Barn Talk - How a $156,000 Nursing Home Bill Destroys Family Farms

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

On this episode of Barn Talk, hosts Sawyer and Tork sit down once again with their friend and neighbor David Zieser for a no-holds-barred conversation about all things farming and rural life. This time, they swap stories about last season’s harvest, share laughs over equipment mishaps, and dive into the technical side of strip-till methods and adapting to unpredictable weather. Beyond ag talk, they tackle hot topics like Iowa’s water quality, estate planning, the real costs of nursing homes, and what the future holds for family farms. With their trademark humor and honest perspectives, this episode is packed with practical wisdom, a few good jokes, and an authentic look at the ups and downs of life on the farm. JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻 Help us get there: https://barntalk-newsletter.beehiiv.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 "Support Barn Talk: Share & Review" 08:38 "From Handpicked to Grain Cart" 15:40 Water Recycling Challenges 20:04 Semi Driver Hand Signal Variations 23:43 Fall Manure and Strip-Tilling 29:11 "No-Till Ground Management Strategies" 36:03 "Marketing Discipline Is Essential" 40:21 Optimal Nitrogen Timing for Corn 47:05 Iowa, Illinois, and Hog Production 51:10 "Voter Apathy in Primaries" 56:27 "Farming Growth and Shared Risk" 01:01:22 "Overbuilding Fueled by Land Sales" 01:07:33 "Iran, Oil, and Global Strategy" 01:13:00 Geopolitics: Israel, Russia, and Influence 01:19:14 "Farming Together: Value Each Other" 01:24:39 "The High Cost of Aging" 01:26:40 Retirement Costs and Legacy Planning 01:33:51 "Choosing Care for Loved Ones" 01:38:47 Lumberjack to Planter Transition ------------------------------- ⚠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 ... 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. Today we got a damn good guest coming to the barn to have a great conversation with us. He's been on the show two times before this one, and we're just going to talk all things farming. Might get a little political.

Might talk about some current events going on. on in the world. This one is going to be more of a conversation rather than an interview, which we try to do our best to make them all kind of conversations. But he's been on the show before. So you kind of already know his story. But before we get into the nitty gritty, you guys know the drill. If you get any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know. The more that you guys do that, the more that this show grows, the more guests we can have on, the more episodes we can make. It's kind of the ticket to admit, ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show.

And there's many ways you can get value. If we made you laugh, if you're related to us on something, if you learned something, all we ask is just share it. Another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is leave a review on Spotify or Apple.

The more reviews get piled up across Apple and Spotify, the more credible you make our show. And in turn, we're able to turn that credibility and some more guests, more episodes, and ultimately just better opportunities

for the show and what we can do here at Barn Talk. We're really trying to grow our impact this year and go all in on this thing. And so we really appreciate every single one of you that do either sharing the show or leave an interview or ultimately just telling us what you think about the show because we love hearing from you guys. So those are the ways you can kind of help us out before we get started. How are you doing, Big Dog? I'm good.

I'm fired up. I'm feeling good spring. It's a little warmer out. There's a little more spring in my step because I know. know that the onslaught of winter is coming to an end. We're not quite there, but we're getting close. I might even go out and clear some fence rows. Have you anything yet? No, I'm damn hungry. I'm hungry too. You should have brought snacks. We need a snack vendor up here. We need a, we need a vending service. We definitely need an official snack of barn talk. Yep. I don't know what that

would be, but something maybe with me, something maybe, I don't know, what snacks do you like? I like deluxe mixed nuts. I like... You like putting nuts in your mouth? D's nuts. Yep. Whatever. Build your own joke off that.

I like cheese sticks, meat sticks, shrimp cocktail. Shrimp cocktail. Yeah, that's a little bouch. Whatever you want to bring, you know. No caviar, though. No caviar. We're not that high.

Okay. Well, we don't get good shrimp here in Iowa, so... No. Well, that's not true. We got a local... shrimp farm. We got to try that out. We got a guy that converted an old sow unit. They're growing shrimp in it. So, we'll have to try that out. What do you got today? Who do we got coming on the show?

Repeat, repeat offender. And this is going to be a good one. For those of you that don't know, really our guest today is the reason that we're all able to kind of keep farming the way we do with modern equipment because he's got the modern equipment. and we like running it. So it works out good. He's our partner in crime. And we get accused of being related. And the poor guy is not even related to us.

So I don't know. I feel bad for him on that. But it should be a great conversation. He has got, he's a deep thinker. He comes up with always some points of view that I'm just like, that is like spot on. So it's going to be a good one. And without any further ado,

let's get into it. Well, shit, boys. We're live. So Dave Zezer, welcome back to Barn Talk. I think you're the first guess we've ever had three times on Barn Talk. Wow, that is an honor. Thanks for having it is. You really mean something to us.

Well, that, well, you got such. That hits me right here, guys. The wisdom. The wisdom is impressive. There's something up there. It's all right. Well, it's a little, it's actually a little bit late. It's either a little late or a little early because usually we do this.

like post harvest but we never got around to it and so we're doing pre-planning this is the pre-planning version we can't really remember how harvest went other than it was fast yeah it went really fast it was super dry yields weren't what they were the last four years of drought but i thought they were still pretty decent they were the best corn i raised was on the worst ground so I'm going to plan a shitload of that number this year and then it won't do very well. For any of you that have never listened to a podcast with David and us, David is our neighbor friend and we all,

we kind of farm together. He custom plants for us and custom combines for us and custom applies our manure. And it's been a good experience. David's a hell of a guy and he's got a lot of knowledge, a lot of wisdom. And so if you're wondering why we're shooting, the shit about past harvest is because we did it together.

So we should say we farm with David. Yeah. At David's at David's discretion. He just tolerates us because we're cheap labor. That's pretty much what it comes down to. All right. My biggest benefit is you guys have a little drier land so I can come over here in the spring and make all my mistakes here and then go do it at my house.

Yes. So my favorite, I say this a lot because every year when we all get antsy, I'll call David. And he'll be like, he does farm in God's country. It's all flat, black square for the most part. He has one 40-acre field that is not perfect. So that's his rough piece. But other than that, it's all pretty good stuff.

And the rows are long. Yep, the rows are long. And he'll be like, yeah, I don't know. It's pretty wet around here. And then, you know, before long he'll call me. He's like, you know, I was just up at your place. He goes, I think we could go over there. So I get, we get the experimentation.

So yeah. But that's all right. It turns out good and anymore we get it all done so fast that it doesn't really matter. Yeah. Or I'll say, I'm thinking about maybe doing a little bit and I'll call him like, I'm done with mine and you're ready for me to come over there. That's the way this year was. Yeah.

Well, my beans, it went that way. Yeah. For sure. I started with beans this year. But I got to let's back up quick the much as I help you guys. I really appreciate what you guys have done for me since, you know, losing dad and mom and all that. it's been phenomenal. I think we have a pretty good relationship.

I hope you can agree that the I do. Compensation both ways is Yeah. It's worked out good. We're just lucky enough that every once in a while, somebody takes pity on us and throws up some free shit for us to try.

Although I hate to tell you, we're back to square one because I really thought that the grain cart thing went really good last year, except the guy that set that cart up, He quit. He quit and went somewhere else. And then the guy that's the head of marketing for Brandt, he quit and went somewhere else. I'm like, damn it, we're really going to have to start over now.

So I don't know what we'll do. That was definitely a highlight of last year. Well, that I tell you what. That and Ismat. Is Matt was kind of a treat. Yeah, that was good. Yeah, that was pretty impressive. And I'm not sure. In hindsight, like when I got it, out of your four-wheel drive and just said, okay, you know, you're going to be fine.

I kind of, now when I think about that, I'm like, well, I don't know whether that was a good idea or not. I mean, it turned out okay. Well, shit, I gave him, I gave him the play-by-play. I mean, he was in there with me for a couple, a whole day, teach him the grain cart. So for those of you watch or listen, there was this, there's this great kid named Ismat, and he is from Kazakhstan. Jachiki Stan? I think it's Jaseki Stan. Yeah. And he came over here like, I don't know, when he was 16 years old to go to school in America.

And we got to know him because he's been in our local community for a while. And he actually did some work with my brother. And he was looking for some extra stuff to do. And Harvest was around the corner and we were busy. And I was like, well, come out. Or I think you said, well, come out. We'll show you how to run the grain cart. And so

and like farming from his home country is like they pick everything by hand you know they shell it by hand like he was godsmacked by just

the sheer scale of what we were doing but he was able to run the grain cart we got him able to run the grain cart the biggest thing that he struggled with

which it's the hardest part is just unloading I think unloading and timing that augur and shutting off the PTO fast enough and shutting the gate

quick enough that's always the hardest part, but he got it down, and by the end of harvest, he was a hell of a great. He was all about it. Yeah. He's going to Cornell now. Yeah. Really? Yep. Majoring in political science and I think pre-law. I think pre-law. So he's, I don't know if he's going to go back home and put out his shingle and settle goat ownership disputes back home or what he's going to do. Better. He's going to be a politician, polyscian law. Hopefully we. I told him to do remember the small guys when he makes it to the top.

Right. Just remember us small people. That'd be a good idea. To your credit, though, so you are pretty anxious and anal when you drive the grain cart. You take things pretty slow. So you got a pretty good teacher. Yeah. Yeah.

Or making sure things weren't rammed into stuff and whatever. I'm very mindful. I don't want to mess up any of David's get to go fast shit. So I make sure that. Well, you migrate towards the technology. You are always worried about making sure that you're getting the auto steer set and moving your line if you need to. Well, it's just easier.

I just go and give it one shot. And if it isn't where I want it, I just go. You just buff it. Yeah, I just go. Yeah, but this year was a little bit more of a challenge. The four-wheel drive, you need a wide, you need a wide berth. Like you don't want to, you do not want to send that thing into a tight corner because there's no, it doesn't turn short, doesn't back up very well. You really want to drive with purpose knowing where you're going to go.

Yeah, I really, I learned that like when you're turning that thing, you got to freaking turn that thing. You are you are taking that wheel as far as it'll let you take it when you're turning around on the end rows. Pretty tight. But it was, it was an awesome setup. Yeah, that's the other thing. We got sent a grain cart to demo last harvest, which was pretty awesome. We were able to use the entire harvest season. Yeah, kudos to the Brant boys because that was, and that thing was, you wouldn't.

Oh, man, that camera to be able to see where you're jumping corn. Well, it was just so nice. Like when you were falling around, when you were opening up a field, you wouldn't think that the bushel difference on that cart makes that much difference, but it does. It was insane. Yeah, you weren't running back and forth as much. No. You know, I thought my 800 was, you know, big living until that thing showed up.

Yeah. Was it 11 or 11. 11. Yeah. 11. 20, so I'm sure it was 1100 bushels. But yeah, all good. What was your highlight and low light of last harvest, David, if you had to think? Hmm. I mean, we kind of hit on some of the highlights, I guess.

I know what my low light was. um Sawyer getting covered in hydraulic oil was pretty funny oh yeah that's probably be my low light yep

uh low light for me which probably turned out to be a highlight um tried to get started waited on madame dryer farted around with it for a week had a younger kid come up we worked on it together

great kid did everything he could for me um chased it around back and forth had one burner that would burn, the other one wouldn't. The first thing we checked was the flame probe, and it oamed out just fine. Went back, like five days later, I got to thinking, I'm like,

so it oms across when there's no flame correct. Correct. And therefore, when the flame hits it, it's supposed to open up, correct? Well, it should. I'm like, well, that's hot now. What does it have? He's like, well, it's still closed. Yep.

He's like, lots of bad words. And he's like, son of a gun, really. But anyway, that was that problem. But the good side of that was, and it was 90 degrees that week. And my corn went from 22 to 18%. I lost some phantom yield there, but no big deal. And then the other low light to harvest was while out was all going on. I got the call from the chore guy.

Hey, 1200s out of water. Oh, yeah, that's great. So then I was hauling water for three days to get them back, back up to speed. You ended up putting a new well up there. Yeah, are you doing that now? Just finished that a couple weeks ago, and the bill is laying on the desk at home. Yeah. Financing is going through.

Yep. Yep. So I know where to put another hog barn if I ever need one. Yep, you don't have to haul water now. I don't have to worry about water now for that one. Put sprinklers around there, see that down, make it look like a golf course. Yeah. So the well just dried up. How long was that?

So we drilled it in 12 and I think it had, I think it had 15 gallon a minute at that time. And it was down to like three when I finally had to make a decision on it. We put a cistern in four years ago. Yep. And I wasn't doing it either. That gave me some leeway, some room there. Yep, you're still having all water when they got big in the summer. Yeah.

Yeah, they knew how about that 150. pound range. They knew how to lay right there and get their nose on that cup water and just let it cool them, let it go all day. That was the only time I'd really had problems with it until last fall when I think it just, they got down enough to where it wasn't going to recoup. I don't know that I would, yeah, I would assume that upper level of our aquifer here probably is getting low. Yeah. But I think if we quit pulling from it, it'll be fine. Yeah. In five. five to 10 years, it'll replenish. Yeah, I agree.

Nice. Can't my chore guys like, well, why are you having problems here in that house over there is not having problems? I'm like, well, 1,500 gallon a day versus 20 to 30 gallon a day. Yeah, I mean, the difference is ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm looking forward to, I hope that we can recycle the water out of our, our separator, although that's somewhat up to the integrator.

whether or not they allow that or not. And if that all goes well and you're able to, you know, recycle that water, you should be able to recover about at least 50% of the water that you're using because you lose, what is it, 30% of it walks, 30% of it walks off, you know, is on the truck because 30% of your water usage is in the pigs that leave the farm, supposedly. That's the number that got thrown out. And then, you know, by the time you, you don't think that. you think that's too high?

That seems high to me. I don't know. Do you know that for a fact? Yeah, somebody, somebody threw that out, that 30% of your water usage on a finisher goes off on the truck. This is where we need like,

like if we're going to implement AI at all into the podcast, we need like a bot that we can just go, Jarvis, what's the fact? We'd have to give it some personality. Yeah. So it would just say like, what? Hell no.

Oh, that guy. That guy's fun. Yeah. Torque's not a little too much whiskey. This is the real number. Yeah. So I don't know. I could see that so you'd calculate the weight of the pigs you send out.

And then that's, you know, they're a percentage water. I don't know. They're probably about the same as us. Yep. 70 to 90, whatever percent. Yep. So then you'd take that off of what? Two turns a year.

I suppose. I don't know. That's what, that's what somebody said to me when we were initially talking about it. And then you figure what. what you lose that is still trapped in the solids what's still trapped in the brine

because you only reduce the brine down to so far and then you have a little bit in there for evaporation even though you're taking it out basically in real time so when you do all that 50 to 60% you might be able to recycle but that's a huge I mean that's a lot of gallons

so that's huge but if you're going to try to recycle it, then you don't have to store all of it. Yeah. You know, your storage capacity, whether it's a pond or whatever is that much smaller. Mm-hmm. What was the highlight for you?

Name two low-lights of harvest. What was the highlight? Oh, when we finished. That's always a good one. I always love the field beers. Final day. Final day, for sure. Cracked some beers,

sit on the head of the combine and just shoot the shit. year got cut short though because i think you had to go to dinner and i had to go yeah i had to go somewhere for something yeah well i just i mean this year was one for the if we get along that good again because just like you said the at your place not being able to go was actually a blessing because i think you only probably burned one tank lp right right And I was the same way. I saved it all from my hog barns. Yeah.

That was the same way. And at our place about the only thing was the day the auger decided to puke out. And that was great content. Yeah. So that was a win. Right. And other than that, I mean, we got done quick. I mean, we really didn't have any down days.

It didn't even rain. No. No, I don't think it did at all. Oh, we did have one. Oh, yeah. It was like seven tents. We were there at the church farm, doing my corn. that's right when that happened um yeah i'd say the speed at which it went came out was definitely a

highlight like you said getting it done was is always nice um did you miss having to change the fuel filters on the 9570 and then wondering whether or not you were going to be able to keep keep going or not not even in the slightest yeah i bet not even a little bit at all not even a little bit low light was paying the combine payment in october yeah and i got a few more them left but not having to deal with the fuel issue was was fantastic but no it worked like a champ i uh i learned this year depending on who your semi driver is that's that's taking the corn uh they have different hand signals and they might mean different things i had one guy that made it pretty easy he gave you the hand up to say you know shut the gate shut off the auger and then you have a guy

that gave me a bunch of other shit. And I'm like, what are you trying to tell me right now? You know? And I think it was, I think the guy that gave you, I think the guy that gave you this, meaning yeah,

I'm good versus you thought, no, he, no, it was like one guy gave me this and one guy, I think, or one of them,

I think they were always doing this. Yeah. Like kill it. Yep. And this guy kind of threw his hand up and was like, I don't know if he was trying to direct me to keep.

keep going or go back or what or he was just saying stop but i overfilled one semi this this this year and yeah i don't like doing that because it pisses me off because i like to make sure i do it to a t but uh yeah it just depends on the driver it it kind of puts them at risk i don't know what the do t does to them if they give them a little leeway saying you know i had an oopsie with the green card or yeah how they can get their way out of that but yeah yeah the best symbol is this yeah You know what that is? Pull your head out of your ass. Yeah.

There you go. Yeah. There you go. So next time you get conflicting signals, so you're just going to give them this one back. Yeah. Well, the thing is, like, once you do it by yourself, they just tell you, they're like, all right, you fill here, here, here, back up.

You should, that should be enough. Then you're like, okay, great. And then you get somebody that they just want to guide you the whole time. So they're like, just follow my hand signals. And you're like, okay, well, all right, sure, I'll do that. And some of them like to fill it a certain way, some of them like to fill it a different way. And it's like, all right, well, it's kind of like pigs,

loading hogs. Some, and this, there again, we need Jarvis to tell me, but I think that somebody's got a scale on a cart now where you can basically tell that cart how many bushels you want to, how many pounds you want to offload. And when you start with that, it'll automatically close.

close the gate so that if you want to put on 60,000 pounds or whatever you want to put on, it'll it'll do it. Now then the only problem with that is I'd put it all in the back or the front and get three wish. And then when you get the trucker that knows better than the scale and is pissed that either piss that you over fielding or that you underfielding. Yeah. Because he doesn't really, yeah, he's going off eye. Yeah, he's going off his eye. but anyway. You don't know how much them scales are, I mean, they're, they seem pretty accurate. They're more accurate than the yield monitors probably.

But, yeah, I don't know how you don't know. You don't know. Really accurate they are. Yeah. Because they're always moving and weight's more on the tongue or more on the. Well, it's just like when you're trying to calibrate your yield monitor and you're running onto a cart and the cart says this and your monitor says this. Right. And you really don't know whether either one of them are right.

Yeah. I mean, if the cart's low, you ignore it. If it's high, you make sure you change it. That's right. There you go. That's the way to do it. So looking into this year, I mean, planting seasons fast approaching. Hopefully spring, it'll start feeling like spring here soon.

Did you strip till it all? I did all mine, excuse me. Yeah, I did all mine this fall. So I went out and I stripped all my manure. with my drag line hose, got it in furrow. And then weather was looking pretty good last fall. It was pretty dry, so I didn't want to mess with this. So I've got one tractor for a strip till bar and a planner.

And I've done it in the spring before, but I'm so dark and heavy and flat, that it still really kind of mudballs up in the spring. So that's the reason I'd got it because it was a spring. tillage tool. But anyway, I went out and I stripped everything last fall and was really counting on rain and freezing and thawing to really mellow things out. And I'm hoping we got that. Yeah. Got like 12 inches of frost in the ground. Yeah. Which is more than we've had here in a long time. So I think that should really help with that next spring.

Well, we damn sure need rain. It is dry. Yeah. Hopefully we don't get it all at once. Mm-hmm. And, but we'll get whatever we get. How many years have you been doing the strip till? One second.

I've had 43 missed calls from the... I've got two from Barn Talk and one from Andy McCall. Oh, boy. You got power? I suppose I don't have power. Oh, boy. We might have a Hog Barn situation here. Live on the air.

Live on the air. Does David's Hog Barn have power? All right. Andy says hello, fellas. Well, thank you. Yes. Hello, Andy. He says thank you and hello too.

He'll see you at church on Sunday. I'll see in men's group tomorrow morning. Oh, men's group tomorrow morning. That's what he said. Oh, yeah. We'll do. the call. Thank you. My Andy. Well, that turned out better than I thought. There's some high quality content for you. Yeah, well, you know, we should have put him on speaker because I know.

Andy could have gone for, could have just had, we could have just set the phone over there in that chair. Right. So do you have power? I do not have power. So I had a couple of call. I had a call and then another call and then that call was Andy. So Barn Talk was two and Andy was one. So for the confusion of anybody that's listening, there is an alarm system specifically for Hogg barns called Barn Talk alarm system. And it basically is your all-encompassing barn alarm. If you lose power or temperature goes too high or power, you know, whatever. Water, you have water meters, all kinds of things. So Dave got Barn Talk alerts from his barn alarm.

And then your neighbor is Andy, right? Yep. My neighbor's Andy. Yeah, you guys are lucky. I was able to keep talking. because it was just blowing up my pocket here. Well, do you need to leave or do you got a generator or do you got somebody? They'll be all right.

It's 40 degrees. Yeah. And curtains are all down. I'll head straight back there when we're done here. Yeah, that's, it's pretty okay right now. But if it was 90 degrees in summer, that's where. Yeah, they'd be squealing. They'd be.

Yeah, that's where it could be a problem. It would not like life. Yeah, and you don't want to be confused because barn talk does not have like, like we we do not have a calling service so do not try to sign up for for our system because I mean we could call you but it wouldn't be to help you with anything yeah they would probably lead to lawsuits at some point it could yeah you don't want to depend on barn talk to podcast yeah that's no point no that's no point no no we're talking about strip telling yeah I mean what's your verdict on that do you have you how long have you been doing it and do you love it do you feel like

you see a difference where where's your head at because I feel like a lot of people people, they have mixed opinions on it. It is, it's tough. I wouldn't call it a silver bullet. I would say it will help you in certain situations. Like with work and dirt at any time, condition of the ground, moisture content is going to be a huge, huge factor. And it still plays in. into account with strip tilling.

I would say it is a little more, um, forgiving. No, not forgiving, a little less forgiving. Okay. Because you are only tilling right where you want to put that seed. So if you're messing that up. Yeah, you've shot yourself on the phone.

Yeah, you're, you're not going to have a, well, this, this part didn't get it. So that corn came up fine, but where I had stripped really sucked. it's all going to be what you did. Yeah, so doing it at the optimal time is more important. And it's not as easy. And I think a lot of people, I think when they start down that road, I think people are kind of sold the idea that it's a fix it,

that, oh, yeah, you just run that over there and it'll make up for poor field conditions. Yeah. Which your experience tells you no. It's so in theory, I think I think what would work best for my ground would be, and with the machine I have, so I have a yutter CC. I don't know the name of it, but it's all vertical tillage. There's no shank on it. And it goes, at most it goes, I think, three inches deep. But I think best case scenario from my ground would be either a fall shank and a spring.

refresh or if I did have two tractors, wait as absolutely long as you can until that ground is as dry as it can be in the top two to three inches and then go out and strip it. The biggest advantage I think that I've seen or I won't say advantage, maybe the biggest thing I'm trying to accomplish. So I put the road cleaner. I went to know till seven or eight years ago. Yeah.

Put the road cleaners on. And what I noticed with that was when you're going through the field, you've got dry patch or you got bare patches, which are at temperature to plant seed in seed like 70 degree, well, 50 plus degree ground temperature. Soil temperature. And then you go 10 feet and you've got a mat of soy bean stubble. So the road cleaners did a great job of getting rid of that stubble.

Yep. But you're looking at imbibing that water within the first 12 hours, 24 hours, whatever it is of when that seed goes into the ground. The part that you've just opened up was at 50 degrees. The part that was bare was at 65 to 70 degrees. So my theory, my thought was, well, let's get all of the soil. opened up all the same color, black, hopefully. So that way it's all getting the same temperature.

And then all of your emergence comes up. Yep. Roughly in the same time frame. So part of me is like, do I just need a strip till bar that's nothing but row cleaners? Right. Right. Maybe. Yeah.

Well, I can tell you, my lesson that I learned this last year was you, corn on corn on corn is a different animal. And when you have a year that that trash doesn't break down, which we had, that becomes a very big problem for exactly what you talked about because I had really uneven emergence where I had heavy trash, even where you had a strip that you got a strip

that you got opened up for that seed. There was so much trash that the soil around it never warmed up. And it was just like a sponge. It just sucked the heat out of the ground to where when my corn emerged, it was very uneven. Anywhere where you had that trash buildup. And I was like, yep. And then I screwed up because I should have.

put on, I should have put on a little bit of nitrogen with some sulfur right after we planted to get a little boost to it. And I waited because I'm like, I'm going to put everything on post side dress. And that was no bueno. So, um, kind of another theory is if you've got a 10 foot patch of black soil and then a 10 foot patch of, um, you know, ground covered and stubble you know that 10 foot will all kind of grow up together at the same time they'll be behind that other that emerged right away so the worst what you really don't want is two really healthy ones and then one that came up yeah you know a day later yep because then that one's a weed and it's never going to be yeah it's going to get stunted the whole way yeah yeah

well i don't know uh what what is your what's your are you going 50 50-50 this year? You think the bean market and the corn market, who's going to be the winner? What's going to be the moneymaker this year? Well, real quick, let's go back to strip till. I did do, so last spring I did strip about 40 acres worth of corn stubble going to beans. Yep. And it was marginal conditions at best.

You know, when you run the vertical tillage unit, it has, or my specific unit has gauge wheels on it like a planter. So those get all mudded up. And it didn't look great, but to me, there seemed to be more leeway in strip tilling corn stubble than bean stubble because I think it, it stays wetter.

But anyway, long story short, that I did strip, the emergence was a lot better on than what I didn't because it was all able to come up out of the ground. It wasn't laying under any of the trash. The trash. Yield wise on beans.

it's not probably going to be that big of a deal. Were you able to tell any difference? I didn't really see much difference. I thought I did going through that field with the combine. I was like, well, those are good numbers. But then I saw those numbers once I got to the other side too. Yep. And my phone is going to keep calling me because I still have no power.

That's great. So corn or beans, where do you think is going to be the winner? This year. If you even classify as a win. Break even. I don't know. Bean market was really strong there a couple weeks ago. Yep.

I did not see that coming at all. I didn't either. Nope. Have you sold any new crop yet? I've been selling some new crop. All right. Look at you. Got a marketing plan.

That's good. I've even got new crop sold for a year from now. All right. I am not a marketing genius. right so i don't know why you're really asking me this question i give it to a guy and he's like hey i sold october corn i'm like okay yep you'd be thrilled to death until you know that wasn't the right move and then you can yell at him he sits there and watches it all day i watch baseball videos to try to coach two little league teams so that's well there's nothing wrong with that though

i think i i have gone back and forth on doing that um and I don't think there's any I don't think there's anything wrong with it if you're some like there's some guys that really enjoy it I think it's just where your discipline is if you're somebody and you can be disciplined and you treat that with the

with the degree of dedication that you should you can market your own and if it's right if you just get frustrated and throw your hands up then offload it on somebody but to not have a in this day and age to not have either a marketing plan or have somebody marketing it for you no that's no bueno right no pointo so yeah if you got the time to do it

then you'd probably be a great marketer yeah right i mean honestly if your thing is to sip coffee and read for two hours every morning about markets and trends and weather and geopolitical conflicts and how much is speculated to be added or taken away from planted crop next year, then I'm sure you can handle it. Yeah, and you know, this, like worldwide, world ending stocks on corn

have been trending lower for the last three years. The problem is the U.S., we just raised this monster crop. But I think now we're back to this speculation about because a bunch of acres are probably going to go back to beans this year because a whole bunch of people did what I did and thought they were smarter than the market and they planted 100% corn. And then they all woke up when March futures didn't go where we thought they were going to and went, well, that was an experiment and futility. So now then we're back to 50-50 crop rotations. So yeah, I mean going on that then, so logic would tell you the corn market would be a little better this year and then the beans would. There you go.

Go the other way. Are you trying anything different this year? Oh, I'm going to try planting with a refurbished planter, I guess. Nice. It's kind of my big thing. I've done some cover crop strip trials through ISA, Iowa Soybean Association. Bad fall to plant them with a drone. Yep.

I haven't driven by lately to see what it looks like if they're even alive. or not, but not totally against cover crop. I would like to investigate it more. Might do that more in the future. Don't tell my neighbors because I'm all flat up there and

we don't do those kinds of things. Yep. We still like, some of us like to make it black up there yet, but so I got a couple strip trials going there. I don't think there'll be anything earth shattering that comes out of that. Are you going to put liquid on with the plan? I'm going to put liquid on again.

I usually do about 30 pounds on my planter. I wish I had the full Cadillac planter. I could do in furrow and two by two. I don't even inject my two by two. I dribble it with stabilizer and some sulfur. Like I said, about 30 pounds worth of nitrogen. I don't know. I like what that does.

It gives to me, it gets it up out of the ground. well um and then with my manure strips i tend to believe that helps quite a bit too with early plant vigor um i don't wouldn't say that it's the nitrogen in the manure i think then on that side it's the p and the k being available when it's young i agree um so kind of the standard same mold. Yeah, nothing really earth shattering. I just get, I go back and forth on it. I mean, we've done it before and then.

Did it work or not? Well, I don't know. I don't know if it, I think at the end of the day, I think it were to the point where most people can agree that probably get nitrogen out there not all at once. Yes. But at different times, it's probably a good thing. Yeah.

Now, the vast majority of the nitrogen that I got came from the hog manure, so it's out there. Right. For me, I've always, I feel like side dressing once the corn is up is my best bang for my buck on getting that extra nitrogen out there. Yeah. But last year, my corn would have definitely benefited from having some nitrogen early. Early. Yeah. And some sulfur.

I was really contemplating doing my manure this spring. I've talked to another local farmer here and he claims 30 bushel. Yep. Difference. That would, I would assume be applied to the amount of rate that you're putting out there. But it was going to be too wet and too rainy and too cold. And I would not have had time to get it. So I didn't.

Well, I probably could have done it. Yep. But you also got to ask yourself, like in your situation, you are so at the mercy of what that spring is. Yes. And for you putting everything, getting all set up to do that, and then if it's the right year, that works okay. If it's the wrong year, by the time you get it on there,

you got to scramble to get everything. things switched and go start planting. Because the other side of the data says the earlier you get the crop in, the better. Well, I'm a one-man show. I got a tractor that runs hose reels and plants. Well, those two things don't go all together. Plus, this time of year, it's, you know, I mean, I could get the planner hooked up probably in a day or a half a day. But I would have no confidence in how well it's going to run.

and I like to spend at least a week or two or three leading up to it fixing the things thinking have I covered this, did I do that, what was wrong with it last year? Yeah, and you got time that you can take it out, drop in, run it a day when you think it might be decent that you could go and then find all the things you missed and then have time to fix them and all that. Depending on what water quality things we see in the future legislatively, and there may be be a pretty big business for pumping in the spring. There may be that.

Because as hard as it goes in the fall. Yep. And you got, you know, a two and a half month window in the fall to get it done. Well, in the spring, every farmer's going to want it done today so he can plant next week. Yep. Yeah, that's right. If that's where they're going to push it to, I don't know. Yeah.

Okay. You guys don't even have to worry about any of this anymore. Well, I'm hoping not. But we still, I think we still got to decide when we're going to apply. that and how we're going to apply it. Right. And I think putting it on there in the spring makes the most sense if you can get it, if you can get it on and get it.

You got, I think you got to incorporate it somehow. Yeah. I don't know whether that's a, I don't know if you are, if we're going to broadcast it, excuse me, broadcast it and just hit everything with a vertical till machine or you're going to try to strip it. The problem with trying to strip it is, then you got to, you're trying to get some kind of a cart that you're blowing it on. Right.

And that adds up dollars pretty fast. Then you got to have something big enough to pull all that apparatus. And so I don't know. I think to start, I think we're probably just going to broadcast it and then get some kind of vertical till machine to incorporate it. What do you think about the, I feel like everybody and I, everybody that thinks about Iowa now, they think about the cancer statistic that came out.

think about water quality and they might combine the two to think that the water sucks so that's why people are having cancer and a lot of that blame i feel like it's falling on our farmer shoulders right but i mean we've talked about it a million times on here nobody's tracking how many how much fertilizer they're putting on their lawn nobody's tracking everybody it's easy to call the farmers out and say that we're the ones that are over applying manure or letting it run into the creek or whatever but I mean what's your what's your thought process on all all that mess yeah I don't know how they prove it one way or the other um is it people in a city that pulls their water out of the river do they have the highest cancer rate right now I drink water from a well yep I don't I've never

had it tested for nitrates I don't know if there's any in there or not I assume there might be so now are people on wells do they have a higher cancer rate to me i well but how much are they getting out of the river are they getting it all out so is the person in the city then drinking healthier water than i am right so i don't well i don't know um the glyphosate thing is in there you know as well what was the one ruling it was a gardener Or a landscaper in California was the only one that proved he got cancer from glyphosate. Yep. I don't know that there's any applications where they, so I think there is some application in wheat where they spray it as a desolate.

Yep. But I don't know that it's more than one or two percent of all wheat. Yeah. Yeah, the. Because like around here when we spray Roundup, which, nobody really sprays Roundup anymore because it doesn't work. But when we spray our crop is in June. Yep.

And then we don't put anything else on it unless it's a fungicide, which is still early, early in the year. It's a month and a half before harvest. Yep. So I don't know how it could be tied because the plant would metabolize it. The rain would wash it off. It would be far gone before. It could run in the creek or in the river or whatever.

The other question that I have is Iowa is definitely not. I mean, what's Illinois like? Because when it comes to the amount of fertilizer put on, yes, we have more livestock in Iowa. So if it is somehow runoff from hog production, that would be an exception to what it is in the state of Illinois. but there's plenty of places in the state of Illinois. There's huge swaths of counties that have as large a pork production as what we have in a lot of the state of Iowa. Right. I don't know what those numbers look like. But it makes for good politics.

So you've got, I think it's going to figure into the Secretary of Ag race and I think it's going to figure into the governor's race. And what do we have? Is there three people running on the Republican side for governor, or is there four? Pien Strasch is Brad Sherman? Yes, and then. And then Adam Steen. And then Josh? No, it's not Josh.

Adam Steen, isn't it? Zach. Zach Lawn? Zach Lawn. Or land, Zach Lane. He was on Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson. He's running. He's interesting, Kat.

We're trying to get him on. please reply to our message. No, he said he's a fan of Barn Talk, so. Yeah. Yeah. We need to make it work. But I think water. I would think there's, because I think there's a guy named Adam Steen.

Yeah, there is a guy. He's on Steve Day's show all the time. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that's going to be, I think that on the Democrat side, I don't know if there's anybody else running, but the guy that I think's going to probably end up with it is, what's his name

skinny guy Zach? No, the Oh, Rob San. Rob San. Rob San. Rob San. Rob San. Rob San. And I don't know that much about him.

He's a strange cat. But he's definitely He's definitely very interesting. You think he's a strange cat, but. Well, I think younger people are connecting with him and he's done a good job of getting out there on social media and just talking through where he is on stuff. What I'll say is, he's a,

He's running a hell of a campaign. Yeah. I mean, you can't discredit him for that. No, he's murdering it on the campaign side. My thing is, yeah, he seems like he's a libertarian, but it's like all these politicians. They talk about this whole thing, how they're not going to pick one side or the other. There's sides of both sides of the aisle, and then they get in and what happens?

They get ate up. They get eat up by the swamp. And it changes. I don't know when he came. into the gig, but I didn't hear him talking about waste, fraud, and abuse until the state went red. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, right. Yeah. Now he's really gung-ho about it. Yeah, exactly. That's the problem with all of them is they run on something, but will they actually stick by their word? I don't know. That's the hard part. Well, and to your point, they get swallowed by the machine. So, you know,

whoever, whoever it is and whoever gets in, whether they be a Republican or, you know, to your point, they're or a Democrat. I feel like the Iowa governor has a little better, maybe you call it, autonomy with trying to have their own agenda. But to some degree, you're at the mercy of your party and you're at the mercy of the money that's in it. And then that only gets multiplied at the national level. I was kind of surprised.

You see old Dan Crenge? Shaw got, he didn't get, he didn't get, he didn't bring that up today. Yeah. Yeah. He didn't, he got primaried. Well, whatever you want to say. Yeah. Yeah, primaryed out. So that brings me to like the biggest thing that I think is our issue. So we get, we all get but hurt over these politicians who go there and don't do anything. Well, if they're going to do bad stuff, you kind of want them to not do anything and be worthless for yeah, two to four year, two to six years, whatever it is. But on their side, if they tell you they're going to do good things. or like we've got the Save America Act going on.

It'd be nice to hear somebody push that through and get that done. But we the people, like we bitch about them, but we don't, nobody votes in the primary. Yep. I think our last one, which was a pretty good turnout here for our representative, I think it saw 17,000 people total vote in that primary. Yeah. And she won by a thousand votes. Yep.

So, I mean. kind of look in the mirror gang if you're pissed at what you got in dc or the state did you vote in the primary yeah yeah because the party that gets that swallows up these people yep is going to protect itself no matter what it's going to protect that person yeah once they're in right that's the thing i i don't think that gets talked about enough to your point is once a politician gets in, party politics dictate. Now, I realize Trump is a little bit.

He shook that up a little bit in the fact that there's been plenty of politicians that have gotten in, that he's made a personal vendetta for him not to get reelected. But usually that doesn't happen. Usually the party all falls in line because it's a lot easier to keep somebody than it is to try to get somebody new.

And like in his case, if you're Crenshaw, you have the advantage of you have the machine working for you. And so for somebody to be able to primary him, that's pretty impressive because he's got the name, he's got the money, he's got the donors. But it can't help that he just kind of talked out of both sides of his mouth and didn't get anything done. And it was kind of a piece of shit. Well, yeah, I mean, that's what they all do. but, I mean, to me, if you want to mount a successful national primary campaign is, I guess you got to get talk shows, podcasters, you got to get on... You got to get on Barn Talk.

The Theo, the Barn talk, the Theo Vaughans of the world, the Joe Rogan's of the world. I mean, you're not going to find Joe Rogan giving a shit about Iowa's districts, but you got to get out there and make this name ID known. and to engage the people to actually show up and vote for you. Right. I mean, like, if you're pissed at your specific congressperson, it's your fault because you don't vote them out because you don't know who's running against them. You don't know when the primaries are. Yeah. So you don't even vote.

They go back to Congress, do the same thing that they never do. Yep. Anything you want them to do. So don't blame them. Blame yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Get engaged.

Get active. Yeah. Learn about these people and vote the bums out. Yeah, 100%. You got to get past. I know the polls, after work, the last thing you want to do is go standing in a line in the polls, but it's important.

But I think people are exhausted. Right. And they don't really care. But to your point, I mean, they should care, especially about your House candidates, your Senate candidates. And if you don't want them out of there, if you want them out of there, but you don't want to give up the party to somebody that totally doesn't agree with you. it's it's a scary flip of the coin all i hope for is we just don't whoever becomes the governor

we just don't turn the state of iowa into minnesota uh yeah that would yeah that's all i i mean as long as they can somewhat keep the keep the wheels on that's right that's what i mean yeah it'd be great if they were proactive and could it's like you said if it's somebody that's shitty you hope that they just don't do anything right what about ag you would talk about ag you We talk about the politics. We talk about what's, we need to get out and vote to just change some things

if you're not happy with the current administration or your primaries or people in Washington, you got to do something about it and get out and vote. But when you think about ag, I know we have this discussion

every time you come on, but like, what do you, how do you feel right now about just farming and agriculture for 2026? I mean, where does your head that?

Yeah. Grab a hold and hang on. Yeah. swim paddle I don't know it's just going to continue to get harder for

small guys to me the people who will survive are the larger farms now I would assume maybe 2000 plus that own a lot of land bottom dollar looks really good when you're not paying rent on all that stuff and you can then afford to pay the astronomical price and spread it out amongst your your full organization but i mean i think it's going to be

a father with a couple sons and they farm together the couple sons continue to grow they have their own family and they just keep getting larger and larger and they can afford to like I said just keep consuming more and more land they can they can afford to do custom work um they can afford to do you know their own trucking or yeah trucking for other people um but i just they are the ones I think who are the best able to to spread the risk yeah when it comes to all that um yeah yeah any other revenue income you can get would be great yeah i'd like to do more hog barns because i know how to do those but there's no way to pay for them right now no i don't know that anybody's really looking to grow yep um what did i hear i don't know if this was real or not but china's

birth rate last year was like seven million people i don't know if that sounds right or not and i'd heard people speculating that they're more at like 500 million total people in China as opposed to because they went back and looked at well here's what their population was in 50 yeah and then they figured in the one child policy and they're like there's no way there what are they claim to be 1.4 billion that to me like as bad as China is overall trade wise and how they treat us economically. We kind of need them to have a whole crap ton of people. And they don't.

And they don't. And it's bad enough that they quit keeping records. I'm sure they keep records internally, but they quit reporting a whole bunch of things. Right. And the main reason is because it's way worse than what they let on to. And I think that that's one of my biggest, that's one of my biggest gripes,

with commodity groups in general is we get together and all we want to talk about is China, China, China. China is not going to be. They're not going to be a player and they're not going to be our biggest export. They're not going to be anybody's because they have mismanaged their economy and their population and everything so poorly that whatever, yeah, their population isn't anyone. near what they claim it is. Right.

And it's, it's worse than, uh, the demographics they have will be worse than, you know, Japan's has been terrible forever. Right. Uh,

there's is much worse. Russia's is terrible. Especially with the war. Yeah. I mean, shitload of young men. Yeah. It's,

there's no coming back from that. We should be way more interested. And I, and I think you see that with Trump. I think he realizes that. although I'm puzzled by how the Canada-Mexico thing really puzzles me because our hemisphere, we have a really great opportunity because Central, South America, Mexico, those populations are all growing and they're having a lot of kids.

And I think we need to do everything we can to increase our trade right in our neck of the woods. Because China, I don't think China is going to be a... I think their play right now is to try to win the AI race against us. And try to pay off as many of our politicians as they can and try to buy farm ground here. Try to buy into the United States, try to buy off politicians, try to win the AI race. that's what i think that's their or try to go get taiwan sometime yeah i mean they're going to get in a desperate situation where it's like right they're going to have to do something have you seen any so i've heard on other talk shows about them building these cities that nobody lives in yep

supposedly they're building the power plant every two weeks like well if you don't have the people what do you need the power plant for so i can see that as being a way to keep their economy rolling on what money I don't know. Yeah. No, that's totally right. It's just keeping people busy doing stuff, but for what? Yeah. So one of the things that has come back to bite them in the ass hard is all of their local governments,

their main way to bring income into their local government is through land sales, for development and property taxes. And so that's why they have had this massive overbuilding. That's why there are these cities that they have, because they sold, they sold the land to a developer and the loan was guaranteed by the state. And then they got all of the people employed doing that. And then once that's built, they collect property taxes. And as those units are sold, and if they're not sold, the developer pays them and the developer is backed by the bank of China.

And so they just keep extending the loan. So it's just another way of stimulus. Yeah. But when you run out of people and you don't have the need to build, your local governments are all in, they're all in big trouble over there because of that. So it's a mess. What do you think about this Iran war that we kicked off not too long ago? And did you see that video of that former, that Marine that went to the hearing yesterday and spoke and got. I didn't see what he said.

I see him getting, I saw him. Pretty much he said that we shouldn't send Americans to go die for Israel, basically. is we shouldn't go fight a war for Israel. Yeah, this whole Israel is controlling the world thing has got me puzzled. It is. There's what a million and a half people? There's a lot of people. The thing is, I don't, I think a lot of people don't know what to think.

And they also, they don't want you to really talk about it either. There's people that are going to extreme, extreme where they are, you know, it's anti-Semitic. Like they're going like way too far saying that Israel's like the enemy and then there's the middle where it's like, yeah, I mean, they're funding some stuff in America that why are they funding that? And you know, it's like you can't, but they don't want you to raise any questions. Yeah. So weird. I mean, Bible says that, you know, Israel will be standing in the end. So I'd say it's good to probably be on that side if you are in any past. of Christian nation or believe in God at all. I'm sure there are people in Israel who don't have good intentions. Maybe some demonic influence or whatever. I mean, not like worshiping the devil, but ideas that don't come from God or whatever. What am I trying to say here?

Well, I think Israel's got... Yeah, I'll think about that. Israel's got a little bit of a problem Iowa has. It's like Benjamin Netanyahu, is he the only, is he like the only guy left from when, you know, he was, he was in the army. He was one of the colonels, generals, captains, whatever.

Right. When Israel was formed and they were attacked by the, by all the Arab countries, like he was one of the guys. Right. So he's been, he's been. at the helm or heavily involved in their government since the very beginning.

And here he is. It's like how many times has he been prime minister? Because he was and then he wasn't. And then they brought him back and then he wasn't. And now he is. And he's been under investigation for about everything for, you know, bribery, for this, for that. And it's like, is there nobody else over there that can run this ship? I don't know.

And I'm not going to speculate on how much influence they do or don't have. I know they have a lot. I mean, obviously, Israel next to the United States has the most sophisticated military. And intelligence. And arguably their intelligence may be better than ours. Although they did somehow let guys. All those people fly over their wall and didn't know that that was coming. Right.

They claim that they have the best, they claim that they have the best intelligence and they can, you know, kill terrorists with their bombs and their cell phones, but you didn't know that guys were going to fly. Terrorists with AK-47s were going to fly over your wall and attack you. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I guess so. That's where it's kind of like, what, you know, it's like, what the fuck? Yeah, so I guess, to me, Occam's Razor kind of explains it the best. the whole of the Middle East wants to end Israel, basically. So Israel is going to do what it can to defend itself. I think from Trump's perspective on what he did in Venezuela

and what's going on in Iran, I don't think has to have anything to do with Israel at all whatsoever. The U.S. bond rate is so bad. Nobody's buying our bonds. We are not an investor. commodity now. Yep. The crank nations, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are all together taking, well, first,

the Venezuela thing, taking oil from our hemisphere illegally over to Russia and China. Yep. I mean, that's something that we should have control of. Yep. Based on the Monroe Doctrine. But then same thing. Iran is sending illegal ships to and from China and Russia of oil. So not to get into, I mean, Iran was Persia was an incredibly open and free country in the 70s until the Ayatollahs took over.

So from a humanitarian standpoint, I can see getting rid of the Ayatollahs. That sounds like a idea to me, let the people be free. And then global power with the oil that Iran possesses giving illegally to Russia and China, you know, if we're worried about China taking Taiwan, where all of our chips come from, you know, that would buy us some time to build up our chip making here or just keep them because they're going to need oil to get to invade Taiwan and take it. So I can see truly strategic good reasons for going to war with Iran, let alone the humanitarian efforts. Now, the part that we struggle with as America is the leadership that takes over once we're done. So that's going to be the problem.

So I think what is happening is good. come on anti-Israel people you're being a little crazy yeah every every country that starts pointing fingers that the jews tends to have a pretty bad ending yeah so i would say let's steer away from that corrupt people in every religion government throughout the world but let's not just go the jews when there's yeah yeah a couple million of them i mean if you want to they control the money are they 1% of the total world banking system. Yeah. If that.

Yeah. That's not. I wouldn't call that controlling the money. Yep. So anyway, that's my thought. Yeah. No,

I think that's... Venezuela and Israel and... I think the other thing was, how long have we been telling them stop trying to make nuclear bombs? Yeah. And they kept doing it. Yeah.

You asked real quick. You asked about the Marine. I'm with him. Like, I totally understand he's been probably been in combat i understand why he's nervous why he doesn't want to do it yep i don't i don't know we've we've allowed the world to get to the point that it's in i don't know what you do um i'm with him if he's saying no boots on the ground i'm totally with him in that if that was his main argument i'm 100% with him on that but just yelling to yell yeah i think just completely dismissing

the whole thing is maybe having any good i don't think you can go that far yet I think his main point was just going and fighting, like we talked about with going in the Middle East, our previous time we were in the Middle East. He went over there. I do remember he did comment, we don't need to fight Israel's wars. And I was not, when he said that, it got me into, oh, this guy's might be a little wacky. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I think how can we resolve, how can we do this, resolve this conflict with,

trying to not have Americans killed. Like trying to... Yeah, I don't... I think everybody is sick of fighting wars for the sake of fighting wars and the money, losing the blood. And the military industrial complex making a shitload of money.

Right. I don't think people want to have another Afghanistan because we went there with one goal and then we stayed there for a while. Yeah. Too long. Yeah. And then we came back and guess what?

They took it right back. Yeah. And it's like, what's the point? We took out the leader of Venezuela and Iran. And we spent 20 years hunting for bin Laden. Yeah. Come on, guys. Well, you, did you guys, there was a documentary.

Did you guys watch that documentary about when they were hunting bin Laden? It was the whole thing about an island. They had, like, there was a, there was a moment where they had him in like a cave. And like they had American intelligence, like, everybody knew he was in this cave. and the boots on the ground that were like scouting it, we're like, all right, he's here. Send everybody. Right.

Or we can, like, we can go get him right now. And they're like, no, we're just going to bomb it. And then he escaped. And then for then he hid for however long. Oh, I see. And it's like, yeah, it just makes you wonder. Did we go over there and we really, that was the goal? Or did we go over there saying that that was the goal,

but we knew we were going to stay because we wanted to make a bunch of money? The industrial complex wanted to. military industrial complex want to make a lot of money. So that's the thing. Yeah. I just, and it's hard for us. We don't have combat experience. So it's like we don't know what that looks like.

We don't know what that feels like. But yeah, I was just curious to hear your thoughts on it because it's a new thing. Well, to David's point, I think that Israel and the United States have, I think Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump have shared. interests. Yeah, I'm a little nervous about that too. I'd like to know more about it. But I think they're both looking to get something else out of it. If you're the Israelis, there's nothing better for the outlook of your ability to remain as a nation than to have Israel or than to have Iran in chaos. Because they're funding basically,

they have been funding basically every terrorist organization that has been causing havoc in Israel. But to your point, if you look at the big picture, Russia is not the superpower that we spent however many decades, and the Ukrainian war is just bleeding them. We talk a good game,

and Trump talks a good game about wanting to end that war, but I don't think they really want to. I think that I think they look at that as every day that that goes on it makes Russia that much weaker. We went into Venezuela. The Chinese made a huge investment in Venezuela.

They poured billions of dollars in there and they didn't want that money back as interest payments. They wanted it back in oil. We cut that all off. They're not getting that oil. So you have caused their energy costs to go up because that oil was all coming at a discount. So now we go to Iran. The 20% of oil that comes out of the Suez Canal, the vast majority of that goes to China,

whether or not it comes from the Iranians or whether it comes from Saudi or UAE or whoever, it flows through there, it goes to China. We've disrupted that. But more importantly, do you know who the biggest builder after China of drones that are going to Russia to fight the Ukrainian war? It's Iran. Iran has one of the biggest drone factories that were supplying the Russians. You've destroyed that. So you've taken Venezuela off the board. You've taken Iran off the board. The Russians are in decline. If you're the Chinese, think about how different, you're, you're, your political world looks in less than 12 months.

All of your allies are going. Donald Trump is going to have a meeting over there sometime this summer. And I think all of this, I don't think there's that much connection. I think that he looked at that. It's good to have the Israelis along because obviously they got the second best Air Force and intelligence next to us. we've got a great history. We both wanted the same things.

But I think in Donald Trump's mind, it's all about China. And it's all about putting us back as top dog because we're going to weaken everybody else to where the Chinese have to play ball. That's what I think. He's a Z. I have a deal for you. You buy all of our oil,

all of our corn, soybeans, all of our pork, all of our beef. And we'll leave you alone. We'll cut you a hell of it. deal right now. What do you say? I would not want to be. I would not want to be. So do we call, do we buy calls or puts then for the future? Well, so then. That's why I don't do my own marketing. So then the question is, how strong is that relationship between Taiwan and the United States?

Right. Because if you, if you're the political machine in the United States and you get everything you want and you get your trade partner back and they're not fucking with you anywhere. how strong do you defend Taiwan? Right. I don't know. I wouldn't want to be... It takes Taiwan off the table. If China has to come to our table, then...

Right. Okay, China. We would recommend you don't invade them, but we're not going to care because... You're not going to care. Because... You're screwed either way. Wow. I love it.

Maybe send them some marital aids, get them... Get their birth rate up a little bit more. I should have gotten my tinfoil hat out for that, That was a tinfoil shit. That sounds like a good scenario. I would sign up for that if you can make that happen. That's just the way it looks to me is I think that's,

I think that's Trump's North Star is putting China back under our thumb. Because it isn't the Russians. If he really can't, I just think that for me the telltale sign is that Ukraine war, you know, he campaigned on that that he literally said, I'll have it done. I can have it done in an afternoon or whatever. Right. And he said the other day it's proved to be much harder than what he thought.

But honestly, the Ukrainians have punched way above their belt. Yeah. And I think... With our money, of course. I think NATO and the United States have realized that all we got to do is just feed this enough that they just keep grinding the Russians. Yeah. And they're walking a tight line, you know, whether the Russians will... The problem with the Russians is they've got nukes.

And I don't know how it all ends. But right now, Russia is just killing itself. I feel bad for the people on both sides of that war who were drug into it. But on one side, you got Zelensky who wants to be global W.E.F type guy. Yeah. Partying with Klaus Schwab, you know, and then I got Russia on the other side. So. Yep.

Yeah. I want nothing to do with it. Blow each other to hell and we'll walk away from you. Well, Zelenskyy's a, he's a result of decades. of the CIA playing in Ukraine. I mean, they, they screwed with that government. I mean, he's a product of our own meddling. Okay, one last question for you,

because we're getting close to the end here. You're getting long. You know, you've kind of been through the estate and probate and legal hurdles. What's something that you didn't see coming or that you want to make sure people are aware of if they could go through something like that, if you can?

don't have to get too crazy with it okay yeah that's that's a pretty good question um one thing i will say that is i think the most important other than the estate the money all that if you're farming with your dad your uncle your grandpa your brother whoever as much as you guys don't like each other realize how important that person is and really cherish it um we're coming into a new era of cover crops so my dad was turned it all black every single fall. We're going that route. And I mean, he didn't really have much to say because he was kind of handing it over to me when we went to no-till. But I know things like that. People just butt heads over for no real reason. You know, give each other space, give each other leeway, help

each other out. But really cherish what you have because when it's gone, it freaking sucks. Yep. So enjoy it. That's number one. Do that with your family. The estate stuff, it is a mess. I don't know if, so I saw your comment on Instagram the other day about nursing homes. I don't know if, so I think there's a look back period. Five years. Five years. So I don't know if you can theoretically, legally get all of that out of your name. Well, estate stuff, if you've got everything in a irrevocable trust or in some kind of a trust and you die, no big deal.

There's no, it doesn't go to probate. you don't pay a lawyer to deal with that. Typically, lawyers like to take 20% of the net value of the estate. Not very common in Iowa anymore. They kind of work hourly anymore. Yep. Because you're an attorney and everybody's doing this in the state of Iowa.

I mean, you're working with people that have a lot of asset, but don't have a lot of cash flow. So you can't, you'd be kind of a dick if you try to, to take 20% of somebody's wealth. Yeah. Just because you could or whatever.

So, I mean, yeah, best case scenario is to get a trust set up. The hard thing that I think I've heard about a trust is you have to make sure everything is in it. And then any transactions has to be done into and out of the trust. So it's, I guess I don't know for sure, but I attribute this to license. licensing on a vehicle, is it and or is it or? Yeah. So like if you got a vehicle you own with your wife and it says, and well, you both have to sign off on the title or whatever.

So I know if that creates more hoops with the trust. Maybe you know more about that. But so that is, I think, probably the best way to get set up to protect wealth for generations. And again, that's in the scenario if you pass away. The other scenario that I know of is if it's a husband to a spouse or a husband to a wife or a wife to a husband, there is no probate because the estate doesn't essentially close. One of the two owners is still alive.

As far as this is, to your point yesterday, the scariest thing is the nursing home full-time care scenario. I was talking to a financial advisor. He's like, well, what's your goal? I'm like, well, I hope to owe nothing eventually. Yeah. He's like, well, why would you want to do that? He's like, you just want to give away all your money and everything? I'm like, well, I'm not taking it with me and I want my kids to have it.

So I don't know if there's a way that eventually I can have everything either deeded to them or they purchase or whatever to where I can make a salary as an employee. Yes. I'm thinking that's probably the best way if you're getting towards the end to do it. Yeah, as far as like if you can't win the lottery, take out a big insurance plan and hope to die young and cash in on it. Yeah. Because that's all tax-free money. I did find that out. Insurance money is tax-free.

Yep, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead and add whatever you think. Yeah, I mean, add talk. I mean, you did a little rant on TikTok and. Instagram yesterday about nursing homes and, you know, we've been public about we got grandmas in the nursing home and how how that can be pretty tough. And I mean, so. Yeah, full disclosure on me, I have an uncle who owns a lot of my land who's in, has been in full-time care for about as long as

Dorke's mother. So, yeah, makes for some amazing cash rent. Well, we really, we can cry on each other's shoulder pretty well. Yep. Yeah. Incredible cash rent. Well, I guess what I was, trying to say is what I loved about that video you put out yesterday it's like everybody talks about this retirement account oh I'm gonna max out my Roth IRA and I haven't you know whatever right and it's like it will go to zero it will go to zero like people do not think about that part of your life that's why it's really important to take care of your health but like if you end up in a nursing home that shit is gonna drain that shit yeah quick yeah it's uh so I was just trying to think about you know if I was a So you're young people, you know, you're a young person.

And young people getting started. They're both working. And everybody's like, yep, got to save for your retirement. Save for your retirement. And a lot of young people, the market has been good. You're putting all this money into this Roth IRA or, you know, whatever your vehicle is that you're saving for retirement. And you have this idea that you're going to get to, you know, you're 65 or. or 62 and a half or whatever,

and you're going to retire, and you're going to be your golden years and da-da-da, and it might be. But if your health, if you have saved all that money and you have a health issue and one of you, you or your spouse,

ends up in the need for full-time care, I don't give a shit, how much money you saved, because I'll just tell you, I'm spending, I don't think, I don't have full disclosure. I'm spending over $13,000 a month for one parent in a full-time home environment. And at that rate, and I just said in that video, here we are, I'm 54, going to be 55. Okay, if I think of, say Trish and I get to the point, my wife and I get to the point, my wife and I, get to the point that at 70 years old something happens to one of us and we have to go to assisted

living and then one of us goes into full-time care. You're done. What will that be? $50,000 a month? At least $40,000 a month in 15 years. Well, and imagine if you live in a city. Like, it's probably more in urban neighborhoods. If you're paying 13 in rural Iowa, maybe you're paying $1,000.

17 or 18 in Miami or Atlanta or whatever. So my point of that is, yeah, that's great. You save for retirement, but if you expect you're going to, that that money, like, you're going to have something to give to hand down to your kids, you better be looking right now at a trust or some way to shelter that out of your possession that your kids control it. Otherwise, these retirement homes are going to take every dime. And I'm on the session at my local church.

And we have been very lucky in the fact that we've had many people, parishioners of that church, that over the years, when they have passed away, they have left land to the church, or they've left a large sum of money to the church. and it's very expensive to run a church and your membership of most all your mainline churches is in decline and we're very lucky that we have as many people that attend as we do and that we've been left with as much endowment that we have. But it always amazes me the number of people

on the leadership that think that that's going to just keep happening, that people are going to pass away and leave money to the church. And I try to explain to them every chance I get. No, that's not going to happen because the majority of people don't have a plan and their retirement or that they think that the rent off that farmland is going to, yeah.

It isn't even going to touch it. That'll be sold and it'll go to the state. All of these charitable organizations, you better get your money out of these people while they're alive because you're not going to get anything. You're not going to get anything when they die because it's all going to go to the state. I mean, it's...

And in reality, that is the thing that they should do because... Yeah. Yeah, and you can see the benefit of them. If you're going to give it to them, take it now. Yeah. And then you probably have to pay some kind of tax on it or whatever. Yeah, I think for young people, it's not like we're not saying, don't be smart with your money and have some plan to save for your future.

But my takeaways are take care of your health. Yep. Like, if you're going to eat the average American diet and you're not going to, exercise and your joints are shit, your muscles are shit, you're inflamed. Yeah. I mean, you're going to get probably the same result of going to the nursing home when you hit a certain age. So that's like the first thing I think about. It sucks.

It's hard. You might have to pay for it now with food and I don't know. But taking care of your health is really important because of that scenario right there. Two, find a way to get that money out so you don't own it or assets so you don't know you can pass it on to your kids. And three also, it's not like we're bagging on nursing homes. Like, I mean, I think 24-hour care.

It just costs what it costs. It costs. I mean, having that employees to do it, I'm sure they're not just charging you that for shits and gigs and they're making 80% margin. I bet it's not that. You know, it's not like they're the devil. I'm sure that they need that amount of cashful

to keep the thing going. So we're not advocating that either. But it's just the reality. of, damn, this is, nobody talks about it and it seems kind of like, how long can that keep going? Right. That's the question. Like, how long can this system and the way that we're doing this for elderly care keep going, the way it's going?

I think we've talked about it before. I think, I think the scariest, one of the scariest things that I think about is at what point do a majority of young Americans just say, you know what, I'm not paying for health insurance. I'm just going to go to the doctor and when I get the bill, I'm going to tell them, I'll give you $50 a month or I'll give you $20 a month. And I'm not paying this outrageous health insurance because it does not take very many people within the system to absolutely collapse the system. And when you just keep pushing people with the rates going higher and higher and higher for health care,

you are backing people in a corner to where you finally just get to the point and you're like, let the chips fall. But to tie that up, it is important to save for retirement. However, at some point, probably in your 40s, you need to start thinking about what you're going to do, what vehicle you're going to move that money into so that it is not, so it's not in your name. Okay, I have a question, though, on that. So if you do that, let's say you pass it all on to your kids or whatever, who's paying for the care then? Is the government? Yeah, Title 19. Title 19. They just qualify for Medicare. Okay. So then your grandkids' taxes are paid for it. Then they're paying out the nose on. Yeah. It just keeps, okay. Yeah, it all rolls downhill. And then you got

all that overhead running that. So that's what's driving cost of everything. You said it might be a little wider margin of people canceling health insurance because I've seen their buildings and they're very nice. Yeah. I think their margin is a little more than five. I agree. Five percent like we are we hope ours would be. Yep. But I know you did it and I thought about doing it, but getting somebody like I thought about pulling a trailer out to my house a double wide or single wide and putting my uncle in there. Yep. So there's the cost of that and then um, full time care. And we're probably talking to people. one for the night shift, one for the day shift, because again, I'm the only guy farming.

Yep. And I've got three young kids. So it's either I do that full time all the time, taking care of him to preserve wealth or you weigh the options and you pay the money. Yeah, people, when you made that video, people commented like, oh, so you're just, your advocate, why don't even know it was some bullshit comment.

Like, why don't you just bring him, why don't you just bring them home, bring them home and just take care of them or hire somebody to do it at home. It's like, yeah, look into the cost of that. It's, I mean, it's basically a wash at that point. And we did that. So when my- You actually did it for a while. Yeah, we did it.

We had full-time home health care, not overnight because my dad was, so my dad was considerably older than my mother, 17 years older than my mother, but he was in better health. And so the issue my mother has is she's not mobile. She's completely bedridden, so you need a Hoyer to move her from the bed to a chair to whatever, get her to her meals and all that. And we had that equipment. And we had full-time care during the day. But my dad was able to get her whatever she needed at night. And we lived just across the yard. So, I mean, we were always available if there was an emergency or something.

However, when my dad passed, then you're in a situation where you need 24 hour a day care. and we just couldn't do that. And to find somebody to do that, you're basically spending almost the same money and then you have the liability or the exposure. What if that person quits? What if that person's in a car accident? What if? What if? What if? What if? What if?

And that was when we made the decision to go to a retirement home, a nursing home. And so, I mean, yeah, she's been there for seven years, but we did home health care for probably seven years before my father passed. And thank goodness we were able to do that because if it would have started back then, I don't think we'd be here. And that's why Sawyer and I always say, I mean, that's half the reason we're doing all the things we're doing is because... You got to afford to live.

Yeah, trying to figure out a way to keep 400 acres viable. Yeah, because we don't fit in that. 2,200 acres of ground that's paid up that we can just leverage. So, right. Anyway, I had seen, and I don't know if this was someone you had on, because I'm sure it was on Instagram, somebody talked about setting up a trust. So like if you've got a family, multiple parents, kids, whatever,

set up a trust and you put all of your assets in that or all of your investments in that. then if any one of you needs a loan you loan that person the money at whatever rate you want if it's 5% through the Fed then you 2%, 1%, 3%. So plus the money that's invested is there making 5% whatever. So then you're you're not paying a bank. You're keeping the money in house. So I brought that up to my wife and she's like, yeah, we don't have any.

money though that we can give ourselves. I was like, oh, that's true. So another way people do that, and we haven't done this, but I know people that have and it's worth looking into is within that trust, what some families do, and we should get, we should get, what's her name? Mary Jo. Mary Jo back on here. Yeah, it might have been her.

So some people take that money and they buy life insurance, cash value life insurance, and pay it up. Okay. So the policy is paid for. So then the trust, if the trust loans me money, when I die, the life insurance policy that the trust owns on me pays off and all that loan is paid back to the trust. Gotcha. And that's what a lot of, I would say, wealthy families do is they use paid up life insurance

and then the trust loans money for whatever. somebody needs and then when they pass away the loan is paid back with interest. Gotcha. So yeah, we need to have her back on talk more about that. Yeah, we need to get an estate planning guy on too. We want to work on that. But I mean, yeah, I feel like we kind of hit on a lot of good stuff on this one. Typical good.

I'm looking forward to planting season. It's going to be here before you know it. Yeah, I don't know. So your dad offered you up for high quality content. Yes. And some help on the planter. I would love to kind of see that. It's kind of dark in the shop.

You might need to bring some of these lights or the shop, the shed. Yeah. Yeah, I might hit you up on that. But I've got a lot of work to do. The problem is like Monday, Wednesday, I leave at 2.30 for practice. Yep. Just my every week I'm taking my uncle somewhere right now. So it's fine in that time.

And the other thing is, you guys are probably like this too. You look at a project and you're like, I think that's probably a four-hour project. And when you think four, it's probably more like eight. And then you look at your watch. And you're like, well, I have to be here by that time. So there's no point in me starting it now. What else can I do instead of that?

Yeah. The problem with that four-hour job is you spend the first four hours just actually getting everything that you need to do the job. you forgot that you needed and you just walk back and forth, drive to Ace, come home. I mean, it is ridiculous. The amount of time that you spend just pre-gaming. And then once you actually get everybody there, everything there, and start, then usually when you're done, you're like, well, shit, that wasn't bad at all.

Other than it took me three days of pre-gaming to get to this point. It's kind of like those concave. I mean, it took us more time to figure out how to do that. to put them in right than to do it then to actually put them in well to your point so i've been in lumberjack mode all winter so the back of the gators full of chainsaws and bar oil and fuel and all this other tools for the chainsaw loppers the tordons spray so this morning i'm trying to transition to work on the planter mode which is out in the shed and my shop's in the barn so now my gator needs to be taxi to get to and from with tools and shit in the back of it to the shed to the shed and the shed and

So I took all that most of it out of the gator and put it away. Now I'm going to start trying to find what tool I need. And then the next part is do I take the upper arms off first or the lower one first? Yeah. That's good. Well, it sounds to me like you two got a play date. So whenever that all works out, you just let Sawyer know. And if you need me, call me let it ring because I might be napping.

Okay. What if there was beer? Oh, I can supervise. I mean, I've got good eyesight fairly that I can tell. In the dark? Huh? You're better than me. Oh, yeah.

In the dark. The more beers I have, the better I can see in the dark. There's beta keratin. It must be something like that. Well, yeah, we'll have to do it. Just let me know. We'll make it happen. But I think that's going to wrap it up.

I think we got all our words out. I think we hit on all the hot-hitting subjects you could. So if you guys got any value from the show, please share it out with the people that you know leave a review on Spotify or Apple. We love you guys. We appreciate you. And we'll see you back here next week for another episode. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes.

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