Celebrating 50 Seasons of Milestones and Memories on Market To Market

Julie Knutson: Happy 50th birthday, Paul!

Paul Yeager: Oh, right. To the show, to the show. 

Julie Knutson: Question mark, 1975 that was a big year. 

Paul Yeager: Big Year. Saturday Night. Live. Market to Market. Paul Yeager, and there was one other thing I just found here in the last couple of weeks where I was like, oh that too. Was in 75 what a great year. What a great year, a year to celebrate Yep And yes, I did that personally and professionally. You were a part of a recent Market to Market special. By the way, I'm Paul Yeager, that's Julie Knutson. You've seen Julie before. Heard Julie before. You're gonna hear Julie now. I heard Julie on a random Sunday in August, where we did the 50th celebration, celebration of our 50th season. Market, Market to Market. You were involved, how?

Julie Knutson: So I got to direct and technical direct the what you'll see here. This the live podcast, not live, but the podcast video version, in front of a live audience, in front of a live audience. Yes, that was really fun. And seeing them all together on stage, that was really cool.

Paul Yeager: You have some takeaways from this discussion, and you want to ask me a couple of things. Sure do. So we'll get into that here in a moment. But otherwise, this was recorded on a Sunday afternoon. We had an event in our building in Johnson. We already done live events in places across Iowa and in Nebraska, but this was on our home turf, so we kind of needed to do it right. Sure did how to do a home game.

Julie Knutson: Had to have a home game, and we got to have that home field

Paul Yeager: advantage, right? All right. So watch this. This is everyone that you've watched on Market to Market in the last couple of years, minus two, two analysts that we on our current stable. We're not there, but let's go to me

Julie Knutson: from a few years ago, even you get to see the way back of Paul,

Paul Yeager: yeah, because I look dramatically different.

Julie Knutson: Maybe

Jeff Muller: This is the Thursday July three edition of Market to Market, the Weekly Journal of Rural America. 

Paul Yeager: Hello. I'm Paul Yeager. Mark Pearson is off this week. It's official. The best known stock market index in the world is now a bear market, a late sell off Wednesday, pushed the Dow Jones. Who is that kid that was on TV? How's everybody doing? We doing alright? I figure if I'm going to pick on the people you're about to see, I have to pick on myself. First 2008 was the first time I filled in for Mark Pearson, and I have to admit, I don't remember much about that first episode, not because it was so long ago, just a lot of things have happened, and we're now going to put everybody through their paces about their first episode. I've done the best I can to pull everybody and if you watch the TV show on Friday, you heard me kind of tease this a little bit. I want to go to June 10, 1977

Chet Randolph: Before we do we want to turn as usual. We do it this time to this week's commodity markets with market analyst John Roach of the Farmers Grain and Livestock Corporation, and John with low subsoil moisture. How much lower is this corn going? 

John Roach: Well, Chet It surprised me in how far it's sold off this past week. I don't think we'll see too much further decline before we see it start to recover.

Chet Randolph: We've got some other pressures on it, like wheat, but it should rally unless we get a lot of rain.

John Roach: Well, at this point, the market seems to be watching the weather forecast a little closer than they are the crop development.

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen, John Roach. I told John what we were going to have for an out, a great picture. He was more concerned about the it was a leisure suit, so it looked great. The socks is what caught us off guard. But now I would like to go to if I could, April, 28 1989.

Chet Randolph: Sue, Do you see anything else that might give us a rally there on beans?

Sue Martin: Just primarily, I think if South America continues to have problems with these dock strikes, having ruled, the government ruled or the courts ruled that they were illegal, and consequently, if they continue to have problems with the credit union or the unions down there, I think we'll have some help towards the old crop, Maybe being stronger.

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen, Sue Martin. At least I warned them what we were going to do. Maybe I didn't show everybody their photo evidence of things. Welcome Sue, welcome John. Now I'm going to go to November 4, 2011 we're going to skip the 90s completely and the early 2000s.

Mark Pearson: A relative newcomer to Market, to Market. Naomi. Blohm, Naomi, welcome back. Good to have you back with us. Not the bin Buster, I think a lot of people thought we would have but a decent crop. Where are we going to go from here?

Naomi Blohm: Price wise, price wise for corn, I think that we're going to see prices continue to hold the $6 area for the bigger picture,

Paul Yeager: $6 Naomi, come on out everybody. Naomi Blohm. Yeah, we'd like to go back to those, if we could prices. We'll talk about that here in a moment. If we could, we also have, you had to see a little the old hosts and you saw Mark Pearson, you're going to see Mark Pearson Now here from February 8, 2008.

Mark Pearson: This is one of our regular market analyst, Sue Martin, and a very special guest analyst, Mark Gold joins us as well. So both of you welcome to Market to Market and Mark, good to have you here. These, this, these prices. This is, this is Disneyland without going to Orlando. Mark Gold  

No question about it. You know, when you get historic prices like this, we've all been waiting for beans in the teens for 30 some odd years now, we know not only have beans in the teens, we have wheat in the teens.

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Gold. Mark Gold, yes, yes. Thank you, Mark for being here. We now are going to fast forward all the way to 2014 the date was September 19. Of 2014 

Mike Pearson: A newcomer to Market to Market, Ted Seifried. Ted. Welcome. 

Ted Seifried: Thanks, Mike, nice to be here. 

Mike Pearson: Talk to us about how US wheat is priced comparative to the rest of the world?

Ted Seifried: Right? And that's continues to be the problem with wheat, because if you look at the US balance sheet, it doesn't necessarily have this overly bearish tone. But if you look at the

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen, Ted Seifried. Who clearly is in a hurry bringing his backpack, but I have a sneaking suspicion I know what's no you don't know. I don't you have no idea. Normally, I'm in on all of Ted's bits. This is fun that we're gonna keep it this way, huh? All right, that's Ted Seifried. Now we're going to go to March 24 of 2017 

Mike Pearson: Here now, to lend us his insight on these and other trends is Market Analyst Chris Robinson, Chris, welcome to the program. 

Chris Robinson: Nice to be here. Thank you. 

Mike Pearson: What changed, or is anything changing in the wheat market? 

Chris Robinson: The wheat market, unfortunately, has been under a lot of pressure, really, for the past six to seven months we've been in a narrow 70 cent trading range.

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen. Chris Robinson. Come on around front there and wave. Everybody. Yes, yes. We got him to wave. That's good. That's an old offensive lineman. He follows instructions. Well, otherwise, I think you had to run a bunch of killers, right? Isn't that what happened with gassers? Is that what they call them? Yeah, okay, gassers instead. All right, now we're going to move to 2018 and it was May the fourth.

Delaney Howell: Our newest market analyst, Shawn Hackett, Shawn, welcome to the program. It's an honor to be here. Thank you. Do you anticipate the USDA to lower their projections?

Shawn Hackett: USDA likes to be conservative with this. They know that a lot of times you really don't know the yields until harvest begins.

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen. Shawn Hackett. All right. So now, as you can see, the set has changed. We have another host, and this time it was November the 15th, 2019,

Delaney Howell: Matt Bennett, Matt, welcome to the table. 

Matthew Bennett: Yep, thank you.

Delaney Howell: I mean, we're going to push and wait for prices to react until June.

Matthew Bennett: That's a really a tough question to answer. The thing is, we've got to see this thing get we've got to see harvest happen first. We've got to see it come out of the field first. It's really hard.

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen. Matt Bennett. And now we go to a time pre-covid. Hard to believe this was 2020 and it was January the 24th Oh, how our world changed just a couple of weeks later. I guess I never thought maybe Arlan was responsible. Oh, I just gave it away. Let's see that clip. 

Delaney Howell: Joining us now to offer insight on these and other trends is Arlan Suderman, Arlan, welcome to the table.

Arlan Suderman:  It's good to be here. 

Delaney Howell: Is it time to make some cash sales? And what's it going to take if we don't see farmers making those cash sales?

Arlan Suderman: Well, we've seen strong basis this year, obviously, and it's been pretty much across above average across the Midwest, largely because farmers have been. Small sellers,

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen. Arlan Suderman. Oh, and one, Arlan, that's the only time I'm going to mention it. 

Arlan Suderman: I posted covid on Twitter, 

Paul Yeager: so yeah, Twitter is all a flitter right now, because I just blame Arlan for Covid. All right, let's go now to the year 2023, July the seventh. Joining us now is a new face to the program. Market Analyst, Kristi Van Ahn - Kjeseth. Kristi, good to have you here. 

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: It's awesome. It's great. Thank you. 

Paul Yeager: At what point do we stop talking about that as the main story in the wheat complex? 

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, I think people still want to talk about it, right? You saw wheat up 50 at one point during the week, and gave back those gains. When you look at kind of the dynamic of wheat right now, it's a tight carryout.

Paul Yeager: Ladies and gentlemen, Kristi Van Ahn - Kjeseth. And that leaves us with one more chair to fill, and we did that on October the 27th of 2023. Do you see this as a buying opportunity for someone who's trying to feed some cattle? 

Ross Baldwin: For someone that needs to get coverage for corn needs? I think corn is at a good value down here. I think futures, as Sean alluded to, I don't think we're really going anywhere in a hurry. 

Paul Yeager: Look ladies and gentlemen, Ross Baldwin. Ross had the advantage of seeing everybody else walk out and you wanted to know how you wanted to handle this,

Ross Baldwin: Right? Yes, yep, that was nice to stand back there and see that.

Paul Yeager: Well, ladies and gentlemen, our current stable of Market to Market analysts that were able to join us, let's give them a hand, if we could please. And unfortunately, since I made the introduction so long and Dave took too long, that's it. We're done. Thanks for coming, Dave. My review is done, right? You said, Who remembers their first appearance? Show of hands. Everybody remember who's blacked out from that appearance. Mark? Why?

Mark Gold: I really don't know why. I'm 71 now, things aren't quite as clear as they were 20 years ago. I just don't really remember it that well. Guess who I was on was through the first time, and we had met once or twice before the RJ O'Brien thing, but we really didn't know each other. And, you know, it was nice to have the opportunity for a guy like me from the city coming on a show like yours and getting exposure to so many farmers around the country. When I would go put on seminars, it gave me a lot of credibility to be out there. Because, you know, who am I? Some city kid from Chicago. Why listen to me? You know? So it was a tremendous help in getting to know farmers and getting them to know me.

Paul Yeager: Ted, did you remember much of that appearance?

Ted Seifried: Of Mark's? Did you of Mark's appearance or yours? Did you suggest buying puts?

Mark Gold: Probably did

Paul Yeager:  Good. Hey, he's consistent on messaging.

Ted Seifried: Yeah, yeah, no, I remember mine. It always. It still hasn't. Worn off. But walking into the Market to Market studio, it's just so impressive and so different than anything else that I had done or still have done. And it just, it gave me goose bumps. And it was, it was really fantastic. I was also quite a bit heavier at the time. I think it was 263, pounds.

Paul Yeager: Appearances change.

Ted Seifried: And I didn't have the corn head yet. Yeah, that's true. That came in 2017 I believe.

Paul Yeager: But you weren't wearing a leisure suit like John Roach was. John, you talked, we talked about your wardrobe on Friday. You were the only, the only one here on the panel that was at the old location down on Bell Avenue. What do you remember about 1977 and being on the show? 

John Roach: I really don't remember that you asked who blanked out. I should have raised my hand because I don't remember specifically the first show. But one of the things that sticks in my mind was that Chet Randolph walked down to the bathroom with his microphone turned on and and we all and we all listened in the studio, going, Oh no, this is not good. This is not good. But he always kind of sang as he's walking along. He only went in to wash his hands, okay? And so it was that sticks in my mind. The thing that sticks really in my mind is how quiet the studio is. And as Sid said, or Ted said, the walking into that when you're used to a noisy brokerage office with a lot of people talking and so forth, suddenly it's perfectly quiet, and you ask a question, and it's like you're sitting there in a complete Quiet, quiet spot and and that's stuck with me ever since.

Paul Yeager: Yes, Sue the, when you and I, when you came to Jesup for one of our road shows, I asked you about your first time on the show. We actually came up to interview you for a different story. And then it was about three months later you were on the show Do you remember who you were partnered with? Because I actually did cut that out. But do you remember much of the experience of the camera in the studio or in your office to your time in the studio?

Sue Martin: Well, I think that, of course, the studio is so different, you know, it's, um, it's a reality and, and I so remember, I'm trying to think of the guy's name, age, right? But I remember being on the show with a gentleman from, I think it was FGL, and we talked about the hog market. And I think I talked about this when I was in your hometown, and I said that I thought hogs. I think this was in September, maybe. And I said, I think that hogs December, hogs will go to $50 and they'd never been there before. Far be it for me to ever say something like that, yeah, to

Paul Yeager: Stick your neck out on high prices, yeah.

Sue Martin: And on, I was on the show, and I think it was right around December 5, or something like that. And that day they hit $50 how sweet was that? But the real kicker is maybe the next spring or something, my husband and I were in Ames, walking past a brokerage office, and two people, two men, walked out and on the street behind us, and the one goes, Hey, isn't that hog lady? I thought just what you want to be known as the hog lady.

Paul Yeager: Naomi, I know a little bit about I was here when your first I was on the production crew, when you came, you weren't nervous at all, were you?

Naomi Blohm: Oh, I was beyond sick to my stomach. And Mark sat out in the entryway with me for an hour just trying to tell me jokes and calm me down. I mean, I was shaking. I was so nervous, you know, because it was, it is gospel to be here, and it was such an honor and a privilege. And then, you know, I grew up, and my dad, we had our dog food business, and so he would watch the show every weekend to know about grain prices, and he would if he had to run outside with a customer or something, he would say, No, you watch and you tell me what Sue says. So I was, you know, just truly an honor to be here, and I knew what it meant, and just so thankful.

Paul Yeager: Well, Chris Robinson, you didn't have much time to think about your first time. If I know correctly, I believe Mark was scheduled. Something came up and you were sent out to the minor leagues out here in Des Moines. What do you remember?

Chris Robinson: I remember the drive. That's all I can remember. I forgot we can get there three hours, four hours, five hours.

Paul Yeager: Was Ted driving?

Chris Robinson: Sorry, no, but yeah, I was very, very fortunate to do that, and I guess I did a good job, because you continue to invite me back so and again, I feel the same way. It's an honor and a privilege to be able to speak to everybody, and I know that a lot of people depend on what we all say to help make better decisions. So it's a great honor to be here.

Paul Yeager: We're glad to have you here, Shawn, you also have a connection to someone else on the stage as well. Used to work for John. Your first time. I mean, we had a couple of recommendations about you when, when you came on. Was, were you cool as a cucumber?

Shawn Hackett: The history of my genetics is that when I get very, very nervous, my bowels get very active. And so here I am on the show. And, I mean, I've it's got to go and I got to stay on the show. I got to answer why. And then I did the stupidest thing. I said, I said, I think corn is going to go to $8 within three years time, which I was just about, right about, and, but, but I always say in the show that I'm always would. There's no place I would rather be than on the show in Iowa with you at that moment in time. And I really feel that way. It's a special moment. It's a special place someone like myself who has covered markets his whole life. To be recognized with some of the greatest minds in agriculture is very special, and I'm very humbled to be a part of it.

Paul Yeager: Glad to have you here before I ask Matt his question, how many in our audience before I ask the panel watched the show the first time, not on their own decision. Who maybe has to watch it because the spouse or some that kind of how many on the stage watched the show when they were younger? And maybe it was forced or not forced? Matt Bennett, tell me about I know it's super quiet in your house that you grew up in on Sunday mornings in Illinois.

Matthew Bennett: Yeah, so we get home from church, and my dad would say, you're going to sit on the couch and you're going to watch this show and don't say anything, and you might learn something and, and I told you this before, Paul, but just to the audience here is that I couldn't stand watching Market to Market as a kid, because I was just a young guy, you know, and I'm sitting here trying to be quiet, first of all, but, but, you know, so whenever I did get the call to come over and do it, it was beyond an honor. I mean, I probably watched more episodes than anybody my age that lives on planet Earth. But it so it meant a lot to me. But I think the first, the thing that stuck out to me, going back to your first question was all the names on the board, and I just looked at all these guys here, and it's just, it's a huge honor. I mean, it's highlighted my career, really, quite frankly, to get on Market to Market and be a part of this club.

Paul Yeager: Thank you. And we've had your dad, we've talked, we've talked with him before, and it's always funny. Here's the perspective. Arlan, you are a guy who's, I won't say, necessarily new to what you do now. You've started as an agronomist. You've been in the field. What's your first market experience?

Arlan Suderman: Well, my first Market to Market experience was, I believe, at Husker Harvest Days, where you had a panel and did so well that I didn't get invited to Market to Market for another 15 years or so.

Paul Yeager: Hey, John Nichols, any idea what happened on that?

Arlan Suderman: Which is, which is, shows. You know, for all of us, we had, we had our times that we had to earn our ranks to be on the show and to get here, as has been said already, is a great honor. It's a level of respectability. It's a level that indicates that you've made enough mistakes to have learned enough to be able to be on

Paul Yeager: Kristi, you too, have family connections. I know we've had. You've brought some of your family down, family in Iowa, but earliest memory, I'm guessing, is pretty similar to Matt's, right?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, my dad made me watch the show growing up all the time as well, and so I was fortunate enough to bring my dad with me one of the times that I recorded, which was really cool, to be able to see my dad walk into the studio and kind of see the old setup off to the side. And, you know, I just think it was a really proud moment, not only for me, but also for my dad, to be able to be part of that. And that's so fun. I don't know if any of you, I think probably a lot of you, grew up family business, but that was such a unique opportunity. Also, my grandparents live, like, an hour and 15 minutes north of here, and it's like I said, I'm going to preach what everyone else does. This is such a unique opportunity. Not only is this such an opportunity for everyone, it also just gives me such an opportunity to see my grandparents more frequently as well. So I'm very appreciative of that.

Paul Yeager: But there's one on the stage. They shut the town down for and they have viewing parties when he makes his debut. Ross, I hear, I mean, Now, granted, Your hometown is not the biggest, but it is a big deal. When you were on, they had a they had a viewing party.

Ross Baldwin: It was the viewing party was at my brother's house. So it wasn't, wasn't the whole town, but yeah, it was. It's been an honor to come on here and truthfully, I I feel out of place sitting next to all these analysts and the ones I've watched, you know, growing up, and it was extremely cool. I mean, my my first time coming on the show, I was beyond nervous. I mean, I actually can remember when I got the email from Paul about coming on the show. We, prior to that, we did an MtoM podcast. And I don't know if I was too dumb or naive to understand that it was an audition for going on the show. I just never thought about it. I thought the cattle markets on fire and they need to talk about cattle. And then probably a month or two later, Paul sent me an email, and my stomach literally dropped at my desk, and I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know about going on there.

Paul Yeager: Man, did you? He contacted you, right? Pretty quickly, yes, and you told him no at first, right?

Matthew Bennett: No. I said, I think this would be the best thing ever. And so you know the thing I would say, the thing about Ross, when he gets to talking about cattle, he might talk for 30 minutes on one question. So I said, if you go on there, you just gotta, you know, try to curb your enthusiasm, because clearly his knowledge of the cattle market is fantastic, and it's got functionality too.

Paul Yeager: I don't know. Did you predict this cattle run up like this?

Ross Baldwin: Are we something here? I do remember the first time I came on October of 23 if everyone remembers, that was when we had a nasty sell off the fall and winter of 23 about a $60.50 to $60 sell off in feeders, and a $30 sell off in fat cattle. And I was bullish. And I remember, after I left the show, I talked about, I mean, the fundamentals are bullish and everything. And I remember my brothers telling me they heard from some people boy, you know, he was bullish, and the cattle market maybe rallied the week after I was on the show. And. Then it just got hammered, and you start catching some flak from people, oh, the eternal cattle bowl and everything. And, I mean, I didn't think we'd go this high, but here we are. I mean, it did go up higher since that sell off

Paul Yeager: John and Sue, I'm going to ask you both you had a lot of experiences with Chet. Tell me his hosting style, John and asking questions, because he was doing what you were doing during the day, and then he came out and did the show. What was that position like for you?

John Roach: He knew exactly what he was talking about, and so his questions were always on target, and if you were a little bit off, if you were of where the mainstream was, he called you on it. And we did all that, usually in a four or five minute segment, and we'd cover three or four or five markets, and you had to be quick and concise. And he was an excellent interviewer, one of the best interviewers I've ever worked with.

Paul Yeager: Your first appearance, I think I told John on Friday, his first time in 1977 it was four minutes 40 seconds. So that was a lot of ground to cover, and you cover a lot of ground. Sue you can sometimes I can ask a question for four minutes. Can you answer for four minutes? Probably not. You mean longer or shorter?

Sue Martin: Probably longer. I remember, I'm a fast eater. I'm always quick. I'm one of the first ones to be done eating. I just wolf it down. And someone asked me, How come you eat so fast? And I said, Well, growing up, I love to talk. And my mother would say, Susie, be quiet and eat your meal. So I shut up. Eat my meal fast, and then I could talk

Paul Yeager: With Chet, do you share the same memories of, you know, he might push you and kind of button you in a little bit on an answer?

Sue Martin: Oh, absolutely. He was a very direct questioner. I mean, he really made it very direct and concise, and always had such a good comeback with another question. So, yeah, he was a great interviewer.

Paul Yeager: And the transition you were, you were fairly new on the show when, when Mark took over, it wasn't but a couple of years. What do you remember about that transition between the two and how different it was?

Sue Martin: Well, Chet was more serious, and Mark, what a sense of humor. I mean, people won't realize, while we're getting ready to do the show, and Mark's doing his interlude or whatever, before he starts, he's cutting up joke after joke after joke. And he's so witty, and it was quick. And I've always envied anybody that is quick witted. You know, I can think of answers or responses to come back with but it's always after the fact. His was, like, dead on, just quick. I remember that more than anything,

Paul Yeager: Who appeared outside of the TV show with Mark somewhere? And I did, yeah, you did. And Mark, do you remember? What do you remember from him in the public speaking realm?

Mark Gold: You know him, and I would go, we wind up being at the same thing the North Dakota Wheat Growers or American Soybean Association, we'd both be on the dias and, you know, Mark was always funny, and he would do that impression of Orion Samuelson the room of agriculture. And how I got to know him. I'd see him on TV, and we were doing a meeting in Chicago, and I said, Would you like to be the guest speaker? What are you going to pay me? I said, What do you think about that? Yeah, I can do that. And we just became good friends after that. And we would always wherever we were. We'd be the two guys out in front of the hotel. He'd be smoking a cigar and I'd be smoking my cigarette, and you go, you haven't quit yet. No, you have quit yet. No. And that went on for years and years

Paul Yeager: Ted, you have just spent a week in the corn fields, and you see different farmers and things like that. You all travel. I know that. But when you go in and out, just say, like, what you did last week. How many people? What do they recognize? Do they recognize you from this? I hope, yeah, you're supposed to say this, by the way.

Ted Seifried: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely this. Yeah, it really when I when I went bald, right? That's when people started recognizing me a lot more. But, you know, like I was in Spencer, Iowa on Wednesday of last week, at a 800 person event, and I can't walk more than like, five feet without somebody stopping me and saying, specifically, love watching you on Market to Market. Love that show. We love the insight that you give. And yeah, people really, really religiously follow the show, and it's amazing. And it's so fun for me to be at a place like that, and to have people that want to talk to me because

Paul Yeager: of it, we taped this show on Friday afternoons. Always have it used to be, I think Virgil would tell you, some nights it would almost be nights when we would record on a Friday night, traveling is a big part of the show for some of you, and others, it's an easy car ride for Virgil, it was a phone call, and he would be over in about five minutes. John, do you remember before we get into travel stories, what was the quickest phone call someone did to say, could you come to. The show today. Did you ever have any of those? Could you come today?

John Roach: I did a sub that way, yeah, but I lived at Perry, so, I mean, I was 30 minutes away. It was easy.

Paul Yeager: Yeah, anybody else have a quick turn? I think I'm looking at my locals that are Sue like, I've had to call you a couple of times. Yeah? What's that like? All of a sudden when you have to quick you haven't prepared for

Sue Martin: No, I It's always easy. I love coming and doing the show. I love being here and talking markets and visiting with people that I see every so often. And, yeah, it's easy.

Paul Yeager: Naomi, you have a notebook. I think many of you have notebooks. Virgil. Again, I'm going to pick on Virgil because it's just, it's, it's, in my mind, you have a notebook too, of things. If I would call you quick, I think you would probably would probably not pick up my phone.

Naomi Blohm: Yes, I'm known for this notebook, so I am a little bit anal in my preparation for this show where I watched the week before to see what was said. So if I can build on a point there, I think about who's going to be coming on the show the following week, I go through each commodity, and I make what's happening in the market. What are the big bullet points we need to talk about? I practice in front of a mirror still, and I think I'm like, Okay, if Paul asks me this, how am I going to segue to what I really want to talk about? And so I over prepare, but I feel that it shows up when I am on the show and I Yeah, the notebook people make fun of me. 

Paul Yeager: It's not a make fun of it's just a reporting of what is, what is over there, yeah, yeah. And you think you take it. I'm not saying that nobody else takes it seriously, but you clearly know what is coming in. Somebody had asked me earlier about, you know, do you share questions? I don't really share questions with any of you, and I hope that's okay, because I, like I said, I don't want to waste it in the pre I would much rather try to impersonate mark and sing and dance or talk about something else. Because, Kristi, you might be nervous. Ross, you might be nervous. And new, I'm still trying to, you know, calm things through so Arlen, you don rose, is a guy who he will, if he gets called by a radio station, he'll ask, How long 90 seconds you do a lot of quick hits with you. All do quick hits with people. What's, what was the difference from you doing the 90 seconds to the 12 minutes?

Arlan Suderman: Well, you adjust, I mean, you adjust your answer. I do be 60 to 70 media interviews per month, and this is, you know, but they're at the top. As far as your opportunity to really explain yourself. When you have to do a 90 seconds you have to just be really quick sound bite, you don't get a chance to really explain what's behind it. And what I like about this show is the opportunity to really explain what's behind it. To help teach more than just comment, but you're teaching so that people can try to understand, so they can make good decisions.

Paul Yeager: Shawn, you will condense things so quickly. Sometimes I might not have enough questions for you. What is it you really seem to boil things down into those sound bites, is that something you practice?

Shawn Hackett: Well, I feel that the best value that I can bring to the show is to provide the key sound bites of what I think is important right now going forward to the market and crystallize in the mind of the viewer what they should be thinking about. And in doing that, we're able to cover more markets, provide more color, and give a breath to everyone that's watching the show. So is this something I practice? I just try to make a point to really hone in on what's really important. And the other thing I want to say is it's very important in this business to pay it forward. John Roach gave me the opportunity to work with him in '02, when he started his office in Boca Raton, he took me under his wing. I went traveling with him in the Midwest. I did speaking engagements with him. I was here on the Market to Market show with him when he was taping. And then, you know, Sue Martin, you know, also took me under her wing, continued to contact me and encourage me, and obviously was one of the people who spread the good word to you about me on the show. And I would hope that I can do the same for others that are coming up, is if I see someone that's really hard working, that's smart, that can provide value, that I can do the same thing. So I think that's an important lesson, and I'm very grateful to both of them for the opportunity they gave me.

Paul Yeager: Pay it forward. Or are you billing us with Chris Robinson and Jeff French? I mean, Mark Gold has helped give us both Chris Robinson and Jeff French, what is it that you looked for at a time when you were hiring for your firm, and were you ever thinking about them doing television and radio interviews?

Mark Gold: Not initially. You know when we would hire somebody. We wanted somebody that had a good presence, that was aggressive in terms of willing to make the phone calls. We hired a broker one time. Wouldn't make a phone call. We couldn't get them to make a phone call. So they had to be willing. Them to do the hard stuff that we had all done before. And, you know, certainly in my case, they had to be better looking than me to be on the show. So, and you know, they all did a great job. And Naomi came on board when, you know, she and we were both at Platteville originally. And so I'd like to think that in many cases, I have paid it forward at the age I'm at. Now, I don't know how much longer I'm going to be doing this, but it's nice to look back and say he had some part in helping some of these people grow and turn into the brokers that they are today.

Paul Yeager: Chris, you might give them cash now. How does that work? 

Chris Robinson: Oh, when I my background was I actually met Mark. Mark and I were both on the floor. And when I decided to, when the floor really went away, that's what I segued in to work with farmers and producers. And there are, you know, a half dozen people I could have gone to work with. I was very, very fortunate that Mark gave me a chance to come and learn. It was a really tough first year, because I didn't know anything about speaking to people and trying to help them. And I credit a lot of my current and past success from watching him. I mean, I used to go to watch him do his seminars, really, you know, so absolutely positively, he's made a big difference. And I know I speak the same thing for Jeff, too. We learned a lot from Mark.

Paul Yeager: Matt, we talked about Ross. I mean, you have a stable of folks too that are in your operation. I guess I'll ask you the same thing I did to mark. I mean, do you think about them when you hire them, knowing that they're talking with clients and customers, but also are going to do some media, too? 

Matthew Bennett: Yeah. I mean, when all the answer the media part first. So we hired a lady who used to work for Ag Day, actually Betsy Jibben, and she's our marketing director, and she, one of her tasks is take some of our bright young minds and help them with different type of media interviews. So if it's a radio spot, of course, you know you just got to bang, bang, bang. You got to hit it fast and just try to help them with that. And so, but when we're hiring them, I think one of the main things we look for, of course, is the drive and enthusiasm these guys have talked about, but certainly integrity, because in this business, sometimes you can run into some issues there. And so that's one of the main things that we try to focus on as far as our hiring practices go, we've been very fortunate to get a lot of young merchandisers that have wanted to join us, and I think a big reason why they want to is a lot of them are Type A personalities, but they still want to be able to have a family. And that's one thing that we try to tell them, is that if you come on board with us, family has to come first,

Paul Yeager: and sometimes getting home to family is a challenge. So a couple of you get on planes. Some have to fight snow storms, either in or out. Naomi, Matt and Ted were on a panel a couple of years ago that I exchanged a lot of messages. So part of what I do, or have done, for years, is book everybody, and I play weather forecaster a lot in the winter. So Ted, Naomi, I can say here, this is what it looks like this week. I think you can make it. And then Matt will say, you're full of it. And he says, however, I think I can make it. This particular time Naomi getting here wasn't the issue. It was leaving. What do you remember of that storm? 

Naomi Blohm: Well, I remember two storms, and I'll get a mix. Yeah, that's right. There were two. So there was, there was one storm where, you know, we're looking at your phone, you know, on the way out, and you're like, Don't go, don't leave. Just stay here. And you might not even be able to leave until the afternoon the next day, but, and I took your advice that time, and I did stay, and I remember, holy smokes, because they shut down, you know, interstates, they shut down highways. And I don't think I even was able to leave until like, two o'clock the next day to drive. It's six and a half hours home to where I live in Wisconsin, and just brutal and icy the way back. And then there was one time that I drove and I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to go for it. And you're like, well, you're going to go for it, but here's the way you got to go, because if you go this direction, you're really going to get stuck, and you're going to be stuck for two days, but if you go this direction. So I made it to Iowa City, and it took about three and a half hours, and I was singing hymns the whole way, light knuckled, and I stayed behind. Lord have mercy on this truck driver that was in front of me. Just Paul in the path, and I had a pee so bad, and I'm like, but I'm not gonna get off the interstate. I'll never get back on. So I got to Iowa City and stayed the night, and then the next day I still I couldn't, like, leave until like, one or two in the afternoon, and it was so slow going home. But yeah, the when you told me about the no toe, yeah, the toe band, yeah, we're famous for that in Iowa, and I had never heard of that in Wisconsin. And I was like, What do you mean they won't come and help you? I'm like, my dad's not gonna come. My husband's not gonna come. So okay, I guess I'll stay.

Paul Yeager: Ted, you had the same trip, because Matt's punchline is different. You had similar experience too on those two Well,

Ted Seifried: Well, yeah. So first of all, there's never a time where you tell me not to come, that I'm not going to come. You pretty much had to lock the doors on me during covid because I was trying to come in. But I'm not afraid of snow. I'll drive in anything. It's fine. But on that particular occasion, I did stay that night in the hotel lobby bar, whatever Marriott downtown is very nice. And I really enjoyed hearing your guys' story of how hard it was to get home while I sat there and, well, just relaxed. Yeah, exactly. And then another travel story. This one time I was on an airplane with Mark Gold and the steward, stewardess, male stewardess is whatever flight is, flight, 

Paul Yeager: Attendant, there we go. Flight attendant. And I was like, Nah,

Ted Seifried: thank you. Well, you did. Let me, the flight attendant, spilled a virgin Bloody Mary all over Mark in his shirt and his pants and his he and he was a good sport about it. He didn't make a big fuss. I handed over the napkins as fast as I could, and it looks like you got a new shirt, too. 

Mark Gold: And the truth of the matter is, yeah, look at that. Stopped at Target. Got a $30 white shirt because the other one, the club soda and the tide stick didn't work too well.

Paul Yeager: So that's today. That's today. They were on the same flight today, Matt, you tried to go. How'd that go for you?

Matthew Bennett: Yeah, one thing I want to say, though, before I tell the story, and Ted Naomi will vouch for this on these occasions. You always check with us, tell us, let us know when you get home, you know. So we know you guys care a lot. We appreciate that, for sure, but I remember Ted Naomi said, You're freaking crazy. Why are you trying to go home? And I said, I drove my truck for a reason, guys, I'm going to go home to my family. And so I get out on the interstate, I 80 and I'm sitting here running 45 through a blizzard, and semis are going around me running 75 and I get out closer to, oh, I don't know, I'd say I was, I was probably a little ways for the Quad Cities, maybe to the big truck stop, and I realized my headlamps aren't worth a crap at this point. And I'm like, I must have snow iced over. And sure enough, there was about this much. Well, then I've got to go through the dance in the middle of a blizzard of trying to get that chipped off without breaking my headlights. Six hour drive. It took me almost 11 hours to get home, but I did get home

Paul Yeager: On a trip that normally is between six. It's about six… 

Matthew Bennett: It’s about six. It took me 11 hours, but I did get home.

Paul Yeager: Kristi, you went to school in North Dakota. Are you laughing inside right now at all of these people?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, I actually travel in poor weather, like the entire month of January and February during my meeting stretch. So a lot of my meetings are out in the Dakotas, in parts of Minnesota. And let me tell you, a little snow goes a long way in the Dakotas. So that is my life for the most part. And I'm actually not a very good driver, period. So you put me on some snow. It doesn't always go that well. But like I said, I enjoy these stories. I think it's great to hear them. It's really fun.

Paul Yeager: Ross, have you had? I mean, you're cattle guy, so, I mean, you got to feed no matter what. I mean, you think the same way. We haven't put you through those paces yet.

Ross Baldwin:  I haven't had to drive in any bad weather yet on the way down here. 

Paul Yeager: Okay, all right, so, Arlan, we've had, I think we had one storm with you. Chris, I think we've you came in a day ahead. John, have you ever altered flights to come up when you've since you moved to Florida? Have you ever done that? I always come up one or two days early. Yeah, you build in some pad on that. Now, I'm saving Shawn, because Shawn sometimes makes his trip here creative. You're based in Florida, and when you book, when we book the date, you will then maybe possibly schedule another appointment. Well, you all will do that, but Shawn, you've done some creative things in your travels to get here. 

Shawn Hackett: Well, the one that was most interesting was, you know, I always plan to get here the day before, and other than this one time, I always do. But I was speaking in Nashville, and this was, I think it was last year or the year before, when it was super cold, a lot of snow, and flights were canceled, and it was all messed up. And I actually called Dave, and I said, I may not make it. It's possible I may not make it. So I got so creative that I actually had to take a nine hour Uber. Drove in to the show, and I made it with one hour to spare. And I walked in and Dave had backup. You know, he had, he had backup. But I walked in, I literally sat down, did the makeup, did the show. I didn't have time to be nervous that day, but, um, but, you know, I was, I was, I said to myself, I am going to get on the show if I there's any possible way that I could. But I asked the Uber driver, has he ever seen. Has he ever taken a nine hour. A, you know, a trip before he says, No, you're my first.

Paul Yeager: How much was that? Yeah, that was not a cheap would you tip on that?

Shawn Hackett: What I don't remember, but it was not cheap. But you know what? We appreciate that I was, I was glad to be here, and it was a great show, and it was a great show.

Paul Yeager: Any other travel stories that you want to share before I move on, you got one, Mark.

Mark Gold: I was in North Dakota. Oh yeah, I forgot that, yes. And I was between Arthur and Buffalo, if you know where that is. And it was just a blinding snowstorm. It was the first time in my life I drove a car into a ditch. And I remember looking at the guy that was with me. I said, How many candy bars do we have? You know we're going to get through this. And I hit the cell phone, and I called the bank we were going to, and I said, we're on the road. And I took a sharp curve. Oh, we know exactly where you are. We'll be there in 10 minutes. They hooked up a truck and pulled me out of there. And then one time, I was in Bowbells, North Dakota. Do you even know where Bowbells is? I don't know that one very northwest corner of the state. It was the night of the Bush Gore election. Massive snowstorm in Bowbells, 20 miles of telephone poles that snapped off on the highway across the top of the state. And I told people I was so far out in the country, we didn't even know who won the Gore - Bush election that night, and that was North Dakota.

Paul Yeager: Is this, is all is this also the trip where you rolled the window down and stuck your head out and kind of drove..

Mark Gold: You know, I said to my partner, I said, How do you drive in this blizzard? And coming towards us was a woman with her head out the car, driving like this. I said, I guess that's how you drive in a blizzard in North Dakota.

Paul Yeager: I suppose we should talk a little bit about agriculture. John Roach, 1977 Sue, same thing you can I'm going to start with you. John, agriculture at that point to now, what's the biggest difference we were headed into the farm crisis. Did you know it at that time? Do you think? Well, it wasn't called the farm crisis. Know that warning signs? I mean, we knew inflation was high. 

John Roach: At that point, everything was high. I mean, all the cost structures were high, and the prices were coming down. And so we yeah, we were in a panty kind of situation. Shortly thereafter, not so much in '77 but shortly thereafter, I started my own business in 1978 which was really horrible timing, absolutely horrible timing. But turned out to be a blessing actually, because if you make it during the difficult times, and actually for I think most of the farmers out here would tell you that if you started farming in the late 1970s very early 80s. It was a horrible time, but turned out to be a blessing and great opportunities at that time.

Paul Yeager: Sue, is the producer different from the 80s to now?

Sue Martin: Well, technology is so different, faster pace, the information that is out there available is much quicker to be able to garner whatever you want to say. So I think that the markets are still about supply and demand and but it's just the fast pace of information, and the availability of information is so much greater, and now we're starting to look at AI generated information, which I sometimes question, is AI as smart as it thinks it is. I don't know,

Paul Yeager: Naomi, you mentioned your dad, and we've talked about the 80s before in your family, has that given you a different perspective when it comes to dealing with customers and clients right now? 

Naomi Blohm: Yeah, so. So my my perspective and my story was in the '90s, 1995, '96 when the price of corn and beans had rallied so much because my dad was an end user and so that was an input cost that my dad just did not see coming as the increase that it came and it really affected our family business. And so that and I dated a hog farmer's son. So in college, in the late 90s, when the hog crisis was happening, I saw how his family was affected. And so just both experiences just taught me the family dynamic, just the human aspect of it, and how you know, farming is awesome, but farming is a business, and you have to be able to learn how to have that business hat and that business mindset, along with all of the fun things that are about farming as well. So those two experiences just really helped me, I think, just just have a better rounded opinion and view of how to work with clients and just be aware of things.

Paul Yeager: I'll go to you in a minute, Mark, but I want to go to Arlan because it kind of what I asked you in the very beginning, your career has been a little different. So what has changed with the client relationship, from your early days to your current days, and how you approach looking at things?

Arlan Suderman: Well, I started off in the Extension Service, working with farmers, doing test plots in the fields, et cetera, and trying to work with them. And that was in the 80s, and during those hard times, and I spent a lot of time working with farmers who were struggling to make ends meet, struggling to survive, trying to find agronomic ways that they could cut corners on expenses but yet amplify yields to get by. But they kept asking about the market. So I started studying the markets to a great extent. And then as we got in 90s, I started seeing the influence of speculative money, and that really increased as we got into the 2000s and then we had the expanded position limits and the algo computers that automatically put orders in, and the markets changed dramatically, speeding up everything. Everything speeds up now the cycles speed up, the seasonal speed up the responses to the markets, it's amplified moves, and so now it's a factor of remembering the people behind it who are hurting, whose bottom lines hurt. Remember sitting across when I was a mark, an advisor, working with farmer clients in the late 90s, early 2000s and seeing them, they're struggling again, and every decision impacts their bottom line, their ability to put food on table and survive for the next year, and trying to remove the emotion from it, trying to make sure they had as much information, because the funds that drive these markets, they have The information the market know how the market knowledge is there. The farmer is the one off time who's on the outside, and I want to provide that information to them so they know what the market is actually trading.

Paul Yeager: Mark, you've been at a few tables, had a few meetings, what's the farmer of 2025 asking you now that they didn't ask in the 80s?

Mark Gold: Well, I think there's much more in tune to marketing. When I first started going around talking to farmers in 1995 it was tough because you couldn't get them on the phone. You know, this is before cell phones, if you didn't get them at 630 in the morning before they went out for their chores, or at 12 o'clock when they came in for lunch, you didn't get them. So, you know, that's been a big help. But I think the biggest thing you know for me, my mentor in the business, was a gentleman by the name of Lee Stern. And Lee is, he'll be 99 years old in December. He's probably the longest surviving member of the Board of Trade. I think he's been a member 70 some odd years. And the one thing he always would drill into my head is you can't buy integrity. And going along with what Matt said, the integrity is it, and if you don't have that, and that's what this show has been so helpful with me in gaining that integrity to the farm crowd. And, you know, I think just overall, the farmers have realized that they can, you guys can grow the best crops in the world. Nobody has to teach you how to grow a thing, but it's the marketing, where so many guys just kind of take it for granted. But they've certainly learned. In the 25 years I've been helping farmers and a lot because of all the people that are on this stage touting the same thing that look if you don't like me, find somebody else, but you got to do the marketing. And I think, you know, the marketing has really become more for the forefront.

Paul Yeager: I'm sorry, I'm hearing Chris Robinson jump up and down in the back saying, Just do something. Just answer the phone right now. I mean, you have been writing about that for a long time.

Chris Robinson: It's risk transfer. You know that the Board of Trade is over 150 years old. The reason they built it was so you'd have a place to transfer your risk. You talk about the speculative money. Everybody loves to hate those guys. They're there to take the other side of your risk, let them have your risk. You know, you're a farmer, you're a one way speculator. You're like the guy that would buy 200 contracts of beans and go down to the bar and then come back at the end of the day, like, Well, did I make money, or did I lose money? I mean, so you need to be prepared to transfer risk to the people that want it. So that's the biggest thing that I think we all try and do as brokers.

Paul Yeager: Okay, for those of you who are in the audience, we're going to dive just for a little bit here in the last few minutes to current things. If you're watching this in October, just forget what I'm about to ask Ted is he answered this in August, Ted, let's talk. Let's talk. I'm gonna I made the history lesson. Now. Let's talk current. You just spent time in the field, yeah? How accurate. How big is this crop going to be? Let's talk corn first.

Ted Seifried: Yeah, you know, it's big. I know the guys on the East were a little disappointed, disappointed with what they saw, especially in the state of Illinois. But I mean, what we saw in the West was really very good. We were surprised to see how much southern rust and tar spot was was popping up in Nebraska and western Iowa, but it. The timing of it coming as late as it did, I don't think it's going to have a tremendous impact on yield. It will have a draw on what the top, top end potential could have been, but I think we're looking at a really good crop. And, you know, we saw the USDA numbers, Ireland's numbers, and also the Pro Farmer numbers. I think they're low. I think, I think the reality is somewhere in between. Sure, we still have to see what weather is. You know, to finish off, beans are the bigger question in my mind. You know, I think the East is going to have a dry finish, similar to last year. The West is going to have a better finish. But also, there's some disease issue there too. I for me, that soybean yield can be anywhere from a 52 to a 55

Paul Yeager: All right, Kristi, I think the last time you were here, you were remarking how things didn't look as good as you thought. It took you a long time. Now that you've made this trip, I know you're you had a little bit of a detour, not quite the same, but you went through some big corn growing areas. What'd you see? 

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, that Pro Farmer number from Minnesota was huge. And I that's a hard number for me to chew on. I drove southern Minnesota multiple times. I know we talked about this. You know, my oldest daughter plays softball, and I coach her softball. She doesn't love it, but she deals with it.

Paul Yeager: And so all the stories we could do a Plus Plus about your coaching.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Paul was my confidant through the season. He really helped me out. So in case you're curious, what kind of conversations going on, the backdrop is, he's really your emotional support person. 

Paul Yeager: And coach Ross too, don't forget, yeah, we also have coach Ross here.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: So I drove them that Minnesota stretch multiple times throughout southern Minnesota for various softball events, various other events, a couple fun events for golf tournament and family time. And then we came down to Okoboji here this weekend to have one last hurrah with the kids. And there is so many drowned out spots in southern Minnesota that I am just struggling with the fact that we can pull that big of one. Granted, you look at kind of the crop Minnesota had last year. It was a very poor crop. So I think you'll find it some before. I think Ted's exactly right. I think that your answer is somewhere between Pro Farmer and USDA. But when everything shakes out, it's a big crop coming, so you got to find something to do with it.

Paul Yeager:  Shawn, you're removed from all the noise of things being well outside the area. What are you looking at and listening to? 

Shawn Hackett: I mean, I just try to stick with statistics. Everyone has a view of the crop from where they're at when I look at this year, and I look at, what did we see that was unusual, what we saw that was unusual this year was a very unusual. Large number of warm nights in the month of July. It actually continued here in the month of August. So we had a wet year for the most part, although it's having a dry finish. We had a cool year for high daytime temperatures. We had warm nights. And when you look back at since 1950 and all the years that we had similar conditions, we were never able to pull off a crop above trend line. That doesn't mean this crop can't be above trend line, but for the yield to be 189 given the conditions that have occurred, and given the conditions that created yields from the past, that seems extremely unlikely to occur, especially that we threw 2 million acres extra into the mix, which inevitably were from the west, from fringe acres. It's inconceivable to me that that statistically, that 189 is possible, in my statistical opinion.

Paul Yeager: Matt, the rain stopped around you. What are your farmer friends doing right now?

Matthew Bennett: Well, they're frustrated. There's no question about it. I mean, there's no doubt that we had, in all honesty, a really good weather pattern in that it was a dry June after a decent planting window, we were a little bit later than what we wanted to be, but then all kinds of rain in July. And so we built this huge plant. No doubt, it looks great from the air, looks great from the road, but then we turned off dry, you know. And so the corn crop, in my opinion, in our area, is going to be awfully large, but it's not going to be near what it was. I mean, we probably take 25 to 30 bushel off of what we thought we were going to see. The problem that's been alluded to already is the bean crop. And so we've got beans that are podded top to bottom. They look fantastic, but when you haven't had rain in almost a month, this is a bad time of year to stay dry. So one thing I will say, I just want to point something out. I mean, as we talk about yield, I think we are all probably doing a good job of this. But one thing I keep pointing out to producers is that the USDA increased demand 545 million bushels in this report. So if we go ahead and we start drawing down on this yield, we got to understand there's a buffer there, and so it might be pretty tough to get below a 2 billion carry even with. Yield much smaller than what the USDA suggested in August. So I don't want anybody to forget that

Paul Yeager : We'll do a show of hands here of the panel in just a minute. But Ross, I'll go back to my first thing I talked to you about, Are we anywhere close to being done with this rally in cattle? 

Ross Baldwin: I wish I knew, Paul. 

Paul Yeager: I know, I know that is, I mean, and I ask it, it's,

Ross Baldwin: And I think anyone sitting up here, I honestly, I would, I would deflect to guys like Mark Gold or or John Roach or Arlan or Shawn that have been around so much longer than me. But truthfully, you guys haven't ever seen anything like this. And we're, we're just the the fundamentals are so bullish right now, but we've taken these prices so much farther than anyone in the marketplace thought that we could. And you know, I mean, history would tell you that cattle don't put their highs in until you're you're farther down the road in the expansion phase, the heifer retention, and we're not there yet. So history would tell you, No, the highs aren't in but at the rallies that we've seen, we've just seen feeder cattle rally $50 the month of July and August. I mean, it's some of the largest rallies we've ever seen on record. And demand remains phenomenal. You throw in the New World screwworm, the impact that's having, that's 1.2 million less feeder cattle coming into the country. You throw in the Brazilian tariffs, and you can paint the picture that the highs aren't in, but with the prices that we're at, you need to be managing risk, because I don't think any one of us would be shocked if we walked in one of these days and they say, yep, 360 feeders is high enough, and 245 fat cattle is high enough.

Paul Yeager : John, as we look to the next 50 years. What's the biggest thing you think we're going to have to deal with? Is it we're going to look back at 2025 and go, Oh, that was cute. Those prices were cute. What do you see here the next 50 that we can plan for?

John Roach: Well, we talked about technology. The thing about technology is that it goes across the entire world as fast as somebody hits send on an email. And so what I think happens around the entire world is we're going to see people's appetites and people's demand and people's capability to do economic things expand. I mean, it's interesting, it you could go to almost any place in the world, and you can take somebody's credit card online, you can send a product with DHL or somebody else. And so we're able to do things all around the world. And I think that they that the impact of that means that that people have some successes in areas that maybe they haven't had successes. And I think that that creates demand and economic growth. And so I think that the picture is that we have a growing world, although it's growing at a smaller pace than maybe we thought it might grow, but, but, but not from a standpoint of knowledge and opportunity. And so I think that that we have to be optimistic about the demand for agriculture products. And I think that that the environment we're in right now, where the administration is working hard to do trade deals, it's agriculture that we have to offer the world that most of them don't have, that they want. When they can get the money to afford it, they want it. And they know our agriculture, our meat and milk and eggs. I mean, we produce the top quality in the world, and they know that. And so I think agriculture's outlook is promising. And so I think that as we go through this difficult period ahead, you have to, and I say difficult because the profits are not there, but as we go through that, you have to look out forward and say, we're in a period of growth. And unfortunately, the cost of outrun it. And what's interesting is, the smartest money in the world is buying our farmland, and it's and it's not going down in value much,

Paul Yeager: Which is different than 1977 completely different. So there's a whole different thing, all right, Naomi, what do you want to ask the panel? You want to ask anybody anything? Sue? You want to ask anybody anything?

Sue Martin: No, I want to ask her,

Paul Yeager: Yeah, ask her a question. I told them I was gonna let them talk to each other, but I have a hard time backstage. I know that's what we should have rolled on all right? Anybody want to ask anybody anything? Come on, Shawn. 

Shawn Hackett: Sue, regarding cattle, because obviously we're in what I call lala land for better than for lack of a better term, I look at things like rate of change percent above 20 moving averages. How do you look at a market that's going parabolic, and how far you can stretch the rubber band to when it might recoil? You've been looking at parabolas your whole life. What do you think might be. Helpful in looking at the cattle market and what might indicate exhaustion?

Sue Martin: Well, I think cattle are going to make higher highs in September. I went back since 1976 we have a setup that we've only had four other times, and it's based on the fact that I look at market behavior and how it's historically behaved, and not that everything's guaranteed. But what was interesting, little disclaimer there. But what was interesting was I found that in years when June cattle made the highest high for the year at that time, and then the August came on and took that high out. There were only four other times since 1976 that this has occurred, and the one year was 1980 that year, we moved up and we put our high in in August, and that was the top. We broke into December. Then we had the year of 2008 I thought it was interesting. We skipped the 90s, but we had 2008 and 2014 and 2023 where the August contract took out the June high in the month of July, but went inside range in the month of August, and then moved on. One year, went and put a high end in September, and we broke into December. Another year, we put a rally in to, I think it was October, broke into December, and then we had, and I think it might have been 2023 that we did this, where we rallied into November, and then broke into the middle of January, which we went from counter seasonal to seasonal behavior. Because many times cattle break into the middle of part of of January this year. I'm wondering, because we made higher highs in August. Not uncommon to see cattle rally in August. Sometimes we'll put a low in in early August, and which is more seasonal, and then rally into September, maybe early October. And break. I think we're going to put a high end in September. But the thing is, the break that we get, I don't think is going to it's going to be a healthy break, and then I think the market is going to come right back and make another higher high Well, well, remember, I'm the girl that talked about $30 beans.

Paul Yeager: So all right. I appreciate everybody who is here, who has made time and for over the years, this has been fun, and we appreciate all of your insight over the years. Ross, Kristi, Arlan, this is a quiz I have to remember, if I remember everybody's name with no keys. Matt, Shawn, Chris, John, Sue, Naomi, Mark, Ted, thank you so much. Give them a big hand, everybody.  

Market to Market is about all of you. It is people. They always say, What did Mark? What did Sue, what did Ross? What did they say on the show? And it is because of you over the years we cannot thank you enough. I know Dave did it earlier for all of your efforts, all of your ice on the front of your pickup truck or whatever hotel bar you've been stuck in. Thank you so much for making Market to Market part of your schedule all these years. Thank you.

Mark Gold: Can I just say? How about a cheer and a round of applause for Paul and the staff? The staff does a remarkable job. You do an unbelievable job hosting. You never try to put us into a bad situation.

Paul Yeager: And would you like to be? No, I'm just learning from you know, like you all watched each other, I watched Mark and I watched Chet. That's how I, you know, I thank you again. It's not about me, it's about you, and people want to hear what you have to say. And I get stopped at plenty of gas stations on Saturday mornings. What did Ted say last night? I can't believe it. Did Ted bring his corn hat?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yes, Kristi, I would have to say, though, I get asked just as much about Market to Market as I get asked about you personally. What I get asked all the time. So like, what's Paul really like, I'm like, he's just as great in person as he is on TV. 

Paul Yeager: You say I'm taller, right? Please Absolutely. Yeah, it's all fun. Thank you so very much. Appreciate it. This has been a live MToM podcast. Thank you so much for watching, and we will see you next time on Market to Market. Afterwards. Julie, everybody came up to me. It's great. It's wonderful. It was fantastic. You know, thanks, Mom, thanks, Dad, thanks, you know, thanks, family. Technically, watching the show. All right, let's not do technical, watch the show. You really couldn't watch the show, could you not?

Julie Knutson: From my vantage point, I was focused on, I mean, I was hearing what they're saying, but it's. You definitely take away different things when you're in it, as opposed to just viewing it. But I did get to go back and watch it when I was putting it together and edit. And man, it was fun.

Paul Yeager: Okay, so couple of things I goofed up big time on the lead up to this in a seating chart. And I had, we had to reverse things. David Feingold had to audible. I thought I had it made sense in my head. It didn't. We worked through that, but it was to have everybody on stage, but they were supposed to have shooting windows so you could get good, clear pictures of everybody. Yeah. How'd that go?

Julie Knutson: Well, luckily, I had strongly advocated to being able to see those ahead of time, because initially it was gonna be the first time you saw everybody on stage was at the event. And I said, Can we pretty, pretty please have them all together beforehand so I can make sure I have all those shooting windows. So, I mean, in you saw, like, there's still times that you're gonna see other people in the shots. I mean, we, we did it try, we tried to do it as simply as possible, because we didn't have, we were just coming off the State Fair, which is a big production for us, and so we really didn't have a lot of time logistically to have a whole, whole thing for it.

Paul Yeager: Well, when we thought up the idea of to do this, yes, we knew it was after the fair. We had at least a week, and I didn't know how many were going to show up. I was like, if we can get five to six. We had 11. 11 which was incredible. Yeah, so cool. Only Jeff French and Don Roose were the only two not able to make it that are on our current list of analysts, and we staged them by seniority to the program. We had to make one little adjustment. But what when you watch it back? I mean, you see these people. We see these people all the time, right? But there was one thing that stood out to you that was weird well,

Julie Knutson: and then in do and having them there, getting having them know where they were going to come out and sit, everything they got to mingle with each other. And the kind of what we took for granted was, this was the first time they were some of them were meeting each other like we take it for granted. We see me each week. Yeah, of course. They know so and so said something last week this week, but they got to be with each other and seeing how they interacted with each other and just the respect. And I mean, it was so cool to see them.

Paul Yeager: The backstage would have been its own market. Plus Plus, or MToM Plus Plus Plus probably would. Now we wouldn't had to have censor it too much. Ted Seifried had just come off the crop tour, and so he was getting all these questions about, well, what really is it like? What are you really going to say? And Ross Baldwin and Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth on, she's with our two newest analysts. Are they really didn't know many of those people, except Ross is on stage with his boss, yep. Matt Bennett, so that was kind of fun. Could you hear anything backstage?

Julie Knutson: I didn't really. I was getting my stuff ready, so I was I had your IFB but I wasn't able to listen too much in your mic. But I didn't hear too much of what was going on.

Paul Yeager: Challenge for me and challenge for you was we were playing for a recorded program, but also playing for an audience. That is not an easy thing, at least from where I sit,

Julie Knutson: Because you have to, I mean, you want to respect the people that took time out of their day and came for this event and give them a show, right? I mean, not a show, but, like the No, it's a show. It was in person experience, but at the same time, knowing this is going to live on posterity, on video, and that we're going to probably come back to, who knows how many times, for sure, you guys just saw that now, but you know, who knows how many times we'll use parts of this for whatever purpose in the future, so making sure we had a Good recorded outcome for viewers now and however it wants to be used in the future.

Paul Yeager: What I wanted to do is, when I told people, I go, we're not gonna do any market analysis breakdown now, I did kind of have to get some at the end. But I always think that everybody's origin story and travel, those are two big topics,

Julie Knutson: especially when it has to do with weather. Your favorite topic? Oh, right. Weather, right? I will say, on headset, the chatter was, Oh, of course, Paul is like, how long are we going to talk about the weather? Paul, like, some things just don't change.

Paul Yeager: Why? Why move from something that in your head, not your head. My head works. I know. I you know. So we the stories. I knew most of them. There was, there was a story Arlan Suderman, who just recently was on in our studios in Johnston. And I said, Arlan, I didn't know that you had done Husker Harvest Days and that we hadn't called you in a dozen years. I said that that was right as I started on the show, so I had no clue. I apologize, so we would have had him on a lot earlier, but that was otherwise. I think I knew most of the answers.

Julie Knutson: well, and because you had kind Did, did you talk to him ahead of time, saying this is kind of what we were gonna do? So yeah, you that that way you don't have the empty void of like putting him on the spot, the question in front of a live audience, having to come up with something. I will say, though I. Yeah, I still don't know the answer. Ted brought that backpack on stage. Was he just really in that much of a hurry to go? Or was the corn cob hat in there?

Paul Yeager: Yes, the hat was in there. Just didn't come out. He was in a hurry to go. But then we found out he and Mark Gold were on the same flight from Chicago. I don't think I shared that that day. Maybe I did well with the spilling of the Sterling. And that was legit. That actually did happen. I had been talking to Ted on Saturday before the event, Sunday of the event, and I did not know that there was a new shirt. And I did look at Mark Gold's shirt, going, that is not the typical shirt Mark Gold wears, and found out that that was what had happened. So if you missed that story, go back and watch the interaction. You also, I was surprised a little bit with I always say, I want everybody to interact, but it is hard to interact. And I didn't actually. I did kind of hold back a bit, because once you start letting Shawn Hackett ask everybody questions, I'm not sure I would have been able to get the show back

Julie Knutson: well, and some of them, if you're not able to interject and steer it back, we could have gone off, not the rails, but down a road that we could have been there for much longer. I'd already that hour 15, already went so quick anyway, that we could if, yeah, if they were to start asking each other questions, which I think they did, because before we recorded that, they had some time to interact with the people that came. And I think we're able to ask each other questions, then to and and other people.

Paul Yeager: And I did tell people, I said, go ask. Well, I really want to hear what Ted's going to say or John's going to say about this ago. Go ask him now, because I'm not really going to ask that question when we get going. So, you know, I just try to head off some of that what could have been disappointment.

Julie Knutson: And the funny part for me, because I went into because they got to go all be in the studio that we record Market to Market in ahead of time, and I walked in there once and walking around, and I, I know all their faces. I know who they are. Me working behind the scenes, which is exactly where I want to be. We've talked about this before. This is not my comfort zone whatsoever, but they had no idea who I was. Oh, you're wearing an Iowa PBS shirt. You must work here. But it's like I know a lot of things about you. And hear all the things you and Paul talk about, because I'm usually listening before they record shows and stuff too. And it's kind of funny having that little, little advantage of knowing who they are. But they're like, who are you? 

Paul Yeager: They all know Scott Faine, because Scott's in the studio, been in the studio for a dozen years. They recognize a lot of the camera operators. Might not get them all by name, but they recognize, hey, that what you know. So they do have that familiarity, but they don't ever go into the control room.

Julie Knutson: Nope. Just like we like it, not that they want, don't want them to come in there. We just like to be away from the chaos. 

Paul Yeager: Yeah, go ahead and put this over your face. Yeah, right. Witness Protection. We've already here in editing. You're editing this, so I thought it was good. The Virgil Robinson was there, there, if I had to have one, probably disappointment was not getting to hear more from Virgil, but he was the only former analyst we had there, and his stories are good, and we've gone back. We've done MToM's. Maybe I'll link those here. Post them again. But His stories were always good, and I know he knew quite a few people, and they all recognized, oh, that's Virgil. Excuse me. John Nichols was here, former senior. Producer Wayne Bruns, who's been on the show. We had lots of some staff and some other connections, but I really enjoyed those people who's like, you used to be my Friday night date, or you used to be my Friday this. Or we always watched. I drove from Nebraska. I drove from Illinois. That meant a lot as well.

Julie Knutson: And as you saw at the end, just the respect that they had for the show. I mean, it's no secret around here, we joke about Market, the joke that Market is every Friday joke, well, joke, and the fact that we pull it off every week, we you the global we, but man, people really do think a lot of the show and care a lot. And it was evident and all the people that came out from all of the stops you guys made, and the crowd that we had on that Sunday in August. So it was really neat and really glad that we could do that.

Paul Yeager: Huge thanks to the tractor group that was there, the pork producer group that was there, the volunteers from Iowa PBS and staff, Caryline Clark, she's amazing. She's amazing. She went on the road with us for all of our stops in Cherokee, Jesup, Lincoln, and the one here in Johnston and Davenport, and, oh yeah, LeClaire, and she was responsible for a lot of that. I know she's like, this is what I do and like, but she does it.

Julie Knutson: Well, yeah, she does it. She doesn't just do it. She makes it special

Paul Yeager: and very unflappable. There is not many curve balls you can throw at her. See, that's two sports references I did pretty good. Is that it is there anything else you want to put me on the spot on about this?

Julie Knutson: What was your biggest takeaway? Sitting up? There and listening to them, if you could ask them any question without ramification of what the answer is going to be like. You know, who's your favorite host in these years? You know? Well, I think

Paul Yeager: it was pretty obvious. It was Chet and Mark, yeah. I mean, those were the two, and that's absolutely what it should be. Well, just

Julie Knutson: because of the duration they had been on the show. I mean, we've had others since, and they haven't been on as long, but I think they spoke highly of everyone that has worked on the program. 

Paul Yeager: And it's funny how that it kind of changes over time, but it doesn't change. Does that make sense?

Julie Knutson: Oh yeah, because you and I both have worked well, I started working on the show. You didn't start working on the show, but it is not much different in the format. When I started seven started 17 years ago, as it is now, and even the previous years before, that is still very similar. 

Paul Yeager: So the video clip of John Roach in his first show, and I told him that we he happened to be on the show beforehand the Friday before that Sunday event. And I said, John, do you want to take a wild guess how much time you were on TV for that first episode? And he goes, Oh, I don't know. I go, I'm pretty sure it was seven minutes. So he believes doubled that time now. And he says, You know what I do? Remember it? Because I used to think I have to get a whole lot of things said in a seven minute time frame. And now I said, Well, yeah, now we're, you know, 11, 12, 13, somewhere in there. And we don't start with livestock like we used to. And, you know, one the biggest thing that I would have also have loved was to have Walt Hackney there. 

Julie Knutson: Man, Walt was, he was a gem. 

Paul Yeager: Oh, and I know, you know, again, Elaine Kub, who we will, by the way, hopefully catch up with soon. She might return to the show, and that's all part of an episode that she needs to tell the story. If I can ever convince her to do it. 

Julie Knutson: And I hope you can. Oh, I don't have favorites, but she's up there.

Paul Yeager: She's wonderful. They're all wonderful, and they all to make the time, the drive, the efforts. It is a big commitment. I mean, it could be easily, we just put them on, you know, on a remote site, yeah, and, but in person just makes all the difference.

Julie Knutson: It's it makes it better. I mean, it's still the content can be the same, but just having somebody in studio, because we did it during covid and those times when we had to, but there's just something about being in the studio and having that live interaction between you guys that makes it so much better.

Paul Yeager: The greatest moment was the whole thing. The greatest moment was the whole thing. I'll answer it that way. Julie, as always, thank you for the directing and the editing on this episode. That was quite a task.

Julie Knutson: Well, this one was truly, truly my pleasure. It was a lot of fun.  

Paul Yeager: You wanna take us out? Or do you want me to you do it? All right, that's Julie Knutson, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you for watching this has been a special m, t o m podcast. We hope you've enjoyed our look back at our 50th season. So we are still posting classic videos on our YouTube channel. So coming up very, very soon, you are going to see the first episodes of all of these analysts. We're kind of going to go in that order. So you'll see the 1976 or 77 John Roach episode, you'll see the first Sue Martin and Mark Gold episode, that one's a good one. There's plenty more to come. So thank you. If you have any feedback, send it to me in an email, MarkettoMarket@iowapbs.org, Julie, say goodbye. 

Julie Knutson: Bye. 

Contact: paul.yeager@iowapbs.org