Jon Braatz: On the domestic international front, domestic irrigation front, how does the demand profile vary per region, Midwest versus maybe Southeast, Northwest. Are you seeing any significant difference in sort of the demand picture by geography?
Brian Ketcham: Yeah, Jon, this is Brian. What we saw in our first quarter was really demand increase in almost all of our regions. We’re seeing in the Southeast and Mid kind of that — Great Lakes region, which — Great Lakes region typically has been more of a supplemental irrigation market, but we’ve seen nice growth there. We’ve seen it in the corn belt in the Midwest. So I’d say first quarter, it’s really been pretty broad across all the regions.
Jon Braatz: Is there something specific in the Great Lakes area that may be driving a different profile there from the past?
Randy Wood: There’s probably a couple of things, Jon. It’s a pretty big seed corn area. And we see seed corn acres growing there, and it’s mandatory to irrigate that crop. And really just shifting climate patterns, and we’ve talked a lot here about what customers have to invest in a crop to put it in the ground. That’s really some cost if they don’t get water. So I think just the risk management and the yield enhancement benefit of irrigation it’s driving a lot of investment in that part of the world.
Jon Braatz: Okay. Thanks. Brian, it looks like maybe you’re selling prices are sort of flattish year-over-year, and I suspect it might continue to be that way. But we’re all seeing higher costs, maybe not as significant as we’ve seen in most — in the past couple of years. But when you look at the cost pressures on your business, how is that — do you think you’ll be able to offset those cost pressures with productivity? Or is there going to be a little bit of impact on your margins because of some rising costs?
Brian Ketcham: Yes. I think we have seen steel from November to December, the CRU for hot-rolled coil has gone up 25%. I mean, it had softened a fair amount going back into 2023. So structural steel continues to maintain at a higher level. But I’d say where we’re positioned now. I mean I think steel is kind of the biggest variable. A lot of the other inflation has kind of abated a bit. But we expect I think if you go back to probably last quarter, I mean, maybe the view was we would have to give price back if raw materials softened, but we’re not seeing that situation today. I think where raw materials appear to be headed is — would be supportive of maintaining price.
Jon Braatz: Okay. All right. Thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Randy Wood for closing remarks.
Randy Wood: Well, thank you all for joining us on today’s call. While current commodity prices and US net farm income are down from recent highs, growers remain profitable. And while they’re investing cautiously, we feel this will continue to support stable demand for irrigation equipment in North America. The international project pipeline for irrigation investments remains robust and supportive to our long-term growth trajectory. These projects are driven by food security and stabilizing global grain supplies, and we’re uniquely positioned to identify and win these project opportunities as we execute our strategy. We expect to continue the strong momentum we’ve seen from Road Zipper leasing as well as solid growth from our road safety products, the combination of which will continue to drive a revenue mix, which is supportive to our consolidated margin capture in the segment and our consolidated returns.
This concludes our first quarter earnings call. We appreciate your interest in Lindsay and look forward to updating you on our continued progress following the close of our fiscal 2024 second quarter. Thanks for joining us.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.
