(rock music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

I'm your host Rob Sharkey.

Today, we're live in Nevada, Missouri.

(audience cheering and applauding) I'm really glad they clapped.

'Cause he can never tell.

I've been watching one guy, especially.

His name is Brad back there.

I think he's half asleep, but we're doing okay.

- We'll keep going.

- All right, we're thrilled to be here.

Thank you very much.

Today our guest is Keith Conraty.

How you doing, Keith?

- Very well, thank you.

- [Rob] Yeah, you're not from here though, are you?

- I'm not, no.

- [Rob] Where are you from?

- I'm from Batesville, Indiana.

It's southeast right between Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

- Okay, what are you doing here?

- I support my customers like Record Harvest that do a good job for their clients.

And I don't drive 5,000 miles in one week for anybody, but for them, I will.

- Oh, that's nice, that's sweet.

- Yeah.

- We are here at the Record Harvest Customer Appreciation Days.

Who do you work for?

- Meristem Stem Crop Performance.

- [Rob] Yes and you are a master agronomist.

- Correct.

- I mean, is that like a certified thing, a master?

- Yeah.

- Or you just call yourself that?

- Somebody made it up for me, I don't know.

- It's like a Jedi, master Jedi?

- It sounded good on paper, right?

- Okay.

But I mean, so does that make you better than a regular agronomist?

- I guess it depends on the crop.

- [Rob] It does.

And what crops are you mainly looking at?

- So mainly corn, soybeans, wheat.

Gets stretched out every now and then into cotton and just whatever guys want, you just break it down into monocots and dicots and plants physiologically act similar depending on how they are constructed.

- You're trying to sell stuff now, aren't you?

- I didn't mention a single product.

- Yeah, you're getting in their head.

(audience laughing) All right, Keith, since we're doing a live show, we're gonna do something a little different.

We're gonna have a little Q and A, a little quiz.

And what we're playing for is a very special prize, Shark Farmer coasters.

Now these things are made of pure 18 Karat Gold.

Or Slate, I'm not sure which one, but hey, these things aren't cheap or free, but the table will get a set of them.

But we're gonna bring up Aaron Klassen.

All right, Aaron, come on up to the microphone.

And Aaron, where are you from?

- I am from Hutchinson, Kansas.

- [Rob] Hutchinson, Kansas.

Okay, and you work for?

- Record Harvest.

- Record Harvest.

Are they a good company to work for?

- Eh, some of them at least.

(audience laughing) I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

Good group of guys to work with.

- You're just kidding on a live television show.

(audience laughing) - You never kid, do you?

- Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron will be looking for a new job after this.

(audience laughing) All right, Aaron, are you a smart fella?

- (indistinct) You ask.

- I'm asking you.

- (laughs) I don't know.

(audience laughing) - We're gonna ask you some questions and you're gonna be playing for a table.

Do you have a table picked out?

- Yes, I am going to play with Jason Austin's table back there by Augmenta.

- All right, raise your hand where you're at.

So that's your table.

You guys are playing for a set of these, all right?

And you know how these, they go on a TV show, right?

You say that you gotta get three out of the five right.

And if even if you don't get it, they always give you the gift, right?

Not today, no.

(audience laughing) We are gonna give these away.

Now if Aaron gets three outta the five right, you guys get them, but we need another table.

So we're just gonna go with the table that's gonna make the most noise right now.

(audience cheering) We're gonna go with them, yeah.

Yell at your name.

- Jerry Blythe.

- Okay.

So you guys can help him out.

'Cause these aren't tough questions, but here's the thing.

Somebody can trump his answers and it's you.

- Good enough.

- Just confusing.

We'll just play.

It'll be fun.

All right, Aaron, we're gonna start with an easy one.

You ready?

- I guess.

- Are you ready?

- Yes, I'm ready to go, Rob.

(laughs) (audience laughing) - What's the tallest mountain in the world?

- That'd be Mount Everest.

- That's correct, Mount Everest.

So you guys got one, yes.

(audience cheering and applauding) Yeah, not looking so good for you, guys.

All right.

Let's get a little tougher.

What is the world population within seven people?

(audience laughing) What is the world's population within a billion?

- I think it's 6 billion.

- You can help him out if you want.

- [Aaron] 6 billion, that sound right, guys?

- Hang on, Google.

- No, you can't google.

(audience laughing) Yes.

Okay, he's gonna say 6 billion.

Are you gonna supersede him?

- I'm gonna go higher, Bob.

- What?

(audience laughing) - [Keith] Right.

- Okay, well, what are you gonna say?

- I'm gonna go seven.

- You're gonna go seven.

- Go seven.

- Can I change my answer, Rob?

- You got superseded.

I can't do anything.

The good thing is that he got a point for you.

It's 7.9 billion, so you got it within a billion.

- All right.

- Yeah.

(audience applauding) Got gotta use that price is right strategy, right?

- Are you looking at the answers?

- I didn't know the answer's wrong on there.

That's nice to know now.

- All right, Aaron, you aren't doing so good, but we're gonna keep trying.

- We'll give it a shot.

- That table has two.

If they get the next one, they get the the coasters.

- You guys think I can do it?

(audience member speaking faintly) - Okay.

If I went to the Nevada Walmart and bought a gallon of 2% milk, how much would it cost me?

And we will give you a 50-cent swing either way.

- Today's price?

- Yes.

As of last night.

- I'm gonna say 4.09.

- [Audience Member] No, no, no, no.

- [Speaker] You gotta say that.

(audience laughing) - He says 4.09.

- [Audience Member] Six, six.

- Do you supersede him?

- I'm gonna go with his team's answer, yeah.

- Six, you would be wrong.

3.22 is the price.

2% milk.

You were wrong too.

(audience laughing) All right, a point for you guys.

It's looking good.

Okay.

Are you ready?

- I guess.

- Tell me the names of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

You shouldn't be groaning.

That's not a hard one.

- I didn't watch "The Ninja Turtles."

- [Rob] So you're not gonna do very well.

- I'm not gonna do well on this one.

I know Michelangelo.

I know Michelangelo, that's one.

- Leonardo.

- Leonardo.

- Donatello.

- Donatello.

- Raphael.

- Raphael.

- Michelangelo.

- And Michelangelo.

- You got it.

And you do win the coasters.

I'm sorry, guys.

Congratulations, yes.

(audience laughing) So Aaron, I would say a subpar performance by you.

- I warned you, it wasn't gonna be pretty.

- So yeah, but people usually say that and you're like, oh, they can't be that bad but here we are.

(audience laughing) Thank you, a round of applause for Aaron.

(audience cheering and applauding) All right, Keith Conraty, were you a farm kid?

- A little bit.

We had a very small farm that we worked on off and on in between lease agreements and stuff like that.

- Okay.

You went to, where'd you go to college?

- Purdue University.

- Oh.

Oh, okay.

That's the boiler makers, isn't it?

- Yeah, we got a pretty good basketball team right now.

- I suppose.

What degree were you getting?

- I got a degree in agricultural education.

- Okay, well you were wanting to be what?

Ag teacher?

- The thought process that time?

Yeah, was a very heavily involved in FFA.

My dad was an ag teacher.

Went to college and that was the target was to take over his program and he was ready to retire.

- Okay, were you like really involved in FFA?

- Yeah, I really didn't have a choice when I was- - You were forced to being involved.

- I wasn't forced, but when I was 15, my dad said, "I'm not gonna let you get your learners permit until you learned the FFA creed."

And that was motivation.

I learned the creed and found out I was good at reciting words and started winning some competitions and got involved and that just kind of snowballed.

- Okay, let's hear it.

(audience laughing) In the future of... - It's been a little bit.

I believe in the future of agriculture with the faith borne of words, not of deeds.

- That's all I remember too.

- Okay.

(audience laughing) (Rob laughing) Can you still fit into your jacket?

- No.

- Yeah, I can't either.

- I was a smaller guy back then, no.

- Was it fun though, growing up, being involved in FFA in Indiana?

Did it take a little bit away that your dad was the teacher?

- No, he was a teacher at a different school.

He was in a very big school.

I went to a very tiny school.

I had the same math teacher for three years in a row.

And it wasn't the same math class, it was just, that's how small the school was.

- Did you flunk twice or what?

- No, I progressed.

It was just the same teacher.

That's how small of a school it was.

- Okay.

All right.

So you got your degree in Ag ed.

How did you end up here?

Did you not go into teaching?

- No, I got my degree.

I taught for a very short period of time, but during college, I got involved with internships and seed production.

Worked for Monsanto Research, did some sales.

And about halfway through college, my dad said, "I don't know if I'm gonna be ready to retire by the time you graduate."

And I said, "That's okay 'cause I'm kind of really getting interested in production agriculture."

- Oh, you were gonna take over for your dad?

- That was the original intention, yeah.

- Gotcha.

You said you saw a gap between what was actually happening on a farm and what was being taught.

What do you mean by that?

- Yeah, so I just saw a transition and I saw it at the university and I saw it at the different schools I was at when I was teaching class to these kids and I had your younger kids that were introduced into agriculture.

They all had to take something.

And then I had the advanced kids, I had an AP college course and the content of what I was teaching wasn't necessarily what I was doing at the farm gate or what we were experiencing.

You mentioned traits and refuge and roundup ready and nitrogen and it wasn't something that was the foundation of what kids were learning in school.

- Do you ever regret not going into education?

- No.

You know, I really enjoyed it.

Of course, enjoy the kids in the atmosphere, but education has changed and I really don't know if I was still a teacher, how I would handle it.

Because it's not so much about memorization and being able to reverb the content on demand.

It's about learning how to access the information.

I tell people all the time, I don't know everything, but there's always a person or someone I can lean on where I know how to find the information.

And that's where we are today.

You don't have to know everything, you just have to navigate where to find it.

A lot of the answers are, are in our pockets on our phones.

You just gotta know which source to go to to find the correct information.

- Okay, I don't wanna get off on education too much, but I kinda have to because that is something that's almost a little controversial because a lot of people did learn with just a straight memorization.

And they're like, we always have that in our mind now.

Having the other way of, I think of like the new math and some of the older gen, like a guy like Tom, he's always complaining about kids not memorizing stuff and I...

He's doing okay.

Yeah, okay.

Do you think it is important to teach a kid how to learn instead of necessarily that straight memorization?

- Yeah, it's a skillset they have to develop.

You have to learn how to find the correct information and glean that.

I mean, you know, when I was in college, they told you don't go to Wikipedia 'cause anyone can edit that stuff and you might be getting the wrong information.

Go to the books.

And the reason we had to go to the books back then was because the books were tried and true and proven.

Now we don't go to the books.

It's a skillset they have to learn.

Memorization is still an important thing to learn, but just memorizing content is not the end all be all answer anymore.

- I went to Wikipedia to get those trivia questions.

- Yeah.

- So who knows if they're right?

- So you guys might not be getting your coasters.

(Rob laughing) - You married?

- I am.

- Where'd you meet your wife?

- At college.

- Okay.

Was it like some '80s movie where you saw her across the room and?

- Yeah, I didn't stand outside of her apartment with a boombox or anything like that.

- I don't think that works.

I think that's stalking.

- Yeah, nowadays, yeah.

No, we just met through a group of mutual friends.

- Yeah?

So it wasn't love at first sight?

Come on.

- Yes.

When does this air?

Yes, it was.

- How long you been married?

- Eight years.

- Kids?

- Yes, two boys.

- Really?

How old?

- Four-year-old and a 10-month-old.

- Oh, man.

How are you even awake right now?

- It's pure willpower.

- Of course, you probably weren't at home last night, were you?

No, I've been here on the road with a Record Harvest talking to their group of guys and as much hard work as that is, it's a different kind of hard work than being at home with the boys.

- Yeah.

Well, you know, working for a company like Meristem, you want to get your product and the advice out there.

It does take a lot of traveling.

Is that hard with the youngsters?

- Yeah, it is.

It ebbs and flows.

Everyone's at a different point in their own career of having young children or maybe having the kids out of the house.

And so, everyone you work with understands that and knows.

There are people that can do the long travel and the flights and all over the place and there's people that have a little bit more of a difficult time doing that on a consistent basis.

- Yeah.

What'd you bring us here?

What is this thing?

- This is a new product to market.

- It's like a battery.

- It does, yeah.

A lot of people have said that.

That was not by design, but what we tried to accomplish was bringing a new product to market using an old method.

Looking at planter box treatments, tout graphite as a delivery system.

A lot of products are coming to market but they require, I need you to add this to your planter or put this system on or make this investment.

And we looked at what is something that we can do where we can still deliver the newest, latest and greatest technology.

But it will work for every planter out there and every- - It's a bucket.

- It is a bucket, yup.

- What's it do?

- So we start with our foundation of an 80-20 tout graphite base.

- Okay, and we are talking to a lot of people that aren't involved in ag.

So like, to get the seed blowing around and the tubes and that, it's gotta be lubed up.

- Yup.

You gotta put a powder substance in there to make sure that the seed flows through the system appropriately because seed placement for growth and maximized production is extremely important.

- I dump it when I put the seed in.

Overhead, I dump it and then I get this nice little, it's like a spray tan.

- Uh-huh, yeah.

You gotta be intentional when you use it.

Now that we're looking at it as an investment, it's not something you wanna go just throwing into the wind.

- It's not free, is it?

- It's not free.

- This stuff's expensive.

- It can be expensive.

We kind of had to, when it comes to tout graphite, we had to back engineer it 'cause everyone you asked, what do you spend on tout graphite per acre?

Nobody knew.

None of us knew.

We just kinda had to really get with farmers and go, okay, how many acres did you plant?

How much did you buy?

How much is left on the shelf?

And just do it backwards.

- It's almost a little disappointing that there's not much in it.

Because it looks like it should be something, I don't know, cool.

- Yeah, this is a prototype.

We started actual production on this last week, but it is really cool.

This is an idea of what it will look like, but we keep the products in the base that do the lubrication.

We added zinc to the base for corn and then we can keep the newest, latest and greatest biological products in the top and keep them separate, keep them fresh.

- You should give this to that table that didn't win anything.

- Yeah.

(laughs) That would be up to their representative from Record Harvest.

- I don't think you're getting it given to you.

(audience laughing) But is this even for sale?

- It is for sale.

- [Rob] Yeah, everything's for sale.

- It is for sale.

We did a production plan, put it together and the interest has just been through the roof.

And guys look at this as an investment they can make on their farm.

That makes a lot of sense.

- [Rob] Gotcha.

- Fits a lot of acres.

- You've been involved in other startups too.

I mean, what have you learned from all that experience?

- Yeah, so, starting my career, I worked for what we called the big six back then and they were established and working in seed.

And the industry's changing.

There's more and more outside investment coming into agriculture.

There's more and more companies that see potential within agriculture that are doing startups.

- Non-ag companies.

- Non-ag companies.

Well non-ag backgrounds that look at agriculture and say "There's an opportunity there.

There's something that we can bring to the table.

We might not be exactly sure how we're gonna make that work, but we see an opportunity and we're gonna start."

- That's what I want.

You think we could do that with the show?

Just, I mean, I don't care if we're like not telling the truth.

As long as they're sending us some money, I think that's... - I mean, anyone that's recent news.

- That'll fit in, right?

- Yeah.

You can start with a pile of money and figure out the product or service later.

And there's quite a bit of that out there.

- Do you see it?

Because I mean, people in agriculture, farmers, ranchers, I mean, they know this business, but when you're selling probably what we've been doing for years off to a non-farm entity, do they sometimes get caught up in that and that's why they're dumping in money in maybe old tech or something that obviously we know isn't gonna work?

- There's just a big learning curve.

I see a lot of companies look at logistics and think we can reinvent logistics or we can make logistics better.

And it's really tough.

Not saying it's impossible, but there's certain hurdles that I see companies stumble on very consistently, almost predictably on.

This company's going to run into this wall and this is where they will make their adjustment in the future to address that, if they haven't already.

- I will say I think farming's a little more unforgiving to a person like yourself.

Not you per se, but someone in your position.

If you were trying to sell in agriculture something that you knew wasn't going to be making the producer money, but farmer's pretty unforgiving on that.

- Oh, for sure.

This business is not something that you can just, it's not a call center.

We're not selling stock.

I live in the community where I sell and Record Harvest is a part of this community and this culture.

And if they don't have the best interest of their customers in mind and they're not making their customers money, this room wouldn't be full of people.

You have to be legitimate, you have to be honest, you have to be well-intentioned.

And that just begets more trust and grows everyone's business.

We can all make money together.

- Okay.

How about some easy questions?

Are farmers cheap?

(audience laughing) - This is the easy question portion?

- [Rob] Someone wrote it down.

- I think everyone in every aspect can be cheap to a certain point.

But I know some very wealthy farmers, there's a lot of guys.

- It doesn't mean they aren't cheap.

- That's what I'm saying.

I know some very wealthy farmers that have done very well and I've never picked up a tab for lunch themselves, so.

- Nor should we.

How about stubborn?

Are farmers stubborn?

- For sure, yeah, no question.

- [Rob] Yeah, yeah.

Are they a pain to work with?

It's just fun.

(laughs) (audience laughing) - I'm not gonna say a pain to work with because someone can say, well, they're a pain to work with.

No, they hold you accountable and they ask difficult questions.

And that's not being a pain, that's doing your job in vetting the person or the process or the product that they're trying to convey to you.

- Yeah.

I'm messing with you because honestly, it entertains me.

- I get it.

- Yes.

But I have had a chance to talk to some people with Record Harvest and some farmers too.

I mean, you seem like the type of person that is very concerned about being upright and honest with farmers so that they know what they can expect.

Because for a person like myself, a farmer, it all comes down to profit and bottom line.

- Yeah, I mean, it's just really important.

It's agriculture.

So you're not gonna be right all the time.

Your product's not gonna win all the time.

Having a 70% success rate is above the norm, but all we can do is go off of the information that we have and make the best decision that we can at that point in time that we have.

- Did you know that it was called Nevada and not Nevada?

- I learned that very quickly once I got here.

- Did you say it wrong at a dollar store?

Get looked at weird?

- No, I listened to enough people say it before I opened my mouth.

- Yeah.

(audience laughing) I don't know if they told you, but I did the jokes here.

- Okay.

(audience laughing) (Rob laughing) - Are you on social media?

- I am, very limited.

- Really?

TikTok?

- No.

- Okay.

(Rob laughing) - There's more social media than TikTok, but that, I do not participate in that.

- Well, Meristem, they've got like a website and stuff, right?

- Oh yes.

That is a platform.

I mean, there's all kinds of platforms, but it's not my source of news or entertainment.

- You don't remember their website, do you?

- What, our website?

- Meristem's.

- Yes, meristemag.com.

- Is it really?

- Yes.

- Okay.

That's would've been funny if you would've forgot it.

- No.

I feel like you're trying to set me up here.

- Oh yeah.

Obviously, you've never seen this show.

(audience laughing) Do you watch PBS much?

- No, I don't.

- You're you've got kids, right?

They got Burton, Ernie and Big Bird?

- Yes.

- Did you ever watch "Sesame Street" growing up?

- I don't believe so.

I think we only had three channels on the antenna, so I don't know if we had- - Well, PBS was always one of them, It's a station you never wanted, but it always came in clear as a bell.

(audience laughing) - Yeah, I don't.

(laughs) I don't remember.

When you only have two channels or three channels that come in when you're a kid, you don't spend a lot of time watching TV.

- Says a lot about you, honestly, Keith.

No "Bob Ross"?

- Oh, of course, "Bob Ross."

But that was later on in life and those were reruns.

"Happy Trees."

- Okay.

I would like to see a show of hands.

Okay.

If you've watched this show on a semi-regular basis, I want you to raise your hand.

"Sesame Street."

Not many.

"Bob Ross."

Even less.

"Red Green."

There you go.

All right, we're definitely dealing with "The Red Green."

- That's a good show.

- I think that's about all they had.

Oh, "Mr.

Rogers."

He was a good egg.

Yeah.

Do you remember that song?

- Not the song.

♪ It's a beautiful day in Nevada.

♪ - Keep going.

(audience laughing) (Rob laughing) - I would like to thank you for sitting up here and taking abuse for however long we've been up here.

- Anytime.

- Yeah.

You saved one question and then you lambasted another one.

So I think that's about a wash. Kinda like this interview.

- Yup.

(audience laughing) - Even keel.

- All right.

Anything you would like to say to rural America before we have to head off?

- No, just appreciate everyone coming out here and seems to get tougher with more decisions year in and year out.

A lot of white noise out there, and make sure you have a good, trusted advisor that you lean on for advice and decision-making.

- Yeah, I would agree.

I have used Meristem products on my farm.

Very successful.

That would've been if we didn't have a 90 mile an hour hail storm that came through and destroyed where I sprayed it.

- At the end of the day, that'll change things.

- Yes.

Keith Conraty, thank you for being on.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(dramatic music)