Latest / AG Bull / AG Squawk with Davis Michaelsen | Greg Mulherin | Newell Machinery Company

Transcript

AG Squawk with Davis Michaelsen | Greg Mulherin | Newell Machinery Company · AG Bull

0:09
SPEAKER_00: I hopped on a plane in the rain in Kansas City.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Kind of sounds like a country song, doesn't it?
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm in Nashville, Tennessee today.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm in Tommy's office, the Ag Bull headquarters here.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for today's conversation, and it seems appropriate.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: A good, good friend of mine that I used to play music with back in the day before we both became adults.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: It seems like the perfect conversation to have right here in Music City.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: From behind Tommy's trapezoidal microphone in Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Ag Squawk in the afternoon, everybody.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Your pal Davis Michelson, the handsome newsman here.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: They uh coaxed me out of the Ultimate Man Cave in Kansas City.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: I'll be down here in Nashville for the next couple of days hanging out with the Nezvik crew and uh just, you know, glad handing a little bit, seeing what's going on.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: It's it's warm here still.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: They promised us that the heat was going to break yesterday in Kansas City, and it started to.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: And then this morning I could tell the difference right away.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, when it was raining all the way on the drive to the airport, that it really feels like really feels like a change is in the air.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: But it's dry down here in Nashville as well.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: My Uber driver was talking about it.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: He said the trees are already starting to turn brown, and he was right.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: He said it looks like autumn and it's not quite time yet.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: It's it's dry in Nashville, but uh the word is that there's change gonna come for Nashville.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna cool off.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: There might be even be some rain.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: So, as I said, welcome to Ag Squawk in the Afternoon.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Glad to have you along.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: We are the financial channel obsessed with agriculture.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: And today we're talking upstream manufacturing with Greg Mulhern from Newell Machinery in Hiawatha, Iowa.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: As I said, Greg and I go way back.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: We made a bunch of music together, and somehow when we when we wound up as grown-ups, no one was more surprised than us, but we both wound up in professions related to agriculture.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And I just I just want to see what he's got going on over there at Newell Machinery.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: They do more upstream type stuff, but they've been in the biz for a really, really long time.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: I think since 1900, I'm gonna have to click on the uh on the website before I bring him in, but but I'm excited for the conversation and I I think you'll really enjoy it.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into it, may I direct you to agbull.com where you can maximize your chance for success with Ag Bull Intel.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Take a gander in our premium side and take the markets by the horns with AgBull.com or call 855-737 Farm.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Visit Agbull.com today.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go to the tail of the ticker because it was it was quiet, and yet by the end of the day, some of these were all over the place.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Everybody was lower early in the session with corn down one to two cents, soybeans off four to five, and not to be outdone, winter wheat futures five to seven cents lower in early trade right at the start of the session.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Livestocks were under pressure as well, with feeder cattle down a buck seventy-five to almost two and a half dollars.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Fat cattle were also under moderate pressure, and lean hogs joined along on the downward slide.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Coming out of the lunch hour, corn and soybeans had stabilized at mildly lower levels.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Not a ton of pressure on corn and beans, but weed futures continued to fall.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Deferred feeder cattle glanced at the upside, but bats and lean hogs were off-session lows, still lower from top to bottom.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna browse the settlements quick, but before we do that, let me thank plus 500, that's plus 500.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: My squad and I all use plus 500 T4 software for real-time quotes, futures, options, a host of dandy features.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Check out plus 500, that's plus 500.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And my plus 500 screen has December corn settled out at 527 and three-quarters.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: On the day that's down five and three-quarters cents, still at 527 and three-quarters.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling corn hanging in there, at least at the moment.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: November soybeans down six and three-quarters today, 1309 and one half.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Soybean meal was higher, and soybean oil was lower, kind of, just a just slightly lower.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: October down uh just 14 cents, December down 13.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: You get out to the March and you're unchanged.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: So not a ton of pressure on the soybean oil today.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: And then over to the winter wheats, I've got your December Chicago down 18 and one quarter cents at 728 and three-quarters, the Kansas City at$8.06 and one quarter.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: That's down 12 and three quarters on your December Kansas City wheat.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: I don't, and I hate to say it, we've talked, I talked yesterday about the pinch that that wheat is in.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to move some, we really would, and the demand is probably there, but prices may be kind of a stumbling block right now for buyers over to the cattle, the October feeder cattle up 37 and one half cents at 325.82 and a half.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: We started the day lower and then the the deferred crept up as I was on the plane.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, you know, the nearby are going to be off now.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: We were higher 37 and a half, like I said, in the October.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Over to the fat cattle, more pressure over there, down 75 cents in the D's 218.47 and a half, and over to the lean hogs lower across the board.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: The October down to buck 17.5, 83.07 and a half, and the December contract down 45 cents, 74 and 60 at settlement.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: And with that, it gives me great joy.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to bring in my old pal, Greg Mulhern from Newell Machinery in Hiawatha, Iowa.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing, Greg?
6:12
SPEAKER_01: It's great to be amazing, Davis.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: It is good to see you.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, you have been to as many of my weddings as my parents have.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh congratulations.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: No, you and I go back to uh the early 90s.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: We were hanging out at uh Kirkwood Community College, yes, playing playing music, both in school and out of school.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: As I recall, the damn Yankees were big.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: We were doing some Nelson that uh extreme song, the only one that everybody knows.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: That one was huge right then.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: We had a darn good time doing it, but now you're over at Newell Machinery, and I I gotta know more because you and I have have lost touch, and I I guess I'm just nosy, bro.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Tell me about how long you've been there, how'd you get started in the company, and what do you do?
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's it's kind of a funny story.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: So uh obviously having a having a music degree put me in perfect position to uh to work at an industrial construction and uh manufacturing company, which is kind of the kind of the state of affairs with a lot of uh college degrees out there today.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: Actually, you know, I was looking for a I was looking for a job and I actually went to work at a local ag chemical place.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: So spraying uh all sorts of of fields for you know for this area here for probably about three years.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: And then one thing led to another, and I ended up here at Newell Machinery actually doing industrial safety, believe it or not.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: I was good at reading government regulations and and things of that nature, and then more and more things were crossing my desk that were a lot less related to safety and more along the lines of operational things, and uh I ended up being I'm vice president here at Newell Machine.
7:57
SPEAKER_01: I've been here for 30 years, if you can believe that, David.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: Wow, 30 years, yeah.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: 19 like 1996 or so is what we uh actually had a sister company that was a sheet metal company, and I kind of worked between both facilities or both uh plants that we had, and uh yeah, 30 years.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: It's a long time.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, well, congratulations.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm proud of you, brother.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: That's excellent.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Excellent, well done.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, you uh you uh you came up kind of in the would you call it the swisher area, the Fairfax area, well beyond where the blacktop ends.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: And uh that being the case, I'm pretty sure you're pretty well acquainted with what healthy corn and soybeans ought to look like.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Can I just can I impose upon you for just a bit of a crop report around the Cedar Rapids-ish area?
8:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so to be honest, we should have a we should have a great crop this year.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: Honestly, we had a lot of rain this year, and and in particular in Cedar Rabbit, we started this year in a little bit of a drought.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: And I I feel like we've we've made up where the crops really look good.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: I travel quite a bit, at least within the Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska areas for different customers that we service.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: And uh honestly, things are in pretty good shape.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Little bit of a little bit of a dry spell here recently, but honestly, it should be should be perfect for harvest.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully we get everything out, there's no wind damage or anything like that, and and and we can and you know really capitalize on the good weather that we've had.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: One thing that you and I have never done together, and I don't know if you were into this all along or not, but uh you're what what some would call an avid snowmobiler.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: Snowmobilist?
9:31
SPEAKER_00: Snowmobilist.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Snowmobiler.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Snowmobiler.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you're on your way up to Minnesota later on this week, as I recall you mentioning, for some sort of snowmobiling convention.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
9:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's so it's it's actually a grass drags snowmobile race that's up there.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: And it's the largest snowmobile event in the world.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: I think they get about 50,000 people up there.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: It's North Branch, Minnesota, just north of uh the Twin Cities, about an hour and a half or so.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's a great time.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: Good, a lot, a lot of cool stuff there.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: I had you in mind yesterday when I was talking to atmospheric scientist Eric Snodgrass, really cool dude, a weather guy.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And he was, I asked him, you know, my my buddy's going up to Minnesota for the snowmobile thing.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: I I reckon you probably have been to like Wisconsin I've seen on Facebook, like Wisconsin and probably Minnesota and other places around wherever there might be snow at the time.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, what's what's the weather forecast look like?
10:28
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Looks like your buddy might have to go into Canada to find some decent snowmobiling this year.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: How far north are you willing to go to snowmobile?
10:36
SPEAKER_01: So actually, we've been to Canada before, but probably the the number one place to bet on if you're ever going to get any snow is the mountains.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: So we do quite a bit.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: We'll go out to Wyoming and the snowmobile season there, it's a little bit sketchy in November.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: Like they have snow, but it turns out that 10 feet of snow only covers up rocks 9 feet, 11 inches tall.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: So if you go out to Wyoming early season, it's a lot of powder and you run the risk of wrecking your snowmobile, you know, for all sorts of undisclosed objects underneath the snow.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: So you're trailering up a couple of snowmobiles and and just drilling straight into wherever you can find the best snow.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: What are you driving?
11:15
SPEAKER_00: What is that what how do you manage that?
11:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, actually.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've got a uh well, I've got a I've got a four-wheel drive dually, so it's uh in a pretty pretty massive snowmobile trailer.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: So we we take the whole family.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: You're not messing around, are you?
11:30
SPEAKER_01: We try not to.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: I notice it's it's a good thing that you've got a guitar in the background.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: I noticed there's a Gibson back there.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that wasn't a plan either.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: That just that's not a plan.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: It just happened to show up.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: So and this is what I tell my wife.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: They follow me everywhere I go.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: I can't help it.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: It's not my fault.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: If you buy one, you gotta have a second one to balance it out so that you don't walk crooked.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, Tommy doesn't have any guitars here, despite being in Nashville.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: I might have to help him remedy that, but I'm glad that that you've gotten that.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I I have one more question for you about the snowmobiling.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I don't know.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a I don't know how you want to answer this, but what's your what's your favorite or coolest or best snowmobiling memory?
12:17
SPEAKER_00: What was the best day of snowmobiling in your life like?
12:20
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd have to probably go back to the mountains.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: Believe it or not, especially in Wyoming, some of the best snow months are actually late, almost like spring.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And I we were there, I want to say it was like May 4th, that time frame.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: So it was like the first weekend in May, and it was just unbelievable powder.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: Like I think they had just received, you know, maybe four feet of snow, and it was what we call a bluebird day, and it was probably about 35 degrees, which and when you're really working in that kind of deep snow, you know, 35 is actually super warm, and it was just the most pristine day, not a not a cloud in the sky, 35 degrees and four feet of fresh powder.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: It was just an amazing day.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: I'll never forget it.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: It makes you feel like a little kid again.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, good, good.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: We should probably talk about newell machinery here just a little bit because I do also have some questions about that there.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm on the about page on newellmachinery.com.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: For more than a century, Newell Machinery Company has provided thousands of Midwest businesses with exceptional custom millright products, services, and solutions.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Since 1900, Newell Machinery has grown from providing mill supplies and wooden elevators to an industry expert and leader in millwright design, manufacturing, and service.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Help me let help me put together my glossary here.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: What is millwrite?
13:40
SPEAKER_00: What does that even mean?
13:42
SPEAKER_01: So, mill writing, it gets branded by trade, is essentially keeping factories running and keeping uh machinery installed, aligned, things of that nature.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: We just happen to uh fall into the agricultural sector, being section, being you know, here from Iowa, which obviously makes sense.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, essentially there's really two parts to dual machinery.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: One, first and foremost, we're an industrial construction company, and we work primarily at agricultural facilities, and we have for at least the 30 years that I've been here, uh, lots of cargills, ADMs, bungies, uh, all of the big players.
14:15
SPEAKER_01: We do a lot of work in ethanol facilities.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: A lot of the, you know, especially a lot of the co-ops and some of the uh facilities, you know, like the 50 million gallon facilities or whatever, they ended up wanting to double their output.
14:27
SPEAKER_01: Well, the equipment wasn't built for that.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: So they come with come to a company like Newell Machinery, and we can upsize all the equipment, we can actually build new equipment to replace it, do it in shutdown days, or kind of a hired gun contractor when it comes to that.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: Um we also do a lot of work for farmers.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: Typically, our you know, our forte certainly is the larger agro agro processing facilities, but we certainly get into all sorts of larger scale farm environments and things of that nature as well.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: So but the mill riding itself is is really just anything that uh it's the installation and maintenance of all the rotating equipment that's in any one of these facilities.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: So I'm imagining you you mentioned you do some traveling around the Midwest, and I imagine you you roll up, you throw on a hard hat, and you roll up your sleeves and dig in.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: What sorts of what sorts of assignments do you go out on?
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Is that if I am I close?
15:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's exactly right.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Again, probably the the biggest part about what we do is is we we specialize in conveyor systems.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: So bucket elevators, drag conveyors, screw conveyors.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: You know, we build bucket elevators here as well as drag conveyors, and we handle the largest facilities that you'll ever find ever moving any kind of soybeans or grains.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: We actually ship products all over the world.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: So we've got we have drag conveyors and bucket elevators in China, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: Field services-wise, though, which again is probably the larger share of what we do.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we stick to the states, but obviously you can imagine how many facilities there are that would use those types of services even within four to six hours of Cedar Rapids.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: But we actually do travel all over the United States.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: We've been down to Florida for some grain facilities, if you can believe it or not.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh nobody thinks of Florida, but it's absolutely a thing.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: North Dakota, South Dakota, really all over.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid growing up, there were still remnants of the old days around.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: When I when I see things like, you know, the Newell started with where is it that I'm looking for here?
16:24
SPEAKER_00: With with wooden elevators.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about elevators to get to the top of a building.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: We had on the farm where I was at from the old days, we had a feed mill there.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: There was a corn crib with the cups that go up on the chain all the way up to the top and dump and come back down.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Is is that the sort of thing that we're talking about?
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Is that what where Newell started?
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Is that sort of thing?
16:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: And and oddly enough, the mill rights, we we happen to be a union shop, and uh so all all the workers that are out in the field are are are union, but we're part of the carpenter's union.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: And so if you go back, you know, pre-industrial revolution, you're talking about water wheels and things of that nature.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: They weren't made out of steel.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't stainless steel, there wasn't things like that, and certainly the advanced fabrication means and methods that exist today.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: So back in the day, they were made from wood, and that's really where some of it was at.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, we did uh we've done some fertilizer facilities that believe it or not still have wooden elevators because it turns out fertilizer is terrible on anything that's carbon steel.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: And the wood lasts really forever.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: It's got uh it's kind of a of an oddity to see it, you know, the components and things like that, you know, they've gone to steel and and things like that.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: But if you're comparing stainless steel to carbon, you know, you're you're talking a massive price increase.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So so yeah, so that then that was kind of our lead-in into it.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: And we do still run into some of those things where you just can't believe it's still running, but there's no reason for it to fail either.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, they built them right back in the day, from what I hear.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: I guess that leads me to you you talked about some of the the big massive companies that you have that you provided services for and you know, whatever.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: How much demand do you have for those those old school farms like like the one that I grew up on?
18:08
SPEAKER_00: It used to be every single farm had its own little feed mill, right?
18:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, but that was back in the day when you had some cows and you grew some corn and you walked that corn off the farm and you know on on four legs and you had to grind it up and make feed out of it.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh is is there a percentage of your demand for your services from individual farms at all?
18:27
SPEAKER_01: There is.
18:28
SPEAKER_01: It's mostly on the on the field side of things.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: So somebody's got a bucket elevator and they they break the belt, and you know, it it's quite the process to pull you know a bucket elevator that's full of corn or soybeans, pull the belt out and salvage what's there so you don't destroy it, taking it apart.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: The shop side of things is a little larger in nature, so you know, not very many farmers are looking for conveyors that move 30,000 bushels an hour, right?
18:52
SPEAKER_01: Um but the cardels and places like that are right.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: So now we can we do all sorts of retrofits on parts and things like that, and so there is a little bit of a place for that, but for the most part, that type of an operation is usually our field-related services.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: Let me jump the tracks really quick, just off the top of your head.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Don't even think about it, okay?
19:13
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
19:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm ready.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Stu Ham or Victor Wooten.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I gotta go with Victor Wooten.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: Victor Wooten! I was a huge Stuart Ham fan back in the day.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I even have a Kubicki X Factor, Davis.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: That's my along the way, too, which is another hard-to-find item.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, yeah.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: The man I saw Victor Wooten with his his group down in Iowa City, Gabe's Oasis.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: I think you and I might have played down there.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: We did play Gabe's, yeah.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: We played Gabe's Oasis, and I saw Victor Wooten down there.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: I actually saw him walking down the street at the pedestrian mall in Iowa City.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: And of course no one knows who he is, but I did, so I was sure I was Mr.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: Fanboy there for a minute.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: So how about this one?
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I gotta go with Mariah Carey.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: I thought so.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: I thought I had that one pegged.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that girl can sing.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: I uh Whitney Houston, yeah, she's a good singer and whatever, but yeah, I would neither one of them would I want to go vocal for vocal against for sure.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, yeah, I I never saw either one of them, and I've I've seen my fair share at concerts.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: I remember you had that S10 and it was like a super cab or something, but you rigged up like this booming speed in the back there.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Some of them you had me listen to Mariah Carey on that, and you're like, oh, oh, oh, okay, listen to this part.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Listen, and it sounded so awesome.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: I wondered if that uh if that had stuck with you.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's here's a an upstream question.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Let's focus now.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: We'll uh we'll get back to the grown-up conversation just for a minute.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Just for a minute.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Custom conveyors.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you're talking about steel, you're talking about different materials, sometimes wood.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm wondering if if there has been an impact on your business, Newell's business, from some of the tariffs.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Steel and aluminum tariffs come to mind.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you notice an impact from any of that from the manufacturing and the fabrication side.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: So it it we're at a little bit of an unfair advantage because we're not the end user.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: So a customer of ours needs that conveyor, whether it's stainless.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh honestly, we had we had just as much of an issue, just as much, maybe more pronounced with the issue in Ukraine.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: Because stainless comes from that region of the world, also, components of the stainless.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: And so we actually had probably as much of a price swing in those time frames as anything.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: As not since we're not the end user, it what it really means is the end users, the people that are buying our products, if they're gonna upgrade their equipment, they may be a little bit more second guessing on doing it.
21:51
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, if you're looking to upsize the equipment, it's really just a question of how much more it's going to be in the future or banking on the fact that it's gonna come down.
21:59
SPEAKER_01: And there's not really the guarantees that's gonna happen either.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, material prices have definitely gone up.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: We probably had the largest single thing that we probably Had in in the recent years that, in my opinion, made a big difference was actually COVID and killing some of the chip manufacturing and things of that nature.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: It was difficult to get trucks.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: That was probably as much of a deal for us as it was, as certainly the tariffs have been.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Another one of the services that I'd noticed mentioned here on the on the website was retrofitting.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And if you're going all the way back to the days of wooden cups, and of course there have been upgrades along the way, but in my head, you know, there's there's still like a hamster on a wheel somewhere involved.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: And but I wonder what retrofitting looks like as everybody's kind of trying to keep up with technology.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And now we gotta have we gotta have AI involved here, and we've got to have computers, and we've got to have all of this stuff.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: That must present some pretty unique challenges for you guys if you're retrofitting some of this big machinery.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and honestly, Davis, probably the biggest issue is nobody that is doing a retrofit is isn't trying to maintain status quo.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: Everybody is trying to upsize so that they have more capacity.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: Again, you take a and go back to the ethanol, ethanol studies might be the best example of this, you know, where they start at 50 million gallons and then they're like, hey, what's it gonna take to take this to 100 million?
23:24
SPEAKER_01: And you know, yes, you can run the equipment faster, but it's just like running your car engine at a higher RPM, it's gonna wear out faster, right?
23:31
SPEAKER_01: So when we say retrofits, oftentimes it's it's components, right?
23:35
SPEAKER_01: You're looking for the best bearing, you're looking for the best product, the best material within that system so that they don't fail.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: But oftentimes we're retrofitting and upsizing.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: So and trying not to run it faster.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we've done some installations of of conveyors that are, you know, the same square size as like a Chevy Suburban, just a hundred feet long.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, where literally the flanges are the the the edges of that of that machinery, we actually have to chisel out part of the wall in a tunnel for it.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: And of course, then the challenge becomes how do you get something that large down inside a basement of a facility somewhere?
24:13
SPEAKER_01: And that's that's where the mill rights come in.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: Massive rigging and things of that nature to just they're trying to fit 10 pounds into a five-pound bag.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: I imagine there's a you show up and it's all put together and like, here, we made you this thing, and and then uh there's this little hole.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: So what do you just take it apart again and put it down there piece by piece?
24:32
SPEAKER_01: That is exactly right.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: That is that is that's exactly what we do.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: We've even, you know, sometimes we're not the ones supplying the equipment.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the better parts about new machinery is that obviously the the field, our field employees are learning from the shop, and the shop employees are learning from the field.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: They say, God, why did you why'd you build it this way?
24:48
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you make it so that it comes apart like this?
24:50
SPEAKER_01: Or you know, engineer is always oh, you know, it looks great on paper, but then in the practical application of trying to fit it into a shoehorn, into a facility or or maintenance it.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a lot of times, you know, these some of this equipment is just was never meant to be taken apart.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, turns out it's gonna fail.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: And so then you need a plan to figure out how to get it apart and how to either retrofit it or put the exact same parts back in and keep the facility running.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: You mentioned to me in a different conversation that that you've got a you've you've dealt with Poet from time to time.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Um that's a that's a tricky biz.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: I watch the ethanol industry and biofuels in general kind of from the policy side, and it feels like there's an awful lot of push-pull.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, we'd love to get year-round E15 going, we'd love to get this, but it's it always gets clogged up in Congress.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm wondering from the upstream standpoint, have you seen expansion, maybe you know, at ethanol facilities, at biodiesel facilities?
25:51
SPEAKER_00: I know soybean growers were super excited about biodiesel and and soy diesel.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: So I guess I'm just curious if if you've noticed an uptick in uh in biofuels in general.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it actually, Davis, we've the last couple years here.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's and they you're right on the policy end of it, and and I I probably followed a little bit closer back during the boom of when those facilities were being built.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: But right now, there's probably more of a little bit of a resurgence that I believe that has to do with some credits and things like that for emissions and maybe being renewable or whatever, but we've actually seen quite a bit of uptick in in the ethanol facilities, whether it's a poet or a CHS or somebody else like that that is that's really looking to make improvements to the facility.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's interesting because you know it's almost like, well, which is the chicken and which is the egg?
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Do we grow more soybeans so that they'll build more infrastructure, or do we wait till they build more infrastructure and then we'll grow more soybeans?
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Would you care to weigh in which one's the chicken, which one's the egg?
26:50
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, I I think it's got to be a proportional growth of both.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm not a huge fan of electric cars per se at this point, but at the same time, I wasn't a huge fan of electric tool of battery-powered tools.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: Now we we don't buy any cord tools anymore, right?
27:04
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're all they're all batteries, so that technology has advanced to the point in which now you you'd be foolish not to have your fair share.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: So I I look at it in the same way that you know it kind of goes back to E85 pumps and and E15.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: And what do you need first?
27:20
SPEAKER_01: Do you need the infrastructure around it?
27:22
SPEAKER_01: Do you need the demand first?
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Or do you need, I mean, you've got to be able to deliver it.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: And it really all kind of works hand in hand.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think you can force any one of those elements because otherwise it's destined to fail.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: You can't just put all the pumps in and let somebody let somebody deal with the ramifications of not having cars that can run it or that they've been, you know, blessed to say, yeah, you can run this this fuel or whatever.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: So it really has to grow consistently and together.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: And that's the same, you know.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you think about it back in the like when we were kids, it was a big deal to even have 10% ethanol.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: Now it's it's everywhere.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of pumps you've got to you'd actually have to source it to somehow find it the word isn't blended already.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: So I think as as it grows, I think it has a better chance of not only being widely accepted, but also promoted from that standpoint.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: I may make some enemies by saying this, and I don't know, maybe you want to speak as Greg Mulher and rather than the uh VP over at New Wool.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: But I just I just don't know if ethanol has gotten its message out there very well.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: And I know that there are lobby groups that are out there, but Greg, I still feel like there are people who are afraid to put this in their cars for some reason.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I really wish they wouldn't.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: Well, and I think part of it- I wish they wouldn't be afraid.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: I should clarify.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: I wish they wouldn't be afraid.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, Davis, I think that goes back to when it first got rolled out.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: And I I think that there were some undisclosed problems with it when it first came about, and modern fuel systems are totally different than what they were in the past.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, the Iowa, the the corn producers in the state do a really good job.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: You know, we just had the the Iowa Speedway in Newton, and that that was promoted by by Iowa corn as well.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: And that I think the race cars run on that fuel too.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: So there's there's a lot of opportunity there to improve that message.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: Certainly, it seems like it becomes a banner during certain times of the year.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean, not just elections, but also when people are you know trying to promote it, and then it kind of gets back burnered.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: And obviously, there's all sorts of special interests that are out there that would rather have their message ringing clearer than anybody that's in regards to agriculture and and and driving the point home for the need for those products.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: Well said.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: Well said.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: Paul Gilbert or Nuno Bettencourt.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh boy.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: Ah that's a tough one.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh I think Paul Gilbert's got cooler guitars.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: He might be faster, but I feel like Nuno Betancourt's got more to say.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: Plus, he played guitar with Rihanna.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: What's not to like about it?
29:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: You gotta love that.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Good gig.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Nice work if you can get it.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: One more musical question.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, I got maybe another one after this.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Four string or five string?
29:59
SPEAKER_00: You were you now when you and I were hanging out, I was I was singing and playing a little bit of guitar and a little bit of keyboards, whatever.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: But you, Mark, and Rick were really, really on point.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: You especially slapping the bass, man.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right, right.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: You you did things on the bass that I never saw anybody do before and seldom since, live in person.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: And I've played a fair amount, I've probably played the most gigs that I've played on any instrument.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: I played on bass.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Which I find impressive.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: I think that's amazing.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, a lot of what I learned though was just from watching you.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Do you still play bass?
30:36
SPEAKER_01: I do, yeah, on occasion.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: Not not as much as I actually right now, my favorite thing is the solo acoustic guitar set.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: Ah, yes.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: I can I can get up there and play for I can play for three hours and whatever.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: As long as you know, what I don't do anymore is I haven't memorized hardly anything anymore.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: Like there's just too much to know.
30:56
SPEAKER_01: But if I know how the tune goes and I can get a set of chords in front of me, man, I played Pink Pony Club here recently.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: That was uh that was a quite defeat, and it went over well.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: I was playing dueling pianos for about a year and a half, like super, super frequently, a couple times a week, and I I just burnt myself out on it.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I gotta be honest, the reason is because people kept requesting stuff like that.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'm over here, I want to play Little River Band and I want to play Billy Joel, and you know, like even some like I don't know, some Texas swing and stuff like that, and they want to hear Pink Pony, and it just it felt demoralizing.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: But I'm glad that I'm glad that they've got you to hang out.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's gotta do it.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's gotta pick up the banner, chapel roam can't be ignored, or whatever her name is.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: When you do pick up the bass, four string or five string?
31:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've always been a four-string guy.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: I have a five-string, it's the same five-string that I had when we were playing together, and I'm no pun intended, I'm all thumbs.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: It just throws off my equilibrium.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: That that B string is just it's in the way.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Do you find it a little bit disconcerting?
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Because you know, I set out about a year ago.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: I'd injured myself actually playing piano, and I couldn't play piano for a good long time, and decided, well, I'm gonna learn how to really finally really play the guitar.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna learn some Charlie Parker heads, is what I'm gonna do.
32:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: And I found that so I would, you know, do that for whatever, a week, a month, who knows, whatever.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And then one day pick up a bass and play along to my favorite song on the show on on the uh TV or whatever.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: And then I pick up the guitar and I'm all messed up.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Like it's different strings at the top now, and I get all confused and I just can't keep it straight.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: You probably don't struggle with that, do you?
32:41
SPEAKER_01: I do you know what I don't.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: I never have, uh which is amazing because I can understand what I can understand what you're saying.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: If you really want to mess with with your with your psyche, throw in a banjo, grab a banjo, and uh and uh try and play something like that.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Like you I just have to stick to one string.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: So well, the ukulele is just all fourths.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how hard can that be, right?
33:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I I actually have a ukulele also, and that does mess with me.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: So I I can't play that.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: No, I can't.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's I I have to focus on that for a day, and then I can play a couple of songs and and then I have to put it away never to be heard from again.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: So there is a stringed instrument that you find challenging.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: That that makes me feel better.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, before the conversation gets away from us, generally, I think we've talked about some trends among Newell's customers.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: I I might just like to revisit some of that.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna wind down here and talk about the weather in in just a second and get on to some more nonsense.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: But you know, for for the farmers watching, for the upstream ag folks, for people just interested in this in this stuff, I'm sure they're fascinated by our conversation.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: What what trends are you noticing?
33:55
SPEAKER_00: What what what have you observed that made you go, hmm?
34:01
SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I would say, and it's not necessarily a trend trend within the market, it's right now, it's probably the the the trend of the labor force.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we really struggle with that.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: And and any any contractor that's out there that would tell you different is is probably lying.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: There is a limited capacity for what we have in terms of trying to service the customers.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I always joke around a little bit with with our customers that if if we can't man it, so to speak, not to sound sexist, but if if we can't staff a project or something like that, then nobody can.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: And we we we really do a lot of juggling in order to make all the projects and things like that work.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: Also, too, you know, from a trending standpoint, it seems like there's a lot of projects and things of that nature that we're doing, which are all of a sudden just in time, like, you know, you you may have thought about a project for a year or or a or a renovation or uh you know an upsizing or an expansion for your facility, and then all of a sudden you're ready to do it, and it turns out that there's this massive lead time on getting some of the parts and components that it takes.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, so those are some of the things that we've that we've kind of seen, you know, the maintenance and things like that.
35:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, everybody is still maintenance in facilities and and that stuff has to happen.
35:15
SPEAKER_01: And the customers are still improving.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: It's really just the manner in which we do it.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: Technology has helped a lot, but it's also made it a little bit more difficult for people to visualize what this is going to look like.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, from a contractor perspective or where we are, we we do see that as being a little bit of a challenge.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: You know, we also had a lot of a lot of uh of baby boomers that have retired and have kind of left a void in that knowledge base for not only how to operate these facilities as well as just understanding how things work kind of in the real world and in agriculture and and just in construction in general.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: I uh I'm gonna head over up to Iowa in a few weeks and spend some time hanging out with family and whatnot.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: I'll do the show from up there.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: But we were my wife's family is from Cedar Rapids.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: She's a Kennedy girl, married a Kennedy girl.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: You weren't at that wedding.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: It was very small, unfair.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: No, yeah, it's very small.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: It was very small.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: China New Year Bowels.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna go go see the folks.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: Your mom's turning 80, so we gotta be there.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: We gotta be there for that deal.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: We tried to book, and this is even a couple of weeks ago.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: We're we're getting ahead of the game, thinking we were anyway.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: All the hotels are booked in C Rapids, and the the word is at least Facebook seems to think, that it's because there's there's dudes hanging around building the a giant data center or something like that.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: Any truth to that?
36:39
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, and that and that's something else that's gonna have huge ramifications, you know, especially building in the like in the state of Iowa, where and and not just Iowa.
36:48
SPEAKER_01: This is this is everywhere, this is all over the U.S.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: I I had heard um from one of my counterparts from another company.
36:55
SPEAKER_01: I I can't remember what he what he was telling me, but I want to say that there's 30 billion planned this year in the United States, and that that may be a low number.
37:02
SPEAKER_01: I I can't remember what it is, or for this section of it, like it was just going to be built like in like in a six-month time frame.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: And and I'm not even sure where the geography was for it.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: And those things are huge labor soaps.
37:15
SPEAKER_01: They just they pull them in.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: You know, some of the rates that are being paid and things like that are really kind of throwing off the dynamic of the area here.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm a customer that needs those same mill rights, pie fitters, sheet metal workers, electricians, or whatever, they they need to take note of that because that is a significant part and a problem for moving forward, trying to get anything done at least while these data centers are being built.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: And and ultimately ever people can be against them or whatnot, but everybody's using them.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: So whether you whether it's intentional or not, I mean as more self-driving cars, all of that knowledge base is going to be stored in a data center somewhere.
37:53
SPEAKER_01: It's not just AI per se.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: It it just occurred to me, and I don't want to get you in trouble, and I don't want to get uh I don't want to get over my skis here.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get over my snowmobile here, if you like.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: But is is is there is there a place for that for new manufacturing to get involved?
38:11
SPEAKER_00: Is that is that a niche that you see maybe heading heading toward?
38:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we've actually well, we've had probably eight to ten workers on the Cedar Rapids base site here.
38:22
SPEAKER_01: We were uh assisting uh pipe fitters and setting some equipment.
38:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh we've done a lot of grouting under machinery and equipment.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: We also do industrial concrete.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: Again, we're not, I would say we're not a parking lot contractor, we're not going to pour your basketball court.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, but if you need a motor base that's 10 foot thick and you know something that holds a million pounds, that would be the kind of thing that we'd be looking at performing for you.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: But we actually did have crews there really for a little over a year now doing that type of work.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: So and that that was one of the 14 buildings I think that they've got done.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: And these buildings are massive.
38:54
SPEAKER_01: They're uh I think they're one of the buildings we were working on is 500 by 1250 feet.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow, all service.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: When are they gonna be done so I can get a hotel room in Cedar Rapids again?
39:07
SPEAKER_01: About another five years.
39:09
SPEAKER_01: Five years! Oh five years, all right, all right.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that was a seven-year project.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow, that surprises me.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: I had no idea that they were expecting for that to go on that long.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: We found a spot, a really nice spot in Cedar Falls, which is closer to my folks.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: It's right down, you know.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: So uh that works out pretty good, but we'll have to commute to to the big birthday party down in uh in Cedar Rapids.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Anything else you want us to know about new manufacturing and what you do there and and what you folks are up to?
39:39
SPEAKER_01: No, I mean, I mean from from that standpoint, I'd say the biggest single thing is is that I don't know that you'll find a more integrated contractor that uses the the field and and the the field and shop services together.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, I remember a facility in Clinton, I think it might have been an ABM, they had a dust explosion here a few years ago, made all the newspapers and things like that.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: And so you got this 150-foot tall bucket elevator and uh with the with the conveyor belt on the elevator that I think it was I want to say it was 42 inch wide bucket elevator.
40:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean it was unloading rail cars and and uh so it was taking huge amounts of grain all at once.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: Well, that blew blew itself away from the supports, and it just was pure luck that it didn't fall over.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: And so we have field crews on site, and we're we have to shore it up so that it doesn't fall over, and then we start tearing it apart because it it just completely destroyed itself.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: So we take that bucket elevator, and by the time the last piece came out, we had a brand new uh boot, bottom end of the bucket elevator, brand new, ready to be set up.
40:40
SPEAKER_01: So as soon as we could reasonably get it out, we were putting it back up together.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: I think we turned that thing around in about a week, we could just worth the time, including having the shop work 24-7 here to build the elevator.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: So that takes a lot of commitment to keep those facilities running.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, and at such a scale, as well as you folks are capable of over there.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: That's impressive stuff.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: You get to play with big toys, don't you?
41:03
SPEAKER_01: Lots of big, lots of big toys, lots of big cranes, and yeah.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm really happy for you, buddy.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm glad that you agreed to come on the show today.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: I I really just wanted to to have another touch point with you without having to have a wedding.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm I'm glad that we I didn't realize you'd been there for for 30 freaking years.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: 30 years, yeah.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: That's unbelievable.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, see what you can do with a music degree?
41:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, kids, take note.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Take note, practice the bass.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're gonna move our way toward the exit here.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: One thing I'd like you to help us out with.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: Look out your window.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: What's the weather like in Cedar Rapids today?
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's beautiful.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: You're in Hiawatha, right?
41:45
SPEAKER_01: We're in Hiawatha.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would say it's it's probably low 80s today, and it's it we had some rain earlier today, but like right now, it is it's partly cloudy, beautiful, beautiful, light breeze.
41:57
SPEAKER_01: We're in good shape.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: Outstanding.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, as I mentioned, we did we did get the heat to break, I think.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just as soon as the heat broke, I flew to Nashville, where it's just as hot as it was when I before I left.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: But the uh National Weather Service says sweltering heat remains across the south central plains, the lower middle Mississippi Valley in the southwest this week with limited nighttime relief.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: That's how they get you.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: Thunderstorms will bring heavy rainfall, leading to localized flash floodings in portions of the desert southwest and central plains.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: Isolated, strong to severe thunderstorms are possible across portions of the central plains into the northeast.
42:35
SPEAKER_00: Just a few more things, Greg, and then I'm gonna let you get back to work.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: But this day, what is it, September 9?
42:42
SPEAKER_00: I've got some items of mild interest.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Can I uh can I uh interest you mildly in some items of mild?
42:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: In the year 1890, it was the birthday of Colonel Sanders.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Wow Sanders, American businessman, founded KFC.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: And here's here's the thing about him: don't let anybody tell you that uh KFC isn't health food.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: The Colonel lived to be 90 years old, he died in 1980.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 90 years old.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: Who would have thought?
43:11
SPEAKER_01: Just think if he had a revolutionized hot chicken.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: See, he would yeah, that's it would have been a whole thing.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: September 9, 1995, PlayStation was released.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've never owned a PlayStation, I still have a uh a Wii, a Nintendo Wii that I played down in my basement.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: That's all I have.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: That was back in my kids were uh my kids were Nintendo as well, they liked it.
43:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they had a PlayStation.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: And in uh 1975, it's the birthday of Michael Bublet, Canadian singer and songwriter.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: And Jed, if you'll bring this up, I've just got one more question for you.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: One more either or.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: I know you're a family man.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: When the lights go out, Michael Bublet or Cisco, Michael Bublet or Cisco.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to go with Michael Bublé.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: Michael Bublet, well chosen, well chosen.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Greg Mulherren from Newell Machinery.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: You guys provide excellent, excellent service of good repute, excellent repute.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: You've been at it for dang ever.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like you're having a darn good time doing it.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for being on Xqualk with me today, brother.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: It was my pleasure, Davis.
44:23
SPEAKER_01: Good to see you, my friend.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: You betcha.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: Greg Mulheron from Newell Machinery in Hiawatha, Iowa.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Before I let you go, let me talk about Trade the News.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: We use TradeThe News to keep us on top of the news, news that you can actually use.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: Use Trade the News for useful news.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't had a chance, go to AgBool.com and check out all the lavish premium services we are happy to provide for y'all.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: Visit AgBull.com or call 8557-37FarmAGBL.com.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: Mr.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: Jed Sidwell himself will set you up bright and early tomorrow morning.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll have a conversation with Kathy Egan Spicer from Listen Up to Stay Safe.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow afternoon, we'll look for you tomorrow afternoon.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: Can't wait to see you, gang.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.