Saving the American Farmer: A Legacy Farmer Documentary

[Music] oh i just i'm just a point in my um our operation we i ran out of time i i was on the truck full time and trying to run a hundred head of cows and run the feed lot and doing everything by myself and then a new report from the cdc says suicide rates among american farmers is higher than any other occupational group oh geez over a thousand acres shy of what i would need to break even for this season and i was just i didn't know how how the world i was even gonna make cash flow this year and so i was like i gotta figure something out according to the us department of agriculture u.s farmers are struggling financially as well the average farm's income projected to be about 35 below what it was in 2013. i was just feeling honestly just truly lost completely lost i really didn't know what to do but at the same time you knew you were made for bigger and better things [Music] markets haven't gotten any better really haven't changed much last year more than 2 700 dairy farms went out of business in the us spending a lot of time by myself from you know i'll wake up and he's gone and then crop prices are down across the board with dairy in particular facing huge cuts in the price of milk such that dairy farmers are earning less for their milk than it costs them to produce it crunch farmers can't reach the credit that they need to operate their farm and farmers right now are trying to just make it through another day and they're not sure if they'll make it through the year many are faced with yet another tough financial forecast as corn and soybean prices remain low which means less money in farmer's pockets so loneliness is a for sure a factor and that's just the reality of the industry the u.s dairy industry is struggling profits have been sucked out of producers operations harvest seasons i was home handling everything by myself right low prices are worldwide that's just one of the factors by dairy farmers we turn now to a video that is bringing attention to the struggles of america's dairy farmers we literally work day in and day out all the time for nothing you gain nothing we've gained nothing [Music] teeth pride that's too funny man one stop light uh tribune kansas these are my roots family still lives here my sister and brother-in-law farm my parents live here my dad works for chs my mom works at the courthouse right over there she's the county clerk there so the majority of these towns are just gonna have one truck stop that's it he's explaining things to us what he's doing and i think he just was not going to let it happen to him he was the one that was home with us he saw the daily struggles that we went through [Music] now we're rolling up on the feed yard just being able to organize and kind of be the one in charge meant something to me and to have that all gone to was really hard so the trigger overdrive today yeah it is even after you know it's been 15 years now but still really emotional [Music] and i know it was hard for kevin because he had never had to do that work for somebody else or go find a job on his own or whatever the house right that's the house when we first moved it in out there so the house that we grew up in that's what it first was and then added on added on added on over years in here because cattle would come in i'd help push them in stuff like that but my granddad started this back in the 1950s with literally literally a handshake deal with a banker to get a small loan to get started and uh built out something that was big built out of family operation thing is it was a true family it wasn't just my granddad it was his three sons two daughters all involved in the operation my dad spent 40 years here at the feed yard building this guy loved feeding cattle that's what he loved to do that's what drove him [Music] there was so much passion and purpose being out here and just living this lifestyle and doing this every day and that's what he loved it was hard for us to lose it but [Music] he was in his 70s when that happened so it was really hard for him too [Music] it's been a long time but it's still really emotional you felt like you put in uh you sacrificed a lot and you put in a lot to make the business successful not only for yourself but for your family and for the other families who were helping us out there too and it wasn't always easy on our relationship either so here i am at our old family feed yard uh feed yard that my dad spent 40 years of his life building and as you can tell it's all empty it's a wasteland it's deserted [Music] it was 2005 when the financial destruction hit this place my granddad lost a lot of money feeding cattle fed all of his own cattle and as most of you know watching this video that's when volatility started to hit the markets we started to see a lot you know a lot more volatility in the prices and everything unfortunately my granddad lost a lot of money lost a lot of cattle and that ended up in him losing everything ended up in my parents losing everything [Music] i was with them when they had to pack up the house [Music] the house that they raised their entire family in i was with my parents through their transitions over the next two years in the dark years so to start from zero back in the 50s and 60s to grow to a 10 plus million dollar operation to pass away with nothing i mean yeah following that experience i did what everybody does went to college and after college i became an ag banker and i was a loan officer this was great for me because now i was able to put together the financial piece of why this place went under the decisions that are being made when it comes to the financial side of these operations and honestly the things that are not being said to farmers and ranchers today by the people that are running the finances behind it there's so many things that aren't being said brutal truths that need to be said because people need to understand what's at risk and what i'm showing you behind me and all around this in this wasteland this is what's at risk this is what it costs for you losing [Music] everything i witnessed my parents go through the darkest period of their lives 40 years that my dad worked out here ended up with nothing all of this gone because things are not being said and the bank showed me it showed me what happened showed me the decisions that are being made the amount of money that's being put at risk the things that just aren't being said [Music] i was working with so many clients that were in such tight financial positions we had record prices in 2012 everybody's making a pile of money on livestock and grain and then prices start to roll over and all of a sudden people aren't ready for this they're not prepared for this and i had so many difficult conversations with clients up the bank and these people would sit across my desk as i'd sit there collect my salary you know be safe be comfortable and i'd sit there and i'd look at these people and i would see the same look in their eyes that i saw in my parents eyes the fear the doubt the confusion on why is this happening to me i've been doing this for years for decades why is this happening to me [Music] and it got to a point where i was done i couldn't do it anymore because i wasn't solving the problem in there i wasn't even helping the problem again there were things that needed to be said there's stuff that needs to happen and the reality is if we don't start talking about the real things if you do not start facing the hard truths inside of your life inside your operation inside your business and just inside of doing the same doing things the same way you've always done them if you don't start changing this is what you have coming for you this isn't a joke this is people's lives this is decades of hard work out here this is generations of families that won't get to take over the family farm operation won't get to experience this lifestyle my kids will never get to know this because of the decisions that are made my wife and i we i have a small family three boys and we have a small operation around 30 cows and i work outside of the farm my wife works outside of the farm um and we have a small sale every year but uh just mainly it was cash flow it it just seemed like we were always spinning our wheels we were just stagnant nothing was happening um and in looking at your program we've seen it on online and looked into it talked to you a few times and finally it just came to fruition that needed to do something um i guess i just got tired of setting up is what i pretty much felt like [Music] so right now [Music] if you're resonating with this if this message is hitting home with you then most likely you're in a position where you're either ready to burn stuff down because you're too stressed out the emotions are too high the financial risk is too high the family life and every dynamic that you're dealing with is too stressful on you i get it or you're in a position where you're just losing your rear end financially losing money year after year after year you just see equity getting eaten away off your balance sheet your bank are just terming out your losses again and again and again and i share all of this with you because this is what's going to come for you if you don't start changing things like this is the reality coming for you it will not be good it will not be easy you will go through some of the deepest darkest pits you've ever been in and i witnessed that i felt that i was with my parents when i went through that my dad ran this operation for 30 years 15 to 20 employees running a multi-million dollar operation to losing it all two weeks later driving trash truck for the local county [Music] like that's a darkness that you really don't want to experience it that's an identity that leaves a man now that i've gotten older i really understand it and the weight that he felt not only that he led himself down but he let his wife and children down too not because he wanted to that's just the reality of the world that we live in and this is what's coming for you if you don't just change things if you don't open up your mind just do it take the leap of faith yeah it was like oh but i don't regret it one bit [Music] that it would be well worth it because in the end it is i mean we find other ways to pay for things we don't need and i feel like everyone needs this any farmer or rancher they need this just to put their life in perspective of what it could really be yeah [Music] i mean i just felt the confidence boost and you know just the knowledge that i'd gain joining your group to make the decisions to move forward and to start really scaling our operation and building what the type of operation we want to have but watching his confidence grow and watching him um be like yeah i can do this these are products that i believe in these are things that i know that people out here need and now i have the tools to help me learn how to get my message out there and how to not only better their operation but at the same time i'm earning a better living for my family as well losing ground year after year the bank is owning more and more of everything you have year after year and you will end up walking away with nothing if you do not shift the way that you operate on a day-to-day basis the actions that you're taking and just the way that you do things i get home in the evening and i can spend a few hours with them and we eat dinner as a family now and it's really made our connection together a lot stronger [Music] our relationship together is last three and a half months or whatever it's been i think is a lot better than what it was before um with the kids i mean everything [Music] join it's the best thing that we've ever done i mean it's helped us around all all the way around i mean even personally i think even um our marriage i think we do this together as a team you know we're on the same page for everything the business it's the best thing we've done uh i would recommend it to anybody if there's if there's one thing it's the ability to think the ability to take action and the confidence to get out and do it yep um you know i paid twice as much money for anything in the program to have access to what we have access to we're just so thankful that jace has gone through what he has and he's now willing to walk the walk and put it out there for other people to try and make their own way and and make their own lives better so that those that come behind them um can have something to be proud of and to build on it's life-changing you know there's reason that this video has come across you you were searching or looking um to make some changes and this is the it's the real deal um not only is it gonna give you tools for your family it's gonna give you tools for to grow your business and to grow um as a couple to grow individually and if you you know if you're looking for something this this is the thing me and my husband did the same thing for 10 years and when we found this we were like should we shouldn't we and as soon as we dove in we have never looked back we have never questioned this investment has paid us back i would say tenfold this winter alone so you see how simple it is to connect with our community now we have our own network 170 plus farmers and ranchers inside of it from all across the u.s everybody dealing with the same things everybody coming together and talking about the real problems real challenges getting clear on what exactly worked inside of their operation for the week and getting clear and where they're going going forward in the following week asking questions looking for things talking about real conversations and real challenges and real problems for dealing with family and on the operation [Music] and then finally coming to a place where they can actually talk about the real that nobody else wants to talk about around them inside of our network everybody working as one this is how simple it is rolling rolling down the road inside of your truck and just being able to hop on and connect with other like-minded people and talk about real things real problems and real challenges that you're facing on a day-to-day basis and getting honest feedback and clarity on how to solve them and how to keep moving forward because you and i both know what the cost is if you don't start taking actionable steps forward that produce the results that you want people that have like grown up in the parks that's in them it's yeah that's just what they from the very beginning that's that's what they're doing so when i when i say that they'll go until the end they will go until the end if you don't surround yourself with people that are talking about the real problems that you face on a day-to-day basis inside your personal life and business life i understand that we were taught training conditions to keep them separate you and i both know that doesn't exist problems in the personal life bleed into the business life it's inarguable so farmers needed a path they needed a gateway they needed a place to talk about the truth they needed a place where somebody would be brutally honest with them not sugarcoat everything like they're getting from everybody in their community because nobody wants to make them feel bad i'm not here to make you feel bad i'm here to awaken you to make you aware of what's to come as things don't change if you continue doing the same thing year after year after you're expecting different results it doesn't happen it doesn't exist you have to change you have to adapt you have to do these things and inside a legacy farmer that's what we're doing billion dollars that's half of what it was back in 2013. don't just take my word for it there's over 170 farmers and ranchers from all across the us inside of our network working together collaborating moving forward as one and solving these problems because i've made it aware to them they're clear what's going to happen to everything they've built the decades of work the years of sacrifice the fights the arguments the financial risks the sleepless nights everything they're very clear and they're very awake on what's going to happen if they don't change which is exactly why they're inside a legacy farmer [Music] [Music] i'm excited to hear about more about you i'm excited to hear about your operation your family i'm excited just to get to know you but ultimately the biggest thing that i'm excited about is the decision that you make whether or not you're making the decision and the commitment to start changing things to start doing things differently to change everything about everything you were taught to believe growing up because that's the shifts that we're making people are transforming inside of our network they're transforming how they operate on a day-to-day basis they're transforming their relationships with their families and ultimately they're doing what we're all here for which is to build the legacy that they want the real one that can't be taken away from you because of things that you don't control like the weather like the government like prices people are taking control and then we're providing the training the framework the accountability and the clarity of the step-by-step process they have to go through to get to where they want to go control protection that's all we're talking about that's what we all want because everything that you and i do is for the generations that follow let's not forget that i guess to really know their businesses to stay in touch with what's going on especially on the financial end of it the hardest part to face is that you know my kids will never get to enjoy this my nephews will never get to enjoy this my nieces will never get to experience this these were a lot of the fun years of my life just being raised on the farm really it's pretty hard looking at it and seeing it amount to nothing because it was a lot more than just money that went into it like there was a lot of pride the work the decades just commitment man a lot of people they don't have it but you do that's why you're watching this that's why you connect with all this i get it like you understand what's at risk you understand the amount of work it takes to create this and to build this lifestyle that you want for for you and the kids going forward and the generations going forward i get it like that's probably what i missed the most about all this is it was real it was fun it was good times but god obviously had a different plan for us a different plan for me [Music] maybe it was his purpose or his plan to make it my purpose to awaken you to share the story to share what's going to happen to share what could happen to you if things just don't start changing because all the family memories all the the real stuff that you're building what you're building for the years of work ethic that you're putting into this like the real stuff not just the ego of having a big operation i farm x amount of acres but because you want to leave it you want to build something to the next generation take over that they can feel the pride that you have and just be proud too you know a lot of what you're doing right now you're doing it because one you want your parents to be proud of you but two when your kids take it over you want them to be the ones saying yeah my parents built this my dad built us like that's let's be honest that's what really really drives you that's what drives me i don't care what business you're in if you're an entrepreneur just trying to build your own thing and you're taking all the risk you're working just a relentless number of hours and endless number of hours like you're doing it because of that and i get it and i understand it my dad did the same thing i'm doing the same thing for my kids the thing is is right now you have the opportunity to leave something like this behind my opportunity already left [Music] foreign [Music] this about money i just want a fair cut you know consumer tastes have shifted and many [Music] farms [Music] i just want i just want my family to be happy [Music] more than 440 times you

Channel: Jace Young | Legacy Farmer

Views: 54,343

Keywords: Legacy Farmer, Saving the American Farmer, Ag Documentary, farming, farmer, farm, ranching, rancher, ranch, ag, agriculture, cattle, cattle farming, crop farming, row crops, Jace D Young, Kansas, legacy, protection, ag business, bussiness, tractor, leader, leaders, leadership, farmlife

Id: 77dmDoEwF3U

Length: 27min 29sec (1649 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020