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
From Crop Reports to Coffee: Inside the World of Land Auctioneers
The summer growing season is well underway across the upper Midwest, and the team at America's Land Auctioneer has been traversing North Dakota and Minnesota to check crop conditions firsthand. Host Jack Pifer welcomes Kevin Pifer and land manager Tyler Burby to share their observations from recent field tours, where timely rains have created promising conditions despite early season challenges from windstorms.
What emerges throughout their conversation is a fascinating glimpse into the interconnected world of agricultural land markets, auction methodologies, and the unique culture that surrounds rural America. Tyler reports that while corn and soybeans started slower than usual, the recent heat has accelerated growth dramatically. The crops' resilience mirrors the adaptability of the auction industry itself, which continues to evolve in response to technological change.
Kevin offers a passionate defense of live auctions in an era when many competitors have moved entirely online. "The online is the end of the line for an auction company," he asserts, explaining that a good auctioneer can add $300-400 per acre to farmland values. Data from Pifer's recent sales supports this approach – while 51% of their sales now come from online bidders, the remaining 49% represents in-person buyers who value the traditional auction experience. This hybrid model, combining live auctioneers with simultaneous online bidding platforms, has become Pifer's signature approach.
The conversation takes an unexpected detour into coffee culture when Kevin and Tyler share insights from their visit to Alley Beans, a specialty coffee roastery in Valley City. The parallels between carefully sourced coffee beans and meticulously marketed farmland aren't lost on the team, who appreciate the craftsmanship behind both. Tyler even cites research suggesting regular coffee drinkers may live 19% longer, adding scientific weight to their morning ritual.
Looking ahead, the fall auction calendar is filling rapidly, with the Western Dakota Land Auction Event anchoring October's offerings and eight significant auctions already scheduled for September 22-24 alone. As Kevin predicts Federal Reserve interest rate cuts by year-end, the stage seems set for increased agricultural investment opportunities. For farmers, investors, and land enthusiasts alike, this episode offers valuable insights into where the market is heading and why the human element remains irreplaceable in land transactions.
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Contact the team at Pifer's
Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm your host, jack Piper, joined in studio today by Tyler Burby, one of our land managers, and the original America's Land Auctioneer, kevin Piper, tyler, how are you doing today? I'm good, I'm good. How are you doing Good? Good, glad to have you in and Kevin how are you, hey?
Speaker 3:doing pretty good, jack. Thanks for the invitation. I appreciate being here today. Yeah, I'm excited to be on the show with you and Tyler today, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah. Glad I could get both of you guys in here. We can talk a little land management and kind of talk about some of the upcoming sales that Pifers has going on and what's going on in our industry. So, yeah, excited to dive into things today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, it's a beautiful morning here in Minnesota and North Dakota and Tyler and I earlier this week we were out in central North Dakota, just on the other side of Jamestown between Jamestown and Bismarck, out in the Wischick Streeter area, looking at crops and visiting with farmers, so things in the countryside. They look pretty green all over the place. There's been a lot of rain all over, it seems like, but boy, it doesn't take long for things to dry out. In this part of the world it seems like you get 80, 90 degrees, sunny days and 30-mile-an-hour winds. It dries out in a hurry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely it does. But yeah, you're right, Things are looking really green out there, crops are coming up really well and it seems like we've had some good timely rains kind of all over the state. Most areas I've been to have looked like they're going to have a really good crop this year, so it's exciting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tyler, what do you think? It looks like pretty good out most of the area you cover, doesn't it?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah yeah, things are looking pretty good. Um, kind of. We had a, you know, with those windstorms in late june. They kind of affected the growth a little bit, but over across the region the soil moisture level has been awesome. Um, now, with these warm weathers coming in early june, we kind of had a growth um for the corn and soybeans kind of get back to where they should be. They're a little bit behind, a little shorter than kind of previous years, but I think with the weather coming in late july I think we'll see them kind of get back to where they should but the corn looks really good.
Speaker 3:Of course, you know corn, you know you get some heat on that corn or some moisture just skyrockets and the beans are coming around. I mean they, you know beans always look kind of rough until about early to mid-july, don't they? Then they all of a sudden, before you know what their waist high, their lashes can be. But yeah, earlier this week also I was out in uh in western Minnesota and and again, you know, typical of soybeans, you know they just kind of struggle early on and uh, they, you know they just they aren't fun to look at but then all of a sudden they just take off. But you can tell there's a really good stand out there.
Speaker 3:There was, uh, I think the seed bed this spring was really good for the most part all over. So you know a lot of guys didn't have to mud in their crop or it wasn't too dry or whatever. So for the most part, kind of accept. There's always an exception here or there are certain parts of the country, but for the most part I think the seed bed was good. Everybody got a really good start this year for the most part. So it does look really good.
Speaker 3:We could be in for a pretty good harvest here if we get a couple more like you just said, jack timely rains. That's really important, obviously, but get a couple more good timely rains this year, um, we could have a really nice crop and in western north dakota, you know, they were blessed with some really good rains early on and they were, I know, like our buddies jim and andy, john and alley down in bowman, where you know they're pretty excited about the rains we had down there in June. I mean they had like five days there where man the spigot just wouldn't shut off, which you know they'll take that all day long, right.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I know, and early in, maybe even mid-May, they were in just about as a severe drought as they could be in down there, and so, yeah, to be able to get some good rains. I know they were really, really happy about that and, yeah, they've gotten some good ones since, which is great.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. You know, and it's going to be fun going out there this fall because you know we have a lot of land auctions coming up in Western North Dakota this fall and you know, actually from Central North Dakota all the way to the Montana border and a couple into Montana too. But we've got a great offering. And you know, again in October, like every year now for the last 20 years, we've been having the Western Dakota land auction event. That's always the second weekend of pheasant season. So this year it starts. Actually officially it starts on the 15th of October, but we're going to have an incredible amount of auctions October 14th. We actually have an incredible amount of auctions October 14th. We actually have five land auctions already on October 14th in Sheridan County there's 640 acres. Emmons County, we got 160. Emmons County, we got a thousand acres, and then McLean County 315. And Grant County 371. That's all in one day on October 14th. And then, you know, really we're kind of it's kind of the prelude to the Western Dakota land auction event which starts on the 15th. And we already got land auctions booked in Slope County and Burke County, montreal and a lot of counties out there where we're going to be booking land. Talking to a lot of landowners already in Adams, bowman, hedinger, slope counties. So there's going to be some really good offering and some of these are pretty doggone spectacular auctions.
Speaker 3:And in September, you know, it's heating up to be an incredible month too. I'm really impressed with what we got coming up in September. I think what September 22nd and 23rd and 24th we already have eight auctions booked for that three-day event and we might have to rename that event too, or name that event because it's incredible and it's some really unbelievable, not only highly productive cropland but you know, like on September 23rd we have a really good land auction in Morton County with the Heart River and the Rolling Hills and cropland and pasture land and all that. But that's just one of two land auctions that day in Morton County. So we've got a lot of fun stuff coming up.
Speaker 3:I look at our calendar obviously a couple times a day and I'm looking at it right now as we speak and I am so excited about fall. This will be some of the nicest land auctions we've ever had in September and in October and already a couple sneaking into November. So I think you know, with the rain we've been having and everything and the way things look. For the most part, you know it's been fun getting out there taking pictures and droning. I know you've been droning a lot, jack and Tyler, you've been droning.
Speaker 4:It taking pictures and droning you've been. I know you've been droning a lot, jack and tyler. You've been droning crowds. It's fun to be out there when it looks this good. Oh yeah, it's a beautiful thing, especially the drone. The drone has been a game changer for the land management team. I mean, we're able to see things that we never were able to do with just a normal camera. We're able to cover all four sides of the field so we kind of can report that back to the owner and the tenant if we see anything, if they maybe haven't caught something. So the drone is a beautiful thing, it really is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's always fun getting out with those and, yeah, being able to see the entire property just from, yeah, just from the side of the road, which is which is really nice. And, like you were saying earlier, with with soybeans, there are definitely some, some listings I have that I droned earlier in the year, where I'll have to get back out there within the next couple of weeks, once those beans are looking a little better and the corn is starting to look really good.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, Probably get some better footage now, probably here in the next couple of weeks. Yeah, I would think. But yeah, I think these drones are really I mean they're really effective for sales. But for land managers, tyler, I mean they got to be, like you said, a Land managers, tyler, I mean they got to be, like you said, a game changer for those of you who are out managing farmland and then meeting with tenants and landowners and you know, especially for pieces of property that are hard to get to and you know whether you're droning drainage systems or irrigation pivots or whatever it might be, or you know areas you can't get to because the wetlands are, you know, pretty difficult to access or whatever, and it can be a really good management tool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, especially for pasture. I mean before, you know, we weren't able to check kind of all the fences. Now we can drone all the fences, make sure if there's any downed areas that maybe the tenant doesn't know about or maybe the owner doesn't know the condition, we're able to kind of drone the whole perimeter and just give them a whole rundown exactly on what's going on on the property, especially because a lot of owners they're not really around anymore, Some may be kind of moved away so to be able to give them a complete rundown of everything that's going on, the exact condition it's oh, it's been amazing, it's been.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for the absentee landowner, it's pretty incredible the amount of data that you can get to them and just put it on a flash drive or whatever it might be and get it over to them so they can take a look in real time even what what's going on with the property and you know.
Speaker 3:And then they want to make an investment too to improve the whatever it might be, whatever the resources and assets they have to put in to make sure that the especially, like I said, like pasture land, whatever it might be, and if we have a hard winter and the snow packs those fences down or something's happened we've had a couple wires break or whatever it might be they want to get that fixed right away. And especially in some of that tougher terrain when you get out into western north dakota it can get kind of rough, pretty steep hills and rocks and things and you're checking it with your drone, whatever it might be, and and even on these pivots, make sure all the nozzles and everything are working good. You know, obviously a lot of the tenants are on top of that anyhow, because it's their best interest, but it can certainly be helpful too in that regard. So you know, and I know some farmers who have invested in their own drone, so they have an opportunity to look at things a little bit. Because they're becoming more affordable. They're very user-friendly, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh, definitely yeah. I mean Jack kind of last year gave me a quick crash course and we were out there probably for 15 minutes and, oh my God, with the technology, with these new drones, I mean it's super easy. It's kind of like just playing a video game when you're a kid. I mean it's awesome Pick up controller and it's pretty much just plug and play. So it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, they are super user-friendly and yeah with all the different remotes and stuff they have. I mean it to be. You know, if you get really into it, you can make it kind of complicated, but yeah, they're very user-friendly, the cameras on them are amazing and, yeah, the cost is pretty reasonable too. They have such a wide lineup of different options.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think with every new generation of drones and what do they have a new generation of drones every couple years, it seems like is they get lighter. You know, I don't know what they're made out of graphite or what they're made out of, but it seems like they get lighter. They can go farther, they got more power. Like you said, jack, you got really good high-quality cameras in them.
Speaker 3:Now, with all the new lenses and everything the footage that I've been looking at that the land managers and you, jack, and some of the other sales agents have been providing for our videos they look really, really good. I mean, I look at them now. Compared to five years ago, I mean I think the quality I'm not going to say it's twice as good, but it's up significantly, you know. And then everybody in our company is learning how to run it better too, and we know when to drone and when not to, and you know should the sun be behind you or in front of you. So we know all those nuances when it comes to getting the best footage that you possibly can.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, and it is really nice that you know a lot of our agents have picked it up. You know it used to be that I had one of the only drones in the company so I was traveling all over the state droning pretty much every property we had or any you know specific land management pieces that we had, and so, yeah, a lot of people have picked it up, which has been super nice and, yeah, it just kind of shows how user-friendly it can be too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, hey again, thanks for having me on. I hope I can stick around for the next couple of segments, if that's all right with you.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, hopefully we'll have both of you guys on for the next few segments. I do want to thank Pfeiffer's Auction, realty and Land Management for sponsoring today's show. To get a hold of any one of Pfeiffer's sales agents or land managers, just call into our toll-free number, 877-700-4099 to get a free consultation or look into a valuation or talk to one of our many skilled sales agents or land managers. Folks, you're listening to America's Land Auctioneer. We will be right back after this short break. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm your host. Jack Pfeiffer, joined today in studio by Tyler Burby, one of our land managers here at Pfeiffer's, and also Kevin Pfeiffer, pfeiffer's founder and the original America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 3:Kevin, thank you for being here today. Yeah, thanks, Jack. Thanks for having me in Good to be with you and Tyler.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Tyler, thank you as well for coming in. Yeah, I appreciate being on. Yeah, we were talking a little bit last segment about some of our travels throughout the state and how things are looking. It's shaping up to be a pretty good year so far.
Speaker 3:Absolutely looking. It's shaping up to be a pretty good year so far. Absolutely. Yeah, it's been a fun week too. I enjoyed getting out. Tyler and I went out for almost a full day I guess we were out in central North Dakota but we did have to stop at one of my favorite coffee places, alley Beans in Valley City on the way out. That was a lot of fun, wasn't it? We got a good education. We got to meet with Tim the owner and his wife, and they source a lot of fun, wasn't we got a good education? We got to meet with tim the owner and his wife and, uh, you know they source a. They source a lot of beans from the coffee belt, uh, whether it's, you know, sumatra or papua new guinea or peru or wherever it might be. But uh, he took us through his whole process of sourcing beans and you know he gets shipped to him green and then he roasts them himself. Got a brand new roaster there in Valley City. Boy, you got an education earlier this week, didn't you Tyler?
Speaker 4:That was pretty amazing. I mean, I drink coffee every day, three cups at least, and you know I thought it all tasted the same and he kind of showed us the process and he gave me a cup of his specialty coffee and it was a game-changer. So I'm kind of nervous now because now I think I might have to start buying the high-end stuff, because wow, yeah, it's pretty good.
Speaker 3:I've been buying coffee from him for about three years now and so whenever I go through Valley City I do stop and sometimes I'll call Tim ahead of time, tell him I'm in a hurry and I need to get to an auction or whatever, and he'll roast up two or three pounds for me right there on the spot. It takes him about 45 minutes to roast a batch and he'll roast them up for me. So I got them fresh. So I grind my beans every morning. I don't buy ground coffee anymore, I like to grind them when they're fresh. But I do like coffee that is less acidic and obviously he focuses on some of that taste and that type of thing as well. But again, and he likes to buy his sources, coffee beans from higher elevations, especially like in Sumatra and some of those places, so that obviously the higher the elevation, the less acidic the coffee is. So he's, you know, turned that into a specialty. Then his whole process, I mean, is down to the minute of roasting. I mean because you said he can ruin it really quickly at the very end. You know he was showing you and I, you know he had the old hand roaster there for a while now he's into the computer, one, but he can. He showed us where you know, in a 45 minute roast, the last two minutes you could actually ruin it, uh. So, especially if you know, cooled it off too fast or heated it up too fast or had it in the roaster too long or whatever it might be, but there's, it's kind of a, there's a science to it, but there's a lot of art to it as well.
Speaker 3:But you know, it's interesting because you and I were tasting a couple different types of coffee, and even some of it it was even ground. Even. So, let's say, if you're going to put it in a French press, you don't want to grind it up too much, you want to keep it kind of coarse. So again, yeah, if you're a coffee connoisseur, go to Alley Beans in Valley City. They do a phenomenal job. I seriously always stop there. And so, tyler, he even got to bring home three different varieties, a half a pound of each, and I got to bring home a pound of each of three varieties. And now you just got to go buy a coffee grinder.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I have to after tasting that and he is so passionate about what he does, it's really, really cool to see, I mean to have that much passion. You know he's going to take the time, he's going to make quality, quality coffee and you definitely taste it. So I definitely recommend checking it out. So, that was an awesome experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll have to swing in there. It's pretty cool, you know, you don't really think about how complicated it can be. It's kind of like like wine or anything else, where you know you could, once you really dive into it, you you really see how much, how much there is to it and and how complex it can be. So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So again, it's, it's Alley Beans and what do they call that? I think it's Alley Beans and Roastery in Valley City and it's right downtown Valley City and Tim's the guy. I mean, tim does it. I mean, whether you want, you know, light, medium or dark roast, he does it. And you know, I've been drinking coffee my whole life and I love it. But he, for me, he's made it a lot more interesting. You know, you can learn a lot more from him.
Speaker 3:And the other thing we talked about too is we talked about the tariffs and everything and how it's affecting it. But you know, coffee prices, actually, for those who are sourcing it, he, you know, he said the market really hasn't changed a lot. You know they, it's been pretty affordable, but you know what's still expensive is shipping. Obviously, because you know it's coming from a whole different part of the world. Right, it takes a lot to get that over here, but you know, obviously nowhere in the United States other than Hawaii can we really grow good coffee, right, so again, you're buying it from the coffee belt, from a lot of those countries in Central America, wherever it might be in that part of the world, and Hawaii's got good coffee. But you know, the last time I was in Hawaii it was so expensive because they've had there's a certain beetle that's been tough on the coffee bean crop and it's been really, really pricey to source coffee out of Hawaii.
Speaker 3:But again, if you're interested, stop and see Tim at LA Beans in Valley City. You will definitely not be disappointed. And then all their little. You know if you want a protein ball, oh yeah, those were amazing.
Speaker 4:Oh my God, Tim's wife.
Speaker 3:She makes the protein balls. They're amazing. I mean so you and I we had a. We had a pretty early uh afternoon, early evening uh bite there. We had three of the protein uh balls there and then we had uh. Then they have this organic uh bagels. They get out of a place in rapid city they source derm from north dakota actually and then they, um, they I don't know, it's just something about these bagels that they have there that are really incredible. We had this cinnamon swirl one.
Speaker 4:I thought that was really good.
Speaker 3:I was so good a little peanut butter and honey on that and that turned out to me saying I mean so again. You know you travel with tyler and kevin. You're going to be healthy. That Right, it's on the way home that we weren't so healthy, because then we stopped and had Mexican food and chips and salsa and a beer.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we slept a little bit. Yeah, just a little sleep. Other than that, it was a pretty healthy day.
Speaker 3:We started out good, but then we fell off the wagon right.
Speaker 4:We'll forget about that.
Speaker 3:We'll forget about that but yeah, you know it's. Uh, yeah, if you're going to drink, you know whatever it is you can drink, whether it's wine or beer or coffee or whatever. You must enjoy it Right, go for the taste. Don't drink it just to drink it. I mean, that's the way I kind of look at it. But yeah, but seriously, I grind up my own coffee beans every morning and get over to Tim's sometimes and you know if I'm going to be gone for a month or two or whatever I might have to, you know, swing into Caribou and buy a pound or whatever. But you know there's other places you can buy them from. But it's fun to see.
Speaker 3:For me it's fun to see the entrepreneurs and the businessmen succeed. For a guy like him and his wife you know they're former dairy farmers from South Dakota and then moved to Valley City and they started this coffee shop and roastery and it's fun to see their business really really doing well. That's exciting for me, you know, and to be able to tell their story. We'll have to have Tim in sometime. That's a great idea. He'd love to be on the show because really it's agriculture and you know, you think these coffee beans, they're the purest form of whatever you want to drink it. I think these coffee beans, they're the purest form of whatever you want to drink. It's better than drinking these high-octane sugar drinks or whatever it might be. I mean, because, seriously, when you think about it, they're pretty healthy for you. Tyler, you've got the study down.
Speaker 4:Oh, absolutely, especially coffee. I mean there's so many cool studies coming out now with it just being a natural source of caffeine. I mean, if you're going to go work out in the morning or whenever having coffee rather than you know your sugary energy drinks, when we come back after this break.
Speaker 3:You gotta tell our listeners about the, the cancer study and the longevity study about people that drink coffee. Yep, I mean, I thought that was pretty interesting. So, uh, you know my brother pete, he'd be interested in all your your health advice too. So, tyler's a healthy liver. You know that jackie not only works out a lot, but oh, yeah, he, uh, he eats right, so right.
Speaker 2:No, that's awesome, we might have time for you to talk about that study really quick.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, I guess, especially on the coffee side of things, there were some really cool studies shown about how it can fight cancer. So it shows you can actually look this up. I believe the study came out about a couple weeks ago to a month, having coffee every morning in your blood system showed that it actually can find and seek cancer cells and actually fight against them. Wow, they're doing more studies to kind of see how effective it really is, but they're showing that people that are regular coffee drinkers are yeah, it's some pretty amazing things. And then, since we're talking about kind of the caffeine side of things, natural caffeine. So the studies show that people that had caffeine throughout their life and they looked at age group of 90 year olds a group that that had caffeine throughout their life and they looked at the age group of 90-year-olds a group that had zero caffeine throughout their whole life a group that did have caffeine lived up to 19% longer. Wow, yep, that's me.
Speaker 3:I'm going to live a lot longer.
Speaker 4:With our addiction. At least there's a good size to it if you do like caffeine, but of course in moderation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, and coffee must be the healthiest way to get it. Folks, we are running out of time for this second segment, but both Tyler and Kevin have agreed to stick around, so we want to thank Piper's Auction and Realty and Land Management for sponsoring today's show. We will be right back after this break. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm your host, Jack Pfeiffer joined today in studio by Kevin Pfeiffer and one of Pfeiffer's amazing land managers, Tyler Burby. Kevin, how are you doing today, and thank you for being here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, doing good, jack, thanks for having me. It's been a great week Really have enjoyed it, Been doing a lot of traveling throughout North Dakota and Minnesota this week and, you know, really haven't been able to do a lot of fishing this year, so I'm kind of disappointed. You and I haven't been in a fishing boat together for a couple of years now, and a couple of years ago, though, we were fishing on every little lake in North Dakota. We could find right. Yeah, we really were. Yeah, we were hitting it pretty good.
Speaker 2:But you know now all of a sudden the summer's so positive.
Speaker 3:But summer, you know, for the most part lake life is about half over for the summer. But doggone it, it's moving way too fast. But it's been really interesting to see the countryside this year and, like I said earlier, Tyler and I had an amazing tour of central North Dakota. That was kind of fun this week. I enjoyed that, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was a really cool experience, Kind of go check out the crops, see what they were doing. Absolutely it seems like things are kind of moving along pretty well. I think, you know, after planting we kind of had that cold spell for a little bit there. That kind of stunted the growth for a lot of the crops.
Speaker 2:But I think now, with these warm weather, I think, yeah, this last three weeks to almost a month now, it just seems like the heat has been pretty insane. And so, yeah, the corn has really popped, everything has really really come up well, and then, yeah, it seems like, at least here in the valley, you know, we've had a couple days of rain just about every week for the last month or so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's kind of interesting too. We're getting a lot of questions this week when we're traveling too, you know, meeting with landowners and farmers and ranchers and people that are looking at, you know, at selling, and people asking about the live auctions versus the online auctions and the trend in the industry and all that. And it's kind of interesting because earlier this week I was talking to Jim Sabby out of our Bowman office and we just recently had a sale in Buffalo Gap, South Dakota not North Dakota, this is down by Rapid City in the Black Hills and we had a huge turnout at this equipment sale. Hundreds of people came to this sale. It wasn't a big sale by any measure, it was less than a half a million, but it was more of a ranch sale. Right, it wasn't big equipment for harvesting corn and soybeans and that type of thing. So the volume wasn't the dollar volume wasn't that big. But Jim, he couldn't believe how many people kept coming up to him saying it's so nice to be at a live auction. We love the live auction event, we love this, we love that, you know, and as I'm meeting with farmers and ranchers and landowners this past week or two again, you know, Piper's going, we're going to have about 225, 230 sales this week or this year, and in one week that'd be hard to hate, but this year.
Speaker 3:But the thing of it is, people love the live auction and people always ask me should we have a live auction or an online auction? And my saying, folks, is the online is the end of the line for an auction company. That's all you're going to rely on, because it is not always the best way to sell anything. I mean, whether you and the other thing you need to understand is, in the auction business, before you're an auctioneer, you're a marketer and a merchandiser. You have to be very keenly and astutely aware of what you're selling and how do you market and merchandise that property, that real estate or that piece of equipment or all of that equipment. You have to focus on the merchandising portion of it before you can do the auctioneering. And why would you not have a live auction with the online? Because you're going to have the online anyhow. So if you're looking at selling anything, I know the trend in the industry and all of our competitors are not all, but most of them are going online only, and I'm saying online only is the end of the line for you as an auction company, because you are not going to be able to bring the robust, dynamic results. And why not? You're paying the same. Have the auctioneer and the auctioneer's ringman working on your behalf. Put it in an environment where there's going to be competitive fund bidding and you know if the auctioneer is not worth another five to 15 percent. None of us should be in this profession. You're hiring the people that can bring you the most money. You know I always say you know on a big sale in the Valley or Central North Dakota, a good auctioneer is worth another $300, $400 an acre and so, hey, you're going to have it online. Anyhow, it's simulcast. It takes place on the internet the same time. The auctioneer and the ringman are there.
Speaker 3:Why not do it live? And the theory and the philosophy behind Pifers and our success for our clients not for our company, but our clients is we always do what's best for our clients and it does take a lot more effort to go out and do these live auctions. But if you're going to sell, have the live auctioneer, have the online bidding. You want people from Illinois and Iowa and Indiana bidding on your equipment, but you also want to be on site because there's still a huge number of farmers and ranchers in this country that do not participate in online auctions. They don't want to. They feel intimidated by it. They want to be on site.
Speaker 3:All the spring auctions we had this year that I went to, I had so many people come up. It's good to see you again. Thanks for having the live auction. We always enjoy being on site. We like your staff, you know.
Speaker 3:Again, there's more of a comfort level for a lot of people, but you know, and there is a time and place for some of the online only. I get that, but really for the most part, it is really the best service as an auction company that you can provide, because it's not about you, the auction company, just throwing something online and hey, okay, we're going to run the gamut. Here we go. It's about the results for your client, licensed real estate agent and licensed and bonded auctioneer.
Speaker 3:I say to my prospects and my clients the value is as a marketer and merchandiser, I can bring you a lot more than the next guy by being on site, Because if I can't bring you another $300, $400 an acre as a professional auctioneer, I probably should go do something else for a living. Maybe I'll go to Costco and work at checkout or something, right, Right? That's the way I look at it and because I take a lot of pride in the services that we provide at Piper's. So, again, if you are looking at selling anything, whether it's farmland, ranchland, pasture land, hunting land, merchandising equipment, whatever it might be, livestock equipment, tractors, combines, semis, construction equipment, whatever it might be do the live auction with the online bidding, the online's there. Anyhow, Bring in that full team, Let them work on your behalf. The cost is the same, right? Why not do it that way?
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, and a couple things, especially on the equipment side. I mean, from April to the 1st of July, we were having two equipment sales every week. The vast majority of those were live and online sales. So just think of all the people that our guys got to be in front of and got to go talk to at all of these sales. I mean all across the upper Midwest really.
Speaker 2:And then last year we were kind of looking at our numbers and Andy Murnock out of our Bowman office does a really good job of keeping track of all of our bids and you know the total amount sold online and how many bids even. He even counts every single bid that we take, whether it's a live bid or an online bid. And I think last year it was we finally got to where it was 51 percent of all of our value sold was online, which you know some people would look at and think, well, maybe we do need to move towards the online, but we look at it and think, well, that still means 50% of our buyers are still in front of us, still in front of our auctioneers. Our ringmen are taking those bids and those people are at our sales inspecting the equipment, getting all the knowledge they can from our salespeople and bidding with confidence at the live auctions.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Yeah, you're 100% right and it's all signed, be cast anyhow. So again, as a seller, you don't have any extra cost, so why not have this explosive team that really understands it and really gets it, and they bring life to that environment. I mean, that's what you want. You want them working on your behalf and I agree with you 100%, jack. I mean, these auctions we've had this spring and now we're booking them already for late summer and fall already.
Speaker 3:It is the way to go and I look at our results and I compare them to all these different auctions out there, because we use two online bidding platforms that are simulcast with the live auctioneer. Most auction companies have one online bidding platform. We're sitting in the auction truck. We've got two huge online bidding platforms. You know we're using NextLot and EquipmentFacts out of Illinois, so we're using these online bidding platforms that draw in thousands and thousands of farmers across. You know the continent, really when you think about it and you know it's.
Speaker 3:I know Piper's for years been known as a land auction company, but more and more people are turning to us and we're getting recognized as a premier leader in the equipment auction business now because of our results and what we do for our clients. I mean, there is a huge separation gap between what we offer as an auction company when it comes to merchandising, marketing, equipment and land. I mean, the gap is now getting so wide and so big that really it's kind of a no-brainer who you're going to turn to now. You're going to go to the company and start on the live with the online, because that's really where you're going to get the biggest bang for your buck. I mean, even companies that have been around 50, 60, 70 years. If you're online, I think it's the end of the line, quite frankly, at some point, because you really need to incorporate what this industry has to offer. Really, as professionals, you really do.
Speaker 2:Right, right. Well, now, not only do we have just the, the online only, or the live and online, we've introduced a third method of hosting these equipment auctions, where we have what we call the, the online live sale, where it's, you know, still all the bidding takes place online. But we do have our auctioneers, you know, in their studio or on the auction block still auctioneering, but then all the bidding still takes place online. So people are still being able to listen to that chant and still get that live auction feel, but our auctioneers are able to um, you know, work through the entire sale as opposed to just just having it timed online with the with the timer counting down.
Speaker 2:you know, we're still able to exactly you know host an auction, but it just all takes place virtually, which is pretty cool yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 3:I was on our site earlier today and, uh, you know, if we have an online and live auction live and online our tabs are orange. Our calendar for the next five months almost all the tabs are orange, they're live and online. I looked at one of our competitors they're online only, online, only online only, and I'm like only online only. Okay, well, you know what folks, um, we like to get. We like to get up and get going in the morning, go to the site. That's where we want to be. We want to be there for our clients. We want to be there selling and promoting and marketing and merchandising, and we want our team boots on the ground working on behalf of our clients, because it's not about us, it's not about us making our commission and our fee. It's about bringing the maximum amount that we can to our clients. And hey, you know what, in this profession, you get what you pay for, and it comes in the form of talent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, yep, folks. That's it for our third segment here. We will be back for one final segment. I want to thank Piper's Auction and Realty and Land Management for sponsoring today's show. We will be right back after this break. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 2:I'm today's host, jack Piper, joined in studio by Tyler Burby, one of Piper's land managers, and Kevin Piper, the original America's Land Auctioneer. Really glad to get both of these guys in studio today. Original America's Land Auctioneer. Really glad to get both of these guys in studio today. Tyler's been busy all across the state doing his field checks and monitoring all the properties that he manages for Pifers. Kevin's been all over the Upper Midwest prospecting and gearing up for a big run this fall, so thank you both for being here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks, jack for having us and Tyler thanks for being here today. We appreciate it. And yeah, and even with Piper is a couple of years now and the land management portion and the services that you and your colleagues in land management provide to landowners and and even the working relationship with tenants has really been inspiring and fun to watch and I mean it seems like you're enjoying it. That's good.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, yeah, it's a great experience, I mean especially to go out there. I mean we we do two inspections a year for our owners. You know, we'll go out in the spring and go out in the fall just kind of see how things are looking and get to meet with a lot of our tenants, which is really cool to see. No-transcript.
Speaker 3:Yeah, these farmers, the producers, they step it up every day. They get the job done. It's not easy work and there's a lot of things that go into it, all the way from being a mechanic and an equipment operator to a marketer and a merchandiser, themselves trying to figure all this out. And you know it's amazing in our part of the country. You know how talented the farmers are. They really are. It's fun to watch them in action. It's fun to see them, you know, produce food for not only our country but for, you know, another hundred countries across the world, and they get it done every day. It's pretty fun to watch and I'm glad we're a part of it. You know, in a small way we can help them, either source equipment or land or whatever it might be, or provide opportunity for them, or, if it comes to retirement at some point, you know we can be there for them as well, and that's part of it all.
Speaker 2:And the relationships that we have with farmers and ranchers all over this part of the country. Yeah, been a lot of fun, absolutely yeah, it's definitely a fun industry to be in. You know, like we always say, every day is a little bit different. You know, earlier this week you guys were out in central North Dakota and I'll be out in, you know, western Minnesota and northern North Dakota all throughout the next couple weeks and, yeah, every day is a little bit different and we get to go around the region and meet with some really awesome people, both our buyers and sellers, and so it makes for a pretty fun time of year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so folks, if you're looking at, you know, buying any land or equipment this year in 2025, buying any land or equipment this year in 2025. Again, pfeiffer's has some incredible land offerings and some really good equipment auctions coming up and we've got some really impressive lineup. I'll defer to Andy and his team, you know, on one of the upcoming shows for the equipment part of it. But as far as the land side of it, you know we've been doing this now for we're wrapping up our 25th year and we've had 25 year celebrations throughout the year and but I'm kind of I'm looking at our website right now. I'm looking at some of these land offerings and I'm going and there's a few on our web that aren't on our website, that we just booked here in the last few days. When you see them pop on here next week, you're going to be some of you folks in central North Dakota. Better get on our website on Monday because there's going to be some impressive offerings that are going to come on and I'm looking at them. I'm so excited I really am Our team of auction associates and real estate agents and equipment managers. What they are sourcing right now is pretty eye popping when I look at it. You know, some of this land, you know, just kind of makes you salivate. It looks so good, right, and some of this equipment that we're going to be offering too, and you know, and the other thing is too, we don't have a lot of time to talk about it, but I'm pretty excited about, you know, how things are going in the country right now.
Speaker 3:You know, I think we all get tired of the politics, you know, whether you're Republican or Democrat. I mean, the narrative is annoying and it's disappointing on both sides of the aisle. But you know, when you look at it, you know the ingenuity and the implementation, the execution of the American worker, the American farmer, the American businessman is second to none in the world. We have a great economy. Whether we have tariffs or we don't have tariffs, we're going to get through all of this. I think the new bill that was just passed through Congress there's good and bad in it, and we all know that, but for the large part, as I understand it, you know, agriculture is going to be treated pretty good and risk management was put back in. You know federal crop insurance, so that's a big thing. So there's a lot of good things working in our favor.
Speaker 3:I really think that by the end of the year we're going to see a couple of significant rate reductions. I don't think the Federal Reserve is going to do anything at all in July now, but I think when we get into the September and December Federal Reserve meetings, I really think we're going to see two significant reductions in interest rates, which is going to spur either more investment in American agriculture, more opportunities for people to buy more farmland. So if you're a farmer and rancher and want to expand that footprint, I know I've been disappointed in the interest rates the last couple of years. I personally I have not jumped back into buying land. I've been buying land since I was in my 20s. Now I'm in my mid 60s, but I've been on a four year drought. I haven't bought any land, and simply because of interest rates and the price of land obviously too. But I'm looking forward to interest rates coming down and I think you know you know whether you're a Trump fan or not. It doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3:I I agree with the administration's approach.
Speaker 3:We need lower interest rates.
Speaker 3:Inflation is under control, employment's going down.
Speaker 3:I mean we can afford now to help the American people pursue the biggest dream that you can have in a lifetime and that's to buy a home, and for the last four or five years it's become unaffordable for a lot of people. I saw something here the other day it's $50,000 more expensive from an interest rate standpoint now to buy a home, just simply because of where your interest rates are. They need to come down and help people achieve the American dream buy a home, or buy another 80 acres of land or another quarter of land or whatever it might be. This needs to happen in America. We need to make sure that we have the Federal Reserve focused on helping the American people achieve these dreams, expand their farming and ranch operations as well, and I hope that gets done. I know the Federal Reserve is apolitical. I understand that, but there has to be a focus on helping these people. All these 20 to 40 year olds cannot afford to buy homes right now and they need to. They need some assistance and these interest rates do need to come down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I agree. And, Taylor, I think you could probably feel the same way that you know a lot of people are. It's just feel like it's kind of unattainable to be able to own a home and you know, and start a young family, which is really unfortunate. But you know, luckily for a lot of young farmers and people in the ag industry you know there are a lot of, you know special interest rates they can get and you know special services they they can get, and and you know, and special services they they can get, which is which is helpful. But still, you know, overall, like you said, for a lot of people it is just really unattainable right now and a lot of people are just waiting for, waiting for a change.
Speaker 3:Well, tyler, you're a new homeowner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, moving in tomorrow actually.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I mean we if you're not a first time home buyer. With that, I mean if you're not a first-time homebuyer with that I mean we got quoted, I think it was 6.1. I mean without it. I mean it's pretty much impossible, especially with people our age, and I mean if you're doing it together with another person, you might not even qualify.
Speaker 3:Well, if you buy a $600,000 home and you finance 500,000 of it at 6%, that's $30,000 in interest oh, absolutely, I mean it's ridiculous. At 6%, that's $30,000 a year in interest oh, absolutely, I mean, it's ridiculous. I mean, come on, let's help everybody out in this economy. And again, it has to be affordable and we really need to drive these interest rates down and I just hope it becomes a relentless focus of everybody trying to get that done this year. And we can do it now, because the economy is zinging along pretty good and I think this economy is going to get better and better every month.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. Yeah, you know, despite everything that you hear going on, you know things seem to be going pretty well right now. I know a lot of people their mindset is just kind of to wait and see what happens with all these tariffs and, you know, wait for everyone to kind of unpack this big beautiful bill and all of that. People are just kind of waiting for the dust to settle. But I think, like you said, as the year unfolds here we're going to be in a little bit of a better spot.
Speaker 4:I think we're definitely seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and I think people will start being a little more aggressive. Maybe people will start buying some more things, kind of like Kevin said, with land, but especially for our generation hopefully some homes, and yeah, I think it's going to look a little better, so we'll see Awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you both for being here today and thank you all for listening to America's Land Auctioneer. I do want to thank Pifers Auction Realty and Land Management for sponsoring today's show. To view any of our upcoming equipment or land auctions, log on to piferscom. Thank you for listening and we'll be back next week.