SharkFarmerXM's podcast
David Ringer 8-16-24
Unstoppable, unshakable, but it rolls out for town unfreakable, it's unavoidable. You're so relatable, re-between the lines, start to loosen up your mind. Hey, welcome again to Shark Farmer Radio, hey, I'm your host Rob Sharkey, we are live today in Illinois. We're at the technology days, learning all sorts of things about corn and/or soybeans. Are you talking anything about wheat here? We do, but not much. Yeah, there's no reason to really. Really no reason here. We believe in corn and soy. Well, we'll see if the markets do. Amen to that. And I are here enjoying ourselves talking to all sorts of people, getting ready to eat lunch, aren't we? Yes, absolutely. They're so efficient with that lunch, but yeah, lots of buggies going by, everybody's doing the tours, finding out what's going to work on their farm, what might not work in central Illinois, what didn't go over this year and what did. It's nice. Everybody's packing the tents, they want the information, so I love that. Talking with a David Ringer, David, what's your official title? My official title is Training Innovation Manager, which is a really bad way to say that I'm a public presenter for all things Bexhybridges, so I'm in front of employees, customers, dealers. Every day it's anywhere from two to two hundred people, just depends. So you don't like people? No, at all. Yeah. No, they're mismatched here. They're all sold by them, but it's okay. So you're from El Paso, Illinois. This is home. I grew up here. Really? I did. Did you grow up on a farm? I did. Yep. Not row crop, though. Livestock. Oh. Because row crop, I don't know why you would deal with a living oink or moo at you. It doesn't make sense to me. Why would you grow livestock here? This ground is ideal. It is, but seven miles that direction, straight south, you get into the Mackinac River Valley. Oh, there you go. You cannot grow crops there. I mean, you can, but cattle like it better. Is that cattle? That's what you're raising. It's principally hogs. And then we had cattle and performance quarter horses. Quarter horses. Oh, nice. So did you show? I showed, did a lot of barrel racing and team penning and, you know, that kind of stuff. Timed events. And then when we grew older and I own, we got into team roping, which is a blast. You do the header of the feet both at once, man, you are good. It's efficiency. All about efficiency. But no, principally I did the head side because my brother-in-law who roped with me was a healer and my dad was a healer. It's harder. This is how the professionals say it. It is easier to be an average header than it is to be an excellent healer. I don't know what that means. I don't either. They say it. I just repeat it. But I would say that you can get lucky and catch one heel or foot. But to catch the head, you got to have a flat loop every time and repeatable action. So how much practice did this take? I mean, are you out there like every night practicing and then traveling on the weekends to competitions or what does that look like? We didn't travel, but most guys do. They jackpot is what they call it. But for us, it was just we had our own rope and arena. We had our own cattle. So we just dropped tailgates, have guys over, have a good evening and open. For me, though, to learn the art of roping, I was taught by a very wise man, Clint, who said, until you can catch the dummy out on the horse, you can't get on the horse. So I had to, without missing, you had to catch the dummy steer, which sounds bad, but catch the dummy. Like the plastic one. Yeah. A hundred times in a row. Not your neighbor. Not my neighbor. No. He's a good guy, actually. What to U of I? I did. That's Illinois. University of Illinois. Yup. Okay. The University of Illinois. Yeah. We've heard it. Yes. Hi, family. How's it going? That's my younger sister. That's your younger sister. There is no way that's the same genetics. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. What did you major at U of I? I was in agricultural economics with a focus in finance, agribusis finance. So what? After that was 14 years in the risk management world, where I handled all manner of risk. So we ensured a lot of large corporations, medical malpractice, aviation liability, did home and auto as well. But our primary focus was large commercial risk. And that was in an agency in Gridley, Illinois, Paul Lane. Sounds boring. It was everything but, because nobody ever calls you in a good mood. That's what I was going to say. They're always in a crisis, right? They lit something on fire, or they wrecked something, or a tornado hit their business. Or they crashed their plane. Crash their plane. What kind of farmers are you talking about? Yeah, these crashed their boat, their bass boat. That too. Which we were proud to ensure many a bass boat. Yeah, so very, what I would call dark occupation, because you're always in a crisis. People are never buying insurance with the intent to use it. You hope you never use after you buy it. That's pretty strange. It doesn't have a new policy feel or smell either. I don't know. I've got some policies I wouldn't mind cashing in on. Amen. I understand. As would your lovely wife, I'm sure there's a policy or two she'd cash in on. Wow. I'm just guessing. It's just a guess. You've been married for 26 years. Yes, sir. Whew. Where'd you meet Kate? We grew up as really close friends. So church together. Your friends. A range. A range marriage. I was in the friends marriage. But you arranged marriage. Did you give her a dowry? There was a goat or two involved. She was bribed. Well, how did it turn from friendship into seeds of romance? Excellent question. It all took me leaving town absence makes heart grow fonder. I was her shoulder to cry on and when I wasn't there anymore, she really she actually maybe kind of needed me. I don't. That's a strong word. Yeah. But if she I'm sure she would not use that word. No, she'd be like, you know, you were less annoying when you were gone. And so then I probably still proposed and she said, yes, we never dated. How about you? When you left, did you find that, hey, oh, man, I miss her? Well, I knew I was going to marry when I was nine. I told my dad. And it's all from church. See? I said, she had not your dad talked to her dad pretty much some goats. They worked together. What did your dad say when you were nine and you said, I'm marrying her? What was his reaction? Do you remember? Do you guys talk about it now? Yes. But all right. Ho, ho, ho. We got to go to break. I want to hear this story in full. All right. Today, we're talking with David Ringer. And now he is from El Paso, Illinois. He's a training innovation manager at Beck's Hybrid. We'll be back right after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. That's Common Ground.io, that's Common Ground.io. Hey, welcome back to a short farmer radio. We are live in El Paso, Illinois at the technology days. Make sure you get to your network, get to Atlanta, Indiana next week. That's right. If you missed today. Three-day show. What days are those? Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah. And the weather's supposed to be phenomenal. Today's phenomenal. You can't ask for better. Last year at Atlanta, it was not. No. It was a little brutal. It was very hot. Oh, my word. It was very, very wet. So I think it's a thing. A farm show, you never have two bad weather years in a row. We hope not, because it was rough, yeah. So we left everyone on a cliffhanger right before we went to break. Because I said, I said, "Okay, you turned, David, and you looked at your dad when you're nine years old, and you're like, I'm going to marry her." What was his reaction? I was in the back seat of a Blue Mountain Nental. This is true story. I loved this. And he looked up in the rear view mirror, and he smiled real big, and he winked. And then, ten years later, when I told him, because I was 19 when I proposed, I said, "I'm going to propose to Kate," and he said, "Yeah, I knew you were right back then." Aww. Yep. God. God's good. Everybody but Kate loves that story. That's very true. Five kids? No. Only three. Three? Only three. Oh my gosh. Five's a good number. Oh, there might be a fiance in there somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. So we do have one that's engaged, one that's married, and one that's still hanging around for free food. That'll happen. Yeah. It's a part of the process. Still in school? Still in school. Yeah. So why? Illinois State. Wow. I mean, you did raise them right. Not of a champagne, because I don't know what's happening down there, but it's not the school I went to. I don't think any of them are. No. They're not. But that's another. We have a red bird in the family. We have two red birds. So that makes things really good at a holiday, right? It does. Yeah. Yep. And we can always find plenty of merch to give. They're happy with whatever we give them, they better be. So the past eight years, you've been at Bex. Is that right? Yes. It'll be nine years. Actually, coming right up. It'll be nine year anniversary. You show up to work and what do you do? That is also a very great question that I keep a great secret. What I do here is so it doesn't do anything. Pretty much. He just runs around with his head cut off. Everybody's like, this guy is busy. He must be busy. Yeah. But if I'm not preparing for a presentation, I'm giving a presentation and if I'm not giving a presentation, I do a lot of one on one mentorship for employees and dealers. And so the phone rings and it's somebody who's having a personal crisis or they're having a work crisis or a financial crisis. And I'm just there to listen, provide some good advice. So like what are you doing presentations on? We teach from a 30 page course catalog. You name it. We teach on it. So finance, business finance training, education on personality assessments, a lot of psychology training, sales training. And you do that? Do it all. Ha. We could do it for free for you, too, just because it's OK. Yeah. We'll do a pro bono. Not that I need it at all. No. But one look at you. I knew you could use some help. So I'm here for you. And yeah. So you name it. We teach it. Have you always been able to talk? It's been a problem. You're the youngest sibling, aren't you? I am. Since you're your sister's used to dress you up. That is actually true. I know. Your friends told us. Yeah. That's a true story. Three older sisters. I left a toilet seat up only once. Yeah. They don't like that. Oh, that's not cool, man. No. So that was the last time I ever did that. I won't tell you the repercussions from that experience. But it also taught me a lot of valuable lessons about how to treat a lady. And so I'm forever grateful for my sisters. They say the youngest siblings are the communicators. This is true. Yeah. What do you think that is? We had to survive. And especially I'm going to be sexist here, but it's for us when you have sisters. It is way worse. Yeah. You guys have that in common. Rob has five older sisters. You understand? You have three. That's why I'm asking. I'm letting you. Yeah. He knows what hand me down clothes are like. To be dressed up. Uh-huh. Yeah. Did you have to play Barbies? I used to play Barbies. It was a no, it was more a smart fat type of thing. Oh, sure. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah. It's rough. And, you know, I think you bag and roll down the stairs a couple times. There was violence involved. There was no violence from me. Very loving sisters. I don't know. I mean, I got wonderful. Spanked by him plenty. But that was because I deserved it, so. So do you like what you do? Love what I do. It's the best job at Bex. The variety. I couldn't-- That's the job at Bex. Oh, hands down. Oh, really? Yeah. I cover seven states or a portion thereof. And so I'm on the road quite a bit, which is a bit of a drag, but it also allows Kate some time to be away from me, which is probably to her benefit. Yeah. Exactly. And I get to come back and then pass out because this is home. I have an office here, but typically on the road. So do you consider yourself like HR? We are a part of HR. Absolutely. Yeah. Nobody likes you then. What's the HR? Because everybody hates our HR division. Look at it. I'm getting agreement from the crowd. Nobody likes you. So Adam would come. He's a liar. Number one, it happens to be my boss's spouse, but so there's a good relationship there. Hopefully. It's interesting. The HR department at Bex has a completely different reputation than any HR department because we're here to serve. We're not here to catch anybody in anything. We're not here to penalize anyone. We are here to serve. Okay. We take that approach. That's different. I hadn't thought about it that way. Totally different. People usually run. Oh, David, we can't hit dinner with us because he's HR. Bingo. It's going to catch us having a margarita or something. We're probably doing things we shouldn't be doing as much as they are. So it all works out. And yeah, no, Bex, it's a service industry. Actually, all the other companies that we work with, we've heard from their HR departments. Yeah, that's because they don't, because you've never listened to this show. That you talk about like one-on-one. I mean, you even said like if somebody's having a personal emergency or you know, issues or whatever, you'll even get into that. Absolutely. So are one of the classes that we teach. And this is the whole reason I moved out of sales leadership at Bex was to join the education department. Scott Beck said, "Hey, I want you to just go class for our employees and dealers and customers. Are you interested?" And I was a youth pastor, a bi-vocational youth pastor for 20 years, so I said, "Sure. Let's do that. My dad's a preacher. My grandpa was a preacher. I'm more than happy to get paid to preach the word right now." Your third generation preacher. You bet. Although I don't have that title at church, which is great, because then I don't have to stand up there Sunday and think of something to say. You can sleep. But that's why we got into the education and bins the door then for those personal challenges. For people who are struggling with whatever that's going on in life, they know I'm not going to share it, and they know I'm going to be just someone who will listen. All right, I've got more questions on this. We do got to go to break. Emily and I are here live in El Paso, Illinois. We're doing the technology days. Make sure you make it to Atlanta, Indiana next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Their technology days are free ice cream, there's free popcorn, and I think they're giving out some auger carts and trucks and trucks. The only way you'll know is if you show up, we'll be back all right after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io, that's commonground.io. All right, we are here back at El Paso, Illinois, we're at the technology days. Emily and I are having a great time about to eat. They got what steak today? Pork chop today. Yes, and everybody's so darn nice. That's what I love working at technology days, because it's just fun to sit down and talk with people. Except for the people we interview. Well, they're just mean and rude. David Ringer is the, what was your title, training, what is it? Innovation. Trading Innovation Manager. Do you make that up yourself? Actually, this is a really good story about it. The two guys that started this role, their names were both Tim, and so they wanted to make the acronym match their name. Can you believe that? Oh my gosh. Yes, I came out long and hard about T.I.M. and what to come up with, and so they came up with that. So thank you, Tim, Nukem, and Tim Rao. Tim's. You're not going through an ash all day, so we don't have war in the world as well. Is there anything cool about El Paso, Illinois? Yes, so El Paso is really the birthplace of hybridized corn. Lester Feaster was one of the creators of hybrid corn. I don't know that he's the sole creator of it, but he was a huge part of it. A big part in it, yeah. Huge part in it. And so this is the home of Feaster hybrids, and which is no more, unfortunately it sold out as a brand. Where'd they end up going? Set up here. It was originally purchased by a woman to get this wrong now. Dow. Dow is the one who bought it out, and then it transitioned the name where merger. And so they used that as a subsidiary brand for a time. Yeah. And that, unfortunately, that brand is now gone. Iconic logo used to have the old cloth bags. I mean, still to this day, especially in Illinois. It's really popular. Absolutely. Yeah. So if you ever want to, there's a museum dedicated to Lester here in town, right in our library. We're learning a lot here about corn, soybeans. What's going on with the rootworms? I thought we were done with those. I was hoping we were, but sadly not, our regional agronomy manager, John Skinner, just showed me footage yesterday what rootworm damage is happening in northern Illinois. This is the I-80 corridor. Yeah. Not good. They are feasting on our roots. And so I kind of want to like close my ears and start singing. I don't want to hear this. Because of the incremental rainfall we have received, thankfully, and the blessing of good GDUs, nothing's fallen over, no wind events to speak of. So let's find something to knock on and pray that that doesn't happen because they've been feasting on it. So it's a problem. So it started farming, it was all, you had insecticides, right? You had force in, what was it? Atrazine. No, it was force and Aztec. There you go. Yeah. Everybody was on every single corn acre that was going in there. And then, you know, you started rotating and then those little critters, they started feeding on the beans, I don't know, they started laying their eggs on the beans because they knew the corn. Yep. How are they figuring this out? I'm, we could figure that out, you and I wouldn't have to, you know, do this anymore. So that's for sure. Beyond a beach somewhere. We would be on a beach somewhere. Are we going to have start putting insecticide again? Let's start with fully traded corn first and see if that does the trick. And then we might have to get a little more creative. Well, a lot of, a lot of guys getting away from it because it's a lot cheaper and the pressure was way down. Correct. Is it, is it, that's probably not helping. No. We need to just be really focused on digging some roots here this fall and you don't have a problem. Sounds like a lot about it. A lot of work. A lot of work. Get some traded corn. I won't. I'll know I have a problem when a windstorm comes here. Yes, you will. How many years has it been since you fought rootworm? Oh boy. It's, I mean, think back like, it would have been like in the like 2005ish area. And again, it depends on your location. We've seen spikes and valleys in the pressure, but even here locally, it was, I want to say three years ago or four years ago, we noticed it across the interstate here. And it was a real problem. Well, keep it here. I don't want it. Okay. We'll do that. All right. Thank you. For you. You're on a mission to show the world, Jesus, through say, through serving others. That goes back to your, you know, 31 years as a worship leader. That's correct. Yep. So lead worship of my local congregation and then a long time in the youth ministry and Jesus is the only thing that's going to fix our problems. And so that's why not show people that him, not that, but you work at Beck's I, I doubt I would be a part of your job anywhere else. I know you can't really say that, but no, you're absolutely right. It's true. It's an unbelievable opportunity because not only can we openly share our faith, but then I can use it as a part of that mentoring because it's so critical when helping someone little difficulty or a financial challenge to refer them back to the truth of the word. And that's the foundation from which we can learn from. And without that ability, I wouldn't know what to tell people to do. I guess just be nicer. I mean, what kind of an answer is that? So you went to U of I and you were in finance. So did you have to go to school to be a worship leader or is that just years and years of practice and, you know, being around your dad and grandpa and was it? Yep. I learned from two of the best in the business. And then it was just a matter of at the ripe old age of 2021, the church voted me in and that position. And yeah, 20 years later, I said, guys, it's time for me to hang it up. I'm too old. Do you play an instrument? I do not. I just say my son Mason can play about anything he wants to. But boy, I've tried to play the guitar several times. It is not my gift. All right. We got some Bible trivia questions for you, right? Oh, fire it will. No, I don't. Oh, man. I was all excited. Kevin was going to help me. I'm sure. Are you the type of guy they can hear a verse and you're like, oh, yeah, that's Matthew 21. I can't do that. I know it's in there and I can usually quote the scripture, but the exact location is a struggle for me. Yeah, for me too. Yeah. I've got a dozen or so that I keep right there. But beyond that, I know some of those people could just, oh, they're good. Knock them out. For example, shout out to Byron Stoller, that guy. He's got the whole book memorized. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. I doubt that. Well, it's only 1,300 pages. I mean, you know, I don't see why it's a problem. Look to the book of numbers and see how he does or a back, I mean, come on now. Working at a company like Bax doing what you're doing, it's got to give you a good sense of like accomplishment. When you go home at night, a lot of people, what I had to do today, but you, you're different. You are actually out there trying to help people in this company. It is a very unique feeling because we're not only helping customers, but we're helping farmers and we're helping friends and family and community. We're encouraged to be a part of and help anyone if we believe firmly in. So here's one I do have memorized. Second Corinthians 9, 6, the more we sow, the more we will reap. And so I'm going to help any farmer, whether he's a Bax customer or not help any community member, whether they farm or not. Last night I spoke to a group of ladies at the Catholic Guild in East Peoria and 27 ladies. I don't think any of them have ever farmed. They wouldn't know corn if it leaned over and smacked them, but they needed somebody to come and give a little inspirational message. Happy to do it. I have people want to find you, social media or email, do anything, where would they go? Email is really the best option because me and social media are not friends. That's just to taxing and I don't have any of it other than. But David Dot-Ringer, David Dot-Ringer at Bexhyberts.com and there's two Gs in Ringer. One in two Gs. One in two Gs. Okay. But I'm an open book, email me anytime and happy to help in any way I can. Okay. Well David, we're here. Hey, thank you for the invitation. This was a treat. It was. I mean, not necessarily for Emily and I. No, I understand. It was definitely a treat to have you on. Seriously, congratulations on what you guys have accomplished here and you being a part of it. So your coworkers have a lot of good to say about you besides the fact that your sisters used to dress you up. All right. David, I don't want you to go anywhere because Sean Hayden is coming up next. He's a Canadian. Ooh. Yeah. Did he have sisters? No. I dressed him up. I'm pretty sure he did. But he's learning English, so here we go. We'll catch everybody next time. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]