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
Boots on the Ground: How Land Managers Protect Agricultural Investments
The hidden world of agricultural land management takes center stage as Morgan Ulmer, a seasoned land manager with Pifer's, pulls back the curtain on what happens after the seeds go into the ground. Racing from field to field across the entire Red River Valley, Morgan reveals how professional land managers become the eyes and ears for property owners who may live hundreds or thousands of miles from their agricultural investments.
Morgan walks us through the meticulous process of field inspection—checking everything from water issues and weed pressure to crop health and projected yields. These detailed assessments, complete with extensive photography and documentation, ultimately form the backbone of comprehensive reports that keep landowners connected to their investments. "We have boots on the ground," Morgan explains, highlighting how land managers provide crucial peace of mind for distant property owners including trusts, family inheritances split between siblings, and investment groups.
The conversation takes a sobering turn as Morgan describes the aftermath of recent catastrophic straight-line winds that devastated farms across portions of North Dakota. Machine sheds destroyed, grain bins toppled, and power poles snapped "like matchsticks" serve as stark reminders of agriculture's vulnerability to nature's fury. Yet through it all, Morgan notes the remarkable resilience of the farming community: "They're resilient people... they don't miss a beat" when it comes to cleanup and recovery efforts.
The episode offers fascinating glimpses into the technological evolution of land management, from smartphone apps that estimate corn yields by photographing cobs to the game-changing deployment of drones for aerial inspection of difficult terrain. We also hear how land managers contribute valuable regional data to industry organizations like the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, helping establish crucial benchmarks for rental rates and agricultural trends across the region.
Whether you're a landowner seeking better oversight of your agricultural investments, a farmer curious about professional management services, or simply interested in the behind-the-scenes work that supports modern agriculture, this episode delivers valuable insights into the vital role land managers play in protecting and optimizing one of our most precious resources.
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Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Christian Miller, your host on this week's episode, joined by my co-host, Jack Pfeiffer. Jack, how are we doing today? Good?
Speaker 3:good, good day to record an episode. We've got a great guest who we've had on before, but excited to pick his brain today. We've got Morgan Allmer, one of Pfeiffer's excellent land managers. Morgan, how are you today?
Speaker 4:I'm doing very well. Thanks for having me, guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah absolutely. Yeah, so Morgan has been just all over the countryside doing his field checks, checking all the properties that he manages. How are things looking out there, Morgan?
Speaker 4:Well, things are looking good, and part of what we offer as land managers is, when our owners sign up with us to manage their land, we let them know that we are going to inspect their property at least twice a year. So what we try to do is we like to let the farmers get going in the spring and get a crop in the ground, and then we try to head out shortly after that, within a week or two after that, to make our first round of visits to see what the crop is and what it looks like.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep. And what is your kind of your main areas?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think one of the easiest ways to describe it is if you were to take I-29 from the South Dakota border to Canada and if you were to spread out about 40 to 60 miles on each side of I-29,. That's typically where I cover.
Speaker 3:Gotcha, gotcha, so you got the whole valley, basically the whole valley.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, most of the valley, and then I get a little outside of the valley. I think the farthest field that I check on to the west is close to the Cooperstown area, and then east I go to Detroit Lakes. So I do get a good swath in there.
Speaker 2:Gotcha yeah very good, absolutely yeah, and I know we have had a few new hires that have joined the land management team. Can you elaborate a little bit, morgan, on how many people are part of the land management team and kind of what segments that they're covering a little bit?
Speaker 4:Sure, yeah, actually we did add a couple of new faces. We have Gavin and Gavin. He covers Devil's Lake area over to the Minot area. I think he even dips into Montana a little bit. He gets that far to the northwest. And then we have Jared. He lives in Bismarck but he covers out west. So I know for a fact he gets into Montana and western North Dakota and South Dakota. So those are the new faces.
Speaker 4:We still have Dwight. Dwight leads our group and he covers a lot. I mean he spends a lot of time out in Central North Dakota. He still has some in the Valley that he covers. He's got a lot on his plate. And then Tyler. He's been around for a couple of years now. He is in the Jamestown Central North Dakota area, central South Dakota area. Two more we have Neil, neil Broughton. He is South Dakota, so he's in our Worthing office and so he'll dip into Minnesota and South Dakota. Obviously, and last but certainly not least, is Ben Tilburg. I know he's been on the show before. Ben. He covers Wisconsin, minnesota. He even gets down into Missouri. So he puts on a lot of miles, ben does.
Speaker 3:Yep, and I know all of you guys do, especially this time of year when you're kind of racing against the clock Not really for the first round maybe, but yeah, you guys are definitely putting on a lot of miles, going out and checking on everything.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a lot of miles, a lot of oil changes, a lot of gas stations, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely covering a lot of ground out there, and that's is that you guys are in full swing right now for this. Would this still be your opening round of field visits?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, we are still I don't even know how many. I'm probably about 70% done with my first round of visits. You know I think in a couple more weeks. You know we've already been at it for a month, almost a month, and I have about 70% done. I talked to Ben last night. He's about 60% done. So we're starting to wrap up the first round. But the fun part about our job is once we get back in the office, we're only here for a few days and then we turn right back around and and do it over again yeah, right, yeah, absolutely yep, and I suppose when you, when you do go back out for uh for your second round of field checks, which uh fields are you kind of prioritizing?
Speaker 4:yeah, no good question. We, you know the first round. We look at absolutely everything. Every acre that we manage, we take a look at um, what, and then we know it of. Obviously, when we go and look at a field, we know what the crop is and if it's any sort of small grain, we know that those are going to be harvested sooner. So we got to turn right back around and get back out there and look at those crops. We have to beat the combine basically. So the second round will always be small grains canola, barley, wheat, anything like that. We have to get back out there and take a second look at that. So a lot of areas that we cover we actually go to three times a year, right, so I might have a wheat field right next to a corn field. My second round. I'm just concentrating on the wheat field. I'll have to make a third trip back to that area to look at the corn.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, absolutely, and so let's talk a little bit about what these reports look like. You do your opening round and are you taking pictures? Are you digging the seed out of the ground, taking pictures of the sprouts? What does that opening round look like versus the report on the second or the third? Round and are they individual reports or are they done as a whole?
Speaker 4:They are. They're a little bit of both. You know we look at a lot of the same types of things for both rounds, but of course everything's going to be in different stages. You know we look at a lot of the same types of things for both rounds, but of course everything's going to be in different stages, you know. So the first round, when we go out there, we're looking at the lay of the land. Of course we're trying to look to see if there's any water issues or any issues at all weed issues, water issues and we are making note of all of this.
Speaker 4:Right, we have a report that we write on for every field we go to. You know we're writing what crop it is, what was the previous crop, how are the field entry conditions, how are the approaches, how are the culverts, any structures that might be on there? We're making note of that, whether that be tree rows or an old farmstead Irrigation equipment, is it tiled? We're making note of that. We then get out and we look at the crop close up right. We're looking to see what stage of growth is it in? How does it look? Is it even in the field? Are there again, I mentioned this before but are there weed issues. Lots of times we see fresh sprayer tracks in the field, so we know the weeds are taken care of.
Speaker 4:We are looking at again I said, the maturity level, but we all have charts. You know, how far along is it? And we're doing that also to kind of gauge when will it be ready to harvest right? How far along is it in the spring? Before we have to? We might have to hurry back out there, and so things like that are what we're looking at the overall quality of the crop.
Speaker 4:We're trying to see if there's any insect issues or disease issues with the plants. We are will. We dig a seed out Sometimes, but most of the time the plants are developed enough where we can pull one out and look at the roots. You know we're trying to see if those are healthy the leaves, the stems, the stalks, whatever it might be. At the same time we're doing this, we're taking pictures. We all have cameras and obviously in this day and age you can see the picture right away and really there's no limit to how many we can take. So we take dozens and what we're trying to do is eventually some of those pictures are going to get back to the landowners.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I know a lot of our land managers, especially in areas where access becomes kind of tricky and more hilly country, where it's not like the valley where you can stand on the bed of your truck and see the entire field. I know a lot of those guys are using drones now, which is really nice, and I know they found it super helpful to be able to get a full picture of what's going on in certain areas and really get good feedback back to the landowners, but not as necessary for here in the valley where you're able to see everything pretty well just from the roadside.
Speaker 4:Right, right, I can lay on my back and see the other end of the field, but I think, out of all of the people that I mentioned early on, I may be the only one that does not have a drone. Welcome to the Red River Valley. Been a game changer. Granted, I don't have one, but I know I have seen the pictures and the work that well Jack does when he lists a property, but what our land managers do when, again, like Jack said, where it's tricky access, there might be water over the road, there might be whatever issues after this, and we might talk about this later this recent storm we had trees over the road. You know those guys could just stop where they were and send the drone out, and the quality and how they can take pictures with that is, I don't want to say it's like being standing right there, but boy can you get some high definition, good quality stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure. Yeah, that technology has gotten incredibly good and pretty user-friendly too, Morgan, if you do want to.
Speaker 4:Someday, someday, someday Right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I know, Jack, you have done some training on on new staff and some of the land management. You're big into drone operation and very knowledgeable on on the drones. I know that's been a big step for land management and our company and using that technology for listings and land management as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's great technology and yeah, the guys have picked it up super quick and, yeah, I think they found it very helpful to use it on their field check, so it's great, very helpful to use it on their field check, so it's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Well. Folks, we want to thank our sponsor on today's show, piper's Auction, realty and Land Management. They are sponsoring today's episode and we want to thank them for their sponsorship. I'm Christian Miller. We will be right back after this break. You're listening to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm your host, christian Miller, joined by my co-host, jack Pfeiffer, and we have our guest, morgan Ulmer from Land Management, here with us today. Gentlemen, how are we doing this morning?
Speaker 3:I'm doing good. It's good to see Morgan. He's been on the road so long. I barely get to see him anymore.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's right. That's right. I'm doing well as well. Looks like there might be a little rain moving in, so can take it easy today.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Perfect. We'll talk land management today. How about that?
Speaker 4:Sounds good.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We'll talk land management today. How about that Sounds good? Yeah, absolutely Well, jack, I know these guys have been on the road now for a couple weeks and we finally get a chance to have one of them stop in at the office and give us some updates here. And Morgan was kind of talking about that round one of his field visits and what that looks like. Morgan, you had mentioned during the break that there are some small grains that are starting to develop pretty quick here and you think maybe in the next couple of weeks we'll start to see some small grains come off.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't think the next couple of weeks, but I think end of July, early August, we'll see some of that earlier stuff come off and you know I'll know more as I go, as I haven't stopped finished my first round yet. So as soon as I finish that, you know, towards the tail end of that, I'll really be able to tell how far along things are. But I still think we're probably looking August before a before a harvest, before anything starts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, yeah, absolutely, and I know you had talked about round one coming to an end and you talked a little bit about that report. Is round two going to be focused on the small grains first, then? Is that where you start?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely we. We know that we have to. I call it. You know racing, the combines, but we need to go out there and and and get a good idea of what the crop looks like before it comes off. You know we don't want to pull up to a field and see stubble that doesn't tell us anything at all. So we kind of gauge it and we'll hit the road and we will look at primarily. I look at, you know, any canola, any barley, any wheat that I might have out there. But I also throw in. I look at pasture. I don't have much pasture in the Red River Valley but I do have a little bit. I told you I go to South Dakota on the North and South Dakota border. I do have a couple of pastures that I look at there. So in round two I'm looking at the small grains, the pasture and any CRP that I might have. So I get those kind of wrapped up before round three.
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, yeah, and, morgan, I know we did have a catastrophic weather event come through pretty recently, but prior to that it seems like you know, especially kind of in our area here, that we had gotten, for the most part, some pretty timely rains and things were looking good. Do you feel like there's adequate moisture out there in most of the areas that you've been visiting, or some areas a little drier than others? Or what are you seeing?
Speaker 4:Well, I'm seeing. You know, currently, of course, the weather that has come through has left us adequate moisture for the time being. Obviously, we want those timely rains to continue, but even prior to the most recent rains that had come through, there were some fields that were dry on top, but the second you dug down a half inch to an inch there was moisture, so there was enough to carry it. And every crop prior to the storm. I'm not going to say they all looked excellent or they were all going to be bumper crops, but I can tell you that out of the dozens and dozens of fields I looked at, none I classified as poor. You know, they were all good to very good to excellent.
Speaker 3:Awesome, awesome. And then do you have any irrigated fields as well?
Speaker 4:I do. I have a couple of irrigated fields that I look at Now. I haven't been up there since this storm that moved through this last weekend, but I visited, as I said earlier, with Ben Tilburg, and he has looked at some irrigated property and a lot of the irrigators are flipped, and so there's going to be a lot of work that needs to be done to get them back in running order.
Speaker 3:Right, right. Yeah, I can imagine that those high winds would have, yeah, definitely had a major effect on some of that equipment.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and not just equipment. Buildings, storage lots and lots of different things were affected by this storm. The day after the storm I drove north on 29 towards Hillsboro and machine sheds gone, grain bins gone. There were some power line poles snapped off like matchsticks. It was just really devastating for certain areas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you were saying those were mostly straight line winds, correct?
Speaker 4:That's what I understand. I don't think there were any tornadoes in those areas that I'm talking about, and what I'm referring to is from here to Hillsborough, north Dakota. That's as far north as I went this weekend and lots of devastation, lots of tin buildings, just tin scattered everywhere and just ugly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those farmers have a lot of cleanup to do and I know that it'll take a lot of efforts in getting everything straightened out again and getting their farmsteads sorted out Right.
Speaker 4:And then not just to mention that they have to see if there's crop damage.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you about that, morgan. Let's say, as a land manager, do you have a recommendation for this time of year? If you have to replant, what are the options there Are?
Speaker 4:there options? No, not too many, no, but you got to go out there and survey the damage and see what's done. Maybe some will be able to recover. I think some won't.
Speaker 2:Sure, are there crops that are a little bit more resistant to wind, such as wheat or corn. If they are laid down, do they get back up?
Speaker 4:The wind can do what it wants. Obviously, mother nature is undefeated. She's never, ever been beaten. So if she wants to win, she's going to win, I don't care what kind of crop it is out there, sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I was talking to somebody earlier this week and they were concerned because not a lot of farmers, I guess, get wind insurance on their properties and so if there wasn't, you know everyone gets the hail. But so if there wasn't hail on the property, you know they weren't sure if people are going to be able to get any.
Speaker 4:Right, Anything for it, Right? No, I think that's correct. You know it wasn't a hail incident. Maybe certain areas got hail Right. I know that I saw on social media the Jamestown area. I saw a couple of good-sized hailstones that came down there. Yeah, I haven't noted any hail damage yet but, granted, since the last big storm I've only been out on the road a couple of days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's pretty crazy how those well, just watching the radar, last weekend, you know we were pretty lucky here in the FM area. You know it was pretty much just, you know, a couple hours of high winds and some rain and maybe a little bit of hail. But yeah, after those two systems kind of combined, it just created this band of straight line winds that were, you know, 80 to 100 miles an hour that, just like you said, morgan, from here to Grand Forks just ripped through the area and so it's. You know, everyone of course thinks about the areas where the tornadoes touched down, you know, at which obviously there was some tragic fatalities and that kind of thing, but it was just a huge part of the region that was affected by the winds.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah it's tough, but you know all the farmers that we deal with. They're resilient people, so I think they're going to bounce back and just come out on the good side here.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We did see a lot of that on social media, didn't we People began cleanup immediately? Farmers, they do not miss a beat? No, they don't not at all. Did see a lot of that on social media. Didn't we people began clean up immediately farmers, that they do not miss a beat?
Speaker 3:no, they don't not at all yeah, yep, and it's uh, you know, these are tight communities that were affected and a lot of people rallying together. I know we've even had, uh, some of our guys, you know, kind of going out to some of our equipment guys going out to help certain people that that they know need it and uh, yeah, it it's tough times but, yeah, people really rally together in times like this.
Speaker 2:And it kind of makes me think back to an episode we did recently with Farm Rescue Jack. They're very involved in a lot of things like that. I have a feeling they might have a role in some of these farms and with the devastation that occurred there.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I'm sure they're already on site in a lot of places and planning to help as many people as they can. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, folks. We are nearing the end of our second segment here. We want to thank Morgan Ulmer for being on with us today. Morgan has agreed to stick around for another episode here. We thank him for doing that and making time in his busy schedule. I'm Christian Miller, joined alongside Jack Pfeiffer here, and we want to thank our sponsor, pfeiffer's Auction Realty and Land Management, for sponsoring today's show. We will be right back after this break. Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 2:I'm Christian Miller. Your host joined alongside my co-host, Jack Pfeiffer, today. Jack, how's it going, oh things are going well.
Speaker 3:A little rainy here today in the FM area, but yeah, overall it's going pretty good. We got a great guest here, one of Pfeiffer's great land managers, Morgan Ulmer, here talking about his first round of field checks and how everything's been going.
Speaker 2:Morgan welcome back to our third segment here today. We have quite a few questions. This is your final segment on today's show here, so we're trying to get the last bit of our questions in. I know you've been on the road for a couple weeks here and we were just talking about some of these reports and we've covered some cropland. We were wondering what does it look like when you're out checking pastures and what do pasture checks look like for those landowners?
Speaker 4:Sure, sure. Well, we inspect those twice a year as well. What we're looking at is a variety of different things. We're looking at water sources for the cattle. We are checking the fences as best we can. Again, I know Jack mentioned the drones. Those can be really and you did too Christian, but those can be really really helpful in checking the pasture. Lots of pastures are in some pretty rough country, and so to fly the drone and check the fence line to see what that looks like. We're also checking the grasses see what those look like. You know warm season, cool season grasses. We are checking the weeds to make sure those aren't out of control, that the pasture isn't filling up with leafy spurge. So we're checking that and just you know. Another major thing is we want to make darn sure it's not being overgrazed. You know so a lot of our leases put limits in as to how many cattle can be on there, because we don't want we don't want the pasture to be looking like a putting green.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, that's a. That's a big factor if that landowner were ever to have a new tenant on for what they are able to get out of that for grass rent and to maintain that grass. To get out of that for grass rent and to maintain that grass, to keep it strong and maintain your animal units, of what you're able to put in there. I know that plays a big role. And so, hearing you talk about weeds, I know ranchers. That's a big deal for them If there's leafy spurge or cockleburs or something in there, that's a big deal on what they're willing to pay for that grass.
Speaker 4:No, absolutely. And wormwood, that's another one.
Speaker 2:The those are weeds we don't want to see, because they they sure know how to spread yeah, yeah, absolutely, and cut back on that grass crowding the, the roots and that that sort of thing. It can take over quick and so having a, a land manager keep an eye on your grass it provides a lot of peace of mind for landowners and for the grazing things. But we wanted to jump into what your second round of field visits look like and we also wanted to talk a little bit about what that year-end report looks like. So can you cover that second round, going into the third round and then the report as well?
Speaker 4:Sure, no, absolutely. When we go out and look at the crops for the second time, we look at a lot of the same things. We're still monitoring weed control and field entrances. We're monitoring what stage of growth the crop is in. We like to try to time it close to harvest or ripe or mature. Because another thing that we try to do is do a yield estimate to see what we think it's going to produce when they do harvest it. There's apps out there now one I'm thinking of off the top of my head it's I can pick about three, four cobs of corn. Hold the corn cob in front of my camera phone. It'll do a kernel count and kind of give me an estimate as to what the yield will be on that crop.
Speaker 4:But not only that. We also ask that our tenants submit a report at the end of the year to let us know what their yield was and what they plan on doing next year. The reason that's important is we tie all of that stuff together the reports we wrote, the pictures we took and you know the rent we collected, and we at the end of the year we summarize that for the landowner in something we call a year-end report. So we are putting together. We go to our computers and we sit down and we type out everything that we saw in the field on our spring visit. Then we type out everything that we saw on our second or fall visit.
Speaker 4:We go through and we find some pictures to submit to these landowners and we put it all together in a, in a PDF, as well as a paper version of a year end report. In that year-end report is not only that, it's pictures, it's their financials, you know, to show them the rent they received. It is data on prices, commodity prices, what they've done over the years. It is drought stuff and rainfall stuff in there. So there's a whole it's many pages long of information. Some of it's general information, some of it is most of it is specific to their land, because you know that's what's most important to them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I know you guys do a really good job of keeping track of, you know, all the regional trends and all that stuff. What's the name of that report that you guys get? I can never get all the letters right. Is it a AS?
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, okay, so it's ASF MRA and what that stands for is the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers and what that. Yeah, well, they tried with the ASF MRA, but nobody could remember the initials in order, and we're a member of that organization. It's a powerful organization. It's actually nationwide, right, and then each state has chapters and we are members of a few of the different chapters so we can stay involved and stay informed as to what's going on out there in the world of farm management.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and I would imagine that some of the information we're able to relay to them is we're probably one of their biggest sources of some information for rent and that kind of thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for rental trends, that's a big one. So what the organization does every year at the end of the year is they send out surveys to all of the farm managers that are members and they're asking for they don't ask for specific names or number, or specific names or addresses or anything like that, or even specific numbers. What they're looking for is county by county in your state, rental ranges. Okay, so in Kidder County, north Dakota, I got to give Kidder County a shout out.
Speaker 4:They're asking on your pasture land, the land we manage what is your high and low rent in that county Farmland? What is your high and low rent in that county Farmland? What is your high and low rent? And they take all of that data and they compile it to give us what are rental rates in Kitter County. So should somebody have a question, or if any of the real estate agents that work for Pifers are wondering, or I'm wondering, I can go to this booklet. I can flip it open and say in Kidder County in 2025, the low rent on pasture land was X amount, the high rent was this amount, and that helps us determine what the trends are in rental rates.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. And for those for the listeners that don't know, a big portion of what we do at Pifers is land sales, and land management is such a great tool for those that might be investors or they might be second or third generation of people that grew up farming and, instead of putting their money into the stock market, they might choose to buy some farmland in an area that mom and dad farmed in for many years, and the land management is a great tool for those types of buyers. They might buy a piece through our auction side and they might hire somebody from the land management side to manage that land. Morgan, we were talking a lot we were talking over the break about a lot of your clients. Many of them are out of staters and they choose to use the land management tool to manage their land. Is that correct?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's correct. A lot of them are not local and, for peace of mind a lot of them, it makes them feel good to know that we're keeping an eye on it for them. We have boots on the ground right. We're out there walking in the field. We're looking to make sure that their investment is protected. You know so we do do a lot of work with trust companies. You know, somebody puts their land in a trust and we manage the land for the trustee. A lot of it. There might be four brothers and sisters scattered out throughout the United States. They all live somewhere different, but they want one focal point to manage their land, and that's where we come in. It could be a retired farmer, could be a snow, it could be an investor. As you mentioned, we manage land for many, many different things. It might just be an organization that owns some farmland and we help them out in that respect.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and regardless of the type of landowner that you are, you'll get that detailed end-of-year report and it's a great service that land management offers. I know that Dwight and Morgan Ben Tilburg over in Wisconsin and some of our new hires. I know Neil Broughton down there in Sioux Falls any of those guys would be more than happy to go out and check your fields and you can always reach out to the land management team, whether it's through Dwight Hoffman or any of the other land managers. If you have land that you think might need management, feel free to reach out to them and get a hold of them to have somebody come out and give you a consultation on what that would look like.
Speaker 4:No, absolutely. We're more than happy to put together a proposal or an analysis free of charge, just to see what we would be able to do to help you out.
Speaker 2:Okay, and if they do want to reach out to you, morgan, how do they reach out to you? Do you phone number or do you do email? What's your preferred communication? A?
Speaker 4:little bit of everything they could do. Cell phone Piperscom has all of our cell phone numbers or email that's on Piperscom as well, so everything can be found there that you'd need.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Head on over to Piperscom and make sure you visit the land management page. Along with the equipment and the upcoming land sales. They are all on Piperscom. We do want to thank Pipers Auction Realty and Land Management for sponsoring today's show. We'll be right back after this break 35, under the bin.
Speaker 1:the money can do them 35, and I have salty right there. Good purchase.
Speaker 2:Great Bye. Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Christian Miller, joined alongside Jack Piper today. We're hosting the radio show today for America's Land Auctioneer Jack. We've had a good three segments with Morgan Allmer on here and we have another guest for our fourth segment today.
Speaker 3:Yes, yep, always good to talk to Morgan. Thanks again to him for stopping by and joining us for the first three segments. But yeah, now we've got another great guest joining us virtually here. We've got Pat Traynor up in the Kandu area. Pat's one of our real estate agents and former land manager for Pifers. So, pat, how are you doing today?
Speaker 5:Good. Thanks a lot for having me. Guys Sure appreciate it. Always a pleasure to chat with you too, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We know you've been busy up in that area. Up there, pat, you run some cows and you also have some crop in the ground as well. How are things going on the cattle side? How was your spring, and did you have quite a few calves? Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, christian, thanks for asking. You know, the calving season actually went really, really well. One of the things we found that really helped save lives is having cameras, so we're able to constantly check those cameras on our phones, computers, tvs, and those cameras paid for themselves many times over this year. So it was a really successful calving season from a live birth standpoint. We're very grateful for that. The weather cooperated and we actually just got all the pairs out to pasture here last week, so that was quite a relief to get them out of the yard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a a big task, isn't it? To getting all those pairs headed out to pasture. I'm I'm guessing you, you trailered them out there is. Is that correct?
Speaker 5:we did. Yeah, we rounded them up in the yard and we repaired them up, which is quite a process. You your temper, is tested every everything you have in you is tested, but it always works out. You just got to stick with it Good deal, yeah, and when?
Speaker 3:yeah, we had Morgan on kind of talking about you know his territory as a land manager here in the valley but and you know, talking about overall, some really timely rains. Obviously, we had a pretty catastrophic weather event come through within the past week here, but how are the crops looking up in your part of the country? And, yeah, how's the moisture level? How are things going?
Speaker 5:You know, I think the crops are looking really good. We've been spraying like mad to get caught up the last week, but we're finally caught up. Everything's emerging really nicely. The small grains look excellent. The pinot beans are starting to come around, corn's looking phenomenal. But this past rain event was definitely welcomed. We could use the moisture. We were fortunate to not really get struck with those high winds and catastrophic sides of that storm, so we're grateful for that. But definitely could have used that shot of rain and we're grateful for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. It seems to be kind of a trend this spring, heading into our early to mid-summer. Here, pat, it looks like there's a good bit of rain across the country. I've noticed the grass looks good as well. Are you seeing the same thing with your pastures now that you're taking pears out to pasture? Does the grass look pretty good as well up there?
Speaker 5:Yeah, the grass looks phenomenal Christian. We're about to dive into the haying season here too early July, mid-july and it's going to be a heck of a hay crop this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good to hear. I know, come wintertime that hay is a great source of feed and so that's an important crop for the cattle guys to make sure that they have an abundant hay crop.
Speaker 5:And with all this rain, it's good to hear that it looks like it's panning out to to be a good haying season yeah, last year was a heck of a heck of a hay crop and this year is is looking like it's shaping up to be the same wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I know that. Uh, you have some crop in the ground as well. Pad Pat, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the crops you have in and varieties? What did you choose to plant this spring on your ground?
Speaker 5:A lot of wheat and soybeans. You know the prices aren't favorable, but you know the crop's actually looking phenomenal, so we'll see. There's a lot of uncertainty in the world right now, so we still have a lot of time before harvest, so we'll see what shakes out there, but overall, everything looks really good. Christian, to be honest with you, yeah, that's good to hear.
Speaker 2:I know that kind of happened last year a little bit. The prices weren't as strong as they could have been and it seemed like the yield the crop yield helped a lot of farmers get by being the prices weren't as strong as they had been in years past. And are you anticipating something similar this fall, pat? I know there's you had mentioned and I know we see a lot of it on the news from day to day. There is a lot of unrest in the world right now and what are your sense for fall? What do you anticipate for the market? Do you have anything?
Speaker 5:You know it's really, really tough to say with all the turmoil and uncertainty, christian, but one thing I can tell you for sure is that that cattle market is still going to be red hot. So that's one thing. We're we're watching and we don't see foresee changing a whole lot. I can tell you that on the grain commodity side I I don't know what to tell you there. Yeah, with all the unrest and turmoil and wars that one's hard to predict, with the cattle market and the national herd decline and numbers going down, lack of young people wanting to get into it, I can tell you that that market should stay red hot through the fall.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I think you're. I think you're exactly right. We've heard a lot of that over the last last couple of years. And then, yeah, as far as everything else going on in the world, I think a lot of people are just kind of waiting for some of the dust to settle with with all these new policies in place and just kind of waiting for things to level out a little bit. We'll see if that, see if that actually ends up happening come harvest time. But, pat, I know you've got a really nice hunting property listed on pyferscom. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 5:Yeah, thanks, jack, for asking. It's a beautiful quarter up by Rock Lake lake, north dakota, just north and east of town. Um, it is. It is encumbered by a grassland easement, so with that you can graze it year round and you can hay it every year after july 15th. So it's I mean it's mainly a hunting property and a sanctuary at that. There's some large mature trees on the property and the current owner has shot a gorgeous deer out of there every single year, and some of the neighbors have actually shot moose out of there. So it's, it's a real sportsman's paradise, to be honest with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I know whenever we get uh hunting properties listed, we always ask the owners if they've got any uh got any pictures on trail cams. You know hoping to get you know a couple of deer on there. Some of the trail cam pictures on your listing here are just incredible. I mean you've got like three or four trophy deer all in the same shot. You've got giant moose in there. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. I would encourage people to go on and check this sale out. It's going to be an online only sale. That's closing on July 10th, so still time to do your due diligence as a buyer and take a good look at that property and see if it's the right fit for you. But pretty incredible.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it was one of the first things I asked the seller. I said well, if you have any trail cam pictures, would you ever be open to sharing them? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:With pictures like that. You need those posted on a property of that caliber. They look incredible. Pat, if people have questions on that piece, how do they reach out to you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, feel free to give me a call at 701-371-8679. That's my cell. If you call and it's noisy I might be an attractor, but happy to shut it down and answer your questions and you can also shoot me an email at ptrainer at pyferscom. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Pat, we want to thank you for being on our final segment today and for joining us from Kandu, north Dakota Folks, pat Traynor, from up in the Devil's Lake area there we want to thank him for being our guest. Jack, that does it for our final segment here. Yep, that'll do it for today.
Speaker 3:Feel free to log on to Piferscom to check out all of our upcoming land and equipment auctions. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next week.