Barn Talk - Why Japan Is Buying More American Corn Than Ever

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

You can't out-yield your way to profit anymore, so Will Cannon is chasing margin with 2 or 3 bucks an acre of homemade compost instead of $40 an acre of bugs in a jug. Two Iowa corn farmers came to the barn this week: Will, an Iowa Corn Growers director from near Prairie City, and Paul Gieselman, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, from near Morning Sun. Will has run cover crops on 100 percent of his acres for about 18 years. He has seen 0 to 10 bushels back from his compost, and 50 on one tough spot. Paul got out of hogs in 1998, farmed on his dad's money for 10 years, and went out on his own in 2008. Today he runs just under 1,000 acres and 25 British White Park cows. And Japan is now the number 2 buyer of American corn, behind only Mexico. Then Paul said the hard part out loud. He has watched a lot of his equity drain away, and if either of his boys came home today there would not be room for them. He doesn't figure he'll be the one doing the consolidating. He figures he's the one getting consolidated. Will sees the other side: the biggest handoff of farm assets in peacetime history, and real opportunity 5 to 7 years out for young guys who stay patient. Also in this one: the wettest fall either of them can remember, why cattle belong back on row crop ground, the USDA fertilizer hearing in Ogden, E15 in NASCAR, Brazil's 90 million acres it hasn't farmed yet, and what the checkoff actually pays for. Put it on just enough acres that it's a little painful, so you pay attention to it, but not so many it hurts you long term. What are you trying on 40 or 80 acres next year? Drop it in the comments and we read them. 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://www.joinbarntalk.com THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: ● Iowa Corn ➱ https://www.iowacorn.org TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Two guests and a harvest stuck in the rain 05:02 Out of hogs in 1998, farming on Dad's money 06:19 2008, buying the gear and going out alone 10:53 Why he runs British White Park cattle 13:18 A teacher's son goes full time farming 14:25 The bachelor farmer who handed over his acres 19:12 See us at Gateway Farm Expo and HayCon 20:58 A homemade strip-till bar for a couple grand 24:08 No paid-off land, but no ghosts either 27:01 Try it on enough acres that it hurts a little 29:34 You can't out-yield your way to profit 34:01 Do cover crops actually pay? 39:34 The resident hippie's homemade compost tea 41:57 $3 an acre vs $40 of bugs in a jug 45:25 Putting cattle back on row crop ground 48:23 $4.75 a day for hay out west vs stalks here 53:53 Stuck in the first 2 acres of harvest 58:22 How two farmers ended up on the Corn boards 1:03:13 Checkoff vs Corn Growers, who does what 1:05:53 Ethanol was Granddad's, bio-based is yours 1:08:20 Did the ethanol boom encourage bad habits? 1:11:10 Japan is now our number 2 corn buyer 1:14:43 Why buyers in Asia want to meet the farmer 1:22:12 NASCAR, E15, and the Cy-Hawk game 1:27:47 Mexico's GMO fight began in his machine shed 1:34:26 Most farmers just haven't been asked 1:36:24 Corn Growers is like going to church 1:40:28 Equity draining and no room for the kids 1:44:59 Fertilizer, the DOJ, and phosphate duties 1:48:13 Biggest farm wealth handoff in peacetime 1:50:00 What farmers want vs what they need 1:54:29 Brazil's 90 million acres it hasn't farmed 2:00:46 Tip of the Hat 2:05:58 How to join Iowa Corn 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 👇🏻 ● Barn Talk Instagram ➱ https://www.instagram.com/barntalkshow ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS ● Sawyer's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4 ● Tork's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS ● Sawyer's X ➱ https://x.com/SawyerWhisler ● Tork's X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler ------------------------------- ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠ Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk. #BarnTalk #CoverCrops #IowaCorn #EP220 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? Stay's in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Stay is going to be a great guest episode. Got two guests coming to the barn today. Talk all things, farm and agriculture, corn. It's going to be a good one. But before we get into it, you guys know the drill. If you get any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know, leave your review.

on Spotify or Apple. Another thing you can do to help us out here at BarnTalk is you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. We have a goal with that right now. If we get to 10,000 newsletter subscribers, we're going to throw a live event right here on the farm. You can join it at join barn talk.com. We're just basically talking about everything going on in rural America,

add nice perspective on it and putting it in your inbox every week. It's completely free and just a good way to get some more stuff outside of the podcast. If we have that, we might just do duck races because we got so much water around here. We can't seem to get our pits busted out. So we might just leave them filled and do duck races. Well, you must have pissed Mother Nature off because she just keeps crying. I have made a lot of mothers mad in my life. I hadn't made Mother Nature. Maybe you are. I don't know. But I feel like it's raining everywhere. She's crying. She just won't stop crying. So Torque must have done something because, yeah, it's wet here in South East Iowa.

The crop is ready to go. It's just too damn what to get out and do anything and try anything. Unless you're a guy that doesn't care. I mean, we have had a few guys that have started to go around us that are not afraid to till anything. So they're fine if they get a couple tough spots in the field and then they can go over it with the... It'll buff. It'll buff out. But for the no-till guys, I don't think anyone's really going.

Yeah, corn's dry. One of my neighbors went yesterday. We had two days in a row of sun and no rain and had some people go, like Sawyer said. 24% was the corn that one of my neighbors was doing. So, I mean, it's prime time to be going. But I mowed down along one of the fields today or yesterday, and there was literally water running down the hill in the rows that was coming out of the hillside. So I was like, yeah, no, probably not.

Yeah. We'll be, what do you think we'll be going? We got three days of rain and then next week looks like dry weather if the forecast holds. So I would say by the middle of next week, we will go try it somewhere and probably try to get some stuff done. If it stays dry, we'll probably go try to get beans first because I think this is a year that you don't want to let your beans go. Because who knows when you might get back in to get them. So get the beans if you can and then just start plugging away on corn because it's only going to get drier.

And so hopefully. Well, I mean, moisture-wise on the corn, it'll just keep drying down. And we'll just keep plugging away at it. And hopefully we're not doing it in the snow. Yep. Well, our guests today are about as local as this show gets. Will Cannon Farms between Colfax and Prairie City. He calls himself a first-generation full-time farmer.

His dad was a school teacher. He spent 10 years at Ag Leader with Pat. to his name and might be running the most experimental dirt program in Iowa. He's a district five director of the Iowa Corn Growers Association and chairs the research committee. Paul Gilzman Farms just down the road from us near Morning Sun and Eliza County. Ground his family's been on since 1955. He grew up with hogs. His grandpa built one of the first finishing barns in the state of Iowa. And there's a story about why he doesn't own a single pig today. And we'll get into that. He runs corn beans and a herd of British White Park cattle.

And he's the brand new president of the Iowa corn promotion board. Two farms, one organization, and a harvest still standing in the field for all of us. So we're going to get into all those nitty-gritty details here in a bit. So without any further ado, let's get into it. Well, we're live, boys. So Will and Paul, welcome to Barn Talk. Good morning. Good morning.

Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for coming on, fellas. We appreciate you taking the time today. You guys got some stuff going on on your own operations, but you're also involved in Iowa corn. So I kind of want to start things off with your origin story. I know you and dad kind of have a share experience, Paul, of the hog industry and raising pigs in the 90s. So why don't you just go back to what's your, where, what does your farming operation look like today? But how did you get to where you are today in your farming career?

Yeah, sure. You know, I was raised on my family's farm. It's my parents were raised there. I was raised there. Now I'm raising my family in the same house. Grew up raising hogs, fair to finish. We had a 300 head finisher and a 15-stall fair-wing barn that my dad built, had two nurseries in it. It was pretty high-tech for the day.

which was a big change from farrow and outside like we did when I was pretty young. And he had cheap labor. Had plenty of cheap labor, you know. It was my job to keep the angry sows away from dad when it was time to wean pigs or clipped teeth or clipped tails. 1998 came around. We all kind of know how that story goes. And we got out of hog farming. My dad was previously trained as a engineer.

and had some time with the DNR, and he got the opportunity to be a deputy director for the DNR and said, I'm done. We're selling the hogs, and here's your chance if you want a farm, which I always wanted to farm. And like I had mentioned that I farmed with his money for about 10 years,

and then in 2008 I took the plunge, bought the equipment, bought a little bit of dirt, and rented all. the acres and started farming for myself. Right now I'm just under a thousand acres. I've got like 25 head of cow calf, and I always said I never wanted to raise pigs again,

and I've kind of stuck to that. I would call myself a first-generation cattle producers, so I've had some expensive lessons in the last 10, 15 years over that, but it's been good. It's been good for my operation. That little bit of diversity is really helpful. helped out, especially in the last few years. Having a strong cattle market has benefited me.

And probably, I mean, it's not a ton of head, but it's kept me on the farm. Yeah, exactly. I kept me from having to go and find off farm income. It helps having a wife who's a teacher. It's kind of, we all, you know, a lot of us share that story where your wife has the insurance and, you know, it kind of, you know, so she's as much of a linchpin to that farm as anybody. You know, I do the work that she's really, she provides a whole lot.

Yep. If she's a teacher, that means she's patient because she's still trying to fix you all these years. That's what I tell people. You just, a good wife, you just want to make sure that there's hope there, but just a project that's never quite completed. So they just keep working on you. True words, Tor. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. What's your son do? because I remember we talked about this last night. He's kind of adopting some new, new ag tech in the world of agriculture. So touch on that a little bit because I think that's pretty cool. Sure. He's a senior in high school now.

He's 17, but two years ago he had the opportunity to be the, well, they call it the filler, the person who fills the spray drone. So he got an opportunity to go work with somebody who was doing fungicide. with drones at the time you know two years ago that was still a pretty new uh technology not necessarily proven yet um and within a week he was flying him he as long as he's with somebody that has the official license he can fly with them and he started flying after about a week and he's kind of never looked back so he completed his second year this year as a pilot uh assistant pilot i don't know

what the correct term is. But now he's, you know, kind of running his own crew. He's still with a pilot, but he's got some good leadership skills. I don't know where those came from. They weren't from his mother, I'm sure. But he's got the opportunity to fly drones, to do fungicide applications, to do some seeding. I know I've had him seed my cover crops into standing corn this year.

They look really good. With all the rain we're having, I'm a little worried they're going to get too good. and cause some harvest issues, but it's kind of my first year of doing that. But yeah, he's got a great opportunity. He wants to do that in the future. So he's studying to get his full-grown pilot's license for the drones, and this is what he wants to do.

And he tells me he wants to be a pilot when he grows up. We'll see how that works, but I'm optimistic. He's a pretty driven kid. Yeah. When he puts his mind to something, he can usually get it done. It's always amazing when you see somebody, like learning is one of those things

that if you can find something that connects with them, people are just a sponge. Like it's some, at least for me, you know, I was a kid, you couldn't hardly pound knowledge into me. Yeah. But if there was something I was actually interested in, then it was just like, easy, give me. He's become an expert on these ag spray drones at 17.

I mean, he can talk to talk. He can walk the walk. He started with a T40 and ended up flying a little bit with a T-150 this year. So it's impressive. And, you know, these are expensive pieces of equipment that these guys are trusting him with. And he does a good job. Or they wouldn't let him come back. But they do.

And it's a great opportunity. I'm really proud of him for doing that. Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. What about your cow calf operation? What breed of cattle do you run and why? because it's a unique one. Well, I run British White Park cattle.

They're still kind of considered a rare breed. They're purebred papered. We go through the White Park Association on some of them, not all of them. And I kind of got into my local vet. Doc Todd, shout out to Doc Todd. He's a great large animal vet in Columbus Junction. He had a herd and he kind of talked me into doing it. That being said,

These cattle are very resilient to heat and cold, inclement weather. They do well on grass, and they have a really good disposition to them so you don't have a lot of aggressive moms. They're a lot safer to handle. They're safer for my kids to be around. They don't show that great at the county fair, but they make money as a project at the county fair. and that's you know we're we're kind of that family where we want these kids to to have something at the end of the day you might not win the show but you're gonna you're gonna make money on this project and that's kind of how we operate so a cow inclined to inclement weather is a it picked a good year they're having a good year then well i've got

some heifers calvin right now i checked on them this morning and they've got the babies tucked up under a tree and they're they're in good shape. Probably when I get home this afternoon, I'll probably move them into the barn. But we've had a couple in the last couple days. And they seem to be doing great. So I was a little worried I was going to get covered in mud before it came in here this morning. Oh, we would have still accepted you in. You would have just fit right in. That fits right into the barn. We usually smell like hog crap. So, okay. Well, yeah. We just open the door once in a while and take the leaf blower. It's kind of like, it's kind of like a, you know, If you lived in a house with four guys when you're in college,

cleaning on Saturday was you just opened the front door and the back door and took the leaf blower. That was your protocol. Good enough. That was your protocol. Well, let's go to your story. Let's go to your origin story on your farming operation and how you got started because it's an interesting one.

And you're doing some really cool things on your operation. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah. So my wife, Cassie and I farm. around Prairie City, Iowa. And excuse me, I grew up just west of Newton. And I described myself as first generation full-time farming. So my grandpa farmed full-time, bought his first farm in 1936, I believe. And so he always took a lot of pride that he did that, you know, during really difficult times. And so raised a family there. It was a very small, modest farm. And so my dad decided to be a teacher.

and had an opportunity to buy the farm beside it, so we had about 240 acres there. And so he always taught, and when my grandpa passed, he decided to keep it going. And my brother and I worked on the farm there while we were in school and everything. And then when I graduated, he said, I know this is what you want to do,

so you're going to start buying the equipment from me and you're going to start renting the acres here at home. And so I started doing that while I was at college. And so between school and then I worked off the farm for about, 10 years and just kind of kept slowly building it. And then in 2016, I had a really unique opportunity. I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman that didn't have any family of his own, never got married or had kids. And actually, my dad introduced him to me. And we got to know each other. And so we kind of started farming together. And then we did that for a couple of years.

I thought he was going to do it for a long time. And he had some family pass away. And he was, what, 75 or six at the time and was kind of had that aha moment. And he said to me, he's like, well, there's some other things I want to do in life yet. And I'm like, better get to getting, right? And so he's like, this is going to be the last year and, you know, figure out how you want to put this together. And so 2016, then I got the opportunity to take over his acres. And so, yeah, we've been at it for 10 or 11 years, you know, full time here together right now. So, so yeah, that's kind of the background story. So we raised. corn and soybeans. We do some small grains, primarily it's cereal rye that we grow to produce our

own seed because we've been doing cover crops on 100% of our acres for, I think it's like 18 years now or something I've lost track. So been doing that for a long time, been doing no-till, strip-till. That was kind of the first decision I made when my dad did say, you're going to take it over was actually parked our planter and hired the neighbor to come over and start no-till for us. So conservation has just kind of always been something that's been a part of me that I have passion for. And so that's kind of that that's what's led us on this journey of no-till and then strip till and cover crops and all the other things we've gotten into. Yeah, you said last night, you're kind of on the bleeding edge. You've been on the bleeding edge and you have bled.

We, I have lots of bandage in the closet. Yes, we've bled a lot. So, you know, it's interesting, right? When we started on the cover crops back then, there wasn't. that many people talking about it. There wasn't all these different programs. There wasn't all these different grower organizations that were behind it. So it was a very unique time. So that first six, eight years, I mean, it really was, yeah, I want to figure out how to do this and how do you do it. And it's like anything, right? A lot of times the equipment you need to do it, you got to do it on a certain scale to make it work. And so trying to figure out how to make all that work. And, you know, since then, I'm glad I've gotten involved in some, some organizations.

not so much because they've been able to help me a whole lot, but, you know, I've talked to a lot of different corporations and they're like, how do we help farmers get involved? How do we help them, you know, do more of these practices? And a lot of times it's about that culture, right? And having a community around you. And, you know, one of my best friends, they tried it once and failed. And then they came back a couple years later and asked, you know, ask questions of me and it kind of helped them out. And then they'd call and they're like, oh, this, you know, this, I don't know if this is going to work or this. And it's like, no, just. Sometimes it's just having somebody that's like, no, just give it a little bit of time, right?

Just be a little patient. We'll figure it out, right? And so you bring up a good point because I don't, like when you think about today, just about anything that somebody wants to step out and try, there's probably a YouTube video of somebody doing it, you know? It's just like when we started this podcast. Yeah. We watched about 100 podcasts and going, how big is that table?

What kind of mic is that? Can you see what that is? And I mean, we didn't know how to do it, but we knew what other people were using. But when you start down that road of doing something where there's no, like you've got the idea, but it's not like you can just watch a tutorial. Right.

Like you got to, basically you got to fail your way into it is about what you have to do. So, oh, yeah. Kudos to you. Yeah. Yeah, and I've got some friends that they still like to tease me every once in a while because one of those first years with cover crop, we did radishes and turnips, and not a single thing took, looked awful.

And at that point, I was still working my full-time job, and I had to go on a business trip for two weeks in the spring. So I got it planted, and I asked the agronomist, I'm like, hey, keep an eye on this thing, because I planted this cover crop, but nothing's growing, you know, but who knows? and sure enough they didn't really pay attention to it and I get back and they had flown it with a helicopter and they had windrode the seed and so it did come up while I was gone and it was in these windrows so we sprayed it with a herbicide that has a bleaching effect on the chlorophyll and so it turned white so it looked like snow drifts out in the field and so I've got some friends that still like to tease me every

once in a while about that one but it's like you know that's how you learn I guess hey thanks for sticking with us. Dad and I are going to do a little bit of speaking on the road this year on the back end. Back in. So Q4, we're going to be at the Gateway Farm Expo on November 18th through the 19th. So come out. We're going to be there. We want to meet you guys. We want to shake hands. We want to put on a good talk for y' all to hear. And we're going to be there through the 18th through the 19th. And then we're also going to go to Vegas this year in December, December 10th through the 11th. We're going to be at Hacon. Jesse Bounds, event that he puts on each year. year. He's a friend of the show, been on the show a couple times, and you can get your tickets

at hacon.org. We want to meet you. We love you guys. We appreciate you. And now let's get back to it. How do you, how did you like have the, like, what gave you the idea to get to, to be progressive with like strip tilling and cover crops when it wasn't talked about enough? Was there somebody in your life that you saw doing it that it's sparked interest? Or like, what gave you the conviction to say, I want to try this? Well, I'd gotten into the no-till and I liked how that was working, but I just had that little thing gnawing in the back of my head, like, are my yields way behind my neighbors? And I had a neighbor at the time that was a very good farmer, but was doing full with tillage, you know, conventional. Yeah, a lot of conventional stuff, but getting really good yields. And so in the back of my mind, I was just like, I don't want to give up on the no-till, but how can I probably,

get closer to his yields. And at the time I was I was blessed. I was working at a company called Ag Leader Technology and so we had the GPS, we had the guidance and all that stuff. And so I said, well man, if I could, you know, that would make a lot of sense. That could kind of be, you know, that could be the best of both worlds. And so I literally built a little six row three point one. The first one, you know, it only cost me a couple thousand dollars to put it together. And like, let's just kind of try to prove the concept, right? And I'm sure everybody drove by and said, what is that, you know, colossal scrap of metal on the back and all that kind of stuff. But it's, you know, so we got into that and it's like, man, not only could we save the soil,

but we can use less fertilizer, right? And as you learn about it, like you said, you start watching YouTube videos or you're doing reading, you're like, okay, we can stack these different blocks and, you know, it's getting to this is the point. And I, you know, where I farm, we've got, we've got some pretty good hills. And so, again, it all comes back to erosion. So for me, the cover crops was how do we cut down? on erosion, right? And we weren't having terrible amounts of erosion, but I'm too much of a

perfectionist. I was like, how do we cut it down even more? And so that's where I started with cover crops was how do we cut down more erosion? And then from there, like, you get hooked on that. And it, you know, I'm sure you've talked to other people. And I know I talk to people. And it's like, the line I like that I hear some people say so many other things in ag, it's about how to kill something, right? And you start talking about soil health and cover crops and it starts to be about, well, how do you grow something? And there's just something that's, that's inspiring or motivating about that. And so once I got into the cover crops, then it was like, okay, how do we do better cover crops? You start understanding how they're helping to feed the soil. Then you start understanding the

soil biology. And it just leads you down this rabbit hole, right? And so it's just kind of one thing hooks you on to the next one and trying to connect the dots is kind of what I've been doing the whole time. How, as you look back now, how important was your, how beneficial was it to you to work off farm for that, for that 10 years? Oh, huge. Yeah. I was fortunate. I started in tech sport and then got to move over to product development.

And so you're out, you know, testing new equipment with farmers. and so you just end up spending all this time with them, right, while we're out operating equipment. And generally speaking, you're going to tend to be with more progressive operators that they're wanting to adopt new technology that's not even in the marketplace, right? So you're kind of naturally filtering for the best of the best in those situations. But yeah, to be out and talking to some of these guys and just the idea, seeing other ideas, getting other perspectives, getting other thought processes. is so helpful and for me was just always very inspiring and there's there's some of those guys that you know i'm still friends with and call up and so that's one of the things i missed the most about working off the farm is is just constantly being uh hit with new ideas and just seeing how other

people do things and being able to glean ideas off of theirs you know maybe their idea doesn't work perfect but you can put your twist on it and and make it work in your operation i love that yeah i last night you said you you said that you're at a disadvantage a little bit of a disadvantage because you're not like a third or fourth generation farmer but you're also you're not haunted by the ghost of the past of what grandpa or dad did like which one which matters more you know like explain that whole idea that you had last night about that yeah well i mean when we're in tough times like we've been these last several years it's like man if i had five or six hundred acres that was bought and paid for and, you know, rather than having to make a rent check or a land payment,

you know, that was just income coming in. Man, that sure would be helpful right now, right? But, and so that's what I mean by, you know, being lifted up on the shoulders of, you know, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. I mean, that's a heck of a competitive advantage to have. But on the flip side of it, you know, my dad and grandpa were awesome. And my dad was a, I've had lots of his former students, you know, when they find out, you know, who I am, it's like, oh, I had your dad in school. He was one of my favorite teachers. And so I was very blessed that he gave me the opportunities to be able to learn and succeed and fail on my own. And so, yeah, I, yeah, I don't have the big land base already, but I'm also not, well,

this is what grandpa did to get the farm, right? And then, you know, to have that ingrained and, and feel compelled that has to be how it's done, right? I mean, I remember having a neighbor that his dad passed away when he was, I think he would have been about 45 at the time, very large, successful farm. And he had kind of been mentoring me a little bit. And I just, I just remember being shocked when his dad passed away, like how, how he felt like the safety indent was gone, right? You could just tell he was nervous about making decisions and how it all.

fit together. And I just remember, man, that is, that's a tough spot to be. And I do not want to be at that spot where, you know, to be that age and have that type of operation and not feel confident in being able to make my own decisions. That's a tough spot to be in. And so I've just been really blessed where I haven't been haunted by those ghosts that if I want to try something, I know it's on me. If it fails, it's on me. If it succeeds on me. But, but I've also felt like sometimes I've, I've got to run faster than the pack. You know, I've got to be able to generate more revenue or generate more margin, right, to keep it going.

And so that's always motivated me, you know, in school and everything I've done that, you know, you've got to have really good books. You've got to know exactly what your cost of production is. You've got to know exactly how you're putting this together. And, you know, you've got to stay on top of it. You can't just, well, when we get to the end of year, we'll figure it out. Yeah. I have just because you've done a lot of cool things,

you have some pretty good perspective on this of trying new stuff on your farm. For people out there, I think there's a lot of fear sometimes with farmers that they know they need to make a change and there's something that they can do, but they don't want to do it because they don't want to step out. They don't want the neighbors to drive by

and say, oh, what the hell is this guy doing? You know, what can you tell people that are on the fence about trying something new on their operation to make them feel a little better about innovating their farm. That's a tough one. I've got to imagine because of some of the stuff I'm doing, I probably have missed some opportunities, right, to rent a farm or something like that. But I've had one or two show up on the doorstep,

and that is the reason I've gotten to rent it, right? And I, my hunch is in the future. I think that's going to become more important to landowners. and I think everyone. So it's an interesting time, right? I've cut my teeth over the last 10 or 15 years doing this, and it's probably kind of been walking into a headwind, but with all the different issues happening in Iowa right now,

with water quality and, you know, how we're raising our livestock and our crops and everything, it feels like I might, you know, start to have a tailwind behind me here because, you know, like the strip till thing, no one's really been that interested in it, and now I've got two or three neighbors that, hey, you know, could you do, could you come to a farm? We're kind of curious about it, you know, and even some of the cover crop things, some of the soil health

things. I've got, you know, a friend and I are they're kind of setting up a business together. And we're getting more questions about those. And so there's more opportunities. So I think most people, if they've got a question or have been wondering about something, just about everybody else does too, right? Yeah. And I think ags that are really unique. week time where I think we've all got to be willing to take a little bit of courage and try some different things because what we've been doing, what has been successful in the past, I'm not sure it's going to be successful going forward. And so I think we all got to have a little bit of courage and try some new things. And I heard it said once, you got to try it on, don't try it on too

small acres because if it fails or you get busy, you'll forget about it. You got to put it on just enough acres that it's a little painful so you pay attention to it but not too many that it'll it'll hurt you for the long term right and i think everyone's kind of in that spot where we we all need to be trying something on 40 or 80 acres and trying to move the needle yeah i think that we're in a time today like i think in ag row crop ag especially we have run on the idea and it has worked to a point that you can yield yourself into profitability but i think we're to the point that you're to the point that the cost of that yield traditionally. Yeah.

Like you can't out yield yourself to profitability because your costs. Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh. Then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my out of office has a forever setting. An IG private wealth advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business.

your family and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IDPrivatewealth.com. Are so I. And so you've got to find that, you've got to find that spot where, yeah, you might not get that absolute racehorse, racehorse coffee shop, bragging right yield.

Yeah. But your cost, your cost is where it needs to be that you're way more profitable. I agree. I think it's yield and I think it's scale. I think a lot of people are trying to figure out now, hey, I can't go pick up a couple hundred more acres and scale my way out of this thing the way we have in the past. I agree. I agree. Some of these practices that you're doing now are profitable practices. These are adding revenues to farms, you know, strip till you can reduce your fertilizer inputs pretty dramatically with some of these practices. And that's going to increase your bottom line. definitely want to let you know your cover crops you're going to you're going to see some some fertility

benefits from that and you know i think it's a lot more palatable to try these new things if you can demonstrate uh more profit because because of that maybe the yield's not quite but like you said to work the yield might not be as robust but the profits are are there and that's the name of the game right we're all in business to to make a little money yeah right exactly right yeah and you both I mean, Paul, you've been doing cover crops for a while too, right? I mean, you both kind of have been on early adopters of cover crops. What made you want to get cover crops on your operation? You know, I honestly, I had some soil tilth issues from years of tillage and conventional farming.

So I started it on an 80 just there at my house. Started with some rye and some tillage radishes and just kind of have noticed my soil strutely. structure getting better. I mean, that was the goal. I probably started in 2016 or 17. That was my initial goal, and then I started seeing conservation benefits. I mentioned my dad worked for the DNR. My grandfather was a conservation list too.

I mean, we're not really hilly, but we have probably 50 terraces on my home quarter section, lots of grass waterways, some grassback terraces, buffer strips. So we were kind of always in the conservation game too. This kind of really tied into that. But, you know, my main reason was to try to kind of get some of my soil tilth back to maybe reduce some of my fertilizer inputs.

And I've accomplished both those goals. And I've just kind of expanded on that since then. Now that, like Will said, you know, now we've got organizations supporting the use of cover crops we've got um you know agronomists that know their way around them and there's just a lot more knowledge in the countryside on how what works what doesn't work uh what practices for for springtime work the best um so yeah that was my main motivation was it was to try to kind of get some of my soil tilt back and improve my biology and my soil structure and it's definitely worked with that and i've seen other benefits as well uh this this would be a good this is a good this is a good

year to talk about this. Hopefully you you suck, you got this stuck in your head better than I did, but we were at ranching for profit and this is about pasture, but, and you guys might know this number. Like a 1% increase in organic matter adds how much water holding capacity to your ground. It's kind of staggering. And I don't know what the number. Yeah. Some absurd number. And when you think of what that can do for, for you both in a dry year, but also in a wet year if you're in an area where you're worried about runoff and erosion. And that's, I mean, that is cover crops help an awful lot in that. Yeah, I was going to ask, like, I feel like a lot of the pushback on cover crops has always

been like, well, how do you make it pay? And so, like, in your guys' opinion, how do you make cover crops pay to justify doing that? Is it you make healthier soils, which in turn allows you to not put as much synthetic fertilizer out there or how do you make it how do you guys justify making it pay on your operation um honestly soyer the the bottom line on the cover crops isn't so much financial for me yeah um part of it's doing the right thing for my farm and the soil and my kids I mean, as we watch these inches of rain fall outside and I was driving in, I could see waterways clear full of water. Some of it was brown water. This isn't a criticism of anybody.

I'm glad I have established cover crops. So part of it is not financial at all towards me. My operation, but what you can do is you can layer different cost share programs on, whether it's with the, Iowa Department of Land Stewardship, Ag and Land Stewardship, your practical farmers of Iowa, you can start layering some of these programs on, and it can pay for your seed cost and your application costs. So you're not necessarily, I'm not trying to turn a profit on these. Break even would be nice, and that's kind of what my goal is.

Some years I've made a couple bucks an acre. I think if I was more aggressive on layering some of these programs, I could probably actually profit off of cover crops. But for me, it's about my farm. It's about doing the right thing for the people of Iowa. Those are my two biggest motivations, really, conservation and doing the right thing for water quality. Yeah. So I don't know if that picture is behind me or not.

So I have two, I have two like aerial photographs. one of them is from like I think it's like 1947 and it's really interesting because if you look in the corner the top right-hand corner of that it shows the field that is just north and west of us and the crick that runs through there and it's you can't tell exactly but that field is basically flat and that was at the beginning well it was actually right in the middle of full tillage like i've told the story many times that my dad and my grandfather the belief was so when my dad was a kid not only you couldn't it was hard to plow because you're plowing with horses so what they would do is they had a 40 foot chunk of railroad iron and they put a team on each corner and the community owned it like there was four farmers that they shared that and when you're you you got done picking corn, you would run that as fast as you could step a team and it would

bust all the stocks off. And then sitting over here in the scrap pile, I've got a dump rake. They would go out and they would roll up the stocks and dump them at the end and then they'd burn them. Then you'd plow. And if you saw a farmer that had any stocks showing, that was a piss poor farmer. Well, so the result of that though is if you go look at that same field today, it is not flat. It's not flat at all. But what's interesting to me is in my buffer strips

that have been in there for, I don't know, well over a decade, there's an old fence down there. And now you can't see the top of the fence. And so I'm like, I wonder whether Sawyer's kids will get to the day

where it finally gets back to where that field is actually level again. Yeah. So it definitely makes a difference if you have a point of reference. but it's interesting how what what is what is thought as as the correct production technique today versus you know 40 years ago yeah and what will it be i think we're at the beginning of what you guys are doing some variation of that will be that'll be the standard practice well and and yeah i mean that's a lot of farmers talk about well we're not giving

given enough credit for what we have done because you're you're right I mean when you again Gordon the the fellow I took over for I mean you know he talks about like in the 70s you know roll culvating and then getting a big rain and just all the soil in between the corn rows going down the hill right so even even up to this point how far we've come is a long long way yep right but there's we we have that far yet to go in in the future and I agree with you like sometimes the benefit of sitting in a tractor going slow is you really start looking at a hillside and you're like that water probably didn't use to funnel there and do what it does, you know, and then you start looking and it's like, yeah, there's a silt plane out here at the bottom of the hill. And when

you start looking at that stuff and you start thinking about, yeah, you don't see it on a day by day basis or even a year by year, but you think about a couple of decades and how much it changes. And we can have a real impact out here on our land. No doubt about it. Do you mind touching on the other progressive stuff you're doing on your operation or you want to hold that close to your chest. No, that's fine. Isn't it basically a still? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, we're doing contraband. Yeah, I'd love to touch on it because it kind of blew my mind a little bit last night. Well, I always joke on the cornboard in other places. I'm the resident hippie. I'm the tree hugger. So, yeah, the thing that we've started playing with here the last three or four years is, like I said, you get into cover crops and then you see. started understanding the soil biology and then you say well how do we make soil biology better and so

about three or four years ago we actually started making our own compost and we don't do like the huge wind rows and turn them over and you know have to take a big manure spreader out there and spread tons per acre we actually build it on pallets in the shop like i'll make three or four more here this winter and so we're we're doing it all by hand but then what we do is we can put it into what we call an extractor, but basically it's like a coffee brewer. And so we can get the biology off of the solid compost and into water, into a liquid form. And then we're able to inoculate or apply that onto our fields. And so, you know, traditionally we've done it mostly on the planner and furrow. But I'm getting a little bit more courage here. And so we're starting to spray it on.

And ultimately, I'd like to get to the point where every pass we make across the field, if we're applying something that we would go ahead and be applying our extract as well. And so, you know, how fast, you know, people are like, oh, what's the return? What's the ROI, right? And it's hard to know right now. At times I've seen zero and at times I've seen 10 and the most extreme is like one part of a field, you know, a really tough part of a field. I saw a 50 bushel difference, right?

But come on, we're not seeing that everywhere, right? So it's just interesting to kind of learn about it. And to me, I think, as, you know, we were talking about, like, how things are going to have to change in the future. I personally feel as farmers, we got to figure out how we're not farmed as much as we are right now, right? We are so dependent upon, you know, we got to buy this input and we got to buy this technology and this thing and this thing. And so that's kind of one of the things motivating me is, like, yeah, I could go buy bugs in

a jug. But what I'm doing right now is rather than buying three or four. strains in this jug and three or four strains in this jug and I got $40 an acre in it. Right now I've got two or three bucks an acre in it and I probably have like a thousand strains of biology. You got all the bugs. I got all the bugs right. We're just we're doing the shotgun approach right and every year you're not going to be able to predict it. It's just like your fertilizer or other inputs. You know one year you might need this biology if it's real wet. Another year you might need this biology if it's dry. Well, I mean, let's just put them all

out there and we'll let Mother Nature and the sun. soil decided, right? Yeah, yeah, that's pretty awesome. That's what we've been playing with. So it's, it's, it's, it's exciting to work. What, what is the compost made, made out of? Like, yeah, what, yeah, so we're, we're doing a thermophilic pile. So basically what it means is we got to, we got to send it through a heating cycle. And so we start out with, uh, one third needs to be carbon. So wood chips is the obvious easy thing to use. And then one third needs to be a nitrogen source. So that's the manure. So, So I've got a, my brother and a neighbor have got cattle. I've got a part-time hired hand that's got sheep.

My mom's got some chickens. And so, you know, I'll just grab a little bit of all that. And then you need what they call a green bridge to buffer those two as they start working together. And so it could be grass clippings. It can be alfalfa bales. It could be chopped silage, just something like that. And so you put that together. I've got it on a pallet with chicken wire.

And then what's kind of fun. indifferent about it is you got to use your senses so you're you're literally smelling it touching it and we've got a thermometer so we look at the temperature and so when the core of it gets hot enough that'll kill uh you know your your bad biology and kill your weed seeds and but you don't want it to get too hot that it starts killing beneficial so then you got to tear it apart put it back together in a different sequence so it cools it off you got to rewet it so there's plenty of of water for the biology and you just keep doing that it typically it takes about three or four or four days at the beginning to start warming up and then basically every two or three days for about 25 days

you're you're turning it and restacking it and what's weird is you'll start with a six foot tall stack and by the time you get done it's about a three and a half four foot tall stack and that last time the temperature will go up but it'll never quite get hot enough where you need to turn it and then it just slowly starts cooling off and you got to keep monitoring it got to make sure it's aerated all those things but it'll taper off until it's back down to room temperature and then that's when it's ready but it's kind of like sourdough the longer you leave it the the better and better the biology keeps getting and and so we'll take a little bit of biology from one pile and use that to inoculate the next one as we make it and so hopefully we'll just kind of keep making it a better and better brew as we

go along so do you get all that written down torres i was just thinking that you know there's some guys out there that like working on old tractors and there's other guys that like Make. Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh. Then it's the vacation of a lifetime.

I wonder if my out of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IG Private Wealth. You know, make furniture. And then you got, you got this guy. I'm the sourdough guy, right?

He's a sourdough guy. The industrial sourdough guy. Yeah. The farming, the farmin sourdough. Yeah, I'll get the pallet and the chicken wire. And then you take it from there. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll try finding all the hog. Well, we got hog many. I'll supply the ingredients. Yeah. I just want you, you be the cook. Okay. I'll do the cooking. Okay.

Well, I wanted to ask, I asked both you this last night too, but you have cattle and you guys are doing cover crops. And I feel like, you know, this movement of cover crops and soil health and building better soils is definitely becoming more and more of a thing across row crop guys. But a lot of the guys that we've had on the show recently have just talked about, they feel like the world's heading or agriculture's heading to a point where livestock and row crop guys are going to come together even more. they are now. And I kind of want to get your two, your guys' perspective on that because I know you got cattle. I know you said last night your son's kind of an animal guy. So maybe someday you'd play around with it. But what are your guys' overall thoughts on kind of incorporating livestock and why you'd want to do it? Um, I guess I'll, I'll go. I mean, you start looking at the cover

crop input. And then you look at the cat, you know, you know, your cattle and you can put those you know we we aerial seeded not every acre but the acres that I intend to graze this fall so we have a good start on these cover crops with the intention of turning turning the cattle out into these fields to to to help graze and you know you get the benefit of the of the fertilizer uh the hoof activity kind of working its way through the soil. The increase in organic matter, you know, we will supplement a little hay out there. But it's just a complementary relationship, and it also helps to increase the return of investment

on these cover crops. You know, as you look at kind of vertical integration in the countryside, the cow-calf guys are kind of the last ones left standing on this because you need a lot of land, you know, you just, you need land to do this. And it's a slow turnover. And it's a slow turnover. It's not, you know, it's two years to market from the time that calf hits the ground. But it's just, it's a way for me personally to reduce those inputs on forages and winter hay.

Dramatically, dramatically, was something I'm already doing. So to me, it's a cost benefit kind of thing. I get a lot of benefit for not a lot of cost or for money I've already spent or was going to spend. To me, it's very complimentary. You know, sometimes I wish I had more cows. In the middle of summer, I don't. But in the winter, sometimes I do because I have more acres than I can possibly graze. But I do see a lot of symbiotic relationship between the cows and the cover crops.

Yeah, I feel like, well, at least I know for us, we were incredibly surprised because, a lot of us in the Midwest, we don't think about the cost involved in hay and cattle. But, you know, when you think you can put cattle on hay out west, and it's going to cost you $4 to $4.75 a day, and you're probably not going to get any gain. You're probably going to be equilibrium or gaining maybe a little bit. you can load those cattle up and bring them the Midwest, gray's corn stocks,

especially has cover crop and pay the farmer pretty good amount to do it and still have, even after freight, spend half the money and actually get gain. They will gain on those stocks with that cover crop. I'm really surprised that we aren't seeing more of that.

Yeah, I think it's kind of just, I feel like it's starting. It's starting to be talked about more. But it's not fully there yet. Well, I think it's a real opportunity for Iowa. Yeah. I mean, we're looking at this record low cow herd inventory right now.

And, you know, we've really got a good climate to raise cattle here in Iowa, the whole state. And as these cover crop adoptions keep coming up, I think there's an opportunity, just like you mentioned, to work for guys to do some custom grazing. And now you have the advent of wireless fence technology. similar to a GPS dog collar except for cattle. That's a really exciting technology that could really open the door to a lot of this, this old is now new kind of thing.

I mean, everybody used to do this. Yeah, but this is in a good way because in the hog, in the hog construction world, what we always said was if you have a bad idea, if you have a bad idea in the hog equipment world, you just put it on the shelf and wait 10 years and then you bring it back and there's a whole other generation that doesn't know that's crap.

So then you can sell it to a whole bunch of people again until they figure it out and then you put it away again. But this is actually a good idea. I think there's value there. And I think, again, having a dad as a history teacher and just looking at things, I think there's for what, more than 50 years, we've had a push towards specialization,

And if you started confining livestock, if you were on the front end of the curve of that, the productivity gains you could get from that was huge, right? But that whole market is matured now. So everyone's on that same level, and so the margins out of it. So now I think the pendulum, not only is it good for probably our soil health and all these other things, but it might be good for our individual operations that going back this other one, like you're talking about Sawyer, and tying the land and the livestock, back together. I mean, we may not like some of these documentaries out here that celebrities do,

but they're basically like an infomercial, right? If you're willing to start kind of selling to the consumer and stuff that I think if we, where we can marry livestock back down and actually lower our cost to produce, that we don't need the big building and all the technology in it, we can bring the hogs or cattle or whatever back to the land and, you know, make health easier for them. That that's actually where there might be margin right now. Yeah. Yeah. Well, You said it would help on your cost of production on your cow calf operation, but it could also help lower and inputs on the crop side too. I mean, like what we think about is we already putting hog manure out there.

If we had, if we custom grazed cattle after the combine and we also had covers out there, would we have to put on nitrogen in the spring with sidedress in the following year? I mean, it might take a couple years for that all to build up, but would you have enough out there with hog manure, cattle grazing, having their manure on there and having covers in there, would you need, would you need to put on fertilizer? Yeah. I don't know, but probably, probably not.

Probably worth trying. Probably worth trying. Yeah. You know, I had a, I had the opportunity to meet with the, the leadership group from PepsiCo here, I don't know, it's been a few years ago now, and we were taking them through because they, they were genuinely wanting to understand, like,

how does this work, you know, how would PepsiCo go about, you know, where would you put programs together? And one of their financial guys was there. And so I was kind of going through and explaining some of it. And he goes, so basically on your balance sheet,

it shows up as a short term cost, but really the income or the benefit is going to show up in your long term, you know, your intermediate to long term income. And I was like, yeah, that's actually,

you know, or capitalization, right? I was like, well, for a financial nerd, that's actually a really good way of putting it, right?

And so, but at the same time, it's hard, right? Like we were talking about it, where everything has become so immediate and everyone's having to look at everything on a year by year basis. You can't plan three or four years out, right? There's a lot of forces pulling us in different directions at the same time. But I agree, if you are able to be disciplined or have a place where you can look at this in a five-year window rather than a one-year window, I think you can definitely, there's a lot of opportunity to be able to use less synthetics and build up biology and let the biology feed the

crop for you. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, we all got, we all got crop out there right now. And harvest is here for some of us. Some of us are just sitting on our, sitting on our hands because Mother Nature won't slow up on the rain. How are you guys feeling about harvest this year? What's the crop looking like? Are you optimistic? You feel good? You're feeling bad? How are you feeling? Well, we tried to start harvest yesterday and got stuck in the first two acres, so it's going to be a fun fall. I think for me, if I can get the corn out before it sprouts and the husk, it will be a victory. I'm going to tell you right now you've already failed. Yeah.

Yep. Yeah, this rain event, I was feeling pretty good up until this rain event that we're having right now. This has actually shot my anxiety quite a bit just from what we're talking about, soy beans, germinate. in the pods, corn germinating on the stock. I mean, these are these are real issues and this is the whole state of Iowa. This is in parts of Illinois. Exactly right. Yeah. My, my backyard or your backyard, this is widespread. And I don't, I mean, I've been farming close 28 years and I'd say this is probably the wettest fall in my memory. It may may not be, but it's the wettest one I can remember. No, it is. I looked up yesterday because I kept remembering,

a time in the 70s where we had to load all the 300 bushel gravity wagons with only one dump. And I was scared to death that I was going to be the sun that got the 40-20 stuck with a load of corn coming off the crick back there. And I didn't, fortunately. But I thought, man, that was a really wet year. And I looked it up. And I want to say it was like 78.

And it's not even in the top, I think it's in the top 10. but I don't even think it's the top five. But I think September, I think this is now the wettest September for a good portion of the state of Iowa ever. So you're not crazy. This is definitely going to be a wet one. Well, I just,

it's 2026, right? This is so 2026. So the neighbor was on TikTok yesterday and was talking about how they were only filling the green cart, like not even half full. He's like, if we fill this thing, we're stuck, like, no doubt. And he had a big four-wheel drive with big, rotation tires on the grain cart and they were only putting one dump in it and heading to the road.

Yeah, and so I've said this. I may have said this on a past podcast, but I think it's interesting because we forget how time marches on, you know, and there's a whole generation of young farmers out there that their idea of harvest is you just whip the semi in off the road and spin her around in the field, load her right there and head it out. And that's not going to happen this year. and those guys are going to be like, what the hell is this? It's been a long time since we've had an exceedingly wet fall. It's been a long time.

So, yeah, some of these younger, newer guys aren't going to remember. Well, I remember last, I mean, this is the Westfall I've ever experienced, but last year was a quick one. I mean, it took, for us, it took like two, three weeks. It was balls to the wall. There was no rain delays. It was nothing. And that becomes a grind, but it's kind of also nice.

This year, I'm like, Is it just going to keep raining? Are we just going to, is this going to be dragged out? How long can we drag this thing out? Yeah. So I'm with you. We get two good sunny days and you're like, all right, I think, you know, the moisture is coming out of the air. It ain't going to rain at the drop of a hat.

We're going to be, we're going to be okay. And I woke up this morning. And I was like, well, that didn't last very long. Yeah, yeah. I was not too anxious up until this morning. And I mean, I knew it was coming. but you have to see it to really. But you're going to have one hell of a cover crop.

I'm going to have a heck of a cover crop. Yeah. Yeah. You know, hopefully it doesn't get caught in the snapping rolls. That might help you stay on top of it. That might add structure to help you right across the field. It might help you.

That could be. It could be. This might be the year I learn the strengths, you know, some of those strengths and weaknesses of having an established cover crop. Yeah. Pre-harvest. And I'm not going to speculate on what those are.

I'm going to find out. Yeah, that might be your life. A little sliver of sunshine out of the whole thing. Let's hope you guys are right. Well, you were talking about how working off farm, how that really helped you, and what I was thinking, it's a good segue into why you guys are here. I mean, that's part of the beauty of a commodity group and part of the beauty of Iowa corn is the fact that we're kind of, as farmers, we get a little siloed.

and commodity groups such as Iowa corn, part of the great thing about them is just the chance to get farmers together and discuss new ideas and what they're doing, what's working, what's not. How did you two get involved in corn growers? About 2011, I'm kind of from this area where you guys are here. This is District 9 for the Iowa Corn Growers Association and Ivo Corn Promotion Board. A gentleman named Wayne Humphreys. You guys might know Wayne. You might not. Wayne was a legend in the organization.

He still is a legend. And he was really committed, but he asked me if I would be interested in the Iowa Corn's leadership group. It's called I lead, and it's the whole intent is to, cultivate, surfaced, fine, young folks that are involved in agriculture to help them on their journey towards leadership. And it's a two-year commitment. Like eight two-day sessions, over two years, you do an international mission and then you do a domestic mission. Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community.

Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com. A group of about 24 young folks between 25 and 35, farmers, ag professionals.

Just a lot of these guys are already leaders in their own way, but this helps them develop those skills. It gives them confidence to come on things like Barn Talk podcast, right? And that kind of started my journey. I completed the leadership group, the I lead class. I'm still friends with every single one of those folks. You develop a really good network. work of people, just that alone. I did, so I spent time on the grassroots membership

committee. Then a person from my district got promoted to the executive rotation through the Iowa Corps Promotion Board, and they asked me if I wanted to fill his seat for a year. I said yes, and then I had to win an election after that year, and I won my election. And that was about four years ago now five years ago now I find myself as the president of the Iowa corn promotion board yeah I'm happy to do it I like you guys mentioned it's an opportunity to meet guys like Will he's a great example of somebody I would probably not have gotten an opportunity to interact with and bounce ideas off of and hear his ideas and there's 18 or 20 other guys just like that in this organization so it really opens your eyes to

to what is out there, what kind of people are operating in the state. And I like to say, you know, it's kind of an iron, sharpens iron thing where these guys are all, a lot of them are really at the top of their game. A lot of them are up and coming on their way to being at the top of their game.

So I get, personally, I get a lot of, selfishly, I get a lot of benefit out of being part of this organization. But I also get the opportunity to represent farmers from the whole state, whether it's education, research, market development. Those are kind of the three pillars of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, but we do all those and I'm proud to do all those things.

So that's kind of my journey to where I'm at now. Man, I'll echo that. I was going to use the exact same line. You want to talk about iron sharpen iron. I mean, you go in that boardroom or you sit in committee meetings with other farmers from all over the state and you get to meet. some really smart people. And, man, every time I leave those meetings, I'm like, I got to step my game up, right?

It really is motivating. It's cool whenever you can be around other people that are really passionate about the ag industry and care about where it goes. And, man, it's really motivating. It can be humbling, but it's really motivating too. Yeah. I bet. I bet.

I mean, for us, just even with this podcast, I mean, that's what's led us to get outside our own paradigm sitting down with people like you guys that are doing cool stuff shows you what's possible you know it really shows you what's possible and challenges your your viewpoint on things which that's that's what you need i think you know um well what's your role currently today how'd you get how'd you get involved yeah yeah so i'm uh i'm uh i'm sorry i'm the elected official or i'm sorry i'm representative from district five on the corn grower side so we have two different boards. There's two different organizations that I have a corn promotion board that Paul's president of. So our checkoff, our one penny goes into that and that goes towards

education and research and market development. And so Paul's doing a great job leading that. So I'm on the corn growers association side. And so that's the advocacy part for farmers. So when we're talking about policy, we're talking about different issues that are going on. that's where us as individual farmers, you know, collectively it gives us a voice to be able to have effect on policy, on everything that's going on, right? And so it's a real honor because of all the other farmers that have become before us and because of all the members and because the reputation we have as farmers, when we go up to Capitol Hill to talk to representatives or we talk to our representatives from D.C., they want to take that call.

Like, they want to hear, you know, where farmers are at and where they stand on things. So, you know, Paul's working on research, new market development, that kind of stuff. On the association side, it's about how do we create sound policy for ourselves, you know, how do we advocate for all the things that we need as an industry, right? From economics to sustainability to legal, all of that kind of stuff. So I got started, again, just being blessed to be raised by a teacher and everything, just grew up watching news, knowing politics, you know, knowing history. And so I knew I wanted to be involved at some point and went through the leadership development program as well. And then there was an opening here five, six years ago. And I didn't think it was the right time. But my wife's like, no, I think it's the right time. And I'm like, do you know what you're getting into? Right. Because the old joke is it's, you know, it's just four meetings a year, not that big of a deal. No, it's a real investment of your time.

It ends up being a lot more than that. But that's, I knew I wanted to be involved. I wanted to be able to give back an egg some way. And so that was the opportunity. And so we're several years into it here. So Will's pretty humble, but he's also the chairman of our research committee. And as you talk to Will and learn about him, you learn that that's exactly where he should be. And he does an exceptional job of leading that committee as well.

Yeah. It's an awesome committee to be on. So, you know, it's an interesting time, right? We're on the back end of the wave of profitability that came from ethanol, right? And all the development that came from that. And so it's a lot of times people will be like, well, we need new markets. We need, you know, and then everyone was like, well, the grower groups aren't doing anything. They're not doing anything.

At Iowa corn, like, not only are we doing things at a state level, but we've been trying to help lead things nationally. So, you know, Paul helped chair the committee with me here a couple of years ago, but, you know, we, you know, we've worked on ethanol. You know, we've worked on, we've worked on a lot of bio-based chemicals over the last 20 years. And so we're getting, so we're building quite a portfolio of different things that we've, we've developed. And some of them, some of them are moving in, are in the private sector now. And a lot of times what we're doing is we'll take things that are so risky, a company can't, they're just like, we can't do this. and we can get it from here to, okay, now, you know, we can kind of test that, maybe scale it. And so we're getting, so we've got two or three things that are in that, in that realm now,

and there's more we're working on. So a lot of the bio-based chemistry, what I like to say is, you know, your dad or your granddad's generation was ethanol, like your generation, it's going to be the bio-based chemistry, the bio-based products, and those are a lot of the things we're working on. So not only is our state committee doing it, but we've actually created a coal, of a lot of corn states that they're starting to invest into these things with us. And we've even been helping NCGA, the national corn growers, move some of these things forward. And one of our awesome staff, Alex Buck, actually just testified in front of Congress here just a

week or two ago on advocating for the policy we need to help move these types of technologies forward. So when farmers talk about all these growers aren't doing anything, no, it's, we have a massive budget that we are spending a lot of money that yeah we don't see the investment today but long term these are going to be markets that develop into hundreds of millions of bushels a year you know going into some of these different products i don't think that anybody can argue that uh corn corn growers has done an amazing job of promoting uh corn and technologies to use it because corn has done Corn has displaced more acres than any other crop.

My only snarky comment to that is, do you think there's anybody, or is it only me, that sometimes thinks that the ethanol boom has encouraged bad behavior? And by that I mean that the growth of that industry basically, I think, sometimes encouraged the yield for the sake of yield. Obviously, the profitability of an acre of corn is the reason why we have displaced

so many acres of everything else, whether that be wheat or whether that be cotton or whether that be peanuts. But it also has driven this massive growth of maybe not the kind of production principles that we just talked about as far as... So, I mean, it's like, And that's the question.

Sometimes I wonder it's like people that say, people that are short-sighted to say, well, what are you guys doing now? It's like when I was in sales, I had a boss who loved the guy, learned a lot from him. But he was very good at when I had my best day ever and sold, you know, whatever for sheds. He go, that's great. What are you going to do tomorrow? That's kind of what promotion is like. It's like we've built this massive use for American. corn. But now we have grown into that. So everybody's standing around and they're pointing

you going, well, what are you doing for us now? It's a never-ending cycle. Well, I mean, at the end of the day, by our elected positions, we represent corn. We represent ethanol. We represent, you know, corn in all forms, whether that's ethanol, DDGs, corn. One of the things. On the livestock, we have for livestock. Absolutely. Thank you, Will. Yeah. Livestock. One of the things we're expected to do as board members is to participate on the national level. They put a lot of investment into us as leaders, to develop us, to keep us informed, to allow us to be leaders in our industry and represent our farmers in an effective manner. So we're part of the U.S.

Grains of Biop Products Council. Will's part of the NCGA. He's also research committee for the NCAA on the national level. I do a lot of work with the U.S. Greens and Bioproducts Council. You know, corn has set export records two years in a row.

Yeah. And believe it or not, our number one customer, everybody knows is Mexico, but do you guys know who our number two biggest corn buyer is right now. Would it be Canada? It's Japan. Japan. I shouldn't know that.

And that's a relationship that has been nurtured and reinforced for the last seven or eight years. You know, Japan wants to have E10 ethanol countrywide by 2030, E20 by 2040. The rest of the world really wants our ethanol and our corn. So back to your. ethanol point, you know, our job is to represent corn in all forms. And we're supportive of any industry that grinds it, uses it, feeds it, exports it. That, you know, so I can't directly criticize it. No, and I don't think, I don't think there's an answer to that because the market is the market. And it's, it's nothing is, nothing is fixed. And really our business is no different than any other's business

is that it is a stool, you know, the price of corn, the profitability of corn. If any one thing that we are doing, whether it be the export market, the ethanol market, the livestock market, if any of those goes away, it's detrimental to what we're doing. Right. I just like to, I guess, if anything, it's always curious to me, people that criticize where we at, where we're at, well, we're constantly building markets. It's just the productivity of the American farmers an amazing thing. So we develop these opportunities and we've stepped up to the opportunity. We see them. Yeah. And so now it's like we've grown

into it. Well, what are you going to do now? Yeah. Well, it's, I mean, you know, people have talked about it that even with the renewable fuel standard and some of that stuff went in, most people didn't think farmers could produce enough that it wasn't even going to make a difference, right? But, you know, again, when I talked to companies and talk about all kinds of different programs, you want to talk about a group of people that are economically motivated and sensitive. It's the American farmer. You send them a signal. They are going to receive it and make it happen, right? And so I agree with you. During the ethanol boom, I mean, the signal was hammering, in a finishing nail with a sledgehammer, right?

Yep. But the next phase might be how do you be the most efficient at it now? And now it might be who can put the ring shank nail in with a finishing hammer, right? Yeah. Like there's phases to how a market develops and evolves. And I agree with you. I kind of think that's where we're at going forward. Speak a little bit.

You might be able to speak better this. There is power amongst these markets of allowing the end user to actually talk to a farmer. That's one of the things that I think Iowa corn does as good as anyone is it's one thing to put the pitch out there. But that's part of the reason why you do as many trips as you do is,

and you may or may not have had an experience like that, but I know many people that have gone on trips and they say that it's just the people, the end users, they want to talk to the farmer. Like they want to know about actually their hands in the dirt doing it. So that's a great point, TORC. So I mentioned my participation in the U.S. Greens and Bioproduct Council, and they're responsible for applying the trade worldwide. They have offices all over the world.

Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids. and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams.

Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com. Presently chair the Asia A team, so the Asia Committee through the Bioproduct Council. So Asia is kind of my specialty. Last year I was in Vietnam and Indonesia with Secretary Nag. I've been to Japan. I've been to China.

I'm going back to Japan and Korea this November. I can speak particularly to Asian countries' relationships are important. They're very important, and the Asian folks want to talk to the producers. They respect those people. They want to know. their perspective. You know, and this kind of ties back in to the whole conversation we had before about cover crops and that kind of loops back to sustainability.

That's very important to the Asian market. Very important. And it's allowed us to make serious inroads versus our competitors in the Asian market. American agriculture is far more sustainable than some of our competitors and we're doing things that they are not doing. That being said, that's important to these. end users and buyers so we've you know met with government officials that are responsible for these decisions we've met with uh end users so folks that grind corn for starch for animal feed for various uses

um just having that relationships is really important another thing we do is bring lots of them to iowa to go to will's farm to go to other folks farms to see how they're doing things to answer the question they have because as you guys know there's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of things that are being said that aren't necessarily true. So these folks are taking the initiative to come out to these farms, to ask the tough questions, to have the tough conversations. And at the end of the day, this is selling bushels of corn all over the world, right? This is this is helping to create a lot. an understanding to separate us from some of our competitors.

And like I mentioned, the relationship, they're important all over the world. It's not just the Asian market, but that's the one I spend most of my time in. They're important all over the world. But to see how we do things on the ground, talk to our producers is so important. And we're moving towards this bioproducts economy. There's a lot of talk about bio products, whether it's replacing polyester with a bio-based fabric. I mean, that's a real thing. That's happening in Iowa right now.

And a lot of that is a result of companies like Lulu Lemon or Victoria's Secret coming out to the farm, talking to the farm, we're seeing how we're doing these things. And then that translates back to their business and they see value in that and how that works. and so that's that's really important to everybody really just these relationships and i know will can offer quite well and it's and it's interesting right if we just think about our own lives who do you who do you buy your products from right you tend to buy from someone you have a relationship with right and so it's the exact same thing with these i i went down uh last year i got asked to go down to uh us grains and and bioproducts uh they had a

meeting down in Ecuador and it was everyone that it was aquaculture and so I was standing there talking with with a feed mill company right and a completely what would seem like a crazy question for us right but his question was can you guys produce enough corn for us to be able to feed to the aquaculture right but it was a completely honest question and when I stepped back and thought about it I would ask the exact same question like are you you a sustainable supplier to us, right? Yeah. And so we were talking about it. And so I was trying to give them context and I was like, do you know that the conversation we're having at the coffee shop back in Iowa right now is who's going to buy our corn? We can't like we're producing so much of it.

Yeah. You know, and so it was just interesting to have that that conversation. And so yeah, social media can can level the entire world, but sometimes just standing there face to face and talking with someone and being able to relate on that personal level and on a family level and that that individual knows there's a family on the other end that's that's producing it and it's a family on the other end that's going to consume it or use it makes a real connection that opens market. So I know sometimes people get worried about all the trips and all these different things, but man, when you're doing these, they're pretty grueling. I mean, it's a lot of travel and you're trying to talk to a lot of people and but it can make a real difference in the

long term for all of us. Yeah, for sure. So for both of you, you are on the policy side, you're on the promotion side. What are the things that you're most proud of that you're working on or you've accomplished in the last, you know, couple years on the promotion side or what you're doing in D.C. on the policy side. And what are you excited about? What are you excited about what you're working on, you know, moving forward? You know, Japan being our number two buyer, to me, that's really exciting. I see that as a direct result of some of the efforts we've done on the promotion side and market development. There's a lot of other Asian markets that are opening up. There's Central American markets that are opening up as a result of these efforts.

Just he mentioned, we'll mention Guatemala, right? Ecuador. You mentioned Ecuador, but Guatemala is also a corn buyer now. Columbia is a corn buyer now, ethanol consumer. as we keep pushing these efforts, you know, on the market development front, I'm really proud to see the results of these things coming to fruition right in front of my eyes. We also do a lot of work on the education side, whether it's educating consumers, pushing back against misinformation, you know, putting a face to these products and these things that are happening all around us, there's faces, there's people that care. You know, we're drinking the same water that you are in this state,

and we're feeding our families the same food that you are. You know, we have the same concerns that everybody else does. So the education piece is pretty important to us. We have a really talented team of staff members that are the leaders in the commodity industry when it comes to the education reaching consumers where they're at. I'm really proud of this team and the things that they do. They work really hard.

And that kind of translates into some of our bigger events that we do, whether it's a NASCAR race, whether it's the State Fair, whether it's the Seahawk football game, all these things kind of check a few of these boxes, whether it's education or market development. You know, the NASCAR race reaches millions, of consumers all over the United States. This isn't just an Iowa thing.

This is educating people all over the United States with literally millions of impressions, whether it's social media, television, you know, random internet spaces. And that's always exciting. That's something we're really, really proud of as a promotion board. The Sihawk game reaches 70, 80% of Iowa's period. You know, millions, once again, millions of people that are touched and they get to see these farmers.

We get to showcase these farmers and put a name and a face and a family and to know that 98, whatever percent of Iowa farms are actually family-owned, just like you guys, just like Will, just like myself. We're family-owned, we're a family farm. I farm with my wife, Will Farms with his family. I mean, this is real.

This is still who we are. and no matter what is out there, these are still people at the end of the day. And I think, you know, I'm really proud of the efforts that we do to educate consumers to our research stuff. I could talk about that for hours, but I'm not going to. But I'm also excited about some of the new things that are coming out of research. I mentioned we're leaning into the bio-based economy, the bio-based future of corn grind. And there's a lot of buzz around that. we're actually doing actionable things in our research to do some you know to achieve those goals

that's kind of our focus not all of our focus but some of our focus and research right now too so all that will go well i was just going to touch on i do think you guys do an amazing job as a commodity group and board um like the sihawk game was awesome doing i mean you guys do a better job than just about arguably any other commodity group out there when it comes to like you said meeting consumers right where they're at yeah i mean you guys do exactly that and it's it's like i don't know when you guys when did you guys start to do the nascar this will this was our third year of nascar it's like started you guys are like i feel like just recently like in the last five years i mean it's really ramped up and it's just gotten better and better and better

and so like as a marketing guy as this guy that like thinks like like loves thinking about brand awareness and stuff. Like they're doing a really good job. Yeah. All the Iowa corn towels waving at the Seahawk game. I mean, yeah, it's awesome. So I just think they do a really good job. We have the best staff in the world working in the office in Johnston.

I mean, I can't give them enough credit for the things they do. They make Will and I look good. Which is a hard job. Which is a tough job. And not just Will and I. They make all of our board. member, you know, they want us to succeed because when we succeed, they succeed. And they're just, I can't tell you enough how top-notch the staff is, whether it's the

CEO all the way down, all the way down through the ranks, you know, whether it's your, your district field managers, your media team, your, your government relations group, they're all exceptional. Yeah. So NASCAR, what are they, what are they running? Is that straight ethanol they're running in those cars now, or is it still a blend? They're still running E15 in those cars.

And we're really proud to say, and they have for several years. I actually don't know how many years, but it's been a while. And they love it. You know, Richard Childress comes and talks to us, gives us some time every year during the race, and he talks about cleaner oil at the end of it.

You know, the service intervals are longer, less wear on the engines. just a cleaner burn and the fuel, increased power. I mean, he really loves the stuff. And these are tight tolerances, high performance engines. And our thinking is if these guys can run this effectively and like it, then anybody can do this. Yeah.

It's a great tie-in. It has been a great tie-in. Well, yeah, it's such a unique opportunity, right, when you can bring the ethanol part together with the general consumer. There's not that many touch points, right, where the product and the consumer can meet at an event like that, right? And so I agree. I think it's been a great opportunity.

And it was interesting. Some of our other guys on the board were out, you know, walking around in the campgrounds and talking to people and the appreciation. Just normal folks had that the race is there, right? And that we helped to bring it there. Because, you know, when the race came in, the reason we ended up sponsoring that, they came to us early on because of the relationship we'd had with them in the past and because

of the relationship we had had with other racing events that had been there in Iowa in the past. And so, you know, it's the hard work that's been put in over the years, you know, to create that opportunity, right? It's the old thing about, you know, good luck is when hard work and opportunity meet, right? And so the thing that's hard about these grower groups is a lot of times, just like in farming, you know, you'll, you'll plant that seed or, or have that calf. And it takes five or 10 years before that comes to fruition. You know, you asked the question about, you know, what, what are some of the things that have happened? I can remember in October of 2021, after we finally, you know, things were kind of opening up after COVID. The first group we hosted at our farm was a

trade group from Mexico. And most of the folks that were in that group were the largest, like, feed mill and all that type, you know, those types of companies, like the Cargills of Mexico, if you will. And they were sitting there going, our government is talking about banning GMOs, like, what are we going to do, right? And so this was some of the first discussions about that. And so it kicked off, you know, on just a little farm in Iowa, but we had folks from the state that were there, from USDA that were there. And so that discussion keeps carrying forward and following through and what is it like in the last six months or so or then the last year that Mexico the government finally said yep no we're not going to have any kind of GMO ban right but

so it's tedious and it takes a lot of time and investment but you know that's the type of thing where I literally saw that in my machine shed in October of 21 and in 25 and 26 we see the result of it do you see that becoming more difficult um as far as not only within consumers, but within our own membership as we have the society that... I mean, obviously we know the political cycle is practically a two-year cycle now, and it makes it very hard to get things done over time because everybody's worried about the next cycle.

But also, if you just look at social media, with the exception of long-form what we're doing, everything else is. and so it almost it almost breeds this this short-term thought process. Absolutely. Do you see that as

within membership like people's patience level being harder today to like you have to talk people down and like all right this is going to like we're working on it's going to take a while

but we're going to get there. Well I yeah I think everything I'm guilty of it too, right? When you can pick up your phone and in three clicks, order something, we're used to that immediacy. I think the last three or four years, all of us as farmers have felt a real sense of urgency

when we've had some really tough economic times. So you can understand where they're coming from. Yeah. But, you know, I feel like more than ever, as broke as our system can feel at times, there are lots of places where you can still move. the needle. You know, I can remember in July of 25 being out in D.C. And all of us were like, we need new markets, we need new opportunity, we need trade, we need all these things. And I went back

and in August of 25, I sat down with Iowa corn staff and with Alex Buck in particular that's the staff lead for my committee. And I'm like, we really need to look at policy and how do we help move this forward. And like I mentioned earlier, I mean, one year later, we went back to D.C. And one of the number one thing, number one things we were advocating at the national corn growers was biopaste plastics and chemicals, right? And so literally ideas and meetings that we had a year ago in August to come full circle. And we went up to Capitol Hill. And that was one of the number one things we talked about. And there are pieces of, of the new farm bill, uh, that have things in there specifically for bio,

based economy type things that would really help farmers. And again, to see Alex get up and testify in front of the congressional committee in the last few weeks, that's literally in one year, right? So it can be hard, but sometimes if you put your mind to it, there are opportunities to still move the needle. And so, you know, if we get this next farm bill passed, it's got things in there, you know, for ethanol, it's got things in there for, you know, bio-based economics. It's got things in there for trade and all that stuff. So we can still move the needle, but it's hard where we're all just used to the immediacy. And the tough times we've been in. I get it. Yeah, for sure. Speaking of that point, you touched on this last night. You think that's an advantage that Iowa

corn has. We talk about this, and this is in a lot of the literature that it's a grassroots organization. but the example you just gave is a good example of that bottom up. The connection from the top to the farmers that actually fund the organization is it's a very close. It's a very close link, I guess you would say. Talk about that a little bit. You know, you mentioned the bottom up philosophy and that's something we stay laser focused on and we're actually very proud of the fact that the things that Will's talking about, these things that are happening, whether it's trade, whether it's policy,

whether it's anything, these come from our members. These come from our grassroots sessions. These comes from district meetings. This comes from talking to our members, talking to our farmers, and we act, we execute these things. But these are not top down. This isn't things that I've. coming up with and saying this is what we should do I get my direction from the

farmers the research committee somewhat gets their direction from the farmers the growers board the things that they're going that will's going to DC to lobby for or going to Des Moines to lobby for these are things that came from the bottom up these are from the grassroots members like I said that's it's just something we're really proud of our members are are engaged they're willing to share their opinions, they're informed, and we know that. So we want to kind of exploit that, exploit our membership to move things forward,

to move that needle. And it's something that we're all really proud of. Yeah, that's awesome. If you've got somebody out there that's not currently a member, what do you think are a couple of big reasons that you think, that you think somebody should get involved? I think every corn farmer should be involved. You know, that's just because I have a very jaded opinion on that now that I'm part of the organization.

I see what they're doing, what they're capable of, and what talent we have to execute these things. One of the reasons is they just haven't been asked. A lot of times all you have to do is ask somebody. You know, that's something we all as board members try to do. We try to get X amount of memberships, new memberships every year. And I found that the longer I do this, the easier it is. Most guys, once they find out what we're doing, what we're capable of, they're more than happy to write that membership check.

And it's not a hard sell at all. And I'm not a salesman. That's something I've tried and failed at in my life. I'm not a good salesman. But this is pretty easy for me. You have some folks that may not agree with everything we're doing. You'll have that in these higher profile things. You'll have that on those big jobs.

Sometimes people don't always agree with what you're doing or how you're doing it. And you might never get them as members, but that's the minority. That is not the majority. That's a few folks that, for whatever reason, don't agree with the way the direction things are going. I see the Corn Checkoff side. as being a truly effective organization that represents farmers.

And I think the farmers see that. So a lot of times, you know, they may or may not be members, but a lot of times just because nobody's asked them to. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, I think corn growers, I equate it back when I'm talking to people, it's kind of like going to church in the fact that there's plenty of things that I don't agree with the national.

national denomination that my church is part of. But I really love all the people that are in my church, and I'm involved in it. And it's the same with corn growers. Part of it is I don't know everything going on at the top, but there are certainly things that I may not think that way. But the group of people we have in our county, we do a lot of great programs, and we add a lot of value to our community. And that's why I'm part of it.

And I think that's kind of the way you've got to look at. it because if everybody agrees with everything, you probably better get out because you're drinking the Kool-Aid and you're in a cold. So, you know. And yeah, I mean, there's, yeah, there's lots of things to disagree about, but there's so many more things that unite us than divide us. I, one of the things that I heard several years ago that I completely agree with is like if you're, if you're an Iowa corn growers member as a farmer, when you wake up in the morning, you've got a staff that a full-time staff for communications you have a full-time staff that's advocating for you you got a full-time staff that's in market development for you like that that's what iowa corn is right

like you're literally investing into this whole infrastructure that's making all those things happen and you literally don't even have to think about it right if you don't want to so i i always really thought that was a good visual of of like that there are people going to work to advocate for you on on your behalf every day and you don't even have to think about it. So to pay a little bit of membership and to have a little bit of check off, that's a really powerful thing that's going on. But I just think on a personal level, when you can have a group that's advocating on your behalf, right, that has your best interest at heart. Like how many opportunities do we have that in agriculture right now? Yeah. You know, where there's a group that that's out there.

that's trying to look out for you, right? And so, yes, we're everything that's corn, but in Iowa, I just think about it as a farmer's group, you know. Within Iowa, we all have livestock, we all have corn. Like, we're really all needing the same things. And so I really like, you know, working at the state level because, you know, you can go advocate for things that are for livestock or for corn or soybeans or whatever.

we're all in the same ship together. And so to have, you know, 7,000 plus members and because of the hard work of our forefathers to have the reputation that we have and to handle things with the professionalism we do, that we can get a meeting, you know, with any of our representatives or with any business or with other countries, right? Like that's special. That's something that's worth working for and working towards to to keep that going because it makes a difference for all of us. Yeah, that's well said. Couldn't, couldn't have said it better myself. I think that was, that was really, you couldn't have said it. I couldn't have said it. You're right. Let's switch gears a little bit. Let's talk. Let's put our, I guess put our, I mean, you can wear both hats, both, you know,

your guys as Iowa corn roll, but also you guys as farmers. The general state of agriculture today, what are you what do you think about it like what are the threats or the things that worry you and what are the opportunities that you are feeling optimistic about you know i know you both have you know sons and both have the next generation are you optimistic for the future generally or are you a little more pessimistic we ask all of our guests this you know we want to get their overall thoughts. I guess I can take that a little bit. Tork, I heard you say on a previous podcast, this is what you're doing. Win or lose, this is what you're doing. This is what you're going to do. And that's kind of where I'm at on this too. I mean, this is what I'm going to do, win or lose.

I'm going to do my best to not fail at this. But it's been tough the last few years. I've just really watched a lot of my equity kind of drain away. So to be honest, I'm not tremendously optimistic about the future as far as my kids are concerned. Yeah, I think there's going to be opportunities for them. I use my oldest doing the drone operations, and then I have a 15-year-old, and he loves to just do labor for neighbors and farmers and for us. Honestly, he's a go-getter. And, you know, I hope there's a place for him.

I'd love to try to carve that out. But if he was to come back today, there would not be room for him, for either of them. I think there's opportunities in the egg sphere for them. Consolidation kind of concerns me because I would probably not be that guy that's doing the consolidation. I might be the consolidated. So I kind of feel a little hunted in that aspect. I'm also optimistic, though. I like where things are going.

I like the sustainability aspect of U.S. agriculture that sets us apart. I like the work that corn's doing, you know, on behalf of me as a farmer, that gives me to see these export markets take off, to see domestic demand being developed, to see ethanol still strong. So I'm optimistic that this can sustain my operation for a lot of. time to come because we all know farming it's kind of cyclical some years are good you'll have a trough and then you'll have some good years and you know if you're smart enough you can you can have those good years carry you through some of the poorer years so so I guess I'm just more of a long

approach on it you know at the end of the day I guess I would say I'm pretty optimistic as where it's going what the next generation has to face I'm honestly not that optimistic about where they're at right now today. I haven't always thought that way. And we're doing a lot of work to try to usher that next generation. And the average age of farmers keeps getting older and older. There's going to be something's going to have to change. These young guys are going to have to get some opportunities.

They're going to have to, you know, have some folks that want them to come back and to allow that to happen. You know, I hope that I can do that for my kids if they want to come back. I don't know if they're, you know, I'm pretty confident I got one that's going to want to do it. I don't know if all three of them are going to want to do it, though. We, I think you both have a good mindset, though, because you're working on the right side of it. Because the answer is, is profitability. Because if you can build the profitability, you can build the opportunity. Something that was eye-opening to us, we were at Ramp.

ranching for profit last week, and they have a metric they use when they go through financials of farms and ranches, and that is how much gross profit per employee, and their goal is $400,000 of gross profit per employee. I think it's revenue. Gross revenue, that's right. Yeah. And you start adding a generation, you're going to have to develop some revenue. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, yeah. What about you, Will? How are you feeling about things?

Well, I think, you know, I think in the short term we got challenges, but that's the nature of any beast, right? So I agree with Paul. I think, you know, the natural cycle is when we're in an economic downturn, you have consolidation. That's what naturally happens. So I think as farmers, we've got to stand up and really advocate for how a lot of the consolidation that happens isn't good for the farmer, right? It may be good for the company, but it's not necessarily good for the farmer. And we've been working hard at that. I know the fertilizer is something that's been heartburned for every farmer out there. And so there's a lot of things that are being worked on right now. And in Iowa and Iowa corn, we've been trying to help with that. So we just had a meeting two weeks ago up in Ogden,

Iowa where Deputy Secretary of Aden came out from the USDA and kind of had a public hearing about what's going on with fertilizer. I was in a meeting three or four weeks with the third the third in charge at the Department of Justice kind of talking about some of the fertilizer things and some of the anti-competitive practices that are going on. And so again, it can feel like our government isn't always working for us, but I can tell you from being at those meetings that there are a lot of people in some of these agencies right now that are listening and are beginning to connect the dots and see the problem and see where we're coming from. You know, it kind of really all kicked off with the countervailing duties that were put on phosphate a few years

ago. And, you know, Iowa Corn, National Corn, a lot of the other organizations have really been rallying. And, you know, when that happened, the farmer's voice wasn't even considered in that decision. we weren't considered a customer when that was all decided, right? And so, you know, through that process, and again, it takes years. It takes steps, right? Just like it does on the farm. But we're trying to make a difference. And so I know it's making a difference because we've had people reach out and say,

why are you guys upset, right? And we've even had other companies in other input suppliers that have talked about doing things and there's been discussions and they're like, yeah, we don't want that heat, right? And so, again, things aren't always going to be public, what's going on in the background, but there's discussions and there's advocacy going on. So I think that's going to be a big battle for several years to come. Long term, I'm an optimist at heart, right? How do you farm and not be an optimist? I think there's opportunity. I think we're going through a transformative time personally. I started kind of reading about,

started reading from a few authors here a couple of years ago, one of them here from Iowa. And when you start to look at demographics and look at where we are in our country, there's just a lot of opportunity that's like five to seven years away. It actually, our board at Iowa corn, I would say, is kind of, I've said it's the canary and the coal mine. Like, it's the first indication.

When I got on the board, I was 41. and I assumed I was going to be the young guy, and there was already three or four younger than me, and it's gotten even younger. And I think that's about what's to come into agriculture. So we have a collegiate action team where students that are in all the different colleges and universities around Iowa that are interested in ag

can come in for one-year program with Iowa corn and learn, and they'll be out to my farm here in another month or two. And I think my message to, them will be the same as it was last year that they are in a unbelievable spot that if they're willing to be just patient for a few years here there's just a uh i heard it described it will be the largest uh transition of assets and wealth ag assets and wealth that's ever happened in peacetime history right um because yeah our average farmer is 60 plus or whatever it is um i looked it up once four of the five largest birth years of the boomers was in the last five years of that generation. So we just

have a massive group of farmers that are still farming. And I hope they can farm as long as they want. But at some point, the good Lord calls us all home, right? And so, you know, somehow that's all going to get transitioned. And so I think there's a lot of opportunities out there. You know, myself personally, I'm technically the last year of X. I've been swimming upstream my entire farming career. I think there's a few years out where for the first time, you know, the current might be in my back. We'll see. But I think there's a lot of opportunities for young folks out there. If they're willing to be a little bit patient and just keep being persistent, there's going to be opportunities.

And so, yeah, there's going to be a lot of struggle. There's going to be a lot of transformation that's going to have to happen. But I think there's going to be a lot of opportunities in the future. Yeah. I think you're right. And I think like you said earlier in the episode, being having a lot of the problem, having a lot of a little bit of courage. It might take a little bit of courage to step out and try something.

Yeah. But you got to try it. You know, we got to figure out something to make this thing all work. And it's way better to try in your 20s and 30s than in your 50s and 60s. Yeah. When you're young, it's good to try.

I'm beginning to understand that more and more. Yes. You said a quote last night of Henry Ford about the automobile. And if it was up to the consumer, they would have just made a faster horse versus a car. Yeah. And you were talking about how farmers sometimes think they know what they need, but they don't always know what they need.

They know what they want. They know what they want, but they don't actually know what they might not know what they need. What are some of, do you have any of those examples right now off the top of your head you can think of, of like, because you made the point of that's kind of why organizations like Iowa Corn exists because you're fighting for the need.

You're trying to be advocate for the need of the American farmer. Well, I think, again, this is a personal opinion, but I think one of the things that's going to be painful and transformative for us is, Torque, you hit on it earlier. I think the signal for the last 20 years has just been produced more, like make the investment, get a bigger tractor, get whatever you need, and we need to produce more. And I think going forward, again, demographics, demand is not going to keep going up at the rate it did because global population is not going to keep going up at the rate it did. And so I think how sustainably you can produce something. And also, obviously, with all the turmoil we have around the world, again, just a personal opinion, you know, I think we're in a every 80 to 100 years, the world kind of goes through a transformative. Everybody gets up and kind of plays musical chairs and decides their new partners. And that's what we're in.

And so with all the things that we have going on around the world right now, fertilizer may not be cheap anymore. more, right? And so I personally think the more sustainably we can produce something, the fewer inputs it takes, you know, the less fuel it takes, all those different things. That's what's going to create the margin that makes you profitable. So, you know, I think the more, and then again, just the larger public questions about water quality and all these other things, right? Like, there's some solutions in that there's one thing or solution in there that they can actually fix two or three problems, right? And so, yeah, it's interesting being in leadership, right? Is do you do what they want or are there some points in here where we need to talk about

what we all really need, right? And I know even on a personal level, you don't always want to hear what you need, right? But I think that's where possibly some of the opportunities are in the future personally. Are you a Peter Zion guide? Do you know Peter Zion? That would be the one I was I'm also looting too on the demographics. Yeah. Yeah, he's awesome. Yeah. He's a guess we really want to get on the show because he'd be great.

That would be, yes. Is he from Iowa? He's from Marshalltown. He changed my entire point of view about, so when I listen to politics and I listen to groups talking about opportunities here and there and this is such a huge market. now I look at it through that lens of yes, but what is that market going to be 5, 10, 15 years from now?

And it really changes how you view things. Comes back to the demographics a lot of times. I completely agree. Yeah, and the way it's, yeah, and it's interesting. Again, I was just talking to someone from our staff last night on the way down here, and we're both Xers, right? And so we were both kind of lamenting. We're getting a little bit of gray hair.

So we're assumed to kind of be a boomer, but we probably skew more with the younger. But we, you know, and so we were just kind of talking about like how transformative these demographics are going to be and how quickly things are changing. And I'm with you. He's really kind of changed my view of, of it's not so much where we are right now today. It's where we're going to be in just a couple of years. And so I get some of the younger guys that are just, I get it. Like I don't blame them, right?

They're like, we really need change. We need really big. change and we need it right now and I'm just getting old enough that I'm like just a little bit longer like we're going to get your change just be careful because it's going to be a lot of change and not necessarily all of it the way you want yeah and I might be the broken clock that I'm finally going to be right here but it yeah it feels like there's a lot of change coming I think we just opened a can we could run another well yeah I'm not going to go for I wanted I want to ask on one thing that we hear a lot of people talk about that they're concerned about. I just, you guys have been around the world a little bit.

Brazil. What do you think about Brazil? A lot of people are worried about Brazil because labor is, like especially not just on, you know, the crop side, but also meat production. I mean, they got oodles and oodles of labor that we don't have. And meat packers are investing down there. We've been down there showing them how we farm for a long time. Do you, do you worry about Brazil in the future in the next two decades? Or are you, how do you think about that? I have, we, I, the organization, we absolutely worry about Brazil. Yeah. I was told they have potentially, this was last year, 90 million more acres that they can still bring online.

So you think about the whole U.S. corn crop at 90, whatever, 91, 95, 98 million acres. Brazil still has this that they can bring online. That's not even imprudential. production. They're doing a good job around the world of working their way into markets, of capturing some markets that previously were U.S. type markets. One of the things that differentiates us from them is we're consistently a high-quality supplier. We're a high-quality consistent supplier. So that quantity of high-quality grain is going to be there every single year and it's going to be soft it's going to be easier to mill easier on equipment so we're one of the

things we're doing is trying to differentiate ourselves from Brazil we're sustainable and so we're starting to supply these sustainability certificates to countries that really want this we're not talking about carbon scores here in the u.s much but i can assure you the rest of the world really cares about this stuff and if you want to if you if you if you if The American corn grower wants to complain about the level of fertilizer dependency they have. Go farm where your soil is basically beach sand and see what your input costs are. Right. They are, the one thing that I will say is they are incredibly dependent upon synthetic fertilizer.

And they don't have it inside their borders. And they're bringing flint corn to the market, which is a much harder. it travels better on ships and boats. It travels better so it arrives a lot more intact, but it's harder on equipment as less starch yield. So if you're fermenting this for an example, or you're extracting starch, you're going to get more out of the U.S. products.

So we're working to differentiate ourselves and not necessarily out-compete them, but to say this is why we're better. These are the reasons why, and this is why you should buy from us. You know, it's a game. But trade works on relationship and it works on constantly having conversations.

When you stop having those conversations, that's when you start losing market share. That's when the relationship deteriorates. And that's something we know all too well. We need to maintain this. We need to have those conversations. We need to keep moving forward. And that's proven to help us.

Yes, our market sure has eroded over the last five, seven years. But we're also sitting on record corn exports for the second year in a row. So has it? I mean, the buyers have changed, but the quantity really hasn't. So I think we're doing a pretty good job of that. But yes, there's serious competition coming out of Brazil. There's serious quantity coming out of Brazil. They're ethanol markets expanding.

They're building new plants in Brazil to capitalize on some of this worldwide. demand that's for fermenting right now a lot of countries are looking at ethanol as ways to clean up their carbon scores clean up their air stretch their oil supply stretch to supplement their oil supply i i yeah i i was having the discussion with with uh with someone last winter about you know if if some of the stuff going on in the middle east continues on you know you start reading about how like how dependent Southeast Asia is. I'm like, are they going to be open to some of these, you know, at the time they were like, eh, eh, but I'm like, the longer this stretch is on, I kind of, I kind of wonder.

But I, yeah, to your point, I think we're foolish not to respect what Brazil can do. But, but I agree with what you said, Tork. I think, I think we as farmers in the U.S. need to, you know, we need to leverage what, what we've got, right? Like, again, we do, there's only two or three places in the world to have the soils we're blessed to have here. We have more inland waterway infrastructure, just naturally, God-given, than any other country in the world, right, or any other area of the world. You know, our rule of law and commerce and how we regulate things and the quality that creates, there's lots of things that we can leverage that we need to keep advocating for and reminding people of,

And then again, nowhere else in the world do we have the nitrogen production, the natural gas to do the natural, the nitrogen production, the natural phosphorus resources and potassium resources that we have in North America, right? We need to work with our Canadian brotherhood here to keep that all together. But you look at some of the congestion we're going to have around the world for the next three, five, ten years. and we're just so blessed to be in a spot where there's a lot of opportunity that yeah their yield probably won't shrink because they can bring more hectares online but their yield per acre may go down or it may get really cost prohibitive to do it. Yeah. And we're really blessed here in the U.S.

that if we leverage our natural soils and we leverage the resources we do have within our own borders already, that's a heck of a competitive advantage going forward. Yep. Amen. Amen to that. Well, let's round this thing out. We like to end the show with a segment we like to call Tip of the Hat. So who's somebody in your life or what's a thing that you use on a daily basis that you want to give your flowers to and say, hey, they're doing it right or I couldn't be where I'm at without this person or this thing that I use on a daily basis, whatever.

Just giving your flowers, tipping your hat. Well, two tips. I mean, one to my wife, Cassie, for helping. I mean, to be involved in this organization and be involved in farming, I mean, we all understand the hours and the effort it takes. And for us to have a young family and the amount of effort she puts in and, you know, like with some of this corn stuff, I figure I probably have 45 to 50 days a year that are either spent at our board meetings or off trying to advocate for different things. And so I owe her a debt of gratitude for that. the other tip I would have is,

is, you know, the opportunity I got to farm full-time game came because of a farmer Gordon Wasner. And he was big in Iowa corn as well back in the day and actually has lifetime achievement for his work. So a tip of a hap to him and just everyone that's come before us.

And like we talked about early on, I mean, just being lifted up on the shoulders of our parents and grandparents and what they've created for us. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. And I'll also, second the wife one my wife sarah she you know we had a long conversation before i committed to any of this corn stuff i've always been volunteer i've always been active in my community i also do

i've done iowa state extension i've state university extension for 16 or 17 years too on top of this um she knew what the commitment was she also wanted me to succeed and she said i'm going to you need to do this you need to do this you need to do this for us for your kids. She's learned the cattle side of things. She knows how to have, you know, take care of baby calves, watch them be born. She, you know, she's learned these things and she's done a lot of the grunt work on the farm because I'm gone a lot. I mentioned I travel, you know, being an executive with Iowa corn is even more of a time commitment.

So she's had to even step up to that. So working full time, raising three sons. I got to give her all the credit. And, you know, I'll go with Willson. You know, there's other people in my life, and I've had a great bank relationship. I've had a great relationship with my banker. He's been good.

He's rode with me through the hard times. And I just without a good local bank in my corner, I wouldn't be sitting here today. we've had some growing pains over the years but but he's stuck it out with me and you know i think that's where we're different from perhaps the 80s you know some people have compared this time now to to perhaps the crisis of the 80s um and a lot of that was banks pulling pulling the rug out from folks and and i just i don't feel threatened like that now i don't see this it's happening but I don't see it so much with me personally.

I know what's happening. We've heard that from other guys, people in the industry. The health out there of farms is not good right now. The general financial health of farms is not good. So having an effective banker in your corner is important. So shout out to Sean Allworth. He's my guy. And he's been ride or die with me.

Awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Hey, I'll give a tip of the half. All right. I'll tip my hat to you because we're hitting about three and a half years of this deal. And you have done a great job of making it seem like that I'm an equal part of our success, even though I'm the sponger out of the deal.

So kudos to you. Well, thanks, Dan. I appreciate that. Try to keep us on track best I can. I have to try to because he's the one that gets stressed out every day about, have you gone through the outline? if you look to the outline and I'm just like, yeah, I looked at it. Yeah.

Because I know he's going to do a good job on it. It's easy to do a great episode when you got great guys like you to show up, make it easy to talk about just farming, you know? That's what makes it fun. It's just having real conversations. And I had a great time. Yeah, I did. Yeah.

That's what we talked about last night, right? When you're passionate about something and you're enjoying it, then it's authentic and it'll be successful one way or another, right? Yeah. Well, I'm impressed you guys put together your outlines after supper. at eight something last night this morning. Oh, I was up till 1 a.m.

getting this all. Yeah, sure. Getting this all down. We got a rough draft before we go into dinner and then after dinner we touch it up a little bit. That's impressive, guys. Yeah, that's real dedication. Well, I appreciate it.

Well, thank you. Thanks for coming on the show, guys. It's been an absolute pleasure. If there's somebody on the fence that wants to sign up and get involved in Iowa corn, do you guys know where to send them? Yeah. Every district, there's nine districts in Iowa.

They all have a district field manager. Iowa corn.org is your website. You'll find that district field manager. They'll find their phone number. Each district also has two board representatives. So sometimes three, depending if you have an executive in the rotation, their numbers are also publicly available in emails.

Reach out to any of those guys. They'll be glad to talk to you and get that membership going. That's my best advice if you really want to do it or talk to another member and they can study the record. at the neighbor and their one. And I would say the little thing that doesn't get talked much about is like we've got an associate's membership too. So, you know, if your career is based in ag, right, and around corn, but you're not raising it, you can still be a member and help advocate. So yeah, reach out. The website's great. They're on, you know, all the socials, all that good

stuff. They're on there too. So somebody will get you where you need to be. Yep. Yep. We have a big social media presence too. And that would also be an house. Avenue. That's a good point, Will. Cool. Well, Will, Paul, thank you guys so much for your time. It was an absolute pleasure. Guys, if you got any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know. We love you guys. We appreciate you and we'll see you back

here next week for another episode.