Jared Flinn:
You're listening to the Bold Fluid Podcast, your number one resource for everything bold freight trucking. Hey, guys. Jared Flynn with the Bulk Loads podcast. Got Tyler with me. What's going on? Let's kick it off with a cool truck.
Tyler:
Yep. Today, we got Matt Miller with M Miller Trucking out of, Massaba Massaba, Minnesota. Hopefully, I'm saying that right.
Jared Flinn:
Butchered that.
Tyler:
I don't know. Mazaba. I'm sounding it out.
Jared Flinn:
I'm not even gonna say.
Tyler:
He has been a member with us since 2018, and he sent this in A really cool truck. It's 2001, Peterbilt 379.
Jared Flinn:
Long nose.
Tyler:
Yeah. It's really cool picture there with the grain bin background. Can't beat it. I love these trucks. So Matt actually sent this in. Thank you to Matt. One thing he said that I wanna highlight is he whenever he said this in, he said, I've been a proud subscriber to Bulk Woods for a very long time. Bulk Woods has helped me build very strong relationships with shippers in the industry.
Tyler:
So I just wanna say thank you so much for sending those kinds of words as well. We don't ask you to give us a testimonial or, you know, ask you to speak on your experience whenever you're submitting truck pictures, but it's always cool to hear, if we've helped you out in that aspect. So thank you so much, Matt, for sending that in.
Jared Flinn:
I wanna segue off of that. There was a member just this last week that posted his 1 year on bulk loads. Yeah. And, again, we didn't tell any anybody can post on our form. Yeah. And I saw that headline, and, actually, I was a little bit nervous.
Tyler:
I was like,
Jared Flinn:
oh, man. Here comes a a rail fest of what's wrong with us and our industry. But this guy wrote, like, 2 pages of a start to finish of how he started in the industry, how he interacted. He came to the conference, used bulk loads, listens to the podcast, and what he's gained over the year. And I'm not saying this to plug actually, I'm saying this to plug us, but check read that article. It was really interesting. And again,
Tyler:
if you
Jared Flinn:
hear it, it depends on where you are in the stage of business, but how he studied the markets, studied the freight markets, listened to our podcast, and has applied that and been very successful because of it.
Tyler:
Yeah. Yeah. I think at the end, he even put some podcast episodes that really helped him or the, recent episodes that really helped him, in his journey. But, yeah, thank you so much. I think his name is pronounced b I m, but I think you spell it b y a m. But, yeah, he just posted on there. It's a very long forum post, but it's really cool to hear his experience. He's a Smart Freight user, and he just lines out exactly, the past year of using our services.
Jared Flinn:
At the very least, look at that article, or we'll have Garrett drop it in the episode notes. Yep. But, like, how he used it because, again, you can benefit from that as well Yeah. Exactly. Like, how you're getting on there. Before we go to the podcast, couple of things I wanna talk about you know, I'm always on the road. Actually, last week was up in Northern Missouri. I, rode up there with Buddy to to visit some accounts, And I wanna throw these up.
Jared Flinn:
But James Cowan was first one we visited, James and his son. And, love this truck, by the way, that his son drives. He's actually he was talking about how he has never showed it, but he wants to get into showing that.
Tyler:
We might give him an opportunity.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. We'll talk about that. Do that again. And then Harry Raycop. But the reason I bring up these two images that I visit, these were guys that I did business with over probably 17, 18 years ago when I was at Bartlett.
Tyler:
Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
Physical. And that's where I started that relationship with them. And from there, they became members on bulk loads. And then but these guys, they're not just bulk loads members. They use smart freight. They use insurance. And, again, of all these and it's been really cool just to see that growth pattern. But I say this as, inspiration out there, like, man, relationships and business doesn't happen overnight.
Jared Flinn:
It's built on years years of working together and trust and having those phone calls, shooting the bull with them. Man, learning more about them and their family. And I think, again, I think that's why, we built those relationships. Man, I just wanna say, god bless you, James and Harry, again, from just being a dear friend for all those years through the industry. This was the first time I got to meet them too. Oh, really? Yeah. And you would notice in the industry. You talk to people all the time, but you finally, they're you you finally get a chance to meet them, and it was really cool
Tyler:
Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
To to see them out there. And, yeah, it was awesome up there in Northern Missouri. Harvest is in full swing, so I've never seen so many hopper trucks going up and down the road. A lot of farm farmers, but a lot of commercials as well. So
Tyler:
And speaking on that, you just got back from another trip up in Idaho?
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. We'll probably talk about that more next week, but that was a 10 x trip that, where we did a highlight video. But I wanna save that for next week.
Tyler:
I will say this. Follow us on YouTube right now.
Jared Flinn:
You
Tyler:
have to click subscribe. We got some really cool content coming out, just over from farming to trucking to a whole ag operations. It's gonna be really cool.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Awesome. Well, going back to data, I talked about that member that posted how he was using our site for data. Today, we're gonna bring on Susan Stroud with Noble AG. I've been following Susan for a while now on LinkedIn, and the content and material that she produces, I think, is 10 x.
Tyler:
Yep. I
Jared Flinn:
think what and she put and when we actually when she came down, we were talking a little bit, and she's like, I, I can really make pretty graphs. And but she said that in the fact that, like, she takes this complex data and information and puts it into simple turn or, you know Yeah. Simple graphs that we read visualize and understand. And the main reason I brought one of the main reasons I brought Susan on is in bulk commodity trucking, which we're in, you have to know the why behind it. Yep. And again, I've always been on a, on a search to understand why are the markets doing this? Why is corn prices going up? Or why are we doing more DDGs? You know, why are biofuels being made? Yep. And, deaf even. But, like, how all this is happening and I think for us to be better business people and leaders in our community, we have to know the why behind this.
Jared Flinn:
We don't we have to know trucking very well, but we need to know what the commodity we need to know more about the commodities that are in those trucks that we're transporting. So that's of the reasons I wanna bring on there. I think it doesn't matter whether you're a carrier, a brokerage, or a shipping company out there. The the more you know, the better decisions you're gonna, that you're gonna be able to make as a business owner. Yeah. And you can
Tyler:
tell she's really passionate about this. I'd I mean, I personally I loved her story about how she even started this and, you know, started just within her company, and then she found out quickly that, hey. This is really useful data that people want to know.
Jared Flinn:
Everybody was wanting it when she was working there at CGB. Yeah.
Tyler:
Yeah. It's very cool. She has a cool story.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Yeah. And real quick, the reason I have this book, you're probably wondering, like, what is this? This is, Susan actually said that she's been reading that she's almost finished with this book. And, so I ordered a copy, but it's called The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel. But it's the person that created the diesel motor. So every truck driver out there that's driving a diesel, this is a phenomenal story. It's it's kind of like it's a non fiction thriller. So it talks about, how he started the diesel motor, but even even before that, you know, from steam engines Yes.
Jared Flinn:
To, kerosene. It's just a phenomenal look. I'm halfway through this. But, really, if you're looking for a good read out there, really recommend this. Again, it has to do with, like, man, where did the diesel motor come from, and how has it evolved today? And, again, you know, over a 100 years later, still one of the most efficient motors made.
Tyler:
Yeah. Very cool.
Jared Flinn:
So check that out. So awesome. Well, with that said, here is my conversation with Susan Stroud of No Bull AG. Susan, thanks for making the drive over to Southwest Missouri.
Susan Stroud:
Thanks for having me.
Jared Flinn:
You're on the east side
Susan Stroud:
Yes.
Jared Flinn:
Of Missouri. And, you've been when did you start in the grain business?
Susan Stroud:
Oh, let's see. 2,005, I started working for Buckeyes, which is a regional, they have retail stores. Yep. But regional farm and home store, but I started working at their agri division. So they have a fertilizer plant, feed mill, seed house, grain elevator, in Bealey, Missouri, south of Perryville. So that was where I got my start. From there, though, I ended up focusing more on the grain aspect, and I went to work for ADM in Saint Louis at the river facility. I was there for, I think, 7 years, and then I went across the river to CGB, their location in Cahokia, Illinois, which is just on the southeast edge of St.
Susan Stroud:
Louis.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Cool. And we know all of them. They're all members on the bulk loads platform. But you didn't grow even. You said you really didn't grow up in ag. Right? You, I mean, you had a little bit of
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. Cow operating be like beef, cow calf kind of thing. But as far as row crops go, no, not at all. It wasn't until I started working at buckeyes and I think maybe it was wheat wheat harvest was my first experience. Up until that point, I had never dealt with grain in any capacity.
Jared Flinn:
So what got you interested in, especially the data side of the grain industry? Like all these reports that you produce, like, where did that come from, or where did the interest of that come from?
Susan Stroud:
Probably a long, slow build. So I I was in merchandising producer origination, during my time at a d m and then c g b, but I've always had, just a my I've always had a keen interest in learning. And especially with c g b, I felt very fortunate because I looked at it as I get to my I get paid to learn, and I started, just really exploring different avenues and kind of getting more into, grain flows and recognizing the way that things are connected. For instance, when when I worked at CGB, I was fortunate enough. I expressed interest in wanting to take a group of producers to Brazil, and they were able to help me facilitate that. And so, you know, some things like that that just really help, open up open up your eyes, not only to, for me and my, you know, my own, goals, but then also it it helps me better communicate with the producers or in this, anymore, those others in the industry that I'm there to help educate and help understand. I always, I feel like my job is kind of to make your job easier. We wanna take a lot of, a lot of complicated things and, narrow it down or put it into small digestible nuggets.
Jared Flinn:
Nice. So you go from Buckeye, ADM, CGB. You told me this earlier, though, but this interest or passion, you kind of started kind of an email subscriber list or people started wanting to see more of the stuff that you were this content and data that you were producing. How did that or how did that start?
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. It's always been, I've always been a writer, I guess, to some degree. So even back working at ADM, trying to write email updates to customers to kind of keep them on the same page as far as what's happening. And sometimes you can see really big changes really quickly, especially in river markets. And so just trying to help the better educate the customer and, you know, help him become a better him or her become a better marketer. When I went to CGB, I continued to do that. And then the my email distribution list at CGB, it grew to the point where there were more CGB and their parent company, Zeno, more employees on the distribution list than my own farmers. And before I left, the last year that I was at CGB, they rolled it out, to a once a week email update.
Susan Stroud:
It was called straight talk with Susan. So that that went to their entire, customer base company wide. So, so it's been a, you know, it's been a growing and changing and evolving thing. When I left CGB and got into the producer marketing and consulting space, I kept riding just to make myself for 1, I didn't wanna fall out of the habit of it. And 2, it's important for me to continue to educate myself. I forced myself to learn that way. And, I did it. I I did free updates for about 2 years, and then 2 years ago, I turned it into a paid subscription service.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. And we're gonna talk more about that. So early on, it was more just talking about the river markets because today you're the information data produces biofuels, and we're gonna talk about some of that stuff. I mean, but the core of it was really just focusing on Yeah. What was happening and what was affecting the the river.
Susan Stroud:
It was, when I first turned it into a paid subscription service, it was 2 years ago in the fall of 22 when all hell broke loose,
Jared Flinn:
in
Susan Stroud:
the in the river world because we were, dealing with record low water conditions, and it was something that came on relatively fast. The industry wasn't prepared for it, and it created some tremendous log jams, especially on the lower Mississippi that took weeks to work their way out. This was the time where we saw freight arch freight spike to 3000% of tariff, which is, you know, maybe 5, 6 times what a normal expensive rate would be. So it was just crazy, crazy times. And that was the time I knew, okay, if I'm going to turn this into a a revenue generator for me or Yeah. Make this into a career, I have to do it now. But, you know, up until that point, I it was more just to focus on just just a lot more basic things, heavy export focus because I've always worked in, river market. And so most of those bushels are headed down the Mississippi, out the gulf for export.
Susan Stroud:
But the, you know, markets are always changing and evolving. And so it's my I have to go where the market leads. And so that's led me down all sorts of different interesting paths. But at the end of the day, it's about taking the things that are the most important and driving markets and then helping people learn and understand those drivers.
Jared Flinn:
Back in the day when I worked at Bartlett, you know, I was fresh. We grew up a little bit with grain, but knew nothing about the futures market. And really when moved to Kansas City, learning just how big this grain industry is. So it was almost like I I had a thirst to try to figure out, like, why does corn move this way, or why is wheat moving this way, or what how are these prices dictating and the supply and demand of truck freight that goes into that? But really talk about broadly when we look at this grain industry that we have here in the US, and we get the prices that we got. I know there's all these different influences, but, like, can you kind of break it down macroly? How does this back all the way back to the farmer?
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. It's really flow flow is something that's very important because, you know, we can talk about it locally or regionally. You see one thing happens here and then there's a domino effect. It creates other issues here. You can talk about it on a much bigger, platform or perspective. Let's say Russia invading Ukraine back in, February of 2022, and then the changes that we saw after that, the changes in world grain flows. South America is so important. Brazil is they continue to expand.
Susan Stroud:
We've been through Argentina having half of a crop, not this past year, but the year prior, the way that that changes things. And so, there's always for me and the thing that's the most exciting for me and makes me really love what I do, it's that all of these things are interconnected.
Jared Flinn:
Mhmm.
Susan Stroud:
And it's just a matter of, of being able to piece it together and having a greater understanding of how something that happens in, Indonesia has an impact on what soybean oil might be doing here in the US or vice versa.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Well, I think about just even this present time, we're talking about low river levels, and I wanna maybe zoom in a little bit on that. But, like, how much that's gonna be affecting even the truck market right now? Because, you know, if those bushels aren't gonna go through the to the river markets, where are those bushels gonna end up? And Sure. I mean, you can start going down, You know, is this more gonna get stored, moved at a later time? Is it gonna get more pushed to rail, more to truck? But talk about, I guess, just just on that alone, the rippling effect that that'll have, especially kinda how it correlates with truck freight.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. And the the thing about the challenges that we've dealt with here, this is the 3rd year in a row where we've had a fall, and into the winter months with low water conditions on the Mississippi, particularly the lower Mississippi. So when I say that, I mean, beyond the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio River at Cairo. So looking Memphis and south for the most part. So, prolonged low water conditions. And the issue is that when, when you have low water, it reduces barge drafts, which means how, how heavy can we load the barge? How far could it stick down in the water? Because if you have a water, you can't load it to a full draft or it literally will run aground. So and that was a lot of the issues back in October of 22. We had a lot of barges that were loaded too heavy, and then they're making their way down to the lower Mississippi.
Susan Stroud:
They literally couldn't go anywhere. And so we had this huge traffic jam where barges were being you know, we'd have to take some off of barges midstream and just an absolute disaster. But today, what we're dealing with, again, we've been dealing with low water on the lower Mississippi, where it's seen a little bit of a reprieve coming in maybe here in the next couple weeks because we've had some hurricanes that have brought or looked to bring some some rain to the system, which will help. But the it's a compounding problem because when you can't load, let's just say normal full drafts, you can put 100 truckloads of corn on 1 barge. But when you're talking about reduced drafts, you might only be able to put 70 semi loads of corn on 1 barge. And then, but so the problem is, is it takes more barges to hold the same amount of bushels. It also, they will reduce tow sizes, meaning how many barges one boat can push. Yep.
Susan Stroud:
So that also, that amplifies the problem because you're, you you're just running incredibly inefficiently. It's kind of like if you're loading your truck 3 quarters, or in this case, it might be 60% full with something. What is that doing? You know, it's just creating all of this extra work to accomplish the same thing.
Jared Flinn:
I used to know the number, but I thought if you looked at the cost to move a bushel of corn from Saint Louis, like, to New Orleans, for some reason, I always thought it was was it, like, 15¢ or 12 20¢ a bushel?
Susan Stroud:
It fluctuates.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. But I remember one time, I always thought it was like because I just just using that number compared to what that would cost, you know, a truck to move it or even what real costs would be to move it that distance. It's just crazy.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So, so to today, one bushel, it's maybe let's just call it 65¢, something like that. So we're at a time right now where we're elevated freight costs because it's harvest, more demand for barges, that kind of thing. And it has a huge impact too with what water levels are doing because when water levels are really low, freight prices get get you know, they're higher than normal. So it it makes a big difference. Now I was just looking yesterday from in St. Louis, from the point that we went home on Friday until, yesterday afternoon, the transportation cost for 1 bushel of soybeans to go from Saint Louis to the Gulf had decreased the equivalent of 30¢ a bushel.
Jared Flinn:
Oh my gosh.
Susan Stroud:
So a huge drop, but it's because we have rain on the way. Water levels are going to, you know, get a little bit better, that kind of thing. So, so that's why I say that it's, it's a really like, it's a very sensitive market. And it can, it's really impactful both at the farm level and for, US, our place in world markets because it bites on both ends. When we have really expensive transportation cost, it hurts us both ways. Because for the farmer, it hurts expensive barge freight cost, expensive transportation costs. That's something end of the day that they're eating that cost because it costs more to get from point a to point b. Then you look at the other end of it, the world buyer, ultimately, the US is losing business because our bushels are more expensive to get from point a to point b.
Susan Stroud:
So
Jared Flinn:
Yeah.
Susan Stroud:
We've been through a couple years of, we've struggled on the export bus. We haven't had the volume that we've that we've seen in years past. And a lot of that is because we've had these prolonged periods of low water with very high transportation cost, and it's priced us out of the market.
Jared Flinn:
But overall, though, we've had some really good harvest. Right? I mean, past several years, we haven't had a production problem. Right. More of a transportation.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. And this year, corn wise, you know, we're projected to have a crop that will be in the the top few of what we've ever produced. Beans right now are projected to be a record. That might change a little bit if we see, yields go down, but it's, you know, and when you're talking about export, exports are what's there to get rid of the excess. You know, we're only going to use x amount here domestically processing wise. And we know, you know, we know what our kind of limitations or capacities are there. So then that's where exports come in, and that is how we want to clear excess stocks is exports. And it's just really difficult to do when you have expensive transportation cost.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. So talking more about the data and reports when someone subscribes to the Noble AG report, I guess, more importantly, what do you see people most fascinated with? And I love how you put this, and we'll show some of these graphs up. Like, you really take some of these complex data and really put it into, as you said, pretty little graphs too. So people can yeah. Yeah. So people can consume and digest it easier. But what do you what do you people wanna see more of, or what what data that you're producing?
Susan Stroud:
I never thought that I would be talking about renewable fuels so much. And this comes from someone who I worked at Crate Elevators, but, you know, bar bought bushels on the river that would go on barge. And suddenly I, I, I'm suddenly some sort of so called expert in soy processing. And then now I'm talking about renewable fuels, a lot about feedstocks, which is what we're that simply put what we're making renewable fuels out of. And then now especially focused on feedstock imports. So, if you've heard much about we're importing record amounts of used cooking oil, particularly from China, should say maybe used. There's a lot of, a lot of buzz around this that they're misrepresenting, some of this. So, and then tallow imports, beef tallow fat is that's another big one.
Jared Flinn:
So it's cheaper to import it than what we can produce
Tyler:
Well
Jared Flinn:
domestically?
Susan Stroud:
This is a con this is a complicated matter. So, for one thing, China has, what is it? A one point, whatever, 1000000000 people. So huge population, lots of concentration in coast, coastal cities. So when you think about it from a logistical standpoint, you're collecting this use this oil or whatever. It's it's, it's located kind of in an advantageous place in large quantities for to be put into boats and shipped to us. The complicated thing with Chinese use cooking oil is that there's there's a lot of speculation that it could be that these are actually vessels of palm oil, which palm oil is is largely considered the, the least green of any oil, any vegetable oil, because of its association with deforestation and some of the most biodiverse places on the planet. So there's a lot of speculation that some of these vessels of so called used cooking oil coming into the US it's actually palm oil that's been papered to, you know, that's being called use cooking oil. I don't know.
Susan Stroud:
I'm sure there is some fraudulent stuff going on. Other thing, too, to to kind of point out with use cooking oil, I was on a panel with a guy from Malaysia several months ago, and he was explaining that like in in Asia, his customers that buy palm that they make those, those instant noodle like the noodle cups. So he was saying that instead because they fry them in Palm first. So he was saying that instead of his noodle customers frying the noodles in Palm three times before they package them and whatever he said, now they will fry them once in palm, have used cooking oil, and then they don't even care if they sell the noodles because the used cooking oil
Jared Flinn:
has less more than
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So, you know, so when we talk about, changes in market dynamics and some of these unintended consequences of legislation and things, I I always like to use that as an illustration. Just this is you know, it's it's not as simple as, okay, here comes this vessel of use cooking oil. It's that we've we're literally reshaping markets because the guy that used to cook the noodles doesn't even care about the noodles. So lots of changes there.
Jared Flinn:
I guess I want to back up. You said the legislature, what legislation is leading this or cause this to.
Susan Stroud:
Well, so, as Jimmy Carter famously said, all things that happen in California or start in California, unfortunately, have the inclination to spread, taking it out of context. But, so California's low carbon fuel standard way, way back in, I think it was 0 7, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the governor of California. He directed California's EPA to create the world's first low carbon fuel standard to reduce the, emissions of and this is to reduce the emissions of fuels sold into or sold in or into California. So this is one of the reasons that diesel prices in California are insane. So I'm sure that anyone listening to this,
Jared Flinn:
that's. Most people try to stay away.
Susan Stroud:
Yes. For good reason. So what, what that did was that started to set off a chain, kind of a chain reaction. So we've always had, we've had biodiesel forever, traditional biodiesel. We blend up to 20%. You know, it has a tendency to gel in colder temperatures, so on and so forth. So, renewable diesel was born out of this effectively. So renewable diesel is chemically identical to petroleum diesel.
Susan Stroud:
It's a drop in fuel, so you can use it in your semi without any adjustments whatsoever, unlike biodiesel, and it can be used in existing infrastructure and it can be blended to 100%. So California has a low carbon fuel standard, which is they're, you know, they're subsidizing, and they're giving there's carbon credits and all of those good things. But in other words, you're getting paid more to to use renewable diesel. So this this started a boom. So we have all of these new plants coming online that are producing renewable diesel. One of the things that happened as a result is suddenly soybean oil that can be used to produce both biodiesel and renewable renewable diesel. So soybean oil suddenly had value. So we've been crushing beans here in the United States forever, but we're crushing them because we want the meal, the protein rich soybean meal, as a result that we feed all of the critters with.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So chickens, hogs, so on and so forth. So now though, soybean oil suddenly has value. You know, soybean oil was long considered the waste product of soybean crush Well, enter this, California in the mix and that change in policy ramping up and, renewable diesel production, or I should it's not even ramping up. It's rocketing. I mean, it's just like off the charts. So it has created, it created this wave of expansions in us soybean crush capacity because margins went through the roof. So that all started, kind of the heat of that was 3 years ago, I would say.
Susan Stroud:
We had 1 at one point, we had 1,000,000,000 bushels of added annual US soybean crush capacity announcements made. That's massive. It's you know, we're going to make a a 4.5000000000 bushel or whatever crop it is today. So when you think about it, it's huge. So Is
Jared Flinn:
is that why we've seen, I mean, we were just talking about Bartlett grain over here putting that plant be I mean
Susan Stroud:
Yes. Because of this. So companies that weren't traditionally in
Jared Flinn:
They weren't. Yeah.
Susan Stroud:
Soybeans or whatever. Yeah. And, like, Bartlett, they they just built and they it's it's operational right now, or it just came online. They built that plant. You know, it's not like it's in the soybean capital of the world, but it's very important where it sits because of, its proximity to Mexico for rail meal because Mexico has a lot of chickens. So, yeah, it's been, it's just absolutely wild what's happened. In fact, in North Dakota, they have, they have 2 new plants, ADM. I think it's a joint venture with marathon petroleum.
Susan Stroud:
If I remember correctly, that one's been online in Spiritwood for maybe close to a year and then consolidated grain and barge. They have a partnership or a joint venture with Minnesota Soy Processors. It's called North Dakota Soybean Processors. So both of those are now up and running. And together they'll use, 90, 95000000 bushels of soybeans a year. Well, North Dakota produces on average 200,000,000 bushels a year. So suddenly you go from, I mean, you're it's just it's wild, the transformation, just lots and lots of changes, and it is all because of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wow.
Susan Stroud:
That's what started it. But, so renewable diesel can can be made out of effectively any fat, oil, waste, grease, something like that. So as we've seen the ramp up in, production capacity of renewable diesel, we're also seeing an increase in imported feedstocks, particularly these waste feedstocks that have a lower carbon intensity because it carries a higher subsidy. It's a subsidy game. Mhmm. So we've always been a big importer of canola oil here in the United States. You know, we do produce canola here. Yeah.
Susan Stroud:
In fact, Schuler, they just they just came online with a plant in Goodland, Kansas Mhmm. That they're going to start up just with canola. They can do both canola and soy. But, importing a lot of canola oil, reason being canola has canola is preferred over soybean oil. It has a lower carbon intensity score because it produces more pounds of oil per acre. But then used cooking oil and tallow, they're both incredibly low carbon intensities. And the reason is, is because they're considered waste products use cooking oil. You know, we've already used it once, whatever, maybe it was palm, whatever it was.
Susan Stroud:
So it was a discarded product that now we're turning into something that has value. Same thing with beef tallow. You know, of course we would, it it would be made into something else, but as it sits, it's it's considered a waste product. And so it has a huge advantage over soybean oil as a feedstock and biomass based diesel production.
Jared Flinn:
And you were just saying earlier, just to clarify, so the, like, renewable diesel that can be dropping, like, right into
Susan Stroud:
Yes. That's dropping. So it can be blended.
Jared Flinn:
But biodiesel can't. Right?
Susan Stroud:
Correct. Okay. We have a 20 I think it's a 20% blend limit, and biodiesel has to be in, different tanks, different infrastructure.
Jared Flinn:
I guess I I'm thinking about I've told you we have a huge amount of trucking companies that watch this podcast and listen, but, like, what should they be kinda keeping their eye on? Because I'm just thinking about, like, even the diesel truck has changed so much, the semi. Like, they went from just took diesel. Now they're gonna have DEF, which I wanted to get your intake on that as well. But now now there's gonna be renewable diesel fuel. Well We're looking at electric down the road.
Susan Stroud:
Know the and in fact, I can't remember what
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. I mean, it just it would be blended right in or go right into
Susan Stroud:
It's I wanna say it's something like 85% of renewable diesel that's consumed to this country is consumed in California.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, okay.
Susan Stroud:
So crazy high number. My, my math I'm probably wrong, but, but a tremendous amount of that is being made with these foreign imported feedstocks. So you have, like, Phillips 66. I wanna say Marathon maybe has another big plant too that they're in California, so they're importing these waste feedstocks, and making renewable diesel. That's a huge it's a huge business.
Jared Flinn:
What do you know about DEF?
Susan Stroud:
So my all time favorite car, I had a BMW. I had a 2017 BMW X5 that was diesel. And I just remember the debt. It I don't know what the deal was, but it always leaked DEF. And that is probably the worst thing in the world that you could have a leak with. Oh, yeah. Horrible. Some days it would look like it snowed in my garage floor.
Susan Stroud:
But yeah, I don't know that I can get, I don't know that I have too many No.
Jared Flinn:
I don't know if you just like the data on that, but, like, yeah, we talk to big fleets all the time. I mean, I've never heard one positive thing.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. I just wanna say
Jared Flinn:
that it's just like, really, it's it's ruined the equipment. Oh, okay. Last and near as long that it's just created a lot more cost and maintenance involved. And again, that was another thing passing legislation that went into effect that now every diesel motor made from a certain timeframe today.
Susan Stroud:
You know, the craziest thing about California is the fact that they, they are the ones that have created this renewable diesel boom, but then at the same time, they're also trying to outlaw, you know, they're trying to ban the sale of, of new diesel engines. I think it's is it 2035? Yeah. I've read about this, but I I can't remember the specifics. But it's just amazing the like, the the things and for you know, I like to use prop 12 as an example in California. So it started with it's California's voters that that ultimately decide, the fate of the rest of us because one in 8 people live in this country, live in California. It's an, nearly $4,000,000,000,000 economy. If it was a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world. So that's why their legislative decisions have outsized impacts on the rest of us.
Susan Stroud:
They're actually a miniature Europe, whatever Europe does, California will inevitably follow along. And then the problem is, is that it will spread up the west coast. I'm going on a tangent here. This is exactly how it works. Then it spreads up the west coast, New Mexico. It hits the other like pretty left leaning states. And then, then it goes to the east coast and then it trickles back. But like with prop 12, they banned, they banned cages for laying hens, and then it's gestation crates for sows.
Jared Flinn:
I remember they had the sows. Yeah.
Susan Stroud:
Been fighting this. And, yeah, it's horrible because it's not that it's they're they're making decisions for what happens within their state, but like pork, for instance, California produces next to no pork. They produce 1% or half a percent or something of the nation's pork, yet they consume, I don't know what is 14, 15%. So their decisions then make every poor farmer in Iowa have to do things differently or ultimately make them less efficient because they put these, particular animal welfare standards in place. I I could I could go on for a while. You know, the the problem is when you start doing, things like this, especially with, animals and confinement, you know, commercial animal, ag animal production, it's already designed to maximize, the comfort and the productivity of whatever animal it may be. So if it's eggs or pork or anything else, and then it just, it makes it so much more complicated. And when you, when you start dictating and telling producers that they have to go a completely different route or change out equipment altogether.
Susan Stroud:
So I
Jared Flinn:
just, I never heard that about California being kind of a mini Europe, like whatever Europe does. Okay. But it does make sense. Like you see what the things that happen in Europe and then it trickles into California.
Susan Stroud:
It it does. It's a slow, it's a slow, painful process, but I guess the sooner you recognize that that these are kind of the way that things go, one, things become much more scary because you realize the road that we're headed down. But, yeah, it just makes it challenging because they're making decisions that impact the rest of us in very meaningful ways.
Jared Flinn:
But I think the sense, like, you need to know this stuff. And, obviously, Noble AG, you guys produce this content and data to help inform. Talk about like, I've followed some of your posts, but, I mean, recently, you did a helicopter helicopter tour over St. Louis. Like, you had you were filming, like, the Yeah. The barges. Talk about that. That seemed pretty cool.
Susan Stroud:
Well, so last fall, I did a I, I had a family friend take me up in a plane and I flew the river. I wanted to go down and find a dredge boat that was down in the boot, like boot heel of Missouri, take some pictures of it as they were, because what dredge boats do is they the core dispatches them to problem spots. A lot of times it's like on turns or things, bins in the river, and they will park there for a few day park or whatever, anchor there for a few days, and they will it it effectively sucks up the sand and silt out of the channel, and then it will pump it like way, way back over and put it over in the shallow, you know, shallow water near the bank. And so that's what helps keep, keep the channel open and keep traffic flowing. It creates problems too because then you have backups because when they're doing that, you can't have boats passing. But did that and took a lot of pictures of water being crazy low. But just, about a month or 6 weeks ago, I've I mean, I've lived I've worked in St. Louis for years, always lived in the area, been to the arch a million times, but I have never been up on the little helicopter tour.
Susan Stroud:
So my son and my mom were with me and I, we were waiting for, because when you buy tickets, heads up to anyone going to the arch on maybe a weekend or something, you have to buy tickets for a particular time to go up in the tram. So there was a couple hour wait that day. So I thought, okay, we have a couple hours to kill. Let's go ride the helicopter. And it was a great tour. I will absolutely do it again.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. I mean, the photo that you posted looked awesome. Yeah. Over over the river.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. It's a it's a lot of St. Louis is really interesting. So it has the largest, capacity, like, largest harbor tonnage capacity on the inland waterway system. I think it's 2 and a half times the size of whatever the next largest harbor area is.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, my goodness.
Susan Stroud:
Talking inland yeah. So, it reason being, St. Louis is as far north as you can get on the Mississippi before you're in the lock and dam system.
Jared Flinn:
Yep.
Susan Stroud:
So it has an advantage from a freight perspective. The how the river system and how freight, barge freight works is there are different points on the river that they have different rates of tariffs. So, 3 3, I guess it's $3.99 a ton. Am I saying that right? I don't know. It's 3.99 in St. Louis. And so once you get north of that, it increases substantially. So that's why as an elevator, especially if you have an export facility at the Gulf, you have a huge advantage to have a facility in St.
Susan Stroud:
Louis because that's as far north as you get. Unfortunately. And the river doesn't, it doesn't shut down. It's not like the mid or the upper Mississippi that will close in the winter and that kind of stuff. So for that reason, St. Louis has every major, grain company in town, plus a tremendous amount of rail comes into St. Louis that it's transloaded than on barges.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. You also think that maybe last year you were down Panama Canal, right?
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. That was, that was a good, that was a good time. It's been right out a year ago.
Jared Flinn:
What was that for?
Susan Stroud:
I've just wanted to go myself. I've always wanted to see it, but it was, it was really forefront of the news because of low water conditions. Panama was dealing with a major drought, and it was affecting transits. So, the way that the canal works is you have a massive freshwater lake and Panama, I think is the 5th wettest country in the world. So, normally water is not a problem, but they're dealing with a huge drought. So, the lake is filled with fresh water. And then as ships are transiting, there are no motors or pumps at all. It's just a lock system and it works by gravity.
Susan Stroud:
So they're pulling millions of gallons. I think it's 50,000,000 gallons with each transit out of this lake
Jared Flinn:
Oh.
Susan Stroud:
To yeah. So to lift ships up. And then so ships go through a series of 3 locks. They're lifted up to the lake. Then they have, like, a 30 mile cruise across winding across this lake. They get to the other side, and then they're put back down. But they had a lot of restrictions in place because those lakes also provide the majority of the freshwater for the people of Panama. So, they have to, you know, they have to manage having enough water for their people and the thing that generates them most of their revenue.
Jared Flinn:
Wow. But Is there, is there grain freight vessel freight to go see the can the panel? Okay. I didn't realize.
Susan Stroud:
So if you were going from the us Gulf to Asia, that's where you're going. Yeah. That's the direction that you're going.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah.
Susan Stroud:
But, you know, there were a lot of changes where we started seeing some vessels go through the Suez Canal, up because it ships were getting so so backed up. When you're waiting in the queue, they'd have, like, a 100 boats. I mean, you could be there for weeks waiting to transit. And so grain vessels, some of them started going through the Suez. And then we started having all of the, hoot Houthi. I'm probably saying it wrong. You know, all the issues, the conflict there. And so then no one goes through the red sea anymore and they started going around the end of Africa.
Susan Stroud:
So then lots of logistical things to talk about.
Jared Flinn:
What else is on the roadmap as far
Susan Stroud:
as? Well, I'm go, I'm going to Panama again. I'm taking a noble is taking its first it's called, I'm calling it at noble ag ventures. So group trip to the pan mall canal. So small group, probably 15 or 20 people, but we're going down. It's mid January and we will have, we'll be there for 4 nights. We're going to do a a transit through the canal. So you can take a boat tour. You accompany a vessel through the locks.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, wow.
Susan Stroud:
I did that when I was there. It was it was really So
Jared Flinn:
you're hosting this for people to come and wow.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So I'm just I'm getting ready to roll out, like, the official itinerary and that kind of thing. We're also doing a land tour because they have it. I mean, it's a it's a massive tourist destination. So they have some really cool visitor centers. So we'll be able to see because there are actually 2, 2 parts, the Panama canal. There are the original locks that are called the Panamax locks. And then the new locks are called the Neo Panamax locks.
Susan Stroud:
They were finished, I think, in 16 or 17 and built to accommodate the larger ships. So like the newer, bigger boats, so like huge container vessels, a lot of LNG boats, that kind of stuff. So we're gonna we're gonna see it all. I'm excited. Panama Panama City is a really just really cool place. We're staying in the historical side of it that dates back to 16th century. It's a beautiful area. So I
Jared Flinn:
feel like my wife, we were looking at going there one time, or we were in Costa Rica not too long ago, and I thought we were gonna try to go down there, but the kids were like, we'll do this when we're kidless. They wouldn't probably find it as as fun as adults.
Susan Stroud:
It's not the most comfortable country to visit. It is swampy. So,
Jared Flinn:
mosquitoes and yeah.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. Actually the, the only reason that the US was able to to finish or accomplish building the Panama Canal was because of, controlling mosquitoes, which then got malaria under control. I think it was something like 20,000 French died built trying to build the canal. The history the history is wild.
Jared Flinn:
So you've almost I mean, with Noble, like, the data, the tours, you also do, annual conference. Right? Yeah. So tell us a little bit about that.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So I did my I I've done this in St. Louis. This past August was my second second time. Have you been to Ballpark Village?
Jared Flinn:
I have. Yeah.
Susan Stroud:
Okay. So, it's a slightly different venue. It's not a hotel ballroom. So it's in Ballpark Village, which is this massive effectively a massive bar of restaurant entertainment venue that's adjacent to Busch Stadium. So it makes for a really fun and interesting space. But this year, the focus was on sustainable aviation fuel. I called it wheels up, taking agriculture to new heights. So we talked a lot about, I had Southwest Airlines was there.
Susan Stroud:
I don't know. They are building a, they call it second gen ethanol plant. It's a joint venture in Liberal, Kansas with an existing
Jared Flinn:
Southwest Airlines is?
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So it's called Sapphire Renewables. It's cons Constega Energy, which is an existing ethanol plant.
Jared Flinn:
Oh, yeah. I know that. Yeah. Con Conestoga. Conestoga. So, yeah. Yeah. No, those guys energy.
Jared Flinn:
Yep.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So, they're taking corn stover. So in other words, cornstalk bales and turning it into of making a very low carbon intensity ethanol out of it. That then will be, I guess, railed to Lonza Jets, sustainable aviation fuel plant in Georgia and made into jet fuel.
Jared Flinn:
Are they getting involved because they have to, I mean, initially? Yeah. Yeah. I figured. Yeah. Like, they have to take action
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. You know, all of these that's the crazy thing is, there are just there were a lot of things you look at a lot of things have happened with the Biden administration. So go back to I think it was December of 2022, the inflation reduction act, aka the big green bill, that was a driver behind a lot of this. The Biden administration also set out the, aviation grand challenge, which is to get us to, I think, it's 3,000,000,000 gallons of sustainable aviation fuel production by 2030. And then net zero part that all of that is part of going net zero by 2050. So we've set these really high, these ambitious, climate based targets. And so airlines and, you know, transportation companies, everyone has to is somewhat scrambling to figure out, especially in the aviation side, because that's the hardest sector to decarbonize. It's not like you can have a battery powered plane.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. So, yeah, it just it's it's interesting. It's a huge, you know, sustainable aviation fuel is a huge opportunity for us ethanol for us corn ethanol. But the problem is, is that, sustainable aviation fuel production, just like renewable diesel production, it costs, you know, multiple times what its petroleum counterpart costs to produce. So it's cost prohibitive. And when you look at airlines that run on razor thin margins as it is, and I think it's, you know, a quarter of their annual budget or something is fuel.
Jared Flinn:
Oh,
Susan Stroud:
wow. If you go increasing the cost of those gallons by 2 or 3 times, it's just it's not it's not plausible. You can't, you know, the technology has been around for a long time, but it's never been it's cost prohibitive. And so unless the government is stepping in to to help kind of facilitate the early, adoption and help get it off the ground, it's not going to go anywhere.
Jared Flinn:
Awesome. Talk about Noble and kinda just, kinda coming to a close here. 1st off, where'd you come up with the Noble?
Susan Stroud:
Well, I so as a, as a merchandiser, I have some farmer friends. They always refer to me as Susie Bear because like, as a merchandiser, it never pays to be bullish. It's not a good thing. When you're talking to farmers all the time, you can't I mean, I don't mean to be Debbie Downer, but, you know, you have to you have to help them look at things from a risk management perspective instead of telling them what they want to hear. So that's kind of part of it. It's also you know, it's a play on words in a few different ways. I'm a pretty cut to the chase kind of person. So, in fact, I, when Bloomberg first started quoting me, they wouldn't even, they would just put my name.
Susan Stroud:
They wouldn't put my company name because they have a strict, no profanity rule. And as the name implies something else. But yeah.
Jared Flinn:
That's cool. For people that are interested, we're gonna put your information down in the show notes so they'll be able to just click on that and get information. But what does that look like when you mean because I saw you there's different plans that you offer. You all have a subscription model, and there's you can sign up today, get free access. Yeah. But when you upgrade and pay for the content, what what are they getting or what are people seeing? And then talk about who who are your clients? Like, what type of people are subscribing Okay.
Susan Stroud:
To
Jared Flinn:
the Noble ad?
Susan Stroud:
So you're you're getting 2 email updates a week. You can either do a an, annual plan, or if you just wanna test it out, there's also a monthly plan. Yep. When you sign up for the freebie, you'll get the first, you know, first few snippets of of info. Enough of a teaser. You know, the aim is that maybe you'll want to pay to upgrade.
Jared Flinn:
You gotta, you can't do it for free. You gotta.
Susan Stroud:
That's correct. Little time consuming.
Jared Flinn:
So I say that because we run a subscription model as well. Yeah.
Susan Stroud:
So, you know, when I, it used, I used to be very, farmer centric with my message, and I will definitely go you'll when when markets are doing things where I feel like farmers need to really be paying attention and managing risk or there's a lot of opportunity, I will put my merchandiser hat back on pretty quickly, and my message will I'll have a lot of things that are more focused on that. It's been a crazy transition. There are a lot of it it's much less I I have a lot of farmer subscribers, but it's also a lot of industry. So it might be grain company, ethanol plant, someone in soy. I see a lot of manage money type clients. So so people that are in investment banking or, hedge funds, that kind of thing. So, even I have a lot of a lot of subscribers that are working for oil companies and energy is that kind of thing, too. But that's because I, I do a fair amount of focus on the renewable space, but it's also that's what's really important.
Susan Stroud:
And and kind of just to get back to what we were talking about with sustainable aviation fuel and U. S. Corn ethanol. The problem today is that as the model sits and as the law states, US corn ethanol, it we can make sustainable aviation fuel out of it right now. It'd be fantastic. It takes what I almost I almost feel like, I'm channeling Donald Trump. It'd be fantastic. China.
Susan Stroud:
But so it takes, like 1.7 gallons of corn ethanol to make 1 gallon of sustainable aviation fuel. Huge opportunity for US corn ethanol. But the issue is the way that the law is, US corn ethanol has a carbon intensity score that is too high to qualify as a feedstock, or I should say for the the sustainable aviation fuel we're making out of it, wouldn't qualify for the subsidy for the tax credit from the government that makes this production feasible. The only way that we can get there today is by utilize by, carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration. So in other words, the pipelines that you've been hearing about, oh, there are only, there are just a few specific geographies in this country that have the right type of geo geological formations underground that can hold on to carbon dioxide. So as an ethanol plant is making ethanol, during the fermentation process, you're releasing c o two in the atmosphere. So what you have to do is you're capturing it, and you are either bearing you are piping it underground. For instance, ADM in Decatur has been doing this.
Susan Stroud:
I know Marquis, which is one of the largest single site ethanol plants in the world in Hennepin. Yep. They've they had their permit to, or I should say they've received approval. They're still, I think in some of the permitting process, but there are only a few places where you can actually do that on-site. All of the other ethanol plants out there, they're up a Creek unless they have a pipeline that they are able to put their CO2 in that then is pumped, in some cases, Wyoming or North Dakota. So here's where it gets messy. When, you know, when we talk about ethanol and the viability where we haven't seen blend rates increase here in the US, we've been right around 10% for the past decade plus. That's not happening because big oil wants to make sure that that doesn't happen because every for every gallon of ethanol that we're using is 1 gallon less of petroleum fuel that, that we're using.
Susan Stroud:
And so, with these pipelines, it's really important because one, it's not only continued demand, but it's a lot of new demand because this will is set to skyrocket here in the coming years with sustainable aviation fuel. The other thing is, is that that carbon has value. So when you're taking carbon, you're capturing it and you're storing it underground. That ethanol plant gets paid per ton of carbon
Jared Flinn:
from,
Susan Stroud:
the government. Yes. So it's subsidizing it. I know. Yes. I know.
Jared Flinn:
That's a whole nother topic.
Susan Stroud:
It is, but it's a thing. Yeah. It is a thing. So anyway, so it's a big difference. They're going to be winners and losers as far as ethanol goes for those plants that are able to sequester their carbon and not. There are 2 big pipeline projects. 1 is Trailblazer in Nebraska. It has maybe 10 or a dozen ethanol plants on it.
Susan Stroud:
That one is they're utilizing an existing, thing was natural gas pipeline, and they're retrofitting and doing some things. That one should be up and functional by this time next year. So, like, last half of 25. The big one is come at our summit sorry. Summit Carbon Solutions. Their pipeline, it's it's would have to be built. It's 25 100 miles or so. It connects.
Susan Stroud:
I think it's 57 ethanol plants across multiple states, the majority of which are in Iowa, and then it pumps it to North Dakota. This is a massive, like, $8,000,000,000 project. They have the majority of landowner, like, permits or leases in place. They're having a lot of issues in South Dakota right now with eminent domain, something that likely sees it come to a vote in November. So they're they're facing a tremendous amount of headwinds, which is only delays and setbacks for the project and then these plants that that are still seeking some sort of solution. So right now we're making sustainable aviation fuel in this country, Lonza Jettas, but because of how everything is set up, they're they're only using imported Brazilian sugarcane ethanol.
Jared Flinn:
Wow. I think we get tough for hours on this.
Susan Stroud:
Yeah. I'm sorry.
Jared Flinn:
I just No. You're getting the weeds.
Susan Stroud:
I just went way off in the weeds.
Jared Flinn:
But, again, just a so, the 2 emails per week, and I think you can tell you can go to the website anytime, $400 a year. I think you're a steal of a deal.
Susan Stroud:
400 a year, 40 a month.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. And I think for especially, man, you can't know more. I mean, the easier you can get information and know this information and digest it, we send out a weekly wire on just for transportation to our community, and we've seen huge, you know, progress that people make that absorb that content, but you can do it on the agriculture side. So we'll put that information below. Man, thank you so much for coming on the show. I love I've been following you, I think, I don't know how long on LinkedIn, but you guys you produce a tremendous amount of content. And it does like, if you get on there and follow, like, it stands out. You can see, and it's really interesting takes and probably something I wouldn't go out and seek or look at just to go find.
Jared Flinn:
But you put it there where it's easy to see, digest, and kinda think about it. So that's awesome. So Thanks. Cool. Well, Susan, I'll let you go. Thank you so much for coming on the Bulk Lids podcast. Appreciate it.
Susan Stroud:
Thank you. Appreciate it too.
Jared Flinn:
There's so much to digest in this conversation, but I probably should have known this, but I didn't realize how she talked about how things that happen in Europe get influenced by California and then kind of bleed into the United States Yeah. Some of these laws and regulations.
Tyler:
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that either. And it seemed like you were kind of on the California thing. You were, you know, I'm kidding. What I really learned though, is that, I mean, whenever she was speaking about like all the barges and, obviously the Mississippi river Been dealing with, you know, the, the drought for the last 3 years. Like, I didn't know how much that alone affects, you know, what moves on the truck too and, like, how it can put stress on the market and that I mean, that was all just mind blowing to me.
Jared Flinn:
And, again, if you're anywhere involved in the supply chain and movement of commodities, knowing, you know, no pun intended, where that is upstream or where it is downstream, and you can make those decisions and even forecast as a business owner. So gonna put Susan's information down. Really recommend. She has base kind of a subscription model. You can follow her as well. She's got a lot of free content. At the very least, follow her on LinkedIn, but she also has a subscription where you can subscribe and see all this data. And, again, the more you know, the better decisions you can make for your business Yeah.
Jared Flinn:
The better.
Tyler:
Yeah. I guess too, the the one last thing I'll point out too is, I guess, I never personally think, like, as a like, whenever you look at the supply chain, I guess, how it affects all aspects. So, like, with the Mississippi River being down, you know, they can't send as much grain on the barges. They have to, you know, lower the weight that they're sending. Like, that's less profit on the farmer because that costs more to ship. Like, I whenever I look at that kind of stuff, I never think, oh, this is falling back on the farmer, and he's losing profit because of this, and it's out of his control. So just stuff like that that you never think about.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Susan even said early I mean, she was also involved in trucking. You know? Family had some trucks at one time, and, she made a comment that, she didn't realize, like, when she got registered on the DOT, how much her phone blew up from insurance brokers and freight brokers that she actually had to change her phone number because of getting so many calls and requests.
Tyler:
Yeah. I'm sure there's a lot of people that, do not put accurate information on their MCS 150 because of that.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. Last time I mentioned about Susan, like, I think one thing cool, she does a lot of, speaking engagements. She travels all over and speaks. She actually hosts some of her own conferences, but even trips like this one. She's got an upcoming one down, the Panama Canal, which I need to look at the dates. I'd love to probably I'd love to just see that. Yeah. But, you know, just the agricultural side of it.
Jared Flinn:
And, but, yeah, really check those out, and, just wanna leave that as segue for our own conference.
Tyler:
Yep. We, are in full swing of planning our conference. We actually nailed down dates, April 16th through 18th. So lock those in right now. We are now going to get ticket sales ready to be purchased, sponsorship pass packages put together, the whole 9 yards. So go ahead go to boltfreightconference.com, and you can enter your email there to, secure your spot, and we'll reach out with any information that comes out. We'll also be announcing them on the podcast, as we continue to go along.
Jared Flinn:
I'll just say this. I was, talking with a company out west, Melissa Jordan, and she came to the conference last year, met her for the first time. She's been in the industry. And she said this is her quote. Like, she met 4 or 5 shippers, some that she was already doing business with. But because she saw them and met them face to face, she's now done more business with them. There was a specific company up out of, Utah that she said, yeah. I've done a little bit business with him.
Jared Flinn:
I think it was Bryce's schooler, but she said, after that conference, I've done so much more business
Tyler:
with them.
Jared Flinn:
So you don't realize again, what you know, again, you gotta spend 2 days, and, again, there's a little bit of investment. And investment's more just to make sure that you come than anything. But the return on your investment, I guarantee it's gonna be more than 10 x. It's gonna be a 100. 100%. Yeah. And and not just for the next year, but for years down the road. So, again, if you're looking to learn more, grow your business, make sure sign up at the Bulk Freight Conference.
Tyler:
Yeah. And I'll say this. I think I think I wanna give away some conference tickets this year specifically for our podcast. Yes. Yeah. Maybe not this episode, but as the episodes come along, be paying attention because all you have to all you're gonna have to do is just comment down below and engage, and you might be able to win tickets to the conference free of charge.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. You're just gonna wanna come. I promise that. And, again, it's not for our sake, but I the value that you're gonna get out of there for 2 days, we're gonna have it down here in Branson, Missouri, and you will get so much out of it. We're gonna have entertainment, a lot of good speaky speakers, and, man, trucks, it's gonna be a blast. So if you touch trucking, whatsoever, bulk trucking, you are gonna wanna be there. Whether you're a shipping company, freight broker, or carrier, it's gonna be awesome. Yep.
Jared Flinn:
So cool. Last thing we didn't, I was gonna mention this earlier, but, again, for you listeners out there, maybe on the shipping side, Bulk TMS, our platform, it has taken off. We are onboarding co ops, grain companies Yep. I mean, of all sizes, and, man, we have figured out a way to make their life so much easier and so much more efficient through Bulk TM S. If you don't what that is, it's a, basically, a transportation management program designed for bulk commodities. It's the only one designed for bulk commodities. And, again, everything that's in there helps you from managing the freight, all the way from tracking, billing, everything. But, yeah, we have some large clients, CHS, Ag Partners.
Jared Flinn:
I mean, I can keep name down the list that use us every day and what the benefits that they've seen and efficiencies, we get compliments all the time. Yeah. So if you are looking for a better solution, maybe you're a Bulk Lift subscriber and wanna learn more about Bulk TMS, We'll put the links below, but reach out to us. We can give you there's a lot of videos out there, but we can even give you just a quick demo and what we have done with this and continue to build. It is revolutionizing the shipping industry of bulk commodities.
Tyler:
I'll say this too. The the reason that so many brokers and shippers, sign up and use the platform is because it just so easily you can build your private network of carriers, and instead of posting on the load board of your freight, you can send that out to your private network or carriers, in bid lanes that way instead of going straight to the load board. So that's why a lot of our users are using it.
Jared Flinn:
Yeah. I'll say this. You know, the load board concept keeps evolving, and we know that it keeps changing. And it's different today than what it is. But with technology, what we've evolved into is creating more even a private load board where you can create those carrier groups, where you can send those messages, and really just all those little things, because we know, like, not every load gets posted Right. That we would want. But there's ways to do it privately to keep competition out. But all of that is covered in bulk team s.
Jared Flinn:
So, man, if you get a chance, check it out, reach out to us. We would love to show you, set you up with a demo. Yep. Hundreds of grain companies, all different sizes are using it, freight brokerages, and even trucking companies for their program, and, man, we're excited for that. Yep. So awesome. Cool. Well, as we close out of here, if you don't know, we love to pray over our community, and we continue to get, I don't wanna say a flood of prayer requests, but every week, we are hearing things going on in the industry.
Jared Flinn:
Man, deaths and diseases, cancers, obviously, what's going on, world disasters, natural disasters going on, and the people affected of that. Again, sometimes we can look out there and just be in awe and wonder what's going on, and is God listening to us, and are our prayers making a difference? I can promise you they are, and we need to continue to do that. So if you have something going on in your life and would love we would love to pray over that, simply send an email to prayer at bulkloads.com. Allow us to pray over that, and, man, we find that as an honor. And, again, I guess I'll say this, what does it hurt not to?
Tyler:
Exactly.
Jared Flinn:
What's the downfall? Yeah. There's really no downside to it. So, yeah, reach out to us. We'd love to pray over that. And, Tyler, I'll let you close us out.
Tyler:
Lord, we come to you just to thank you and praise you, Lord. We just thank you for, Susan, allowing her to come on for this episode, Lord, and and making that connection, Lord, and having good conversation, Lord. We just ask that anybody out there going through any struggles right now whether it be family issues, health issues, financial issues, Lord, we ask that you just allow them to lift those issues up to you, Lord, and you can handle them. Lord, we ask that you just give them peace and strength to continue on. Lord, we also want to say a special prayer for all the hurricane victims right now, Lord. I know there's so much loss, and so much death that's going on right now, Lord, and so much uncertainty. Lord, we just wanna lift that up to you, Lord, and, recognize that you are in control, Lord. And we know that you are a big god and can handle all things, Lord.
Tyler:
So we just ask that you just, reach your hand down on those victims, Lord. We also ask that going forward, Lord, we ask that you just watch over our every decision lord and have your hand in our life lord. We ask that you remind us that you are there for us and with us lord. We ask that, you also bless all of our members in the agriculture community, the trucking community, and any member on bulk loads, anybody listening to this podcast. Lord, we love you and thank you. Amen.
Jared Flinn:
Thank you. If you haven't yet, make sure to subscribe to the bulk loads podcast by clicking down here in the left hand corner. Again, Tyler said early on, we have some really good content videos. I've been traveling all over the country getting these things filmed. You're not gonna wanna miss it. Everything from wine country to potato harvest, grain harvesting, all that, man, just really encapsulates. So make sure and subscribe. And, again, last not least, if you know just 1 or 2 people that can benefit from this episode, man, click the share button and send it.
Jared Flinn:
You can send it through email, through any social media, through text message. And, man, that would just be a simple small thank you from us, for producing this content out here. So thank you so much for listening to the Bulk Close Podcast. And as always, God bless.
