Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth continues family business in her love of numbers

Paul Yeager: Hi, I'm Paul Yeager This is the MtoM Show podcast to production of Iowa PBS and the Market to Market TV show. Again, I want to say thank you to those that contributed at our recent pledge drive, we do say thank you. And your gift allows us to continue to do work like podcasts like these and programming we used to say, dollars equal programs, that means much more than that. Now, it means an opportunity for me to talk with someone and say, Alexandria, Minnesota, which is what we did today with Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth, she's a market analyst, commodity broker. The one that, like a market analysts that you'd see on our TV show, that is what we do is discuss the commodity markets with a new voice and see what Kristi has to say, from her spot, which is between, say, the Twin Cities and Fargo almost halfway in between generations that have been involved in her family business, it's maybe not the farm, but it's everyone who works on the farm trying to make money and market a crop. So we find out what does she think in the next three to six months? And what are some of the biggest issues facing those commodity markets. That is what we discussing her as well. In this installment of the MToM Show podcast. I always like to ask anybody who studies commodities works with them? What's your alarm set for?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: My alarm is set for 545

Paul Yeager: Sleeping in to 545?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yes, hi, partly.

Paul Yeager :is that because you just went to bed at like four.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: You know, mostly it's because I wake up throughout the night and roll over and check the markets and then roll back over. And so it's a bad habit that I probably need to break to a degree. But it is kind of just one of those things I got used to throughout checking the markets throughout the night and seeing kind of the movement. And sometimes you catch those big movements in the middle of the night. 

Paul Yeager: So that is always in everybody's different, you know, might be I get up at 330. And I write and I just What prompted you to get into this and not sleep a full six or eight hours at one time.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, so it's in my family. So my grandpa started the business. And then my dad took it over. And now I run it with my brother in law gym. And so you know, growing up, I never thought I would do that I was interested in finance side of things. And you know, the older I got and approached it, I really fell in love with the relationship side of things and ag business. And it's just so unique. And it's really a great opportunity to do something different. And so that's kind of how I stepped into it. And I always remember back in the day, my dad would be constantly talking about it, and it'd be hard to understand exactly what he was talking about. And now I feel like when I talk to somebody not involved in agriculture, it's that same kind of blind, their face kind of goes blank. And they're like, Excuse me, what do you do? What are you talking about? So it's something I've been dealing with for my entire life. And I love doing it. I've been doing it since 2009. I got an ag business degree from North Dakota State University. And I never looked back.

Paul Yeager: Alright, we'll get more on your background in a minute. You just said something really funny there. What is the strength? What is the phrase that gets the biggest strangest reaction when you said that some people look at you kind of funny.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, usually when they ask what I do for, for a job, and I'll just kind of say that I work with farmers and I help them price their grain and, and livestock and they look at me and they say what do you mean, you price your grain and livestock and you get to this big deep conversation about how you advise them and how you talk to them and build those relationships. And then they want to know exactly how you do it, whether it's cash, and then you get into the cash side of things. And that gets confusing for them. And you try and switch over to talk about futures and options. That's just as confusing to them. But it's a fun conversation. And I think that's the biggest thing is being able to talk about the relationship side of business and how you can really feel like you're part of making something better and strategically planning for something.

Paul Yeager: You You mentioned helping folks and talking about cash and futures. Is there one that you like working with over the other cash or futures?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, I mean, cash is king, right? That's the best thing about you know, these markets have gotten a pullback, but overall, you're still at profitable levels. And so it's fun getting those really great cash side and I think also the unique ability to educate producers on it's not just cash separating futures separating bases, and those are tools that I think are such a baby step for them to be able to learn into and really make a they can make a huge difference in their operations just by focusing on that. So obviously futures and options are very fun to trade. I like to kind of play around with positions to kind of find that best fit timeframe cost wise. But I think that really just focusing on futures and bases can make the biggest upgrade for our producer.

Paul Yeager: You said your dad was in this business?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, so my grandfather started it, and 1987. And then my dad took it over. And he retired. And I run it with my brother in law, Jim. So it's always a family business, we get a lot of questions. You know, it's hard running a family business. And, and honestly, we work very, very well together. My dad has been retired for quite some time, but he still follows the markets. And honestly, we always get text messages and emails from them and kind of saying, Hey, did you see this? Did you check out this? And I think it's his way to be retired, yet not bored. And now he gets to be involved with all the fun decisions without the consequences, so to say,

Paul Yeager: is this all in Alexandria?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yep. So we're all in Alexandria. And there's seven brokers besides, you know, including Jim and myself. And we all work together as one team. And it's actually really fun. It's a fun dynamic, because a couple of the guys that work with us actually farm on the side as well. And I think that's the biggest thing is, is you can separate the emotion, but you still have to account for the emotion, right? And so it's nice to have that where we can say, hey, we need to be looking at these sales right now, we need to be approaching this. But knowing that maybe it's a timeframe like last spring that was hard to get in the ground, or those ones that farmers are really reluctant. It's nice to have a couple guys that work with us that are also feeling that pain, and questioning their decisions as well to be able to kind of get a gouge on where you are as far as the the emotional side of things.

Paul Yeager: Did you ever think that instead of cash and futures and options and positions you wanted to actually be in the field and get your hands dirty that way? Did you ever think about being a farmer, no. And

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: finance is always my thing. I love math, I love numbers. And in fact, a couple years ago, I really got to see the agronomy side of things. And it was so fascinating to see that. So I think if you looked back at who I was, as a high schooler, I would have said no way, but now actually seen it seen the agronomy side of things, seeing all the cool technology, and really the care that you put into growing a crop. That's really fascinating to me now, but numbers, math, accounting, and finance, that has always been my thing.

Paul Yeager: Do you have one of those photographic memories that you see a number and you can remember a position in 2009, when you started or 2012, or 2018, you're like, Well, remember, in December of '18, we hit this and you didn't even have to look up in a notebook.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: You know, it's not, it doesn't come to me quite that. But I'm very good at pegging situations with what was currently going on around the market, you know, I'll never forget, I have three young girls. And my first pregnancy was 2012, which was the hottest summer on record. And I was due at the very end of summer, we got that big rally due to the drought conditions. And I'll never forget being ready to be done. And it was Fourth of July, and it was 100 degrees here in Minnesota, which doesn't happen a ton. And I was like This heat is never going to end and it was constant heat the rest of that way. So it's situations like that, but I'll get back to things. But overall, yeah, it's just crunching numbers, figuring that stuff out. And really just looking at a bigger picture side of things, you know, I've always loved to kind of play around with things and make something fit into the best kind of personal preference.

Paul Yeager: When you see a USDA report, and you see that, well, they took 2 billion here and moved 2 million there and six over there, you can instantly compute the other end and know what that really means. And you can translate it.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, as long as you take the emotion out and be like, why would they do something like that? You know, but, you know, you sometimes have those questions, you know, I think you see the fluctuations of it, you know, you look back and I'll never forget the January report when USAA chose to come in here and decrease bean exports. And I kind of was caught off guard by that. So you kind of look around those numbers, and you can kind of see how they play with numbers. That's what's happening right now, when you look at demand, it feels like they're like doing the tango between exports and crush right now to try and keep us above 200 million bushel carryout, but it is that fascinating number to kind of see how everything computes. And, and, you know, looking at today, just looking at where we are first spring crop insurance price and looking at years past where we've been able to get to post that, you know, I think there's a lot of some panic around right now that these markets are kind of dwindling off and settling in here. And coming back to that data. I love coming back to that as a reassurance point. Obviously it's it's never the same, but it does give you that little bit of effort.

Paul Yeager: You mentioned a motion. There's a lot of producers that will tell me that, well. I handle it all or there's some that say no, no, I hand it off. To someone who just looks at numbers, and takes the emotion out of it, where does emotion play for you, in analyzing markets and being able to advise clients the best?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, so emotion is this huge, huge play in this market, you know, not only for producers, but also people in my field, right. And so I think one of the best things that happens for us as far as making decisions is, when we're making decisions, and you're unsure about your crop, how it's handling it, I don't have to drive by your crop, right? I, you might send me pictures, I might see it on social media, but I don't have to constantly be driving by it, I don't have to be making those decisions about is it worth it to put the additional fertilizer down or not. And so just removing that side of things makes such a big difference. And I'll never forget, also, you know, you were told to look at a chart and not know what that chart is. And that's just that way to take that emotional side of it. Because, you know, I might have this deep down bias towards corn doing a specific direction. But if I don't know that I'm looking at a corn chart, and I'm just analyzing it, how it is that makes such a big difference to kind of take those emotions out of it. So I think it is easier. Emotion does get the best of all of us, I think that's just one thing we're so used to. And honestly, sometimes that emotion is one of the best things you can you can have to it's not always bad. It's just you have to make sure with your emotions, you have check and balance.

Paul Yeager: Well, how do you consult a client to have checks and balances and take out some emotion? I mean, you're kind of saying that maybe I should have some. But how do you take? How do you tell me to take it out?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah. So for example, I had a conversation today with a producer that wants to be long beans, and I can understand that concept that we're well off of where we were a couple of weeks ago, we're well below crop insurance pricing, you look at kind of the profitability levels that we were at March 1, for maybe planning some acreage numbers, I can understand that. But you need to also say, hey, we need to draw that line in the sand saying that if we get below this level, we're not going to be part of this anymore. And we're willing to risk that amount and that amount only. And, you know, kind of that same situation, when you look at cash in bases, you know, basis has really picked up around our neck of the woods throughout the Dakotas for corn. And it's really driving through the ethanol sector right now. And so they're not happy with the bottom line as far as cash goes, but the basis is, is obtainable. And so I think that's one of those things that you can take the emotion out and say, Hey, let's, let's sell it, let's take cash on hand. And if you really, really do believe that this market is going higher, you can look at other strategies behind it. And I think anytime you can take some risk off the table to a degree, but still make both sides happy. Me being risk management, then being thinking it's higher, you know, you kind of find that middle ground, and you can you can cope with it either direction.

Paul Yeager: And it's always easier said than done. Yeah, for sure. I mean, and then you can say, Well, why did I not see it this way? And why did I, the podcast that released today? As we record this? He had said, Well, you know, whenever I sell the market usually always moves higher, right after. So I can be of service and make money by announcing I'm selling today. Somebody else can make money. How do you talk someone who says Christie, this is what I should? This is what I'm thinking? And you're like, Yeah, go for it, that go for it. And what you didn't want to have happen over here happens? How do you talk the client? Down a little bit? 

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, I think communication is key. So that's one of the biggest things that I'm you know, I think most of the time, I talked too much to a degree. But I think the biggest thing is taking you know, that conversation and saying Do we understand the risks do we understand if it does this direction, we're not going to be mad at ourselves, because we walk through every step along the way. And we know that if we're going to have a move in one direction, it's usually going to end up giving us an opportunity down the road. And I think that's the biggest thing is not to dwell on the past as much. And that's, you know, as a company, when we kind of talk through things and work through things. One of our biggest sayings that we always go through is failing forward, right? Something doesn't work, but it's always going to give you the opportunity to learn from it and move forward and hopefully better yourself. So you're failing forward. And and that's the approach that we really harnessed and on and approach and, you know, there's been some really difficult days, but everything gives you a learning opportunity. I think as long as communication is key. I think everyone's going to understand at the end of the day,

Paul Yeager: talking too much. That's my job.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, I talk so much.

Paul Yeager: When you look at a market, we'll just start we'll just say with corn for instance. Are you always a technical person when you mentioned charts and positions? Are you strictly a fundamental part So, or where is your balance? And how does it change as the year goes on?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, so we actually kind of look at four things, fundamentals, technical seasonals. And then where you see investment flow, which is a little difficult right now, because we're a little backlog done on CFTC. But we look at all four of those. And I think each one of us has their key that they love. So I love fundamentals. And I think, fundamentally, that's just tied to my love of numbers, I love hard facts that I can say, Hey, hold on, we're at this carry out. So this carry out should mean this. And I like having that kind of strict nature to it. But, you know, six years ago, fundamentals meant a whole lot more than they do now. And you need to adapt, and you need to learn with it. And technicals have the ability to take over a market for a very long period of time. And so I'm slowly getting a little bit more into the technicals. But I definitely have guys in the office that focus a lot heavier on them, you know, looking at positive and negative divergence looking at, you know, your extensions. And I, I also think that it's so great to have people on the right seat of the bus, right. So if that's what they're focusing on. And that's what they love, utilize that and build off of that with another pillar that you can make it stronger. And I would say I love fundamentals the most, but they really all have their chance to shine and matter the most for the markets.

Paul Yeager: Let's go back to 1987 when the company started, how different is the industry? Because there's plenty of farmers who were farming in 1987? Who might say, well, that's ridiculous what you're saying I've always abided by this, and it's worked well for me.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah. So that's, that's a conversation I get to have very frequently with my dad,

Paul Yeager: that's what I was leading to is like, what do you and your dad talk about? Yeah, so

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: that's a conversation, I get to have a lot with my dad, because my dad is hardcore fundamentals. And that's, you know, that was the era that he grew up in. And that was all that mattered back then. And the markets didn't move enough to make a difference to say, technicals had a place to play. You didn't have algorithms, you didn't have outside influences as much. And so it's kind of a fun back and forth. You know, sometimes we do get a little bit heated and say, you know, my dad is very much on that fundamental side and give me like, No, you know, I know, he grew up in Iowa, he knows a lot of people that farm still, and he'll see their pictures of their crops, and he'll drive down, and he'll get bored. So he'll go on a mini crop tour where he just drives around can see, you know, what else does he have to do when he's retired and, and he'll just talk about, you know, the crop looks fantastic, or the crop looks disastrous, and that will swing his mood in one direction or others feeling and that will kind of influence him to say you should be looking maybe at some more protection, or you should be lifting some of your protection. And we can come in here and kind of marry the two of them and say, it's not the same as it used to be it just doesn't always matter about conditions.

Paul Yeager: Okay, well, I'm gonna ask about your clients for a moment, just the sense of, are they within two hours, four hours, six hours of you?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: And my parents, no,

Paul Yeager: no, your your, your clients?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Oh, yeah. So I would say majority of my clients are from southern Minnesota throughout the Dakotas. So a lot of them are heavily into the Dakotas, specifically North Dakota, North Dakota is like a very unique, like, I feel like North Dakota has the chance to really be such a key feature in agriculture. And I think it's made such a big impact already with the sheer amount of acreage that it's grown. But really, when you look at like renewable diesel, the plants that are going up, the one that should be online here in this fall, that plant that's going up right now in spirit would North Dakota, if it runs at full capacity, it will chew through a quarter of all beans grown in North Dakota. And so it's really fun to be kind of on that forefront of seeing some really fun, exciting future of agriculture in North Dakota has really stepped up to the plate. So it's it's fun to see that we don't matter as much right? But it is fun to see.

Paul Yeager: But that's that's where I'm going I guess Christie is okay, so you have a client in Bismarck, for example. And you have somebody in southern Minnesota, we'll just for the sake of argument, say Rochester, we're 12 hours apart from money each other, their differences are different. Their needs are different. Their weather patterns can be completely different. How do you help the producer and say Rochester, Olmsted County, understand what's going on in Bismarck and how the two are both related and apart and how your position here needs to be a little different than the position down there because that's a pretty wide gap and a lot of things can be very, very different.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah. And just your ability to grow a crop is a lot different between those two areas. So a few years ago, North Dakota like completely dried up, it was absolutely disastrous to look around and see the crop and see the, you know, a lot of their corn didn't even have cubs on them. It was absolutely heartbreaking. And it was so hard for them, you know, to talk through them and see, you know, what kind of their crop was going through what disasters were out there. But you weren't seeing it necessarily reflected into the market, right, you still had some suppressed prices. And it was hard to tug them away from each other when they want to be as bullish as bullish can be. But you know that some of the key areas are having good growing conditions. And so you have to remember that it's still based off a whole, right the whole US growing regions, but you need to tailor it to a degree and that's me not to beat a drum. But focusing on the basis side of things is one of them. But they are completely different even though you're involved in them. But most of the time, it's it's so struggles of saying, Man, everyone has a good growing area and mines bad or sometimes you're on the lucky side of that, right? You got all the gravy bushels and and you had a disaster somewhere else. And it's reflecting and, and so that's a little bit better to deal with those times. But it definitely does have to relate to itself.

Paul Yeager: I think a lot of producers get stuck in backyard itis I mean, oh, in my county, it looks like this. That means the whole area, it's super dry here. And we're gonna keep producing in our county, therefore the rest of the market must be down. How come it's not responding? I can't tell you how many times we get that question during a growing season for the program is you know, it's super dry where I'm at. Again, it goes back to you have to think of the larger picture. All right, as we record this here, Kristi, we have a couple of weeks between when we are talking to when this will hit the air. So I just want to I want you to know that in the last few minutes helped me out through this planting season to mid growing season. Let's just start with wheat. What do you see as a couple of big factors influencing the wheat market for the next three to six months?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, when I look at wheat, we got quite the surprise in January of a lot of winter wheat acres planted more than we were really expecting. And I think the biggest question moving forward is are those winter wheat acres going to actually stick we know that we've had really poor growing conditions, we're going to have much better insight once we start getting those weekly updates from USDA on crop conditions. But that's going to be the biggest thing for me to watch is what do we see with winter wheat? Does it stick around with the high acre numbers because what acre number we got from winter wheat really is going to pull some some numbers from the other ones you initially were thinking big corn acres. And once you saw that kind of question it also, when you look at spring wheat, I know it's not the biggest market, but it doesn't pencil. And we know that it needs to stick in a rotation to a degree, but it really does not pencil and you're looking at the Dakotas through west central Minnesota with a lot of snow cover on the ground cooler temperatures. And when it comes to planting corn is king corn is very profitable. And I think you're gonna see producers start to try and get corn in as fast as they can beans and then probably go to wheat and say, Hey, what I get in is what I get in. And so I think the fundamentals behind wheat want to be extremely friendly. You look at kind of the world dynamic, you'll get the carry out levels that we're at right now. But it just cannot seem to get up and going. And so I do think that we're going to have its market to shine we see manage money is extremely short week complex, especially Chicago wheat, I think it's going to but it's kind of like that ticking time bomb, right? When are you going to get something to get it moving. And I do think once you see that, it will be able to really find its ground. And usually we can be a leader of the pack when the markets want to go. That's what I'm hoping to see. But I think that first has to come with a change in winter wheat air acres, the the talk of kind of coming in and switching some of those acres or poor planting for North Dakota and west central Minnesota.

Paul Yeager: It's 2023 gonna be good for corn.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: You know, I'm actually okay friendly on corn right now. But I have serious concerns that if we get this crop in, you have the potential for a very, very large crop. And so it's a it's what it's cool in a lot of areas, we're a ways off from really making it a huge deal as far as planting goes. But if that corn gets in you have the potential for some very, very large numbers. And until recently, our demand has been really poor for corn. And we finally saw China's start to step in and look at corn and buying corn more aggressively from the US but it was a dry spell for a while on the demand side of things. So we do need to see that stick around. I think that you're going to have a lot of great opportunities for corn, but I get nervous. If we can get this this crop in the ground in a timely fashion. What that would mean for last have June into the rest of the summer.

Paul Yeager: You mentioned you had a client that wanted to go long on beans kind of get the sense you were trying to talk that person out. So not feeling the love for soybeans here.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: I won't. Yeah, no, I actually really like beans, I just, I'm a person that needs to have a risk tolerance in there, right. And so I'm actually friendly beans, I don't think that you probably got the acre number you needed to get. You had a relationship, just that strongly favored corn and so many aspects. And we see the writing on the wall for what could come for demand structure from soybean. So you look back to trade war era where we got ourselves in, we really had all our eggs in one basket. And I think we've done such a great job at diversifying our demand structure. And as long as we can keep that crush margin and you see kind of the renewable diesel ideas on the wall, I think that your demand structure could be very, very friendly for soybeans. And I'm just not sure that you're going to see the acres planted that need to now that all depends on Spring, spring weather, right. But I if I had to pick the between the two of them, I'm more friendly beans and I important.

Paul Yeager: Okay, you know, how we say all bases is local. It's like politics, when you're mentioning the new biodiesel plant going on. Online, those in that area are pretty excited. But then there might be somebody in an ice state who's going, Yeah, but China's not buying or Brazil is the big seller. And ah, what do I do? Again? What do I do?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, so you know, basis is strongest for beans up until the January February timeframe. And then really, it's dictated off crush and we've seen crush kind of back off to a degree. And that's been one of the hurtful thing is that right? When you caught a lot of people bullish on this upswing of beans, you started to see this basis level deteriorate. And we saw China kind of step away. And we know that Brazil is going to have a good crop, we've recently seen them start to have estimates that increase their production numbers. And so you get a little bit nervous on that side of things. But we know that China has an appetite for beans that you're going to need those those multiple growing, I think the biggest detriment to beans would be what happens if you start to see China and Russia start to get more involved with each other. And then in Ukraine, I think that's the biggest thing that no one can plan for. And that's something that you need to have your you in the back of your mind. But it's not something I think you need to really focus focus on quite yet. So to me, I think the crusher is strong enough. I think the bean demand is strong enough. And I think it's going to be there, but it's a big wildcard when you look at it.

Paul Yeager: Livestock-wise, is there, one that sticks out to you is that you want to cover first year, you want to go live cattle, you

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: want to go feeders, either one works for me.

Paul Yeager: Alright, what do you think live cattle, we have this continue to run on high prices at the grocery store, the consumer doesn't seem to be backing away the fork from eating the beef. But at what point does it get to be too much? In the press?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: I think that is a big question that you have to ask is when you step away, and when you look at kind of where money supply is for the US, we still have plenty of money supply on so you want to talk those inflation numbers and you get a little bit nervous that you could see buyers step away, I think that you still have a lot of money to spend as a producer post COVID, you're obviously going to start pinching the the lower class and middle class when you talk about inflation. But we seem to be looking at this situation where we continue to raise interest rates. And we're kind of getting the job done. But it's not changing anything. And so I think moving forward, that's going to be the biggest question is, at what point does it break the cycle? When do you start to have those really big talks of recession or or talk about that you could see a hard landing. And we briefly had that when we started talking about banks closing and then we've kind of shifted away from it. And I think this policy that we have moving forward with interest rates is going to be so important. But we also remember taking it back, you know, we just don't have the inventory that we had before. And so you still have that tug on it. Cash continues to be strong. And so I think the biggest concern when you look at it is the economic side of things. And pretty soon you're going to be coming in and before we know it talking about a new presidential election. And when you start to get next to that next cycle, it seems like things quiet down for a while. So we don't have anything wild on both sides. And you get to that period where not a lot changes. You don't make a bunch of bold moves. And we could find ourselves in that groove where you're trying to change a little bit but overall you have kind of that Wyatt year on the economy side of things.

Paul Yeager: So it sounds like you think live cattle reflects a little more of the overall economy then maybe something Yeah, and I

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: think you can look at it and overall your cash is friendly. You've slid off of these. I think the most nervous thing to look at When you look at cattle markets live and feeder cattle is seeing what hogs have done recently. And I think that should be a fear in producers that they can remain friendly. They can be optimistic for prices, but to know that sometimes you can see something completely out of your control, wipe out and really hurt yourself. So we have been slowly inching towards being more aggressive on marketing, but making sure that our topside is not limited.

Paul Yeager: How can you expand in a feedlot right now if you think, Oh, I have some feeders, I think I need to put a couple extra in and help this restock. Is that a good idea right now?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: You look at it. And I think you look at the profitability right now. And I think it's there. The biggest question I have is, is, you know, so many producers right now, it's a lot of work and they're looking at the next generation that doesn't really necessarily want to be as active as a role in it, I think that's where you get a little bit problematic is that at some point, you're going to see guys start to get a little tired. And I think that's the biggest question is, can we keep this expansion? Can we try to expand it when we don't have as active as the next generation involved? And I think that might be the scariest thing moving forward to look at it on that perspective.

Paul Yeager: That is, yeah, that's a big story of head with those in Oklahoma and Kansas and Texas, where feedlots are fewer and farther between with the smaller independent producer, you mentioned hog a little bit. There are, do you see the US hog markets still hanging a lot on foreign interests? Mostly China?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, I think that is a big play. I mean, you've started to talk about trying to having an uptick on African swine fever once again. And I think right now, maybe the focus is that that brings more demand for our feed use, right and coming in here, and maybe that's why they were aggressive here, buying as much corn in that short amount of time, when you look at the hog markets, and you look at kind of the detriment that you have to those future prices. I mean, that kind of swing can really take out, you know, a small farm. And I think that's the biggest concern is where do we see this bleeding? Stop? And where do we see the turnaround that we can start getting it because if you continue to break this, and you get to those lows, like we saw, you're gonna have a lot of people not be as active and not see them come in and bring more in

Paul Yeager: your three daughters? Do you think any of them have, they look at mom and go, Yeah, that looks fun. Are they helping you yet?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: You know, they're young. So mostly, they like to come in here and steal all the candy so that that's where they're at, at this point. You know, I don't know, I think I have this conversation with my brother in law that I run the business with, and and I don't ever want to force something on my children. I hope that they find that passion. I think my dad did a fairly good job at doing that. Because I bucked him extremely hard. My dad sat back and my dad waited for that perfect opportunity. I fought him on it. And you know, I said, I wanted to be in big finance. And I can be a very stubborn individual and all my siblings went to NDSU. And I said, I wasn't gonna go there. And I and so I fought it. And I found myself at the University of Minnesota and Twin Cities. And I am just not a big cities person. And my dad waited for that perfect opportunity to say, you know, what, you could just transfer to NDSU get that ag business degree and, and come work with me and I hope that eventually I do you have a child that's interested in it and sees the passion in it. And I hope they see the relationship side of it. You know, I think that's what I love the conversations. I love being able to help a producer I love celebrating the highs and really working through the lows, and I hope eventually one of those does. But they have quite the personality that might not be right for them either.

Paul Yeager: Genetics is fun that way, isn't it?

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Right? It is? Yeah, you know, my I think everyone likes to that knows me well and knows my youngest daughter knows that payback is definitely what I'm getting from my younger years. But hopefully that just gives her the drive to be, you know, that strong, confident leader. Otherwise, I'm gonna have a lot of gray hair eventually.

Paul Yeager: Well, you know that maybe you will, you'll be back to that beginning what we talked about Leslie because you're like, oh, goodness, What's she up to now? Right. Well, you know, Fargo is fun, always a good place. NDSU great institution. Minnesota is not bad either. It's just always kind of fun to hear the rivalries and I think it's worked out okay for you, Christy.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, I love NDSU I should have gotten there from the get go. I appreciate it. My years at the University of Minnesota. I was just back there for State basketball. Our team made it for Alexandria. And so it was definitely interesting to be back there. But it is fun. It's fun to be in that rivalry and it you know, we came down when NDSU played Iowa, for football and that was a blast. It's fun to be involved in those other things? Yeah.

Paul Yeager: NDSU football puts the shutter in you and I Iowa and Iowa State fans here easily. They don't like to see the bison rolling down.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, it's been fun. You know, that's a fun dynamic that. You know, in Minnesota, you don't have that rivalry as much. You know, where you go down to Iowa and it's so heated between Iowa and Iowa State. It's always so fun to see my grandma and my dad bicker back and forth. And it's so great to be. I think it's fun. And you know, it adds something to talk about and that elements when you know, things aren't great. At least you have that segue off

Paul Yeager: when you when you have to agree to disagree on the direction of corn. Let's discuss something less political foot, right. All right, Christy, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth: Yeah, thank you.

Paul Yeager: My thanks to Kristi, and thanks to you for watching or listening or reading. You can do all three by the way. If you have any feedback for me, hit me up at MarkettoMarket@IowaPBS.org. We'll see you next time. Thank you.