Barn Talk - Barn Talk Q&A: Prop 12 Update, How to Start Farming & How to Gain Respect On a Farming Operation?

Episode Date: May 31, 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, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a Q&A episode. The questions have been piling up, and we're going to get to as many as we possibly can. We got some good ones. If you guys want to submit your questions so they can get answered on the show,

submit them at barn talk show at gmail.com or you know leave them in the youtube if you're watching on youtube try to DM us but the best way is through the email barn talk show at gmail.com uh pay the fee if you guys get any value from the show share it out with your friends family co-workers team members employees whoever the more you guys share the show the better guests we can have on the better content we can make and it's just a win-win for everybody and it's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. So thank you to all that have been doing that. And finally, leave review on Spotify or Apple. So we finally, finally hit a thousand five star Spotify reviews. And I like seeing that 1K. I like seeing that 1K on Spotify. So our next goal for

Spotify, it's a lofty goal now, 5K. If we get- Exclusive deal. Oh, well, that'd be great. If they'd give us, if they treat us like Rogan, that'd be awesome. But I don't know. That's a little down the pipeline. I'm thinking 5,000 five-star Spotify reviews is a good goal. Apple, if you're listening on Apple guys, we're still trying to get to 1,000. We're at like four. Oh, I can't. We've got a ways to go. We're at 400 and something. So if you're on Apple and you want to show the Spotify guys, hey, we're more loyal listeners on Apple than you guys are over at Spotify, leave a review, guys. That's all we ask. That's how you can help us. And you can also just keep tuning in the show. We really appreciate every single one of you guys that

show your support, get back to us, let us know what you think, um, because it means the world to us. We love doing this and the train ain't going to stop. Clean up your mouth, Sawyer. Yeah, I know. I get that a lot. Clean up your mouth. But you know what, guys, I keep it real. This is who I am. And yeah, I probably should watch my mouth a little bit. Maybe as I get older, I'll do a little bit better and I could probably do better on the JCs and taking the Lord's name in vain. I could probably do better on that. But I'm not going to stop saying fuck. I like saying fuck. It's a great, lawyer, you just fuck that. I know. It's a great, it's a great, it's a great, it's a great word. You can use it a lot of ways. It's the most descriptive adjective there is. It is. It is. And so I'll, I'll try to

tone it back a little bit. But man, when I get going, guys, I'm going to be 100% who I am. And you ask anybody, you ask anybody in my friends you ask anybody that knows me hell you could even ask my teachers back in high school i probably got in trouble more for cussing than anything else so it's a poor reflection upon your parents yeah that's right well maybe parent probably just parent because the other the other parent uh doesn't put up with well i mean yeah and it who i'm it depends on who i'm talking to but guys if you want me to be who i am and i want to be who i am on this podcast i'm I'm going to drop some cuss words from time to time. It is barn talk.

Yeah. Not, not, I mean, it could be. We're not shooting it in a pew in a church. No. We're in a barn. I mean, it could be machine shed talk, hog building talk, or barn talk. You're all going to get the same. Now, Sunday dinner with mother, that's not going to sound quite the same.

But at the same time, you wouldn't have the quality of conversation that we have up here. It's right. A thousand percent right. How are you doing? I'm good. Boy, it's a nice. This is nice. We've had a nice day. We've had a really nice stretch of weather. Just really nice, not a lot of wind. The thing I hate is so many nice days in the spring in Iowa. It's nice weather, but man, that wind is just terrible. But it's been pretty good. Got a lot of stuff done. Got a lot of stuff to do. It'll be time to side dress here before long. Crops look amazing. But I would be a poor farmer if I didn't throw out there. that we could use a little rain. I was going to say, we need a little better rain. It's getting a little dry.

Yeah. So, you know, the window of perfection, if you're a farmer, is not very big. So we wanted warm weather, we needed warm weather, we got it, and now we could use a little rain. And the markets, I think, are reflecting that. You like that? I do like that. Now, you better tell them what's going on in the markets.

I do. I've got a pretty good market report with a little commentary thrown in there. So, uh, corn, corn, 623. locally and 577 on the board, but I know it's up as we speak because dry weather is in the forecast. And now then the traders are like farmers. A lot of funds are going short because they think this corn market is oversold and it's getting dry, so they're going to try to ride it a little bit. harvest starts in Brazil in two weeks, so that's going to put some pressure on

because once they start selling corn, probably will sell it cheaper than what we're trying to sell it. Iowa's 95% planted versus 87% is the average, and overall, I want to say nationwide, I want to say we're like 87%, somewhere in the 80s nationally versus 65% a year ago, so we're way ahead. beans 1334 at the river 1322 on the board bean market's gotten beaten up a lot lately

and china came out yesterday and said we're going to uh we're going to start using more wheat and less corn and soy in our hog diet so we're not going to buy as many beans which is probably that's probably bullshit but it drove the market down so they'll probably turn around and buy some beans now but i could be wrong they can do whatever they want um soybeans in iowa 84% planted versus 66% last year so wheat 623 hogs 80667 cattle 164 feeder cattle 233 for the june contract crude oil was 72 94 the last time i looked that's going off the july contract bitcoin bitcoin 27,500 i don't know we just cannot seem to get uh i think bitcoin in Miami's going on

either this week or next week. That's what we should have done. You're going to leave me again to go to Florida? I kind of got it. You know, there's a lot of stuff going on. Leave me when we're going to start side dressing now. Yeah, well, that was poor planning on my part because I should have done that.

I think that would have been kind of fun to go to Bitcoin in Miami. Ethereum 1847, Cardano's 37 cents. It don't get it. For being the, for being the, being the improved version of Ethereum, Cardanos never really seem to get off the, get out of the blocks. Tesla, $186. And I'll tell you a story someday

as to why I think Tesla is just going to go off now. It's just going to go off. But I'm not going to tell you that story today, but it's definitely, it's going to head hider. But I just keep Bud in there because their pain, I'm kind of enjoying their pain, and they just keep suffering. So 58, 68, 68. it's not going anywhere and I don't think that stock is going to go anywhere for quite a while.

I think that's about all I got. That was pretty good. A lot of good in-depth info on that one. I think people like when you bring in some insights. I like the planted statistic there versus last year. That was a good throw in there. And I just talked to my fertilizer supplier. Shout out to Wittoff Farm Supply.

We're going to start side dressing corn next week. So we don't need much nitrogen, but we do side dress a little bit to get that corn, to get that corn to its full potential, kind of like how we fed Sawyer. We fed him to his genetic potential. We try to do the same thing with corn. That's why I'm so much taller. Yep. And in typical, if you've seen the clip, I don't know if that clip's two years old or not,

but I do a nice little ditty how I talk about in the fertilizer world, there's no scenario. where you don't need more fertilizer when you're talking to your fertilizer rep. And he did a good job of upselling me today because he told me, we're going to put on some 32%. And then he very quickly said, hey, you're going to put some boron in that? Do you want boron and zinc in that? And I said, oh, I just assumed that that came with it for that price. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

We know. $5.32 an acre for the boron. and $8.23 for the zinc. And I said, you think I need that? And he said, oh, you're deficient. I guarantee you deficient. All this corn I look at, it's always deficient. I said, I kind of figured that was how it is.

So like a good sucker, it took the bait. Took the bait. We're going to put on some boron and zinc, which I do think, I do think it does pay. if you look at the highest yielding corn, one thing that it has in common is usually it's not deficient in boron. So it's good to have it out there. And boron leeches pretty well. That's why you put it on at side dress because to put it on in the fall or in the spring doesn't help you much because it probably is going to leach out on you.

So better to put it on side dress. Yep. So I think that's all I can talk about crop right now. Well, okay. I think you got her all down. I think they know what's going on. I'll start with the first question. All right. You go ahead. This is, this has come out of the last, this will do video, I think we had. But we've had it many times since this whole circus started. Sawyer, do you have a mother and why does nobody ever see her? I do have a mom. My dad isn't just this guy that goes off to Florida and is bachelor in it.

I have an amazing mother that has been married to my father for will be 30 years, 30 years this year. From the very beginning, since I came out the womb, they've been together. So she keeps the unit together, and she just doesn't like being on camera. She doesn't like being on camera. It's just one of her things that she just likes to stay off, and we respect her on that. Sometimes we mess around and, like, point the camera at her when it's off just to get her eyes out of her. yeah it's just kind of a respect thing she doesn't want to be on so we don't we don't put her on and she's amazing and she probably could add a lot to the videos but you know what it's not for everybody

and when we started this thing it wasn't meant for everybody you know that was not my intention at all was to get the whole family on on youtube so that's kind of where we're at maybe someday she'll come on but you know that's just that's just how it is but she she's done a good job raising me keeps us all together. She's a detail-oriented woman. She likes to keep things nice and clean and tidy and looking good. So we need that because that, like for me and maybe dad, dad's probably gotten better over the years because she just got beat down.

But for me right now in my early adult life, look at things looking good. It's like priority list. It's like down here for me. You know, I'm not all about that. But it's good to keep your lawn mode. It's good to keep the patio clean. Keep the patio clean.

And maybe as I get older, I'll get more anal about that stuff. But anyway, that's the reason you don't see her. Yep. If you want to play Where Is Waldo? There is a YouTube video where we did the open house at the Babcock. And there is a cameo of her walking through the camera. Yeah. that's the only time i think that's the only time there you can hear her if you ever if you ever see

one of our videos where we're barbecuing and we're in the kitchen uh getting ready to serve it up or whatever you can usually hear her in the background but uh you never see her so that's not her that's not her thing so she works she works behind the scenes to keep the machine running so she gives torque the beat down when he needs it well i'll tell you here's a good uh here's a good pro-marriage tip for men out there. Definitely let your wife make you a better person because we all know that there are things about us that need to be worked on.

And it's a never-ending process because you're always trying to improve yourself or there are things that are blatantly obvious to everybody but yourself that need to be worked on. However, the key to a long, happy marriage is don't ever make them give up hope. Even though there are things that Tricia will probably never fix with me and she gets frustrated about it, I do give her glimmers of hope every once in a while, and that's what keeps her around. Because if she thought it was a lost cause,

your project. I am a project for her. If she thought it was a lost cause, 30 years, we would have never made it 30 years. But now we're stronger than ever. And I think she, I think actually that she would, she's more optimistic than ever that she will finally fix me. There you go.

And that's, hey, that's what it takes. That's the ticket, I guess. All right. So Prop 12 update. What's the deal on that torque? What are we, what the hell's going on? California just said, hey, this is what we're doing, and everybody seems like we're just going to obey.

Yeah. First of all, unpopular opinion. So my unpopular opinion is that the national pork producers should have invested in a better lawyer because I don't think that we did a very good job arguing our case. And the reason I say that is because now we're sitting here. You had a split decision in the Supreme Court.

The ruling was five to four. And in communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields, like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. How you did not make a strong enough case that this totally goes against the interstate commerce clause is beyond me,

because now then it's going to fall on the Senate, and they're debating this right now. Chuck Grassley had a blip about it because, by by upholding California's Prop 12, you have now automatically given the bill that was on the, in the election in Massachusetts that they passed. You've automatically given it legality, so they won't have to appeal that

because it's basically a piggyback. It's a little different. but it's the same kind of bill in Massachusetts. Okay, so now you take this to its logical conclusion. There is a possibility that you could have 50 different rules from 50 different states that pork producers in Iowa would have to meet. And you can't do that. And you can say, oh, no, that'll never happen.

Okay, well, that'll never happen on 50 states. But there's nothing to say that you couldn't have it on 12 different states or however many. And there's no what, that's the whole reason that we have the interstate commerce clause. Because it's pretty much, it makes commerce between states damn near impossible when one state can dictate how a product or service is produced in another state. That's the idea. So since this did not get fixed by the Supreme Court, and I'll say this, by the Supreme Court, if they would have voted it down, it still didn't fix it because California would just go right back. They would just change it, whatever. So it's going to have to be dealt with, and the legislature is going to have to deal with it. And I don't care if you're talking about pork or you're talking about chicken or you're talking about widgets. you have to have a standardized set of rules concerning products and services that are sold throughout the United States so that you can have orderly commerce.

And whatever that looks like, it has to be standardized. And California is thrown a wrench in that. That's the, to me, that's the law side of it. The animal welfare side of it, there are plenty of guys that are already been on the bandwagon. We had Rob on here, and the new Sall unit that he built is already Prop 12 compliant, and he remodeled one of his other ones. The company we for for has a unit that is Prop 12 compliant.

So there's people that are gearing up to have the production to meet those standards. because there's a premium. Because there's a premium. I mean, that's capitalism at work right there. I think that... So out of all of this, there are two sets of people that are going to lose. On the farmer side, there are guys that have smaller units that are independent that are going through a really tough time right now,

because the hog market is trash. Bloodbath. Feed costs are high. You're burning through capital. So there are smaller independent guys, Pharaoh and pigs, who I might add are exactly the kind of people that well-meaning liberal people and the kind of people that you would find that would vote for Prop 12 in California, they want all these small little farmers. Those are the backbone of America and those are the people we want to support. Well, you're not supporting them. You are stabbing them right in the back

because the people that can least afford to update their facilities to meet these standards are the ones that are going to get pushed out because they're not going to get that premium. And depending on their packer and how much business they can line up doing that, they may not be able to sell their pigs of that packer. Because the packer says, well, you're not bringing the pork to our standard. So we're going to get rid of it because we got. five other guys that are going to do it. Yep.

So that's the farmer side. That's the farmer side. On the consumer side, who do you think is going to get hurt on the consumer side? It is the person in California that can't spend that literally they go to the grocery store every week and they have an envelope of money and that's what they got. They can't spend any more than that. and they're on government assistance or they're working minimum wage jobs or they got eight kids or

you name it, whatever it is. They are the ones that are living on the edge. They're the ones that at least can afford it. And that increase in price because nobody seems to think this through. For some reason it's impossible for liberals to think this shit through. When you create friction within the system of making anything, and I say friction because it can be regulations, it can be transportation, it can be minimum wage laws, it can be, you name it, whatever it is that creates friction in the system of producing a product makes that product more expensive. And if a product is more expensive, the people who can least afford the product are the ones that either, A, quit buying the product or two, lose more of their disposable income to keep buying that product.

That's what's going to happen. You're going to buy less pork in California. You're going to buy less bacon. You're going to buy less breakfast sausage because the price is going to be higher. You're going to pay more for it than you are anywhere else in the country. How does that help your citizens? If you are a lawmaker in California, how does that help your citizens? doesn't. It might make you feel good. It might make you feel like, boy, you're really sticking it to these hog farmers in Iowa. And those animal-hating son of the bitches, we're going to make them, we're going to make them treat these pigs better, even though you don't have any freaking idea about animal welfare and you've never been on a hog farm in your life, but you're going to dictate it. But how's that

helping your consumers? How's that helping your residents? Well, it's not. So, at the end of the day, I'd say this is probably far from over, if anything, it has made it more, it's made the problem bigger because now then you've opened the door, this precedent can be used in other products, in other states, and other services, where individual states want to, dictate what's happening with interstate commerce. So it's going to have to be fixed. And how it gets fixed, I don't know. So it's kind of like the topic, it kind of is similar in the topic of like the NRA with gun laws. They don't want to give an inch. Right. And here we've given an inch in agriculture, pork production, specifically. And now it could come to bite us in the ass, not just in California, but other states too.

And I think that, I think that's a good point on your part because that's the scariest part of the whole thing. It's not just California because if other states come out and see that and they want to dictate it, New York wants to dictate the same thing. You know,

a bunch of liberal cities think it's a good idea and they want to feel good about it. And they all come out and they dictate a different rule or for, hell, it could be beef. It could be anything. It could be any product. That's where we start to have problems.

that's where we start to have real problems. And, you know, like dad said, there's going to be some people in this industry that benefit from it, you know, and I don't blame them for benefiting from it. You know, they see a market that they can, you know, explore and get a premium price for. That's capitalism, baby. If I was in their shoes, same deal. But, you know, back to your point, the friction that the government causes, you know, I think, I think capitalism can ultimately, good people inside capitalism can make changes in systems.

Because I was thinking, I was just sitting here thinking, what would somebody say to your point about government adding friction to systems? Well, they'd say, well, you're never going to change. Systems will never change, torque. How are you going to ever change for the better? Well, I feel like good people in capitalism will make good change for the betterment of humanity. Good people in capitalism, not terrible corrupt fuckers, good people. And you don't need the government to come in and try to change a system if there's good people leading that. So, yeah, that's a good point on your part. It is a little worrisome.

And anybody in agriculture should be keeping that on your radar. Not, I mean, this Prop 12 thing is just happening to pork specifically, but it could come in your neck of woods, whatever commodity you're raising. This could happen to beef producers. This could happen to anybody producing a product in agriculture. it could happen outside agriculture too. It could be anything. But yeah, I think it's, I don't know how the hell they got away with it, to be honest. And I was looking at some comments online. I think I came across like an animal, animal sanctuary.

Somebody commented something shitty on our page, and it was like some group, you know, of people that hate farmers and livestock farmers and say, were the just worst people in the world. And they posted the video of the Prop 12 hearing and the result. And I read some of the comments because I always check in with comments to see where real people are at. And people that were animal rights activists were even surprised. Like I saw so many comments that are like, I'm happy, but I just can't believe that that passed. And it's like, yeah, we really did shit the bed, didn't we? Yeah, we really did.

I you made a good point there bring it up what we talked about with the NRA how you know they they won't like they're going to die on that hill they're not going to they're not going to settle with anybody they're not going

because they know it's like Pandora's box you open the foot gates okay the flip side of that national pork producers our trade our trade group that represents our industry

they have made They've made, they've spent a hell of a lot of time giving these people a voice instead of just saying, you're fucking crazy and you don't know shit about what we do. And we're going to keep doing what we do because we know the best. And instead they've, they've played this game of being apologetic, being inclusive, and bringing these people in and trying to reason with them. And the problem with reasoning with crazy people is that, well, it doesn't work. And this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning. If this stands as is, which I think because of the, like I stated earlier, because of how it's going to affect other things outside of agriculture, I don't think

it will be allowed to stand as is. Something will have to be done because you've screwed up. you have the possibility of really screwing up commerce between states so i i think something's got to be done but us as an industry we we have got to get over this idea that we have to accommodate everybody and we have to give voice to every person no matter how outrageously stupid the idea is because if we keep doing it all you have to do is look at other parts of the world where eventually there won't be any there'll be no production agriculture in some parts of this world. A lot of European countries are headed that direction because they have just handed the keys to the castle over to the fringe.

And it's death from a thousand cuts. And you take like Germany, Germany won't have, they won't have a, there'll be no hog production in Germany in 10, years. There just won't be. Other parts of Europe, I feel like they're headed the same direction. And it's because they just have given and given and given. And it's, you know, it's an inch here and an inch there and an inch there. And I guess it all comes down, I guess it comes down to how, whether or not you want food security or not. And the other truth of it is,

there's a lot of people in power within your government that really don't want people to eat meat. Now, they're not going to come out and say that, but they're going to allow this horse shit to stand because in the back of their mind, it's like, well, because it keeps you fucking weak if you don't eat meat. I mean, I don't know. I'm not a nutritionist. I'm not a doctor, but the more that this like carnivore diet, keto, I'm now seeing an animal-based diet come out. You know, these, are a bunch of fad diets, but the amino acids that you get from meat, you can't replicate those in a lot of other protein sources. And I've seen guys say that they feel the best that they ever had, just eating fruit, taking out carbs, maybe have a little bit of rice, but it's fruit,

it's honey, it's butter, it's meat, it's dairy, and they get their carbs from the fruit and a little bit of rice, and then that's it, and they feel the best they've ever had. And it's like, I don't know if that works. I haven't tried it, but it's like, I just, I feel like people are kind of over the argument that meat is terrible for you. You sound like, you sound like someone high on toxic masculine. I guess. Call me that then. And I was just going to say, I was going to say to your point there, um, about just our industry and, you know, it's, I just relate it to our, our, our, our, what we're doing on social. We don't give any time a day to, um, to, the crazies.

We're not trying, I'm not trying to change the mind of animal rights activists or, uh, what is Iowa dairy farmer say about vegans, militant vegans. You know, I respect vegans. I respect anybody.

Choose your diet. But if you're going to be militant to us, or if you're going to be animal rights activists and literally write in our comments, fuck you because of what we're do, I mean, I'm not going to give you, I'm just,

we're not going to give you the time of day. I'm not trying to promote our industry and show, what we do to those people. I'm showing it to the meat eaters. I'm showing it to the consumers that eat meat. They just want to know how, just want to know where the food comes from. And that's, that's what we got to do as an industry. Just show the people that eat meat how we produce the product. Yeah. And keep feeding those people. Our job is not to change the hearts and minds of people that have already decided that we're the enemy. We're the enemy. It doesn't, doesn't do us any good. It doesn't do us any good. and they are the minority they are such a small group in the grand scheme of things they're such a

small group so i don't know why we even care but anyway that's all we got on that topic i thought we i thought we did a good one on that one so that's the best i can tell you i don't have any any good hard answers other than the fact that it something needs to be done because it's going to affect a lot it's going to affect a lot more than just the hog industry pandora's box is open correct you are correct sir we got to take a little break Because I got to tell you something real important. If you guys aren't watching or 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. This is a good paintbrush, broad stroke. Connor asks, if I have $15,000 to my name, how do I start farming? Well, I'm going to...

To the chalkboard. Yeah, no shit. We need a whiteboard. You're going to need more money than that, probably, to start farming, I would say, at a large scale. But, man, there's so many ways to get into farming nowadays. There's so many different little sections of agriculture that are getting developed. Vertical farming. We just talked to a guy the other day that's helping a young farmer that's growing mushrooms in a warehouse.

He's growing mushrooms either with, I don't know, artificial light and created the system to grow him in a warehouse. And he's selling these mushrooms to people and he's making a killing. I mean, there's so many different areas of ag that, like I think an interesting sector is industrial ag in urban areas, like growing mushrooms in a warehouse, like vertical farming. Micro greens. I mean, there's so many, so many, you know, little things like that that I personally don't. know a lot about, but I'm sure the upfront costs of those are probably a little bit, they're probably smaller than trying to do corn and soybeans here in southeast Iowa or wherever

you're at, because that takes a lot of capital. Hell, we're not even equipped, and we've been in it for six generations. We're not fully equipped, and we don't have everything we want, and we're still trying to get by day by day. So it's a challenge, man. And I feel like we've got this question a lot but it's just all about trying to seek opportunities and getting creative it really is you just you just got to get out there and find new ways to get into ag um and just kind of trying to explore them and work at it and work on your craft and meet new guys meet new people yeah um i was thinking you know that's a pretty broad question because i don't have any idea where you're located but one of the biggest problems in our industry is lack of labor and the average age of your farmers.

So two things that you can exploit as a young person is that if you want to get into traditional farming, there are a lot of people that are probably looking for somebody to help with their farming operation. then the other side of it is there's probably someone in your area that is an older person that has a farming operation you know whatever whatever they grow whatever they're doing that may or may not have a plan for what's going to happen when they can't do it anymore. And you need to get involved in your local community in areas where you're going to run in and talk to people that are connected because we talk about this all the time. One of the greatest unseen benefits to our social media and what we've done has nothing to do with

views or likes or clicks or anything like that it has everything to do with the people that we've met and the conversations we've had and the things that we've learned that we would have never we would have never learned or met those people otherwise well your opportunity is only limited by the size of the circle of people that you come in contact with because somewhere there's somebody out there that can help you that needs something that you have or can point you in the right direction so just keep just keep grinding and you've got don't be afraid to ask we said that um we said that last year what we learned the most valuable thing we learned last year was don't be afraid to ask yeah and i just say if you're going to go but i kind of gave you a kind of not why

wild answer. I don't know what kind of farming you want to get into. I don't know if you're just trying to get in agriculture as an industry or if you're just, you want to be the traditional, you want to run a grain car, you want to run the combine, whatever. If you're going to go the traditional route and kind of go do what dad said there, make sure that you pick a farmer that you know, and you might not figure this out right from the get-go, but if you work for him for a couple years and then you need to start asking the question hey you know

there's nobody else here family's not here you know would you do you think you could or you think you might be able to rent me a piece of ground or sell me a chunk or you know farm it on contract

farm it on contract shares and if they give you if they say no get the fuck out of there and go try to find somebody else make sure the farmer that you're going to spend all that time and all that work with is going to give you a piece at the end of the day. If you're trying to, if you're going to go that route, make sure you pick the right farmer to work with. And if you do that and he says no and you leave that farmer or that farm, just move on to a next one. But the knowledge and the skills that you would have gained

from working with that farm is probably a lot. So when you move on to the next farm, you'll have even more skills to your disposal. But the other thing that I always say when we get this question. And, you know, Grant Hilbert is a great example of doing this. Ethan Clark's a good example of doing this. Gavin Spoor is a good example of doing this. These are all guys on social media that are first-gen farmers. They have better knowledge than I do because I've not a first-gen farmer. But Grant specifically made his money off farm and then got into farming. So that's also another route, man. If you want a farm and that's like your biggest passion and heart and desire is to farm traditionally, you're going to need a lot of money. So you can go that route or you can go in another

industry, get really good at it, really high level skill and try to make the most of it and make a lot of money that way. And then take that capital and put it into your first farm. I mean, that that's worked for Grant, I don't know the other guys. I don't know Ethan or Gavin personally, so I don't know their story all the way, but probably something similar or probably something like what dad was saying, where they met somebody and got them, got them involved. We need to get those guys on the podcast. But I hope that answers your questions. There's kind of a lot of ways you can go about that. There's a lot of ways you can go about it. But there are ways to go about it. So it's not like you have no hope you just got to get to work pick one choose it go if it doesn't work choose another one if it doesn't

work choose another one i mean you got options you just got a you're going to have to you're going to have to bust your ass i mean that's that's the truth of it no matter what direction you go there you're going to have to bust your ass and i think you know that you know how hard it is to get into farming so just keep grinding man just keep grinding we'll try to get some first-gen farmers more first-gen farmers on pod to maybe help you out with that question because we get that question a lot so well i'm going to piggyback off of that all right because the next question kind of is kind of similar just coming at it from a different way so this is a little bit of a lengthy question but i put the whole thing in because i didn't know how else to break it up but uh fields asks what advice would you give uh i'm still in

high school love everything farming but none of my family farms eventually I would like to start my own farm, but it seems really hard since I can't inherit any acreage from my family. I work on a farm now, and they are happy with my hard work. So how could I prove to them and have them trust me to run more equipment, even though I didn't grow up around it? Not saying I'm trying to be lazy and just sit in a tractor, but I think you get what I'm asking. It's just little things, I guess, that come natural to a farm kid that I feel like I don't have. For instance, we were strapping down a skin loader and I didn't know where to tie the strap. When they started doing that, when they were like four years old, they kind of know,

they kind of just know and they look at you like you're stupid. Well, I would just say, no, I think that's a good, I, Fields, I would say to you, dude, I feel stupid some days. I was there. Hell, I didn't know how to chain down a skid loader on a trailer. We had just bought our first trailer how many years ago. Yeah, I don't know. Three years ago?

And I never even used a trailer before. So, dude, there, you're going to, there are going to be people no matter what thing you're learning that are always going to give you shit for being a novice at learning something. But don't let that get you down because you don't know what you don't know. And the only way to learn is by doing. So don't take that. Because I know how that feels. I hate feeling like a dumb ass.

I hate not knowing how to do something. and it pisses me off to no end. I hate it. But the only way you're going to learn is just get in there and you might have some embarrassment and just learn and do it. That's the only way you're going to do it. And I think probably those guys looked at you like that,

but they respect you. You're working hard. They understand that our generation is, you know, there's not a lot of kids willing to get into ag. So I think they definitely probably respect you for getting into their operation and helping them out. and you said they respect you for your hard work,

so they see that you work hard. And they just probably gave you a little smirk, just give you a little bit of shit. Maybe they're giving you a little bit of shit, because that comes with, that comes with any camaraderie or any, you know, fuck, football team, sports team. Anytime you have a bunch of males,

I don't know if this whole farm's, you know, male or not, but anytime you get a group of guys together and somebody doesn't know how to do something, and chances are you're going to get some shit. But I don't think it's, I hope that they weren't coming at you in that way, but I bet they weren't. I think that they respect you. And so I just say, keep doing what you're doing, man.

At least you're out there doing, learning that shit. At least, I think just as you start doing more, showing up, continually showing up, learning, you know, I'm sure you learned how to strap down a skill loader now. So now you got that skill. You know how to do that. and I think as you learn more of that small shit, they'll probably start to trust you as you, you know, get the little stuff down. And, you know, I don't blame them. You know, if we hired somebody and they never ran, you know, ran a tractor before, the first thing I'm, I'm probably not going to make the first thing

I do throw you in a tractor. You know, that's probably not the first thing I'm going to do. It's, it's a grooming process. It's, it's, can I trust you with the little stuff? Yes. Okay, you've proved to me that I can trust you with the little stuff. So now let's take you on to bigger and better things. And they'll probably put in you a tractor eventually. So I would just keep going at it, man. Don't let them get you down. It happens.

It happens. The other thing I'd say is, I don't know, from the sound of your question, and I might be inferring more than what I should, but it sounded me like there's multiple people involved in this farming operation. And figure out, who's the guy, who's the guy that is the one that knows? Because usually in any, any operation,

so when I work construction, there was one guy on that crew that he pretty much knew how everything should work and how it should be done. And everybody else just kind of followed his lead. and there are plenty of people that talk smack like that they were, there's not any safe spaces usually in ag, in farming operations or construction, and everybody likes to, you know, try to get one up on somebody. But there's usually one person involved in that operation that everybody respects because he's the one that kind of has been around the block

and knows how things work. okay, when that guy talks, listen to him. Because there's going to be people that don't listen. And you, somebody that knows what they're doing, just watch them and listen. And don't be, don't be the one running your mouth and try to have a story with everybody when stuff's going on.

Just watch and listen. And you can learn a lot that way. And don't be afraid to ask questions. Yeah, and there are no dumb questions. There's just dumb answers. I wanted to say that at the beginning, because when it comes to Barn Talk Q&A, there's no dumb questions. Yeah. We might give a dumb answer, but no dumb question.

And I would just say, yeah, don't be afraid to just fully admit, hey, I don't know how to do this. And I take some balls to say it. Because nobody, especially somebody that's been doing something for a while, when you get a new guy come in and then they act like, oh, I fucking know how to do everything. I'm just as experience as you guys. Or they just have that mantra to them, you know, that like, hey, I'm a blue collar boy. I know as much as you guys. You know, I can get it. That pisses people off.

They don't like that. So take your ego out of it, man. I don't think they're going to get pissed at you if you just go, hey, you know, I don't know how to do this. Can you show me? I don't know how to do this. Most of the time, most good people are going to be like, you know, that's all right. this is how you do it. Instead of you acting like you know how to do it because you're the hot

shot and you go up there and then you don't know and now they're going to be like now they're going to crack some jokes and laugh at you because it's like, all right. Yeah, you don't know how to do that. If you were- Versus, if you just went and said, hey, I don't know how to do this. If you want to, if you want more responsibility, be the guy that is responsible. Yeah. Because when you prove that you're responsible, you'll get more responsibility. Yep, that's a good point. It's a really good point. So, but I mean, back to your point of just feeling, feeling stupid, dude, I feel that a lot, especially working with this one, because he knows the inside and out of a hog barn better than just about anybody. He can fix anything. Doesn't matter if it's plumbing,

doesn't matter if it's drywall, doesn't matter if it's electrical work, doesn't matter. This guy knows how to do it. And so sometimes I feel like a dumbass, because I have to call him and I don't know how to do something but that just comes with it man and i've had to tell myself what i'm telling you now because god i fucking hate that but you know what it's the only way you're going to learn so side note soyer said uh fix all those items he didn't say fix well so there is a difference i gotta give yourself a little bit more credit than that i can fix a lot of things not all of it well but good enough to keep going at least another day it's just like what mom's trying to do with you it kind of the Wow, look at that tie-in. She's just trying to get another day. It's a good tie-in right there. Good job.

Linda asked, I was listening to one of your podcasts and you said to get into a good habit of reading. I love listening to your business advice in ways to be successful as a young adult. What are some good things you would recommend to read? So, depending on what your interest is. Sounds like they like business. Yeah. So, so. there's a few books that everybody will tell you to read but they're good books so foundational richest man in babylon that's a great book pound the stone that's a great book rich dad poor dad the subtle art not giving a fuck think and grow rich um if you want to get if you want to get really tactical like you're a business owner traction is a good book i'm reading uh the company of one right now. It's a really good book for anybody that wants to be kind of a solo solopreneur. You know, you want to have a smaller business and, you know, not have a

shitload of employees and shitload of overhead, but still be really successful. It's a good book. There are so many books out there, but I would just say this, and I, I've heard somebody say this, and it's true. The only books you should be reading are the books that you can apply right now in your life. There is no point in me reading books about a book solely about culture when I don't have a business with a shitload of employees to improve my company's culture. Because you're just, it's not going to, you're not going to retain it as good. When you're going through a problem and you're going through some shit and you pick up a

book that is specific in the shit that you're going through and you have an epiphany, that epiphany is going to stick with you way better when you're reading that and it's going to apply so much better when you're going through that shit. I hope that kind of makes sense. Yeah. No idea. You know, I just have found that when I'm like, if you're trying to start a business

you should be reading books about how to try to start a business. You know, that those are some good, that's a good tool, a good tip that I feel like that I've applied in my reading that's helped me a lot because I forget shit that, oh, I'm going to save this and remember it. And when I'm at this point in my life, then I'll remember it. Or if I'm at this point in business, then I'll remember it. You ain't going to remember it as good. You're just not. You might remember a couple things, but you're not going to

remember as much as if you were going through something for that specific book. So that's my two sense on the whole reading anyway. But I literally, I literally, anytime I come across a, thought leader, a business owner on social media. Anytime I see somebody recommend a book, I write it down or I add it to my Amazon, I have a list that's just books. Anytime that they recommend a book that's going to help me in business, help me in life, help me in finance, whatever. If they recommend it, I put it in my books and I just save it. That way I have just a whole list. So I recommend doing that because there's so many books that you don't even know about that could be foundational, but we named a pretty good amount of them.

That's a pretty good word to get started. And yeah, good habit of reading does not hurt to read. It's always a good one. But also, I just, I, um, I want to get better at being a hundred percent consistent in reading, but I'm at the point now. We're so busy that if I can just learn something new every day to, that through a podcast, through videos, uh, or through reading, that's that to me is where that's a good day. So are you still a, are you still a believer in annotating? I am. I do, you know, to the extreme that you annotate in school, I remember like we'd have to annotate and you'd have to write, it was a little too extreme. My, my, uh, annotating is underline, underlining shit that is a gold nugget. Like that sticks out to you. Like,

that really that really applies to like i don't know that like it's got to be something that like wow i have not thought of it that way and there you can go like i i catch myself doing this when i'm reading like all it's a good line like it's a really good line but i already kind of know that you got to like check yourself a little bit when you're when you're underlining shit don't underline stuff that you think you all you kind of already know because there's there's just no point and you're like well duh sawyer But somebody might word something a little bit differently than the way that you learned it. And then you might be like, oh, that's good and underline it. But if you got to just kind of sit there and think, be like, I already kind of know this.

There's no point of me underlining this. Just underline the hot, the really good gold nuggets. And that's what, that's about the extent that I do. And I was transferring those gold nuggets over to a journal into a notebook. So then I wouldn't have to go back to the book. and read through the book again, I could just look at my journal and retain the good stuff that I got from it.

But that takes a long time to do that, I found. It takes your reading sessions from 30 minutes to like an hour to an hour and 30 minutes. And sometimes I don't have that time. So I've been kind of just like underlining stuff and just reading because writing all that's too much. So, yeah. The other advice I'd give you is I don't have any idea

what kind of business you're in, whether you work for a company. But I watched, I listened to a podcast. I think it was actually, it was probably all in. I would recommend that. If you're interested in business, a great podcast, and I probably say this all the time, but to me it's one of the best out there when it comes to business is all in podcast. Those guys, they're kind of from the VC world, but their grip on what's going on in the business world and their own personal experiences and how they deal with stuff within the companies that they've been involved with is, it's just pretty hard to beat. But I'd never heard this advice, but they were talking to a person that was the CEO of a company, but he became the CEO.

he actually worked for the company and was promoted within and became the CEO. And that's not all that unusual, except that he jumped pretty quick from wherever he was. And he made the comment that one of the things that he did early on when he was working for this company is he actually sat down and read the annual report of the company. And there was a lot of stuff he didn't understand. So then he Googled all that. And he got to the point where he could read the annual report, and he knew what all the terms meant.

And that, he kind of self-taught himself. He kind of self-taught. And then that sent him down a road. He was really interested in the financials. So then he started reading books about the financial organization of a company. And he ended up going back to school and getting his MBA and all that. And he ended up become the CEO of this company. But his point was that if you're going to invest your life working in a business that you don't own and you want opportunity, you need to know that business

at least as well as the management team that's in it, no matter whether you work in the warehouse or you're working in accounting or you're working on the floor building whatever it is. and I'd never heard that before. Like, that was, that was, that was, that was something I definitely would, would underline. So if you're one of those people, if you're involved in a business, know that business better than anybody outside of that boardroom, and read and understand the processes and the economics and the conditions that all affect the company. you work for and it will treat it like you're an owner yeah exactly if you if you know know it like

the owners know it that's valuable to the owner of the company opportunity will come your way exactly thousand percent um dan asked do you think the ag industry will ever adapt uh vehicle suppression systems yeah adopt so adopt or adopt or put on so uh he dan's a dan he he actually works for a company that installs these and I think he kind of comes from the logging business so you know I didn't know this but it makes sense if you are involved in the forestry business it's probably a pretty big deal if you have a log skitter that catches on fire in a timber because everything around you is a fire source and they don't want that obviously they don't want to start of forest fire. So they have these suppression systems that if, and I'm assuming that they have

sensors to detect some form of ignition. And if they do, it's like having a big fire extinguisher on that piece of equipment, you know, covering the engine compartment or possibly the cab two. And there's plenty of fires. There's plenty of field fires that have gotten started from combines. Every year you see it. there's a combine, catches on fire and catches the field on fire. And here a few years ago, there were a couple of big fires out in Kansas. I don't know if they were started by equipment or not. But to your point, I mean, I don't know.

I guess what it all comes down to is whether or not there's a big enough demand from the consumer side, the person buying that equipment, to make deer want to include that. And then the other side of it is, I'm sure, on their part, whether or not their profit margin is big enough on doing it that they can make it come out in their favor. It's a great idea. And honestly, I'd never thought about it.

It makes sense. And I don't know whether that will ever happen or not. As this equipment gets more and more and more expensive, like when you think of an X-9, I saw an X-9 for sale that had six hours on it, and they wanted $700,000 for the combine without the heads. It was a 20-22 model. And you start thinking about investing in that piece of equipment.

I don't know what fire suppression would cost, but I'll bet you it's probably a worthy investment. If the margin's good enough for deer, I'm sure they'll throw them on. Yep. And that's probably what it comes down to at the end of the day. So I don't really I think you got that one pretty good I don't really have any thoughts

I mean I think it'd probably be one of those situations that depending on where you farm Yeah you might It might be a good idea to get one or not Because for us I mean Have we ever had a combine fire?

No I don't think so I've never witnessed one in my life I just didn't know if you did So yeah for us It just doesn't Doesn't happen But if you're a wheat farmer in Montana, and you're going.

Everybody has got fire extinguishers on all. I mean, I don't know of anybody really that's got a combine that doesn't have at least one fire extinguisher. And a lot of guys carry two because if you ever do get, actually, I think David, so David's dad had a 9,600 that caught on fire. and I want to say they had a fire extinguisher and they got the fire out and it started back up because it was leaking oil and they actually ran out of fire extinguisher

before the fire trucks got there and ended up burning it. I mean it was a total loss. So I think there's a lot of people today that they carry multiple because you think about a piece of equipment that big if you get it going, one fire extinguers, is not going to put it out. So anyway, probably a good idea. Probably a good idea. But you know what else is a

good idea? What? Whiskey Minute. Look at that. Whiskey Minute is back. We're going to do a whiskey minute on this episode. So why don't you, why don't you keep them entertaining? I'll pour you up one. Okay, so today we're going to be sampling. Is that single barrel? Yeah, that's single barrel. So it is four roses, single barrel. And I picked that because I'm a big fan of Four Roses. In fact, many of you know that I have used, I have done a, let me get this, I've done what they call a freezer old fashion, and a lot of times I'll use Four Roses small batch for that.

and they pretty much just make three different. I shouldn't say this because I don't know 100%, but Four Roses kind of just makes three different deals. They make a single barrel, they make a small batch, and I think they make their regular. And it's a sweeter bourbon. I like it. I like Four Roses, but I got to say,

guys, I'm probably going to have, what do you call that? What kind of face? Bitter. Bitter face. What do you call it? Sour face? I don't know. I don't know.

I'm going to have... I have not drank whiskey in a while, so I'm going to have a little bit of an expression, I'm sure, even though this whiskey is good. Because I do have... Anytime I get an old-fashioned, it's either makers or it's this or that's about it because I don't want to buy anything super expensive. Right, the bar, so...

Well, what I was going to say was, I feel like Four Roses kind of gets a little bit... I wouldn't say they get bad pressed, but they're not put on the same... They're not put on the same pedestal as some other bourbon companies. And I think it's a little odd because, at least for me, their product is just consistently good. I've never had a bottle of like the single barrel that wasn't just really good. And I will say, like, I like Knob Creek, but I've had bottles of Knob Creek.

that they just weren't as good as like I've had some bottles that I was sad to see them go. I had one bottle that I was sad that Sawyer found because that was really, really good. But then I've gotten a replacement and it just wasn't as good. And you think, well, am I just remembering it wrong? But Four Roses is something it's not overly expensive and it's consistently good. So maybe I should quit talking and we just have a, so that's good that is good it's that's way better than our other ones oh god bullet was terrible what would you say god it gives me heat though what would you say is the worst what's the worst what's the worst that we've tried bullet bullet or that piquy blinders shit bush mills i think bush mills was the worst anyway i think that's going to be the show guys you got anything else to say

i don't think so you're up into your jeep shirt today Yeah, I did get, yeah, I finally have a shirt that says Jeep. People are asking, where the fuck can they find that hat? Oh, yeah. Show the camera. This is, Sawyer got this for me for my birthday two years ago or three years ago. Yeah, I don't know, time flies, man. And it says, take pride in your cue.

So this is not actually like a pig hat. This is a barbecue hat. And Malcolm Reed, how to barbecue right, looking him up on on YouTube and he's on TikTok too that man he's the best

in fact we do a few little barbecue videos once in a while we throw it in just because we like to show people what we're doing everything that I know about barbecue pretty much I got from watching Malcolm Reed and he's a savage

I mean just great recipes and if you've seen him I will just say this he is exactly you don't even have to like you don't even have to listen to him talk when you see him

the accent helps though when you see Malcolm you will say to yourself now there's a guy there that knows how to barbecue right knows how to barbecue because he's a big boy but he also does a podcast with his wife yeah I'd love to have him on

He makes some good shit. And I use a lot of his seasonings. You can get them on his website. How to Barbecue Right. And I don't know whether this. I don't know if this hat's still on there or not. But if it's not, we're going to try to step up our merch game, guys. You know, it's just hard getting it all, getting hats made and all that stuff.

But I'm going to try, I think that's a goal of mine this summer, is to try to partner with somebody that we can make some cool merch like that. Because shit, we can make that hat. We can make that hat. Hell yeah. Because let's face it, pigs are patriotic. That's right. They sure as hell are.

So I think that's going to wrap it up, guys. If you got any value from the show, you know the drill. Pay the fee, share it out. Leave your review. Submit your questions at barn talk show at gmail.com. If you want to get them featured on the next Q&A episode, we appreciate every single one of you guys. We love you guys.

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