Barn Talk - Farming, Marriage, and Making It Work

Episode Date: July 13, 2025

In this episode, Tork and Sawyer kick things off with a look at farm life, crop updates, and a hard-hitting market rundown—complete with plenty of honesty about the challenges currently facing agriculture. The guys don’t shy away from the tough stuff, diving into topics like tanking grain and meat exports, the impact of tariffs, and the shifting global economy. But it’s not all stats and politics. You’ll hear about Sawyer’s adventures hosting a Fourth of July party, Tork’s advice on lasting marriages for newlyweds, and a fiery discussion on whether success means moving to the city—or if small towns really are where it’s at. The episode also covers trending listener questions, from market moves and farm management tips to the infamous Epstein list and thoughts on the state of American democracy. As always, the guys throw in some laughs, hard-won wisdom, and an open invitation for you to join in on future Q&As. So grab your seat in the barn—this episode is packed with cornfield common sense, a healthy dose of sarcasm, and plenty of rural real talk. Shop Farmer Grade 👇🏻 https://farmergrade.com/  SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 Corn Market Concerns and Weather Impact 08:09 Weaker Dollar, Rising Oil Prices 11:37 China's Economic Challenges Loom 18:23 Skipping Party Hosting Next Year 24:04 Importance of Honest Communication 30:18 "Life's Challenges: Navigating Alone" 35:14 Small Towns' Remote Work Advantage 37:47 Success from Anywhere: Small Town Entrepreneurship 44:28 Corn Stalk Breakdown Solutions 53:47 Doge's Impact on Cost Savings 58:22 "Farm Bill Sparks Mixed Reactions" 01:00:40 Funding Controversies and Public Priorities ------------------------------- ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice. 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. Sorry if I'm blinding you if you're watching. I'm wearing shorts for the first time on the show ever, and my legs do not get a lot of sunshine. So I'm sorry for the glare if it's just shining right in your eye. I really apologize.

I don't get tan like my dad does. I actually have my mom's skin and complexion. I just get, I just get burnt. So I should have been a, I should have been a ginger probably because I mean, I literally have the skin like a ginger. But we'll push through.

So sorry about that. But before we get into the show, you guys know the drill. Share the show with the people that you know. The more that you guys do that, the more that this show can grow. We found the best way to grow a podcast ask is to grow it organically. And if you laughed, if you learned something, if you're related to us on

something, all that we ask is just share it. It's a ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. Another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is leave a review on Spotify or Apple. We love hearing from you guys. We love seeing your reviews come in. And it makes our show more credible. And with credibility comes getting better guests and more guests on the show. So we appreciate all of you that leave your view on Spotify or Apple and just tell us what you think about the show. Last thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk and support our family farm is to support our direct-to-consumer meat business, farmergrade. Farmergrade.com. You can always use code Barn Talk to save 10% off your order.

We just got a fresh batch of pork in, got some more Wagoo in. So we're loaded up. The freezer is going to be full here really soon. So be looking out for that. How are you? I'm good. Good. I'm real good.

We're going to do a Q&A today, by the way. I forgot to mention that. So we've got some questions. If you have any questions for us for future Q&As, please submit them. Send him. Email us your questions at bar and talk show at gmail.com or leave them down in the comments if you're watching on YouTube

or leave them in the comments if you're listening or watching on Spotify. We love getting your guys as questions and we'll answer them on the show you submit them so yeah the the comment section of Spotify is pretty awesome because not only can you comment but then other people can reply to those comments and we get some really good comments we get some seriously hateful comments too but I love those just as much so yeah let us know what you think it's it's going to be a hot one in southeast Iowa the corn is growing rapidly it is going to be a bin buster yeah so there's a lot of people out there right now that their marketing strategy has become hope because this crop, I think if it quit

raining tomorrow, I mean, we would have a crop. It would be smaller, but there doesn't seem to be any sign of that happening. Now, we will get a drought at some point every year you have that happen, but right now, this corn is just... I mean, could you have asked for a better better weather? I mean, this has been some of the best weather for, for gross. For gross, growing corn that I've ever seen. Yeah, it's been about perfect. So it's so funny because, you know, when you put one of these out every week or so,

and we're a little tardy, we've had a lot going on, but, you know, I talked about how bad my corn on corn ground looked, and I was like, if you went out there and walked through it now, you'd have no idea that that corn had ever struggled. I mean, it's just like, it is amazing. and I am really surprised at how much it's evened out.

There's hardly any variability on it. That field is just starting to tassel, and it's all going to be like you're not going to have any streaks in it where, you know, this is tassel and this not. I mean, it's crazy. So without any further ado, I will give you a crop update, a market update, courtesy of our good friends. at Contera Ag, it's not for the fainted heart because it's just not, it's not very good.

July corn, $4.12 cents. December corn, $4.21 cents. And locally, the local bid, best I could find, $396. So corn with a three in front of it, makes you feel real good. 4.07 if you want to go to Cedar Rapids. And somebody commented on Spotify about talking about corn headed to $3. I think that the market is pretty much focused now on the talk that the trend yield, the headline yield, is possibly going to be 2 to 4% higher than what the USDA estimated. and that and the fact that there's been no announcement of any trade deal with China when it comes to ag, and Trumpy dropped 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea does not bode well for the grain markets.

And I think that if we keep getting plenty of moisture and it's hot, but around here it's been right at upper 80s. to low 90s and plenty of moisture. And if you aren't getting that blazing heat, somebody told me this, I can't remember exactly, but there's a temperature where, you know, if the ambient temperature is, say, 100 or better, doesn't matter how much moisture is in the ground.

The corn stops growing. It just goes into maintenance mode because that heat is so oppressive. But I don't know for sure about that, but I know that we're not there. I mean, this corn is growing like crazy. And Soir and I were just talking about how humid it is. Trish and I were out walking this morning. And out in the country feels more humid than if you're in town.

And I think it's just because this corn is growing so hard. I think that I think it just gives off a lot of humidity because it's not stressed at all, has plenty of moisture, and it's just going. So anyway, Not too much to be thrilled about on the corn side. Beans for July 1025, November 1021. ADM and Burlington had 1018. Quincy must have had some reason to get excited.

They had a $10.39 bid. Bean meal for July, 267 a ton. Wheat for July 4 or 547. Hogs, $107, cattle 219. Feather cattle, 3.4. $319, $100 weight. Crude oil, $68. Opette came out and said they're going to raise production half a billion, half a billion barrels a day, like 500 million barrels a day. That sounds like a lot. Maybe a month, I don't remember. But you would think that the price of oil would go down.

You know, we were down around 64 bucks before everything went on in the Gulf and then we spiked. settle back down, but $68. And you're like, well, that's kind of surprising. And I would think oil would get really cheap. But the thing that you've got to remember is the U.S. dollar keeps getting cheaper. And as it gets cheaper, oil, which is valued in dollars, is going to go up. And I'm not sure where all this ends with the big, beautiful bill. Because if we ever get this all worked out, it probably will help.

our exports because we have a cheap dollar, but things like oil are probably not going to get cheap no matter how they want to pump it because that dollar keeps getting weaker. S&P 500, 6226, last time I checked. Google $175. I threw deer in there. Deer's $508. They've kind of thumbed their nose at the Trump administration about tariffs in Mexico and them shipping production out of the United States and said, well, do whatever you want, but we're going to do what's best for us, and we're still going to move those jobs. Bitcoin, I'm going to say it's going to be 110,000. Last time I looked at was 109,800. I think we'll be back above 110,000. I think Bitcoin is going to go on a run. And I thought about if I should throw out what my prediction is for the price of the end of the year. And I'm not, I guess I can't do that yet, higher than what it is now, but I don't know how high it's going to be. But my guess is by the end of the year, we're definitely higher than where we are now. now. Tesla $297, gold 3306, silver 33 bucks, and the 30 year 4.93 and the 10 year 4.39. All of this fantastic, somewhat dated information by the time you get it, courtesy of our good friends at Contera Ag. Times probably are not going to get any better in this business of agriculture, and it's a good time for you to get your shit straight.

and if you're looking for somebody to give you some honest answers and maybe help you reorganize what you're doing, if you're not getting the kind of help that you feel like you need from your bank might be time to go shopping. And if you are, I would highly recommend talking to the good people at Conteraag. Go to contaraag.com and see if they can help you out. You forgot my part. Oh, yeah.

What's new? What is new in the world of meat? So you kind of hit on it a little bit about the corn market or grain market, but U.S. meat exports to China have taken a nosedive. In May, pork exports dropped 82 percent, and beef exports fell 91 percent compared to last year. The big reason is tariffs. China's still hitting U.S. pork with a 57 percent tariff and beef with a 32 percent tariff, even after a temporary reduction.

on top of that a bunch of U.S. beef plants lost their export approval, so they can't even ship the product right now, which I don't really know why that's the case. I guess we should look into that, but they lost their approval to export. Other markets like Mexico, South Korea, and parts of Latin America are helping offset some of the loss, but China was a major buyer unless something changes before August

when the tariffs are set to snap back up even higher or likely to see even more pain in the U.S. meat export markets. So that's all I got. I think, I don't know. It's not really looking good for grain or meat side. And I go back to this, and I've said this many times, I just feel like the world over, far too much emphasis, has been put on what the opportunity is in China

and that this market is just huge and we're going to, you know, if we can just sell all this stuff to China, well, you know what, the Chinese, if you think the economy of the United States is not doing very well, the Chinese are in a way worse spot than we are. And once again, I've said it so many times,

in the next 10 years, China is the wheels are coming off because their demographics are so bad and the people, it's just like here. Young people drive the American economy because every week, every day, there's another household being started and there's another family that needs stuff. It's not 50-year-old people like me that get my 2011 sequoia and go, man, I like this car. I'm just going to keep driving this. No, it's like, oh, we need a viny van. We need a Tahoe. We need a da-da-da-da-da.

All the things. China's the same way, and they don't have those people. There's more people in that country over 50 than under 50, and that number is just going to keep going. The one-child policy fucked them. Oh, hard. Hard. They have the worst demographics of any place in the world,

and probably the second worst might be Russia, and Russia is not doing themselves any favor. because they're losing a lot of young people right now. They're using a lot of young men over there, and it is a sad state of events. So anyway, all that to say, I don't know what the future of exports are, but all these commodity groups want to tell you,

oh, yeah, we're going to build these markets in China. I think they got the rose-colored glasses, and I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think it's ever going to come back to the heights that it was. Well, the nice thing is, I think the two countries that have the best is, one is Mexico and one is India, right? Correct. Yeah. So Mexico's got the, it's the opposite way. They have more young people rather than old people. And so I think the only problem with Mexico right now is

there's just not enough skilled labor right now. I think there's people trying to work to get skills developed in Mexico, but they could be a massive trade partner for us and just like a partner overall if they get more skill there. So that's something to look at. And the nice thing, too, is they're close, really close. That would be great if we could do that. I think biggest hold up, though, probably is the cartels. I mean, who do you trust? And how do you make that work?

Because honestly, a lot of times you see that the cartels own the politicians there and own the police there. And, I mean, it's not across the entire board. But it'd be hard to navigate those waters, I think. Hey, thanks for sticking with us. Your voice deserves to be heard. When Iowa corn farmers unite as members of the Iowa corn growers association, we make a larger impact. At ICGA, we're dedicated to creating opportunities for growers just like you. With a focus on long-term profitability for your farm, as a member, you'll have a voice in critical issues starting at the grassroots level and extending all the way to the federal level.

Together, we're addressing policy priorities set by farmers such as increasing demand for higher, ethanol blends, expanding trade opportunities, and safeguarding essential tax credit like sustainable aviation fuel. Additionally, your membership grants you access to valuable news, updates, and exclusive events tailored specifically for ICGA members. We are stronger together. Become an ICGA member today, and let's build a more profitable future for all Iowa farmers. Don't wait. Visit Iowa corn.org backslash join. to become an ICGA member today. Thanks for sticking with us, and let's get back to it.

Along those, along the line of Mexico, I think Trumpy had a cabinet meeting and zero, zero illegals made it into the country as far as border patrol is concerned. Now obviously, if people made it in that they don't know about, they don't know about them. But as far as people, People that they saw trying to get across the border that they did not apprehend or prevent from getting in zero has been a long time.

Well, I don't think that's ever happened. So illegal immigration is at a zero on the border and we can all debate about the people that they're getting out and that's a whole hornet's nest. But yeah, the border is pretty much on lockdown. So probably a good thing. We need some serious immigration reform. It does not need to be near as hard. It does not need to be near as difficult to get into the United States legally, but that is a story for another day.

How was your 4th of July? Fourth July was good. I had a party. Had a good amount of people show up. I smoked 10 racks of ribs on my Weber Smoky Mountain. It went really good. It was rough in the beginning. I got the temp up way too high.

I had to take some coals out, had to put some coals back in, got the ribs hung, didn't get them up to temperature for like 30 minutes, then finally got it up to temperature, and then I was good. But they turned out fantastic. I got a rib hanging modification

you can put on your Weber Smoky Mountain, and man, the color, when you hang ribs in like a barrel smoker like that, the color you get on those ribs is fucking incredible. So it was great. The smoke was good. All of it was good.

But I will say this. Anybody that's hosted a party knows this. Man, it's a lot of work to host people. It's a lot more fun to go to a party than it is to host a party. Because, I mean, we spent, Kat and I spent three days. I mean, the whole day before,

we spent all day, getting the garage ready, outside ready, basement ready for people. to go in and take a piss or whatever. And that was all day long. And then you have the party the day, and then you got it the day after you got to clean it all up. But you really had even more than that. Yeah, because then you're thinking about what you're going to get

and you've got to go get stuff. And yeah. It's a whole ball whack. So I think next year we're going to take an off year. We're going to take a buy year of having a party because I got my fix in. And the other thing that sucks about having people over is when you have a lot of people over

and you're busy hosting, you can't sit down and really have a good conversation because you can't stay talking to that person for too long because you got too much shit going on. You're making gin buckets, you're getting ribs off the smoker, you're trying to talk to everybody, and it's just, yeah, it's a lot.

But it was fun though. Everybody had a good time. I had a good time. It's like always my dad used to say it never hurts to have company. Yeah, because you got the patio clean, you got the garage clean, you got the basement clean, you got all the weeds pulled. Your goal was to make your home look as though no one had ever lived there. So you know what?

You got that. Yeah, everything's mulched. Yeah, it all looks good and isn't in the right place. So yeah, you're right on that. I was satisfied with how everything looked because it definitely needed it. But just blessed to be an American. It's all I can say. Just happy to be here.

best damn country on the entire planet so I'm just glad to be still rocking and rolling in this country yeah I would say so we were we went with three other couples and some of the kids down to Lake Rathbun which is in

kind of far southern Iowa it's a big reservoir down there and you know what everywhere we went and everybody we talked to pretty optimistic despite the big beautiful bill and some people not happy about that overall people feel pretty good everybody I talked to is pretty optimistic now that was the right part of the world to go to if you wanted to if you wanted to hear all the positives of the Trump administration so but yeah

good time did a lot of side-by-side riding and ate well and it was it was good uh you brought this up earlier any of you out there that uh our follow tic he probably i don't know if he had it on his facebook or not but tony reed did a post uh growing corn 2020 uh did a post about the signers of the declaration of independence and i'm not going to go through it but if you have time look that up it was awesome great perspective uh kudos to him because i that was a great piece he did. That was really good. That really lays out what the men that sacrificed who signed the Declaration of Independence,

what they gave up to do that. And the life suffering that they had to endure because they did that, it's pretty insane. I mean, lost kids, lost their wife, everything they owned got burnt to the ground. Some of them got captured, abused, beat to death, hung and they still stood their ground and said, fuck no, we're staying, we're sticking to our guns. Yeah.

Not one of them, not one of them gave up. Not one of them said, nope, we're not bound to the king. This is where we're standing. We're standing on business and we want our own freedom. So pretty incredible. It's pretty incredible stuff. Speaking of standing your ground. So we had a question.

This is an interesting question we've never gotten before. Not really, well, I guess a question. So, a listener of the show, Samuel and his fiance, Grace, are getting married. And they're actually getting married, I think, the 19th. So it's coming up. And they just want to know if we have any advice. And I was like, boy, you've gone down a long list of people to get to the bottom to ask us for advice. And as soon as I read that, Sawyer's like, oh, that's all on you.

Well, I'm not married, so I can't really. give you a whole lot of advice. But I have lived with a woman for five years and I am engaged. I think we're going to elope though. So I'm not going to go the whole big wedding route. But I guess for me, I would say communication is everything. That's something that we probably haven't done a good enough job doing but as you get older and as you get stay in your relationship longer it just becomes more and more important uh you just got to be in constant communication of what what's bothering you but you also have to i feel like tell them what you're what what what you like too because if you're all if you're always uh this is fucked up this is fucked up this is wrong this is wrong

this is wrong they're going to feel like they can't do anything right so i feel like you got to try your best to balance that out. But I'm no, I'm no expert. I'm figuring it out as I go to. And this is, it's a journey, man. It's a constant learning journey of relationships are tough, no matter what they are. And you just have to stay in constant communication. That also goes for family too. I mean, it's not going to hurt to over communicate. I mean, it never hurts to overcommunicate how you feel and what you think. Yep. That's what I would say.

Yeah, and I will say this. If you are a, if you are a person who is always trying to accommodate the other person, in other words, you are letting go of your preference because you know that that, what the other, or you think you know what the other person wants, that is going to cause you a lot. of trouble down the road because ultimately if you're not honest about your feelings and you are always you know settling or or accepting the other person's opinion all of that whether you believe it or not you're going to bury that you're going to bury that down deep and then at some point in every person's life and I'm speaking from the man's side of

things. You do that somewhere down the road in the future. You're going to have a day and you're going to say, you know what? And it's all going to come out. And it's going to be much, much worse when it all comes out at once that it does if you would have just expressed your feelings. Really, honesty is the thing. I mean, you just got to be honest about, and that's hard, but it's a heck of a lot easier when it's a little bit here and a little bit there. I mean, what pisses you off, pisses you off. And the other thing is, you're going to have to give up a few things because what you're getting into is a partnership, and it'd be a whole lot easier if people would explain that it's a lot like going into business with somebody, because what you think is

important may not be what they think is important, and both of you cannot. uh, cannot have your, your thing, whatever those are that, you know, well, this is the way it is because I got to have this, this, this and this.

And if you've got to have this, this and this, I guarantee that all those things are not going to align. And you're going to have to align. And if you can't come, basically you got one boat. You got two people. You got one boat or one, whatever you want to call it.

and the only way you're going to get that thing pushed is if you're both pushing it. And if you're all pushing your own stuff, you're just going to end up going in a circle. As Dr. Phil would say, you're just going to keep going around the mountain. Keep going around the mountain until you run this thing in the ditch. And that's true. So I've been married a little longer than that. You know, you wake up one day. And this goes with a lot of things.

Something that I'm realizing that now that I'm in my 50s and it's kind of scary. is people look at you, people look at you like somehow you should be wise. They look at you like you should have these answers and they ask you things about, oh, you know, what should you do about this? So you're like supposed to be, you're supposed to have wisdom. The problem is, I don't really feel a whole lot smarter than I ever did. However, I have lived long enough that I have a little bit, I can look backwards a little bit. I can tell you a lot about what doesn't work.

And so the longer you go, honesty becomes a little easier as far as saying how you really feel. But the sooner you can do that, the sooner you can be honest about your feelings and what your expectations are, and the sooner that you can decide, the two of you,

what is most important and what you're going to work towards, because you've got to work towards, you got to be on the same. team and if you're not that that deal will never work and the other thing I'll say won't beat this dead horse is you get together you get this thing going set yourself some priorities for saving money and be dedicated to that and have a have a like no way are we going to spend more than this and no way are we going to tap into this you know whatever money we save because you will be amazed at how fast 20 years goes. And if you are dedicated to saving a little bit of money,

I'd say investing too. Well, and that's what I mean. Yeah. You know, whatever that is. Yeah. You put your money together. You set some priorities. You'll be in good shape. So, and most importantly, as a man, remember this phrase. I'm sorry, honey, you were right. That will get you a lot. That will get you a long, long ways. Now then, don't sell your soul. If she wasn't right, lying to her ain't going to help. But when you screw up, goes a long way. Just cut your losses and say, you know what? I was an idiot. Because we are all idiots. And sometimes what sounded really good at the time was not that good. So learn that phrase. Yeah, I feel like as a young guy, like in today's world,

well, just getting married as a young person in today's world is, it's somewhat scary just because the divorce rate is where it's at. And I think any advice you can get from anyone, you take it. But every relationship is different. And what I have observed from my, it's funny you say that, like about how you just as you get older, this is kind of off topic, but I'll get back on track here. The realization as you get older and the realization you have with your parents

as you get older. And like you learn, you know, you grow up, you think your parents are like, you know, super men and superwoman, right? You feel like they can do no wrong. And it's the same with your teachers, your coaches, your mentors, whatever, right? You look up to them.

And you still do as you get older. But you, you, you get, become an adult and you realize, yeah, you are just kind of fucking figuring this thing out as you go. Like, everyone's just figuring it out as you go. Life is a matter, it's just, life is tough, no matter what you're doing, who you are.

life is hard, it's always got hardships, and you are literally just figuring it out as you go. And you can try to take in as much information and advice and all this, but at the end of the day, it comes down on your shoulders and it's your life and you're figuring it out as you go. And something I have observed as I've gotten older and you talk about it, and I think your point about being honest, I think there is a, lot of men out there. And I know that there are some toxic men out there and there's toxic women out there. But I feel like there is a lot of husbands out there. You walk around, you look that don't have a voice that cannot be honest or they've just stopped being honest altogether

because they just get pumped, they just get piled into the ground. And that is a sad existence. It is. When you are the bottom on the totem pole, and your wife puts you at the very bottom or if your husband puts you at the very bottom and puts the kids above you always and you don't put each other first I just walk around and I that you know the divorce rate's really high

but there's also a lot of miserable fucking marriages out there too that nobody talks about that and it's because one or the other has pounded the one the other one into the ground and they can't talk they can't speak they can't be honest because and they come last they're last on the totem pole

and I don't know where I was going with that but all I was trying to say is like just be honest with each other I think your point of being honest and not being afraid to speak up and say what you think because if you don't

and you just take that shit you'll just continue to take that shit and you'll walk around and be one of these guys that and we're two men here right we're not we don't have any perspective from a woman, right? So that's why I'm speaking like the way that I am. But I'm sure it's roles reverse and other relationships too.

But you got to have your own voice and you can't be afraid to just... If you just try to keep the peace in the moment, it's just going to come back to bite you in the ass long term. So I agree with you on that. Yeah, 100%. The other thing I'll say is don't wait to have kids because no matter how poor you are, broke you are, your kids will never know.

your kids will never like they won't know like my kids we went through we went through the 90s raising pigs flat broke like not known if we were going to have enough money to buy groceries and if you ask my kids about it that I don't know any different

they and burger helper baby they yeah I mean they're happy they were happy that we watch movies on Friday night and camped out on the floor and you know other than that I don't really know much so it is true it yeah your kids will be fine as long as you're there for them and the other thing i'd say is have plenty of them because if i would have known that my kids were going to turn out as good as they did i would have had a lot

more of them and now soyer doesn't like that because he don't like sharing very well but anyway whatever yeah so i hope that didn't scary i mean you haven't got much time to get out of this deal so i hope you go through with it i don't hope that we didn't scare you so i don't think we Anyway. But I think it's, any vice you can get, I think you can take it nowadays. I mean,

you stayed married, so you're a good source. Yep. Yep. So, uh, Sam asked, do you think you have to move to a city

to be successful in today's world? Um, I actually made a TikTok about this on my personal TikTok. I'm doing some more rants. Uh, I guess you start that question because I've kind of already talked about my opinion somewhere else, but I will add to what you say.

Well, I think absolutely not. I think if there was a time, I think if there's been a time in the last 50 years to make it, whatever your definition of making it is, I think today it's less relevant than ever that you have to be in a big city. Now, that's not true for everything, but technology has leveled the playing field

for remote work. Now, there's a lot of companies that, you know, post-COVID, they've said, okay, everybody's coming back to the office. And there's good reason for that, I think, to a point. But if you're somebody and you have skills and you're good at what you do, whatever that is, whatever that specialty is,

you can work from anywhere. Or, you know, it's a deal too. Maybe you do. Maybe you got to go in twice a month. maybe you've got to spend some time down there. Like there's a guy that we know that his company is in Nashville and he works remote in our little town and he has to go down there maybe once a month.

But like he talks about that having to fly down there or getting down to Nashville. And every time he does it, he thinks about all the time he spent stuff. trucking traffic, you know, driving in to the office when he lived down there. And he's like, I wouldn't go back to that for anything, you know, the, the, whatever, the inconvenience of getting a ticket and flying down there a few times versus having to drive, um, well worth it. So I think the call, I think the, honestly, I think small towns if they make the commitment to have the amenities that people want

I think small towns are there's a lot of great opportunities there because the quality of life is way better. It's just whether you can overcome you know being able to have the kind of job you want

being remote. So anyway, that's my opinion. I think that's a great opinion. I think we, I mean, I think it all kind of aligns with I think everybody, cities are too expensive for most people. Young people, I feel like, are sprinting back to traditional values because they look around and everything's screwed up and they feel like, man, shit, I don't feel like shit was screwed up, you know, 30 years ago this bad, right? Let's, let's grow our own food.

Let's try to have some source of community. You know, let's get together. Let's go to church. Let's form a run club. let's form a, you know, go to a breakfast every third Wednesday of the month at somebody's shop. Like there's a lot of that going on in small towns. Having the peace being one with nature, I know that that's kind of hippie shit, but it's true. Like, you know, like you're actually out in nature.

You're not surrounded by skyscrapers the whole time. I think a lot of people are wanting that. They want to get back to that because they feel more whole when they're doing those things. And I think with the opportunity of remote work, you can make it happen. And I do agree with you. I think small towns need to maybe step it up a little bit when it comes to the amenities because I think you get a lot more people coming to your town and living in your town if you had those things. But I think, you know, like I got this, I got asked this question.

And my hot take on it was like, I feel like as entrepreneurs, there's a lot of people that tell you you have to go to a big city to become the best version of yourself. And it's because of all the people that you'll meet. And your standard will get raised because you're surrounded by a bunch of people that standards have already been, that are high. And it's like, yeah, but you could just watch people that are actually doing that shit online and get inspired by them and just live by that standard, whether there's people here in your small town doing

that or not. You know, like I think the, yeah, like dad said, the internet, social media, AI has leveled the playing field. I think anyone can build anything anywhere if you just have access to the information and you have the know-how and you take the action to make it happen. There are so many great examples of small town businesses that are world known that are making worldly impact across the entire globe that are investing into the small town and into the communities and have done an amazing thing. And like if I can, own a business anywhere.

Like, remember when we drove through Wisconsin and Duluth Trading's headquarters was in this small-ass town in Wisconsin? It was this big old brick building. And I was like, Duluth Trading Company's headquarters is right here. Like, this

is so fucking cool that this company headquarters is right here. Yeah. I thought that was awesome. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stories like that. You know, if you go, if you go west of us, like Moscow, lighting. If you're if you know anything about big events, professional sports, whatever, um, Musco lighting is the one that invented. They're the one, they're the people that made it

possible to have night baseball games because they were the first people to like light up these football stadiums, baseball stadiums, whatever. And they're based out of Oscaloosa, Iowa. And I mean, it's this massive company. They go all over the United States. hell they might go all over the world now. And then another one I just thought of that's kind of that way is kettle or not kettermans. Is that the name?

Yeah. Yeah. So they are like in the show car world and like truck, work trucks. They invented these air suspensions. And I mean, it's like they're like the people in that genre and all that's done over there by over their,

by Oskaloosa. I mean, there's just a lot of opportunities out there. And you said something really important that I take for granted because I've always lived in a small town. But like, so while we're sitting there, I just get a text from, from somebody that is part of the Iowa corn growers, our local Iowa corn growers, Washington County corn growers. And she was just letting me know, because I forgot to pick up my tickets to the, to our local fair, that she grabbed my ticket. And, she grabbed my ticket pack because she knows me well enough that she probably knows that I would forget to pick them up. And she said she was coming this way and wanted to know if she could just drop them off. Those are the kind of things that don't happen in a big city. For one, nobody's going to let somebody

else pick up their tickets because they're going to steal them, you know. And two, they don't have a county fair. But three, it's just like that sense of community. And like last night, my wife's working this week at our church in our little town because they have vacation Bible school. And I was thinking about that. And in big cities, people don't drop their kids off of vacation Bible school unless you go to that church and you know everybody because you're like, I'm not dropping my kid off there. But in small towns, you just assume that, you know, people, and they are, they're all good people. It's like, they, the church makes sure that everybody's working there is, you know, good person and all that. But I mean, that's small.

town that's community and i there's something really nice about that so yeah i i don't think that having i don't think you have to go to a big city to be successful at all and i also think though that if you work in a small town whatever you're doing eventually what'll happen is you're you kind of become a different person because everything that you would have moved to a big city for you i think you're i think your i think your focus shifts and you realize a lot of that stuff really is that you're you're isn't that important. That's my thing. I think a lot of gripe, a lot of people have

a negative outlook on small towns from cities because they think that we think small. I think they don't think that we dive into the same kind of shit that they die. Like when it comes to thinking big and thinking about ideas and dreams and aspirations

and like they just think we're a bunch of hicks that don't like look into shit and know what's coming down the pipe. and we don't know shit about Bitcoin and we don't know, you know what I mean? Like I think that they just think we're on an island out here and we don't know nothing. And yeah, I think if they came out here and actually had a little bit of peace, they'd go, okay, and met some people. They'd be like, yeah, it's not as bad as now you're not going to have a Starbucks right at your house. And if you can't give that up, then you probably shouldn't move to a small town.

but like there's a lot that small towns have to offer you. So I agree. Yeah. And I will admit the clubbing ain't quite as good in a small town. Yeah, the club is not as good. I've lost a few steps and my hearing ain't very good. So the clubbing doesn't appeal to me like it used to. Yeah.

Yeah, I definitely don't have any clubs that you go to. And my thing is, like, don't get me wrong, I would love to go to a city to go see a city. I travel to a city. And I would even do, I'd do business in a city work. in this like go go to a meeting in a city or whatever but that's not where i want my home base to be you know i think you can go and travel and see but having your home base in a on an acreage in a small town and having that piece man there's nothing better than that my opinion i agree i wouldn't

want to live in a fucking skyscraper nope me neither uh this is a quick one we had we had a few comments uh on, I think, two podcasts ago, or maybe it was the last one, because I was complaining about how my corn looked and we talked about the stocks not breaking down last winter. And a lot of people, we had several comments about that. And, you know, people, all kinds of recommendations from, you know, chopping them, flail mowing them, grazing cattle on them,

spraying some nitrogen on at the end of the year to help them break down faster. And that's all, you know, you got to figure out what works for you. that cattle thing is intriguing that's if we had like I was thinking about whether I got anybody around here that had enough cattle that you could do that and also there aren't a lot of fences left

in Jackson Township Iowa because pretty much everybody's farming what was fence to fence and the fences are gone but we're going to keep working on it we're going to figure it out because I'm pretty committed to

corn on corn, until I'm able to go get all the nitty gritty on what Jason Mock's doing. You think we're having a good year on our corn. If you've watched any of his videos on how his stuff's doing, I like that deal. I think that's a slick setup, so I've got to dig into that more. Epstein list, there's no list. Yeah, so basically I think the summary of that is...

Is she going to take... Is Pam Bondi going to take the fall? Well, I feel like that's where it's moving. is because you know, well, first of all, I think what's coming out of this is, I don't think anybody, well, we should have known this. We should have known this. John asked this question.

John said, when everyone, is there, is what do you think about the Epstein list being there's no list? And is Pam Bondi going to take the fall? Well, what I said about it was, apparently when everybody's on the list, then miraculously there's no list. and I think that's what you got. I think the CIA,

I think a lot of people in the FBI, I think a lot of politicians, I think a lot of entertainers, a lot of people with a lot of money and a lot of power, all on that list. You think Trump's on it? I have no idea.

My only argument against him not being on it is if they knew that there was a list with him on it, you can't tell me that Biden, the Biden administration or Kamala's campaign wouldn't have used it or had that story go out. I mean, they would have totally used it.

But he, God, his press conference yesterday when somebody asked her a question about the Epstein list and the way that he reacted, I'm like, dude, are you fucking stupid? Yeah. Like, you just made everybody go, well, yeah, you're on the list then. Yeah. The way that you just, like, that's where it's like,

it kind of pisses me off a little bit. Like, Trump, we care about the fucking list. Yeah. don't tell us not to give a shit about the list because we give a fuck about who's on the list so don't tell us how to feel about the list yeah we want the damn list released and i so don't gaslight us and say why are you guys still talking about this list well because uh there's fucking pedophiles that we probably look up to that we don't know our pedophiles and we want to fucking know who they are yeah so we can stop supporting them yeah i think

think that that was, I think that was the point after that, the reaction to that on alternative media was big enough that I think that somebody is going to take the fall from that and the most easily expendable person to take the fall is Pam Bondi. Because you're, I think that that's where the pressure is going to fall. Now then, I don't think that that will be. You're, I think that that will be enough because if if everything they know isn't released i think that this is not going to go away for all these politicians i think the american people i i really do i think it's one of those issues that probably is not going to die and i don't know where it goes but will it be just like kennedy's assassination where we will just won't know until everybody that's on the list

is dead yeah exactly i don't know that's the kind of shit that's just, it's fucking crazy. Like, we deserve to know. Yeah. We deserve to know who is on it and who's not. Yeah. We deserve to know. That is bullshit that we cannot know that information.

That's, that's the shit that just drives you nuts. And the thing about it, Jeffrey Epstein is he wasn't even a politician. So it's like, but yeah, he was in bed with a lot of them. But there's people out there who aren't politicians that own a lot of people. a lot of politicians. Yeah, exactly. And he would have been one of them. Well, and that's the thing.

There's speculation that he had all these parties so he could get surveillance on all these people doing all this crazy shit. And that's how he rose to the top. Yeah. Blackmailing people. But then people said it came out and he didn't... Like I saw Clipper Tucker Carlson

talking about it on his podcast. It turns out that he didn't do any of that and he just killed himself. I'm like, dude, I don't buy it. Yeah. I don't fucking buy that he just killed himself. It's so convoluted now that I, and here's the other thing. I think this is one of the, I feel like this is one of the last,

one of the last like scandals that there's kind of any hope of getting the real information. because when you think about the rise of AI and digital video, everything's digital, to where, one, to have the footage or anything that somebody's done in a version that can't be tampered with, I feel like those days are gone. And so then you just wonder if somebody does, if somebody is doing something like what was claimed,

that was going on there. And that footage, they keep that footage, well, as soon as somebody gets a hold of it, it can be weaponized to show people being involved that weren't involved or people that were involved

not being involved, and it's going to be really, really hard to prove. I mean, what you know and what you can believe, we're headed to a very strange time, I think, in human human history. history because it's going to be hard to know what's what. Scary. It is for sure.

Yeah. I just am like, release the list, dude. Stop bullshitting us. Stop gaslighting us to think that it's not a thing. Like, release the damn list, dude. You said you were going to release it. Well, I think that if you see her go on the chopping block, um,

I don't think that she has anything to do with it coming out or not. not, I think she is being offered up as a sacrifice to try to, uh, to stifle it. And if, and it's not going to work. That's going to make it even worse. Right. I don't know. I mean, I think the only way this comes to an end is if they just, they give up everything they have because nobody will accept anything less at this point. And there is a lot of pressure. There is a lot of pressure. There is a lot of pressure outside of Washington. I think it's very interesting because within Washington, within the political

system, nobody wants to talk about it. They want it gone. And the reason they want it gone is because there's too many people involved in it. But outside of politics, there is an incredible amount of interest in it. So

I don't know. I don't know where it is. But... Fuck the pedophiles. Get them out. Well, yeah, 100%. But that that deal goes pretty deep, I think. So that press conference where he went off, everybody from every cabinet member spoke about what they had going on. And Scott Besson said,

people were kind of surprised by this, but they said over $100 billion has come in from tariff money. And he estimated that by the end of the year, we'd have over $300 billion worth of income from tariffs. which that's a big number. And the Supreme Court also ruled yesterday or the day before, you remember all these job cuts that Trump leveled at the beginning of his term, that all had lawsuits filed against it and said,

you can't fire these people, you can't fire these people. The Supreme Court ruled six to three that, yep, he can. And that all that, so, like, I don't know how many suits that was that settled, but it was a bunch. So he can get rid all these people. So Doge, even though he and Elon are no longer, don't play well together,

the work of Doge is going to create a big amount of cost savings because they're going to shrink, they're going to be able to shrink the size of a lot of these offices. And we're going to get a bunch of money from tariffs. My question is, we pass this new bill, this big beautiful spending bill that basically paid off everybody,

isn't going to be enough that we can curb the deficit and start taking it back. And a caveat to that is when more people are receiving benefits than pay taxes, in other words, when you get to a point

that the population of your country, you have more people receiving free shit than are paying taxes the road to socialism becomes an interstate highway and so we are about at the end of the rope because what you're going to see happen is

once you get people that are used to getting free stuff they like getting free stuff and it doesn't matter which politician is in power they start grovelling to the people to stay in power and so they just keep giving away more free shit. And that's where we're at because Social Security and Medicare is going to be bankrupt. They're going to be done by 2030.

Even with all the reforms, I think you're going to run out of money because our demographics, even though they're better in the rest of the world, they're still not very good. You got more people taken out than putting in. So I don't know. I don't know.

is it going to work? Can we grow the economy fast enough to drop the deficit? Time will tell. That was a very good political answer. And if Trump can't do it, I don't know who can. Well, I agree,

and I don't think that we can. I think that the, I think we're too far down the path. And when every dollar that you try to shave out of what government spends ends up in a court fight that takes however many months. I mean, it's just going to be so hard to get anything done. And then everybody's a victim. And, you know, nobody wants their pot taken.

But I will say this. If we get to the end of this year and Bitcoin hits $200,000, I think a lot of people will wake up and go, if the dollar stays weak and gets weaker and Bitcoin hits $200,000, I think a whole bunch of people in this country will wake up. Now, I don't know what they're going to do about it, but I think they're going to have a serious,

uh, icky feeling about where we are. So I don't know whether that'll help help change anything. Did you see a guy sold, he sold a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin? Really? He had a wallet full of a billion dollars of Bitcoin. What he sold it? What do you buy with it? I don't know.

There's just, uh, I think there was a transaction on the blockchain. of somebody that sold what is that is that a thousand well it's a hundred 110 thousand a coin so billion dollars is that a thousand bitcoin uh for 10 000 thousand 100 thousand we're not it's a lot it's a lot yeah so um he sold it billion dollars they don't know they they're speculating if it was somebody's wallet got hacked or because the odds of somebody holding that Bitcoin for that long through all these ups and downs. And then dumping it. And dumping it is like so low.

But maybe he was just like, I'm just waiting until it gets $100,000. Well, maybe he's an older guy. Maybe he's an older guy. Can you fucking imagine billion dollars? He said he was going to hold it until he hit 65 and cashed in and live life. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know either.

Be a good problem to have. Yeah, it would. I wish I could go back in time. hindsight is always, always perfect. Well, are you, what are you thinking here? You got any more? The only other thing I was going to say is, obviously the bill, the big spending bill passed.

A whole bunch of people are pissed off about it. And, but I think it's very interesting that everybody hates something like that unless they get paid, unless they get some money. And it's so funny because all the farm groups, all the farm groups love it. because ag got $65 billion out of that bill, and $59 billion of it went to basically crop insurance. ARC, PLC, DMC, and crop insurance all got a big part of that.

So for this year, you know, you always have to go in and you have to elect whether you're going to get ARC or PLC. Those are your two choices on your crop insurance. This year don't matter because they're going to give you whichever one, out the best if you have a claim. Now, right now, as I look out there, there's going to be damn few guys that have a claim off of yield, but there's a lot of people that can have a claim off of revenue.

Because crop insurance pays two different ways. It pays if you have a production loss because you use your five-year proved-up yield to say, this is what my average yield is, and then you can buy insurance if, you know, it falls below that you get so much an acre. But then the other side of it is you basically ensure because of those bushels for so many dollars

of revenue per acre based off that yield at whatever a price is. Well, nobody on their bullshit bingo card has $3.65 as the price. And so if it hits that, a lot of people are probably going to collect. So yeah, they're all happy about it now. But, well, that, you can't keep kicking that can either. No, absolutely not.

Absolutely not. That's money we don't have. I mean, every dollar that's in that spending bill that came out that greases this and greases that. And, you know, so many billion dollars went to new shipbuilding for the Defense Department and da, da, da, da, da, da, all that shit. It doesn't matter because they printed that money. That money will get printed out of thin air. We don't have that money. So, at some point, that's...

That's the thing. You know, I beat this horse pretty hard. All these people that have their thing, you know, oh, I see these old people out there. They got all these old people out there that are rooting for Medicare that put up these signs about Medicare saves lives. And, you know, if they pass this bill, this many people are going to die

and this many kids are going to starve and da-da-da-da-da. And you got the people that, oh, we got to stay ahead of the Chinese, we got to keep money to the Defense Department. And the roads need fixed. This needs fixed and, you know, cats need sex changes, whatever the hell it is. They all need money. That's great. You can all have that.

But you know what? If the country's bankrupt, none of that matters. None of it matters. So, I don't know. Got to keep grinding. There's a whole shitload of states. I think there's, I want to say there's 13 states that have on there for the next election. They're going to have a ballot initiative to do a,

what the term limits as a constitutional amendment. I can't remember what you call that. A Congress of the States or a Convention of the States. So you have to get a third of the states to all pass an initiative to call for a new amendment. Well, call for a meeting of the states to make that a constitutional amendment. you have a vote. And I probably slaughtered that whole process. I read it and I was like, Torque, you need to remember that. But I think like, I don't know, 12, 13 states have done it. We need to get 22 states total to be able to do that. I think that would be great. I think

the only way we'll get term limits is to make it a constitutional amendment because your politicians are never going to do it. Yep. I agree with you. I don't know if we have enough time to make that and make a big enough change that it saves our sorry ass but I'd like to try it it would help it would help it would help well I think that's gonna wrap it up that's all the questions that we have if you guys have any questions for us for our next Q&A please submit them and email us email us at barn talk show at gmail.com bMS Spotify comments YouTube comments we need more questions so we can do more Q&As if you got any value from the show please share it out the people that you know.

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