Barn Talk - Barn Talk Q&A: Farming Challenges, Airbnb Insights and Hog Barns

Episode Date: August 25, 2024

Welcome to Barn Talk! In this one, we tackle a multitude of topics, from the intricacies of hog farming and the impact of legislation like Prop Twelve, to our thoughts on exercise routines, music preferences, and the challenges of running an Airbnb. We also touch on market updates, the importance of moderation in dietary habits, and the ever-evolving dynamics of direct-to-consumer meat businesses like Farmer Grade. Whether you're a seasoned farmer or just curious about rural life, there's something here for everyone. Use code BARNTALK for 10% OFF your next order https://farmergrade.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq   LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  ITUNES ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 Support the show, leave reviews, visit farmergrade.com. 10:36 Started business quietly in the bedroom, then expanded. 16:16 Consolidation in equipment dealers; less inventory. 21:34 Limited travel, hated job from a young age. 26:21 Limited demand for large farming equipment, new preference. 32:00 Farmers optimistic about grain prices despite challenges. 33:38 Ag economy struggling, hope diminishing, situation worsening. 39:01 Diversified retail dealer with focus on livestock. 47:39 Sales success from prospecting and networking. 50:38 Struggling with business growth and leadership development. 58:47 Motivated by family, balancing work and compassion. 01:03:33 Middle America built on farm kids know-how. 01:06:56 Story about rebuilding a car engine summary. 01:11:44 Encouraging audience engagement and promises future content. ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cr... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a Barn Talk Q&A episode. So you guys submitted these questions through email at BarnTalk Show at gmail.com, and we're going to get them answered on the show here today. if you want to submit a question, you can email them to Barn Talk Show at gmail.com, and we'll get them answered on the show.

If you guys are new here, all that we ask is if you get any value from the show, you share it out with the people that you know. The more that you guys do that, the more this show can grow, the more guests we can get on, the more episodes we can make, and it's just a win-win for everybody. We find that the best way to grow a podcast is word of mouth, and you can get value from relating to us on something, laughing about something, learning something.

There's a lot of ways to get value. We just ask if you do get any of those kinds of value that you share it. Another thing that you can do to help support Barn Talk in this podcast is leave a review on Spotify or Apple. That gives our show a lot of credibility. It's probably the number one metric to the outside world outside of podcasting that people look at to measure how successful your podcast is. So we're almost to 3,000 five-star reviews on Spotify,

and we're getting close to 2,000 five-star reviews on Apple. So thank you guys for submitting those reviews. We love hearing you. We love hearing your feedback. So keep up doing that. That really helps us out. We appreciate it. Last thing you can do to support us here on our farm and here at Barn Talk

is support our direct-to-consumer meat business, Farmergrade. Farmergrade.com. We run a cut of the week every week, 20% off. It changes. This week's going to be dry-age skirt. steak. We got pork that we raise on our farm on there. We got pasture raised chicken. We got dry-aged beef, American Wagyu, all raised from American family farms that all show what they do through social media and process through American family butcher shops, all done here in the United

States. So we would appreciate any of you guys that support that. And you can also use code barn talk to save 20 or save 10% on your next order. And I will say this, because I say, I you know, any new updates that I got going on Farmergrade. We just launched a rewards program on Farmergrade.com. So if you spend any amount of money, you'll earn points that you can redeem to get money off your orders. So I just want to throw out that so that you know that. So you got a chance to earn some points and get some money off with our awards program. So I already got some rewards.

I've probably already redeemed them. Yep, I know mom. Mom's already, mom's a supporter of a farmer grade. She's got a lot of points banked up. Fat kid likes to eat. Yep, hey, I'll take it. I appreciate it. I have in my hand the hot off the press, fairly well printed, slightly, slightly faded. We might need a new printer. Market update. Markets were up today. Corn and beans were both up, I think. I know corn. was up. I think beans were up a little too, but that doesn't, it sounds better and it really is. September corn 377, and the local bids weren't in, but if I use my fuzzy farmer math with where the market was, where it closed, I think there is a local bid that they're basically paying

377, so board price. You can get 379 in Eddyville, and I wasn't sure if they were going to update Cargill and Eddieville. They actually had that price this morning. So if they hold their basis the way they did, you can add seven cents to that price, but I don't know for sure how that's going to work. And pro farmers out, rolling them around the countryside, doing their estimation of what all the yields are going to be. And they called Ohio today. I just got that off the cat's grain wire that they're calling the yield, the average yield in Ohio, 190 versus 188. So we'll see if that holds true as they travel across the countryside. Beans for September, 954, 927 in Burlington, 955 across the river in Quincy.

Bean meal, $309 a ton. Wheat for September, $5.27. October hogs, $7685. And even with the lower grain prices, cost of production for the hog guys is still probably 85 cents a pound or better. So when you look out there on the board, there's a lot of guys that are probably still losing $30 a head.

So I don't know how this hog deal. We just can't seem to move enough pork at any price. So better get after it there, farmer grade. Better sell some more pork jobs. Cattle for August 18280, feeder cattle, 242. Crude oil, 7450. Bitcoin, 60,000.

Tesla's waddling its way up out of the doldrums, 220. Gold, $2,542. Gold's kind of been on a roll lately, creeping up. Silver 2672, and your friend and mine, Beyond Meat, it's rallied a little bit since the last time we do it. A whole 10 cents a share, $6.18. cents. So I don't know. I don't like that. Well, it's a temper. Somebody's probably just playing the market a little bit. But speaking of markets, we were up at the Iowa State Fair, and that's part of the

reason I sound as crappy as I do. I probably talked a little too much or had a bad fried Oreo or something, but I got a little crap in my throat. But, you know, everybody wants to talk about the markets. and there is a lot of people out there that have land financed or, you know, real estate finance that they've done over the last how many years, they're all on adjustable rate mortgages. Like typically a lot of banks, if you're going through a local bank, you know, they're only going to be able to hold that interest rate so long. So a lot of those rates adjust. And with it being election year, a lot of people thought,

that, you know, the Fed was, I'm sure the Fed is under a lot of pressure to lower rates if they can. And we get a lot of questions about, you know, where do you think interest rate's going to go? So State Farm has their Jake. Now then we got our Jake. So I thought I would pose this question to Jake from Contera and get his thoughts on where he sees interest rates going. So Jake, what do you think? Where do you think it's going? Hey, guys, Jake Aspen Miller from Contera. As I travel around the country, I get a lot of questions about interest rates. Will the Fed cut?

Won't they cut? How much and when? And usually my response is something like this. Your guess is as good as mine. But long-term rates have already started to come down. Keep in mind when we're talking about the Fed funds rate and a Fed cut, we're talking about the overnight rate that commercial banks borrow and lend to each other. And this has a big impact on short-term rates.

think auto loans and credit cards. At Contera, we're primarily an ag landlender, so we focused more on long-term interest rates. Long-term interest rates peaked really in November of 2023, and as of today are about 1%, 1.1% lower than they were at the peak. So if you've got a land loan and it has an interest rate that's getting ready to reset, here in the next six months, three months to a year, make sure you're treating it like any other expense on your farmer ranch.

Do your homework, know your options, and get a fair deal. Now, you see, that was a heck of a lot better answer than I'd give you. Like, that was like, that was legit. Better than what I could have gave too. Yeah. A lot better. Thanks, Jake. We appreciate the answer.

Thanks to Contera, too. Shout out to those guys for knowing their stuff. Yep. How are you doing today? We kind of jumped right into the nitty gritty, but what have you been up to? I'm just trying to get back in the groove of things. Like I said, we were at the state fair, and I kind of overindulged there, too much talking and too much fried food and kind of fell off the horse.

Trying to get back on my exercise routine and getting a little bit. Let's just say I didn't prioritize protein while I was at the state fair. Yeah, it's kind of hard to. Get a lot of fat and carbs. Yeah. Hard to get the protein. So we were back at it this morning. We had a lot of hog work to get done.

We got a little itchy, so we went up, and it's always a good idea to throw all the breakers on the grain dryer and just see if anything like smokes, if any smoke comes out or any breakers pop. So we actually did that this morning and greased the augurs and the sweeps. And it all seemed to work. Even the fans. Fans kicked on like a switchwatch, yep. And I didn't see any rats run out. I didn't either, surprisingly.

A lot of birds' nests. A lot of birds' nests. The bait program must have held up. So I don't know, it won't be long. I mean, there is, I've got a neighbor on the way to town that always does kind of a show plot. And the very earliest beam that he planted is just starting the leaves are just starting to yellow. So that kind of tells you where it's at. But it'll be here before you know it.

We talked about in the market update, pro farmers out there, trying to figure out what the yield's going to be. And it'll be here before you know it. So I think it's going to be a long harvest. It's going to be a lot of, not a lot of acres, but a lot of, hopefully if the yields up, that's just more bushels you've got to put in the bin, and pick and get in the grain cart and get hauled. So this is definitely going to be a fall that I hope the weather holds good because if you,

there's just going to be, at least in our area, the yield's going to be pretty good. And so, yeah, a lot of bushels to haul, a lot of bushels to combine, it's going to be a slow process. And if you throw crappy weather on top of that or cold weather to where you're dry and get slowed down. I don't know, I just booked, I just booked LP this morning. So hopefully I booked enough. and if I did, hopefully the price doesn't go too far out of whack. So anyway. Productive morning.

Yep, we had a productive morning. Got a lot of good stuff done. This time of year when we get creeping closer to harvest, it can get a little stressful just because you know that the inevitable is coming. And we're going to be selling pigs out of multiple sites, probably the time that we start harvesting. And boxes still got to get packed. Podcasts still got to get shot.

content still has got to get shot and life still has to go on. Elon still has not sent me the bot yet, still waiting on the Tesla bot. No gorilla that can load pigs yet or a Tesla bot that can do the chores for us while we're away. But it'll be a busy, busy fall, but it always is and somehow we always get through it. So our diets probably won't be great and your steps won't probably get in as much. You probably won't get in as many steps as you'd like, but we'll push through. Yeah, I'm not pushing the wagons out of the field. No, not going to push them.

No, I don't think so. No. I would be pretty impressive if you did. I would be very impressed. I do have a low center of gravity. You do. The first question today is really for you. So Doug asked, being a son that wanted to follow in his father's footsteps to the hog business

and being the age you were when you started, what steps did you take to do so? Yeah, this is kind of, I mean, this is one of those things that it just depends on your situation. And I was fortunate enough to have a dad that kind of wanted somebody to come back and farm alongside him. You know, that was always on the table. My brother, the farming really wasn't for him. And when I was growing up, I really didn't know if it was for me or not. And as I got older, I gravitated it more and more, gravitated towards it more and more. and so I kind of always knew there'd be a spot for me here if I chose to do so

and if I decided not to go to college I could go right into the operation and so that's ultimately what I decided to do and because of that I had a dad that supported that he was able to kind of help me get started on the being a hog farmer you know I wasn't able to just like you know drop 750,000 or to a million dollars to build a hog barn you know, obviously we had to, my dad was fortunate enough to, you know, like use some collateral of his own to help me get started, which not everybody can say that. Not everybody, you know, has that option. I'm very, very blessed and very, very grateful to have had that. But at the same time, dad will tell you that, you know, we always say that, you know, he always says, I needed him

more than he needed me. And I always say, oh, I needed him more than he needed me. But we both kind of needed each other because in dad's eyes if I wouldn't have came back and farmed well you know this wouldn't have carried on and if dad wouldn't have been you know nice enough or i don't know forward thinking enough to you know see that hey we got to we got to get soyer hog barn or we got to find a way to help Sawyer have something on the farm to you know lock him in and and have some buy in and you know show that he has a future here show him that he has a future here show him that he has a future here in building a hog barn, you know, that that was kind of the case. So not everybody can say that, I don't think. And at this point, to build a hog building, it's really, really hard.

It's really, really tough. And I was fortunate enough also to get in right before lumber went up. Building prices went up crazy. You know, I got in like right before that and it got built. And interest, you know, it just kind of worked out that. way but I don't really know if I have any advice you know I just know that if I if I wouldn't have had a dad or or you know a family member that was saw the value and bringing back another generation I don't think it would have happened so but I also you know at that time I was also busting my butt you know I was showing commitment you know I was showing that I was putting effort towards the farm and I was showing that I was thinking about the future of the farm and I had just started

the social media, you know, and I was trying to bring value in a different way. And, you know, I had shown dad that I was bought in and that I was committed. And I decided I wasn't going to college and that I was going all in on farming operation. And so, you know, I think he saw that. And, I mean, you could talk about it, but you saw that and said, you know, we got to get him going. So, yeah. I think, you know, for your situation or for anybody that's thinking about invest in your time into starting something like that, it is not the same. I mean, really, you kind of do have to look at it the same as if you are making the decision to go to college. I mean, you think about how much stuff you learned over four years on the farm versus if you went four years to college. It's kind of the same.

Like, that's the way you kind of have to look at it if you're going to make that investment is, it's not like you're going to make a whole lot of money in those four years. In fact, you're probably not going to make squat, but you're setting yourself up. Like you got to look at whatever you do to get started in either ag or if you're going to learn a trade or you're going to do whatever. When you're young, I mean, you don't know anything. Like the sad and the hard part is, I mean, it's hard enough being what I always tell people is, what'll get you is what you don't know that you don't know. And when you're young, there's a hell of a lot that you don't know.

And some of it, some of it, there's people around you to tell you, well, you don't know this, but this is what's going to be, you know, this is what you've got to think about. But then there's a certain amount that you just playing, you don't even know what's going to happen. And so there's a learning curve there, no matter what you do. And you really have to look at it as if you're going to make that decision to go that path, whether it be a trade, whether it be starting on the farm, specializing in something in ag that you think there's an opportunity in, there's a window in there you're probably not going to make much money at all and you got to look at that as that's your time that's like the cost that's the cost of school that's the cost of that knowledge and the other thing i'll say is you have to have good communication with the people that you're involved with be it you know family members or somebody that you're kind of going under their wing to learn a trade or whatever like you got to have that communication open

And just be real clear about what your goals are, and they need to be clear about what their expectations are as far as what you're going to do so that that deal doesn't just burn up. In other words, both sides have to be happy. I guess I wouldn't say happy because you're not going to be happy all the time, but you both need to know what to expect and what the other side wants so that you can, So you can keep moving forward. Yeah.

Something I'd say too that might be a little bit different. And I see this a lot inside farming operations, which it's just, it's not odd to me, but it's just like I don't understand why people do this. And I mean, maybe I do. But dad and I from a very young, when I got started, the mindset of our farming together is, It's not like my hog barn. I don't look at that as like, this is mine and all the income that I make from it

I'm going to take and use it in my personal life. I look at that as an extension as to the farming business. It was another way to build a hog barn to expand our farming operation. Yeah, it's in my name. But if we got to invest all the, the money that we make from that, from that hog building back into the farming operation for the farming operation to be successful, I don't give a shit about taking my cut from my hog building. Like that's to me is so back to the whole team thing, you know, when you run a small business,

your sales team doesn't make all the money that they make from the sales. You know, it's they get paid a salary and they might make commission, but you know, like departments that make money for your business get paid. from the total profit of the business. It's not what they made for the business. You know what I mean? And it's just so weird in farming. The whole team element, I feel like it's lost,

and it's not about the business. They don't run it like a business. They run it like two individuals that are in business kind of together, but not running it as a team as a business. And we from pretty early on, we're striving to run this thing like a business. So, you know, if we can combine our money from what's in his name, what's in my name, vice versa, whatever, to grow the farming operation, that's what we're going to do.

So that's the other thing. I don't look at that hog building, like all that money that it makes, I'm the one that's going to take it all and do whatever the hell I want with it. I look at that as an extension to the farming operation that we already have. And what it makes, it's going to go back into the farming operation to grow the farming operation or make the farming operation better. And what the total farm makes, if we can ever get to this point, if it's making enough money, then it can pay us both what we see fit that it pays us off the entire farming operation.

And obviously, you know, I want to expand and find opportunities and help and grow the operation myself and contribute value, which I feel like I'm trying to do every day with the social media and other stuff, right? But that's, I don't know, I just feel like that doesn't, that kind of mindset doesn't, isn't very common inside farming. Right. You know what I mean? Right. And I think it should be more common. Because if you really want to win in any business today, you got to be all in and both people or however many people involved in whatever business it is, whatever business it is, they got to be a team. They got to be bought in and do what's best for the business at the end of the day. And a farming operation should be no different, no different at all. So that's just my two

sense anyway. Yeah, you got to kind of have a shared vision. Yeah. As to where you want to go. And the money that's made from what Sally's gotten her name versus what Jimmy's gotten his name, if you have a vision together, you should combine those efforts and that that income to further grow the business. You know what I mean? So it's just, I don't know. That's all I wanted to say about it.

Okay, this next one is, this is like, she asked three pretty good questions, but start with you. Maria asked, Sawyer, would you ever consider running for local office? Oh, good Lord. Lord. We need more people like you. Well, you think you do. Who have their head on straight are young and not in politics for the money just to serve our country, as you guys talked about. I know there's a lot of BS in politics, but I'm just curious if you would ever consider it. I'm going to be honest. I don't think that I would be the most tasteful for a lot of people out there. Palatable. I think I think I speak my mind and some people. I think I speak my mind and some people.

people love it or some people hate it. What I've come to find out is people that listen or watch a show either hate me or like me. Everybody loves torque, but not everybody likes me, and that's okay. Because I do come off sometimes as, you know, I'm just, when I'm passionate, I come off as a little maybe abrasive or just aggressive with my passion of my answers or my thoughts. And that's how I've always been. And I don't think that's, yeah, I don't think that would appeal to a lot of people. and I honestly like what I'm doing now with this podcast, talking about politics, talking about our thoughts on certain things,

and just speak in our mind. I like that. I like that I'm able to contribute, and I feel like we're making a difference and doing our part with this show, but I don't have to get in politics. I don't have to, I don't have to behold to anybody. We're not beholding to nobody, and we can speak our mind.

I don't have to worry about donors. or, you know, the local board that I'm on and playing, you know, being politically correct and playing politics. I don't want, I have no interest in playing politics in any part of my life. I am a straight shooter. I'm a no bullshit person. You're right. There's a lot of bullshit in politics. And I just don't feel like that would suit me very well.

Maybe that's what Washington needs. Maybe that's what the local office needs and that's what your point is. but I don't think that, I don't think right now that that suits me. I like where I'm at. I like being on the farm. I like contributing that way. I like being on this show and speaking our mind on things that matter. And I feel like that's us contributing to the greater good and also building my business and living my life.

That's, that's what I want to do. And unfortunately, becoming a politician today, I don't know. Like we always say, I feel like you got to be a complete narcissistic. to like run for political office in today's society because it's just it's just i mean it is you're going to get destroyed every second of every day and it's just it's a nasty nasty place you know how uh these guys that run for office uh like older politicians uh they've got some like they find some clip of them saying something out of context from like 20 years ago if you were to for office. Let's say you were to run for public office and say five years. Do you know what a,

do you know how much, how much media is out there that can be taken out of context? So bad. I mean, they could run a nasty ad about you 10 times a day, every day and not use a different, just use a different clip for everyone. The amount of clips just based off this podcast would be, oh, it'd be ruthless. They'd be ruthless. They'd hate me. They would absolutely hate me. And they would they would destroy me in any way they could. Yep. So, yeah, not my thing, not my cup of tea. That's for sure.

I don't think that would be for me at all. So the main question from Maria. Yeah. Is she asked, do you have a veterinarian that you call if there is ever a sick pig? Or do you mostly doctor them yourselves? Or does your integrator require you to have an on-call vet? Going into this field, I was just curious on how it works on the pig side of things.

Yeah. So the way our relationship works with our integrator is, so they have a staff veterinarian. So they have their own vet that is on staff that he oversees all of the production as far as health questions go, both on the Sal unit side and on the finishing side. and so if we have an issue the first person that we call is our fieldman and usually if it's so the good and bad of uh i guess production agriculture is the pigs that we have somebody else got those pigs before we got them and somebody else got those pigs after we got them and so if our pigs get to the pigs get

to be 80 pounds and they start developing some kind of a cough or this or that starts happening strep whatever when i call my fieldman he's probably going to say yep we've seen that in the groups ahead of you and this is what we did i'll call the veterinarian and see what he thinks but we're probably going to do x so that's kind of nice because you sort of know what the health what the health issues are. And like a lot of times when we fill, when we're getting pigs, when we know what flow it is, they'll say, hey, this unit is trouble is having these problems or this unit's been super clean and no purrs, and they're going to be a great group for you.

Yep, that's right. They either say, hey, these pigs are excellent. You better not mess them up or else they're going to say, well, you guys better be ready. You might have some challenges. Yeah, these are going to have some challenges. Okay, beyond that, then, They also work with a veterinary, a consulting vet.

So they have another veterinary practice that they use as a consultancy. So if our vet has like a questioner has something that he hasn't seen before, or if they're really busy, like if they've got problems around and there's things they're doing, they can call in basically a consulting vet that may come look at those pigs. And then the other thing is, just the, there are a lot of drug companies that cater to the swine business that they have their own staff veterinarians where, say, we vaccinated these pigs for iliitis, and we use so-and-so's iliitis vaccine. And then we start having problems.

Well, that company is probably going to send one of their vets because they want to know what's going on. And so there's a lot of hands out there that can help do it. But we do not have, like, I don't bring the vet that checks on cats, horse. That's, we don't have that person come. So the company we feed for, they have their own staff veterinarian. So that's how it works. And I always like to throw this out there. Do you know what a veterinarian and a chiropractor have in common?

What is that? Neither one of them are a real doctor. Oh, vets. Zing. Vets love that. Yep, I love hitting the vets with that. So, last question. What kind of music do you guys listen to

and who are some of your favorite artists? Also, do you listen to music when you're touring the pigs or is it mostly podcasts? Well, I tell you what music I listen to. I am actually very, I like all kinds of music. I will be very honest. And I think that's part of that is, Because, you know, my generation grew up with Apple Music, Spotify.

Pick whatever you want. You can go back in the 80s, the 70s, the 60s, 2000s. Then you have what's coming out new. That's new. You know, like you have access to the oldies and the new good stuff too. And so I love 80s rock. I actually have been starting to get into like some 90s, early 2000s rock. I like to lift to that a lot.

I grew up on 80s rock with my dad 94.1, KRNA. I mean, you listen to the shit out of that. But I also like rap. I like rap and hip hop. I listen to a lot of rap. I grew up that, you know, in high school, everybody was listening to rap. Played football, you know, ran track, rap, rap, rap was everything. I still listen to rap to this day.

Love country. Cat loves, my fiancé cat loves old school country. She loves 80s, 90s. East Country. She loves listening to that. I like some new country stuff too, but the old stuff I do think is better. I do

love me some Post Malone. I think Post Malone is great because his voice is just so diverse. He can do... I can... I say this all the time. I think Post Malone could go down as one of the greatest artists ever just because

he could be the first to do you know, like platinum a pop-out album, a hip-hop album, platinum a country album, and platinum like a rock grunge album. Because he can do grunge, country, hip-hop, and pop. He can do it all. And I just think I love his voice. I love his music. I love his style. And, you know, I really like Post-Blon. So there's a lot of guys I listen to, though. I mean, there's just, I mean, I could tell you, I don't even know. There's a lot. There's a lot. I I listen to a lot of different music. But really, I only listen to music when I'm driving,

and sometimes I listen to music, or I listen to podcasts when I'm driving. But I listen to music predominantly when I'm lifting and when I'm in the car, in the truck, whatever. When I'm choreing or I'm around the farm or I'm doing chores around the house, I listen to a lot of podcasts, a lot of YouTube videos on business.

and honestly, I will switch those music and podcasts out because if I get too burned out on listen to, if I try to take in too much business knowledge in one day and I get a little too burned out and I'm listening to it and then I catch myself not really taking what they're saying, that's enough to tell myself, okay, probably listen to some music because you're not really retaining any of this right now because you're over it.

You can't take any more in. So I really switch those two out a lot. But the podcasts I listen to for business are my first million, Alex Hermose. I listen to, there's a new podcast called Money Wise that's really good. All-in podcasts. Barn Talk, of course. I like to sometimes listen to our own episodes and see how stupid we sound. But that's my music and podcast taste.

Yeah, I listen to a lot. I'm so old that I grew up on 93-9, KR-N-A, before it became 94-1. And I'm the generation that if you wanted the new John Cougar song, you had to go buy the whole album. And I actually would buy the album, and I had a double cassette deck with a quality turntable, so I would buy the album and then I would burn it off on cassette so I could play it in my car. And so I'm that generation.

I do listen to some, I listen to some new stuff because I like Apple Music, so I'll always put on like a mix. Like I was working on Future. Yeah, like, no, I don't put it on that. No, not at all. But the only new music I listen to would be. Greta Van Fleet. Well, that's not really new, is it?

Yeah, there's. They're new. They're new. Some, but more country. Like, if I start listening to Luke Combs. Yep, that kind of stuff. Yeah. But I probably predominantly listen to podcasts. I love All In. I listen to Annie Furslla. I'll listen to some. Forgot. I listen to a shitload of Annie Furslla, too. I'll listen to some Jock. I like Joe Rogan, but it has to be somebody that I'm interested in. I don't listen to all the. all the people he has on some of the stuff he has is just it's like it serves no purpose to me but um all in for me all in is the best podcast out there for i would say business but um not even so much business as just perspective on what's going on in the world those guys have some just just the four of them together. It's such a good mix of perspectives. I really enjoy it. And the only time that I listen to

music is if I'm mowing or if I'm if I'm walking in the morning, but sometimes in the morning I'll listen to some, if I'm really slogging it, I'll listen to a little hardcore, hardcore jocco, you know, just discipline, discipline, to keep me going. Ellen, but yeah, that's my two cents worth. That's good. Yeah, I didn't literally list out my artists. I mean, George Strait, Waylon Jennings, Future, Drake, Little Baby, Luke Combs, Riley Green, Zach Top, Zach Bryan, I listened to ACDC, Motley Crew,

uh sometimes they're splashing some some queen in there i mean there's just i'm all over post malone everything i mean i literally listen to anybody if i like them if there's a song one even one song i'll listen to it the difference though is with your generation is you guys are you're a bunch of samplers that's the thing i noticed more than anything else like if i put on my my music that is downloaded onto my phone because i like for a long time i was like like even when Clay got Apple music and he said to me, he's like, you have all this music downloaded on your phone? And I'm like, yeah, he's like, you know, you can just listen to whatever you want,

whenever you want to. And I'm like, yeah, I like to have it. Like, I like to have it on my phone. But when I'm playing that and you're in the car, you're like, oh, yeah, this is good. And it's good for like 30 seconds. And then you're skipping it to something else. I wouldn't say 30 seconds. You have, your generation has no attention.

span so it's like rare we want the dopamine hit of the song yeah soon as it levels out like on to the next money for nothing yeah we want that intro we want that intro yeah and after that song's kind of shit i mean it just is song kind of sucks after that but the intro's great gets you fired up gets you what you need and then move it on move on uh this is a good one i lose i threw this in there Eric asked, is the pork checkoff going to promote cooking with lard? Seems like with all the bad publicity towards seed oils, now it would be the time to start pushing it. Hey, that's a good point. I think it is.

We were somewhere. Animal fats. I mean, that's the term. Everybody's, you know, pushing beef tallow. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. We should be pushing lard. Yeah, we came home from the state fair and we stopped in Pella and we ate at a restaurant downtown Pella.

And their signature fries, fried in beef tallow. They were excellent. And I think we've said this before. McDonald's, they fried their fries and beef towel clear up to like 87 when they switch. Haven't been as good since. I agree with you, Eric. I think we should promote it more because, and you see it a little bit. Like there's a product called, there's a product called Bacon Up.

And it's kind of big time with the. Blackstone. A lot of guys use bacon up instead of any kind of seed oil for season. That's a smart. And that's a smart way. That's a smart marketing way to, I don't know, is that, that's large. It's large. It's large. But it sounds better saying bacon up. Yeah. Bacon up. Yeah. That's genius that they did that. Because I bet that's pretty profitable for him. But yeah, animal fats, I think people are kind of getting to the point where they, realize they're healthier for you and everybody's talking about it everybody wants beef tallow um you know they want that or even butter some people are like like i use butter a lot i do uh real butter right um and that's and then you know if i do use a oil it's typically olive oil in a glass bottle

avocado oil in a glass bottle um i don't i don't really use yeah we don't own a bottle of canola oil none of that shit nope and you know what But here's the thing, this, this, this, the next few decades, at least this decade and probably next, if you're in the sugar business or the seed oil business, I don't think it's a good time for you, because these generations are waking up and realizing that they've been sold a shit bill of goods. The amount of money that's been spent lobbying by petroleum companies, because let's face it, like, Chris Go, that was the start of it. I mean, it's like, it's a patrol, practically a petroleum byproduct.

But anyway, you know what? When it comes to health, the egg is a perfect example. The amount of hate that was thrown towards eggs and cholesterol. And guess what everybody's figured out? Eggs aren't that bad for you. No, eggs are actually pretty damn good for you. Good source of protein. Talk about cholesterol.

Yep, you're going to get some cholesterol out of them. But guess what? Your good cholesterol number is going to. going to go up. And what doctors considered a high cholesterol number 15 years ago, considered today, a whole different ballgame. And the problems with statins, we're only starting, boy, you kind of got me going here now, but there is so much of this shit that these doctors have been prescribing, and statins is one of them. The downside to all that shit to get your cholesterol number down to what they think it should be, is.

it's a bunch of bullshit. And so, uh, meat, eggs, uh, animal fats. I mean,

I just think real food, man. Yeah. Real food. If you want to, eat your way around. If you want health, it's,

if you want your overall health for food and, you know, you're, you know, what you cook with. I mean, yeah, it's all about just using real shit.

Yep. Using real shit that came from this earth. And if you eat like that too, I think you're going to be a pretty healthy individual. That's just my two cents, but... And the fried lobster roll at the State Fair is... Yeah, again, so I don't know. I was gonna fire back at you on that.

You know, I wouldn't go into the sugar or seed oil business. Well, here's the problem. Fast. Fast food. Fast food. Fair food. You think they're cooking in fucking avocado oil? Hell no, but are you going to still buy a corn dog from the State Fair?

Hell yeah, you are. Yep. And fried Oreos? You think they were fried in avocado oil or canola oil. I mean, they're going to go with the cheapest shit and they don't care. But. And you're still going to eat it because you're at the fair and you said, fuck it. And when you go to McDonald's, you're like, chances are you're going to McDonald's

because you need something fast and you're in a pinch and, you know, or any fast food restaurant, you got to get it when you need it. And chances are they're not using avocado oil. Right. So it kind of got us by the balls when it comes to that. If people push back on eating fast food, then they might become in trouble, but they're not going to do shit until people stop buying it.

Well, I was listening to All In, and they were talking about Starbucks. Starbucks got themselves a brand new CEO, and his last name's Nickel, and he was at Taco Bell. And he really turned around Taco Bell, and they hired him. He's their new CEO. And he is a relentless cost cutter. I mean, his thing is cost. but this is a prime example why I love that show so much.

So they were asking about whether or not, because Starbucks is getting crushed. I mean, they're getting squeezed because their cost of labor, rent, their ingredients, everything is going up. And it's a premium brand, or it's a premium product that they have. The problem is they're finding out it's not a premium brand. In other words, people love Starbucks, but there's a limit to what they'll pay for that Starbucks. and they're pretty much have pushed it as far as they can to where

they cannot keep raising prices because they're slitting their own sack doing that. And so that's why they brought him in. Sorry. That's a good analogy. Anyway, slitting your sack. So, but the, so they're talking about whether

they think he's going to be able to do or not. And Chimoth came up with this great point and he said over the next decade, the biggest problem that they're going to have to figure out is whether or not another generation is going to buy sugar or not because their best-selling products are absolutely loaded with sugar. Like he was talking about two different ones and I...

Probably the strawberry ascii refresher. No, one was a caramel latte, maki, whatever. The only reason I know that is that's cats go to Starbucks drink. But it had 62 grams of sugar in it. Yep. And he said, as Pete, as your generation and younger people wake up to this whole, and he got into the whole sugar lobby thing

and how that and animal fats and all that. But you take companies like that, as people's taste change, it's going to be a struggle for them. And I think that people are waking up. And, yeah, I mean, they still love a rich coffee drink once in a while. But one, are you going to pay that price for it? And two, are you consistently going to buy it

when more and more data comes out just how terrible sugar really is for you. So anyway. Yeah, I don't know. I would also say to you on that, Dad, there's more and more people on the state fair. It's one of those examples of how many people are sitting their ass in a scooter. I mean, it is real-life Wally. It's Wally.

It's Wally real life. And, you know, when you talk about people rejecting sugar, I don't know if that's a generational thing or not. I see young kids doing a muckbong on Raising Cain's Chicken Fingers and Crumble cookies. And, you know, Cat loves a good old strawberry assaye refresher from Starbucks because it tastes good. Yeah. Yeah. There's no other, I mean, yeah, it's got what, 50, 25 milligrams of caffeine in it, but it's also got a shitload of sugar. It's good. It's good. That's why, and I like the drink too, but that's why why she gets it.

It's it. Yeah. So I don't know. The health numbers, the health numbers on Americans are terrible. But I do think younger people are maybe a little more mindful of in moderation. Yeah. Not drinking an Osirie refresher every single day of the week. Yeah.

Not eating a bowl ice cream every single day of the week. But every once in a while, hey, I'm going to dabble. Yeah. You know. Hey, one more thing about the state fair before we move on. That question, that really was quite the jumping off point. But so one more thing about the state fair. I just want to say, with all sincerity, kudos to you,

goth, goth people, goth lovers. If you, it's like real men a genius. If you are willing to show up with a state fair in a black long-sleeved sweatshirt, black sweatpants, black boots. Hell, even a black beanie. Yeah, with a black hat. And it's an 87-degree day with.

With 96% humidity. I salute you. I salute you for being true to who you are because I'm sitting there in a t-shirt, just sweating my ass off. Yeah. I can't do it. But I mean, I saw all kinds of people. I was like, yes, live it.

So anyway. Yeah, I couldn't be me. I couldn't do that. I was sweating my balls off. I was slit in my sack. That's not a good use of that. but that was a good. That was a good analogy, though. I like that. That was a good one. Do you know or have you heard of premiums being paid to farmers that have been certified in Prop 12 pork production?

Absolutely. There are, I mean, a lot of the guys that did it, a lot of the guys that converted either built new or converted their units to be Prop 12 compliant. The only reason they did that is because their packer told them. Basically, their packer, they came to an agreement that they would pay them a premium to do that. Because that's the only way you can make it work. And given the pork prices, that premium might have been the only thing keeping them afloat. And some of them, it still isn't keeping them float. As we talked earlier, you know, cost of production is still high. I mean, relative to market price, the average cost of production, you know, I think going off

Meta Farms, I want to say it was like 87 cents a pound. And I could be wrong on that, but it's right in there. Now, granted, you know, that's the middle of the road. So the people that are in the top 10%, they're probably at break even or even making a little bit of money in this market, depending on what kind of of premiums they're getting. So if they're Prop 12 compliant on top of that market price, they might be making a little money. But I think most of the people that have converted and done production to be Prop 12 compliant are being compensated for that. I mean, you have to. Because why do you have to? Well, because you just take Sal mortality. Sal mortality if is the medics we have today, I don't give a shit what they say. They're not. They are not,

they do not do as well in group housing as they do in individual crates because they just do not have the stamina, the vigor. And you've seen it. I mean, if you look at the numbers, sow mortality is, we have a big problem with that in the United States with our production system because either one or two things is either got to change. So either the genetics have to get a lot more robust for the sows to be group housed or the group housing thing is going to have to be modified because I think it's, I look at it a different way because I grew up. I know what pen gestated sows were like.

I know why we put them in individual crates because they fight like hell. Every time you mix sows, they fight like hell. And it's inhumane. To me, it's inhumane to group house sows. I mean, you can argue with me all day long, whatever. That sow, as long as she's getting fed good, has access to water, and has a quality environment, she's perfectly content. She does not give a shit.

She's not sitting around thinking about how to write the next great novel. She isn't looking out the fan wall going, I wonder what's over that hill. She's not giving a shit. She wants to know when is the next time that I can go get food out of whatever feeder I'm getting fed, whether that's group or whether that's individual crate. And when you put them in a group, there is a reason why these group houses have all these walls and all this shit for these sows. It's so they can get away from each other when they're getting the shit beat out of them by another sow.

So it's a feel-good. The production side of it, if you have excellent, and I've said this, I mean, I don't know how many podcasts I've said this in, if you have excellent employees, great managers, very motivated people in those, in those cell units, taking care of them, you can get as good production out of a group house sal unit as you can, a created one. if they're excellent. If they're average, if you have two farms and you have average turnover, average employees,

same kind of problems with people not showing up, vacancies, turnover, training people, if they are average. Which is more likely to be the case. You'll never get as good of production. Your cost per, just what we're talking about, your cost of production, never be as good on a group housed,

a sow unit. I don't give a shit what anybody says. And I'm not farroin. I don't have a sow unit. So you can jump all over me and say, you don't know what you're talking about. I show me. I'd be happy to see the data and the day that it is consistently better than created gestation. I'll say, yep, they figured it out. But they ain't got it figured out today. So you damn well better be getting paid a premium for those. Yeah, and it costs money also to make those changes. If you had to redo your existing sale unit to match that premium, or if you had to build new. If you're already building new, if you're already building a new farm,

the difference between a crated farm and a group house farm, it's about the same. You need more square footage if you're going to group, if you're going to group house it, but your cost, it's actually probably a little less penning. So, you know, it's about a wash. But if you're remodeling, that's a number so you better be getting paid for it and it's it's bullshit i don't i'm sorry it's just look at europe i mean all the stupidity it's death by a thousand cuts this whole thing with animal agriculture by people that don't know shit about raising animals they're driving this and their goal is not the wealth or the health of the animal their goal is to raise

your cost of production to the point that you can no longer operate. That is what it is. And we as an industry made a horrible mistake a long time ago when we decided that we were going to play ball with these idiots and we were going to try to appease everybody.

And all it is is a march to the death of animal agriculture. You cannot negotiate with idiots and that's what you're doing. So yes, to answer your question You need to be getting paid more if you're going to do Prop 12 because it's not as quality a system as what you currently had.

That's my opinion. There again, I probably will not be ready for public office either. Yeah, that was good. I couldn't have said it better myself. There's a lot of ways to do it. But if you want to feed, everybody that we got to feed in this world, you've got to have a productive system. you just do.

You got to have a productive systems. You can have some systems that raise the same animal in a more inefficient way. But if you want to feed everybody, there's got to be at least one system out there that's super efficient. And that's what we've done for a long time. But I think it's what you said. Death by 1,000 cuts. If you keep getting pushed out and keep having to change everything that you do to appease people that don't know shit about what actually goes on and how it all works and how we're able to feed as many people as we're able to feed,

then yeah, we might be fucked Rick. So one more question. One more question. Hey, Torkin Sawyer. Love your show. And I'm sorry, I forgot to get the person's name that sent this in. But it's a little bit different, so I want to throw it in there. My questions are on your Airbnb properties.

I'm wondering how profitable it is, how time consuming it is, and how often you get. get bookings and any negative experiences you've had with guests or Airbnb itself. Thanks. This would have been a good Clay question. Yeah, we should have wheeled Clay in here for it. Clay, dub it in. Come on. I know you're out there. Just drop out of the sky and sit right down in the seat and we'll get dubbed you in. Yeah. I can speak to it a little bit. So for us, it is, So, and I can only speak to the one property that we all own as a family. So, like, there's others that Clay and Sawyer just have together, but the one that we all own as a family, it is profitable.

We're lucky in the fact that in our little town, there are an awful lot of retirees. There's, like, three or four retirement homes slash nursing homes. And so there's a lot of people that come to town to visit their, loved ones and let's face it there's a lot of funerals because a lot of retirees and so there isn't there isn't a really there is some nice hotels not very far away i mean we're not very far from a larger city but when it comes to like a group of people that want to be together there's not a lot of options and so like the the one Airbnb that we have all together sleeps 12 or

412 maybe something like that and so it gets booked a lot and air we're both on Airbnb and verbo and it's really interesting because the clientele that you get one versus the other they are different I mean it's just it's kind of a different the people that migrate to one platform after the or the other is kind of different but they both work good part of the reason that it works as well as it does is because for the most part, we clean them together. So our whole family cleans. And if you didn't want to do that, and you wanted to hire that done, and you could not, like we've thought about going the route of raising the cleaning fee to the point that we could hire somebody to clean. But on a house that big, if you were to hire one person to clean it, I mean, it'd be like an all-day deal for them to clean it.

and the cost of that would be pretty high. So it's not like it's something that we have any desire to go have 10 Airbnbs. Because I don't think we could find the, I don't think we could find the help to clean them at a price point that we could make it work to where we would get them booked. And as far as, like, bad, bad deals, Um, we've had some pretty, we've had some pretty crappy experiences as far as just people making an absolute mess.

Not, not terrible. We've only had one that was real bad, uh, the bungalow. That one at the bungalow was real bad. But, um, for the most part, people are very, are very, uh, they treat it very well. And part of that's our clientele because typically it's families and they're usually a little bit older and so you don't have much. But, um, and we're in the Midwest. Yeah.

There's some respect there. Yeah. I think Airbnb can work if you kind of find a niche wherever you are. Like, there's places where the market is definitely saturated and it's dropped off a lot. And I mean, it's susceptible to that, just like, you know, when the economy is crappy. Not a lot of people like to go places. But if you have a, if you have. if you have something that's a little unique and you have the right it's in the right place,

I think it works great. Yeah, I think Airbnb was one of those things that really got hot and had a lot of momentum and it was kind of the thing everybody was talking about on the internet. And it slowly kind of tapered down a little bit because I think reality set in. I think Airbnb can work like you said, but you got to, it's got to be smart where it's going to be. and, you know, I think if you want to do it at a really large scale and, like, focus on Airbnb, you got to do luxury, Airbnb's. You got to get, like, vacation homes, you know, lake houses, oceanfront property, you know,

cool, really cool shit like that, or unique shit, like a tree house or, you know, like something that's just not out there every day, you know. that's where I think you can really scale an Airbnb business, but to just have an Airbnb in every town and the labor of the late, because that's the thing. Those luxury properties probably do bring in, you can charge a large amount to afford to pay for the help to run an Airbnb business. You know,

the cost of the business to do the business, you know, with cleaners and stuff like that. Because you can't scale an Airbnb business if you're going to be the one cleaning all the time. So I think that's, if you wanted to, like, really scale an Airbnb business, it'd have to be in that category because you have to charge a premium amount. But yeah, I mean, it can definitely be done on a smaller scale than that. But do I think you should make, like, your real estate portfolio strictly that? in when you're playing not in that luxury space probably not probably not you could probably have you know college towns is a niche you know there's call if you get an Airbnb in a college town

if you get an Airbnb in a place where there's not hotels you know if you get an Airbnb close to the Iowa State Fairgrounds hospital hospital I mean there are niches out there but again if you're not going to do the cleaning yourself you, and you can't charge a premium, it's really hard to make it all pencil. Or get really cheap labor. Like if you're in a college town, you maybe can get a college kid for beer money. That'll do it for 12, 15 bucks an hour. The other thing is, whatever you do, you got to think of it. Like, if you checked into that Airbnb, like checking into a hotel, it's got to be better.

like the experience is staying there, it has to be, it has to be that level. It has to be, it has to have amenities and it has to be clean and it has to be right and you have to have the stuff there. You have to be thoughtful because if you, if it is just at the level that it's a commodity, you're not going to get a good rating. And if you don't get, if you're not getting good ratings on it, because people, when they rent an area, Airbnb. Reviews are everything. Reviews are everything and people automatically hold you to a higher standard and they're going to bitch about anything that is out of whack.

So if you're not going to do it with excellence and that's where when you're relying on somebody else to clean for you, okay, you better be checking because if you just, the one time that you just don't check that you assume that whoever you got cleaning, they did everything, and they didn't do a good job, and that person gives you a two-star rating or whatever or raises hell about it, it's awful tough. It's awful tough to earn that back.

So it's, it works, but it's definitely not as simple as. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's that everybody I feel like was talking about on the internet, about Airbnb arbitrage. It's not get-rich-quick. It's just like any other business.

It takes a lot of time, takes a lot of skill, takes a lot of effort, got to do it at a high level for it to be a high income earning opportunity. And Clay, my brother is the guy that is all in on the real estate for what we got going. He knows more about this shit than both dad and I, all of us. he lives, Breeze, eats that shit up, and he's got a lot of knowledge and skill in there. So Clay, Clay would have been a better person to ask this question because he could have given you probably even more,

but that's just what I've experienced my conversations with Clay. We're just riding his coattails. Yep, that's right. Shout out to you, Clay. So anyway, I think that's going to wrap it up, guys. I hope you got some value from the show. I hope we answered those questions the way you, way you wanted them to be answered.

We appreciate you guys submitting them. If you got any questions for us, please email them to barn talk show at gmail.com. Please share the show if you got any value. Leave review on Spotify or Apple. Use code barn talk on farmergrade.com to save 10% off your next order. We love you guys.

We appreciate you. And we'll see you back here next week for another episode.