Ethan and Mark

"It’s easy and their rates are competitive."

Ethan and Mark
Row Crop Producers

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Why do you do business with AgDirect?

Mark – It’s easy and their rates are competitive. We call the local rep and say, “Hey, we’ve got a piece of equipment we want to trade for.” We’ll give him a description, he tells us what percentage they need down, and he calls back in a day or two and says, “Okay, got it done.”

What is your philosophy about purchasing equipment?

Mark – This year, we traded combines and we looked at it at a price per acre, instead of the price for the trade difference. That was different for the dealer, but that’s the way I’ve got to look at it.

Ethan – We look at what it costs us to run that machine per acre for the amount of time that we’ve had it and how much life it’s got left in it. If it still has a good resale value we may go ahead and trade the machine off before we start having any major expenses, just because it keeps us at a cheaper operating cost on a per acre basis.

What is the overall goal for your operation?

Ethan – More vertical integration; raising more bushels off of the current acres that you have – spending X dollars and getting the most dollars out of that. For example, if we can spend another $50 an acre on irrigation to make more corn, that’s the cheapest money you can spend.

Mark – We just need to get more efficient doing what we’re doing.  Next options down the road would be maybe some more irrigation and a grain elevator with higher capacity driers, higher capacity unloading, bigger bins and more storage. But as far as more acres, we’re probably maxed out on the tillable acres available in the area.

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