Barn Talk - Barn Talk Q&A: What Every Young Farmer Needs to Know: Life Lessons and Practical Advice

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

In this episode, Tork and Sawyer open up the barn doors for another no-holds-barred Q&A, tackling questions submitted by you, the listeners. They kick things off with a quick update on the family farm—think muddy fields, stuck trucks, and the ongoing dance with unpredictable Iowa weather. After a rundown of the current ag markets and a few laughs over late-night pig loading adventures, the guys dive deep into skills every young person should develop, the importance of communication, and how staying curious and willing to learn has fueled their journey on and off the farm. Tech, AI, and the changing landscape of farm life are in the spotlight, sparking conversation about adapting to new tools and the impact of digital distraction. Tork and Sawyer get candid about the struggles of focus, the challenge of saying no, and the reality of balancing busy farm life with personal growth—all while sharing a few sips of a special Kentucky bourbon. Tune in for practical advice, some family banter, and plenty of real talk about farming, tech, and finding your way in a world that’s always changing. Whether you’re here for the ag market insights, life lessons, or a good laugh, this episode has something for every Barn Talk listener. Use code BARNTALK for 10% OFF your next order https://farmergrade.com/  Learn More About Our New Project👇🏻 https://livestockwaterandenergy.com  SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 "Share & Review for Growth" 09:34 Embrace AI: Future Essentials 15:08 Never Stop Learning 18:02 "Finding Solutions on the Fly" 22:49 "The Power of Delayed Gratification" 26:38 On-Call Life: Unpredictable Journeys 32:17 AI's Transformative Impact on Efficiency 39:56 AI and Media Career Path 43:48 Hog Futures: Hope for Higher Rates? 50:18 Digital Overuse Frustration 54:24 Overcoming Procrastination: Finishing Tasks 59:10 "Boondocks Bourbon Unveiled" 01:04:57 "Show Appreciation and Review Request" ------------------------------- ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a Q&A episode. You guys submitted your questions, and we're going to get them answered on the show today. So before we get into it, though, you guys know the drill. If you get any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know. The more that you guys do that, the more that this show grows. And we found that the best way to grow a podcast is through word of mouth.

So whether we made you laugh, whether you're related to us on something, if you learn something, just share it. That's all that we ask. Another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is leave a review on Spotify or Apple. The more that you guys do that, the more it gives our show credibility. The more credible we are, the better guests we can have on the show and the more episodes we can make. And we also just love hearing from you guys. overall just your thoughts, what you think of the episode. We just love seeing what you guys think.

So we appreciate every single one of you that do that. Last thing you can do to support us here on our family farm and support us here at Barn Talk. It's support our direct-to-consumer meat business, Farmer Grade. You can always use code Barn Talk to save 10% off your next order. And we are going to be running a Memorial Day sale. It's going to be one of the biggest sales the entire year for us. We're going to have some pretty cool stuff happening on Farmer Grade. So be looking out for that. But how are you today? I am bright-eyed, bushy-tailed. Are we going to, I see we got some whiskey sitting on our little table here.

Our good friends, our good friends from LWE brought us a bottle of boondocks, and we're going to try that out. Looks pretty appetizing. It's got good color. Yeah, it does. I think that it'll be fine. So what you're saying is people should probably stick around for the whole episode so they can see how good this is or not good it is. I'd sample it at the beginning, but it might, I don't know. Might hurt the- Might throw you off. Yeah. Yeah, we haven't gotten the fields yet. Why not?

Too wet. We came very close. So David, David planted beans early this year, and we didn't plant any beans. We're planting all corn on corn this year. So he went and got his beans, and then he was going to come over and do some corn. And I told him that I wanted to get some brush cleaned out of the fence rows. So I told him to hold off. And so he started running his corn. And I think he's basically done. He might have like an 80 left. And the plan was to be here first of this week. We're shooting this on Thursday.

And Sunday night, we got like two and a half to three inches of rain. And then cloudy. And it just hasn't dried out enough. I was out walking around yesterday. and there's plenty of places that you could go and you could get along fine, but all of the bottom ground and the hillsides and any draws still pretty wet. So I bet you we'd go this weekend. We didn't get a rain last night,

and I would think by this afternoon tomorrow morning, I'd think we'd be going. The funny thing about that rain is that same night that it rained hard, you had three loads of pigs going out at my site and got to call at like two in the morning and it's like hey our truck's truck stuck we can't get it out so we're going to need a tractor I was like oh gosh but we got her done yeah it was pretty and it was pretty easy too um we just had to hook on the trailer and pull it backwards he was just off the edge of the gravel could have been a lot worse and might need a little more gravel I guess well I don't know it's pretty well it's pretty good

But it was, that area doesn't get used very much, so the grass gets grown up and it's hard for the truckers to see where the gravel ends and the grass, you know. So he did best he could. And you know what? We still didn't have to load the pigs. Yeah. We've given up a lot of the late night loads, which let's be honest, that's most of the loads. So we have a crew that does that. and you can't put a price on a good night's sleep.

Like, it's kind of been a game changer. Yeah. Because when you do that, when you get up and you load it two in the morning, then you can't go back to sleep. And so then, you know, you might as well stay up. So then that next day, you're kind of shot. You aren't your best. Well, that night I literally got one, I think I got one hour of sleep.

Because once I got up, I could not go back to sleep. Yep. And I was laying in bed and laying in bed and laying in bed. and I was finally like, I'm just getting up. So it's a big deal because when you do that, you pretty much, it screws you up for two days. So, which, I mean, we did it for a good number of years, but if I don't have to, I'm not going to load pigs. You know, I'll load 10 o'clock loads if it works, but. Or hell, I do like four in the morning, five in the morning, but two in the morning, one in the morning, three in the morning.

In our system, we don't get very many loads there early, but yeah, anyway. mind the loading part it's the it's the time of loads yeah i enjoy spending quality time with you yeah yelling each other and yelling at pigs and yeah getting my blood pressure up it's good cardio good cardio raises the testosterone levels it does for sure what what's the markets look like ah the market update courtesy of our good friends at cantera ag um today corn it last i looked it was actually down just a little bit it's pretty flat but may corn 472 december corn 450s locally corn $4.60. Cedar Rapids you can get $4.70 if you want to truck it up there.

Beans for May, 1044. And that's up a little bit. I think they're up $3.20. November beans 1028, 1033 at ADM in Burlington or 1053 across the river in Quincy. Bean meal, $298 a ton. Wheat for May, $5.27. $98 or $289? 289.

Did I say $2.98? I'm dyslexic. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Maybe you need a little bit of this. It might enhance you a little bit. I'm excited and I'm trying to get through it. Okay.

Well, then I'll just shut up. No, $289 a ton for bean meal. Wheat for May, $5.27. Hogs for May, $91. July hogs were $100. They're off a little bit, $99.55. And they're pretty good out there all the way till I think December hogs are back in the 70s,

but a lot can change between now and then. April cattle, $212. Feeder cattle 288. Crude oil, $62. Oil market's not too worried about the turmoil around the world. It just doesn't do much. I'm really surprised at that. Cattle don't either.

Cattle don't either. Yeah, cattle stay high and oil stays cheap. It's crazy. It is crazy. It sucked to be in the meat business now. have to buy some beef cattle. Yeah, I feel bad for those guys. The S&P 500 was up 12 points. Last time I checked, 5387, Bitcoin, $93,000. I really thought the other day that I was going to be able to come back on here and say, I told you so, because that episode that I said,

I think that we're making a base and Bitcoin's going to $100,000, it got to like, I think it got 95,000 maybe, and I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to feel pretty smart. It's dropped back a little bit, but I still do think that it's probably just kind of hang out. I think it's going to run. I think the gold market will probably drag it. I think it's going to go over 100,000. Tesla, $253. Elon said he's going to step back from Doge and spend more time at Tesla, and apparently investors thought that was good because after their quarterly report, I figured it would drop a little more, but it was actually up yesterday. Gold, $3,341.

If you got some of Granny's gold coins underneath your bed and you aren't worried about the future, I'd be cashing them babies in because gold is high. Silver is $30 bucks. 30-year treasuries for 4.7, 10 years at 4.3. All of this, courtesy of our good friends at Contera Ag, If you want to know more about what those guys do in ag financing, it's contaraag.com is how to reach them. They're a good bunch and the podcast that we had with Jake, a great guy. So we really enjoy those folks. Yeah, well, we got some good questions for today. I think we got a kind of well-versed selection.

Yeah, you're the closest. Between the two of us, you're closer to 15 years old than I am. So what are some skills that every 15 year old should know? Oh, that's tough. And I'm not talking like one-liners, like pickup lines. I don't think that was his question. Yeah, is it skills you need to know right now to help you where you are, or is it skills for your long-term? I think it's more of the long-term line.

I don't know. I would definitely say that we're just in an interesting point in the world and in America right now. I mean, I don't care what age you are. I think right now AI, like is something that every person needs to be checking out and looking up on and studying and using because it is going to be a part of our everyday life as we know it very, very soon. And if you're a young person and you can get into an industry that I think's going to be so successful and have so many opportunities, it's AI. I mean, it just is. And I would tell anybody, I would tell any 15 year old that. I'd tell any 20 year old that. I tell any 25 year old that, my age, you know. any 30-year-old, I tell that, because it's just that is going to be so prevalent in our future that I just think that's so important. And I know that that's kind of like high-level future, I guess, skills. I think definitely know how to talk to people. Look, somebody in the eye,

give them a firm handshake, know how to talk to people because I think nowadays we're so, we're so connected, but we're also so isolated at the same time. And if you're a young person and You can walk in into an interview or connect with people and go to an event or whatever, and you can have some moxie, you can have some charisma, you can talk, and you can make connections and provide value and ask people great questions. That is a skill that not a lot of people have. Yeah. I was going to say, with AI, voice is going to become so important.

so work on your vocabulary because like being able to articulate ideas is going to be important and to your point yes to be able to to look somebody in the eye and to have a little bit of confidence and the best way you can do that is practice is practice so whether if you're if you're if you've got an f f a program get in that because doing that public speaking and you know those guys and the way they do their, the way they run their meetings, like they practice running meetings and speaking. It doesn't have to be that, but anything in your school, I feel like communication skill, that's going to be as important as anything you're going to learn from playing football or being in music. That's a skill. That's 100% of skill. And you got to use it in everything.

I mean, everything of your everyday life, it's not a bad thing. No one has ever said it's a bad thing to learn how to communicate better. I mean, it's only going to serve you. It's only going to serve you. And I would also say, and this is kind of something from Naval. He was just recently on a podcast with Chris Williamson. If you don't know who that is, really great podcaster, has some amazing episode, amazing guests. But Naval, what's Naval's last name? I can never pronounce it right. It's like Naval Rappaquin or something. Anyway, he's pretty close. He's, he is, he was like a tech guy, very successful in Silicon Valley. Now he's an investor. But he's almost become like a philosopher. Like he's very wise, very wise guy. And he just talked about how as we move

further and further down AI, memorization is going to be less important, but understanding. If you can get your brain to understand stuff, like really, that's going to be important. Because the people that can understand, the whole memorization thing, and that's a flaw of our school system. I feel like a lot of people, they want to make the curriculum so that the kids learn it and understand it. But what really happens is most people just memorize so that they can pass the test, then move on, right? That's how it is. And you don't learn shit. Hell, I don't remember anything from chemistry or algebra two or whatever, you know, because you're just trying to pass. You're trying to memorize, pass the test, move on. And with AI, I mean, everyday questions, you're going to, that thing can

spit it out. And I'm not saying it's 100% accurate, but it's just going to get better. And so, if you can understand information better than most people, that is going to be huge. Yeah, 100%. I don't know. I thought that was pretty deep. I thought that was pretty good. I don't know. There was something else I was going to say, but I can't quite remember. What is, kind of along those lines, what is, and just one, if we could pick one. What is one skill that has helped you the most in your career both on and off the farm. What skill has helped you most in careers both on and off the farm? I would, I mean, I would say being able to do this,

I think social media, I think thinking outside the box is the best thing you can do and trying to have a growth mindset. I mean, that's, when I was, when I was 18 years old, just out of high school, the best thing I ever did for myself was go down the rabbit hole of listening to people that opened my mind up to what's possible. That completely changed my direction on life, my outlook on life, everything. And so that has helped us on the farm. That's also helped me on my,

personal journey that's helped us help with farmer grade you know none of this whatever have came to my mind uh if i didn't know what was possible if i didn't see and i didn't go out there and look and see what other people were doing or hear from people that were doing stuff and i think you can say the same thing i mean the only way you're going to come up with better ideas and solutions that could help you is if you're if you're going out and seeking that information or you're thinking deeply, but you got to go out and find information. Like, that's something that if you can get used to being a constant learner, dude, don't ever stop learning. Like that, that skill will serve you for the rest of your life. And I try to do it every single day, whether it's through podcasts,

whether it's through reading. Try to learn, man. Try to learn because you'll be, like I look back in every single day, you might learn something new and you don't even realize that you're learning. by just listening to a podcast or reading a couple pages of a book. But you look back and in five years, you're like, man, like I'm a completely different person in the best way possible. You know, like I, it's just a compounding effect of all this new stuff that you've taken in. But there's a caveat to that. There's something that doesn't serve you on that.

If you overconsume information, it can give you anxiety and stress you out and burn you out. So you can't learn it all in a day. You know, you can't, don't listen to five podcasts in the row in a day because you got to, you got to, you got to be able to take something from it and process and understand that information. So if all you're doing is self-growth, self-help masturbation, and all you're doing is just consuming that shit all the time and you're not, you're not holding on to any of it, then you're probably overdoing it.

So, but that being said, a healthy, a healthy, a healthy. amount of self growth and always seeking out to learn each day, that'll compound and take you places you never thought you'd go. Yeah, I would say being willing to put yourself in uncomfortable situations

is probably a skill that will serve you very well. And I'll give you the best example. And it kind of has to do with what you said. But I guess I would just say that. So when I, my first job, my first job as a service tech in the, in the hog building business, I'll never forget this. At the job interview, the guy that interviewed me asked me, you know, all the usual questions.

And then he said to me, he said, okay, I got this, I got this finisher out here. And I want you to set up the control. How do you do it? And I knew the question he was asking me, and I had no idea because the controls that they used were totally different. They were a different brand than what I had cut my teeth on fixing. And so I looked at him and said, however you want me to do it. And that was the best answer, probably best answer ever gave, because the truth is he didn't know how to set them up. He was a salesman, but he thought that was a good answer. And when I started that job, I literally went out to a finisher.

that was very close to the warehouse and took the manual and just went through it and wrote down all the settings that were in it and went through the manual and figured out how to get in there and do it because I had no idea. I had no idea what any of the presets were. I didn't know what any of that was and I figured it out and like, you know, the next day I was at a building that was brand new that was getting fired up and I had to set the control and I had that cheat sheet and I set it and then the farmer showed up and he asked me you know how this worked or how that worked and I said to him I'm like you know what I said I don't have any idea because this is the first one of these I've set since I started working here but I said I will stand here and you

and I will figure it out together that's what we did and I had a very long career of troubleshooting these controls and doing it and if i would have like it goes back to that a really bad plan uh at a time of necessity is better than the better than waiting until you have the best plan because it ain't ever going to happen it's like when you do something even if you do it poorly uh you're going to figure out what you did wrong and you're going to know at least you're going to know what not to do so you're going to learn something rather than just sitting on your ass planning exactly Yeah, I would say last thing that I would have said to that 15 year old, it just came on my mind. I say this all the time. Dude, figure out a system of how you can plan out your work

and work your plan every day. I wish I would have done that when I was, oh, look at you. Shit, I'm the one. I'm the one that got caught with the phone not being on silent today. I don't think that's ever happened. That hasn't. Usually. You're always the one that does it. Yep. I know. Now I got to, now I got to drink a little more of this, I guess. Punish me or whatever. But work your plan. Give me some of that peeky blinders stuff. That's my punishment.

That'll, yeah. Anyway, yeah, if you, man, I wish I would have learned that way earlier. If you can just find a system, find a way in your life as early as possible to just set your day up for success for yourself, whether that's making time for yourself plus getting your plan done and working it. It just, it just, you can't, I can attest to this. You can't keep it all in your head, man.

Like, you can't do it. Like, I tried that for so long. And you realize once you start actually finding something that works for you when it comes to planning and writing, having lists and having notes, you realize how much shit probably got lost by you trying to keep. it all in your head. I mean, I write down everything. Notes, future dates, to do lists, what I'm going to do that day. It just keeps you on track, man. And I just recommend to anybody. If I could go back, I wish I would have done that way sooner, way sooner. Well, this might be right.

You may have already answered this and that. So how do you stay focused when it feels like you're being pulled in 10 different directions? That's it. I write down everything. I had a phone call with somebody they need me need me to do something i don't wait to write it down i write it down and i have an app i say it all the time i use things three it's called things three on app store it's like an all in one calendar to do list note taking app all in one and anytime i get off a call and i got to do something after that call i write down what i got to do anytime i'm scheduling something i schedule it within that app anytime i want to brainstorm i write into that app if i Just everything I write down. I write down everything because you just keeps you on track.

But the other thing I would say that I've had to get really good at is saying no. You got to say no to people, man. You cannot do it all. If you're trying to go after what you want in life and you have these goals and you've set these things that you know that you need to do and you do them, not everybody understands that. And you might have to say no to people. You can't go to every party. You can't go to everything. You just can't, there's not enough time in the day. So I would say saying no and focusing on the stuff that really matters. Because in the long run, it's a season of life. Like I've heard Alex Ramosi say, like most people are unwilling to trade a period of time of their life to do things that most people won't trade a short period of their time to give up things that everybody wants to do right now.

so that they can ultimately get the thing that they want. You have to be willing to go through a season of your life, going after what you want that isn't sexy, that most people find boring, and most people don't find is appealing. It's the boring, unsexy shit that nobody wants to glamorize. If you do that for a season of life, you're going to get where you want to go.

And it just, it takes time. And so you have to say no. you can't say yes to everything. So I'm figuring that out. And that's hard because sometimes you feel like you let people down or you upset people. But if they know you, if they know you and they know who you are and where you want to go, real friends and family will support that. They will lift you up and they won't make you feel like shit about it.

You know, that's the truth. So my friends, the circle I have, if I can't make it to something, they don't take it personally. they know. They know that it's not me being distant. It's not me saying I don't want to spend time with them. They just know I can't sometimes. And that's okay. So, God damn. That was really good. Thanks. I'm not. I'm not good at that. Um, dad is a squirrel kind of a little bit. You are and you aren't. I've kind of adapted to that. To the point that my life is like 10 different directions. I have so many unfinished things that I literally can go through my day and work on this and then go to the machine shed to get what I need for that and then see the project that I had going

there and be like, oh yeah, I'm going to work on that and then go do something else, which I'm not saying that's good. It's kind of a luxury that I have now that I'm not working off farm that I just kind of go from one thing to the next to the next. However, I have gotten better. I am a list maker, and I do use calendar. I didn't use to use any of those things. So I have gotten a lot better. But I have more time in my day that I can kind of screw off,

that Sawyer doesn't have. Sawyer and Clay both have, they got a lot and they got to stay focused. I have a little more leisure that I can play around with it. But some days it is chaos. And the best, the best thing I can tell you is. But I would say you used, I mean, you used to have to be that way. Oh, no, I did 100%. I feel like dad has been in chaos.

Like, that's just how, you've always been busy. Like, you just are a busy bee. like it's all i've pretty much i mean i pretty much ran i pretty much ran 15 years 20 years um on just not really knowing what was going to happen next so when i ran service you were at the you were at the you didn't know what pay like so i'm so old that i had a pager you know uh we didn't give out the number you had to page your number and then I would call you back but I mean you didn't have any idea where that next call was going to take you I mean I can remember going to independence Iowa and then turn around getting done there and going to Bloomfield Iowa or Newton or Wellman or

sigerny or you name it wherever Illinois and you just didn't know and you know I was on call on the weekends which was a good thing when the kids were little because we were broke, so that overtime money was great. But, you know, wake up on Saturday morning and, oh, we're going to take the kids and we're going to go here and then Pager goes off. And it's, you know, sometimes it was something that could wait, but sometimes it was a real emergency. And so that really got me into that, like, hyper, just,

it was good in the fact that I could just multitasked. ask like a son of a bitch. And that really helped me when I got into sales. Part of the reason I think I was probably good at it was that I answered my phone all the time. Not good for my marriage. Not good for my personal family time, but it was good for business because, you know, I was, I float from one thing the next. But yeah, I've gotten a lot better.

I'm a recovering busy bee, I guess you'd say. I'm much more focused now, but yeah, write it down, use the tools that are out there. It's all you can do. And then sometimes there ain't a damn thing you can do. You just got to go. And in those situations, the best thing for me, I am not too proud. If I have one of those days, I will go to bed. I will go to bed at 8.30.

I will go to bed at 8.30, and I will sleep like a baby till 5 a.m. or 5.30. I that's the best thing for you and it's like I never used to be that way but my personal well-being is worth it to where I'm like I'm not going to watch that show tonight or I'm not going to do bookwork I'm going to go to bed yeah yeah I would say like I feel like a lot of time I wake up and it's just kind of sometimes chaos but you know what it makes me feel a lot better each day if you can get up and have a little bit of time for yourself to somebody's in our barn right now. All right, well, we're back. I don't know what the hell I was talking about, but we had a sheriff deputy, just pull up to our barn. We heard somebody come in and say something.

I thought he said like, hey, fellas. Yeah. And then we stopped, and when dad goes down there, and he's pulling out. And he didn't see me, so he just pulled out on the road and took off. So his lights weren't on, and there was no SWAT team,

so I don't think that I don't think that anybody, I don't think that I've accosted anybody. Well, anyway, it didn't, it was really for nothing. We stopped for nothing, I guess, because we didn't end up getting anything out of that. But anyway, all I was saying was have time in the morning or find time in the day that if you could set your day up and not get into the chaos right away. I feel like I personally, I feel like that serves me better than just waking up and automatically just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Yeah. You know, so. Well, I think we might as well, let's just stay.

on that because this next question, I didn't write down who sent this, but Microsoft 365 co-pilot, the updated version came out like just a few days ago, and it's got, like, all the improvements were based on their AI using chat, so it's like a chat bot assistant for you. And I guess it's, I guess it's a big deal as far as it's a big improvement. But it's, it's, it's a big improvement. But it brings up a talk. This person's question was, should, should executive assistance and secretaries be afraid? Okay. And I'm like, yeah, they should be afraid. Because I think this is where, this is where you're going to see AI move the fastest, is this idea that, and I, and if any of you out there have used this, drop in the comment, because I, I don't use it. But, like, what that does is when you're at your,

you're at your desktop and say you're looking for a file you know how today you can type in the search and you can't ever find it like you can never find it um you can use voice and that AI will search for you and so you can use a pretty refined search to find the file you're looking for or if you need to add a date to your calendar you just say hey open calendar uh block out two o'clock on whatever date and it just does it. If you have some receipt or whatever, you can, you know, you can send that to Excel, you know, if you can go back and forth between apps a lot faster because you're, you just do it with your voice. And I think that's just going to get better and better and better to the point that it basically is going to be like, you know, having, just having another

version of you there to take notes like if you're on a if i mean now whenever we're on a zoom it's being recorded anyway you're taking notes um but it's your jarvis yeah i mean it literally is headed to be your jarvis and so for anybody that doesn't know that's tony starks tony stark's iron man's uh it's his a i it's his a i it's in his suit yeah i think that that is the biggest disruption i think on the last episode we were talking to jake we were talking about you know just software, how it's got, you know, AI is making it so much more efficient and it can combine calculations with, say, like if you're dealing in real estate, not only can it do the calculations, but then it can look at market, at recent market sales of real estate to tell, you know,

is there a trend there of what it's doing or, you know, commodity prices, whatever. it can do a lot of research within the program that you're using it for and i i think the i think the big gainer in all of this is probably um from a management standpoint from a from somebody like you if you're a one-man shop the amount of of the amount of leverage that you can create because of AI. In other words, the amount of work that you can get done without the need for employees is crazy. But if you're that person that you are, you're the person that did all that research, you're the person that went and got all those land prices and put them in a spreadsheet, or you're that executive assistant, I, that, I think

those are going to be the first jobs to be upended. Yeah. I mean, yeah, for sure. Any data collection, any assistant role. Yeah. I mean, you're already seeing it's coming. It's only going to get better. So it is the necessary evil of it.

I just saw a new commercial from an AI glassware company where this kid is on a date and he is sitting across this woman. And it's like it's giving the perspective that this guy lied on his. light on his like dating profile. And she's asking him, well, so you said you were 30, right? And he like is like, uh, like he didn't know if he said he was 30 or not. And he has these AI glasses looking at her and it's just pulling up all this information in his glassware.

And so he's just like saying all the right things right on the date. But I don't know. Like I feel like that whole, that AI emerging with like some, your glasses to give you information about everything going on around you and your conversations. and it's listening to your guys's conversation. I don't like that. I don't like that at all. That's a little too close to comfort for me.

That's like I don't need AI. And that also makes you think like, well, is this person that I'm talking to? Are they wearing AI glasses? Are they going to analyze everything that we're talking about right now? I think that's fucked up. That's too much integrated. That's too integrated from my liking. Well, I mean, it's kind of like, for that, for the, for your dating deal there, I mean, it's like, uh, it's like meeting, meeting a girl and dating her, or going out on a date and then realizing that she's a, she's a psychiatrist.

You know, what's wrong with psychiatrists? Nothing is wrong with them, but, you know, you're kind of like, oh, man, okay, you know. Oh, she's analyzing you? Yeah, she's analyzing everything. Only now, everybody is analyzing. everything. Yeah. And I don't know. It's a weird.

That's a really weird deal. Yeah. I just, again, I think that AI's here to stay. And constantly reading up on it. I probably haven't done a good enough job. I know I use it often. But if you can try to see what's coming, you won't get displaced.

Or you can have it plan at least to, if you are going to get displaced, what you can do, I guess, you know. So you just don't want to get, You just don't want to get smacked by the train and not know what's coming, I guess. Yeah. So keeping up to date on it all, I think is important. Yeah, Last of Us.

You asked about The Last of Us. If any of you watch The Last of Us, it's the show on HBO Max based off a video game. Some of you might have played the video game, but the show is pretty damn good. It is good. If you play the games, if you play the games, and that was a, wasn't that, wasn't that, a Sony exclusive. PlayStation only. We were Xbox people, so we never played them. You're just like, wow. Like, I wasn't ready for that. You have a pretty good inclination that the main character's days are numbered, you know? I mean, you've kind of known that all the way

through. If you've never watched it or you want to watch it, skip ahead because we might spoil it for you. Yeah, I'll try not to spoil too much. But yeah, just the way it happens and the rate that it happens with everything else that's going on at the same time. This last episode is what we're talking about. It was, everybody's talking about it because it was like totally unexpected. Yeah. It was a great, it was, it was a good episode. And it, Kat was like, we were watching it in bed.

When it, when the, the moment happens in the episode that everybody's just shocked about, it's like, she literally rose out of bed with their hands on her mouth, like, oh my God. She just stayed, stayed there for like, 10 seconds. She was just god-smacked. She's like, I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. I was, I was like, well, I will tell you, the worst, the most unexpected twist in TV history, that's up there.

But Game of Thrones Red Wedding, if you've ever watched Game of Thrones and you watch the Red Wedding episode, that is the most, you do not see it coming whatsoever. and it is like the most gruesome. I don't even want to watch. I never want to watch it again because it's like such a mind fuck. It's like out of nowhere and just the sheer shock of it is just crazy. Yeah. And I was like, Kat, Red Wedding.

She's like, I don't remember what happened. I'm like, how do you not remember? I don't know. I don't remember that. It is like the most disturbing. It's not disturbing, but it's just, it sits with you and it doesn't sit right. So that definitely tops it for me. But anyway, yeah, if you haven't watched Last of Us, I highly recommend.

Highly recommend. The other show that I'll recommend that you watch, and you haven't watched this yet, is called Mobland. And it's on Prime, I think. And Tom Hardy's in it. And, oh, my gosh. It's, his character is, he has a similar demeanor as to the one that he played in Peaky Blinders. but oh man is he good

it is so good so anyway he was getting peeky blinders too yeah he was I mean he's just a good actor he is a good actor so yeah that was your culture that was your culture for the day uh Lucas asked if you had to start over what would you do

I dropped you off in a small town somewhere or any city with $100 in your pocket I wouldn't get into farming probably no probably not chance. I would probably start, if I had to start over right now, I would either look into AI, I would try to get into some sort of media because that's what I know. I know media.

I know how to make videos. I know how to make content. I understand that world a lot. So I'd probably get into that and maybe try to study AI and figure out if there's opportunities in that industry. and that's what I would be focused on, is that to make a living. If you're going to be an entrepreneur, if you have to go get off, if you got to go get a job right away to just pay the bills, that's what you do.

But I would, like if I had no opportunity to farm, that's probably what I would do, is get into media, maybe work a job, start my own business, look into AI, and then just invest your money smart, invest in the stock market, S&P 500, index funds, maybe buy some real estate, and just grow that way. And that's way easier said than done. But that's what I would do. And maybe he's asking, what would we do if they're, he asks about, it sounds like he's like referring to farming. I'm assuming he's probably like, what would you do if you had to start again, start over? I don't think there's any money in hogs to start right now. Unless you're going to, I mean, dude, there's so much.

If you're going to start farming as a first generation farmer and you don't have a lot of money, then you're not going to start farming. It's really hard, dude. It's really, really, really hard. But, like, I guess if you're going to start as a first generation farmer and try to farm the conventional way of raising,

raising cattle on a feedlight or raising pigs in a hog barn or on a lot, or you're going to raise corn and soybeans, you're going to grow those crops, dude it's too hard so i would say you have to find a way to maybe go the regenerative route direct to consumer ag tourism that that's the only way i will say this though probably the probably the best way is uh go down the get a platbook and go down the road of uh what people are out there that still own a farm and if they're of the right age, I'd go door to door because there are so many farmers out there

that have no errors, that have no plan as to what they're going to do when they quit farming. And those guys would love, there is a lot of them that would love to see somebody take over that farm. They just don't know how to do it. Yeah. So that would be a great possibility. I mean, if you got nothing to lose, if you're like starting from scratch, you got nothing to lose, I probably would do that because. But you just got to be clear with them, though. I mean, the communications, you got to communicate with them with the understanding of like, I'm not going to do this for eight years and have no ownership and be working for minimum wage. Exactly. Or you're going to get paid very well as a farm hand that you can sustain your family

and you can farm because that's what you love to do. it's got to be you got to have i mean you probably don't want to open up and swing with that right away you got to prove yourself a little bit but that's something that man i don't think talking to farmers it's just like the communication between family farms within the family are just farmers to farmers farmers to people it's just like man we got to communicate more yeah for sure you do got to you got to air it out and you got to you got to have those hard conversations hit over $100, is there any hope for higher contract finishing rates? And I would say, more hope than there's been for quite a while, but I don't know whether that's going to,

I mean, it's just like that's not a marketing plan. Well, that's not a contract plan either for hogs. I know that there's integrators out there that are looking for space and they can't get spaces and they sure can't get anybody to build for them. The amount of building going on is very, very small. So there is an incentive there. There is demand for space and there is an incentive for them to try to make it attracted to people. I just don't know whether any of these integrators have healed themselves well enough that there's ready to go out there and give up any of that profit that they are making to pay a higher contract because once you do that, you've kind of opened Pandora's box because anybody that has a contract

that is close to being up is going to be calling and it's going to spread like wildfire. But it needs to happen. I mean, it 100% needs to happen. um my oldest barns 15 years old uh my insurance on my buildings have doubled probably more than doubled my power bill has more than doubled um you name it pretty much everything in there LP hasn't LP's stayed halfway well it's probably doubled too i bet you it was probably 40 or 50 cents when I started. So everything's gone up, and what you're getting paid is stayed the same. So it's not good.

So it definitely needs to happen. It's just the pot of money that's out there as far as what's being made on the finishing side and on the pigs, they're kind of in the same boat. Some of these companies have a lot better marketing department or a hedging department, and some of them have ownership in, you know, the packing side, and that gives them an edge. So some of them are better healed to where they could afford to do that, but I don't know if you're going to see it or not.

I think it's... I think it's... Something's got to change. Something's got to change. Yep. What holds us back from doing what we know we need to do? Being a pussy. Yes.

Being a little bitch. Yes. David Goggins. I was, listening to Jordan Peterson on Joe Rogan. He's got to be like the winner. He's probably been on Rogan.

There's probably some comedians that have been on there more than he has, but he's been on there a lot. But he just talked about like how your mind like your mind will betray you. And you said this. You talked

about how, we were talking about that clip about smoking. And you said how oh, I got a hard decision to make. Nope, I'm just going to scroll on my phone. And he talked about that, that your mind likes, likes it easy, likes it simple, likes it the same.

Doesn't like change, doesn't like stress, doesn't like uncomfortable situations. And if given the out, it will take you to the easiest, the easiest way. And that is addiction, That is disconnection. That is, you know, just status quo.

Well, yeah, your brain is wired to do what is easy or what feels good. I mean, your brain is wired to survive. So when all you do is feed it dopamine all the time because you doomscroll, you're trading your mind to always want dopamine. and the thing that produces that is most likely your phone. And so when you get up and you look at your phone right when you wake up in the morning and you doomscroll for two hours, and that's the first thing you do, I mean, it just makes it a challenge.

The distraction, I think what holds people back from doing what they need to do is the distractions are unbelievable, unbelievable. There's so many distractions nowadays. and you're hardwired, your brain is hardwired to work against you, like you said. And hunter and gather times, you wanted to do what was safe. Yep. You didn't want to seek out too, you know, self-preservation was the most important thing. And so you just did what you had to do.

But you were doing what was safe. You were doing what was easy. You did what was comfortable because you needed to survive. Now, not everybody was like that. you if you had to go kill a fucking elk, you had to go find an elk and kill it and eat it. But other than that, you were chilling because you were trying to stay alive.

If given the choice, if given the choice or the opportunity, you would rather find an elk that ran off a cliff and died and found it. Or if you could get the herd elk to run off a cliff versus you having to try to throw a spear

or take a, you know, whatever, Blunt Forest Oveject and beat the piss out of something. that's how you are. We naturally try to find the safest way of doing anything. Yeah, but you can work, I mean, it's obviously proven you can shut that, shut that voice down in your head and do what is uncomfortable. And most of the time we all know if you do what is uncomfortable, you become disciplined. You know that that's the thing you need to do and you do it. It end up making you feel a lot better. I don't know about you, but when you sit, you do'm scrolling, you don't end up doing the things

that you know you need to do. You feel like shit as a human being. You just do. You know, you do. You feel like shit. So I think people just got to get sick and tired of being sick and tired. And like for me, I get in slumps like that, man. Like I just made it this, this month. I was like, I am spending way too much time on my phone. I hate that I spend so much time on my phone. and I got to spend time on my phone because I do a lot of work on my phone. But like, why do I have to get on, why do I have to get on social media past five o'clock? There's no reason for me to be on my phone past five o'clock or six o'clock.

When the work is done, why am I on my phone? And it's like, I watched a really good video about this guy that's like, if you don't use social, he's like completely cut out his phone. He uses a, he has screen time is 30 minutes a day. He's deleted all social media apps, which we can't do. but he's deleted all social media apps. He sets his phone down in a place every single day. He doesn't take it with him every single place and he goes.

And he's just like, I'm just way happier. I'm getting a lot more. I'm freeing up like so much more time to do shit that I know I need to do and that I want to do. It's just this thing in our pocket, I don't think people realize how detrimental it can be. And they don't even realize it. If you're not awoken to the fact, it's like, God, man.

Like, I get home after a long. day of work and instead of like going and doing shit in the garage I'm getting on my phone or I'm just watching TV I'm I'm escaping I'm doing what's comfortable and what my brain is desiring and you got to like break that you totally got to break that so yeah everybody struggles with it but you just you got to get to a point where you're like I got to a point I was like I am going to figure out a way that I can stop using my phone as much I don't want to do this anymore yeah uh and something I'll add to that is, you know, when we talk about doing what we know we need to do, that whole, when we were talking about how I'm kind of a squirrel and not very good,

like I start all these projects, that's really, that's detrimental to your mental state because one way that you can really help yourself to do what you know you need to do is accomplish something every day. That's like you've heard the Navy guy or whatever that gave that speech about getting up and making your bed. Because if you don't do anything else, the rest of the day, you made your bed. For me, it's like, it's so easy for me to do something

and then be like, okay, I'm going to go do over here. I was dragging mats out of the hogg, building, the mats that we put in there for when the pigs are little, and the pigs are way bigger than what they should be for me to be getting them out. And, you know, that's one of those jobs. It's really easy when you're taking them out the door, when you start, the first four pens are 30 feet from the door. You know, you just take a few steps, and you're in a pen, and a few steps, and the mat's out. When you get to the middle of the building, it's 200 feet from the door to drag that mat. So as you work your way down,

and some would say, oh, you should start with, start in the middle. And I've done that too, but I got to where I had probably eight mats left to get out of there. And I did not, I would not have had to have finished that job because the only person that is accountable to getting those out is me. And I could have quit and I thought about quit. I literally talked to myself about what I needed to get done at a certain time that I should probably just quit to make sure that I have all that done. But I didn't do that. I actually finished it, which, you know, I do actually finish things once in a while. Okay. So the rest of the day, like I found myself at 7 o'clock that night, we'd got done eating supper, and I was sitting in my chair.

I think we were actually getting ready to watch Last of Us. I don't know. I couldn't tell you what I did or what emails I sent or what else I did the rest of the day. But I was pretty damn happy with myself that I'd drug all those mats out. That was my sense of accomplishment. And so then you're kind of thinking to yourself, I'm looking at my list. And my list is very long because there's all this crap on there because I'm not really good at finishing stuff. But I was looking at this list the next morning and I was thinking about that I'd got all those mats out. And I was like, you know how many other things on here are like 30 minutes of my time would finish this task 40 minutes would finish this task and I was like I'm going to get this and this and this

you start doing that and your brain will get on a role to where instead of like looking at it as to how can I get out of this the satisfaction of getting it done you could also trick your brain the other way to where it's like, okay, I want to get some shit done. Now, you get off that pretty easy too. So that's where we talk about. It's like consistency. But yeah, I mean, just get it done. I think that's good.

Yeah, the feeling of accomplishment is addicting. But it's not as addicting as your phone is. So you've got to override it. Like you got to, you know, I feel like people can, there's no, there's no amount of dope. I feel like dopamine. you got to like I feel like you got to get off the dopamine train you got to train your mind to stop being so dopamine dependent because you'll never go through the suck of getting those maths out if all you care about is you're just instantly going to give in you're going to give in to that thought if all you do is train your mind to be like when I want my phone I'm going to get on my phone when I want to look at this I want to get I'm going to look at this and you find yourself scrolling for two hours and this is just one example it could be anything yeah you're

You're training your mind to be soft. And it'll go right there because, okay, as I'm dragging these mats, I'm listening to a podcast. I'm listening to a podcast. I'm dragging these mats. And somebody texts me. So I stop and I read that text. And without me even thinking about it, I turn around and I start walking back out the door of the building with no mat in my hand, reading this text. And then when that's done, I just scroll up and I'm looking.

at social media and I get to the door and my truck was parked out there and I know that I was headed to either the bed of the truck or the cab of the truck and sit down. I could have I could have easily blown through 20 minutes of just and then be like, oh, I should read this email. Oh, I should respond to this person. Oh, you know, what's this? What's on TikTok? And I stopped and I was like, I wasn't even thinking. I'm like, where in the hell are you going? So I put my phone back my pocket, restarted the podcast,

and walked back and got another mat. But I mean, that's how, and it's, we're all that way. And the more you do that for dopamine, the easier, like you don't even realize what you're doing. And they, they've, I mean,

they've literally programmed the phones and the apps to make you that way. I mean, it's intentional. done on purpose. They want you to spend time on that phone and on the social media. And I'm not saying cut it out completely, but, dude, if you're not even like, you got to just be intentional with it, think about it. Because there's so many people that don't even think about how detrimental that it actually is. Like, it's a problem. So when we launch that Farmer Great app,

no, it's going to be awesome. But we're going to put a timer on it. If you haven't ordered your meat within so many minutes, it's going to kick it. It's going to kick you. kick your ass off there. You're going to kick you off and you can't get back on. Because we're doing that for you. We care. Yeah, we're not launching an app, by the way. I mean, I don't think anyway, unless that, unless it makes sense, I guess, long term,

but I don't have any plans of an app. Well, I don't know. You feel like we've got a lot of shit. I'll just tell, I'll tell all of you that we kind of were really on a kick there. And then we've got some questions, but they're political. they're about China, India, they're about the World Bank, about Bill Gates and all of his stuff.

And I just don't feel like, I don't feel like killing the mood, I guess. We're on such a good vein of, you know, like trying to get some stuff done that I think we'll just forego all of the hot topic questions for today. And maybe what we should do is, maybe we should do a whiskey minute. Let's do a whiskey minute.

All right. Get the, you want me to do it? Yeah, get that, you got to unwrap that thing. Boondocks. So this is a bottle of boondocks, and I'd never heard of it, and I got to thank Travis Hills and Torst and Linus. They're the founders of livestock, water, and energy, and we shot a podcast with them that'll come out this week,

and they brought us a bottle of boondocks, and it's 18-year bourbon. from Kentucky and it's got a really good seal on it that Sawyer can't quite can't quite overcome I was never my fine motor skills were never very good

so we're eager to try it because I hadn't heard of it so they actually brought us three bottles out of the kindness of their heart and this is the first one that I picked to to get it you need help or

just put the camera on Sawyer. Let's send a this shit. Oh, nice. That's nice. Some ASMR for your... Okay, pour a short. How's it?

It smells really good. Pour a short to cleanse our palettes. Because people told us that, you know, you got to cleanse your palate before you. I mean, I guess you can pour a little more and just take one. Yeah, that's good. That's good. It's got really good color.

I'll tell you that. That was the first thing I noticed. I was like, wow, that's pretty. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. It smells like, it's kind of like a four roses kind of. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager.

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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. Habaniero, more like Habinier, yes. Save the Everyday with Amazon. Well, I can tell you right now that I'm going to tell you right now that I like it. It's good. It's good.

Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, you know how you get these people that do these ratings? Sorry, that almost tastes like a, I almost get like a root beer float kind of. Look at that. Don't you feel like that? Well, that's what I was going to say.

I mean, so many of these guys that do these tests are like, oh, I'm getting notes of caramel and this and that. And a lot of times I don't. But yeah. That like gives me root beer float vibes. Yeah. So this is my second. This is my second.

I already did my second. And I think that is some, that is delicious. That's good. I would drink that on the rocks all day long. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I kind of did. I think that's the first whiskey I've ever tasted that I got, like it kind of has like a little root beer.

It's very sweet to smell it, and it's not a lot of, not a lot of flavor on the front, but on the backside, it's like really good. But it's not like, I don't want anybody to get turned off by us saying root beer. It's not, it's like not, it ain't as sweet as root beer,

but it just has that hint of root beer flavor, like a, which I'm assuming, I don't know what that bottle costs. I don't have any idea, but it's 18-year-old stuff. They probably try to, like, we can't even get that in Iowa. I've never seen it anywhere. So if you're going to buy it off the secondary market,

it's probably not cheap. So it should have, it should have pretty good. Yeah, what did you rate it? I would rate it. That's one of the best whiskey. I mean, that's the best bourbon we've had on here. You don't want to give a, you don't want to, I feel like it's Dave Portnoy's pizza reviews.

Is this from Kentucky? Did you say it was? It says Kentucky. Is it bourbon? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

I mean, that's a high. I see, yeah, I don't know. Everybody that does reviews nowadays, it's like they don't ever want to give you a flat number. No one wants to say it's a 10 out of 10. It's a 9 out of 10. It's an 8 out of 10. It's an 8.4.

I would say, to me, it's probably a 9 because the chances of me getting something that's like, I mean, I don't know what a 10 is. When you get a 10, do you go, oh, it's a 10 because maybe you find something better. But it's one of the better bottles that we've ever had on here. Yeah, I would say 9, 9, 9.5. If you find a bottle of that, you find a bottle of that. that. And it's not, you know, stupid expensive. I'd get it. Yeah, I would definitely recommend. Unless you got Buku dollars, then just knock yourself out and get a bottle no matter what. Buy us one

and send it to us because we'll have another one of those. Yeah, I love that. That is, I feel like trying to make making a cocktail with this would almost be a sin. That is right. And we don't get very many bottles that that I probably wouldn't mix, but I would totally, I would totally sip that. So, you don't want to make sense. Boondocks, 18 year, uh, I don't know. Who is it? Well, it says bottled by Boondock Spirit, Bards Town, Kentucky. So there you go, distilled in Tennessee. Yeah, that's some good shit, fellas.

And ladies, if you're listening or watching. Yeah, I would recommend anyone getting a bottle of that. But like we said, we don't know what the price point is. Yeah, we don't. But I like it when I don't know the price point. Yeah. So feel free to help me out. Yeah.

Feel free to send some bottles. Yeah, anyway. But I think that's going to wrap it up, guys. I mean, I got all my words out, you. I did. I feel good. Feel good, too. A little, you know,

a little confusion. I was a little afraid that my name had shown up on the poster at the post office or on the back of a bottle of milk. It's because they finally are getting you for all that shit you did in high school. I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has gone on all that. All right. So I figured they were probably here for your search history. I'm clean as a whistle. I'm clean as a whistle.

All mine is just farmer grade. Yeah. Meat. Yep, meat. A lot of meat. No. Not the meat you're thinking. All right. That's going to wrap it up, guys.

We appreciate the hell out of all you. Thank you so much for tuning in today's episode. If you got any value, please share it with anybody that you know. Leave a review on Spotify or Apple. We haven't had an Apple review in like a couple months. So, hey, if you're listening on an Apple, Apple, leave us for a review and tell us what you think. We want to hear from you guys. So we appreciate it. Use code barn talk to save 10% and be looking out for a memorial day sale that's coming up here soon.

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