[Question:] "Why is it that farmers tend to be red or green [Case IH or John Deere owners]?"
"Well, the name of the game for whatever brand you have is the ability to get service, parts and service. And there's more John Deere and International Harvester [or] Case International dealers than anything else, particularly in our locale. And a lot of machinery is very good, but if you can't service it or fix it you can have a real problem
"And most of our customers do have some mix."
[Question:] "Really?"
"Oh, yeah."
[Question:] "I didn't think that was the case. I thought everybody was either one or the other."
"Well, you have some that are just right down the middle of the road. But you have a lot of other farmers that have some of each. Predominately, it's usually one or the other."
[Question:] "Is it a risky business?"
"Oh, [for] a lot of people, it's a risky business, there's no question about it. You're so subject to climatic changes. You're subject to government subsidies. And then kind of what's hot. Just like we're saying now You've heard so much about corn and ethanol [creating good prices]. Who would have thought that five years ago? You'd better be ready to go with the flow because it's changing and it's changing I think more now than when I started. I don't think there's any question about that."
[Question:] "Interesting. This is interesting to me because I asked you how risky your business was, and you ended up telling me now risky the farmers' business is, right?"
"Yeah, that's our business. Whatever the farmer what's good for him is good for us. If they have a tough time, we have a tougher time because we have more inventory than they do, and we've got to satisfy for it."
[Question:] "Take me through a list of things that you will sell in a typical year."
"OK. Well start with tractors. We'll always say that's basically number one. Number two I'll probably go with values combines, corn head, platform or whatever combine goes with it. Probably number three now would be planting equipment. Tillage equipment, [we sell] some. That had a huge turnabout. You've heard about it and you read about no-till, minimum-till, ridge-till. All that that means is to eliminate trips through the field and costly equipment that digs the ground up and lets the moisture escape. And that's really History has proven that."