Barn Talk - Barn Talk Q&A: Whiskey Names, Farming Myths, and Memorable Stories from the Barn

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Welcome to Barn Talk! In this episode, we dive into a lively Q&A session, packed with humor, stories, and insightful debates. We kick things off with a spirited discussion about an intriguingly named whiskey brand, "Chicken Cock," leading to a playful exchange about alternative animal-inspired names and a tasting review of a potent, caramel-noted bottle. Tork recounts his recent whiskey purchase adventure in Des Moines and shares fascinating anecdotes about his WWII fighter pilot father, while Sawyer reveals the quirky origins of his and Tork's names. We also address serious topics like changes in our farming practices and misconceptions about farmers, especially in light of criticisms from public figures like Joe Rogan. We delve into the complexities of regenerative agriculture, debating its scalability and impact. They emphasize the importance of diverse farming practices tailored to different environments, alongside candid personal stories from our farm life. Use code BARNTALK for 10% OFF your next order https://farmergrade.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq   LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  ITUNES ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 Credit Tony Reid: loves classic vehicles, Stellantis overpriced. 10:24 Please share our podcast with others. 14:51 Iowa Corn Checkoff boosts demand, profitability, innovation. 19:04 Hold bitcoin; track record suggests holding it. 25:37 High doses in tests led to EU ban. 32:28 Technology and food security require nuanced approaches. 35:56 Amish voting impacted by raw milk crackdown. 39:48 Agricultural practices change; adaptability is essential. 47:00 Yeller expresses anger verbally; Sawyer throws things. 49:39 Few good stories from early farmwork days. 55:29 He talked nonchalantly despite a wardrobe malfunction. 01:02:51 Strong whiskey, flavorful but harsh; 6.5/10. 01:05:09 Share the show, leave a review, thanks! ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, finan... 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 through email, and we're going to get them answered on the show today, and I should say tonight. Because tonight, it's a night version podcast. Thursday night. football's going on but barn talk is going on too so speaking of football i'm modeling uh an a vintage washington demons sweatshirt uh we might get back to mascots that are you know that people should be

feared but i'm thankful that um our little town never got uh beaten down with the whole mascot deal we have been the demons forever today. Now, the demon of today, it's a kindler, gentler demon. It's not nearly as ferocious as the one that was on all the t-shirts in the 70s when my brothers were going to school. But we're still the demons, you know. You don't want to mess with the demons. It's unlike these cute, fuzzy mascots that a lot of these schools have.

Well, the commanders are playing tonight, the Washington commanders. And they don't command Jack. They should have just stayed the Redskins. And actually Native Americans are pissed that they did change the name because it was a good representation of their culture. Proud. And now they're pissed off that they did change it. And the Redskins was, it had a lot of history. I don't know how you can just change a completely change a name of a franchise when it has that much history.

I mean, they won a Super Bowl. I don't understand. It's a sad. It's just like Aunt Jemima. No more Aunt Jemima And everybody loved Aunt Jemima Poor Uncle Ben I eat that shit like crazy

And I don't even know if it's called Uncle Ben's anymore But anyway I think it'll Mom or my mom Your wife Always says that You know in 50 years We're gonna look back

And everybody's gonna be like Where's their representation? Yeah Where is the representation of the cultures Nobody's got shit There's no aunt Jemima anymore Well Because you guys all bitch

And got rid of it all I think she always says that she thinks that history will look back and people like, what a bunch of racists? You took Aunt Jemima? I mean, that was like her namesake. What is wrong with them? What was wrong with? Anyway.

So, yeah, Thursday night football, but we're here. We're here and we're ready to fuck shit up. So we're going to answer some questions. My lips are chapped. It's getting to be that time of year where the weather's getting dry, it's starting to get cold, and you don't have chapsic laying around, and you just deal with it. I need to make a run to the Casey's or come and go sometime. Dad actually got a new truck, got a new whip.

All of a sudden, I mean, I guess he must be feeling real optimistic with the red wave that's coming because he just went out and got a new fucking truck. And it's red, too. And it is red. It's fire engine red. So tell him a little bit about it before we get going. So I have to give credit to Tony Reid for this because, you know, he bought himself a pickup up last summer and it i don't know if it's like a 70 78 maybe maybe it's newer than that i don't know

but simple you know uh four speed truck and there's a great there's a great sound sound bite of him floating around on uh on tic talk that he's just like if it doesn't have a if it doesn't have a cigarette lighter i don't fucking want it and i've had i so i got this jeep love the jeep but uh the stalantis group. For one, I'm not really sure how long Stalantus is going to stay in business. If you look at the top 10 list of dealer stock of vehicles, it's almost entirely owned by Stalantus. I mean, they can't sell shit. It's all overpriced. And anyway, I've had my fair share of problems. And I just started thinking, like, I was wanting to get like a tonner for the farm. Sawyer's the point where with Farmer grade, he needs to get like a more practical truck than the three-quarter ton that he's driving.

And it was practical until I put a six-inch lift on it in high school with 35s. And yeah, it's just too high. It's not practical to pull a trailer when we load that trailer full of meat. It's sitting, it's like at a tilt. We're staring at the moon. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so I'm like, I'm just going to go buy me, you know, I'm just going to go get me a one-ton Chevy, one-ton GMC, whatever. You start looking at that and it's like, you know, $65,000,

or you buy, you find a used one, but what are you getting? And then if it's a new diesel, who knows what problems you get with that? Anyway, I've just been like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I said, and I've told myself, I'm like, I should just go buy an old shitbox Chevy, you know, and one night I was on Facebook and this this one ton bright red one ton four-wheel drive ex-fire truck came on there and lo and behold it was my neighbor and you all knowing because Kentucky Greg Cook from KDK auction house he's been sitting on this truck since like 20, He bought it from Western Nebraska. It was an old fire truck. They had a bed on it, you know, with, I think they probably put a tank in it for guys that were fighting grass fires or whatever.

Has 55,000, like 800 miles on it. He bought it, brought it back here, did a whole bunch of stuff to it, put a Zimmerman flatbed, it's got a steel flatbed on it, fixed all the stuff that, you know, needed to be fixed on it. And he was selling it. And I was like, well, holy shit, that, that's the ticket. And I mean, it is simple. AM radio doesn't work, no air. But you know what? You pop the hood.

Like, you could put a cooler in there on both sides of the motor. I mean, there's nothing in there. There's nothing to go wrong with it. Great shape. You're good when the power grid goes out. I am good. Yep, carbureated. I'm like, you know what?

I think that's just exactly what I need. It's taking you back too because didn't you learn how to drive? Yeah, so my dad had a 73, three-quarter-ton Chevy, plane Jane, and it had the four-speed in it, the granny low four-speed in it, just like this one does. This has got 4-11s in it. It's got the 208 transfer case in it, lockout hubs on it. But anyway, that's how I learned to drive was that deal.

And so, yeah, when I put around in it, it's just, like, and this is a 1989. So what's kind of funny is, uh, most any of you that know about square bodies. So they changed, 88 was the first year for the new body style, the new Chevy GMCs,

but this is a V series. So this is a V-3500. So this is the commercial version. And it's also the cab chassis that they would have done like for campers and vans and stuff like that. They kept that old body style. I didn't know this, but they kept that old body style all the way to 91.

So this is actually in 1989, but if you were to see it, you would think it's like 86, 87. Steel wheels, but they're painted red to match the truck. Like I said, it's got a Zimmerman flatbed on it. I just got new headlights in it because the head, holy shit, the first night that, or the day I got it, that night,

I took one of the kids out driving and turned the lights on. I was like, holy shit because you know when you're used to LEDs and you go back to uh those were even replaced and they were halogen but they're like terrible so i had to get some LED headlights for it got those in good to go good to go is your boner gonna go away now i don't know i just like driving i love driving around it is cool it's nice it's a nice little ride i mean i'm probably not gonna you know i'm probably not going to break any speed records yeah i'm probably not going to become a uh a hot shot. I'm not got a hot shot freight across the country in it.

I think it's perfect for what you need. It's a lot more, it's got a lot more functionality to it than the Jeep does for the farm and chore truck. We can do, fuck, you can do anything with that thing. Yeah, so the Jeep, I don't know. I'm kind of, I'm trying to, I'm trying to get him to sell it. So it's in the shop right now, getting everything fixed on it that's wrong. We got family coming in for Thanksgiving. Somebody will probably have to drive it with everybody that's flying in. It's not going to have a vehicle, but I think after the first year, I don't know, I think me and the Jeep might part ways. Love it. I mean, it's, there is no doubt that's a blast of drive. I mean, I had, I've had a fun with it. And it's kind of like a, you know, it's like a, it's like a tinker toy set,

whatever you want to say, you know, there's so much stuff available for it and you see all this cool stuff and you're like, yeah, I need that. Yeah, I need that. Um, but at the end of the day. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just kind of, I'm very leery. I just don't want to keep it and then have something's happened with Stalantis that the resale value just goes to total crap in it. I'm in a pretty good spot with it right now. And so I'm thinking I might sell it. I don't know. I did put a block heater on the tunter in case I have to park it outside. So don't, don't beat me if it doesn't go down the road, but I don't know, thinking we're going to get ready. It'll be good. It'll be fine. It'll be in the garage someday.

Well, I was going to say before we get into it, but I think we're already into it. But before we get into the questions, I should say, you guys know the drill. If you get any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know. If you laugh, if we made you relate to us on something, if we learned something, all we ask is you share the show with the people that you know. that's how we can grow the show to be the best farm podcasts out there. Feel free to also leave a review on Spotify or Apple. The more that you guys do that, the more credibility of the show gets,

the more guests we can get on, the more episodes we can make. Last thing you can do to support us here at Barn Talk and support our family farm is support our direct-to-consumer meat business, farmergrade, farmergrade.com. Got a lot of shit coming down the pipe and a lot of shit here. So we got corporate gift orders that we're having on the site now. We got a corporate gifting page. So if you own a small business or if you're a salesperson out there and you want to gift your clients, a gift of meat, we'd love to help you out with that in any way we can.

So you can download the corporate order form there. We got turkeys for Thanksgiving, hams for Thanksgiving, prime rib roast for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Black Friday's coming at the end of this month in November. So be looking out for that. have a shitload of deals. Sunny Farms, if any of you watch Sunny Farms YouTube out of South Dakota, they're going to be selling their beef on our website come December. And then we got Christmas. So trying to get that freezer as full as I possibly can and try to give all all you great people

out there the meat that you need. So, uh, and really who doesn't want the gift of meat for Christmas. That's right. I mean, like when you're trying to think of what to get somebody, there's a lot of people out there you're like i don't know what they'll get them get them the gift to meet yep we don't have a patreon on this show you know there's a lot of podcasts out there that they make you want they want you to go to their patreon to support the show and that's going to help grow the show and make the show better our patreon we like to call the metrion we don't got a patreon we're not going to give you a sticker to throw on the back of your SUV or your truck or a t-shirt that the shit's going to come off at two weeks after you wash it

We just say, buy a box of meat, get yourself a box of meat, and that helps support this show, and it helps make this show better. So at least you're getting something good out of it. Side note, Cole is going to be on the podcast. What, next week? I mean, it'll be a couple weeks before it's out, because we have a couple between the, we got a couple. We're planning ahead, but Cole is coming down,

and we're going to have him on. Great kid should be real interesting. So that's all the ways you can support the show, guys. We appreciate all your support. we really do couldn't do this without you so without further ado let's get into these questions the market update

shit we got the market update sorry before we got to do the market update before we do the questions this has just been asked backwards this whole episode we've started off asked backwards we got talking about all the shit going on in our lives

and we just got off a little bit maybe you're like the perfect tie end of that was support the farm buy a box of meat because you know we ain't making any money off the grain markets. There you go. And the example of that is the market update. So the markets are skittish, to say the least.

The hot rumor going around and what drove the market today, corn was down 7 cents. I think beans were down like 12. They've been down the last three days. Wheat has taken a beating. Wheat today closed at 5.3. and I can't remember, but I think 530 is like, that's like a resistance point if you're a chart guy, and if it breaks below that tomorrow, you're probably headed to $5 before it catches itself.

It may not stay there very long because as far as I know from the people I listen to, Ukraine and Russia, Russia especially, is going to be out of wheat shortly after the new year. So it's not like there's a huge wheat supply out there. The main thing is people just don't do a lot of work, export, and meat this time of year from America. Are we going to start planting wheat then? No, we don't want to fuck with that. While Iowa corn farmers are working hard this fall, getting our crops out of the field, our Iowa corn checkoff investment continues to work on our behalf to ensure continued demand for corn through research, market development, and education.

Here are just a few things your checkoff dollars are working on. Putting boots on the ground around the world to open up markets for corn and corn-fed products, educating drivers on fuel options at the pump to increase ethanol share of the fuel tank, fostering industry connections and finding new uses for corn, so when companies are looking for ingredients to replace petroleum, corn is the solution. Promoting corn in all forms and sharing farmer's stories so you can continue to be the best producer on your farm. So this fall, remember that your investment in the Iowa corn checkoff benefits your family farm

as well as the overall industry, creating long-term corn farmer profitability. To learn more, go to IowaCorn.org. Now, let's get back to the podcast. Corn on corn, baby, all the way. Okay. I'm going to grow that organic matter. All right. That'll get the hate mail coming.

Anyway, I just said that to get into the corn and beans, but wheat took a hell of a hit. But people are worried that Trump, with his nominations, trade war with China. Everybody's worried about a trade war with China. So that is weighing heavy on the... on the markets and what's funny is we've had a lot of good news yesterday mexico bought a shitload of beans um ethanol grind as at an all-time record high uh good news a lot of good news out there corn is corn is actually a great value on the world market um i think if you look at like shipping beans into the far east, like if you're shipping beans into Indonesia, I saw today, they're like a

15 cent, United States beans are 15 cents cheaper than the rest of the world. So, I mean, there's a lot of positives out there, but, you know, what is that? Sell the rumor or buy the rumor, sell the fact or something like that. Anyway, just a lot of up in the air out there. So that's really working on the market. So December corn closed at 419 and the best bid locally is 396 and 410 in Cedar Rapids. You can get about that at the river. Beans, November beans 988. Burlington had 979 and across the river at Quincy 995. Bean meal for December's 287 a ton. We already talked about wheat. Hogs 80 bucks. Cattle 182.95. Cattle were actually down.

Cattle have not had very many down days, but they're down a little bit today. Feeder cattle 247. Crude oil 6816. I think there's just a fair amount of oil around the world because it doesn't seem to matter what happens. Oil does not hold on to its gains very much, which I think that's a good thing, but it's just interesting that it doesn't move more than what it does for the amount. amount of politics that are going on around the world.

Bitcoin, $89,000. Holy fuck. And it was 91. I don't know if it got higher than 91,000. Holy shit. I didn't even, I have not been looking at it. That's crazy. All you haters out there have been hating on the Bitcoin.

It's coming back. The people that have been just sulted away, uh, though they're feeling pretty damn good. There's an NFL football player at offense linemen for the Panthers that wanted all his salary in Bitcoin and his contract. I'll give you the numbers. You keep going. I'll give you the numbers on his contract here. Yeah, so all crypto has been moving up off the strength of Bitcoin. The only thing we ever track here is Ethereum.

Ethereum's 3150, but you can go down the line. So he, Russell Okung, I don't know how to say his last name, took half of his salary in Bitcoin in 2020. So he has now turned his $6.5 million into $45 million. Holy Mother Mary. With Bitcoin. That is impressive. Smart cat there. I mean, I don't

It, who knows where it goes, you know, who knows how far it goes? It's like, do you sell it? Do you not? I remember the other bull run, you know, when was that? Two years ago, the bat bull run, a half ago. You know, you're like, oh, do I sell it? Do I not? Do I sell it?

Do I not? At this point, I think Bitcoin has had so many bull runs that it's just like, it's starting to build up this track record and this history of, you better just hold on to it. Hold on to it and buy the dip, I think. I mean, I'm not. telling you to go out. This is not financial advice. No, it's not for sure. But for the people that have been salted away over time, it has done very well. Tesla's done very well of late. I will have you know that Tesla, I don't know, what, year and a half ago, two years ago was about $158

a share. Everybody was beaten on them and it is wallowed around. Never, never bet against Elon Musk. Tesla 314, it was actually down a little bit today, but the office of Doge is coming soon, and if you don't think that Elon Musk's interests are probably going to prosper from a Trump presidency, you would be mistaken. So we'll get into that a little later. Gold, $2,573. It's going to be interesting to see whether this. this gold keeps running as the uncertainty.

I mean, I guess it's just whichever way you bet it. If all these nominations, if the gold bugs take those to be more destabilizing, you may see gold run up if you think that the dust is settling, I would think gold would probably soften, but I don't know. Anyway. What about silver? Well, silver is 2779, and that's a high price.

for silver, I don't know. I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I suppose it's easy to accumulate. I'd rather buy Bitcoin. I don't know if I'd, honestly, if I was looking at buying silver at $27 versus Bitcoin at $89,000, I think I'd buy Bitcoin. I don't know. I'm just, I don't, like precious metals, the people that are into precious metals, while yes, there are some younger people that are probably in it. I think that whole market's going to age out. I think at some point there's just people that are not going to want to own physical gold. And I could be wrong, but let's face it, every gold commercial you see is an old duffer, peddling gold. And I'm almost an old guffer. I mean, I'm like 52, so I'm not quite in that category yet, but I'm getting there. I thought you were 53.

Maybe I am 53. 71. Yeah, I'm 53. I feel like I'm only 52 and I look like I'm only 28. Yeah. There you go. Anyway. Okay. That was definitely a good market update. I'm glad that we didn't skip over that. No, right. I was good shit right there. I was bringing the guns. You were. You were. Okay. Well, we're going to get into the questions now. Sorry for jumping the gun a little bit. I feel like this is kind of an older. We've had this before, and it was kind of a big deal a few years ago. And today, it's kind of got away. But somebody asks us if we feed, if the feed we use has,

and I'm going to slaughter this. number, or this word, I always say it wrong, but it's a, uh, uh, uh, ractapamine, rotapamine. I can't remember what the, uh, it's, um, oh, there's a trade name for it. We always called it something else, uh, that they put in the feed, uh, and the short answer is that is no. So what it is, it's a growth promotant. It'll make pigs, it'll make pigs convert, feed faster. Usually you would put it in when pigs were getting close to market weight, and it helped them grow faster to put on extra weight.

About, I want to say about eight years ago, probably, when the export business to China got to, be huge. All of these companies that were exporting, China banned the use of it. So if you were exporting meat to China, they would test for that drug, for that compound. And if it was in it, they would cut you off. And there was actually some examples where China found residue in pork or in cattle. I don't know if they fed it to cattle or not. It's been so long I can't remember.

But anyway, and they cut off working with whoever that was. So pretty much, it was kind of a chain of people. So there were some packers that all of their meat stayed in America, and they did not outlaw it. but that became fewer and fewer and more and more feed mills went uh went away from it completely and to my knowledge i don't think anybody uses it uh in the united states anymore i could be wrong there could be some people that absolute there could be some smaller systems that absolutely are not doing anything with exports and they may have a uh

wholesaler or somebody that's buying that meat that does not have a policy on it but to my knowledge we're not using it anywhere and if we are somebody will definitely correct me but but I know in our system so the the company that we feed for we don't use it and nobody within the system the other producers that supply pigs to the packer that we're all part of nobody use it so that's that's the answer what was the what potential health effects in humans what was that like do you know what it was what people were thinking it was doing to people uh well i'll tell you what my snotty answer is that it very well could be that there isn't any side effects to it but this all happened at a time you know, they do this research where they take some compound and they give rats or mice

that compound at 50 times, 50 times the amount that you would ever find it in a product and they give it to them every day for six months and then they see if they develop. And that's the only thing they can eat is that compound and then they develop cancer and they go oh i don't know if that's the case but when this was going on when it was big news that was kind there was a lot of stuff going on about additives and food and all of that and um so it was it was outlawed so the EU banned it first, which they ban everything first, and then China did. And at the time that China did it, it was kind of a deal where there was a lot of thought that China did that just as kind of a dig to the United States because we were competing against the EU and China was actually buying a lot

of pork from the EU. And a lot of people thought they didn't really give a shit about the drug. It was more just deal like, ah, well, we'll just put the fork in the U.S. and say, oh, we're not going to buy it. But I don't know, but I do know that it's basically nobody uses it today. So it very well could have had some kind of health effect. Maybe it's where I got my... You're not a doctor. I don't know. You got Tourette's?

Well, it depends. Sometimes. I haven't heard any outbursts yet. Well, they're coming. Okay. Next question is, I was curious on your story. thoughts about Joel Salton getting a position in the USDA and having accepted and having accepted a position as advisor to the secretary. Just curious about your opinion. You probably have more opinion

of this than I do because you've seen more of his stuff. Yeah, dad doesn't really know much about Joel Salton, which you need to, you need to research. I watch a little bit of his shit today. I respect, he's a lot like White Oak Passures. I can't remember the guy's name. He's. I should know it, but I don't. White Oak Pastures. Sam. No, it's not Sam. Yeah, because he's got... It's Will. It's Will. Yeah, Will Harris. Will Harris. Yeah, it's like... There's like three Will Harris's one of them. He's... So those two kind of have the same mindset. Regenerative agriculture is the only way to farm. It's... It's the best thing since sliced bread, everybody else that doesn't do it this way. Uh, you know, they're, they're a piss poor farmer. They're hurting the environment. They're using all our resources and they just, they just suck. It's kind of the gist that you get when you listen to these guys. And that, I love, I think regenerative agriculture is awesome for one reason. It gives more people the chance and opportunity to farm, and I think that's great.

I don't think everybody should raise hogs in a hog barn. I don't think everybody should have a feedlot to raise cattle. I don't think everybody should have to raise chicken in hog barn or in chicken barns. But I also think the opposite is true. I don't think all hogs need to be raised on pasture. I don't think all cattle needs to be grass fed on pasture all the time. I don't think chickens need to be all necessarily pasture raise because here's the deal. We got to feed all these people.

And we cannot feed the entire planet on regenerative agriculture, all pigs being raised, on pasture, all beef being grass fed, all chickens being pasture raised, all turkeys being pasturates. It is not fucking possible. Anytime you listen to these guys go on a podcast, they always get asked this question and they never fucking answer it. They can't answer it. They can't tell you that it's not possible to feed all these people because that's going to hurt their brand. That's going to hurt their brand because that's the most important question when you get asked that question. That's the most important answer. No, you can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. You not and that's okay not saying it's not right not saying that regenerative guys can't do what they do

again i think it's awesome for smaller farms and giving people more chances to become farmers and making a sustainable farming operation because they have the means to have a regenerative farm more power to you i think that's great but my only problem with joel sultan is he makes it seem like if you don't do his methods, you're a puss. You're a piss poor farmer. You're ruining the environment. You treat your animals like shit. And my way is the highway and everybody else sucks. And that's kind of what you get from. Truthfully, what I can respect about him and Will Harris is they have created their own market by, you know, so Will Harris in particular, I don't know as much about Joel Salton's operation, but Will Harris, particular, White Oak Pastures, they built their own butcher

shop, raise all their own animals on their farm, and they pretty much are a livestock farm on steroids regeneratively, you know, not on steroids legitimately, just like at a big scale. They're a regenerative farm at a big scale. Pretty decent scale. Pretty decent scale. They're a little bit misleading because when he talks about, they have a lot of poultry, a lot of poultry. Yeah. They say cattle and pigs, but there's a little. not a lot of that. Yeah, there's damn few hogs on that farm. Yeah. And so I respect them for creating their own market and I think a lot of people need to head that way to survive in agriculture. Whether you're, whether you're raising pigs in a hog barn, whether you're raising

cattle on a feedlot, you've got to create your own market or you're raising pigs on pasture, raising pigs or raising cattle on grass fed, whatever. I don't know. I'd butcher that right there. No, I think you did fine. Basically, it all, you know, do what you want. You want to do what you want to do. There's room for everybody to do it. But I think what you're saying is there is room for everybody and to feed the world, we cannot rely. We can't go back. I think that's my, that's my problem with it is. These guys, there's a lot of great technology out there. Yes. there's a lot of things that we have moved to that we could look back and there's some technology that we quit using

and regenerative ag is a good example that it works but at the same time is it scalable. Is it scalable? And then on the other side of it, there's a lot of great technology out there that we've developed that works really, really well and is actually good for the environment. And it's not a black and white. The answer to food security in the world

is not a black and white answer and it's not a cookie cutter. Yeah, my biggest problem, my biggest problem is, and this narrative goes around with people that are in agriculture. Everybody wants to paint agriculture with a broad brush and say,

animals should all be raised this way. you should no-till all your crops. Every farmer should do cover crops. Every single farmer should do X, Y, and Z thing. When every single farming operation is different, every single operator got that farm a different way, might have inherited, might be first-generation farmers. Every single farmer's soil is different.

Every single farmer is in a different area, a different climate, different geographical location, and what people do in Minnesota versus what people do in Georgia versus what people do in Iowa, it's probably not going to be all the same. And that's on purpose. That's on purpose. The reason we don't raise pigs on pasture in Iowa is because we tried that and it didn't fucking work very well.

It doesn't work well in the winter and there's no pasture left. Yeah, it's probably. We're farming the ground for crops so we can feed all these animals that we have to feed throughout the United States and throughout the world. In Georgia, you have a lot of forests. You have a lot of woodlots. They can rough and through that shit pretty easily and you can rotate them pretty easily. And it stays relatively good weather all year round. In that case, go right ahead and raise pigs on pasture.

That makes sense. Great. Go ahead and knock your fucking socks off. but don't come at me and tell me I'm a piss poor farmer because I do this, this way and you do this, this, that way. That's what drives me up the fucking wall with those guys. Your way is not the highway and you market it like it is because it only helps your brand and you sell more shit. That's why you market it that way. It's not the truth. And that's what drives me nuts. But I do have respect for them and I wish them all the best. I hope. that he brings some advice to the advisor,

to the secretary of ag, and they bring some great things to the state of agriculture and make things better. But my only fear is he's just going to try to apply his regenerative practices everywhere without knowing the whole story. That's why he's an advisor, and he's not the secretary of ag. one thing that I do that I hope that he does help give a little perspective to is I think he's been pretty vocal about farm to table and like the whole issue and this was a big issue in Pennsylvania and if you've seen these if you do a little digging on this the Republican Party did a really good job of getting the Amish out to vote And the reason the Amish decided to come out to vote is because there was some pretty public

cases where the feds came in and cracked down on Amish that were selling raw milk. And they kind of made an example out of some of these Amish operations that were selling raw milk. And it pissed the Amish off. And so come voting time, they vote for Trump. And I think one thing that Joe has stood up about is the idea of if you're producing food, you should be allowed to sell it. And that the technologies that we have today, like when it comes to milk, you know, everybody's like there's a reason why they pasteurize it and homogenize it and all that. Well, part of the reason they did that is because a lot of it was produced in filthy environments. and you needed to pasteurize it. The quality of the facilities and the level of cleanliness and all that,

a lot better today, less likely to give you a case of botulism, I think. So stuff like that, I think there's some common sense that can be done. But to your point about- I can get behind that. I mean, that's great. I think that's awesome. If he's preaching for that, that's hell yeah. I support that. So to your point, I'll give you a really good example of how one size does not fit all and how things change. And this is something that I'm kind of grappling with as we get. I almost don't want to bring this up, but I'm going to bring it up because I have faith that we're going to get there. So we've been working really hard trying to get to the point that we're going to start separating all our manure and have a dry.

I mean, it's not 100% dry. you know, it's 10% moisture, whatever. It's a lot like, probably a lot like turkey manure or something like that, but go to haul in solid manure instead of hauling 80% water out of our buildings. And the way we apply manure today is we inject it in the fall. And so we're basically a no-till farming operation. The only bit of tillage that gets done is that injection of manure, which really doesn't amount to much.

but and it's treated us very well i i would say we're very happy with the yields that we've got and the way our soils uh have changed over the years since we since we started doing that but i have a real concern about how i'm going to apply this this dry manure and what we're thinking about is we're either going to have to have to be this dry manure and what we're either going have to try to ban that and then use a strip till rig to incorporate that because today we're incorporating that liquid manure. But I don't feel like we're going to be able to get that fertilizer, the fertilizer value from the manure into where the crop needs it by just spreading it on top the ground. And so does that mean that we're going to just spread it and then run over everything

with a vertical till machine? Does that mean that we're going to band it and we're going to use a strip till machine? I don't know, but I would be, I don't have my rose color glasses on and think that I'm going to be able to keep just no-till in everything and be able to fertilize my crop. So we're probably going to have to change. Okay, well, if we change, if we go from no-till to use in vertical tillage or strip-tilling, well, are we the devil now? I mean, just because that's the thing about agriculture is it changes over time. And I feel like we've gotten a lot smarter. We've learned a lot. There's still a lot we need to learn. But depending on your situation, you know like if I was buying commercial fertilizer, it really wouldn't matter because we would spread it or we would knife it, you know, beside the row or come back with a side dress rig, whatever, put on an hydras.

But we have this manure and we're going to use it and we've got to be able to make it readily available to the crop. So we may have to change what we're doing. Yeah, I think where I get pissed about people saying like, I think they think all farmers' intentions is just profit. Right. Right. Like, oh, we change or we do this practice because we just want to make more fucking money. Yeah.

Not the truth. We do give a shit about the environment. We do give a shit about our ground. We do give a shit about passing on and making our farm better, not only just, you know, profitability-wise, but also the ground itself, the land around it. We want to leave it a better place than when we received it to the next generation. whatever you want to say. So it just, it drives me up the wall when that conversation gets started. And, you know, I love Joe Rogan, but my God, he is bought and sold on the idea that all farmers,

all, all people that raise hogs in a hog barn are fucking the devil. And we just spray hog manure everywhere. And we don't give a shit about the citizens. And we have no plan. And we're just cruel, evil people. And he's been just fucking brainwashed because that's what. get shoved down citizens that have no connection to agriculture's throat. That's truth.

And that's, it pisses me off. And I'd love to have Joel Salton on the show. I really would. We're going to work on it. We will work on it. And I'd love to have Will Harris on the show. It'd be awesome.

We'd love to have Joe Rogan on the show. Last thing that I'll say about this is, this whole idea, this whole broad brush shit, this whole claims-based meat thing, this is exactly why I start, I started Farmergrade. Because not to,

toot my own horn or toot the horn of farmer grade. But I looked around at all the directed consumer meat businesses out there, and it's all about the claims. They sell you on the claims. They sell you on pasture raised, free range, grass fed, no antibiotics ever. Non-GMO, organic, vegan diet. They sell you on all this shit. And nobody highlights the farm.

Nobody's showing the farmers that are, actually showing what they do on their operation. And nobody's highlighting the story. And so I thought, you know, what if it was a different play in the direct-to-consumer space and it was about the farm story rather than just the methods that, the claims that they have on their farm of how they raise their livestock? Because coming from an ag background, I understand that farms are all different and farmers and farming operations are all different. And the reason they do something on their farm, they've probably thought it through.

You know, they probably know and understand why they do what they do on their farming operation. So who am I to say, no, we're not going to work with you because you raise cattle X, Y, and Z way, right? Or I'm not working with you because you raise pigs a certain way. Or I'm not raising with you because of, you know, whatever. So for us at Farmer grade, I just wanted to make a platform

and a direct-to-consumer meat business that we don't give a shit how farmers raise their animals. Obviously there's some obvious things. Don't abuse your animals. You got to treat them right, right, all those things. But we don't care how you raise your animals as long as you're showing people what you do on your operation every day and educating them through your content and showing your story. We want to work with you, highlight your story and get your message out there and sell your meat, help sell your meat. Like that's, that's the heartbeat. And that's my truth of agriculture. Yeah. I think that other side of agriculture is smoking mirrors. Smoking mirrors. Well, I think the whole claims thing is about dead.

I don't know if we talk about this or not, but I think we have about the subway deal. Yep, we have. Anyway. Yeah, I think a lot of these places, it was, that was a cool, that was a way to differentiate yourself is claims. You made these claims that, oh, this is so much better. And you know what? So many people have made so many claims that now that the consumers, they don't know what the hell to believe. So what they really want? Show me. Yeah. Show me what you do. Get me a good quality product that I can feel good about feeding my family and that I can afford to do it. Show me. And if you show me and you educate me and I see and you explain, I trust. I will trust then. Right. Right. I mean, that's where we are now. That's where we are now and that's, that's, that's my truth. That's why

Farmer grade is the way it is. So not, just throwing that out there. And I think that needs to be done more because I don't think one farmer's a demon and the other one's a fucking angel. Same. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay, we got to fly through these next two questions because I'm getting, I'm getting tired. I don't know about you. Okay, well, we'll give you an easy one. This is a pretty good one. And I hadn't really thought about this, but Jacob said us a question. He's a mechanic at a John Deer dealer, and at work, they often sit around at break, and they tell stories of when something really got destroyed or guys pulled pranks on each other, or somebody said something really stupid to a customer while working on their equipment. And he wanted to know if we had any stories like that from the farm or the hog farm. and that's i mean it's like i thought about that and there's a lot of moments of pig loading that you

could definitely go in that category i mean all the times that either one of us is loading the pigs and one gets back on you and then it just becomes an absolute fucking disaster and you start throwing out words and i start throwing out words and pigs are jumping gates and Soyer is a thrower. So I'm a yeller. I will, I will, I will, I will string together a series of profanity that, you know, goes on for a long time. Soir on the other hand, when he gets pissed, it's usually one very loud, explicative, and then an aluminum sorting panel just goes freaking sailing. Like it might sail three pens. I mean, he just, he's a, he's a physical, a lot of physical anger. And then if I really want to piss him off, you know, if I, if I make a suggestion when he's at his mad, then that really piss him off even more because he hates like hell to be told what to do when he's mad, or he really hates to be told the obvious, you know, like, we jump, he closed his panel and then I go, that didn't help

anything. Yeah, there's one time dad when he first was teaching me how to drive that like I think I was maybe, I don't know, 12, 13. 13. I think I was not 14. I could have been, I could have been 12 or 13. Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I was doing really good, but I was driving with both my feet. So I was driving, it's like driving like I had a clutch. And it was started, and it was just, you know, breaking gas. And I was driving. drive with both feet and I was doing pretty good and I was driving on the roads and you're like, well, he's like, you should probably drive with one foot, but I was doing, I was doing all right. So you're like, well, fuck, I do it. Yeah, I drive with two feet. So he was like, okay, well,

fuck, he's probably, you can do it. And so I did great all the way up until I pulled into our driveway. And I don't know why, but I panicked. And I was driving two feet and I hit the gas. and I ran in the back of dads. I think it was your work job. Yeah, you hit the bumper. And I didn't smoke it. It wasn't like I was flying into the driveway because we don't have a very long driveway. But I mean, it was 10 mile, 15 mile, 10 mile an hour.

Five mile. It probably was. It wasn't that bad. I know I just remember I cried and I was, I was just pissed. I was just pissed and I was just pissed and I don't know what the damage looked like because I didn't even, I just couldn't even stay around. I just went inside. But that was a pretty funny moment.

Shit, I don't know. There's so much stuff that I've screwed up. I don't have that many, like, we don't have that many really good stories of us jacking stuff up on the farm. I will tell you that when I first started working off farm, I worked on a five-man crew for a little company in our town that built hog buildings. This is before I went to work for precision structures. And these guys, I've always said I would have worked there for free just for the stories. And some of the stuff that we did, I remember.

We were doing a curtain remodel on a 4,800 head shed down by Winfield, Iowa, and we had gotten there, and it was hot. It was summertime. We'd gotten there in the morning, and we started stripping the curtain, got the old curtain off, and I think we got the pipe shoved in one of the curtains, or maybe two at one barn, so maybe two curtains on that barn. and we had all the pipe strapped to the roof rack of this tunner, a crew cab tunner. And of course, when we got there, we unstrapped it, and we pulled the pipe off as we needed it. Because these curtains on these buildings, there's a hem in the top, and you slide half-inch galvanized pipe. and as you go you spin them together there's a coupler on one end and you keep spinning them together and you just keep adding pieces for the length of this barn and these barns are any either usually they're 192 feet long or they're 385 feet long something like that um but usually a curtain's about 200 feet so we had done one or two of these and we were hot and uh the tempers started to flare there was something

going on. There was some friction between a couple of people and somebody decided that they were going to go into town for lunch and they hopped in that truck and they took off for town and this setup was just like a half a mile from a highway that went into this little town of windfield and the road came up to the highway right on a curve. and I don't remember who was driving, but when they pulled up there, uh, like 50 pieces of a half inch pipe just went shooting right off the roof rack. I mean, all, just all over the highway, clear across the highway onto the shoulder of the other side.

If a car would have been coming, it would have been, it would have been bad. Uh, it was bad enough that happened. But then we had to pick every one of those freaking pieces of pipe up and get it back on that truck without somebody hitting us coming around that curve. I'll never forget that. Everybody was so so freaking pissed. And, you know, stupid. Just freaking stupid. Like, duh, of course you needed to. I guess everybody thought that somebody else had ratcheted the straps back down. nobody had. And it was shit like that all the time. The other, the other, um, the other, um, the other story I'll tell you that I just, this always sticks with me is we, we had a,

this was in the slow time of the year and I think there was just three of us. I think there was three of us working that day. And a guy had called in and he wanted the, the low, the boot on a bin replaced. And this guy was like a cattle guy down southern Iowa, further south of us. And we drove down there and we go to this lot where these cattle are and there's this bulk bin, galvanized bulk bin. And it literally looked like he had bought it at an auction and drug at home. I mean, it was beat. It was beat to shit. A normal person would just not...

To fix it was idiocy, I thought. But he wanted the lower boot fix because it was rusted. And so we start working on it. And before long, this truck pulls up. And there's no doors on it. It's like a square box Chevy, like a 70,000. like, you know, like a 79, three-quarter-ten, square-box Chevy. It's got a flatbed on it.

But no doors. The doors, they took the doors off, and there's no doors on the truck. The guy gets out, and I shit you not, he is wearing a red union suit. Do you know what a union suit is? like legit with the with the flap in the back with the buttons that you can open up when you need to sit down and take a shit and he's wearing a union suit with a belt with a plier pouch and a cowboy hat that's it and his boots he had his boots on and he comes up there and he starts talking to us and i mean he's just like matter of fact no big deal and uh he had a hole in the union suit and he sat there and talked to us

for 10 minutes with his nuts hanging out the hole in that fucking union suit and he did not give a shit did not care and i i it was all we could do i mean so one of the kids that was working with is with younger kid and he literally just got up and walked to the truck because he just couldn't contain himself. And I'll never forget that. It's just, hey, that's one of the things when you work with the public, you just never know. But that old boy, he gave no fucks. Kudos to him because he's letting him breathe.

He was letting him breathe. Yeah, that's for sure. Okay, well, yeah, I don't know. I was going to say maybe talk about some stories with grandpa, but I feel like this one you can talk about grandpa here. So, Tork. Oh, yeah. is an unusual name. This will be our last question. Yep.

TORC is an unusual name. Where did this name come from? Or is there any backstory to it? Yeah. And I think we've probably, it's been a long time, but we've probably talked about this. So yeah, it is an unusual name. I'm the youngest of three sons. And my brothers are Todd and Trent. And there's five years between me and my middle brother.

And so when I came along, dad was actually just south of where we're shooting this. He was, he was planting corn in the spring of the year. I was born in May and he knew I was coming and he was trying to decide what he wanted for a name. And, you know, we had all T names. So Todd and Trent. And when he, and this, people are going to ask this when I say this, because they're going to do the math and not think this is possible and all that. My dad was in World War II, and he was a fighter pilot in World War II. He flew P-51 Mustangs. He was based out of Lascena, Italy.

He flew 55 missions over there before he came home. Go back. There's one of the first episodes we did we talked about my dad. My dad was 52 years old when I was born, and I'm 53 years old now. So that's how that math works. He was born in 1919, and so that's how he was in World War II. But one of the guys he flew with, and for a good part of the war, his wingman, his last name was Torkelson. And his nickname was True Torque.

And he, that name came to him. and so I am named, I'm the namesake of Torkelson. That's how I got Torque. And it's a name that has served me well because when I go to the tire, like when you go to the tire shop, when you go to pick up your tire, they write L. Smith on your tire or, you know, Wilson, B. Wilson or whatever. When I go to the tire shop, it just says torque.

because there aren't any more of them. And when I was selling, when I was selling buildings, that was the best name there was, because every person I interacted with, like they knew you. I could call them back three years later, and when I said this is TORC, they know who you are. And so, yeah, that's how I came up with it.

You didn't come up with it. No, that's how it, that's how I came to be the name of Tork So Torkelson was my namesake. I never got to meet him. But yeah, I owe him a debt for that. Makes your name pretty badass then. Yeah, it is. It's a badass.

Do I have anything, Sawyer? You got any cool, any cool shit for why I'm named Sawyer? Well, you're named Sawyer because your mother won out. because your brother's name is Clay and I wanted to have three boys and I wanted to name Clay, brick and stone. So you were either going to be brick or stone.

Fuck that. And that's what she said. I would have been... Brick? That would have been terrible. And stone, you would have been called a stoner your whole fucking life. Yeah.

So, see, be happy that you got what you got. I'm pretty sure mom told me that she saw my name on some credits after a TV show or movie. Lost. Lost?

If Lost was out before you were born, one of the main characters in Lost, his name was Sawyer. Yeah. And that really stuck with her. She thought that was good. It is a good name. I do like my name. It's unique. Yeah.

I like your name too. Well, thank you. Yeah. So speaking of names. Yeah. Speaking of names, we got a hell of a whiskey for a whiskey minute here. Whiskey Minute today is chicken cock. Chicken cock.

Chicken Cock, Double Oak, Kentucky Whiskey. So age nine years, single barrel selection. 119.8 proof. 119 proof. Where is that bottle at? Does it say on the back? Where is it from? Yeah.

Is it Tennessee or Kentucky? Kentucky. Kentucky. Kentucky. Chicken cock from Kentucky. It's bourbon, right? Nope. It's whiskey.

I thought fucking bourbon was from Kentucky. I thought you could only bear it. Oh yeah, no, you're right. Sorry. It's bourbon. Sorry. But they call it whiskey on here. Kentucky whiskey.

Well. Wouldn't you want to go say it's bourbon then? No. No? Because it must not meet the criteria. I'm driving. I'm kind of drawing a blank on how that. Dad's been drinking, so he's been drinking while he's been doing this show.

So he's getting cloudy. I did have a mixer tonight. Yeah. So we don't have any fancy glasses. We have no glasses. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, like back in high school just on the gravel road getting away from your parents breaking into your dad breaking into your dad's liquor cabinet and just getting anything you can it's like the southern

comfort yeah how many of you uh write a passage with southern comfort oh is it caramel note how is that is this as smooth as that 12 year weller no no it's not all right there it goes it's got good flavor on the back end, but it fucking packs a punch. There's a little heat to it. Yeah, it's got some heat, but I do like the flavor after the fact. Yeah, so it's kind of like, so a lot of the people that I've heard that have tried it, they think it's got a lot of caramel to it. It's got good flavor on that after the fact, but.

It's a higher proof. That cock hits you in the mouth. Right off the bat. That fucking thing, it packs a punch. I don't know, I'd rate that like a six and a half maybe. Yeah. I mean, it's not the worst. It's probably a little bit above average, maybe.

Just if it didn't have any flavor. Yeah, it does have good flavor. It's not. And the burn's not terrible. We've had a lot worse. Well, we don't do ourselves any favors. I mean, you've been drinking a little bit, but I haven't had shit.

And I feel like every time you take the first pole, it's always. I don't know, the weller was pretty. Yeah, that was good. That was one of the best we've ever sampled on here. So chicken cock, I probably wouldn't drink it on ice or just straight. I would probably mix that if you're going to mix it or have it. Have a little water with it. Have a little water maybe with it. But it's got a kick-ass name. If you're going to have a bottle sitting on your bar, I'd buy, well, that's why I bought it. I was in Des Moines last weekend and I saw it. I'm like, I think I need a bottle of chicken cock. So there you go. I don't know. chicken cock if you're gonna all of all the animals you can pick it's an old brand of all the animals you can pick why chicken cock well i don't know why not beefcock beagle cock doesn't sound that good i don't tiger cock well i that's not nilean cock that's not native to kentucky true i don't know there's a lot there's a lot of other feel there's it all lot there's a lot of other cocks i would

have probably put on the front of a a whiskey when we build the distillery here but i mean i guess chicken and cock. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's what you call it. My mind's in the gutter. Oh, right.

It's not the chicken's cock. It's chicken cock. Yeah. And you know what? If you want to build your distillery and sell a bottle called tiger cock, then you go ahead. No, I'd call it hog cock. Hogcock. That actually has a pretty good ring to it.

Fuck whistle pig. We're going to have some hog cock. Well, I don't, yeah. I like it. Okay, I think it's on like Donkey Kong. That's what we're going to work towards. Oh, well, there went the value. Yeah, there went all the value right there.

I, you know, I think if anything, we probably made them laugh a couple times. Maybe. So if we did, all we asked, guys, is you just share the show with people that you know. It's really going to help us grow the show, make it better, get more guests on. Leave a review on Spotify or Apple. Go get yourself a farmer grade box or let us help you out in any way we can with providing meat to your loved ones. We appreciate the hell out of you guys. We love you.

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