Latest / The Source – The Jorgensen Land & Cattle Podcast / Episode 22: Better Soil, Better Relationships | Chris Phillips |
Transcript
- speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Over a hundred years of experience lie in ideal South Dakota. The team at Jorgensen Lanning Cattle is going to take the time to offer insight into that experience along with many other industry experts. If you're ready to learn and grow, this is the Source. Good morning folks. Welcome back to the Source. busy time of year. I missed y'all last week. I apologize for that. We've been been going 9 0 both at JLC and And I know the the guys that I'm gonna gentlemen that I'm gonna get to talk to today, he's been nine as well because they're kinda early in their in their sale season right now. fresh off of a a smart bull sale in San Salva, Texas, we got along really good. really excited about about the future of that sale. sold some really good bulls and got along really good. so yeah, it's been raining, which is always good. I know that makes Chris happy and what his what his role is with Ideal Soil Solutions. But today gonna get to talk to Chris Phillips. Chris is with Ideal Soil Solutions and so we're gonna let Chris introduce himself here. so Chris just tell the folks who you are and what your what your current role with JLC is and then we'll we'll dive on in. speaker-1: Thanks, Jamie. Yeah, like Jamie said, my name's Chris Phillips. my title, you know, I'm not big on titles, but my title is I'm the South Dakota Territory Manager. So I'm in charge of everything that's happening in South Dakota under Ideal Soil Solutions. I'm just completing my third growing season. That's kind of how I that's how I tell how long I've been here. I was hired in March of 2024. So yeah, I've been through three growing seasons. I live in Chamberlain, just travel around. yeah, it's great. I'm married, got three kids. yeah, it's awesome. speaker-0: So Chris, let's go back because you you've only been working for ideal soil solutions in the Jorgensen crew since twenty twenty four. But the history with you and and Jorgensen's is a lot longer than that. So let's go ahead and get some of your background as far as the the history of Chris and how you ended up landing with this crew now today. speaker-1: Yeah, so I've known the Jorgens my entire life. I grew up my family farm is about four miles southwest of the farm. as the crow flies, I'd say it's pro roughly that. I I attended school with Brian in ideal until sixth grade, I believe. I'm not sure I f Brian which direction he went, but I went to another country school, so I was very familiar with them. attended winter high school I did not attend college. ended up married in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Kim is a school my wife is a school teacher, so we you know we've been in Chamberlain since 1995 and we love it here. So I worked as I when I got a job in Chamberlain, I worked for PepsiCola as a delivery guy, a sales guy for about ten years. was a great job, knew a lot of people, and then I had the opportunity to go to work for Eagle Sales, which is the Budweiser distributor locally owned at the time in Chamberlain. So approximately Two thousand five, I went to work for Tom Helen and his crew. Great, well respected company. did some deliveries, did some different things with them, ended up in a sales role, and then ended up as a sales manager for Tom. I love the beer business, man. Everybody's happy to see the beer guy, whether it's a good time or it's a bad time, man. They are happy to see the beer guy. So I really enjoyed my time, got to know a lot of people. You know, I worked there for twenty about twenty years. I worked for For them. during that time Tom decided to get out of the business, sold out, was bought by a large company, quality brands in Omaha, and you know, things just kinda changed. It maybe wasn't quite as personable and still they're a great company. I I have great respect for Anthony Gillick and their and his crew. it just maybe didn't fit me, so I was kind of looking around, you know, w what else is there? You know, I'm a I'm a little later in life. So it's job job change is not easy. And I happen to see an ad for Brian was looking for salesman and something intrigued me about it. Of course, I don't have an agronomy degree. I grew up in farming, I'm still very attached to it, but I don't have the qualifications, I guess, as you would say a lot of people are. So I I I looked at the ad, I thought about the ad for a long time. My wife said, call him. So I texted Brian and said, Are you still looking for a a salesman? And course he was like, Hmm, Chris Phillips. So we we talked a little bit. he was having his winter meeting coming up. This was December. He was having his winter meeting come up. He's like, just come to our meeting and see what we're about. 'Cause I honestly didn't know what you know what what he was doing. I knew he was doing some things that were different than what status quo was. but I didn't know what it was. So I went to the meeting and I listened to this guy called his name was Dan Coffin and he was just like He's just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and he's talking about all these things and I'm like, wow, this is really interesting. So Brian and I met, Nick and I and Brian met, you know, and I explained to them that, you know, maybe I don't fit. And Brian's like, good, I can train you the way I want you. I don't have to break your bad habits. That's the way he put it. So I decided to take a leap and they hired me, good faith, and we've hit the ground running ever since. That was in March I started in March of twenty four is when I officially started. speaker-0: Yeah, and so so you started when and Brian's talked about it a little bit on here when he sold his it was just a summit gold distributorship at that point to Jorgensen Lanic Cattle, and now we've we've moved on to to what is ideal soil solutions today, correct? speaker-1: Yeah, so I said, it yeah, it was a it was a side, a sideline for Brian. It was his business personally. And he had some customers, but he never felt like he should take time away from his JLC job to do his own job. So yeah, when he decided to sell it to JLC and then they they do they were like, Okay, let's see where this will go. Let's have someone put boots on the ground, talk to guys and see where we can go. So Initially, I didn't really have a lot of direction, and I I I like that because I didn't have a lot of pressure. so Brian's like, just talk to guys. I I sat and listened to Brian a lot talk about soil health, talk about biology, talk about cutting back on nutrients. And the more I listened to him, the more customers I had talked to, I was like, wow, this is really this is really interesting to me. if we can do things that the the one of the things that I kept coming back to was if we can do things to leave it better Than what we got it. That's really fun. I have young kids. Not that I don't know if they'll ever be involved in agriculture, I I doubt it, but still I have young kids. And to me, to be able to leave things better than the way we got it, that's really awesome to me. So that's kind of what has intrigued me and drove me to learn more. Every day I learn something new, I swear. So yeah, it's been really a fun opportunity. I'm very thankful that Brian and Nick. Nick took a chance on me, because, I said, th they didn't I probably wasn't the perfect candidate, but the one thing that I am blessed with is I'm not afraid to talk to people. I'm not afraid to speaker-0: Yep, absolutely. speaker-1: say, hey, I don't know the answers, but I will find you the answers. So that's that's always been my f prefaces too, is when I talk to people. Hey, I don't know all the answers. I will find the answers if I don't know them. So yeah. speaker-0: So so just you know, we'll tap a little bit on your history 'cause I'm I'm intrigued as as you talked, Chris, do you see any correlations of how you did sales in the beer business with how you do sales and the agriculture ideal soil solutions business. I feel like there has to be s a little bit of crossover there as far as, you know, a good, better, best type situation and those cost benefit analysis, those kinds of things. Touch on that a little bit, Chris, because you know, Brian said, he didn't have to break your bad habits. Well that was just in how you talked about Products that that probably didn't have anything to do with how you were going to go about talking to customers about products, right? speaker-1: Yeah, it it might almost be a fault to sometimes I what I always wanted to do and what I did one in my previous things is I wanted to get to know the people. I wanted to know everything about them. you know, the more personable you are The more likely that person that you're dealing with is is willing to open up to you. It might not even be about, at the time it might not have been about how we were going to increase beer sales. It might have been about traffic flow and his interests and how that we can tie that into his to his business things. And so I've I have always been like, I want to know more about my customers. if you know their background and you know When's a good time to stop and see them? When's a good time not to see them? Those things are all why do you always show up on Tuesday morning? That's the day that we move cattle, or that's the day that we whatever it was. So the more you get to know people just on a personable level, I I think it makes the makes the selling part. just comes naturally then, because then all of a sudden that o it opens up. Hey, I see you're having an issue with your your dry fertilizer. Well maybe we can, ease your pain with adding liquid system versus easier to handle because you're a one man band. I don't know what it is. I can't give you a great example, but I really like to have a personal touch with my customers. And that comes with time, so that's not easy. You know what I mean? It's not a quick that's not a quick thing because people are not gonna open up to you just because you're asking questions about their fantasy football team. But i eventually over time it does it does open up a lot of avenues. speaker-0: You Chris, and I think that's such a such a telling thing with with you coming coming into first the JL C team and now Ideal soil solutions is you know, whether we talk about the cattle side, ideal soil solutions, you know, the umbrella that is Jorgens and Lana Cattle. basically everything we do we don't wanna just do a transaction with ya. You know, we We're we're here to be a partner with you. And with you talk about building those relationships, that's how you can figure out what a pain point is for a guy. And then if something's not a pain point and it's obvious that there's not gonna be a change there, then there there's no reason to to have that conversation, but you can always find something where it's like, hey, we've got something that maybe fits for ya. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, absol absolutely. And it all comes down to the the better yeah, just like you said, just like you said, Jamie, the better that person, the easier it is to fit that product, that system, that we're we're not about selling products, to be honest with you. there's I've had a lot of conversations with guys that They're like, well what what should we do? And I'm like, you're doing the right things right now. I don't see any problems. You you don't really need to change anything. Let's let's watch this a little longer and see. And they look at you like, what? What what do you mean you're not gonna sell me something? Not not every not every producer needs what we're selling. I mean, obviously we can help guys as we move along, and let's be honest with you, that's how we make money by selling stuff, but Y if you only sell it to him one time and it didn't work or it wasn't the right product, you made one sale and it big deal, it's gone, not happening again. Plus you burned a bridge. he's not gonna trust you as well. If you let work with the guy and you didn't sell him something this time, he's like, maybe this maybe we're we're on to something here. He's on onto a little more of, not just trying to sell something, he's actually here to help me. speaker-0: Absolutely. So, you know, you mentioned, Chris, that you grew up right there near ideal, near the Jorgensen operation on a on a family farm. I would love for you to talk just a little bit about the farming that you grew up with. versus the kind of farming that Ideal Soil Solutions is is pushing and talking about products and you know the way the system works versus how you grew up and did you have to really change some mindsets. You know, I I know were a little bit out of it for for a time but but still very connected to your family farm. So so talk a little bit about if you had to if you had to really change how you looked at some things when you started working with Brian and and learning the the ideal soil solutions program. speaker-1: Yeah. So my dad you know, I'm I'm fifty nine years old, so you know, my dad farmed me you know, first of all, my dad was not a really great farmer, had a few dairy cows, had a few Hereford cows, you know, they left in a drought year in the mid seventies, so the the dairy cows stayed around because quote unquote my mom said it was a paycheck every two weeks. So but he was your typical summer fellow, grain sorghum, wheat farmer. And I would say back Back in the 70s and even into the 80s, probably ninety percent of the people were that. And that's just the way it was. it's just the system that worked for them. And I I always loved farming. Man, if I I think I still say to this day, if I I could have had a better opportunity, I probably would have been a farmer. But it's hard. Everyone knows that it's hard. And not that my parents didn't provide everything I needed because they did. But I have five other brothers and so it was hard for it takes a lot of miles to feed. But anyway, so, you know, I I watched my dad do the Summerfellow thing and the Milo thing. And then I remember corn being introduced into the to the rotation and that that kinda progressed along and then I I went off into the workforce and always just wanted to farm and my dad gave me an opportunity to farm a little piece of property. I don't know, he probably rented it to me for nothing. And I remember like, you know, we didn't have time to chisel and all that, so we were kinda forced into no till and I know Brian, so this'll be the time that Brian was, starting in the no till it'd been the the early eighties, mid eighties. And of course it was easy, 'cause it wa it was a time frame where we didn't have to spend all this time chiseling or and disking and all that. Well we didn't realize that the benefits we were doing at the time, fast forward My brothers and I farm the family farm together independently a little bit and we no-till. we saw the benefits of the moisture was probably the biggest thing that we saw. still didn't really know what Brian was doing. I know that he was big into no-till. I had heard the word cover crops. of course I didn't really know I didn't have cattle so it didn't really fit in there where it where I'm at. But so yeah, as as we pr progressed along, me personally, I knew that cu I knew that no-till was where it needed to be. And just s purely with the s moisture savings. Because you know, we live in a in a climate that is not you know, we don't get enough rainfall. When we do get enough rainfall, we we raise a fantastic crop. That's that's the beauty of of South Central South Dakota is we can raise a crop. We're just always dependent on the water. So yeah. As we moved along, and then like I said, when I showed up at this meeting with Brian, and they're talking about biology. And I'm like, biology, but I had seen some of the things that Brian was doing on social media, the Soil Health Coalition, and they're talking about the handful of dirt and how many billions and billions of organisms that are living in this soil. And now that I think back, I'm like, wow, that That's really, it's really cool for one thing, but I still didn't put it all together. But that meeting that I sat in that December with Brian and Dan Coffin and the Fry Boys, I was like, wow, that really made my wheels start to turn. I was like, there's more here than we're than we're what meets the eye. So yeah, every time and Brian would sit down and he would just talk about soil health, the five pillars of soil health, and talk about for one thing we always talk about we have enough phosphorus. We really don't need to keep adding phosphorus to the soil and everybody knows that phosphorus is expensive and we can have the biology there to release the phosphorus to cut our costs basically. And like wow, you know that's when I come from a from a farm that didn't have a lot of money, if we could have cut costs just by adding you know A simple little biology in the s in the furrow to help us out. It I still every day Jamie go, wow, this is just it's just interesting as hell to me to figure this all out. I just I don't know. Sometimes I ramble, Jamie, and I get to rambling. Like right I'm rambling, but it really excites me to see where we're headed. speaker-0: This is perfect, Chris, because I find it really interesting as you talk. you know, you were kind of by proxy forced into the no-till, right? But you but you really there that was just a time issue. That wasn't there wasn't any other thought behind that other than just this is what time allows for me to get done and this is something that lets me still be farming. You didn't realize all the good you were doing. And then you were doing some of the other things that Brian talks about now without necessarily thinking about the good that it was doing, and now you've had the opportunity to tie all that together, plus all the other things that Ideal Soil Solutions brings to the table, and now you're going, Wow, we really if we'd had just a few other pieces of information in the early nineties, just how much further could we have pushed this, right? speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. And I you know, I I s I tell people this all the time, I wish I would have started this twenty years ago. But twenty years ago would have been hard because Brian was Brian was talking about it, but it was still a foreign language. People are like, You're nuts. That's not you know, we need you know, we need X amount of nitrogen, we need X amount of phosphorus, w this is what we need and this is what it's called for. And and not that that wasn't it was definitely working for guys. it it was working for guys. That's not, there's still guys that are that are doing it today that are great, raising a fantastic crop. I just think that there's got to be a better way, you know, to do this. For one, I feel like we can make more money at it. You know, I think the producers can can cut their costs and use some of the technology we have today and increase their ROI. And we j we like to talk about ROI. If we we you don't have to ha coffee coffee talk. You gotta my beans did seventy five. Well my beans did seventy-eight, Well how much money did you make at seventy-eight bushel, sixty bushel? But the guy that's at fifty bushel, fifty-five bushel, he might be making more money at the end because He's just doing things a little bit differently than everyone else has done. So those are the things that we're still working on, you know, with the test plot and things like that that so we can get data out to guys and prove what we're doing works on a broad scale basis. speaker-0: Yeah, and I I think, gosh, as we talk about ideal soil solutions and the tide of Jorgens Land and cattle, Chris, the the things we talk about on the cattle side, yeah, you want to go to the coffee shop and they weighed seven seventy at the sale barn and topped the market and well, how many open cows did you have? How much money and feed did you dump into The guy that rolled that set of five fifties in there that he put no money into those cows whatsoever, he probably made more money in the end. And I had a I had a college professor who used to, he'd stand in front of us, Dr. Casey Olsen, and he'd say, You want to wean bigger Kios? And he'd hold his checkbook up. And he'd say, This is what it takes. And you gotta understand all the other fallout that comes with that. And so I really think all of this system, both from the ideal soil solutions and the Jorgensen Lana cattle side, I think as guys keep moving forward there's gonna be more and more understanding of of what that actual input output and and cost behind it it it's really gonna matter in the next ten years, especially with inputs what they are today. speaker-1: Yep. Yep. I think we're in a perfect storm, Brian talks about that. We're in a perfect storm right now and plus the big guys have come to it now too. You know, that's their buzzword is biology, you know, like it's some new great thing. Well, you know, b Brian's been preaching it since early two thousand. I think when he first when he first got really hooked together with the Greg and J or with Dean Fry actually, you know, with the with Summit Gold, why yeah, I mean he's just ahead of the curve and now it's the buzzword. That's what you see on social media. That's what you see is 'cause the big guys are bringing it to the table. So speaker-0: Yep. And so so Chris, we've kind of we've touched through, you know, you coming to JLC and and starting in that Summit Gold distributorship. And now we've become ideal soil solutions. And talk to me a little bit about we've heard Brian talk about the five pillars of soil health and what really anchors ideal soil solutions. But just talk to me about how you would talk to a customer about the process of using ideal soil solutions and tie it back to the ROI conversation we just had and and a little bit of the things that you talked to guys about as as to how we use this system for you to be more profitable again. speaker-1: Yeah, and I s like I stated earlier, I I really want to get to know their operation. I wanna know what they're doing. I ask a lot of questions, I always say to them, I'm like, when I ask too many questions, tell me to stop, because then I'll stop. But I wanna know what they're doing. I want to know how they're applying their fertilizer, I wanna know, you know, what their rotation is, and then I start putting the pieces together and be like, have you thought about if you have a guy that's applying, you know, spreading across the top. I was like, have you thought about you know putting a liquid system on your planner? Do you have a liquid system on your planner? And we can start there using using the 725-5 as a vehicle, our starter, which is a great, you know very friendly you user friendly product, it's not really sticky, it's it's just really works well, but it's a great vehicle to start adding in, biology complement and things like that. So yeah, those I just want to really want to know what they're doing. And then I want to know I'm like, w so what are you looking for? Are you looking for more yield? Are you looking for ease of operation? w what are you really looking for? And so from those conversations then I can say, you know, well Are you no-till? have you considered no-till? Have you considered maybe and we all know we and I know that the five pillars are not gonna fit every operation to a T. that's that's the that's the ultimate goal is to follow those five pillars to a T. But I know that that's not gonna go everywhere. guys are not gonna give up their their hundred percent tillage, but maybe I can have one less pass. Maybe Maybe we can, get the neighbors to bring cattle over and run cattle for forty days, late fall, something like that. I th there's not a there's not a one How do I want to say it? There's not just one vehicle like this is it or we're moving on. I I'm gonna pick pieces and I'm gonna help you. And I think that as we move forward and they see results, they're gonna they're gonna say, Hey, what else can we do? Hey, what else can you do? Have you tried seed treatment? We have a biological seed treatment. How about just using not using fungicide on your wheat seed, just using a biological seed treatment to help with root establishment, which is gonna help you next summer when the when it's dry? So yeah, I I I like to pick pieces and parts and help them feel comfortable with me and our system. speaker-0: Yeah, and I and I love how you bring something up, Chris, that that has nothing to do with ideal soil solutions outside of the consultation part of what you guys do. Of like, hey, you've got this quarter of ground that that you've got a neighbor that runs cows close to, lease it to him for for forty or sixty days there in the late fall. And and that ties back to that ROI conversation we were having. And and you just gave that producer a a a nudge of like, Hey, make some more money and it's gonna be good for you. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Gonna cycle that residue a little bit more. Gonna add some gonna add some nutrients back into it. We've even talked to some guys like let them let them put the fence up and take care of the water and give it to them for free. Because you're not doing it for free. But I mean, if that's what it takes to get you started with this guy because he needs a place to run his cows. Good try it. Do it. Maybe you won't like it for a year, but do it one year and and then see how you see how you like it. See how that field produces or performs next summer. Yeah. speaker-0: And you you mentioned something, Chris, with the test plot. And I don't have a whole lot of information about the test plot. Regan mentioned it when we talked about internships that they're gonna hire an agronomy intern. just don't have to go in the weeds on it, but but talk to us a little bit about that ideal soil solutions test plot and kind of what your guys' goals are with that. speaker-1: So every time we see data, it's always from Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, which is great data. the data's still data, but it doesn't resonate with the producer that lives in South Central South Dakota or somewhere in South Dakota, North Dakota, honestly. And so we we rather quickly pivoted you know when Andy Johnson came on board our agronomist, he's like, We gotta have some data and we're like, You're right. So we just put together a a replicated test plot for corn and soybeans. we had some in furrow trials, some foliar trials and some combinations. We did a lot of things wrong. I tell you what, we could write a book on the all the stuff that we did wrong from from not having the right data, yeah. Just just different things that whatever. But we still know that and it's not a perfect test plot where it's located today. it wasn't perfect, but I told these guys, it's like, what piece of property is perfect? We're not Iowa, you know, black dirt soil. We're we're you know, this is where this is where we live and this is where we farm. Let's have the data be from here. So we've gotten some good things. It's been really fun to watch it. we'll we'll We'll have some data come from it. we're not real happy with what how we how we performed to get our data, not the data itself. And then moving forward, we're gonna have a quarter of land. They call it the Smith Quarter. It's relatively flat, relatively s the same. I can't even tell you how many different replications will be in it. We put wheat in it this fall. it's gonna be amazing. SDSU is gonna be amazed or b a part of it. I'm really excited. We used some AI things to I shouldn't say we, Brian did. I'm really I'm really excited where where we're headed with the test plot because people wanna know data. And when I say complement can give you a better root system or I can say enforce added bushels or test weight, people I don't they don't have to just believe me. I can say here, here's what here's what we're coming up with, here's what we're seeing, you try it on your farm. I think that gives us a lot of credibility locally. our dealers are excited about it. I I our dealers I think will get more involved with it too as we move forward. We're trying to put some protocols together so that we can go to other places with test blots. And yeah, the interns are gonna be a big part of that because it can get hard to do what needs to be done, but that's the critical thing with the test blots is it has to be done and it has to be timely. So yeah, the test plots, I'm super excited about that. speaker-0: Yeah, and you you mentioned, some protocols and and the dealers and when you when you've kinda got this built out and a and a concept behind the test plot and how it works and ideal, even a a prospect customer, you know, you can help them set their own test up at their farm if they want to. You know, to say say look here Here's how you can do it if you want to truly test it in your scenario and and I love getting the opportunity to do those kinds of things on the cattle side, hey, if you want to test us, pick two sets of cows that are very similar across your herd and turn us out on one side and what you've got on the other side and at the end you'll know. speaker-1: Yeah. And I and what and the other thing that and I didn't really even realize that this is how this is how it's done, but the replication, it's the test bot this year we had six random blocks for the N force foliar application. Well A side by side can have variabilities across the field, so from one side to the other side the soil is different. Well this replication takes that out of it. So I'm really it's a lot more work. It's a lot more tedious because you're, smaller blocks and and doing it over and over. But once we get our protocols in place and and get really good at it, it we're gonna have some really solid data to put in front of customers. speaker-0: Yeah guys, this isn't this isn't just a a farmer test plot. This is a the these guys have have gone the full grad student route with building out the the true scientific experiments are going on in this test plot in ideal and and that is you will have data that you could publish a paper against and boy isn't that exciting. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it really is. And in in season to be able to bring customers through, and show them, have have a field day, but even just a one on one, just hey, let's go over and look at the test plot and this is what we're seeing, this is what we're doing, and let them put their hands on and say, Wow, look at the stock diameter difference in these two these two plots. What's going on here? well that's y you know, whatever, X versus Y. So yeah, it's fun. I love it. Anytime you can get in the field and you know, personally Yeah, I'm like hands-on. I'm like I don't I just wanna be there, I wanna see it, I don't wanna ru I don't I don't wanna read about it in a paper or see a picture. I wanna put my hands on it. And I I think a lot of people are like that, so I'm excited for it, really excited for it. speaker-0: Absolutely. So let's let's shift a little bit one more time, Chris. Ideal Soil Solutions launched and with that you guys had the intentions of building out a dealer network. So talk to me a little bit about what the dealer network looks like and how you guys are gonna work with those those dealers moving forward. Just kinda give us a little bit of the nuts and bolts there, Chris. speaker-1: Yeah, Ideal Soil Solutions was really I I feel like it evolved automatically. I was out talking to Brian had customers and I spent a great deal of time with those customers. courting new customers and had some great conversations, but we just weren't really getting the traction that we wanted. And I feel like all of a sudden and I said to myself, maybe I need to get a dealer to and I never said this to Nick, you know, but I had thought this in my mind. All of a sudden one day Nick's like, hey, what if we build a dealer network? And I was like, yeah, I don't know how that's gonna happen because I don't know who's gonna do it. Next thing I know we have an agronomist on staff. Next thing I know we have Shannon show you know, Andy's our agronomist, Andy Johnson, wonderful guy. We have a great time together. And I'm like, okay, that's awesome. Solid technical help, you know, that we need. And I'm like, how are we gonna, you know, really push this? Boom, here comes Shannon, marketing guru, I call her. I mean, she just comes up with these ideas, and we come up with ideas, and boom, she makes them happen. So it all happened all through these winter meetings, and so we came up with ideal soil solutions, and we had a kickoff in June, thank you. These are really locked up there for a minute in June. And we've we've had, you know, people that we've been working with. Logan Rubin is one who's been working with Brian for a lot of years, so now he's you know he's a dealer, you know, Trent Kubick's a dealer, Eric Teason's a dealer, just locally f pro personally for myself. And yeah, it's just now instead of talking to one customer, when I'm talking to a dealer, I'm talking to I don't know, 50 people, 200 people, however many people that they're dealing with. And so yeah, that's that's how our footprint is expanding. We don't want to expand rapidly. That's we've talked a lot about that. We don't wanna we don't wanna go everywhere today. we wanna we wanna proceed cautiously. And Nick has given us the tools. Soil sink is the platform that we use our that I use personally that our dealers will use. It will even go to a customer level. It's evolving every day. We order products through it. We have pricing in it, but we're more even the wing one thing I'm really excited about is we're going to take soil samples and we're going to input it into their DNA testing and we're going to be able to give recs to dealers, customers on the biological side, instead of just saying, hey, we think this will work from you, we're gonna give them solid data from DNA testing that we don't think a lot of people are doing. And we think we're on the front of w we're on something big. And it's that's the that's the thing again is not every product is going to be for every person. We have a we have a catalog, I have a catalog lane here. I don't even know how many products are in it. A lot of the products I've never even discussed because it's just not relevant. W there we don't need to sell everything. So yeah. There again i Jamie I get to rambling 'cause I get so excited I can't stand it. speaker-0: It's this is this perfect Chris 'cause I I it it's so interesting, just the Jorgensen family and and the thought process behind it and you look at both the the cropping side and the cattle side and how different Brian and Cody are but how similar their minds track, right? Because you're talking about you know, whether it's through a dealer or through you guys doing it and you're getting down to the nitty-gritty we'll just call it the DNA level. w we're doing a lot of the same things on the cattle side, right? Where it's like, hey, and and like you said, you've got products you don't talk about. We've got EPDs that we've never once mentioned to a customer. it's like, hey, this isn't relevant to you in the position that you're in. Now there's a few out there, right, that take in our world it's like the tenderness deal, like there's a few out there, hey, that's really important to them, so gotta go into the toolbox and get it out for But for the most part, you know, you've got your standards and but you're getting to a level with that customer back to that relationship where you truly understand what they're doing, what their goals are, and then you're getting to what's actually there. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. And you talk about tools in a toolbox. That's what Brian Brian talks about that a lot. We have this toolbox. It's extensive. But we we don't need we don't always need every tool in the toolbox. We we might only need a couple. We might not eat need any, but we we believe we have a a wonderful toolbox and it's it's awesome to have it in our pocket. You know, you talked about not using any products, although I've had a couple of conversations with guys that have manure. They w they want to know more about manure and that's something that we haven't really dealt with, you know, cattle barn manure, you know, the so that's we have have it there, it's great to be able to pull it out and be able to talk to them about that side of it. So yeah, it's the the there's a lot of possibilities here. And ideal soil solutions is, w what we like to say is we're dedicated to helping producers understand soil health and understand soil balance. You know that's the that's the the mission statement is we want them to understand soil health and balance their soil. And a lot of things from there just flow automatically. speaker-0: Yeah, and I I love it too, back to the feed sales days and you you would talk to somebody on the phone, build me a ration. Well what do the cows weigh? twelve hundred. And then you get to go out there and see the guy and it's like Yeah, they weigh about sixteen, we need to do something just a little different here because I didn't have all the information. Right. So what you're doing is you you're able to build that information bank And and you can actually see it, touch it, take the tests you need to test to be able to actually make the recommendations that go where they want to go. Based on hard, not just on on what they're telling you or or what they're even they're just seeing, right? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. And I think, when you're your comment on the weight of the cattle, some guys don't want to know all the science. They don't want to know how the biology, because we can I I can't personally like Brian can take you in and tell you how the biology works and how it breaks down, and it's moving the sugar around and all these things and this and that. lot of guys don't wanna know that because they really just wanna know what's gonna what's gonna how's it gonna work for me and how how do I apply it. And so that's where the trust thing comes from is is is that. You know, they you know even dealers, you know, sometimes th course they do understand it but Not everybody wants to take the time to understand the the full science of it. They just they wanna they wanna trust you. And so I hope that, we don't ever per portray we don't ever wanna give up that trust. So yeah, it's yeah, good information and get them the right product, the right program. speaker-0: And so South Dakota and North Dakota is the main intentions of growth in that dealer network at this time, correct? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. We don't like I said before, we don't want to grow too big too fast. We want we wanna be able to handle the customers and so Mason Hoffman has been hired as the North Dakota Territory rep. May Brian had some customers in the Oaks area, so that's that was the determining factor is we had a cluster of people in North Dakota and and and customers in South Dakota, so we're like, let's focus here. there's plenty of business in South Dakota and North Dakota. There's there's plenty of business. And so Mason's he's the North Dakota Territory rep. He's doing the same thing I'm doing, is actively seeking out dealers. he's done a great job. He's hit the ground running, soaked up a lot of knowledge. I think he's been on board since March and the growth I've seen in him is amazing. So he listens well, he asks the right questions, and We it he's a good fit. He fits in with in with us well. So yeah, so we're just gonna grow North Dakota and South Dakota for now. Not saying there won't be some border scratches here and there, but eventually we'll Nick said, Well how will we know when you know we need another manager? And it's like we'll we'll tell ya, when we can't get to the customers that we have, the dealers that we have on a basis, then Let's hire another person because that's that's what's key is is we're we wanna have consultive w we don't wanna we don't wanna outgrow our britches. We wanna be there when the guys need us to be there. speaker-0: Yeah. So talk about, you know, actively pursuing dealers. what what are you looking for out of a dealer, Chris? What what are some of the things that that really drive you to say that's a that's a guy that that we want to do business with? speaker-1: I would say a lot of the lot of the characteristics that we talk about when when I'm selling is we want we're probably not a good fit for the larger cooperatives. Not saying that we won't ever do that, but probably looking more at independent guys. Not probably, we are, we like to look at the independent guys because they care about their business. They they want to know what their cus they know what their customers want, they wanna know what their customers want. We we don't wanna be another I I don't know if I've said it before, but I tell guys in fact I had a conversation with a guy yesterday, I'm like I'm not gonna come to your office, throw a product catalog on your desk and say, Go sell. the products will come secondary after you figure out what your customers want, what I figure out, what the dealer wants to do. So yeah, independent. seed dealer guys are great because they're already in contact with they already have a book of customers. this gives them another option instead of just showing up in the fall or the spring to sell seed. this gives them another avenue to help help that producer in the in their overall business, starter fertilizer, biology, micronutrients, folio products. So yeah, we have a wide wide range of ways to fit into their business model. And I would say that's that's the guys that we're looking for. speaker-0: Yep. And then what Ideal Soil Solutions is providing to those dealers, aside from obviously great great products and and mostly summit gold today, I I know that there's maybe some growth there but mostly summit gold type products today. you guys are bringing more than just that. when you reach out to a dealer. So obviously you mentioned Andy Johnson earlier. talk a little bit about deeper on the on the consultation side, the soil testing side, and what what else you guys are gonna provide for those dealers from that standpoint, Chris. speaker-1: Yeah, so consultive is is a word we like to use. We we're gonna be very consultive to them. soil sink platform. What I which I mentioned, which Nick created, which is awesome because when we have something that we want to change about it, it's easy to change. I I know who to talk to. but that's what the dealers that's what I will use and that's what the dealers will use to order products. there's a quoting tab, there's pricing obviously. it that will simplify their business side of it. And then the the soil testing is is where we're it's It's not set in stone. Andy could talk a lot better about it, but what we want to provide is we want the we want the dealer to be able to go to their customers and provide us soil testing. We can do fertility, we can do DNA testing, and we can also do true tillage testing, you know, compaction things like that. So that's that's we're really excited about that side of the business, and we'll be able to input a soil test. into soil sink and then it will spit out a recommendation as far as like I said depending on the level that they choose fertility and and mostly what DNA is one that that we're really focusing on is the DNA side of it is how their biology can help them increase their soil health so Yeah, that's the the the soil testing thing is is something that we're really focused on right now to do. In fact we're gonna do some samples, you know, we're gonna go to some customers and get some data out of it this fall yet and probably really move forward with that part of that side of it. So speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, and so I think it's just it's a really cool option. especially if if somebody's a dealer out there listening, you're not just getting a product line, you're getting a set of guys that are that are passionate about the business that they're doing and again they they're not just there to sell you something. They they wanna they wanna be hand in hand and if if you're gonna use it they want it to work. And yeah. And they want to speaker-1: We really want to talk about the soil health the the five pillars, that's what we really wanna push the five pillars of soil health. I mentioned before I know everyone's not gonna do it perfectly, but yeah, i if they this the soil health thing, if they're following that and doing those things it all falls in hand after that. soil testing, they'll see that that's what's working and what's not working. So yeah, it's it's all hand in hand. It seems complicated, but when you really come down to it, it's pretty simple. It's it's a simple thing, it really is. speaker-0: Yeah, and you you wanna know as much if there's a red flag that something's not gonna work before somebody does it, as much as they're they there's a bunch of green flags that it's gonna work, right? You speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. speaker-0: don't wanna put that guy in that situation where all of a sudden this didn't work and gosh dang it, we probably saw that it wasn't gonna work before we did it. speaker-1: Yeah. Yep, yep, absolutely. I think that's and and and we know we're not perfect, we're not perfect at all, but w it's it's it's a beautiful system. It it really is, and and we have the right people in place. I'm confident in the people that we have. I love the you know the knowledge all the way behind me, you know, Andy Johnson and Brian Jorgensen and Dan Coffin, Jared Fry, those guys have a wealth of knowledge and they've seen a lot of things. So I I'm excited to offer that to the public. speaker-0: You bet. You bet. Well, Chris, I've taken a bunch of your time this morning and I really appreciate you jumping on with me. I've made it a tradition here. The last question I'm gonna ask if you were gonna give an eighteen, nineteen, twenty year old kid that wants to be involved in agriculture a piece of advice, what would you leave that kid with? speaker-1: Yeah, that's probably when I was eighteen years old, I thought I knew more than everyone else. But hopefully that at that eighteen year old you look up to those people whatever field you're interested in, whether it's cattle, whether it's crops, you know, w what whatever side is in is is look look for a probably I would say a mentor, someone that can tell you Hey, you know what? I hate to even say it, but I'm probably a pretty good mentor 'cause I could tell you all the shit that you shouldn't be doing. But yeah, I think just look for the people that are leaders in your industry and don't be afraid to reach out and don't be afraid to ask questions. I I think that's probably the biggest thing. I sit in some of these meetings and all these guys that are well vo well versed in all these agronomy things. I'm always like, I shouldn't ask this. But I ask it anyway, because pretty soon you're like Four other guys are like, man, thanks for asking that question because I was thinking the same thing. So ask questions. That's that's what I'll go with. That's what I'll go with, Jamie. Ask questions. speaker-0: I think, Chris, you your answer lines up so much with everybody that we've talked to because it's growing your network and it's growing your knowledge base. And usually those two things are very tightly tied together as far as who the people are that are that you can ask questions to that that tie into your circle. And so I think any of the young people out there listening, The joke has always been it's not what it's who But there's a lot of truth and in that who you know being able to to move you forward. So with that, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up, Chris. We greatly appreciate you taking time to share some of your background and then some of the sausage making at Ideal Soil Solutions and Keep doing what you do. You're doing great at it. And we love having you as a part of this team. We've had a lot of fun at some trade shows over the years. speaker-1: Yes we have. Yes we have. Sounds great. Thank you, Jamie. I appreciate it. I was a little worried about sitting here and talking about it, but it it excites me. So thank thanks for taking the time to talk to me. speaker-0: You bet this has been great, Chris. This is the source. Thanks for listening, guys, and we will catch you next time.