old money out there in farm country. Now, I don't mean to be disrespectful when I say old because I'm, I'm pushing 60 myself, but farmers are as smart as operators, businessmen, women as you'll ever see to survive through the decades, the ups and downs, they're very smart and they've had some good years.

Guest [00:24:49] So now when that piece of land that's just the right piece of land comes up, again, you got one crack at it and it's not just you that wants, it's five six. So that's why we, I think we see, and again, the auction method doesn't matter what we think a piece of land is worth or what a tractor is worth, you put it up for sale. We all know when that gavel falls that that's what it's worth on that day.

Vance Crowe [00:25:11] Well I I find that, you know, land prices are one of those things that's really difficult because now with people knowing that their money can be inflated, they try and find a place where they can put money, where it won't lose value. And one of the scarcest assets in the world is high quality farmland. And I like to make the comparison with Bitcoin. I don't know how comfortable you are with it, but if we were to, are you, are you comfortable with it? Do you know very much

Guest [00:25:34] About it? I am not a Bitcoin expert Vance, I will freely admit.

Vance Crowe [00:25:39] So as it turns out, if we kind of average what you were saying about the prices and we say it's about $12,000, then that would mean that it's about 0.1 8, 9 8 bitcoins per acre. The Bitcoin price as of press time was $63,224. So in other words, one Bitcoin would buy you about 5.2 acres of farmland around where, where you are at. So I just like to do that 'cause I think it's a way to detach our pricing of land away from just US dollars and give it another way to tell is it getting more expensive? Is it getting cheaper? Because it's hard to tell when you, when you're basing it against an inflating currency.

Guest [00:26:21] Well the inflation, you know, that's an interesting topic because obviously is is the kind of the source reporting on used equipment values and occasionally on land values we report and it's not uncommon for people then on social media, which, you know, we're pushing 400,000 followers out there across platforms to get discussions going. And you know, people will say, well that tractor, that 15-year-old tractor, you, you know, you're not accounting for inflation on that. And it's like, I, I understand when that comes up, but you know, that's why I've always wanted to compile not one data point, whether it's land or mach. It's like I wanna compile every data point so to then give you an average, a high and a low in US dollars and however you want or anyone wants to consider inflation over time. I do find the inflation argument as you look back through the decades though, I mean we've definitely seen periods of deflation and severe deflation in, in our sector with used farm machinery, whereas the US economy, no. So then it's like how do you make the correlation? You can't pick and choose and say inflation is the answer now, but it was, oh well it wasn't, you know, 10 years ago because of x, it's just you put it up for sale, it brought x whether that's in Bitcoin or US dollars, you have to have a a continuum and that's what I've tried to com provide for 35 years of continuum at least.

Guest [00:27:57] So, you know, people, you know, whether you're buying or selling, you go, okay, well this is the range I'm looking at.

Vance Crowe [00:28:05] I love it, I love the, the perspective and nobody brings up the deflation that happens or the, the downturn in pricing, at least. Now onto the Peter Thiel paradox, this is where I ask my guest, what is one thing that you believe that almost nobody in your tribe agrees with you on?

Guest [00:28:23] Well, you know, right now I would say Vance, it would probably be 'cause the people in farm country are looking to me now, they're, you know, obviously 20, 24 things are different. We're coming off of, you know, corn and beans were a different place a year ago, two years ago, three years ago was it. And, and now things are changing. I call it the year of recalibrating, you know, used equipment values. And what people are thinking is that this is the biggest drop ever that they've ever seen. And it really isn't. And again, I think a part of this is is our culturally, our, however you describe it, but everyone is so short term, all we see is like today and yesterday. And what people are forgetting is that 10 years ago, in 20 late 13, 14, 15, that was the biggest drop in used equipment values I've ever seen. And again, that's not, not my opinion, that's what our data showed two years in a row and 14 and 15 large late model farm equipment fell 20 to 25% year over year, two years in a row. And when you look at our auction price data right now, for example, you could look at a John Deere eight R four 10 tractor, couple years old big horse, average auction price so far this year is down 11.5%. And again, 10 years ago it was more like 20%. So when I share that people, the reason they're it's disconnected is what in their heads people are comparing to is the, is the list price new, which is skyrocketed.

Guest [00:29:59] I mean the price of new farm equipment, I always used to figure it was going up 4% a year and when we hit the supply chain mess on the middle back end of COVID, I mean that became unhinged. So the price of new everything once just went through the roofs on farm equipment was maybe at the four. So, and now those costs of new have, they haven't come down yet. So if you're sitting there looking at a new tractor, 800,000 and then machinery repeats reporting at auction of a John Deere X nine 1100 combine that just dipped under 400. Yes that is a huge drop. But they're comparing it to the price of new, not to the, the, the advertised price on a dealer lot used. And I measure the gap between put it up for sale today at auction and what dealers are asking for on the lot. And that the gap isn't as big as it was 10 years ago. So that's what people, they just, they're, it takes 'em by surprise. Now I, I say that we may get to that same gap, it could well happen here 'cause I think we're gonna keep readjusting the rest of 24 and definitely into 25. But structurally there's a couple differences versus 10 years ago that are making this used equipment market turn, the rate of turn is astronomically faster than it was 10 years ago, which I think is gonna, has the potential to make the downturn shorter.

Vance Crowe [00:31:26] Oh, that's fascinating because there's so much more churn going over so the pricing matches up with the rest of the market faster.

Guest [00:31:34] Well, when I say turn, so 10 years ago we have to pull back here again. We all again just look at our phones and that's all we think about today. Well let's just stop, let's rewind this and go back to 2014 and let's think about the realities with farm equipment dealers. So here, here's where your audience, your farm audience is gonna start going. Yep. There were a lot more dealers 10 years ago. So the rate of consolidation in the farm equipment world was just breathtaking. You know, 10 years ago if you had four or five stores, you know you were a good size dealer. Well that just, there's hardly any of those left. Now these dealers, you know, and god bless 'em, they're 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 stores. When you are an organization of that scale, you're capitalized different than you were back when it was kind of a mon pa. You had three, four stores. So back then when things, when the ag economy turned like corn and beans fell in spring of 13, dealers had too much used inventory back then, just like they do now. But what I'm measuring is the raw number of one and 2-year-old farm equipment, pieces of equipment that are, have been taken to auction. And I've got, I've got 35 years of data. So what we're seeing right now through the month of August, the number of one and two 2-year-old farm equipment units sold at auction is up 98% versus last year and up almost 500% versus 10 years ago. Now, 10 years ago, if you had four stores, if you were a dealer and you looked out on your lot and you're like, dang, we got 35 too many combines, you couldn't take 'em to auction and sell 'em all because you'd have been out of business.

Guest [00:33:13] You just had to sit tight and hope and wait and now that's different. Now dealers here, the last 18, well 12 months, 12 months going on 14, they've been a super aggressive and they look out and they go, Ooh, we got 70 stores, we got two, we gotta move this stuff. So they take it out to auction and it's moving. So this is the tricky part. Now if you're a farmer and you think back through your career or your dad or your grandpa's career, your uncle, the wisdom was when things got tight as it pertains to equipment, just tighten your belt, stay with what you got, you know, there'll be deals all over the place and just hang in there. Now they're, you know, better deals now for sure, but you should not be thinking that it's gonna drag on as long because this rate of turn is just, is just astronomically quicker now, which is a good thing if you're selling new equipment, if you're John Deere case, you know, class, whoever agco, 'cause the used stuff is moving out quicker. To me the farm equipment space has become more like the automobile space. So the, what's happened with the dealers is one piece of it. The other piece is the online bidding piece. And that was because of the pandemic. So we'd already had online bidding for 15, 20 years, but when, when the pandemic shut everything, and this is why I love compiling auction prices 'cause literally Vance, it took about four days and I went, whoa, auction prices are shooting up.

Guest [00:34:46] There's no corn and beans haven't gone up. Why, why are auction prices going up around North America? And it was because every, everything went online and we live on these phones and farmers are competitive people and like I said, auctions are emotional events. And now when you're bidding on that piece of equipment, no one is seeing me bid on it. They're not gonna talk about it in church or at the coffee shop and you get your hooks on something. I want that ski steer. The, the inclination to click the bid button one more time is just through the roof. And once we train the farm audience on this now there's, there'll never be any going back. So that helps, you know, lift pricing and it also widen your buying pool. So now guys in Alabama don't blink about clicking a button to buy something in Saskatchewan. They just don't. And that makes the whole thing move faster.

Vance Crowe [00:35:45] Well that was a fascinating lesson on the update on what's going on in the ag auction market. We gotta leave it there 'cause we've got one more section to complete, which is the worthy adversaries. This is where I ask my guest machinery, Pete, who is somebody on social media that you respect but that you don't agree with?

Guest [00:36:07] Well, I, here's where my Minnesota ness might kick in advance. On the one hand, I guess I'm fortunate, I I don't have people coming at me negatively like, Hey machine repeat, you're full of beans 'cause it's databased. So you, you don't have to like the data, but data is data. It's, it, it's just, that's, that's how and why we present it. The other piece is that I guess I, I completely understand, you know, the segment, what you're doing and it is great to widen our our field of vision. No question I've sort of rolled by the, if you don't got something nice to say, just keep your yap shut.

Vance Crowe [00:36:49] You know,

Guest [00:36:49] So that's me personally. Now there, there's of course, you know, folks on social that, you know, I don't agree with. I I like paying attention to what they're saying. What I just am growing increasingly weary of is the, is the fighting ness of it. I just, I I'm done with that. I'm just, I don't have time for that. So if someone has a hot take on something, well they're even that term hot take, it's like, oh, this'll, this'll go crazy on social media. I don't give a rip about that stuff. You know, I, people are building their following that way. And it's like, that's not, I've posted every day on social media since the first week of August in 2009. It's like 80 some thousand posts and I never, I'm not doing it for clicks. I'm just presenting content that I think is gonna be interesting or helpful. And so, like I say, I, I try actively to steer clear of, you know, I don't agree with that and get all worked up. That's just not, I don't have, I just don't have time for that. Sorry, sorry if that doesn't fit nicely into the cubicle.

Vance Crowe [00:37:59] No, this is the joy of doing the ag tribes report, right? That all of ag is made up of all kinds of different groups of people, different ways of thinking. And if you don't find out that there are people out there that are on social media that couldn't care less about, about people getting hot about things, then you would just think, well, everybody I see in ag does get hot about things. So I think it's an important contribution and I'm glad you shared it. That is going to do it for the Ag tribes report. I want to thank machinery Pete so much for, for coming on. And I also want to thank our sponsors Farm test.ag, where they allow you to test your farm fields for different products that you're using so you don't have to rely on the marketing companies. You can find out more about them@farmtest.ag and Legacy Interviews where we record individuals and couples sharing their life stories so that future generations have the opportunity to know their family stories. So as we head out machinery, repeat, if people wanted to know more about your data and about what you're learning on farm auctions, where can they find you?

Guest [00:39:03] Just machinery, repeat any platform or Google it. Our website is machinery repeat.com. But I, I gotta give you a shout out Vance Legacy Interviews your sponsor. I can't, I, I 1000000% advocate for that what you're doing there. And I've been telling our farm audience, I, I try to blog every Thanksgiving to record your grandpa and grandma and uncle, get 'em in voice. 'cause you're gonna want to hear that voice. So hats off to what Legacy Interview is doing and sponsoring your great show. And that's, I like I say, that's, that's so, so needed.

Vance Crowe [00:39:38] Well thank you so much for saying that. That's gonna do it. We'll be back next week with another guest co-host and as always, feel free to disagree.