Barn Talk - Corn, Craft Beer, & COVID Impacts: A Rural Perspective

Episode Date: October 27, 2024

Welcome to Barn Talk! In this episode, we dive deep into the latest agricultural practices, revealing the ins and outs of winter crop establishment, organic matter building, and the intricacies of manure application. We’ll touch on the pressing concerns of cover crop costs and innovative residue management techniques. But that’s not all – we also explore the brewery industry's challenges, from local closures to market saturation, and discuss shifting consumer behaviors towards craft beers and seltzers. Additionally, we’ll reflect on the political landscape, sharing candid thoughts on recent events and speculating about future appointments for the Secretary of Agriculture. Join us as we sample a fan-gifted Weller 12-year whiskey, update you on the latest market trends, and celebrate the high-speed internet installation transforming farm operations. Plus, don’t miss our reflections on the recent harvest season and much more. Stay tuned for a jam-packed episode filled with insights, laughter, and thought-provoking discussions right here on Barn Talk. Orbit Farm Technologies- https://orbit.ag/contact/ 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 Q&A episode answering farm-related questions today. 08:55 Corn storage is full; using basis contracts. 15:05 Orbit Technologies provides excellent farm-wide wireless Internet. 19:30 SpaceX expedites rocket reuse, despite Elon controversy. 23:47 Different numbers given based on type; strategic misinformation. 28:01 Using manure to grow corn, avoiding soybeans. 32:28 Using BioCow improves soil biology effectively. 41:47 Whiskey market softening, oversupply, cautious buying. 45:00 Ace is unique, competes without lumber, higher prices. 51:04 Uncertainty about future Agriculture Secretary appointments. 55:33 Not claiming election rigged; accept Kamala win. 01:01:57 Quickly shut it off to avoid damage. 01:05:32 Thanking supporters, share, submit questions, return weekly. ------------------------------- ***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... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Stay is going to be a Q&A episode. You guys submitted your questions through email, and we're going to answer them here on the show.

Pick the best ones that we can find. If you got a question for us for our Q&A episodes, please email us at Barn Talk Show at gmail.com, or DM us on Instagram, DM us on Twitter, DM us on TikTok, write it in the YouTube comments if you're watching on YouTube. Anyway, you can get us your questions. We're searching for them. Send us a letter.

Send us a letter. Send us some whiskey. Send us some bourbon, whatever. Whatever works for you. Before we get into it, you guys know the drill. If you get any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know. The more you guys do that, the more this show grows, the more guests we can get on, the more episodes we can make.

You can also feel free to leave a review on Spotify or Apple. We love hearing from you guys. And we appreciate every single one of you that have been doing that. We're up to 3,000 5-star reviews on Spotify and 1,300 on Apple. So keep leaving those reviews. Last thing you can do to help out the show and help us out here on our family farm or support our direct-to-consumer meat business Farmergrade, farmagrade. We're gearing up for the holidays.

We're going to be doing holiday gift boxes. So if you're a small business owner and you want to gift your employees, something's nice, a big old box of meat, just give us a go. We got turkeys, we got hams, we're going to also have some prime rib roasts. We're really gearing up for these holidays. So if you are interested at all, getting yourself a turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas or ham for Thanksgiving or Christmas, give us a go. Give us a go.

That's all that we ask. You know, a lot of people that are on that have YouTube channels or do podcasts or whatever, they're big on Patreon. You know, they want you to go to Patreon and support them. We don't have Patreon. We have something better. We have Metrion. Hell yeah.

Farmer Gray, just think of that as like, think of that as like Metrion. So, you know, you don't have to give us a donation. Buy yourself some meat. Get something good out of it. You don't want a bumper sticker or a t-shirt or anything like that anyway. Get yourself a prime rib roast. Get yourself a ham. It's way better.

It is way. It is way better. It's, we, that was all dad right there. He's like, you know what? Got down to shoot a podcast. He's like, you know what? All these fucking podcastsers got Patreon. We don't got Patreon.

We got Metrion. They're getting, at least they're getting something out of it when they, when they do a Metrion purchase. They'll get a whole box of meat. Let's face it, you're going to get a cheap, you do that, you're going to get some cheap T-shirt the first time you wash it, it's going to shrink or the S is going to fall out of it or off of it or whatever else. you're going to get a stain on it.

And if you're going to get a stain on it, hopefully it's from the barbecue sauce that you put on the rack of ribs that you got from Farmer Grade. Yep, that's right. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Anyway, you guys help support the show if you help Farmer Grade,

if you help Barn Talk, if you help this will do farm. It's all helping us, and it's going to make this show better and get more people on the show to have better conversations. So we appreciate every single one of you guys that supports us in any way

that whether it's sharing the show, whether it's leaving her view, whether it's supporting Farmergrade, whether it's any other, subscribing on YouTube any other way. We did have somebody bitch, I will say, somebody did get a little pissy in the comments last episode.

I'm getting really sick and tired of you guys self-promoting yourself for the first three minutes of the episode. Well, it is our podcast, so we can do what we want. And we're not, we are not, you don't sell us, you don't see us hawking stuff left and right.

It's like this, Farmer grade is, like that is the product that supports that makes all this work. So I guess, yeah, I mean, you're just going to have. We love doing this and we've been doing it for free for a while. But I mean, at some point, we are farmers at the end of the day. We've got to make a couple bucks somehow doing this thing. So sorry I pissed you off about the self-promotion and trying to get some reviews

and trying to get people to share the show. You do a podcast and let me listen to it. And then I'll give you some feedback too. How about that? Wow. You got a little bitterness this morning. It gets old after a while. And here's another hate comment.

I get really sick and tired to see it. Kind of going off a tangent here. But, you know, it's so funny. When people see these shorts or these clips, they take things out of context. They're not like you guys. You guys get everything in context. So, but, you know, the most common question

or most common comment we get hate comment is, geez, do these guys even farm? Or do they just sit around and just talk about farming? I bet you they don't even farm. Yeah. Yep. And all I got to say to those haters is if you want to see video evidence and video proof of that, you can go watch us actually farm at our YouTube channel or Instagram or TikTok.

This will do farm. This will do farm is where you can actually see us doing the work. If you don't believe that we do shit and all we do is sit in these chairs and talk, shit, you can go see that for yourself to really get a, get a graph. of, hey, we don't just sit in these chairs. We sit in these chairs once a week. Yep. Literally once a week.

Once a while, I'll come up here and take a nap because nobody knows, you know, nobody comes looking for you here. That shit pisses me off too, because it's like, only if you knew. Yep. Only if you knew. So I had somebody, somebody commented on one of the videos and said how rare it was to see a modern day tractor that was only two-wheel drive because my 7820 doesn't have front wheel of.

and they're like, they really thought that there was some fancy purpose for it. What's the purpose for that? Why would you have that traction with front wheel assist? And I had to let them down easy and say, well, because we're poor. That's why we don't have that tractor. That's why that tractor is not front wheel assist. The price was right. So there you go.

Anyway, market update, though. Market update. Okay. We are done with harvest, which we're pretty happy about that. one of the bonuses of farming with David is he has a drag line a manure dragline business so he is like a task master because to him he is not thinking about being done with harvest so he can put his feet up he's like that's like the that's like the first couple innings his his real money maker is drag line and manure so he's all about that so he's like got to get it done got to get it done so

Anyway, we finished, we basically finished harvest yesterday. Now we're trying to clean up all the messes that got left, you know, and everything that was neglected while we were doing that. But, man, a whirlwind in southeast Iowa because we've had no, no rain. There hasn't been one weather day. Everybody's just going, and more guys getting done every day. It feels like this was like one of the quickest harvest I've ever been. a part of just because there was no day off pretty much it was just kind of go go go unless we had

one of a one of the three of us had a something really important we had to go to yeah but other than that it was we just knocked it out well I think we a year ago I think we started harvest about on the about on the 17th or the 18th of September and we finished on the 22nd of October, I think. And this year, we actually started darn near the first week of October, and we were done on, what, the 16th? Is today the 17th?

Whatever? I don't know. So, yeah, I mean, it just went. It went. It was kind of a grind, though. It was. But I'm glad to be done. And the markets kind of reflect that excellent weather because there is a lot of pressure.

Around here, the two big feed mills that a lot of people take corn to. I just got a text from Katz Green that one of them's closing at 5 o'clock today. And I think the other one might, they might have closed early, I don't know, but basically they're both full. So the only room they've got for corn is what they're grinding. Now, granted they grind a lot of corn, but I mean they are full up. One of them had a basis contract.

Last week they decided they were going to do a basis contract. and I think it was 25 cents off of the November, off the December futures, and you had to do it in 5,000 bushel increments, and you obviously have to price it by the 29th of November, and I think that corn only had to be down to 15, 15 or 155. I can't remember. Anyway, they only had that out for three days, and they were full. I think they put it out there and they thought, oh yeah, we'll get a little, you know, we'll get some corn out of this.

They had, I mean, they were like full, all the bushels that they wanted to do on that they got like in three days. So good yields down here, but everything's starting to pile up. So corn today was down, I think it was down two cents. 405 is the right number. I thought it was 404, but I just got the update. 405. Best local price, 358. So that tells you right there. The basis has widened out. Just 10 days ago, when corn was 410 or so, I want to say the bids were there in the 380, 385. So obviously, they're getting all the corn they want. 375 in Cedar Rapids.

over in Illinois I was talking to somebody that just came back from there and they said that all the co-ops had their rings up and they were starting to ag bag corn and pile corn on the ground so it's there's going to be a lot of pressure for a while. November beans 970 Burlington 961 968 and Quincy that's actually about the narrowest spread between the two sides of the river that I've seen a long time. Bean meal 315 a ton December wheat 572 so the market sold off today

because it was announced or somebody found out the Russians sold a whole bunch of wheat and they sold it like private treaty like they didn't go through an exchange so nobody knows what they sold it for what the price was and all the traders got nervous

they don't like that they don't like being cut out so that that kind of scared that kind of scared them the other thing it scared him is. Exports have been really good lately, but a lot of people worried about the Chinese economy and whether or not China's what their hunger for U.S. soybeans is. So that's kind of putting some added pressure on everything.

Hogs, December 7785, cattle 187.50, that's still the October contract, and feeder cattle, October contract, 248. And you see McDonald's is suing the, Big four beef packers claiming that they have been in a price-fixing scheme for like the last 10 years, maybe longer. I guess I didn't hear exactly, but it's like for a long time. I was going to say they're a little late.

I mean, I guess if you're going to sue, I guess there's no wrong time to sue, but I mean, I thought they got all their beef from Brazil anyway. I don't know. I guess, well, they must, I don't know. That's funny. That's hilarious because I don't know. how it matters to them, but I'm sure they're getting a hell of a good price

for all the beef pabies they serve. They, their inflation is running their prices up and they need every penny. Yeah, side note, if you've ever had, if you have had McDonald's in 2024, holy shit.

That shit is expensive. Fast food nowadays, hot take. Fast food nowadays, it ain't very fast and it ain't fucking cheap. It is like, you might as well go cook at home at that point. All fast food is for now, I feel like, is just convenience. That's all it's, that's its only benefit.

Yeah, because if you go to, if you go to McDonald's and you order yourself a double quarter pounder and with fries and a drink, I can go. It's 12 bucks, probably. I have a, we have a little, we have a diner that opened up in our town. It was a diner forever and it was closed for like 15 years. years and this couple bought it. Fixed all up. It's beautiful. It's called Northside Diner. You can get a smash burger in there single. You can get a single smash burger in there for like, what, 1075? And if you wanted to double, I think it's $3 more. So it's basically the same price as McDonald's.

Hell of a lot better burger. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. All you're paying for is the convenience, and sometimes it's really not very convenient. It's not very convenient. Yeah, and it's terrible for you, too. Well, I mean, true. I had plenty of McDonald's and Jersey Mikes and pizzas while we were harvested. I have ate like shit the last two weeks. I'm ready to cleanse myself a little bit. That Jersey Mikes is a pretty consistent product.

It's pretty damn good, but. In moderation. When you eat the Italian every time you go there, it kind of, I don't know if that's, those processed meats, I don't know how many times you should eat. that but it feels fresher than a quarter pound it does it might not be but yeah that's just my hot take it's fast food side note today uh our printer died uh i usually always print out the questions uh printer died and it's it's an old one and so we're just uh we've got it up on the big screen rip yep yeah yeah well i don't it's gonna rest in pieces because i'm chucking that son of a bitch

but I'll give you a baseball bat okay we might have to video that softball take out all my frustrations all my office all my office frustrations yep but conveniently we finally have very good wireless internet here basically on our farm and here in the barn we have for all intensive purposes whole farm internet and there's a company called orbit technology that did that for us. And we got in touch with them because they basically did that on a much bigger scale for one of the hog producers around here. And I was really interested in what they were doing, got started talking with them. And we have internet at all our hog billing sites and in the shop and in the barn and at our houses, all running off a one piece of fiber. We got rid of a bunch of bills

and it's good and it's fast damn good uh orbit technologies i'll just pitch them out you're probably we're probably going to have one of them on here because it's damn interesting what they're able to do with uh cameras and with monitoring and uh a bunch of stuff but anyway if you want to do there'll be a link in the description if you want to learn more about that it's orbit dot ag is uh their website and you uh if that's something interesting you tell them that uh The Barn Talk Boys sent you. So anyway, hey, thanks for sticking with us. You know, it's your voice. It's your seat at the table. It's your Iowa Corn Growers Association membership. The Iowa Corn Growers Association works to create opportunities for long-term Iowa corn grower profitability. And it starts with you. Becoming an ICGA member gives you a seat at the table on issues that impact your farm and the broader ag community. Each year, the ICGA, implement, policy priorities set by farmer members, like building demand for higher ethanol blends,

expanding trade opportunities, and protecting tax credits. The Iowa Corn Growers Association works to protect family farms like ours and yours to build a profitable future. Plus, your membership gets you a host of other benefits like access to the latest news and exclusive member-only events. We believe farmers are stronger when we work together. Visit IowaCorn.org, backslash, join to become an ICGA member today. Now let's get back to it. We got any questions? I think we do. I think we got a good, good chunk of questions. Are you done with the market update? I think you skipped a few. Oh yeah, I did leave a little. I left a little side track there. We got going on cattle. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. So crude oil, crude oil 70, 7038. I am surprised at,

With everything going on in the world that crude oil has fallen like it has, the Middle East is just on like a, I don't know, it's like on a hairpin trigger, and you never know what's going to happen next over there. But oil doesn't seem to care. I guess that's just a testimony to what the production that we have is and how diversified the productions has gotten around the world. so I don't know anyway 7038 for crude oil

Bitcoin 68,000 it's working up Ethereum 2600 Tesla $220 a share and if you haven't watched it you need to get on the old internet

and watch this So SpaceX launched Starship and they caught it They caught it with their landing tower they call it like the chopsticks. Like that,

that was like watching sci-fi. Well, when he originally announced that he wanted to make that happen, people laughed at him. Oh, no, they thought it's crazy hell. Now they legit happened. He just launched a rocket in the air and then caught it. And it's not like, that is the heaviest.

My understanding is, I think this is right. Somebody will tell me if I'm wrong. It is like the heaviest thing that we have ever launched into space and they brought it back and they caught it. And so what that's going to do for them is they can literally they catch it and it's right on the pad

where they launched it from. So they don't have to haul it from the ocean when they, the Falcon 9s they land like on a barge in the ocean. And then they take them off, they put them on a truck, they haul them back to SpaceX, they refurbish them, then they prop them up, then they haul them down on the launch pad. Super heavy, they're going to be able to catch it right there at the pad, service it, test everything out, refuel it, and send it right back to space. Like, it's, it's freaking crazy. And I think it's just, I don't know whether it's because Elon's politics have made, have kind of

polarized people to where they just don't want to support him? Yeah, but I mean, it is. Well, I guarantee you that's it. I'm mainstream media hates the guy. Well, we're going to talk a little bit more about it. So who used to talk about space travel to the public, the media? Yeah. And made it a huge deal. Now that nobody talks about it, nobody really good. No, nobody, they're not highlighting it at all. You can only just see it on social media, which it's pretty freaking incredible. We were making some strides. I was a 10. year old kid, I'd be like just, I'd be glued to that crap because that just fast, that would fascinate the shit out of me. It does fascinate you. You're, you're, you're 10 year old

right now. I got my Han Solo. Although you are worrying me, you're losing, you're losing your train of thought here. We've, we're halfway through the market update and you forgot four, four things. The only thing that Matt, the only thing that's left gold and silver and they're both up and You got to stay sharp. We got to have this podcast go on. I'm going to go drink a protein shake to make sure that I don't have early onset or something. I don't know. But we are going to get into these questions 20 minutes in to the podcast.

So first question, it's got to do with farming. Go figure. By the way, if you want to know more about us or just ask us a question about anything that's not related to farming, go right ahead. we love talking about farming, but we'll talk about just about anything, just for you that, for those of you that want to submit a question. Do farmers ever tell the truth about their crops yield? Why or why not? My opinion on that is people bullshit. I'd say this every year when we're combining, and I talk to, I talk to other farmers, and everybody's telling you, it's this great number and you're like well i mean is that what it is that what it was showing up on the combine

a real time or was that your field average because to me the field average is what your yield that's that's a true yield that's what you really did and you know what's showing up in the combine's one thing but when you get done with that field what is your true field average that's what that's what your yield should be. That's what you should tell people. If you tell people your yield, that's what it should be. But I don't necessarily think everybody does that. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. Nobody does that. Nobody does that. I think it's a bunch of bullshit. And that's why nobody is, that's why farmers also keep it close to their chest because it's like nobody's going to give you a straight up answer anyway. And why should you give somebody a

straight up answer or why should you just why should you say anything in the first place because it's all speculation and when you ask a farmer what their yield is they're probably going to give you a bullshit answer anyway well you so i have multiple answers that i give because i but truly i don't give a shit like i if people want to know our yield whatever like cool we're competing but like it doesn't really doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things i don't know why it's such a hush hush thing because this is this is this is is what, this is what I do. So, I have, I have neighbors that it doesn't matter what number you gave them, they're going to come back to you with a better number than that. Oh yeah, yeah. They're,

like, if you give them a number, they're going to look at you like you should be out of business because their number is so much better than that. And it doesn't matter what number you start with. So you got those guys. Then you got those guys. Then you got. the guy that really wants to know that, you know, you run into that ass that asks all the time. And you know that that guy is going to turn around and tell everybody, anybody that will listen. So you give that guy a different number. I usually give him a really poor number because if I'm going to spread it out, I'm going to be like, oh, yeah, Whistler's Corn is making a hundred bushel.

It's terrible. like you i tell him just about what i think i can get by with compared to what i think yields kind of are because i know he's going to run in his mouth and tell everybody and then the other phenomena is at this i'm curious whether people give us a comment on this or i will clip this up but does everybody have a farmer have a neighbor that when you start combining they don't give a shit they just show up. They like literally just show up and just get right in the combine with you. Like they just, they don't care. They want to know. And they're just going to come get in and chat you up. And you know they don't really care. They just want to watch your yield monitor.

That's what, that's what they want to do. I'm curious, do you all have somebody like that? Because we have somebody like that in our area, which, and it's fine. He's harmless. But I just think, like, I would never do that. Even to neighbors that are, like, good friends of mine, I would never just pull in their field, run over there, hop up, get in the cab,

be like, oh, let's make a few rounds. You know, I wouldn't do that. But anyway. You're just staring at the Yold monitor. Yeah, like, yeah, exactly right. Staring at the screen. I think that's crazy. That is crazy. So, uh, it runs the gamut.

But the other thing is, like, this year, I feel like for some people, our yields in Southeast Iowa have been really, really good. And so I feel like some people, if I told them what our crops made and I gave them the honest answer, I don't think they believe me. I don't think they believe me anyway. So at the end of the day, I just don't think,

like I usually just tell people when they ask, I say really good. They're doing really good. Yeah, I typically say that too. I don't give them a number. Yeah, I say yields are really good. Unless you're really close, unless you're a trusted source that just,

like I know that you're just genuinely asking and you might not even be a farmer. You're just curious. Because like, again, I don't, I'm not, I don't hold it so close to my chest where I think it's this big deal to not, but I'm also not going to just go. out of my way and

shout from the rooftops. Like if somebody around me is a farmer that says what their yield, I'm not going to say anything about yield of our crops unless somebody asks me. Right. I'm not going to jump in a conversation and one up somebody because they're talking

about their yield. I will not say anything about our yield unless I'm asked. So what was your yield? Do we really want to tell them? No, we're not going to tell them. Yeah, we're going to keep that a secret. It was less. It was less. than 300, but it was more than 200

for corn. Yep, which is still pretty good. Had some corn on corn acres. Corn on corn this year was amazing. I will just say... So good that what, what are we doing next year? We're going to plant corn on corn on everything. Because we got enough shit to haul. Yeah.

So we have always had extra manure. Basically, we've had one barn of manure that we've pretty much given away for the cost of the hauling because I've rotated, I've always had one chunk that we've planted beans. And it always has kind of just been in the back of my mind. It's like, why are you giving this manure away? Like, you might as well use that because you can grow really good corn on corn if you manage it right. And I feel like we can manage it right.

and so we're just going to do that on everything. I'm not saying that I won't ever plant soybeans again, but for the next couple anyway, I'm just going to go corn on corn because I've got the manure and I might as well use it. Beans are shit too. Well, beans are such a pain in the ass. Like this year they dried down so fast

that we weren't intending to, like we started doing corn and then it's like you look around and everybody's doing beans. like, damn, these things must be getting dry. And they did get dry. And so everybody went and got that. And the thing is, they were drying down, but yet the stems were still green in a lot of places. And they were, we didn't really have trouble combining them because David traded combines. And his old platform is not anywhere too big for the machine that he's got. So I mean, it would power through him, but it was just kind of a pain in the ass. And I, for the first,

what they make and for what the price is, I can make more money per acre planting corn on corn than I can do in beans. Well, I want to be devil's advocate here. What if there's somebody out there that says, Torque, we don't want to create another dust bowl here. You've got to have some rotation. You got to have some soil health. What are we going to do?

What are we going to do? What do you say to the haters? Well, is there anybody else doing this out there, corn on corn? Oh, there's plenty of people doing corn on corn. especially if you got hog buildings. There's plenty of guys that plant corn on corn. And we know till all our stuff, and we do a good job of keeping up on, you know,

our nutrient program. I have not done cover crops. Oh, I know. It's terrible. But I don't know. I just can't. Like this year, there's guys out. We haven't had rain in. I don't know, 40 days.

I don't know how long it's been since we've had rain. There's guys out there drilling cover crops, and I'm like, well, for me, if I can't get, if I'm going to do that, and I can't get it established good before winter, and then it comes in the spring, and it just gets started, and then I'm going to go in there and burn it down

so that I can plant. Have I gotten the benefit out of that $30 an acre that it's cost me to do it? I don't know. And if you want to talk about organic matter, nothing will build organic matter in your fields more than growing corn on corn. And to me,

I don't think... Why? Huh? Why does it build? Well, because you have all that, you have all that residue that you're just adding to every year. And we do,

we use what they call it. call a... So when we say we're no-till, we are, but I think you can argue that a little bit because for one, we drag line all our manure on, and that machine that you drag line with has colters on it, and I think they're 16 inches apart, maybe. So you're actually, you're doing a little bit of tillage there

where you're knifing that manure in. And then we'll spread our bio cow and whatever fertilizer, if any, we need. And then we have a chopper. We call it a chopper. It's a bestler. So it's just a mechanical stock chopper. It has baskets that are about 16 inches wide and they're offset to the row. So like the machine we have is an eight row machine.

and we run that down so that basket is running right down where your row was and it's busting those root balls and it it does i mean i guess you can't say it doesn't do any tillage because you're actually doing a little bit of tillage where you're throwing them out so i guess we're not a purist if there is such a thing as a purist but by the time we're done that all of that fodder and all that residue is managed pretty well, and it breaks down really, really well over the winter. And, I mean, I'm not going to make, I'm not getting paid for this, but we've been using Midwest BioMibuster BioAgs

bio-cow product for like 13 years probably. And I am sold on it. that with manure because I feel like the soil biology is way better in our ground than it was when I started when I started making the decisions and our yields and are the way the soil like the soil the way it holds moisture the way it absorbs water after rain I don't know all it all seems to be getting better that's where i'm like i'd like to do cover crops but i just can't make that pencil it like when i look at the numbers on that for what it costs me to do it the seed the machine and then to burn it down i'm like i don't know i just can't i'm not ready to take

that bite yet so but we'll give you an update next fall i mean if it's if it goes a hell in a hand basket. I'm not going to sit here and be like, oh, it was great when it wasn't. But that's the path we're going. So, that's kind of a lot. I feel like I was in a therapy session there. Yeah. Well, it's, it's fresh in our mind. So good to talk about it now. Let's do a fun one, because that one about put me to sleep. So is the local, is the local brew pub trend over? What's next? Yeah, I mean, you might be able to talk to this better than I can. The reason that we put this on there is because we have a local brewery, just a little ways north of us, and they sell their product around.

You can get it in a lot of the grocery stores, and they have a restaurant there. We really like the place. Food's good. Beer's good. I don't drink much craft beer, but you and your brother like it. I dabble. Yeah. I dabble.

but they're closing up closing up i think uh the brewery whole the whole brewery uh trend is kind of it's going to kick some people out it's getting to that point where the big dogs are going to win and everybody else that wasn't able to get themselves established and really build a brand and all that they're closing because times are tough restaurant business is already tough but i feel like the brewery business was a little bit of a fast It was like the Froyo back in the early 2000s. Every college town had a freaking Froyo shop. And there was a lot of froyo shops that closed down because it was a fat.

It didn't last very long. So I feel like the brewery thing is kind of in the same boat. I'm not very happy that our local brewery closed down. But I think times are tough. I think there's too much competition. I think it's just one of those industries that exploded and now that it's come back down to earth and all these breweries have popped up,

it's made it really hard to compete because there's just too many. Yeah. And do you think, do you think the volume? And I bet it's fucking expensive to operate one of them, son of bitches. During... To brew all your own beer and to... I bet the overhead is... Well, right before COVID and then going through COVID, I mean, it was huge. Everybody, like, there were.

And COVID didn't help. No, COVID. That kicked a lot of people's asses. But as far as, do you think it's a deal that it, do you think consumption, do you think consumption, do you think consumption has stayed up? Or do you think people are cutting back on the amount of craft? Like, do you think that the onset of all this? I mean, there's a new freaking seltzer or this or vodka drink or whatever. Every week there's some new thing coming out. Do you think the pressure from all of that? I think it could be psychological. I mean, people don't want to spend more money on... People want to find comfort and shit that they're used to right now

because there's a lot of uncertainty. So they're going to go to the traditional bush light, bud light, Coors Light, Miller Light, because that's their baby. that's their that's their reliable and trust in drinking craft beer it's expensive it's more expensive than you know just your traditional beer and you don't know what you're going to get most of time not everybody's in the mood to try some new shit not everybody's in the mood to try um every new flavor craft beer and i'm one of those people you know that brewery had a they had a classic and I always got the classic because it was just

pretty consistent it was Mr. reliable and I just think I think you're right I think it could be the brewery whole brewery hop fad but also it could just be the consumption of craft beers also come down too yeah I mean I know a lot of millennials and younger that do love craft beer they do love the different the variety and the difference

I dabble, but it's not, I'm not going to go out of my way to go get some craft beer if I'm going to the liquor store. I just am not. I do like the new shelters that have came out. I think, you know, if you're going to do some tailgating or do a dardy or whatever, like I feel like a really nice high noon is a good, just start of your drinking adventure. I just think that's a really good starter and then switch to beer or liquor after. But yeah, I, I, it doesn't surprise me. It's an interesting question that you brought up.

I don't know if it's a mix of both or one or the other, but all I know is I think breweries are in for a little bit of hurt, it seems. Do you think that the boom in, do you think whiskey's not far behind? I mean, and this also brings up the question of, is this just like any, is this just like America right now? Is this every consumer good out there? Like the internet and social media and all this stuff that's come has given everybody in their dog a chance and opportunity to come out with a new product, a new whiskey, a new brewery, a new beer, craft beer, celtzer. There's just, a lot of competition because I think it's never been easier to start a business than in today's age.

Yep. And so whether you're talking about whiskey, whether you're talking about jerky, whether you're talking about beer, a seltzer, whether you're talking about... Direct to consumer meat business. Direct to consumer meat. You're talking about candy. You're talking about supplements. I mean, it is fucking competitive. No matter what industry you're in. And I think it might just be... The market fine in itself. The market's fine in itself. Yeah.

Because like all these celebrities and all these influencers, all these athletes, they're making all this money, they partner with an agency or whoever. They come out with a... Connor McGregor comes out with a whiskey. The Rock comes out with tequila. I mean, LeBron James just came out with Hennessy. Yeah. I mean, it's just...

It's competitive. Yeah. It's really, really competitive. Yeah. So it makes it hard on... That's why I always, when people ask about Farmer grade and they want to talk about any advice for starting a business or direct to consumer business, meat business, I really truly believe if you're going to start a business in today's world, it's never been easier, but that makes it that much more competitive. So you really got to know your shit and you really got to like, you can't just half ass it and wing it. Like you got to have a brand identity.

You got to have authenticity. A core, a core, what are you doing that's different? Like, what makes you unique? Like, you really got to think out what your brand looks like and what it feels like and what your mission is because there's just too many people out here that'll eat your lunch. It's just the truth. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja or the Orange One. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing roja. Russian roulette with a flamethrower.

Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero, more like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Yeah, I asked that about whiskey because I feel like, you know, in COVID and just coming out of COVID, whiskey went crazy. And the secondary market, the prices that people were getting for bottles that they couldn't get

where they lived, I mean, it's just nuts. But I feel like that's tempering down a little bit. I feel like that market's softening. And then at the same time, because there was so much money in that, because people were willing to pay these inflated prices, you have got just oodles of people, getting into the whiskey market and blending and just crazy stuff. And I think we're going to see

the same thing there. I think that there's a lot of that that's coming to market at the very time that people are tightening up on what they're willing to spend their money on and they're going to buy what they're comfortable with and what has worked and they're less they're less adventurous as far as trying new things and so i think it's going to be i feel like it's going to be kind of a a real double whammy for people that are trying to get into that business so i don't know we'll see i just hope the secondary market goes down a little bit because there's some bottles i'd like to get that I will not spend the money today, but I might if the price was right. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting to see how it all plays out, but that's just a little bit of,

that was an observation that we had. Well, and going with that, talking about the consumer and just things being tighter, we just threw this in here because I saw this story yesterday, but true value hardware, which is like 116 years old, something like that, I mean, it's over 100 years old. They filed for bankruptcy, and they have basically struck a deal to sell themselves to do it best, which is another hardware chain, which, you know, Bill, your own joke off that, but I guess they really, they really did do it best because they did a little better than true value. Again, Ace ate their lunch. Yeah. Ace is eating everybody's lunch in

that business. It's, they've built a brand. Ace has built a brand and they've done a good job of getting in the right towns and the right places. And I, I have never, you probably knew true value. I had never heard of true value hardware store. Well, there used to be a, true value there used to be a true value in Washington and then it closed I don't know whenever but that's like coast to coast

there was a store there were stores called coast to coast that was a hardware store and it went out but yeah you talk about Ace that's really interesting because Ace is kind of unique in this whole deal because they really are kind of that they're competing

against like low and Home Depot and places like that for tools and kind of home and garden stuff, but they don't have the lumber side of it. And I saw the other day a lot of people were, somebody was digging on them because their prices, like they're not a, their stuff is definitely not cheap. So like we have an ace in our town and I'm thankful to have it because it saves me a lot of trips to Iowa City. But you, if you add a Menards across the street, there's a lot of products that they have there that you could buy cheaper at Menards. You're paying for the convenience to have it there. But I will say,

the service you get at an Ace Hardware is a hell of a lot better than the service you get at Menards, and they'll actually have it, like they'll actually have it. And if they don't have it, a lot of times, like they can get it the next day. But yeah, Ace, I feel like Ace is really done, really done well. And I don't know the story on true value, but I think there's just a lot of tightening going on. I mean, this inflation thing, it is not eased up.

The Fed may be lower in interest rates, but I have not seen anything that tells me that consumer prices are moving. It hasn't gotten cheaper on the budget. No. My monthly budgets only got. gone up as far as what we spent it's like you you you started when cat and i started dating the amount of disposal income we had at the end of the month was more than and it's time's just

gone on it's like well god is our lifestyle changed that much no hasn't really changed have less less left over so it's it's everything that's it's gone up i'm not seeing it go down So do you think, and I said before we started today, I didn't really want to talk about politics. And so we purposely didn't choose questions in that genre because we're, what are we? We're less than 30 days from the election. I don't even know what it is. But do you think, like when I talk to people around, we all have the same conversations about, you know, what stuff costs and, you know, the money it takes, and nothing is getting cheaper. I feel like that's a universal truth, and I just question how many people are looking at this election as a choice between what you have and what you had. And Kamala's done a great job of messaging like we can never go back,

She's like, we can never go back. And she wants to paint Trump as, you know, that's all she talks about. She can't bring up any. She refers to her website to tell people to go look at what she wants to do with her policies, but won't say I'm in an interview. All she wants to talk about is how big and bad of a guy Donald Trump is. That is all she talks about.

That is all she keeps running down our throats. And it's just like you're pushing people closer to her. Trump and you don't even know it. That's my point because when I think about all of that, like we can't go back, I'm like well, I'd really like to go back. He lives rent-free in that whole party. He lives rent-free in their head

and you're complaining and talking about Trump only help three years. You're talking about what he did in his presidency three and a half years ago and you won't talk about anything you're going to do when you have done. When you're going to get become if you get elected president.

It's like, what in your right mind thinks that that makes me want to vote for you? Like, I don't understand. But there are, Dad, there are people. I have looked around the internet. There are die hard people that just will not come off that hill. Yeah, I know. They hate Donald Trump so much, so much that they will not deviate. Here's something.

From voting to not vote for him. They will vote for Kamala every time because they just physically cannot vote for him. They have trumped arrangements. And they buy everything that the media tells them, every news outlet, every legacy media outlet, every legacy newspaper, they buy what they say. They don't believe in any conspiracy theories whatsoever that have come true. They don't believe in any. They genuinely believe that government has their best interest in mind. They're genuinely trying to help them.

them and they buy everything that they're told by the establishment in the system. And those people will vote for Kamala 100% of the time. Because that's the truth. That's the truth. It's like we live in this world where you, when you go on the mainstream media and you talk to liberals, they live in that world where what is told to me by the establishment, that is what I believe. the facts, the studies, anything that they come out with, I believe it. Yeah. They do believe in no, no, they don't believe in any ill will that the establishment might

have on their people or, and they just take everything like to heart and take it. And it's crazy to me. I got you. It's crazy. Here's a question that I don't know, but those of you out there, I just thought about this. if Kamala was to become president, who's going to be her secretary of ag,

is she going to hold over Vilsack that we have now? And if Trump becomes president, who is going to be his secretary of ag because it's not going to be Sonny Perdue, I would assume not. I wouldn't think he'd bring him back. So has there been any talk about that? I don't know if any...

This thing has all gone so fast that I don't feel like anybody has even put together a list of what the possibilities are. Nobody's even talked about. I haven't even heard anybody talk about Farman. No. Yeah. Well, there is a time.

There's no time. There's no time. There's been no campaign stops. You know, you think about a normal election cycle. You know, there's all the photo ops where these candidates come and they ride around on the combine and do all that. There's been none of that. There's no time for that. So I don't know. We're getting close, though.

We're getting really close. Do you think the hurricane, do you think that? hurts? Who do you think that hurts more as far as the... 100% Kamala. She didn't... She went on Caller Daddy's podcast the day after Hurricane Milton hit. And then FEMA couldn't, was what, going to give $750 to people for aid? Horrible look on her part. Horrible look. She couldn't have timed it up any worse. And they supposedly said... She tried to make a deal out of calling Ron DeSantis. and Ron DeSantis played her like a fiddle and was like,

what are you going to do for me? Why would I waste my time talking to you? I've never talked to a vice president during any of the hurricanes that have ever come. I thought was well played. I thought Desanthus did a damn good job on that. Yeah, I think it hurt her bad, and I don't know if it really hurt Trump because he's not the vice president. He was on the ground.

Yeah, but yeah, he went there. So it actually helped him probably. but that whole hurricane thing. And again, what they tell us is going on in North Carolina and the victims that were affected by that hurricane versus what is actually being said by the people through the internet and social media,

thank God for X, two different stories. Two completely different stories. Those people were in crisis and needed help. and they were telling us it, oh, it's not as bad as what you think and we're helping them. And $750, $750 is a slap in the fucking face

to those people. Slap in the face. Yeah, when your entire life got washed down the mountain, $750 doesn't go over it. And the whole FEMA thing that they spent like FEMA donated money to go to Ukraine or some shit, like they spent money of FEMA's budget. Yeah.

on other things and there's no money left in FEMA's budget to, like, actually help with disasters. That's a problem. It's a mess. It's a mess. But you think the votes will get counted. I don't know.

I would love to believe, I would love to believe in the integrity of our voting system. I will. Here's what I'll say. If it looks like it's a fair race and the votes are coming in fair from the time that I wake up by the time I go to bed and there's in that trajectory

stays that way while I'm asleep the next morning I'll feel like it was whoever wins I'll feel like it's fair but if I go to fucking bed that night and I wake up the next morning and the fucking whole thing has flip-flopped out of nowhere that's where I get a little speck that's where I get suspicious that's where I get suspicious

and that's where people have got suspicious in the past when you watch it go to sleep get up and it is a completely different so drastically different that you're like how in the hell did that happen

gosh so I don't know exhausting but yeah I don't I'm not here to say that if like that's the narrative that gets specific in and I see in the comments all the time is people say, well, Trump, you know, Republicans, if Trump doesn't win, they're going to say it was rigged. I'm not going to say it's rigged.

If it looks like she's going to win from the onset set and she, she's looking like she's going to win and I go to bed that night and Kamala is winning, I am thinking when I wake up in the morning, Kamala's probably going to be president. I'm thinking when I wake up in the morning, I'm thinking, where is ammo on sale today? Because I need to go buy some. I need something. I need something. I need water purification.

I need, you name it. I need something. Need food. You need stock up on cans. Yep, I need something. Start canning, get your garden going again. Absolutely. I will have, my priorities may change a little bit, I guess.

Yeah, it'll be, we'll see. We didn't mean to get political. We did get political. You shouldn't have, you shouldn't have even, you shouldn't have even waived the carrot. I know. Because we went down the rabbit hole. But it is what it is. It is coming very, very soon.

It's hard to not talk about it. And I just hope, I just hope and pray we make the right decision. And I, I think I might know what the right decision is, but we'll see how it all plays out, regardless of who gets picked as president. That'll be, we'll know after that president's done being president. if it was the right decision or not. So we don't know. But there's this much about it.

I think we're going to have, I think we're having 18 people at our house for Thanksgiving. Both my brothers, both my brothers and their wives and most of the grandkids, most of the kids, are coming. And under no scenario, will there not be somebody pissed off?

God, it is going to be tempting. It'll be so tempting to bring it up. I'm not in the group that's pissed off because I will enjoy I will enjoy just looking at Trisha every once in a while and acting like I'm going to say something just to watch your swarm and give me the hairy eyeball. It's so tempting to say something

because I've always had that little antagonist. I like to antagonize people just to have fun a little bit. And that's just going to be that topic that's just a little bit like, man, what about that election? Yep. Just shut up and just let it play out. You were like, I don't know, how old were you the last time that we all got together? Long time. I won't say anything because it's been a long time.

Yeah, it's been a long time. We don't want it to be a bad experience. And if we don't behave right, it could be a very long time before we do it again. But let's face it, everybody in our family probably knows how we lean. and we're pretty open about it. I think the worst people, though, are people that make politics their whole life that can't interact with people that...

Right. Like, we have people in our family that are liberal. We have people in our family that are conservative, but that's not going to stop us from sitting down and sharing a meal together and having a good time. That's where it's just like, God, you're... People like that can't even just function and not talk about politics or can't even sit in the same room with somebody that's not on the

that's on the other side that's where it's just like man got a problem you're kind of you're kind of the problem not happy yeah it's it's a little ridiculous but anyway I think uh that's gonna wrap it up we did a we did a lot of whirlwind in here we went back on we had a lot of notes we had a little side notes we had a lot of hot takes uh this was like a qna slash hot topics we We did answer some questions. I hope the people that asked those questions got the answers that they were looking for. But hey, it's our first rodeo since harvest. So give us some grace.

We're going to get back on our game. Torx one-liners are going to be coming out like crazy here. Planning on having a guess next week. Yeah. I can pull it off. I think we got it. So we feel good that harvest is out of the way. It was our brains are a little fry.

and just getting everything else done that we had to get done. We didn't break anything, though. Didn't break anything. I spilled a little corn on the ground. I feel like I do that every year, but I got it cleaned up. Left the wagon door open a couple of, one time. One time. You did pretty good.

Yep. It's hard. The hardest transition for a grain cart driver, that's what my main job was, but you had to jump in for me occasionally. When you go from beans to corn, and then when you've got two different sets of wagons that are different, that you got to, you got to just feel it.

You got to feel it, man. Yep. You got to feel it. You got to shut that gate. It's a perfect time. Yeah. Now that's something we should talk about. Shut the gate on the crane car.

No, I want to know this. So I just want to know this. I see. So we run, we've got a J&M, what is it, an 875, I think, something like that. It's got a really nice, the boot swivels, the end of the auger swivels in and out, and really nice.

But you have got to make sure that that auger is emptied out. And you got to shut the gate, so you got to anticipate, you got to shut the gate and let that auger empty out before you shut the PTO off. My question is, is that the way that all of these carts are designed? Because the problem with that is if you're loading a really like a tall wagon, like a Brent, like a Brent 6. What the heck is it? 657.

They sit a little taller. And if you're in a spot where, if you're in a spot where they're a little high, than the field level, like if you've got it on, if you've got it on the side of a field or whatever. And you've got to shut that thing off quick because you're going to run it over. Well, we've never done it, but David, they, when they got that cart, they had to replace the gearbox in the bottom of the auger because, I guess, from not getting that cleaned out. And I'm like, that's a piss poor design.

So let us know in the comments. Like, I feel like somebody needs to design these carts to where, if you have to shut them off, even if there's some corn in there, you're not going to ruin the damn thing. Yeah. So, anyway. It's enough to drive a man to drink it. It is.

It is. And I poured you a little bit. We got Weller 12 year here. This was a gift. This was a gift sent in by somebody from Wisconsin, and I forgot to write it down. but we will we will praise them out on the next podcast see that's how rough we are yeah we came not prepared but a great friend of the show great friends of the show uh sent this bottle of weller

to us so we are going to give it a try give it a whirl here on our whiskey minute so i poured you up some already that's a pretty light pour well i poured mine mine even light lighter so i'm just going to go ahead and give it a go good what does it good what do you toast too uh cheers to a safe harvest and both of us keeping all our fingers and toes it was a safe harvest and we did we do have all our ligaments that's good that's good yeah that's that's really good that is that's got a little smoky flavor to it and that's good shit it's got a little smoke flavor it's got a little sweetness to it that's really smooth that is smooth it's not it doesn't bad bite on it at all. No.

That's one of the better bottles that I think I've ever sampled. Yeah, that's one of the better ones we've done on the show, for sure. We'll hide that bottle when all the family comes. We're going to take all the bottles that we really like and hide them so that nobody goes off on a tangent. Yeah, that's good shit. I recommend that. If you can find that somewhere, thanks.

That's good. You can find that, grab that, because that's good shit. What do you rate that? year. I don't know. I would rate it. I would rate it. I'd rate that like a nine.

Yeah, I was going to say nine. The only reason I wouldn't rate it higher than that is because I just don't know what... I don't know if you never give... I don't know if you never give out a 10. No, because you never know if you're going to find something that's better. I give that a 9.2. Oh, look at you. 9.2.

That's good. Yeah, I would drink that on ice all day long. There you go. So that's your whiskey minute. ladies and gents well or 12 year if you can find it go pick it up highly recommend yeah we couldn't find it

somebody sent that to us so thank you for sending that bottle we are pieces of shit for forgetting your name but we will throw you out we will shout you out on the next podcast we owe you a barn talk we owe you a barn talk hat or shirt or something yeah

we'll have to hook you up Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to wrap it up, guys. We appreciate every single one of you for your support. We love you guys. Share the show if you got any value. Submit your questions at Barn Talk Show at gmail.com. Get some farmer grade meat. Pay the matrion. And we'll see you back here next week for another episode.