Episode 3: Articles of Consideration – Strip Till – Rented vs. Owned – and Labor Shortage
Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:01):
<silence> Hey guys, Evan here, and this is an earful, a podcast about farming and country life. Zach, what’s going on today?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Oh, it’s just a, uh, kind of a damp October morning, uh, this morning. Uh, got up this morning. A little bit of precipitation out there, but, uh, not much. Not near what we need, obviously, but it’s a little bit of something. But, uh, yeah, we’re just, uh, another day getting ready for harvest and, uh, just kind of trying to plug through these beans and, uh, thought we’d sit down here again and cut a podcast before we go out and get equipment ready for the morning.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, don’t wanna wait too long. When I quit last night, they were 9.4%, so, uh, considering you got precipitation at your house and we didn’t get any here, probably be running at eight 30 again this morning. Now, I don’t know how many of you guys out there are farmers or run beans or anything, but how many times did you start at eight 30 in the morning? We’ve done it the past two days, so,
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah. But it’s pretty impressive. Normally you end up sitting it fooling around and it’ll be, you know, sometime between 10 30 and noon before you can ever go out there and cut. At least in our situation, uh, you just can’t get the bees to be through the head very well.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, if you follow our YouTube videos, I was complaining about having, uh, fog until two o’clock in the afternoon. That one day just like, wouldn’t burn off, but man, I’d kill for a fog like that now. It’s just
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Terrible. Yeah, it’s crazy. It is. It is so dry right now that, I mean, this is the driest that I’ve, I’ve seen it in a very long time.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah. Yeah. So, well, um, today we kind of thought just to get some conversations rolling, we’d do a little article, um, reveal. Zach and I both looked up an article of something of interest to us, and, uh, we’re just gonna kind of talk about it. And I don’t know what he looked up. He doesn’t know what I looked up. And we’ll just kind of have a conversation based around, uh, the agricultural articles we looked up. So, Zach, what you got?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Alright, well, I, uh, I pulled a couple snippets out of a couple articles just, uh, because, uh, I’m very indecisive <laugh>. So, uh, uh, let’s see here. On Farm Progress, uh, really the main takeaway that I took out of this that I wanted to talk to you about, something I thought was very interesting was, um, see this, uh, this article was published by Farm Progress and, uh, just yesterday, actually, that’s pretty interesting. Um, let’s see, approximately 17% of the Farm Ground was rented right after World War ii. Would you like to take a stab at how much is rented? What percentage of Farm Grounds rented today?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
You said 17%. Yeah, I bet you flipped the numbers. How aboutt? 71
Speaker 2 (03:05):
As much as 50 to 60. Okay. So not quite 71%, but yeah, I mean that isn’t that crazy though, to think that over half the farm ground is rented?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah. And I bet a lot of it’s in the same families, they’ve just quit farming.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s just been handed down. I mean, we’re obviously, you know, there’s, it’s getting to be less and less farmers. I mean, um, you see farmers get big, well, they’re taking, they’re getting ground somewhere. Yeah. Um, nine times out of 10, it’s usually not a, uh, cash purchase.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
No. I mean, I, that’s pretty wild. But if you think about our clients, the 400 acre to thousand acre guys own their ground, you get bigger than a thousand acres. How much of that’s rented? I mean, maybe they own a thousand, but the rest of it’s rented.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
So,
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, I mean, I would say, I mean, an average, I would say everybody owns some.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Right. But yeah, there’s a lot of, I hadn’t thought about that number, but there’s a lot of renting ground
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Out there. Right, exactly. Well, it’s just to think like you see these farmers, I mean, it’s just, you know, you’re paying cash rent, you don’t actually have that asset. Right. So I think that 50 to 60% of the ground is in somebody else’s hands. Now, whether that’s owned by families and now as we move forward, you know, we’re seeing more of this investment group, um, kind of internationally owned type of thing going on as far as what’s being, uh, the farm ground’s being bought.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, yeah. There’s some, there’s some big money out there buying ground. Um, of course we’re surrounded by the solar panel thing here. Yeah. So then you get big money leasing ground. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> you get or ground exchanging hands. And I don’t know, it’s, it’s interesting. I know, I know we’ve got one client that went into that farmland preservation deal that I don’t exactly know how that works, but that seems like a pretty, pretty decent deal for the farmer. Especially now that we’ve got, well, we’ve got the Honda plant going up around here. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> talks of an Amazon warehouse. Yeah. All this solar ground. I mean, if you look at what ground is worth,
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Oh
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah. Holy crap. I mean, if you can get paid a little bit for it, go forth and prosper.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah. I mean, and you can’t blame, you can’t blame some of these guys for unloading ground in some of those situations. ’cause I mean, a lot of guys aren’t cash heavy.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
No, no. I mean, if you can pay off your, if you can pay off your debt by selling a couple hundred acres. I mean, if you’ve got a thousand acres and you can sell 150, 200 acres and be debt free, it’s hard to argue with a guy. I mean, I’m not a fan of all this stuff coming in. ’cause it just, I mean, yeah, it makes the ground worth more, but unless you sell it, it ain’t worth nothing.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Uh, it’s just more people around. It’s going to lead to more land taxes, all those things. But I can’t argue with the guys that are doing that. It was their land and I mean, if you could make some money off of it, I can’t complain. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
And when you hear some of the dollar figures that get thrown around on what, uh, some of these companies are paying guys to get that ground to build whatever project they may have. Oh yeah. It is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah. Big con, I mean, what concerns me is these guys that are leasing ground Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> to either a solar farm or something that, I don’t know, I think’s unstable where, you know, oh, let’s do a 30 year lease and hope our company’s still here in five years.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Right. Yeah. Those are a little bit shady. I’m, of course I’m not super familiar with that. I know that that is, you know, one of the things that’s going on, you know, concerning the, uh, the solar panel projects. But, uh, yeah, I mean, it is, it is a shame. I mean, to see any farm ground go, uh, you know, especially when you still have the same amount or more people to feed every single day. And, uh, so you’re just trying to push more bushels off of less acres all the time.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Right. Yeah. So, uh, I don’t know, but I think it’s kind of a fragile thing when you think about 17% of the ground or, uh, 50, 60% of the ground is now rented when it was 17%. Well, that gives you what, 83% that was, yeah. 80% that was
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Owned. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah. Okay. Owned and farmed. Right. But you got a little bit closer tied to it, you’re a lot less likely to sell ground that you’re like working every day I feel like. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So, yeah. And I
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Think if you’re a, it’s definitely losing as we lose the family farm, uh, structure. I mean, it, it gets easier to push away from that.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah. So, I mean, if you get into, you know, a landlord that’s two states away, it was just given to ’em from their grandpa or whatever, and Oh yeah, I saw the farm once, but it generates $20,000 a year in income. Somebody pops in there and says, I’ll give you a hot million for it gone.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
No doubt. Oh.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
But yeah, so that’s a, that’s an interesting statistic.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah. I hadn’t seen a statistic like that. I mean, obviously, you know, they exist, but it’s, uh, something you don’t really think about. But really 50 to 60%. I mean, that is a, that’s real.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah. That’s a lot of, uh, yeah. I’d like to know what the cash rent number was back. What’d you say Post World War II or post World War I,
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Uh, world War
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Ii. Yeah. I’d like to know what the cash rent number was as far as dollars average dollars per acre.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Oh, it was probably really low, but I bet the farmers are still griping about
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Oh yeah. <laugh>, there’s no doubt we paid money, we complain. I mean, when they, I don’t know what they paid for this farm originally, but I know dad said it was way too high and it probably wouldn’t buy you a rock on an acre now. So, uh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
But the commodity prices are probably same.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah. <laugh>, well, the way they are right now, I don’t think they could have been much lower, so. Right. Oh my, well, I looked up, an article came from Iowa State University. It’s the 10 considerations for adopting strip-till.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Alright.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Right. So, um, we have been in this discussion for years. Um, we’re in a spring strip-till situation past two years have been no-till, haven’t liked either one of those. Um, kind of moved into the fall strip till this year. Um, been doing a lot of talking, trying to find the right bar that’s not $200,000 just for a trial. Um, finally found one in an auction there about a month ago. And, uh, just kind of wanted to go through some of the things that Iowa State said, uh, that, that kind of went through our minds anyways. So, uh, productivity and power. So being a no-till farm, one thing we don’t have is horsepower.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Absolutely
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Not. Um, 295 horse is the biggest thing we got and that’s to pull a grain cart. So pulling a 12 or 16 row strip till bar was not going to include speed. Uh, it was gonna be a low speed operation, but we got, we got this 12 row, we able to pull it. I don’t know what dad say he was going five, six mile an hour.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah. I think that’s probably top end. But also considering the fact that I think you could dig a six foot hole and not find moisture. Right. It’s probably pretty
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Impressive. Right. So these guys were, they were talking about, uh, you know, before you got out and buy this, you know, 60 foot strip till bar, make sure you got some horses you can pull it with, so.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Oh, absolutely. And it’s crazy. Like you actually start, you know, you go to any farm show or uh, you go to like the National Farm machine ratio and you look at some of these strip till units, it ain’t no doubt these things are aggressive.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Well, and they’re, so you look at a chisel plow or field, you know, you got, you got discs, shanks, and maybe a rolling basket or some kinda leveling system on the back. Right. Dear Lord, these, uh, strip-till bars, which I’ve got, there’s pictures down here at the bottom. They’ve got shanks and rolling col or rolling, uh, blade ones. Oh my gosh. They get 10, 15 components. Oh yeah. Just trying to tear the ground up.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh, absolutely. And just, it is crazy how complicated we can make such a simple thing, but I mean, it’s all in, you know, it’s all for the greater good. Right. But, uh, or you know, conveniences or whatever, but, um,
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Gotta have that biological sanctuary and that other 20 inches.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
That’s right. That’s right. Well, uh, we have a, we have a demo unit on the farm, but it’s been so dry we actually could not run it. We got a demo unit from, um,
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Soil Warrior Warrior ETS
Speaker 2 (11:59):
And um, things really cool. But like I said, the ground is so tight and so dry right now that we can’t really even get a idea of what it could even do. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I, uh, I’m disappointed we’re not gonna get to run it. ’cause I think, I mean sure they have good advertising. I looking at it at the farm s you mean they had a lot of cool stuff on there? Oh yeah. Cool options. Absolutely. I think that they would do a really good job. I like their giant saw blade design, for lack of a better term.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I’ve never seen anything like it.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
And then that one in the middle, so it’s a three row unit to give you a picture, the two on the outside are triple Calder, uh, rolling baskets, uh, what the saw blades to, to give you the heat. Uh, and then the middle one is like this giant ninja star
Speaker 2 (12:53):
That is. Yeah. That’s pretty
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Freaking wild looking. Yeah. Uh, really wish we could get it in the ground, but, uh, as hard as it is that sucker just riding right on top,
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So. Right. And it, yeah, I don’t know. I think a shank, a shank will help pull you in the ground. I mean, we’ve ran our bar, it is a shank unit so it’s able to pull itself down in the ground, you know, despite the dry conditions. But we ran it through, um, what about 200 acres. Yeah. And wore through a brand new set of points. Right. So that’s not ideal.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
No, no. But that said he could pull it faster ’cause it was only going three inches deep. I said that it’s not
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Worth it. It’s a give and take. Yeah. <laugh>. It’s a give and take. Yeah. I
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Was like, well let’s just, let’s just wait and get some new points on there ’cause uh, or wait for a rain. My
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Lord. Well yeah, that’s kind of what we’re hoping for anyways. I mean, it does look like we may get into some wetter weather here this weekend, so that could be nice.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
So these next two are kind of funny. Um, ’cause these are all conversations that we’ve had over the past few years. But, uh, so their next one is stay on track. So gotta have GPS on the machine, on the, on the tractor and on the, uh, implement as well. Right. So, you know, that’s something we put on there. It is, yeah. A week or so ago just
Speaker 2 (14:11):
To, it looks cool.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
So, uh, passive and active guidance, which I didn’t really know that there was both, but we got
Speaker 2 (14:19):
To, I didn’t even know we needed both.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, I got to talking to our, uh, local AMS from John Deere, uh, helper, consultant, whatever you wanna call her. She’s, uh, she’s a rock star if you’re out there listening, Jenna. But, uh, she, uh, got us hooked up with, um, what’s it called? Just implement guidance, I guess. Yeah, yeah. So, um, only works on first pass because it’s not active. So what it does is it moves the tractor over so that way that the implement’s in the right place instead of having a hydraulic hitch or something that’s actually moving the implement and the tractor stays online. So it’s only good if you’re not in crop. But I think for what it was, what it took to do, it worked pretty darn good to me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
It’s one of those, it was one of those things you end up, you know, we’ve got half a dozen boxes of harnessing out there and we thought, oh my god, here we go. But uh, really three plugs mounted the, uh, bubble on the implement and it worked. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah. How
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Often and how often does that happen? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Uh, and we’re in like AGPS dead zone or something because no matter what we do, those suckers are always off. How many times have we had guys out here and they just can’t figure out why. Oh yeah. RTK doesn’t
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Work. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, do you recall, I mean, we, like Kevin said, I mean, uh, we were big into spring strip till pass and we’ve done that for years up until last year. Right. And, um, it’s one major thing we fought with that particular implement is not being able to hold a steady cro. I mean, you would, you, if you have AGPS receiver, one would think if I set that thing to 40 foot centers when I I turn around and come back, I’m going to be 40 foot on center every single time. Right. And, uh, we could not hold a consistent CRO to, I mean, you put a gun to our head, we wouldn’t have been able to do it. But
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It wasn’t even implement drift because they took, they unhooked the implement. The tractor wouldn’t hold
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It. I mean Yeah. It was insane. I mean, it, it’s just something that simple and, um, you see other guys not really struggling with it. I mean, maybe, maybe there is, maybe we just don’t know.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
But we’re not the only person in the area. I remember a few years ago they talked about another guy having the same problem.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah. Well, yeah. And well, I mean too, like the, our 1790 planner. Oh yeah. That is one tricky different
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Tractor, different bubble, different implement. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That’s one of those that I have yet to wrap my mind around why in the world that thing, it, it also will not hold a consistent ball. Correct.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
No. And it’s not off the same direction every time either.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
No. Yeah. I mean, that
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Drives
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Me nuts. That’s what killed, and that’s the same thing happened with the strip tail ball. Right. I mean, you’d be off five inches one way you turn around, you’d be five inches off the other. So as far as making an adjustment, you can’t make an adjustment to switch every single time you turn. So that’s ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
But now that we have the harnessing, we have the extra bubble, we have the unlock code that Deere just has to sell you for every little thing that they put in these screens. It’s
Speaker 2 (17:32):
A subscription service.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah. Yeah. Good thing. It’s only
Speaker 2 (17:35):
That’s how they make money.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh, okay. I forgot they were hurting for money <laugh>. Oh. But no, we’ve got our, we’ve got all that stuff now. So I will be putting this on multiple units just to see if we fix this stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah. ’cause I mean, it is, it, it’s a silly problem and it’s, it, it drives you nuts. You know, the one thing that really kills me is on the beans, man, you see him come out of the ground, he can pick out a bulker a mile away.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
I hate that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah. I mean just, and it’s, and GPS receiver problem, all that, if there’s no consistency, we can’t fix
Speaker 1 (18:12):
It. Right. Right. I mean, if you’re off four inches one way and then you’re tight four inches the other we’ll move or two and we’ll be perfect. You know what I mean? Like, oh,
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You can do this. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, I don’t know how many years ago that was. I had our previous AMS guy from Deere. Yeah. He came out and spent, I
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Mean, also very good at
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Service. Oh yeah. That dude’s awesome. Uh, he came out and spent a couple days riding with me, strip silling trying to fix it. And he would, I mean, he, he was so deep into a 26 30, he was seeing stuff. I, I don’t even know if it was in English. All right. <laugh>, this stuff was crazy. I mean, I could get deep in there and change some settings, but this dude unbelievable. But he would make a, he would make an adjustment and, um, it would hold right for like a round or two rounds or, I mean, even an hour, I mean even just a straight hour run. And then, uh, just about the time he got in his pickup truck and left, I turn around, set her down, and here we are. We got some kind of crazy 40 inch bulk row. And uh, we plan on 30. So Yeah. That, that is a, that’s a problem. So it is crazy. It is just, um, yeah, trying to chase inconsistent problems is not, not a fun time.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Well, yeah. But I think most of these guys that are gonna run strip till, if they’re not in the Yates mill triangle, they’re gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah. It’s like we’re in the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good term. That’s a good term. ’cause it is funny. We have our dead zones, we have our dead cell spots here. We have the same places that I lose cell service. Oh yeah. I’ll lose GPS signal. And, um, I mean, that’s not very cool, especially if you’re spraying or Yeah. I mean, uh, spreading manure is one of ’em. It’s not where you can’t
Speaker 1 (19:58):
See it.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s one thing. It’s not just doing a tillage or plant pass. You can see where y’all went, but uh, yeah, when we’re spreading or spraying, you can’t see where you went and all of a sudden you lost your guidance and you’re just trying to drive on that line. It’s like, oh, here we go. It’s
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Always funny to call somebody and say, where are you at? And you hear, oh, okay, you’re at 7 34. All right, we’ll see
Speaker 2 (20:19):
You in a minute. Oh dude, I can, I mean, as soon as you answer the phone, if you’re within a half a mile of that block, <laugh>, I know where you’re at. Or it’s funny now even I called my wife and, and like, it’ll be broken up. She’s like, you’re on 7 34, aren’t you? I’m like, yes. But it’s just that, like, it’s just a spot. And so, and uh, I’m telling you, I mean, I’m, uh, a little bit of a conspiracy theorist, but there is a pipeline that goes right down through there. And it seems like the whole length of that pipeline, you get down the next road over the whole nine, like, it, it’s like a thing for me. And I’m just, I keep tracing. I wanna walk it one day and figure out where do I actually lose signal thinking there’s something going on. Oh
Speaker 1 (20:57):
My, that’s, that’s a new one on me. Oh, I guess the last one here. Uh, I mean there’s more, but this is gonna be, uh, I guess we’ll go through a couple more, but I’ll let you, I’ll let you talk after this one, but, uh,
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Get in there.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Do you have the planter operator in the cab? You should,
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yes. I think the fundamentally, whoever, I mean in the, in the strip till operation, somebody’s gotta, whoever’s making a pass in the field, the next guy’s gotta deal with it. Whether it’s you or somebody else
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Preach.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Right. So the guy that’s gotta go out there and make strips that the corn planter’s supposed to run on, and then the corn planter’s gotta go in there and decipher those and decide if he’s happy with those or not. And, um,
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Worst part of this 12 row strip till bar 16 row plant. Yes. So if something is off, doesn’t matter. Not gonna be able to find your bulk row and try to fix it anyway, so. Right. Gonna be fun.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah. And I mean, I had to, you know, I was blessed to have gotten to run the strip till bar and not run the corn planter. So fielding phone calls from the planter operator asking why I did this or why I did that, or how did I do this or how did I do that? I’m like, man, I don’t know <laugh>
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, we put just enough technology on the Corn Planter last year that I got upgraded to that spectacular job, which is fun. I like playing with the, you know, now we got, we got Speed tube, we got smart firm, all the, all the fun gadgets. So I love playing with that stuff. But, uh, now that I’m doing that and Dad is running the strip-till bar, I know that we are going to have some, some great conversations next spring. Trying to figure out what were you thinking when you, uh, when you decided to do this.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah. And I think what’s really funny is we typically have a different guy in the strip till bar a different guy in the Corn planter, a different guy in the side dress bar, a different guy in the sprayer. I mean, just somehow it always gets tossed around to that point. So everybody’s gotta get a taste to whoever screwed up the first time.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Right, right. And getting the corn planter working new tractor, well, new to us tractor and, uh, all that different stuff on the Corn planter. I said, well, uh, ’cause dad was gonna follow me in the Sidedress bar. I said, I, the first field’s a mulligan. We gotta, you gotta give me that one. You can’t holler about how bad I did. Exactly. He said same thing the other day when he finished that first field, the strip till, he said, well, we’re learning, you gotta, you gotta gimme a mulligan on this one. I said, okay, but you’re better. Your next one better be right. ’cause you’re gonna complain at me when, uh, when you get in that side dress bar and things are all kinds of, all kinds of funky after I planted it. So
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, I mean, just the way it shakes out on, you know, labor and you know how, uh, how many people we got around here. I mean, it just usually doesn’t work out for us to have the planter operator do at the strip till. ’cause our, uh, planter operator is a combine operator and, uh, we’re not getting rid of him this time of year.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
True. I hope not. I kind like being in the combine.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah. And I don’t want to go in there. I don’t want to get in there. That’s, that’s a good Evan job. Well,
Speaker 1 (24:22):
You say you got a second article you was looking at. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I got a snippet. I got a snippet. I want to drop another Now they’re kind of a number, kind of a number article. Right. So, um, let’s see here. How much do you think the United States spends annually on AG research?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Ag research?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yep. Specifically ag research.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Well, in 2015, I believe you and I went out to Monsanto, they told us they were spending a million dollars a day. So what’s their four companies? Syngenta, Mons, well, Bayer, Corteva. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and AgReliant. BASF, all the other. All the others.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah. There’s other people. Well, you
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Gotta consider some of them are owned, I don’t know, a year.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah. A year’s time.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I’ll say $10 billion,
Speaker 2 (25:26):
5 billion.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Oh, okay. No wonder stuff sucks.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Would you like to know how much China spends on research annually?
Speaker 1 (25:36):
700,000 yen <laugh>.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
$10 billion.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
So they’re doubling us on research. Right. And nobody’s concerned.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Nobody’s concerned. Now the statistic I would like to know that I, I don’t know because I don’t know much about agriculture once we get out of the, out of the country. Right. I mean, I know what goes on. They have cooler equipment, <laugh>. Yeah. But I don’t know, what kind of ground are they covering in China? You know, not very good. Not very good. Right. So I guess to me that’s a concerning number. You’ve got, you know, out of the country, we’re spending 10, not we, China spending $10 billion. Um, let’s see, the European Union places second and they’re spending around 8 billion
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Just to raise better wheat.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Right. <laugh>. But Well, I mean, just look at that. I mean, if we’re, if we’re an agriculture powerhouse, we’re spending some of the least amount of money.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Okay. So the stat I would like to know, okay, so Syngenta, where do their dollars go? Do they all go to China?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Well, yeah, I mean, that’s true. I mean, if, if that’s the case, then yeah. I mean there’s, there’s some of your 10 billion, I
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Mean, we’re talking about Viti, Durate, Vitera, all these different traits that they’re, you know, that everybody’s transitioning to now.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, that’s true.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Um, of course you look at Bays a German company, BAS F’s a German company. That’s
Speaker 2 (27:20):
True. I mean, and that, you know what, at the end of the day, that probably is the most concerning portion, right?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I mean, we don’t control anything anymore.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
No. It’s all outta country. I
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Mean yeah, everybody hated Monsanto. They were devil worshipers or whatever, but they were in St. Louis, Missouri. We knew who was doing the research. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
You could literally drive over there and see it,
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Say, Hey guys, y’all doing all right? You know? I mean, I don’t know. It’s, uh, I’m not an outsourcing fan.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
No, no. Never have been. I mean, I, I’ve always been in the, you know, I’ve always held my places, you know, support local, support your local town, your, your state, your country. I mean, that’s just, that’s just kind of where I land on things. Do that where you can. But I mean, it’s just like anything else. I mean, every, everything gets outsourced. It’s cheaper to manufacture labor’s cheaper. I mean, there’s a reason that things get outsourced. I mean, it’s all about dollars. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
But I mean, in that case, you’re not even talking production. ’cause you think most of these chemicals are made in China or India, one or the other. Right. So if you’re just talking research, I mean, that’s not even American researchers.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Oh,
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah. So that’s, it’s concerning that they’re gonna get ahead of us. Because if you’re not American researchers on American soil Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, you’re studying in different soil types, different environments. You know, are we really getting the best technology for our, uh, our environment?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Right. And I mean, you wanna look at that number and say that we’re spending, you know, less than China, less than the European Union. But I mean, I don’t know how hard they’re regulated overseas as far as it goes when it comes to chemicals and application and, uh, things of that nature. But, uh, I mean, it’s getting worse and worse and worse as far as trying to keep up with all that here.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I mean, I know a lot about foreign agriculture because I watch TikTok <laugh>. So, um, I mean, when I see like Chinese farmers, you’re usually talking about guys doing like two acre patches with hand sprayers.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah. I mean, that’s what you see. I mean, that’s it. That’s what we, that’s what we see. I mean, is that the case? I don’t know. I
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Don’t know. Like I pandemic, I don’t think they have large, I don’t know. I would have to look it up, but I don’t think they’re having really big farms. I think they’re all smaller farms. Just a lot of
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Them. Right. Just, okay. Yeah. I mean, you might be right. I don’t know. Look, this is just a statistic I found looking this morning and I thought, you know what, I’m gonna, I’m gonna bring that up. ’cause that just says interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
So what, what, what did it say the research was? Ag Just ag research?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Um, yes.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Well, okay. So I, you go by aftermarket parts or even go buy parts from John Deere now Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> say made in China. Are they considering that research when they’re stress testing those parts and stuff? I mean, oh, probably think about how much stuff is made over there.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah. I mean, you’re right. I mean, even, I mean, any Deere part, I mean, well, I’d say what a vast majority of the Deere parts you get are Canada. I mean, they’re, you’re
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Canada, Mexico, Germany, it seems like.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Right. So you’re, most things you lay a hand on to install as far as when it comes to, you know, fixing and maintaining machinery and, uh, wearable parts. I mean,
Speaker 1 (30:54):
<laugh> made in America’s Over, it’s just sim assembled in America.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, I like that. Right. I mean, at least it says a symbol in America. I’d like to know that there was at least an American in the fold. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
It’s, that’s crazy though. I, I had never, I thought we were the leader. I didn’t realize that there was other countries doing that much research.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Right. And the number that isn’t on there, but I would like to know it’s South America.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Them boys are getting after it. Yeah. If they could build a road to save their lives and get their stuff to port, we’d be in trouble. I mean, if their dock workers didn’t go on strike and they didn’t have potholes that would swallow the semis full of grain to get it there. I mean, they got enough acres, they could shut us down.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Oh, for sure. I mean, they, they’re a powerhouse in and of itself. I mean, they’re, uh, I mean, anywhere you go anywhere, uh, a lot of things are based off of what Brazil’s doing.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah. Oh, I mean, of course, being a farmer, we’re always hearing about, well, Brazil’s weather. Argentina’s weather. Well, I think I heard the other day, Argentina’s in a drought. Uh, so if they stay droughty, they’re not gonna get their first crop corn planted. They’re gonna switch to beans. And that’s gonna put pressure, pressure on our bean market. And like, it doesn’t even matter what’s happening in Iowa anymore. You gotta worry about the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
I mean, oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And then Putin, you throw him into the mix. Yeah. Who knows who he’s gonna blow up tomorrow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Just, just blast in grain elevators. Oh
Speaker 1 (32:26):
My gosh. It’s just, uh, it’s not the same market that our grandfathers traded in or great grandfathers. It’s, it’s wild, but Oh, well, I mean, that’s the world we live in. That’s the hand we’re dealt. We gotta figure out how to trade it.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Oh, absolutely. But I mean, just progress.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Oh yeah, yeah. Sounds like America better step up the progress and we’re gonna get left behind.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we’d, uh, we’d rather spend our dollars to crack down on farmers and regulate ’em Right. Than to actually research for improvement, though.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah. I, uh, I hate regulation, but what I hate more is American research being outsourced to, uh, countries that aren’t regulated. Right. Yeah. We’re giving them their dollars, we’re spending monies to regulate ourselves. And then we’re like, oh, okay, we’re gonna go do the same thing over here on the other side of the world because it’s not as bad.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
So I guess their atmosphere isn’t as important as ours. I don’t really understand that, but whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah. Yeah. It, uh, it’s a tricky one, but, uh, yeah. That is how she goes. Well, let’s switch gears here before we get too political <laugh>, um, or maybe get more political. Um, something I have been seeing a lot of, I mean, just multiple areas, not specifically one article or anything, is just talking about, uh, shortages in farm labor.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
<laugh>,
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Um, I don’t know how to put that any better. Um, so what, is there six of us that work here? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, three of ’em got two jobs. Well, no, just two of ’em have two, two jobs except for us that farm and spray and do all the other stuff. But, uh, two of ’em have off-farm jobs and just come after work. How many people don’t have their first job? Like, there’s two categories. You either wanna work and you’ll work two or three jobs to make it happen or you don’t wanna work.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah. That’s how you,
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And that’s what you’re
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Gonna do. That’s how you average it out.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Right. So there, I mean, it all averages out. Everybody’s got a job if you count how many people are working. But my goodness. Yeah. It’s,
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I mean, I know it’s not, definitely not just an agriculture specific thing, but I think the way it affects agriculture is a lot different. And then, you know, it’s when it comes to your small farmer, I mean, how can you compete?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Well, yeah. How do you pay a person when they can go down to Honda? You know, I don’t know what you do at Honda. You push a button and make it do something or work on a machine or something, but you’re inside. There’s no inclement weather. You know what hours you’re gonna work and you’re gonna get paid with full benefits. I mean, how do I, as a farm owner or us as, uh, independent retailers, essentially, how do we pay some money and compete with that without jacking up our prices to try to compensate with that? And that’s what, I mean, that’s essentially what inflation is. We’re we’re jacking up prices to cover the labor costs.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Oh, exactly. And I don’t know, I mean, I guess when it comes to the farm level of, of labor shortages and things of that nature, I mean, I think one major thing a person has to have that works on a farm is you have to like it, you have to have, you know, you have to like farm.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Right. I mean, it’s, it’s not for the faint of heart.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah. I mean, it is, I mean, it is labor intensive work. There’s no doubt. There’s a lot of problem solving and troubleshooting and it’s just there, I mean, there’s a lot that goes into it, but I think the more you move away from that family farm dynamic and now you’re getting generations away from, you know, everybody, everybody is related to somebody that has farmed at one point. Right.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Right. Right. Even if you go back, you know, as my great-grandpa owned this farm or whatever, but yeah, everybody’s farmed.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Exactly. And, and the further, the further you move away from that, I mean, so you, you’ve got, you’ve got groups of kids that have nothing to do with agriculture, don’t, you know, haven’t really been exposed to it. So as far as, you know, somebody just doing it for the love of doing it that is gone by is, is, is pretty much gone by the wayside. And I mean, and that’s at least a contribution to a labor shortage.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah. I mean, uh, one thing, you know, if you had a hundred farmers in a county Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Okay, well there was a hundred farm workers right there. Well now if you’re down to 50, they all each have to have an employee. Yeah. So, I mean, with consolidation comes more employees. Yeah. And I mean, it just, uh, I mean, we got people here in the county that have somewhere around 40 employees. I mean, look at us. We’ve even got, what, five or six of us here, depending on the day.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Yeah. And you know, it was just grandpa when he started. Yeah. And one, one guy in the fall to help him haul grain and grandma to run the disc. I mean, that’s just, that’s how they were. But they were running 200 acres.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
So I, the machines have gotten bigger, but so have the problems. I mean, everybody, everybody watches the videos and sees farmers sitting in their cab, eating their lunch with their feet propped up. And that, that is what happens when things are running well. But when you break down or the dryer quits at two o’clock in the morning, or, you know, all these other problems occur. Nobody takes videos of those unless you’re the millennial farmer and those guys that are actually good at taking videos. I mean, we just take videos in the good times when we actually have time. Absolutely. Uh, yeah. It’s, uh, it, it all seems fun until you actually get here and you hit the problem wall. Like there’s,
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
The problem solving skills is probably the main skill a person needs to have.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Right. And then how many, how many guys over the years have we gotten in here that stuck around until something labor intensive happened?
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Right. Right. And then the next day they don’t feel well, which is strange. I don’t, I don’t know. It
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Is weird.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Uh, or the guys that think that they’re just gonna have one job, uh, that’s, that’s always interesting too. That’s what I like about your cousin Trevor, man. He’s jumped in, he’s done it all. Oh yeah. He’s, uh, he, he came from the Honda world, so he did, he appreciates the outdoor work.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah, yeah, of course. You know, just everybody has their different situations and, um, yeah. Kind of happy to have him around. But yeah, I mean, it takes a special kind of person and it takes a special kind of person to perform, um, you know, around here where we, we kind of need a guy to be capable of doing more than one thing.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Right. Right. It’s a, uh, we do a lot of things. We do all of our own, basically do all of our own stunts, <laugh>, unless it involves a crane. ’cause we don’t have one of those. But, uh, but if we did, but if we did, we’d have some stunts we’d need to do today. But, um, yeah, we, we have to have a lot of skills. Most of ’em are common sense and problem solving, but just knowing how to do specific tasks are, uh, pretty important.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean the, the, the kind of worker that exists in today’s America as far as your, um, your general factory worker, I mean, how much skill does that guy have to have?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, I mean some, I mean, depending on what job they’re doing, they do have to have some skill. Um,
Speaker 2 (40:04):
But it’s usually gonna be set forth towards one thing.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Right. Once you learn that skill, um, it, it is learned period. So, um, around here we’re learning every day. ’cause we break something new. I mean, we tore into the throat of the combine. We’d had shields off yesterday that we had never had off before.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yeah. And that’s part of it too, is you just, you can’t be afraid to dive in there and get into something. I mean, what we did yesterday, that took us about 30 minutes. Um, you know, we could have called a deer service tech and could’ve got him out here and he would’ve been out here for, you know, would’ve taken him a half an hour to get here, assuming there was much free. And he would’ve had easily a half hour, 45 minutes figure an hour by the time he drags his tools out, gets in there, changes that sensor, slaps it back together, puts his tools away, he packs up and rolls. And what’s their hourly rate right now on the road? Uh,
Speaker 1 (40:58):
I think 135 plus they charge you from the time they leave the shop.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
So Yeah. And that’s crazy. Yeah, that is
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Crazy. Yeah. So, um, there’s that, but shout out to our mechanic, uh, Wess Willie. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
That dude’s awesome.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Also a rockstar.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah. I think he gets concerned when we call him ’cause he knows if we’re actually to the point that we’re calling somebody, we’re in bad. So
Speaker 1 (41:23):
That is one thing that we try to uh, use here is I know, I know that there’s some guys that get their phone calls ignored because they call every day to find out how to turn the combine on. So I try to conserve my calls to the point where if I call you pick up because you know, something is physically broken, I need help.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yeah, definitely. I feel like we do a pretty good job of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah. Sometimes we wait too long.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
We do wait too long or we like to think we’re gonna fix this ourself 110%. Right.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Right. But, uh, well that’s another shortage, uh, guys in the shop at these equipment dealerships.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Oh yeah. Well I mean the labor shortage thing is affecting all industries. You’re right. There’s no doubt about that. But as far as when you get into that kind of thing too, I mean that takes a very particular guy to do that job. He does because, because the guy a service tech for your equipment dealership, same thing. His hours aren’t set. No. I mean we’re running all hours of the day and night. And
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So his set of skills is pretty wide too. Yeah. Because he get called on a planter, a sprayer, a combine tractor. I mean, going from, you know, a a 24 40 to a eight rx, I mean, think how much different things are just on those.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. They have to have a broad skill set and so that makes that job, you know, that makes it hard to find a, a, uh, you know, a the the right guy. Right. But if you don’t even have a huge pot to choose from, so you end up with, you know, less than ideal mechanics. Uh, but we have a good one, thankfully. But, um, yeah, the labor shortage thing, it um, it definitely comes full circle. Yeah. It affects us all the way through. I mean, anywhere we go, I mean, same thing you go, I mean we can’t even go eat lunch at Arby’s three miles up the road <laugh>. ’cause they close the dining room and they don’t have enough
Speaker 1 (43:15):
People. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yeah. And that isn’t a skilled labor job. That’s a minimum wage job. Now given I, you know, you get into that whole thing, but I mean, there just isn’t a large amount of people that want to work.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
What Right across the street where they build a Honda plant and have their 2100 employees. I’m sure they’ll be fully
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Staffed. I cannot wait to see where they get those 2100 employees. They’re gonna bring ’em in from, you know, definitely not local. I mean, yeah, they’re probably gonna get some local people and that’s gonna affect our other manufacturers here that we have. Which we have several. Uh,
Speaker 1 (43:52):
They better pack their lunch ’cause Wendy’s and Arby’s are not going to be able to keep
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Up. Absolutely not. <laugh>, you get four people in line at our local Arby’s slash Wendy’s. Uh, you’re in for a, you’re in for a wait, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
All right. So I got two more points here I want to hit real quick. Uh,
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Let’s hear ’em.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Okay. So we’ve got Calder versus Shank.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Alright.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Spring versus fall.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Alright.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Okay. So we’ve already said that we did the spring thing and we did Calder’s.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yep. The spring strip. Yep.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
We, you know, I’m looking at soil tests last night. I’ve been, been kind of on a roll with that stuff. And we’re looking at 25% magnesium in some of our soils. So we’re not super great at drying out. We are sticky, we’re crusty. There’s like 15 minutes where it’s perfect to plant. So, um, we don’t get dry enough to use that Calder system in the spring.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
No, not anymore. I mean, you know, you want to take a step back 10 years, it was no problem. You got the strip to bar on and the next day you got the plan run. You had a, you had a relatively dry furrow.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
But it seems like weather patterns were so much different. And
Speaker 2 (45:07):
That is true. I mean, really the weather patterns, they have changed drastically.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
’cause our soil tests have stayed pretty consistent. If you look right. I mean, we’ve got all the way back to the early two thousands, they’re not that much different from the same lab.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah. So I mean, it is more of a weather fight than it is a ground, um, type of
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Fight. Yeah. And I mean, it would get too dry on you when you were running the strip-till bar. Yeah. But man, now it just seems like it gets to during like we get a four inch rain and it just packs that darn ground.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Well that’s it too. It’s like, when’s the last time you remember just getting a solid two day rain where you got an inch and a half?
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Uh, I think 2012 <laugh>. No, not 2012. It didn’t rain at all that year. I’m just kidding. Uh, it’s been a while.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
It is. I mean it is, I mean, and I, I am sure it’s just the pattern thing or however you want to make that problem out to be. I mean our weather patterns have changed drastically and so the farmers having to adapt to meet that. Right,
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Right. And it’s almost like they’re moving across the country. Like we’re starting to get some of the, not Oklahoma weather, but like out west weather where they get more of the tornadoes, the extreme weather. Yeah. They get the extreme droughts. Yes. Uh, granted we don’t have 110 degree weather like they do out there.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
No, yeah. We don’t have those super aggressive summers. I mean yeah, we end up with some 90 degree weather, uh, for a few weeks. But as far as the way that we get precipitation all year long, the last five years, I mean we narrowly end up with any, uh, accumulation of snow in the wintertime. Right. We will end up with more of a icy that kind of ly weather or whatever a grapple. I don’t know. That was the term we toasted.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Well you’re gonna try to put this in every episode
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Now. What? Grapple. Grapple. Yeah. Yep. I’m gonna make sure I tie that in. Maybe
Speaker 1 (47:02):
If we say that like 300 times, we’ll rank first when people say type groppel into Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
There you go. That would
Speaker 1 (47:09):
Be awesome.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah. What do you want to know about Grappel? We could do an episode specifically about <laugh>. It’ll be really, really boring.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
You know, it’d probably be better if we ranked for like farming podcast, but heck, I mean, we could be just as good as the rest of the meteorologist in the world. It’s not like they know what’s going on.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
With that note.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
No, we’re not going there
Speaker 1 (47:29):
On topic. The daylight is coming.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Let’s save that for another episode.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Okay. So, so Calder versus Shank. Yeah. Obviously we’ve said on the fall thing, we think that that’s a better fit for our soils. Yes. So if we stay in the fall, we’ve got the option basically in the spring. The shanks out.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yeah. Yeah. You’re too aggressive
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Really bringing up mud. Um, so in the fall here we’ve got Calder versus Shank. I went with Shank simply because I think we need that lift and fracture action.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
Um, we’re running heavy machinery on there all year. I just think we need some, some braking of the soil. I do like, I do like the rotating systems, you know, for rocks and other things, but I don’t feel like you’re gonna get that, that lift and fracture action down deep to get those roots down further.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Absolutely. And like let, just letting the ground breathe kind of aerating the soil a little bit, you know, down to that six inch mark at least. Um, that’s, that’s, that’s definitely key. And uh, I mean obviously our goal is to make a nice clean furrow for spring. So Yeah. We can accomplish that. That’s kind of just the ultimate goal. Right?
Speaker 1 (48:37):
Yeah. I mean I kind of think it, it kind of goes back to just conventional thinking. If you’re running, you’re running stuff in the fall, you’re running a, a chisel plow or whatever, you’re actually running a shank and then in the spring you’re coming back and running a disc or you’re running a turbo till or some kind of finished tool. Yep. Um, and and I think some of that goes back to moisture also. ’cause you’re not gonna smear with a rotating, a rotating tool Right. Where with the shovel you’re going to, but you go through a freeze thaw cycle. Um, and if you’re as dry as we are now, you’re not gonna smear anything anyways. So, uh, I think, I think there’s a lot of things that go into it. Obviously, unless you’re farming with money, not for money, you can’t own both of ’em just to, just to have it around and see what the soil conditions are gonna do. So you kind of gotta hedge your bet a little bit. Yeah. But, uh, just in my opinion, I think we hedge ’em shank in the fall. I mean, obviously that’s what we purchased. That’s what
Speaker 2 (49:30):
We’re doing. Yeah. That’s what we’re gonna try. I mean, that that’s what we are doing. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1 (49:33):
So next, uh, about July next year, we’ll tell you if it worked or not. ’cause uh, that’s about how long it’ll take us to find out. I mean, we’ll know in the spring if we, if we like how it planted, but until we get those roots down and that corn knee high, waist high, see how it actually developed, we won’t really know.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Right. Yep. Once you get that deep root action Yeah. To tell.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
So I, uh, I think that’s pretty good. But you got anything else you wanna talk about?
Speaker 2 (49:59):
I don’t think so. I think I pretty well hit what I wanted to for the day. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Uh, went a little bit longer than what I thought. So this is, this is gonna be fun guys. I think, uh, stick with us. Uh, hopefully our audio quality gets better. It’s not too bad right now, but we’ll keep working on that. Uh, please rate and review us in your favorite pod catcher and, uh, give us a Google review for easy custom ag. If you would just, uh, we would really appreciate it. We’re just trying to get more exposure. Get out there and, you know, just have conversations with farmers, like farmers. I mean, we all have the same conversations in our shops every day, so why not do it out here in public And comment and just kind of let us know what you wanna hear about.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
Yeah, absolutely. We’re here, we have open ears. We have a lot of opinions.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Thanks a lot guys. We’ll see you next time out in the field.