America’s Land Auctioneer
Captivate and celebrate the dynamics of rural America, American Agriculture and inspire and teach others how to live a bold and abundant life in rural America. Background: The intrigue, endless opportunities, and romance of rural life in America have never been more on the minds of Americans. The recent pandemic and civil unrest have Americans of all ages earning for a more peaceful, less hectic life. Even billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest crop landowner in America. As many Americans look for peaceful refuge in the rolling hills and wheat fields they are faced with a richness of opportunities. But where do you begin to look? This show will highlight and feature endless opportunities in every state. What is it that is so unique about rural America, the land and what it produces? How can I live that life? The American Land Auctioneer will tell stories and weave into those stories a place for you to dream, live and enjoy the abundance of all that rural America has to offer.
America’s Land Auctioneer
Neighbors Helping Neighbors: The Farm Rescue Story
When disaster strikes in America's heartland, every day counts. For farm families facing a health crisis, injury, or natural disaster, the inability to plant or harvest can spell financial ruin in a matter of weeks. Farm Rescue stands as a powerful testament to the enduring spirit of rural communities coming together, providing emergency support when farmers need it most.
Founded in North Dakota by airline pilot Bill Gross twenty years ago, Farm Rescue dispatches volunteers and equipment to farms across ten states, ensuring crops get planted and harvested when farmers cannot do the work themselves. What's remarkable is the scale of impact achieved by just six full-time employees coordinating over 700 volunteers who commit at least a week of their time to help complete strangers save their livelihoods.
The stories behind each case reveal the harsh realities facing America's agricultural communities. From farmers battling cancer while trying to keep multi-generational operations afloat, to young families facing catastrophic injuries during critical planting seasons, to those struggling with mental health crises—Farm Rescue provides not just practical assistance but a lifeline of hope. Their reach has expanded well beyond their North Dakota origins to include Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, and Illinois, with plans to add five more states in the coming years.
What makes Farm Rescue unique is how it embodies the best traditions of rural America while adapting to modern agricultural challenges. Their fleet of equipment—including late-model planters, tractors, combines, and semis—allows them to efficiently serve families in crisis across vast geographic areas. The organization operates on a $4.5 million annual budget, with 85% going directly to operations, ensuring maximum impact for every dollar donated.
Want to be part of this remarkable mission? Visit farmrescue.org to learn how you can volunteer, donate, or refer a family in need. Together, we can ensure that a health crisis or natural disaster doesn't mean the end of a farming legacy that took generations to build.
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Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I've been traveling up here in this Devil's Lake area.
Speaker 3:We have equipment that we've been booking for the June consignment sale that'll be starting here next week, and we are actually getting ready to book a couple pieces for August as well. So that's where I'm located at today, and I hear we have a great guest on our show.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah, really excited for today's guest. We have Tim Sullivan, the Executive Director with Farm Rescue. Tim, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 4:Hey, thanks for having me guys Appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Really excited to learn a little more about Farm Rescue and just kind of all the good work that you guys do across our region. But I guess you could kind of start, Tim, by just telling us kind of your role over there and what exactly it is you do there at Farm Rescue.
Speaker 4:Absolutely so. We're very busy wrapping up our planting cases currently. And my role at Farm Rescue for the last three years I've been the executive director. I began six years ago in my role as a development officer, that's finding revenue and funding for what we do on a daily basis at Farm Rescue, and so we've grown quite a bit since six years ago when I joined the organization. At the time we were in six states and currently we are in 10. We were in six states and currently we are in 10. Wow, so we've come a long way and we have plans to expand even further than that in the next five. Yeah, but yeah, my role is to oversee our staff and the operations of Farm Rescue.
Speaker 4:We are a small staff. We have a staff of six and growing. A small staff. We have a staff of six and growing. Even though we're in 10 states. We have very few employees that actually, you know, coordinate and get things done, but we have a volunteer base that does all of the work for us, and that really is what we're all about is serving the families that come to us with a need. For, you know, either somebody's injured or ill or there's a natural disaster of some that takes place. Then we step in with our equipment and our workforce of volunteers, which we have over 700 in our registry. On an annual basis we go through anywhere from 200 to 300 volunteers a season.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, that's a great base of people willing to help and that's really surprising that your actual full-time staff is only six people. You said, yep, wow, wow, yeah, that's pretty incredible and I suppose you're so the volunteer base then would be kind of all throughout those, those eights. There are 10 states, did you say, or 10 states?
Speaker 4:and uh, yeah, they are, they come from every state yeah so we have a variety of, you know, retired and active farmers, of course, um, and then we we get into the folks that support us on, you know, through fundraising, and that's with different partnerships that we have with different organizations. We get a lot of CEOs and upper management that want to come and spend a week or two weeks with our people, see exactly what we do. So we get people flying in and to the Fargo, to Des Moines, wherever we can pick them up and get them on our case list, and we have equipment that is stashed throughout our 10-state area and those are where volunteers can go and coordinate their projects. At that point, Wow, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2:And then, as far as physical locations, where are you guys headquartered out of, and do you have other physical locations throughout the Midwest?
Speaker 4:So our physical headquarters is in Horace, just south of Fargo. We are hosted in Norwood Sales, upper floor, in a suite. We've been there for nine years.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 4:And so that's where we have our local staff. Myself, I'm more hybrid, where I live in west central Minnesota Lakes area, and so I office out of my home, but I'm traveling quite a bit too.
Speaker 4:I suppose, we also have employees in Iowa, and so what we do is they office out of their home remotely as well. But we do have equipment stored in different locations the Quad Cities, Sioux City area and then Moorhead, here, and so those are the places where the equipment is at all our semis, all our trailers, everything for logistical reasons to move that equipment around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very good, very good, yeah I guess.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, christian Interesting. Well, I was just wondering, you know. A question for Tim is how does this process work? Do the neighbors reach out to you with concern? Is it when there's a serious injury or illness? How are you contacted, and is it generally the person in need, or is it usually the neighbors reaching out and expressing concern? How does the process get started, tim?
Speaker 4:So we are. You know all of the above and the most active way is for the farmer or a family member to reach out to us directly through our website or give us a call on our number. But it's farmrescueorg is where most people go. They learn more about us. Of course, in North Dakota, West Central Minnesota, Northern Minnesota, South Dakota, even Eastern Montana, we're pretty much a household name. There's not too many people that haven't run into us or have an idea of what we do. But you know we do get a lot of referrals from neighbors or from associates that we have in partnerships. Might be their local feed dealer or, you know, fertilizer dealer. Anybody like that, that is front lines kind of, hears about these things right away. We might hear about it, but a week might go by and you know sometimes they already, you know, find some other way to take care of whatever needs to happen. But we can pretty much pivot on anything in a short period of time.
Speaker 4:The family does need to apply on our website. It's seven basic questions to get the ball rolling, just basically what the problem is and what their need is and then just their contact information. From there we take it, we reach out to that family. We see if we can, you know, offer them assistance. If it's a referral, sometimes we have to do some talking with the person that referred them just to get that family to say yes to you know the need right, but some of these situations are so desperate that they don't have an option.
Speaker 4:Yeah, everybody's busy their neighbors, their family. It all seems to happen at either planting or harvest and, and you know, these tragedies just come in all shapes and sizes A lot of broken bones, a lot of back problems, a lot of surgeries, heart attacks, but the biggest one that we run into is the cancers. We see a lot of folks, you know, throughout our region that are pretty desperate in that respect. So we help out in all those. Plus, if there's a wildfire or if it's a flood, or even if it's drought, we'll be hauling hay to those folks or take their commodities and get them to market, or whatever helps them the most to keep their livelihood afloat.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, and I suppose getting people to refer people is probably really useful. Just because you know so many people, especially in the farming and ranching industry, can be so reluctant to ask for help, right, I mean, it seems like that could. I can see that definitely being a the case for for people that are reaching out to you and you know whether they're ready to accept help or not. You know it's awesome that you guys are there and ready to step in.
Speaker 4:That is a big stumbler because it's usually pride, but it can also be, you know, where. You know they just don't know who we are or don't trust somebody else coming in and planting their crop or harvesting. So we have dedicated professionals that are operating our equipment. They go through a rigorous education and years of working on different cases. On each case we have lead veteran volunteers that have seen many, many situations, have lead veteran volunteers that have seen many, many situations. They're the ones that coordinate their groups when they come to serve. And when a volunteer comes to us we're asking for a minimum of seven days and many give much more than that. And so they'll see, you know, some tough situations with these families, you know, will even help when somebody passes away because the family has a lot to deal with at that point. But you know, through this we are not really advertised as a faith organization. But you sure see that come through with our volunteer base they are the heart and soul of what we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and I bet. Well, I'm just kind of curious, you know, with the volunteers. So let's say you know somebody down the road is in need of help, you know, are local people able to help as a volunteer, or do they need to go through some sort of vetting, of a vetting system to to be able to help, or how does that work?
Speaker 4:Yes, locals can oftentimes like we'll be on a case and we'll see another combine or something coming tractor, coming down the road with a grain cart or whatever. Those are always welcome and that's the. You know, that's the principles we were based off of 20 years ago when we started family neighbors helping neighbors, and we don't want to stop that. So anybody can join in. You can do it in a variety of ways. You can become a volunteer. There is a vetting process there where we have to make sure that, make sure that you know driving records are okay. A little bit of background there and stuff. What operate, what can you operate? Right, because we want to make sure that you know we have late model equipment and we have to take care of it.
Speaker 4:And safety is number one for our volunteers.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. I want to thank Tim again for joining us here today, and I also want to thank our sponsors, piper's Auction and Realty Folks. We will be right back after this short break. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jack Pfeiffer, joined today by my co-host, who's joining us virtually, Christian Miller, out in Devil's Lake, North Dakota today. Christian, how's it going up there?
Speaker 3:Tell you what it's a beautiful day up here, jack. A lot of air seeders and planters are out in the field and there's a lot going up here in this lakes region country.
Speaker 2:Awesome and we are really grateful today to have a great guest from a great organization Farm Rescue. Tim Sullivan, the executive director, is in studio with me today. Tim, we talked a little bit last the segment about, you know, volunteering and all that stuff. But I wanted to ask about kind of the origin story of Farm Rescue and kind of the story of how it came to be, if you'd be willing to share that with us.
Speaker 4:Yes, thank you. You know it's a neat story. It's a North Dakota story and Bill Gross is our founder and CEO, president of our board. You know it's a neat story. It's a North Dakota story and Bill Gross is our founder and CEO, president of our board, and Bill is still very active today in everything that goes on with farm rescue. No-transcript.
Speaker 4:North Dakota, just to the west of Jamestown, grew up there in the early 80s and you know he was the youngest in his family and they went through the farm crisis in the 80s.
Speaker 4:His family, they were quite large in the livestock industry and with physical farming in the field and the family had tough times, like a lot of folks did, and so they kind of had to rethink things for Bill and Bill put himself through aviation school in Grand Forks, und, and Bill has had a career that he maintains today in flying commercial airlines and for UPS for the last 30 years and so he's based out of Anchorage, alaska, currently with his family there, and so he has the Northern Asian route, which I never know where he's calling from, when he's calling me.
Speaker 4:Never know where he's calling from when he's calling me Can be Singapore, can be Australia, can be Hawaii, can be. You know Hong Kong, so he has a very interesting job but very dedicated to that. But you know, when you're sitting in a cockpit on these long flights some of them can be 18 hours where there's four pilots that shift off and fly the airline, but you know, they get a chance to talk. And it was back in 2005 when one of his co-pilots he was having a conversation and Bill said you know, my heart is still in farming in North Dakota and even though I can't be a farmer, I'd like to help these folks somehow and I'd like to start a nonprofit. And the co-pilot and him talked and the co-pilot said you know, don't wait until retirement, bill, do it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that was 20 years ago. And you know, that year Bill went out and he got the 501c3 designation from the state of North Dakota, and the rest is history. That first year, in 2006, that spring, it was a handful of volunteers, just friends of Bill's that he knew in the industry, farming industry and himself, and they had a tractor and a planter and they helped 10 families plant that deer and so the mission was off and running Soon. After that, rdo got on board with what we were doing and so they helped us for many, many years as the single equipment supplier for Farm Rescue. And it continues today with the John Deere legacy.
Speaker 4:So we have that tight connection to John Deere, with RDO but with many of the dealerships around our 10-state area and then also corporate-wide. But we've grown it into, you know, an organization that has to be funded because what we do for folks is at no cost Right, and so there's a lot of expenses. As you know, farming is expensive. There's certain pieces of equipment that we do have to own planters, tractors, you know, grain carts, hopper bottoms with semis. So we do have a fleet of semis, fleet of trailers.
Speaker 4:We have the volunteers that have the CDLs to you know, get that equipment from A to B, that equipment from A to B, plus hauling the grain once we're on site. Also, we have, you know, one combine that we own but we lease up to seven others in these 10-state area. So we're very, very active, actively farming out there and come harvest time it's, I mean, we'll have eight combines going at the same time, yeah and uh, night and day crews yeah, I believe it.
Speaker 2:Wow, and so you know, as far as you know, operating costs and everything um to to run this large fleet of equipment, you know, have you guys seen operating costs or anything over the last few years kind of impact the services you're able to provide, or does it just ultimately mean you just need to acquire a little bit more funding?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we've seen tremendous increases for our operational costs. Yes, we are reaching a farther geographic area but we're being supported locally in those areas to fund those areas. So 70% of our caseload is still coming from North Dakota and eastern Montana and northern and northwest Minnesota. So I mean, it's still most of the people that we're helping is right here. Our funding comes from a variety of sources. We have to stay on top of this because our expenditures keep rising. We have to own some of this equipment and you know it's a planter, row, crop planter 60-footer. And you know 8R tractor or 9R tractor pulling an air seater that's 60 footer. I mean some of this equipment. When you combine it, it's well over a million dollars to purchase a new one.
Speaker 4:We run our equipment eight to nine years, and so we definitely see the age starting on some of this equipment, especially some of these older air seaters that we're running. We're very fortunate to have, you know, a lot of friends in the industry that help support us with in-kind type services to replace parts on these pieces of equipment. Of course we do have to purchase a lot of it ourselves too, and then we have the breakdowns, just like a normal farmer would have, and those types of issues. So you know, things do get pricey.
Speaker 4:The main source of funding for us is that Bill started it right at the beginning with partnerships, and so you know, it all started with RDO but then it grew into cash sponsors, hybrid cash and in-kind or just in-kind anywhere from tires to replacement parts to filters, oil, all of these things that are needed for farming. It all adds up and today our budget is right at $4.5 million for our 10-state area. So no easy task to fund that annually at a budget like that. So it takes a lot of effort. We do that through the partnerships, which we have 135 partners partners right now that are cash and in-kind sponsors. But we also do the fundraising activities like Giving Hearts Day is huge for us in the Red River Valley and North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, that is growing just beyond what we thought it could do. We've been involved with it for seven years. 2023 was our breakthrough year. We did about just shy of 300,000.
Speaker 2:This last February, we did 1.2 million, wow, just at Giving Hearts Day.
Speaker 4:Just at Giving Hearts.
Speaker 2:Day. That's incredible.
Speaker 4:So that tells you the support that we have behind us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that really is, and that's just a great event that they've hosted over there. That's just yeah, that's incredible. Yeah, yeah, that really is, and that's just a great event that they've hosted over there. That's just yeah, that's incredible, wow. And so, yeah, folks, I do want to. I don't want to cut anybody off, but I do want to thank our sponsors over at Piper's Auction and Realty. If you need a free land consultation or need anybody to come out and look at your equipment or considering having a land or an equipment auction, get a hold of the folks at Pifers. Give them a call at their toll-free number, 877-700-4099. Tim, I do want to thank you again for coming in today and I think we'll have you back for the next segment, hopefully, and so we're just going to take a short break and we will be right back. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 2:I'm your host today. Jack Pfeiffer joined virtually today with Christian Miller up in Devils Lake, north Dakota. Christian, how is it?
Speaker 3:today. Hey, it's going good, Jack. We are in the middle of an incredibly interesting conversation here with Tim Sullivan from Farm Rescue, and the first two segments were incredible. I'm looking forward to this third segment and learning more about what Farm Rescue offers and what it does for the agricultural community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah. It was fun Last segment to kind of dive into the origin of Farm Rescue and just kind of all the everything that it takes to going into running such an awesome organization. But, tim, I wanted to dive in a little bit to you know kind of your guys' overall reach as an organization and kind of all the states that you guys are into and where things might be in the future.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we've grown a lot, as we've covered in earlier segment Minnesota, Eastern Montana and Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and now Kentucky and Illinois. So that rounds out 10 states. It takes a lot of effort, you know, with six employees to coordinate all of that, because we have not only, you know, to serve families in those areas, but we also are raising money in those areas where we're raising awareness. So people know who we are, because here in North Dakota we're pretty much a household name. That's not the case when we come into a new state, and so it takes trust and people to you know, hear about us, and that's why it's important to you know, be on your podcast here to promote that a little bit. You know we have had over 3,000 volunteers over the years in the last 20 years. This is our 20th year and we've served over 1,200 families in that time. Wow, so that's something to celebrate, but it's it's not just ours to celebrate, it's North Dakota to celebrate that, because we are homegrown North Dakota.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, that's awesome. That's really good to hear. Yeah, I was wondering, if you know, would you be able to give us kind of some um, um. I don't know if you can give us specific uh cases that you've that you've uh helped with, helped with in our region specifically, or just certain situations that you guys common, situations that you guys run into or are seeing even more commonly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. So. You know I can give you some scenarios like, due to some HIPAA rules, can't say names or anything, but currently you know we've had a very, very busy planting season names or anything, but currently you know we've had a very, very busy planting season and you know we've seen a lot of activity in North Dakota and so these come in on a daily basis, these requests, and it's strictly because people trust us and know what we're about, right, and that's the big thing is getting that across. So I was out on a case here a week and a half ago and well, it was when we had that 95-degree heat.
Speaker 4:Right, it was four days straight and the wind was blowing 40, 45 miles an hour. And we were out just south of Wishick, west of Ashley, wishick, west of Ashley, and we had a case out there where, you know, the farmer lost his wife here last December and then he found out he had cancer. So he has three young girls on the farm. This is pretty hard. So you know, of course we're going to help this gentleman and you know he's allowed us to come out there. We planted his crop for him.
Speaker 4:You know, a lot of corn and soybeans, both, and we're proud to do it. We had a lot of issues when we were out there as far as breakdowns. You know it's all hands on deck. So when I came out there, the first thing they had me do was be a parts runner. So I was running to Wichita for parts and it was fun to be part of the activity. But when everybody's working together alongside the farmer and you know we got up and running the air seeder and we're able to finish out the day with 60 acres, and so it's a sense where everybody's coming together for a common purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's really incredible and yeah, it just kind of highlights the amazing work that you guys do and how impactful your guys' work can be. You mentioned that. You mentioned that you're getting multiple of these requests every day. Have you guys seen the demand just continuing to increase year after year for your guys' services?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so when I came in six years ago, our average year for cases was 50 to 65.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:We are double that now. We are anywhere from 100 to 130.
Speaker 2:This year we'll definitely hit that 130 mark. Wow, yeah, and do you go ahead?
Speaker 3:Christian. I was just wondering if, tim, have you seen an increase in the last couple of years? Have they been generally older farmers, or are you seeing younger families that are dealing with illnesses as well? Or what is the mix of who you generally have concerns from?
Speaker 4:Yeah, the demographics is definitely getting younger of the people that we are helping. The demographics is definitely getting younger of the people that we are helping Used to be a lot of the older farmers and we still have that, but we are seeing a lot more young families need help and these have children at home yet and everything. So it makes us double down on what we, what we're doing, because these are, these are very active families and we want to see them, you know, beat whatever their challenges and come back to the farm. The whole goal is to keep them in the farming game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I I was going to bring that up, tim with a younger family that with the cost of farming. Sometimes these situation like that can be make or break for a younger farming family.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, we're seeing it's good you brought that up because one of the most recent since 2020 is what we're seeing is mental health come into play and we help with that as well. I can't tell you how many times I've had people call me and being broke down on the phone saying that they're going through something. A lot of times it's a mother or it's a dad calling me and saying you know, this is what my son is going through and uh, can, can you come out and help in this scenario, because we are desperate. Um, we don't think that things are going to get done properly. So, um, the issue is been really brought to light. Um, we're we're helping a lot more mental health crisis applications than ever before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I can certainly see that and, yeah, I had that written down as one of my questions. Actually to ask about you know just if you guys have seen that, because you know it seems like, like you said, since 2020, just kind of an increased trend in general. So it's yeah, but again, it just kind of highlights the, the amazing work that you guys are able to do and just how you know, how, any case, you guys are able to to come in and and help. You know I was wondering for, for people listening, you know, how are they able to to help, you know, big or small, how would they be able to help as a volunteer or to donate or anything like that?
Speaker 4:So the best source for information is our website and that's farmrescueorg, and from there you can see on our landing page. You'll see right at the front tab there'll be, you know, a family in crisis. You can go there, you can volunteer or you can donate. So any one of those things is super important to what we do. We can't do anything without funds, so it takes a lot of budget application to do what we do.
Speaker 4:We're very conscientious about the donor's money when it comes in. 85% of all revenue taken in from Farm Rescue goes directly back out into the operations and so that leaves 15% for marketing and for administrative, and with six employees we're very thin on that. But it's one of these things where people can help on the financial end of it when you, when giving heart stay, comes around for this area, that is super huge. We have been very successful with some family foundations and some larger donors that have given us some matching funds. So basically, at giving Hearts Day, you can get your donation doubled by giving to Farm Rescue through that program, and that's how we get to a million too this last year.
Speaker 4:But you know, just, operations don't stop. A lot of people think it's done during the winter months, but we're very busy. We're active at different farm shows and we're putting together marketing campaigns, fundraising campaigns, so a lot of that busy work gets done in the off season.
Speaker 2:I suppose yeah, especially for you know, like we talked about earlier, as much as you guys have expanded, you know that doesn't just happen, you know a hundred percent, organically right. I mean that takes a lot of effort and work to expand into all the states that you guys have and to get your guys' name out there and build that trust like you were talking about earlier. That's yeah, that's really exciting.
Speaker 4:And you know we ask a lot of our volunteers. So a lot of them they're triple threats, because they'll come out and help a family, they'll donate and they'll also, you know, um create, um a sense of awareness by the people that they're around, um building that um network right so you know, it just kind of grows from there um.
Speaker 2:We're so blessed right, yep, yep, and I'm sure most of our our listeners you know whether it's somebody you know or somebody you know locally in your region. I'm sure most of our, our listeners you know whether it's somebody you know or somebody you know locally in your region. I'm sure that you know most people across North Dakota know somebody, or know of somebody, that has been impacted by the, by the amazing work that you guys do. So, yeah, really just want to thank you, thank you guys for for everything that you do for for our region, for our region Folks. I do also want to thank Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty for sponsoring today's show. Feel free to reach out to any of our amazing staff, whether it's some of our equipment salespeople, land managers or real estate agents. Feel free to call 877-700-4099 for a free land consultation, land management consultation or equipment valuation. Folks, thank you for listening. We'll be back for one more segment after this break. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 2:I'm your host today, Jack Pfeiffer, joined virtually by Christian Miller, my co-host today. Christian, where are you at today?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm up here in Lake Region country. I'm joining the the show. Virtually today. We've been, we've been on a on a tear, booking equipment here for these consignment auctions. It seems to be our busy time of year. So we're up here in Devil's Lake country visiting area farms up here.
Speaker 2:Good for you, yep, did you bring your rod?
Speaker 3:I tell you what, jack, I didn't. And after seeing all the boats and all the trucks parked along the channels, I'm kind of regretting my decision late may in devil's lake and you don't have your fishing rod.
Speaker 2:That's a shame. Too focused on equipment right, you bet yeah well, christian, we've got a an awesome guest and we've had a had a great conversation so far with, uh, tim sullivan with farm rescue. Um, tim, we've we've got an awesome guest and we've had a great conversation so far with Tim Sullivan with Farm Rescue. Tim, we've talked a lot about your guys' organization but you know, I guess kind of the next thing we could talk about here is you know, what does the future look like for you guys over there?
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks for asking, jack. So you know we're not stopping with maybe a little bit of a lull in the markets or anything like that. We do see some slowdown with certain donation areas and things like that, but that's to be expected. We just find another way. And so we know that our caseload is going to do nothing but increase over time, and so we have to be strategic and plan for that.
Speaker 4:And the way we're looking at the future is in the next five years we're actually going to be adding five more states, and so it's pretty aggressive. We're being drawn to do that just because of the need. It's not just North Dakota anymore grows, but all of these areas have to grow on their own. They have to support their own program. Even though it's one organization, it's just segmented out into different regions. So we do a lot of planning to get to those stages.
Speaker 4:Equipment has to be in place. That's number one, and and you know, when you order a new planter or combine or anything like that, you know you're sometimes a year out or more on getting that equipment, and so we are sourcing that, constantly upgrading what we have, and so there's a lot of need there. So we're pushing to increase our budget from $4.5 to $10 million in the next five years. A lot of people think, wow, where's that money going? Well, it's very expensive and we know it's not going to get any cheaper, so we're really amping up what we have to do to serve these families in a bigger way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, that's very exciting. Five more states, that's really awesome, and you know, we've been able to hear and see the stories in our region locally about how impactful you guys have been and how many lives you guys have been able to affect, and so to spread that throughout not just the Midwest but the United States is an incredible goal and, yeah, I really hope that you guys are able to achieve some tremendous success. Christian, I know you had some stuff you wanted to mention as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been noticing that in other parts of the country. Two weeks ago I sold a 9770 combine down to Oklahoma and he was a couple of weeks out from starting on his wheat and I during the break I had mentioned something to Tim Is there? Is there wheat that's starting to get ready? Is that on the agenda for farm rescue, or what does early, early fall look like for you?
Speaker 4:So with 10 states, you know we're reaching down as far as Kentucky and Illinois and even into Kansas. We're seeing wheat projects that are on our schedule right now, starting the second week of June in Kansas, and so we're just putting away the planter and we're getting the combines ready to go and roll. So it's always our busiest time of year with the harvest season and it goes into November usually. So we're gearing up for a very long and expensive trek. But you know we help a lot of people during the harvest and the wheat projects. You know we have quite lot of people during the harvest and the wheat projects. You know we have quite a few going on out in western North Dakota and eastern Montana. I know that there's two projects out in Montana that we're going to be taking care of. So it's yeah, it's going to be busy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, oh, I can believe it, for some of these projects go ahead, christian.
Speaker 3:No, I was just going to say some of these projects go ahead, christian. No, I was just going to say hearing how close other states are reminds me how far north we are here. Our wheat is six, eight inches tall here, and to hear that other states are already prepping to get the combines out is just a reminder how far north we are here in North Dakota. That's amazing. Those states are getting ready to harvest.
Speaker 4:It was an eye-opener for me too. When I began I was just like when I would travel down into Kansas. I was just like, wow, they're so far ahead of us. What is going on? But it really works out well for us because we're able to keep those volunteers active a lot earlier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and it seems crazy, but you know, just the blink of an eye it'll be. You know harvest time for us up here too. But yeah, you know absolutely, with these projects that you guys have planned, you know quite a bit in advance. You know how long ago was it that that you were made aware of their situations. You know how long does it really take for when you guys are notified to, when you guys are actually able to act.
Speaker 4:Yeah, some of those first cases that came to us were late December and early in this year and you know they've gotten a diagnosis of cancer where they're going to have treatments. They know they're not going to have the ability to, uh, to get harvest done. The planting was taken care of by a neighbor or us or whatever. But um, those situations, um, you know they're, they're really tough situations and so we, we, sometimes we never get to to help those families because the neighbors step in and that's okay, we're fine with that. But at least they're reaching out to us and they're making sure that somebody's got their back and we definitely have that.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, absolutely yeah, and just hearing some of the situations that you guys run into it bit of, you know the stuff that we run into, right, christian, where you know a lot of the time when we step in to help sell farmland or equipment, you know a lot of the time it is because of some type of event like we're talking about here, whether it's a death in the family or or anything along those lines.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, I know that that our team at Pifers does everything they can to treat each situation with with as much care and respect as as possible and and just try to do the the best job for for the family that we can. And you know we see it a lot too, where neighbors are willing to come in and help, and you know, and, and then the auction day itself, when we have, you know, these live on-site auctions, becomes kind of a community event in and of itself, kind of like what you guys do, bringing the community together. And so, yeah, kind of interesting the similarities that we might see in both of our organizations.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is a community effort and we really feel that from North Dakota. And when we introduce a new state, that's what we try to emulate when we're growing that state, try to get the local commitment.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's one of the great things about farming. I think I hear a lot of talk from the older generation how things change over time, but that is the one thing that I've continuously seen in the agricultural community is even large farmers that are in a sense competing against each other for land or equipment or those things. Farming practices can be very competitive in today's world, but I've seen that where you just have neighbors reaching out a hand and that, to me, is one of the better things about the farming industry. That I really enjoy working with farmers is how much the neighbors help each other, and when there's a need, people show up and help each other, and that's really great to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Well, tim. I want to thank you again for coming in. It's been a really awesome conversation. Maybe just one last time, the best way for people to reach out would it be your website.
Speaker 4:It is farmrescueorg and everything is right there on our front page. So if you have any questions, our number's there as well, but we will definitely love to hear from you.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, thank you again. Thank you, Christian, and, yeah, everybody. That wraps up today's show of America's Land Auctioneer. We will see you next week.