Barn Talk - Barn Talk Q&A: Passing The Torch To The Next Generation & Being The New Guy To A Farming Operation

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

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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. Until now, we're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a Q&A. We haven't done a Q&A in a while, and the questions are getting pretty hot, and they've been piling up, so we figured it's about time to get a Q&A out. we've been making some progress up here in the barn if you haven't checked out our other youtube channel this will do farm we show a little bit of behind the scenes of us working up here we've installed some shelves on the back wall behind that camera right there uh with some nice looking bottles of bourbon and some whiskey and got a tv hung and sooner or later we're going to get a bar built i think if we are master carpenter up here

gets going so um that's exciting but Yeah, but before we get into it, you guys know the drill. Pay the fee. If you get any value from the show, if we made you laugh, if you relate to something, if we answered your question, feel free to share it out with your friends, family, co-workers, employees, whoever, that's kind of the ticket to admission to listen to the show or watch it. Please leave a review on Spotify or Apple.

We're almost up to 600, five-star reviews on Spotify, and we're up to like 259 on iTunes. So we really appreciate everybody that does that. And submit your questions at barn talk show at gmail.com if you want it to be, you want your question featured in the next Q&A episode. But before we get into the nitty gritty of the questions, we got a famous twerk market update. Yes, market update. All these quality numbers are courtesy of Katz Green, Washington, Iowa.

So shout out to my good friends at Katz Green. Markets have kind of been in the crapper, which is to be expected because a good farmer conspiracy is the last day to sign up for crop insurance is the 1st of March. And so usually the week before there's a conspiracy that they beat the markets down because the minimum price that your crop insurance is figured on is set on that last day. and so it's a conspiracy that they drove the price down before the crop insurance date. And ironically, the corn and bean markets were down pretty much every day last week, and then today they were actually up a little bit, so they're coming back. So these aren't closing numbers.

They're just what we had at the time they look. So we have shaved quite a bit off the price. So I think the last market update we did, corn was right around 680. 685 and best price I could find local was 646 and 644 on the board and it's probably a little bit higher than that because the markets are up to date so when that gets reset it'll be a little higher than that beans 1502 at the river and 1514 on the board and that price is river open and ironically today it's the same on both sides of the river whether you're on the Illinois side or the Iowa side. Wheat 7.06, hogs $85,

cattle, $164, 100 weight on cattle. And I think the cattle price, if you think your steak is expensive now, just wait because it's going to get a whole lot more expensive. The cattle report came out a week 10 days ago, and there's less cattle on feed. There's less feeder calves and there's less cows that are going to have calves. So that means six months from now, there's going to be even less beef around than what there is today. So pay up. Stock up. It's going to cost you. Gold 1845. You know, I say this all the time, but I don't feel like gold has the clout that it once had because with all the tension going on in the world and all the problems with the dollar and everything, you would think that people would be buying up gold.

Because people of a certain age, like baby boomers, you know, a lot of those people look at gold as a store of value where younger people, your age and younger, they don't get it. They don't see that. But the gold price really hasn't changed very much. It's stayed pretty flat. Silver's $21. Bitcoin, $23,000. it's kind of got beat down along with everything else but it's still a lot better than it was

Ethereum 1600 Tesla $193 yesterday was Tesla Investor Day and I sat with a fancy glass and listened to the entire deal and I think they're going to win I think the the summary of the two and a half hours that they spent talking about everything they do and why they do it was I think they're going to win I think they're so far ahead of everybody else that they can't even see them anymore. So, uh, Tesla down a little bit today. If I had some money, I'd buy some. That, that's the market update. Nice. That was strong. Was. Quick and, quick and easy. Polished. Getting pretty good at it. You are. You are getting real good. It's your thing. Thank you, kind, sir. Yeah. Uh, so we're going to get into the questions. We got a lot of good

ones here, and most of them are ag. I think all of them are ag. Um, so I'm going to, I'm going to, to start by asking you a million dollar question here. All right. And this is something, these first two questions, you probably know way more about than I do, because you've been around longer. You got the wisdom. Do I need to put my hat on lock for this? Yeah, I would. Put it on lock down. Okay. There you go. Put it in four-wheel drive. All right. All right. All ready. Craig asked, when we talk about the strong basis level in our area due to the amount of feed usage, how does this affect the feed cost and the pigs we raise. The offhand answer is it makes it more expensive.

But you have to keep in mind that every one of these integrators, every one of these guys that are feeding pigs, they have somebody working within their organization that is very smart at playing the board of trade and futures and options. And most of them run what you, you would call, they all have a, I guess you'd call it a commercial elevators license. In other words, they can buy and sell grain just like if they were a co-op. So the game they play is, one,

they all have spent quite a bit of money having really fast dumps to where in the fall, where we're located, the number one goal of all these hog feeders is you want to cut as much grain off in the fall from going to the river. Because once it's gone to the river, you've got to find new grain because it ain't coming back to where you are. So they have really fast dumps to where semis can get in, get out fast, and they usually have a pretty strong market compared to the river. at fall with the idea being they're going to get as much corn as they can then then they're speculating on that corn i mean i guess that's the best way you can call it they're buying that corn and they're going to feed it but then they're playing the board of trade in other words um what they actually end up paying for a bushel of corn is not necessarily what they paid me for it when they bought it because

there's futures and options and they hedge stuff. Now they're doing the exact same thing on the price that they receive for their hogs. And so it is a, it's kind of an art form, really. And the guy that is doing that for you, he can make you a ton of money or save you a ton of money. He could also lose you a lot of money too. And, you know, there's times where they call that risk protection is what they're doing. They're trying to get the cost of their grain as low as they can, and they're trying to maximize the price of the hog they're selling, and sometimes that all works perfectly, and sometimes it blows up in their face. But I hope that kind of answers your question. Grains high everywhere, as far as that goes, but they're doing everything they can to mediate, mitigate the price that they

have to pay for the bushel that they're actually grinding. That sounds like. That was good. That was real good. I'll ask you. Yeah, why don't you ask me, we're going to go a little out of order. Ask me the third question, and you ask me the fourth question on the next page, and then I'll ask you the first question.

Longtime listener of the show, an all-around good guy, Sutton asked, if we had any desire to feral pigs, that's part one, and two, if we build another barn or bought another barn, would it be weaned to finish or be a nursery? I truly have no desire to feral pigs again. I know Grandpa did that back in the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s. And you got in on the tail end of that. But it sounds like that's really hard to do nowadays. Most guys that raise their own pigs, they buy pigs out of a sow unit.

They don't really mess with the farrowing because that's just a lot of, that's a lot of investment you got to put up it's a lot more work handling the handling the salient then handling the finishing two so i would say i guess i guess don't ever say we wouldn't if we got to a point where we're like yeah hell yeah you know whatever we could maybe but i would say probably the more likely route we would go is uh buying pigs out of a sow unit if we ever raise their own pigs that's what we would do. Not a salient in southeast Iowa. Yeah, not a salient unit in southeast Iowa because Purrs is running rampant right now. But somewhere hopefully that has good herd health, that would be ideal. But I mean, yeah, I have nothing against it. I think it's, I think it'd be great,

but it's just a lot. Farron is a lot. It's a big part of the business. And you got to have everything else on lock as far as management. And you know, you got to know what the hell you're doing if you're going to build your own sal unit or buy a salient. If we were playing this game and your mother and I had two more Sawyers or another Sawyer and another Clay to where we had to figure out a way to keep everybody going, we might look at, we might have looked at like buying shares in a Sal Unit or buying an entire smaller or sally unit that we didn't actually run it, but we owned it. And maybe one of us oversawed or something like that.

But for just the two of us and then Clay doing the real estate, I don't think we want to bite off trying to do. Yeah, I forgot about that. I think that's something else. You could always buy a sally unit and then have a management company run it. And there's guys that have sally units that don't really even raise pigs. because they just own the sal unit and have a company manage it and integrators buy pigs out of it. Yep.

There's some guys out there that do that. So it can look at it as an investment property, kind of, an asset like that. But as far as building a salient, running a salient, and then running finishers, eh, that look, we'd have to, something would really have to change for me to want to do that. Yep. But never going to rule out buying pigs out of a salary unit. And then if we got another barn, would it be a wean to finish or nursery? So, you know, we grow in a system right now that we just do wean to finish.

You can either do feeder pig to finish or wing to finish. But there is a couple guys in the system that we race pigs for that have nurseries. It's rare because most guys do a wean to finish contract. But those guys, they got a pretty good, nice, they got a pretty nice setup because how many times do you fill a nursery? Six or eight times a year? seven times a year. Six, seven times a year. They're most likely getting double-stocked at the nursery,

and they have it most likely set up as a wean to finish contract. And so they're getting overstocked, and then every time they send pigs out, they're getting $2 a pig of every pig that's in there that's an extra pig, if that makes sense, right? So it's a $2,400 head nursery. They've 4,800 head in there because they double-stocked you. Half of those pigs are overstocked, so you're getting $2 a pig.

and you're getting filled eight times or seven times a year most likely just your overstock money is just alone is like what yeah 40 50 thousand dollars so what you're talking is these guys don't actually have they don't actually have a nursery they have a finisher that they're running as a nursery yeah so that's what he that's what he's talking about um yeah i don't know they don't do that a lot in the system we grow for pigs for but if we could have that option i would love to do that i mean yeah wean pigs are a lot of work but that's good money um but they don't just throw that out there every every day so um most likely it'd probably be a we need to finish just because we know that system we we do we got four barns that are like that easier on on the wear and tear your barn you know you send how many 10 less groups of pigs in

there in 10 years when you do wean to finish um and we just kind of know how to do it we've we've done it for so long where we've been through every stage of the pig we just know so i would say probably we need to finish but if the if the company we grow pigs forever gave us the opportunity to turn one of our weena finish barns into a nursery and run it like that i would definitely be interested in doing that um that's that's part of the reason why your barn and my last barn why we built them the way we did so part of the reason that we built those barns what we call solid-sided so in other words they're not double curtain buildings like our site one is. Part of the reason we did that was because that would work really well if you were going to

run those barns as a nursery because it's a lot easier to control the environment and to keep the buildings hot enough for a nursery. So that's kind of why we did that. Yeah. So I'm not picky though. If I can get a finisher today, you know, I'm willing to buy any finisher that I could right now, unless it's outrageously expensive if it wore trash. But yeah, I guess I'm not picky. Oh, I skipped a page. Yeah, asked me that. Zach asked, can we, or can you explain how our hogs are marketed versus how someone that has

their own pigs markets them? like live weight versus meat price. Where we're located in southeast Iowa, even if you are what we would call an independent guy that you're either feraling your own pigs or you are buying them out of a sow unit and finish them, chances are you're selling those on the meat price. There's very few hogs around anymore

that are bought off of what you would call live price. So the difference between those is there is a market where the price they quote is based on a live weight. So in other words, if you sell a 280 pound hog, they're paying you so many cents per pound, and you're getting paid for the whole hog. Now, most of the pigs are purchased on what you call a meat price or a yield. price where at the plant when you butcher a pig and you get rid of all the everything but the meat so you have a yield out of a hog that's about 70 let's just say it's 75 to 77 percent yield so in other words out of that 280 pound lightweight or live weight you're going to get about a 70

70 some percent actual meat protein out of that pig that the packer can sell. Okay, that's the meat price. And most people are selling on that price. Now, as far as how like the integrator we feed for

sells their pigs versus an independent guy that's selling he's selling pigs a few times a year. Like, you know, he's got a couple of finishers, and he's turning those finishers three times a year. He's not selling pigs every week. So he's got to be talking to a packer and have some kind of agreement with them

so that they know that come right around the 1st August, this guy is going to have pigs to sell. But when that building's empty, then he's not going to sell any for a while. And chances are that guy's probably selling all those pigs to one packer. Now, if you're an integrator, under that scenario, you're selling pigs every week. And so, like the integrator we feed for, they have packer agreements, contracts with three different packers. And the relationship is that they're going to supply them with X number of loads every week.

So every day assert a minimum number and if they've got extra pigs, somebody probably will take those pigs, but they are, they're selling so many loads every day going to this packer, this packer, and this packer. Then on top of that, different, different packers want a different size pig. And it doesn't vary a lot, but it varies some. So in other words, when they start selling out of like one of our buildings. The top end, the pigs that are the biggest, those pigs are probably going to go to one packer that likes a hog that's heavier versus a packer that wants to buy one. They want to buy pigs that are say they want to buy them between 260 and 280. Somebody else would prefer them to buy from 280 to 310 pounds. And somebody else, their bottom weight that they'll take pigs, maybe they'll take pigs clear down to 250, 245 before they dock you. And so what that does for the integrator is it lets you get buildings empty because you can take a lot wider cut out of a barn if you need to. If you need space, you can move a lot more pigs out of a barn if you choose

to do it that way. And that's kind of how they flex their space is how fast. How fast they dump a barn. But then when it comes to price, there are, it runs the, it really runs the gamut. So there's guys that have, they have a guaranteed, a guaranteed minimum floor contract that they've negotiated off of the futures contract out so many months. They get paid an average. And I'm not really, I'm not really equipped to talk about that because that. That's never been part of anything that I was involved in. I just know that when it comes to guys that are selling a lot of hogs, there's a lot of different ways that they can market them

versus the guy that is only selling pigs seasonally. And if you, you know, if you say the guys that do that are at a disadvantage, they probably are at a disadvantage because a packer, The only way that system works is if they are consistently running at their most profitable rate as far as the number of pigs they're running through their every day. Volume. Volume. And so when they can partner up with somebody that says, hey, I'm going to bring you 10 loads of pigs a day every day versus somebody that says, I'm going to bring you 10 loads of pigs once a week for four weeks, and then I'm not going to bring you any.

for three months and then I'm going to bring you whatever. It's just easier. And so... Easier for them to go somewhere else. And that's probably why you've seen the business consolidate. Margins have gotten thinner. You're not making as much per head. And the guys that are really good at controlling their cost

and maximizing their production and build in a really good relationship with a packer to where they're guarantee them the pigs. they have an advantage. And so, yeah, if you're the independent guy, it's, it's gotten a lot harder and it probably will continue to get harder. So I hope that kind of answers. I think that was good.

You know, you know the saying, if you're not growing, you're dying. And that's kind of a, that situation is kind of the, it's true. Because you might have a good, if you're independent and you have a relationship with the Packer now, that could change if you're, if they're not happy with the amount of vault. volume you're pumping through. And it's, it's so weird because, like, I'm very happy with the system that we've created here in America as far as just production. And, you know, these packers, right?

And, like, we're very fortunate that we have food in our grocery store across the nation everywhere. But at the same time, it kind of sucks because, like, it makes it hard for guys to be independent. He really does. So it's kind of a double-edged sword, you know. It sucks, but at the same time, got to be grateful for what we have here in America.

And I guess if you're an independent guy, you just got to get really creative. You got to do what these other guys are not willing to do, I guess. You know, that's the only way I can think of. Or you've got to get bigger. That's the only other way, I feel like. And one thing that this isn't directly related to your question, but it is a little bit is as an independent guy,

one of the things that I think is really important, and going forward it's going to be even more important, is one of the things that you have that an integrator doesn't have is you have your personal brand, whether that be your family, your family farm, your this or you're that, or you're a niche, that is something that you can leverage to your advantage. Yeah, I was going to say,

it's so weird because like, like I was saying, one hand, we're very happy with the system we have here in America, but at the other hand, the consumer wants that family farmer. They want that non-corporate, non-comglomerate family farmer, right? They want that. But we're not really there. We are, but we aren't, you know, we're partnering with family farms in a way, kind of. But it's not like, to them.

that extent most of the time. It's not to like know the farmer. Like I know exactly what farm this came from and they have a social media presence, right? So yeah, I guess that I agree. I think that's one way that these integrators and can't really leverage because let's be honest, an integrator can start a personal brand. But anybody inside the industry knows, well, that's not what the consumer is looking for. Right. You know? So, because that's, you're huge at that point.

So what you're saying is it would be advantageous for somebody like Daly's to put my picture on the back of every pack of bacon. Give us just a penny a slice. Penny a slice. That'd be nice. That's all I ask. That's some damn good bacon. I will give a mad shout out to Daly's bacon. It is damn good.

It's pretty freaking good. And I, you know, I had black label bacon the other day. Yeah. I don't know if it's because you've got to get thick cut or what, but I didn't like that. It's missed a step. It has missed a step. It is not as good as it used to be. Yeah.

I don't know why. So Daily's is the bacon brand. I think they sell some other stuff under Daily's, but that's the bacon brand of the Triumph group, which we sell pigs through that group. So there's a slim chance there if you're buying Dailies that if it's a really good pack of bacon, and it probably came from this will be four. Let's just say that. Hell yeah. Totally.

Where can you get Dailies, though? So Dailies, you get it from Costco? I don't think they make, Costco's private labels there, and I don't know who they get it from, but I think that what's Walmart's big, what's Walmart's Costco version, Sam's Club. Yeah. So I think Dailies gets marketed through Sam's Club,

and then the other one is Prairie Fresh. So like pork loins, pork butts, ribs, if you see anything that's Prairie Fresh, that triumphs label also. So little insider trading information there, just in the meat industry. Okay, we'll move on. We'll move on to better, better topics. Hey, real quick, we've got to take a little break because I got to tell you something real important. If you guys aren't watching our this will do farm YouTube channel, you're missing out.

It's just like this, only shorter and on the farm. Definitely go check it out if you haven't subscribed yet. Give us a like, give us a comment. Let us know you came from Barn Talk. And with that being said, let's get back into the podcast. Oh, this is pretty good. So, and this is good for you to answer. I know. Thanks. Yeah, I know. You're still on double secret probation. So when you're the Greenhorn in operation. How do you let coworkers know that you're every bit of serious about the success of the operation as they are, even though you need their help sometimes as you're still learning? That's a really good question. And for anybody that doesn't know what a greenhorn is, because I didn't, and you might, I might get some comments in the YouTube that will say I'm autistic

because I don't know what a greenhorn is. But Greenhorn is like a beginner, somebody that's just starting out that doesn't know a ton about what they're getting into, which is fine. That's where you got to start. I would say I was a greenhorn. I started really getting serious about farming probably, what was it, junior or senior year or high school? Because our situation was a little different. You were working off farm.

Grandpa was old. We didn't have everything that we have now. It was hard to like. And when you did come home, you don't want to just put our ass to work all the time. And you didn't really want to always being on the road all day. and then coming home and then yeah so it wasn't like i was the ff a 4 h kid always on the farm doing shit i i wasn't that way um until i got into high school when we started building these barns now i have something to do and i started to learn but i didn't know shit i didn't know shit about farming i still

can probably say i don't know everything there is to know about farm i still have a lot to learn so i was a green horn at one time um i'm pretty i'm kind of a green horn at like marketing grain i'm not great at that i don't know everything there is to know it's no about that. But I think the way that you can really show your coworkers that you're serious about the success of the operation and that you're in it to win it is, I mean, just do the little things right, man. Show some initiative, ask questions, really listen to them when they're demonstrating something. If they're in, you know, get up early, stay late, be on time. All this shit, all that little stuff shows the people you're working with, okay, this guy might actually give a shit. You know,

he's not late. He asks questions. When I show him how to do something, he does it and he does a pretty good job at it. So he's actually listening to me. He stays late. And like, even like, you know, if you're in the shop working and you start sweeping after a job's done, you know, that goes a long way because if you're willing, it's just like we had Marshall Leonda on the podcast. And when he was talking about when he was a rookie and he had to do hazing, he had to pick up the pads and give the vets their respect. You know, take the, carry the pads for the veterans. It's like when you're working in the shop with your coworkers and you do that grunt work without them having to tell you to do that grunt work, that goes a long way with those guys, I'm sure. And the other way, and this is just, I don't know if this is like a family dynamic or you just work for a farm, a farm family that you know you're working with.

But here in our operation, it's just dad and I. And one way that I thought I could provide value is this media thing. I knew social media pretty good. I didn't know farming. I definitely don't know farming as good as dad does. I'm getting there. I'm trying to learn. But one thing that I could bring to the operation was social media.

and leveraging social media. And that kind of evolved. And now we're both kind of doing it together. So I provided some value up there like, hey, we should try to do this. And luckily, I have a dad that's open to ideas and suggestions from the younger generation because I know not everybody's like that.

Not every older person at the top of the operations like that. But I'm glad that I have a dad that is. But that's one way that I provided something to help our operation when I know that I probably wasn't the story. smartest in like the farming at that time. You know what I mean? Um, so I provide value there. But really, yeah, it's just the little things, man. It's really just the little things about showing up and showing that you're committed, you know, showing that you're committed,

not just with your words, but with your actions. That's really important to guys. And that goes a long way. And especially if you're a younger guy, you know how many younger guys aren't willing to do that shit? A lot. So when you're a younger guy that listens, the show, up, does the grunt work without being asked, does the little things right, people are going to take notice of that. They really are. They're going to notice that. They're going to, they're going to see that you have some potential. And last thing I'll say is if you're, if you're learning from these guys on how to do stuff and they're just telling you, like, this is dad and I's dynamic sometimes. Dad is really good at working on anything when it comes to Hog Barnes. And I've learned a lot just by,

fixing stuff with him over the years. But dad likes to just do it and then tell me how he's doing it. But that's not my way of learning. I like, I want him to do a step and then give me the wrench or give me the pliers and let me do what he just did. So that way I, like, I want to do it. I'm an on-the-job kind of guy, hands-on, like, I won't remember as good if I'm just just sit in there watching and listening.

So if that's you too, tell that to those guys. Because if you're trying to retain information and the way that they're telling you isn't working for you, just let them know that. Yeah, that's good advice because that's one of the hardest things. And if you work with a bunch of guys,

if you work with guys that have been doing a job for a long time, chances are it's really hard for them to do it that. way let you do a step and then come in if you need help because those guys are very I'm the same way you get impatient and you just know that if you just do it it'll get done faster so it's you're those guys are and I'm this way I'm reluctant to just let Sawyer do it because I find myself standing there moving my hands like oh gosh I wouldn't hold that wrench that way or that's not right but You just got to let them.

You got to let them figure it out because that's how I learned. I mean, when I, the guy that showed me how to do a lot of stuff when it came to like wiring, I'm sure it was cringy as hell watching me do it because he's like, is this kid ever going to get it? And then, you know, a lot of it I had to learn trial and error. But if you can communicate what works the best for you, that's always great. Some people aren't very good at, you know, just because you tell them what you want, that doesn't mean they're going to give it to you. The other thing is, yeah, showing that initiative, you know, if the coffee's on at 530, be the guy that makes the coffee. Yeah. Because that'll go a long

ways to that generation. And that's something that you just come to, I don't care how old you are, you will come to the, you will come to the realization. Got to get up early. I don't, you know, know, it's different for everybody. It's different for every industry, but pretty much every industry out there, business, corporate, construction, farming, whatever, you come to a point where you realize if you don't get started early in the morning, your day just gets ruined fast. So get there, be there early, be the guy making the coffee. It gives you an edge. Yep, it does. Getting up early gives you an edge. I just, last thing on this question, because I guess I didn't answer this part as well. You said, you know, I want to show these guys that I'm every bit as serious about the success of

the operation as they are, even though you need their help sometimes as you're still learning. It's, dude, asking for help is, I don't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't take that as like, that doesn't mean you want, you're, you want the success of the, asking for help doesn't mean that you don't want the farm to be successful. I mean, it's okay to ask help, dude. You should never feel bad about asking somebody for help. You know, there's so many things that I didn't know that I had to ask dad. I hate getting on the phone and calling dad because I don't know what the fuck's going on, but I have to because you got to fix it. And I think most people are not dicks about that. You know, they're not dicks. Because really, especially with agriculture, you could really mess something up

real fast if you don't ask for help and you just say, well, I'm going to just try it out by myself. So don't be afraid to ask. And I hope the guys that you're working with don't give you, don't give you shit for asking for help because you need to ask for help when you're in a bind. But that being said, if you ask for help and you learn it, don't continually ask for help on that same thing all the time if it's the same problem. You know, try to try to really retain what they said and execute it. And I'm guilty, you know, because sometimes that feed line,

got feedline problems. And one time it's a reset button's trip. The next time it's the wiring on the box is messed up. Next time they're shit in the bin. Next time they're shit in the motors. Motor's bad. I mean, there's so many factors. But usually it's not the same problem every time.

But anyway, that's all I'll say for that. So it's all right. to be the greenhorn. That's where you got to start. Everybody starts being a green horde sometime, somewhere. So just keep learning, show that initiative, and don't be afraid to ask for help. You shouldn't be scared. You shouldn't feel like shit about yourself for asking for help because you need, it's the only way you're going to learn, dude. It's the only way you're going to learn. So, all right. So we got, we got a softball asked us a question. Yep. Is that his last name or just, that's just the email. That's kind of the, that's kind of an email. Softball, you know who you are.

So this is kind of a longer question, and it's a deep one. And you think it's pretty relevant in what's going on around? It is pretty relevant. It's a little disheartening, but it's the reality. This is the reality ag. This is the reality of kind of where we're at in the world. So I'm a third-generation hog farmer, and we own two finishing barns, but haven't had any hog since Goldsboro milling, shut down their hog operations.

and that's who we were contracted with. These barns are paid for, and this was supposed to be my dad's easy years, quote-unquote, meaning I would take over completely so he wouldn't have to work as hard. Instead, I have watched my parents' hard work and dedication pretty much be for not, and it's really painful and frustrating to watch this unfold. Smithfield's, Smithfield is the largest producer, and they are extremely close to us in location,

but we haven't been able to secure a contract with them for some reason. I have my own opinion as to why. And we also have tried reaching out to smaller operations just to try and take what we could get with absolutely no luck. It's so disheartening and this has really sucked the life out of my family. And so my question is, what would you guys recommend we try next? Boo. That's really tough. It is.

That sucks. That's probably one of the reasons. I remember when, you know, contract finishing really started. here in the Midwest, and one of the, one of the, like, protests that people made or one of the reasons that guys were reluctant to do it is because they're like, well, what happens when nobody wants these barns? And the reassuring words were that, you know, this industry is not going anywhere, and these barns are always going to be in demand. Well, here we are at a time where the number of hogs,

basically the same as what we talked about with cattle. So the number of sows is down, the number of hogs on feed are down, farrowing intentions are down, the worldwide supply of hogs is low, which should be really good for the industry as far as profitability level, but because our costs are so high,

it really hasn't panned out that way. And what you're seeing is we have the exact same thing here in Iowa. If you go west of us, there was a company named Cronin, and they're no longer doing business in Iowa, or maybe the Midwest, they may not be doing business at all. I don't know the whole story on that. But there are a bunch of barns that they had under contract that when the pigs were gone, they're done.

contract's done because they're out of business they're not going to fill them and so you got these guys that are scrambling trying to find somebody to put pigs in them and there's fewer players in that uh contract finishing business fewer integrators and so not all those barns are getting filled um and so it's so hard because and we i think we've talked about this before the the demand for buildings changes what the ideal barn is. And there was a time when I was on the building side, there was a time where there were integrators out there that if you had, if you had the room and you had the space and you had the people to do it, you wanted to put up 10,000 spaces on a site, they were all about it. Then the business got a lot harder, the health.

got a lot harder and guess what those guys that had 2 4,800 heads barns or 2 4800 sitting on a site had a really hard time finding anybody that one of those barns because they figured out that that many pigs on a site takes a lot longer to dump a lot longer to fill health usually isn't as good and when margins get tight you can turn a 2,400 a lot faster and the pigs are going to stay healthier faster so now we're in a time around here where everybody wants a 2400 or a couple 1,200s, because health is better, easy to turn, blah, blah, blah. And I don't know what's driving the situation where you're at, but my guess is it's a similar kind of deal.

You've had consolidation, fewer players, people getting out, and so you got barns that, you got more barns than what you got demand for. All that to say, I mean, it's tough. My advice to you would be, one, you got to be like a feed salesman or a real estate salesman, basically a salesman. You need to be talking to as many people as you can. And, I mean, talk to anybody. I don't care if you're talking to the guy that power washes Barnes for some of these integrators. but the more connections that you can make with people that are within the industry in your area,

somebody knows somebody that knows somebody. Even growers too. Yep. That may know a reason why. One, you may be able to find out what the reason is that your site isn't desirable. And it could be something as simple as, something that you have or something you don't have, say you don't have a generator on that site,

and that's a really big deal because they have a problem with a lot of power outages there. Or say it's because the water may not be the best water, and so it may be a case that you need to put in some kind of a treatment. Maybe you need to put a chlorinator. there's there's things that you can do to make your site more desirable but you don't always know what that is you don't always know what is the what's the what are these guys looking for and so see if you can work those angles the more people you know the better off you are the other thing

I throw out to is you get in a situation where beggars can be choosers You know, if you can, if, say you've got two 2,400s, I don't know what you have. You have two barns. Say you got two, 2,000 head buildings. Well, if you got somebody that maybe they only need enough space for 2,400 head for one turn, well, put 2,400 in for one turn and show them how good of a job you can do with the idea that if it works, then maybe they, they give you a contract. But really, I think the key is when you get in a rut of that, it's really easy to want to pull back and, you know, I say curl up in a ball and just, you know, feel like you're beat. But you got to keep grinding and communication is key and relationships are key and finding people within the industry that, know everybody knows somebody and somebody may know they might have the inside scoop of somebody that might be interested

or like i said the what you need to do yeah i was just going to say the other thing that they could be desirable to an integrator is if they manage the site i don't know what your financial situation is you said that this is your your dad's easy years so i'm assuming the barns are paid for i don't know if you said that in there or not but if they are maybe to them, it's more desirable for them to come in and they manage the site and you triple net lease somewhere, you just have to do the upkeep around the barns and you don't have to actually work with the pigs. And I know that might not be your most desirable outcome, but for them, maybe that's more desirable to them to get a contract for you. And that's better than nothing. That's better than

not having anything in there. Yeah, and I would just agree with everything he said. I think that, yeah, you got to look at your barns and think, is this desirable for an integrator? Do I need to switch out the controller? Do I need to do some maintenance? Do I need new feeders? Do I, you know, what the hell is it that they don't want to touch with a 10-foot pole? That's what you got to realize.

And I think you realize that. I think you know that there's something that's not right, that they don't want to come in and give you a contract. But yeah, I think, I mean, we're living proof this year. I mean, this podcast, it's like, we just had Marshall freaking yawned on the podcast, and that was because of a connection that we made. You know, it's like, you would be so surprised on what people know and who they know, who they know.

So, yeah, growers, power washing guys, builders. Truckers. Truckers, truckers for sure. Truckers for sure. Guys that are building these barns are fixing these barns. You know, they know these guys. They know these guys and they can give you a list of guys. And you just got a cold call to live in shit out of guys, I think. That's what I think that's what I would do if I was in your shoes.

And I just thought of this, the flip side of what you were talking about with Triple Net Leasenum, maybe it's a deal where, okay, and I don't know what your situation labor-wise is. But so maybe it's a deal where they may be needing people to chore other buildings where maybe you work a deal where, you would chore these barns of yours, but maybe you help them out and you chore another barn for them or you help a guy that's torn another barn, load pigs, vaccinate pigs, whatever. In other words, maybe there's something that you can do for them

that helps them out of a bind, labor-wise, that in turn will get pigs in your shit. That's good. That's a good idea. And you don't know if you don't ask. And don't be afraid to ask. Yep. You got to keep, you just got to keep turning out of the rocks. I feel bad.

That is disheartening as shit. I'm sorry that you guys are going through that, but you can either roll up. It's like you said, curl up in a ball and let it be and be down, or you just got to go to work, man. That's all I could, that's all I can think of. Yeah, and it's easier said than done. I know that that sounds like, you know,

taking the wind out of your sails. But if you don't give up and you don't quit, you never fail. So, you're just going through a storm right now. You just got to get past the storm. This is, this really hits pretty close to home because I'll be honest with you. You sent us this question a couple weeks ago, but a guy that, that I work with, a guy that I worked with when I was selling buildings, but also worked with when I was on the production side of it, he has a site that he feeds for.

an integrator and he's in an area where there's quite a few people that put up barns and they're getting older you know and they're getting to that point where they want less headaches so they're starting to sell off assets and he actually bought this site that was about 20 years old and he's in the construction business so he you know it's a it was a good spot for him because he had the expertise to go in there and got these barns out and fix them the way that the integrated wanted them and they gave them a contract on this on this 4,000 head site and the guy that he purchased the barns from he owns some other sites and he's been working the angle uh trying to buy one of these other sites because what he did worked really well and he knows how to fix them and he you know

he can do it, probably do it cheaper than what a lot of people would be able to do because he doesn't have the middleman, he's doing the work himself. And he had talked to an integrator about buying these sites, you know, a year ago, and they were like, yeah, we'd be interested in it. And he's been going back and forth and back and forth, and he actually got this other site bought. But guess what? he went to the integrator that he would have been working with and said, hey, I got this site

bought. And they told him, well, we don't want it. You know, we've got all this space and our production is not great. We don't want it. So now he is really scrambling because not only does he have a site that he's got a purchase agreement on that needs to be fixed up. And he's planning on fixing it to the specs that this integrator wants. But he doesn't know what to do because if he can't get a contract with them, he's got to find somebody else, and he's choreing these sites. So he's pretty sure that he's not going to be able to chore pigs for two integrators. So then you go down the road, okay, well, if he gets an integrator in that one,

it's going to have to be tripled at least, or he's going to have to get out of his contract with who he has and go to these other guys, and then if he does, he may have to retool the whole building because their spec may be different. so you're not alone that may not make you feel any better but you're not alone and i am sure that the situation that i heard about from him guarantee he's not the only person around um and so as we have an industry that is is shrinking somewhat right now you're going to it's going to be a bigger and bigger problem now i think at some point we're going to get back on the road of growth because i think our

export market's going to get better because we are the low-cost producer in the world and worldwide production is down so somebody's going to have to step up and make a lot more pork chops and it's probably going to be us but i don't know what that time frame is so anyway control the controllables it's all you can do all right uh that question's probably best for you oh yeah that probably is right well I'll ask you this one we'll jump one ahead all right doomsday so this is perfect with all the talk we've had

I'm sure there is a hot topic's coming after this it has to do with the war in Ukraine and all the chaos going on in the world but Ryan asked the doomsday scenario looks more possible every day as a fellow livestock producer how would you manage your hogs in an end of the world situation

You know, it's funny. I've had this conversation many times off, off camera, off the mics, just about, well, we always, we always said, well, if the end of the world happened, we'd be good. Then you start thinking about all the shit that runs on power. Your water, your, your generators would last a little bit, and then it shut off, you know, and we got two barns that are tunnel, straight tunnel. Like, they need that ventilation or else they're going to suffocate. So you're going to have to let them outside. Feed truck ain't coming. Most likely the feed truck isn't coming.

Water, you're going to have to do some manual labor on that because well pump runs on power. So I think we got any given time on our farm, we got around 10,000 pigs. So I would hope that at the time that the world. ended, we had some fat hogs. Because those are the ones we're going to want to start butchering probably right away. We would start butchering right away. We'd get somebody that we know

that's a butcher and we'd be like, look, here's the deal. You put in the work to butcher these, we'll provide them. We can feed all our families. We can have a shitload of pork in the freezer for a while. And that'll help you out in the beginning. Then the power's gone. So I guess

open up, you'd have to let the pigs out. You'd have to let the pigs outside. you'd have to build some fence, you'd have to get some troughs built, and then the feed is where I'm lost words of what you'd do. Because I guess we could go to the feed mill and see if you can try to get some feed. I don't know. I don't know what you do there. Well, it depends on what version of Doomsday you have.

Yeah. So one of the things that I really, I am really excited for, that we can't quite seem to get over the hump to get. to is we got a lot of solar. So three of our four barns have solar on them today. And we overproduce on all of it because we bank, we're in a situation with our electric provider that we bank that extra credit and then we draw it off through the winter or like you've heard me talk about one of my sites, basically the power bill for drying the corn. We do that for nothing because we bank enough credit over the summer. So if you're in a situation where you had solar and we had

batteries, we had Tesla megapack, if we had a Tesla mega pack sitting at both our sites where you were able to store power through the day, fill that battery, and then draw it out at night, you could run hog buildings a long time. I mean, you obviously couldn't run full tunnel. You'd have to let it get hotter than what it does, but you could run, we're pretty well set up to where you could, you could run your own power. The only problem with that is, that is as long as there's not an EMP. If there's an EMP, anything that's electrical is not going to run. So that's all out the window. So that only works if A, you have battery storage and two, there's no EMP. The feed is the biggest problem, the whole thing. Feed is the biggest problem. And if you, you know, uh, uh,

70 years ago, every 160 acres in our county was fenced. Everybody, everything was fenced. Today, there's like no fence or very little fence. So if you turn these hogs out... Build some fence quick. Well, right. You have to.

Can you do that? And then the other thing is, you know, we talk about we have 10,000 pigs here at any given time. If you stand on the roof of one of my finishers, you can count what's like 25 finishers you can see from the top of that roof you can see 25 other finishers so there's going to be pigs roaming everywhere if you get in a scenario where grass there'll be no grass no there'll be no crops no be none pigs would just them domesticated pigs would start becoming wild if they made it pretty quick yeah um so it's a bad you know it's a

bad deal, but it goes back to what Sawyer said. Really, at the end of the day, you can keep them watered. You know, we have generators, we have cisterns. You can keep them watered and keep the lights on for quite a while, really. But at the end of the day, if you have a feed mill that needs three-phase power to make feed and trucks to drive it up the road that need diesel, you're only as good as the supply chain and how are many days supply once that runs out then you got big problems and so um yeah better learn how to hunt well yeah i mean there's no good scenario for it we're in better situation i think people in ag are in better situations than people in new york city or people in chicago i mean we're better off the most but you still got some problems so keeping that hurt alive

but I doubt that you could keep them all alive. Yep. I mean, it's just an honest truth. You would, you'd just, it'd be hard. Yeah. But I think, uh, neighbors could figure some things out. I think people could, I think we could put our heads together and figure it out, but you would be, it would still be kind of a shit show. There would be a lot of salted pork being socked away.

Uh, yeah. A lot of root sellers get dug in a hurry. I mean, the first thing I would, honest to God, one of the first things we would do is, uh, dig a root cellar, dig down to where you could keep, use the, you know, the temperature of the ground to keep things cool and butcher and start salting it away. Because you, you can preserve meat quite a while if you cut it, salt it, wrap it. I honestly don't know. That's something we probably better learn, but I know guys have done it for centuries. It's the scariest thing about the whole thing would be city people coming to get food.

Yeah. Traveling to come to farms in the Midwest to see if they could get some food. That ain't going to boat very well. So you better have some bullets. You better have some ammo, some guns because that would be the scariest situation of the whole thing. Because now that money is no longer relevant, food. Food is currency. Food is currency.

So you as a farmer are now the target. Target. So you'd have to, I would band together with other farmers and be like, look, this is what we got to do. So that was fun, you know, because yeah, the doomsday scenario looks more possible every day. I hope that never does happen. But you know what? It's just like the Great Depression. Everybody being a shit situation, some people will be in worse situations than others.

But I feel like we'd be most farmers that raise livestock. would be in a better position than most. Yeah, we'd be the equivalent of when, you know, you're talking about how bad a shape the United States financial system is. And I've heard this from more than one old guy that says, we're the floatiest turd in the toilet bowl because as bad as our system is,

we're in better shape than pretty much everybody else around the world. Well, if you get in a really bad situation, the Midwest is probably the best, it would be in the best shape of a bad situation. It's just how it would go. Facts. Hey, this is a pretty good podcast, isn't it? If you made it this far, you must think it's pretty good.

I got a favor to ask you. Please, if you like the show, leave us a review on Spotify or Apple. Now, let's get back to it. Okay, last question we got here. This is a good one for anybody that is working with family, specifically in farming. And you know, this is good. So Todd asked, my question is along the lines of passing the torch.

My dad's health hasn't been the best in recent years. And the added stress of farming isn't helping that. Just curious on what the best way to approach is subject without stepping on his toes. And this is a good one for dad because dad farmed with your dad and your grandpa was a military man. and he lived to be 99 years old. Yep. So he was around for a long time. Yep.

So you know way better about that than I do. Passing the torch is very difficult for some generations because they've got that torch, they're holding onto that torch as hard as they can. And that's the only thing that keeps them going and they don't want to give it up because, you know, it's just what makes it so hard, and I think this is what people don't understand. is, you know, there's people that have a job, and that's kind of their identity. Their identity is that

they're, you know, it's Bill. Bill's the, Bill the plumber, Bill the UPS man, Bill the welder at this place, or bills the, you know, whatever guy at whatever widget company. And then when you retire, you know, that's your identity. And it's hard to give that up. up. But when you're a farmer, you don't, nobody's ever going to come in and muscle you out and say, you got to retire. And when you work for yourself, you can build your own, you can build your own retirement plan as far as eliminating the jobs that are too hard for you to do. And sometimes you don't. And, you know, guys get hurt trying to do stuff they shouldn't do. I'll give you a great example.

My dad when he was, he was 90 years old, 90 years plus, and we had one of our grain bins here at the home site. You could see that grain bin right out of his kitchen window, and the top on it, where we would, you know, lower the auger where we'd dump grain into that, the big hatch on the top, it wasn't one of these that was like hinged. it had a really screwed up mechanism that held it on there and basically didn't work so when you got done in the fall you'd take a bunch of baling wire up there and you'd wire it down and hope that the wind didn't come just the right way and that the baling wire would would break or something like that hope that didn't happen well anyway one one warm February day the wind was blowing the right direction and the wire broke and the dome blew off the bin. It was up on there, but it was hanging by one wire.

You know, it wasn't over the hole. And my dad calls me, and he's like, hey, and I was probably in Missouri. I was somewhere, you know, selling buildings. But he's like, when are you going to be home? And I said, I'll be home, you know, probably about 530 or 6 o'clock. I'm coming back from wherever. And he's like, well, wind blew that dome off the grain bin. And so when you get home, you know, put that on there.

So I'm like, okay. So I get home and it's dark. And it was more like 7 or 7.30. I drive over there and I look up and the dome is on the bed. And I'm like, well, it must not. So I'm headed back to my house and my phone rings. And it was my dad. He's like, yeah, I forgot to call you.

I got that back on. And I go, what? He's like, well, I didn't know what time you're going to be here. And it was sputter and rain. I didn't want the beans to get rained on. So I just went over there and put it on there. So my 90-plus-year-old dad went over there and this bin doesn't have stairs. It's got a ladder. So he climbed the ladder, climbed up the roof ladder, got the dome back on there and wired it down. Climb back down. And climbed back down. Came back the house. And, you know, I get pissed like a parent would get pissed. and that's one of the torches that gets passed is the child becomes the parent to a certain degree. And I said, what the hell were you thinking? I said, you could have just as well falling off there and, you know, you could have gotten killed.

What would you done if you'd fallen off? And he said to me, he didn't miss a beat. He goes, well, I'd probably be dead. But he goes, if somebody's going to fall off the bin, it might as well be me. Better off me falling off and dying at 90 than it is for you to fall off and die. So I just decided, well, hell, I might as well, well do it. Well, what are you going to say? So what are you going to say to him? Nothing. You just shake your head and go, all right, whatever. So all of that to say, you know, it's difficult to have

those conversations. And my dad, and I have a little of this because my wife, she will, she will say this, that I have the mentality that nothing's ever going to go wrong. And when you're farming, you kind of get it in your head that, you know, you're always thinking about next season. And I think that's part of the reason why farmers, a lot of them live as long as they do, because they always have something driving them. They always have something to look forward to. And even if they're a little pessimistic to talk to them, deep down there, you've got to be an optimist to be a farmer. And that optimistic mindset helps them keep going, which is a great thing.

But when you're trying to run a family farm, they have a really hard time letting go. And I think I was initially our operation, if I wouldn't have been working outside the farm, I think we would have had a really hard time doing an estate plan, a transition plan, as far as me taking over. But as I started building hog buildings

and having that responsibility that was outside of what my dad and I had together, it made those conversations a lot easier to have because as my equity grew in the hog buildings and I had income that could contribute to buying equipment or fixing equipment or, you know, making those decisions, there was there was more equity, I guess, between us than what there was maybe when we started. But we had some really hard conversations and I think that's just part of it. I think a lot of people,

if you have a father that's very, he's the drive. he's the decision maker and it's always been that way. Those guys have a really hard time when they feel like they're being challenged or they feel like because they're being challenged that now then somehow... You're fucking them over. Yeah, you're muscleing them out. And all I can say is you've got to have communication and they don't always want to have that communication because they don't like change. And part of that is a generational thing because

I make the comment all the time that I want to hand all this off to Clay and Sawyer as fast as they can. As soon as they get to the point that they can assure me a quality retirement, I'm ready to do less. And people think I'm joking about that. But, you know, to me, I feel like, brought to you by Nespresso. Hear that? That's your next obsession. Every coffee, a new world. Every sip, a new taste. This is the new Nespresso. One touch, endless possibilities.

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Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Haboniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. For my generation, the satisfaction for me is going to be more of watching what my children do with the farm than it is about what can I do with it. Because I feel like I'm at the point where I'm really happy with what I've been able to do. and I don't feel like I'm done by any means,

but I feel like the future is, I feel like what my family can do is way greater than what, you know, than what I could even dream up. And so I guess what I'd say to that is, if you can maybe start a conversation with a little bit of daydreaming, so that generation,

they deal really hard in reality, but they're all dreamer, at heart. We all are. I feel like we are. So if you can if you can get your parent to think out loud about what their hopes and dreams and aspirations were when they took over the farm from their parents or if they bought the farm what you know what did they what got them fired up? What was what was their dreams? And you know they maybe they didn't accomplish all of that but they accomplish some and talk about what they're most proud of. Because if you can get them on the mindset of thinking about

not necessarily what is, but what can be, then that opens a whole new door to the conversation of what can be, but how are we going to get there? I think that's important. And then the other thing is, obviously, to convince them that you need somebody, probably smarter than you are when you start dealing with, how are you going to transfer these assets from one generation of the next and not get completely screwed by the government? Because,

I mean, let's face it, you have, we have a small operation here, but when you take that land and you value it where it is today, all of a sudden it's worth a hell of a chunk of money. And, you know these hog billings we came through a time where you bought a hog billing and a hog billing is a depreciable asset which it still is however i'm pretty sure i could sell the sites we have for more money than they cost me to build right now which that's crazy but all of that adds to a huge taxable gain going to the next generation so you need good people to talk to about it but before you can even get to that point, you got to get, you got to find, you have to find an end to get that generation thinking about, thinking about the dreams and aspirations they had, because if they can,

if they can think about those days, then they can realize that, okay, it's time, it's time to talk about what your dreams and aspirations are and what you're going to do. and you know if you're somebody and you've got a farm and you're lucky enough to have somebody that wants to take that over you're better off than a hell of a lot of people because there's a hell of a lot of farmers out there that don't have anybody they don't have any kids that want anything to do with it and they're sitting there and all they've built it's going to get sold on the auction block or rent it out so if you're lucky enough if you're you know if you're an older person and you're lucky enough to have kids that want to farm it's a blessing you know the old guy

that my dad, my friend of my dad's that he went to country school with, I always had a saying that takes three generations to make a fortune and one to piss it away. And he was convinced that his kids were going to be the one to piss it away. Well, you can't, that's not a, that's not a transition plan. That's just not. And nobody should want that to happen. And the truth is that if you treat it right and you have a line of communication and you have a plan, that generation is not going to piss it away. Mm-hmm. So, anyway.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, the only thing I got to add to it is when you're having those conversations, and hopefully you know your dad by now, but you know what pisses him on. You know if you can get loud with him, is he going to freak out and storm out, or is he going to yell back at you or is he going to hear you out? You know, like, you kind of have to know the psychology of the person you're talking to. So is it, if I raise my voice with my dad, is he just going to shut out and fucking not hear a word that comes out of my mouth? Well, then I probably would never yell at him when you're trying to get that conversation going.

Or maybe he reacts and he shuts up and listens to you when you get serious because you don't really yell very much. That might be a use to you when you're trying to have that conversation and you start yelling. And then he like shuts up. He's like, damn, okay, he's serious. You know, I don't know. It depends on the person that you're talking to. Yeah. don't give up after the first conversation.

You got to make it, I mean, you got to have it. And those guys, some of you just got to wear them out. Yeah. They don't give up very easy. But, yeah, you got to keep having it. So. All right. Well, that was the last question.

I think that was a really good set of questions that we answered today. We got one last thing, a golden nugget. So this is actually going to be kind of a springboard. If you want to know what hot topics are going to look like next week, they're probably going to be involved in what's going on politically in this country. And I just had to say, we just had to talk about this because in the last week, you have seen after how much time has passed, two years, maybe it's been more than two years, of our elected officials telling us that, A, there's no way that the COVID virus came from a lab in China,

that that's just crazy talk. Foucho literally lied under oath about it. To, we don't know how, we don't know how it started. We don't know where it came from. Came from bats. That's where it came from. Yeah, if you listen to Bill Gates, it came from bats. But, you know, just, I don't know.

We don't know. To now then, our own government says, oh, well, yeah, you know, we've looked into this and, yeah, we're pretty sure it did come from a lab in China. And then at the same time that that came out, you know, This TikTok is a Chinese firm, and there's been all this back and forth about we should ban TikTok, and government agencies, anybody that works for the government, shouldn't be able to have TikTok. And it's just kind of floated out there, and nobody's really, nothing's happened on it. The same week that we decide that the COVID virus came from China, we decide that TikTok is the devil,

and we're going to ban all federal employees from having it on their phones if you work for the government. That's one of the proposals that came out last week, and I don't know where it is on it, whether that's going to actually happen or not. It just got me thinking, like, isn't it ironic that all this time has passed, and we're all told one thing, and if you have a dissenting point of view, then you are crazy. You are conspiracy theorists. theory. Nobody should trust you. You are lowest of the low. But then when the Chinese come out and say,

well, you know, we really don't want to see the Russians get their ass kick because, you know, they're communists like we are. And yeah, I think we're going to give them aid. I think we're going to start sending them military equipment and aid. Now then the United States is like, pardon my French, but fuck China. Now they're not our friends anymore. And by God, yeah. we pull the rug back and go, I think that did come from China. And TikTok's bad. And we shouldn't give them chips. And we're going to drop the hammer on the Chinese.

Well, that may be right. We should have probably dropped the hammer on the Chinese a lot of time. Well, I wonder why we didn't. But why didn't we? Well, probably because there's a lot of people that are in power that were in the Chinese and those people are embedded in together. They've been enriching themselves from the Chinese. And so.

But now that. they're aiding the Russians, that's going, that's going against the people here in America. So now they're telling us what's actually been happening. So my golden nugget is this. As you've heard of say, how practically every episode we end up saying it sometime, you all got to think for yourselves because the shit that we get told is through a filter of what can we get by with right now. What is the political game that's being played right now? and the message you hear is tailored to that political goal. And you just watched in the last week,

you watched that political goal flip because now all of a sudden... China's enemy number one. Yep, that's right. So anyway, stay tuned next week because I'm sure that will be one of the hot topics. The last thing that I want to do, it's early this morning. And so I'm a degenerate, but I'm not a big enough degenerate. that I'm going to start, we're not going to do a whiskey review this morning, I don't think. It's a little too early for me.

However, Sawyer is holding in his hand a bottle of Iron Root Harbinger. An Iron Root is from Denison, Texas, and a friend of the show sent us a package in the mail, and that was in it, and this note, and it said, I hope this bottle finds you all well. Keep on making great content. I picked this bottle up while visiting family in the Dallas, North Texas area. I have a few more brands to send you all in the future. Cheers to all of you. Jay from Kansas.

Thank you, Jay. We really appreciate it. You are a great humanitarian. We appreciate it. And the very next afternoon evening podcast that we shoot, we are going to sample the Ironwood Harbinger Edition, straight bourbon whiskey from Texas. and we appreciate it very much.

And we appreciate each and every one of you. We are blessed to have just some really great, really great people that follow us and listen to us and none of this would be possible without you. And just keep sharing the show and giving us reviews and sending us whiskey or, you know, whatever. Keep telling us what you think, guys. We love hearing from you, whether it be comments,

emails, uh, DMs, whatever. Send them our way because we love hearing your guys's feedback. We're trying our best to get back to you guys as much as we can. We get a lot of, we get a lot of that,

but we love seeing it. So don't, don't ever hesitate to reach out, keep reaching out if we can't get to you right away. But, uh, this is going to go right on the wall hanging up over there on the shelves, Jay. So you're going to make the wall and I can't wait for,

well, I can't wait for more whiskey if you're going to send it or more bourbon, whatever you send. So, um, yeah, thanks, guys. If you guys got any value from, a show pay the fee share it out uh submit your questions at barn talk show at gmail.com and uh we'll see you back

here next week for another episode