Joe Peiffer on the Big Show 5/27/2021
Shareholder Joseph Peiffer got to chat with Andy Petersen last month on The Big Show. Listen and read below:
Andy Petersen:
We’re going to talk the business of agriculture here for a little bit on The Big Show today. Joe Peiffer, good Big Show buddy. Ag and Business Legal Strategies is the name of the company. Of course, we’ve been visiting with Joe on certain legal challenges and issues several times, but Joe, Ag and Business Legal Strategies is much more than the legal component. It gets into all aspects of the business of agriculture.
Joe Peiffer:
We spend a great bit of time working with our farmers, helping them understand their business, making sure that their business model is profitable. Our chief financial strategist, Keith Starr, was a commercial banker for over 30 years. He’s spent a lot of time working with farmers. He understands balance sheets. He understands cash flows. He helps our farmers focus specifically on their cash flows and their finances. Farmers that we have come in that have not got a plan, generally end up doing the same thing over and over. And people have said, if you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result, that’s Einstein’s definition of insanity. So if you’ve been losing money several years in a row, it’s time to change that trajectory. It may require a liquidation of assets. It may require better marketing or all of the above.
Joe Peiffer:
Sometimes you’ve been kicking the can down the road so darn long and so darn far that you don’t have options other than to make decisions you’d rather not make. You might have to downsize your farm. You might have to reset things. Do you have too much equipment? Are you not being efficient? If you don’t examine those things critically, how are you going to move forward? It’s too late when the banker comes up and says, “We need to have another farm just so you can keep your operating loan.”
Andy Petersen:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joe Peiffer:
If that happens, what you’ve got going on is the farm, the banker’s seeing problems in your financing operation. He sees problems there, he’s going to be protecting himself, as he should. You better be protecting yourself, too.
Andy Petersen:
Absolutely. And one thing that kind of resonates with me, I guess, with you guys, is you don’t need to be taught farming in order to help out, in other words. You’ve got a cool little feature on your website, too, the basics of farm finances.
Joe Peiffer:
Correct. We’re just going to be launching Farm Financial Basics, and Farm Financial Basics is going to examine the farm mediation. It’s going to examine, how do you think about cash flows. It’ll examine different types of bankruptcy that may be available. Obviously, we don’t want people in bankruptcy unless there’s no better option. Unfortunately, many of our farmers have backed themselves into a corner by not making the changes they should have made a long time ago. And since they’re in a corner where they may be required to sell substantial assets, that means, generally, substantial tax. If you’re going to have substantial tax when you’re selling the assets and you don’t have the money to pay it, Senator Grassley and Congress came to the rescue within Chapter 12.
Andy Petersen:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joe Peiffer:
It is the most powerful chapter in the bankruptcy code, and it allows farmers to sell assets used in the farming operation and not have to pay the taxes in full if there’s not money to do it.
Andy Petersen:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Ag and Business Legal Strategies strategies is the name of the company. And one of the cool things I think, Joe, is you’ve even got a dedicated room for John Deere enthusiasts and Oliver enthusiasts with your conference tables.
Joe Peiffer:
Not Oliver. We didn’t get to Oliver. We’ve got John Deere, Farmall, and Allis-Chalmers.
Andy Petersen:
Allis-Chalmers. There you go. I’ve seen them all. And I guess maybe Oliver’s next, huh?
Joe Peiffer:
We have to grow a bit before we’re ready to add an Oliver room. Not saying I have anything against Oliver. Just I picked up the three basic lines that were on our farm, and we have conference tables made out of recycled barnwood, and we also put in different parts from various tractors to hold them up.
Andy Petersen:
Joe Peiffer, Ag and Business Legal Strategies. Thanks, Joe, as always, here with us today on The Big Show.
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