Farming Podcast | Sam Coutu’s Bold 2025 Strategy for April Soybean Planting in Quebec

00:00:00 As in the question to the extreme ag guys, what are you changing in 2025 and why are you doing it? That's what we're covering with Sam Cchu Sam 00:00:07 of the North in this episode of Extreme Ag Cutting the Curve. Welcome to Extreme ags Cutting the Curve podcast 00:00:13 where real farmers share real insights and real results to help you improve your farming operation. And now here's your host, Damien Mason. 00:00:23 Hey there. Welcome to another, another fantastic episode of Extreme Acts Cutting the Curve. 00:00:26 I got Sam Chu, he is Sam of the north. He is our friend in Quebec. Uh, does some trials up there. It might even have a field day in 2025. 00:00:33 We're excited about that 'cause I've not been to his farm. Um, Sam has been on a number of times kind of a cool thing. 00:00:40 Quebec is a great big province, but only about 2% of it. Isn't that right? That's actually in agricultural land. 00:00:45 Yep, only 2%. And Sam happens to farm uh, within that 2%. He is, um, our friend from the north 00:00:53 and we gonna ask him, what are you changing in 2025 and y So you're gonna do some different stuff on your farm, by the way, real quickly, if you don't remember Sam, 00:01:00 you farm almost a couple thousand acres. Tell us about your farm. I'm farming corn, beans 00:01:05 and some wheat on approximately 2,500 acres. And people think, oh wait a minute. 'cause remember a lot of Americans think when you get 00:01:15 to Canada it's like, uh, permanent snow and tundra and all that. Uh, that's not the case. You're actually not that far north. 00:01:22 You're uh, you're pretty close to the southern border of Quebec, right? Yep, we're about two hours from New York State borders. 00:01:30 Got it. What are you gonna change in 2025 and why you're doing it? So this year I'm gonna go with, uh, two passes 00:01:40 of Y drop. So I'm gonna change my fertility a little bit, so I'm gonna go more in season than upfront, 00:01:51 so it will be easier to adjust to the season by doing that. I'm also planning on cutting like 15% 00:01:59 of my nitrogen needs. Okay, so you're talking about on corn? Yeah. Okay. 00:02:05 You're going to do two wide drop applications and this is for fertility? Yes. What did you do last year 00:02:12 and why are you deciding to change it this year? So last year was the first year I had my wide drop. I received them late in season early July. 00:02:24 So I had the opportunity to only do one pass. And from what I've seen in 24, I'm gonna tweak a little bit. My fertility, I will put a little bit less on the planter, 00:02:38 so I'll be able to cover markers with the load on the planter. So I'll be more efficient 00:02:45 and I will come a little bit sooner with the four or five leaf with the first pass of wide drop. And then I will come back early July 00:02:57 with the second pass about 14 days before. Ling This fertility change that you're making or it's really an application, is it gonna allow you, 00:03:07 you said you're gonna cut back on then the spend on fertility as part of this economically driven or is it just all about uh, yield? 00:03:14 Uh, I don't think I'm gonna cut any yield by doing that. 'cause with the wide drop, what I've seen last year, it's, 00:03:21 it's on the road and it's way more efficient than either broadcast or in the middle of the road. But you are gonna spend the less money on fertility you 00:03:31 think because you're gonna be putting it right where it on My, on my nitrogen, I'm gonna cut 00:03:36 at least 15%. Might that, Is there environmental pressure coming in Canada on nitrogen? 00:03:42 Because I'm convinced it's coming to us. We're going to be regulated. It's coming. It's coming, but it's not here yet, 00:03:49 but it's, it's coming and we feel some pressure. Yeah. What about then this new tool that you've got? Um, is it just fertility then that you're gonna change up? 00:03:59 Is there anything else you're going to do in 2025? Now, by the way, is that just on corn? I mean, it's the only fertility change you're making. 00:04:04 It's because you got the Y drop, right? Yeah. And it's my, I will have a little more acre of corn this year, so, 00:04:12 So you're gonna plant more acres of corn? Yeah. What other changes besides fertility using the Y drop 00:04:17 are you gonna make in 2025? I'm gonna try some fertility and beans later. Fertility and beans with, uh, drop pass, 00:04:26 You're gonna do later. Fertility application in soybeans. So wait a minute, we got a lot of different app practices. 00:04:35 How do you plant your soybeans? Are you on 20 intros? You on 15 intros? You on 30, 20 intros on my beans and 30 on my corn. 00:04:43 Okay. So what are you going to do? How are you gonna do your fertility changes to the soybeans? Um, I will try to, I I, I said it for 00:04:53 a couple years now, but I want to try some, uh, potassium acetate later on, on V four V five. I've never done it. 00:05:04 You gonna put potassium acetate on your soybeans when? V four? Uh, sorry. R four or five. Okay. Yep. That's pretty late. Yep. Pretty late. 00:05:15 And you're going to do that Just, uh, what's your application method? Uh, I want, I want to try some by drone 00:05:25 and, uh, me, I might, I might also not doing some tram lanes and beans, but I want to maybe put some space in 00:05:35 between some specific curls on my planter to go to be able to go later in season 00:05:42 and not So the tire don't put the push up down. That's right. Okay. So incidentally we're talking about fertility. 00:05:51 I want to remind you that one of our business partners here at XT Extreme Ag is Nature's Nature's and Sam's part of the world is called 00:06:00 Alpine. Alpine. And you're gonna use some of their products. Yep, yep. I use a lot of them. 00:06:06 Just so you know, nature's is not just on Sam's farm, it's on all of our Extre Ag Farms. And Nature's uses our high quality liquid fertilizers 00:06:13 that are powered by Nature's Bio. Okay. You can target specific periods of influence throughout the growing season via 00:06:19 precision placement techniques. Just like Sam is doing, he's gonna put a wide drop in exactly when the plant needs it to put the fertility out there when the plant needs it 00:06:26 for targeted period of influence to get the biggest bang for your buck on your fertility spend 00:06:31 and get a big yield can mitigate plant stretch, you can enhance crop yield and most importantly you can boost your 00:06:36 farm's return on investment. And that's what it's all about. So you make money. All right, so we talked about fertility. 00:06:41 You're gonna do y drop later in the season with, and you're gonna do two passes with your corn. You're going to do a later pass 00:06:46 and your application, how you're gonna do it on soybeans is not with a y drop. You're gonna do what? 00:06:52 So i's gonna be, um, foliar feeding, Foliar feeding All Yeah. More fo feeding and uh, I'm planning to change my sprayer. 00:07:02 I will go from a hundred foot boom to A hundred foot boom. To what? 120. Okay, so you're gonna a larger boom, 00:07:11 you're gonna do feeding, you got a new sprayer or you just changed the boom? It's gonna be a, a new sprayer, 00:07:17 but it's gonna be used, used one. Okay. So you're going to do a new sprayer and you're going do have a wider boom. 00:07:23 You're gonna do foliar feeding, you're gonna go later in the season of your soybeans. All right. So besides fertility, 00:07:28 I know I talk a lot, a lot about fertility, but it's my bigger expense in my farms. That's where we need to focus, I think. 00:07:36 So you're gonna do more, you're gonna do more changes with fertility than anything else on your farm? Yep. Got it. All right. 00:07:43 Anything else you're gonna change besides fertility at COU two farms? We'll Go with the season, what the season brings, 00:07:49 but there's not a lot of changes coming in rather than the app. Mostly fertility and timing of application. 00:07:56 Yep. How did 2024 shape up for you? Did you make money? Um, barely do some, but corn was pretty good, but we uh, it some bit by the, 00:08:09 the flooding in August and my beans. So your soybeans got hurt by August rains? Yeah. You're corned better than anticipated? 00:08:18 Yeah. Uh, because where the soybean fields were, they got, I got more flooding there 00:08:24 and uh, I got fields that got, I got a 60 acre field that got company flooded, got 24 inches of rain of of water or four days in it, 00:08:36 24 inches of rain in four days. Uh, so we got, uh, I think it's nine inches, but this field got flooded with 24 inches. 00:08:48 Okay. Meaning it actually had 24 inches of water standing. Yep. Yeah. So your soybeans were completely lost. 00:08:54 Yep. Do you get insurance in Quebec? Yes. Do you have crop insurance in Canada? Yep. Okay. So you made out okay on that? 00:09:04 Yeah. Breaking it's gonna be gonna cover, but you still lost somewhere, Right? How'd 00:09:09 your corn do? You said it was better than you anticipated. My corn was over two 10 for this year for on corn. 00:09:16 Okay. That a record for you? Yeah, it's the best year ever on corn here. Okay. You're gonna plant more corn this year. 00:09:24 What's your mix gonna be in 2025? I'm gonna be 60% corn, 10% on, uh, wheat 00:09:35 and the rest, 30% on wheat. Got it. All right. So when you look at 2025, it's mostly fertility changes and you said some other things you might have to adjust on. 00:09:45 Give me one thing that you're eyeballing, one thing that you're keeping your eye on that you think this is where I might have to make a change is early as spring 00:09:59 chemical product seed. Ah, see I'm staying the same, you know, I adjust my, my population last year 00:10:10 and I'm, I like what I sell. I, I lower my population a little bit and so was it the year that did the, the climate all 00:10:22 but 24 was pretty good on, on corn, so, So you adjusted population rates down in 2024. And you think that that's where you're gonna stay this year? 00:10:30 Nes mostly on soybeans, readjusted down? Uh, my, yeah. One of the change I wanna do also is plant my beans really earlier. 00:10:40 I was at the end of May and I want to plant it end of April if I can. If not, when I'm gonna go with the seed to plant my wheat. 00:10:50 I want the co I want the bean planted in the field oil center. So you're going to plant your soybeans in Canada 00:10:59 in April? At the end of April if I can. You're gonna pull your, uh, soybean planter with a snowmobile. 00:11:07 Is that how you're gonna make that happen? Yeah. With a trade groomer? Yes. No. What Will your soil temperature be 00:11:15 before you want to go out there and put your, do you need to be, you can use Celsius or Fahrenheit Health to do the conversion? 00:11:20 Uh, yeah, it's gonna be I think 35, 40 Fahrenheit, 35 or 40 degree Fahrenheit. You're gonna put soybeans in 00:11:28 and you're, you're not concerned about 'em, uh, hanging around too long and, and, uh, routing? No, I'm putting a starter fertilizer with it 00:11:37 and that helps a lot. Small dose, real small dose, but it really helps. Uh, so the guys talk about using something to, 00:11:45 to alleviate stress, you do something for a stress mitigation? Yep. What? 00:11:50 So I'm, I'm putting, I'm putting, um, infer product. I got four or five product in, uh, in my mix. Okay. With the soybeans. Yep. 00:12:01 And you're gonna, so you're gonna go earlier on your soybeans and your population's gonna stay lower. What's your 00:12:06 Population? Uh, yeah, I, in my beans, I want to go lower. Like what? I was 1 6, 1 50, 1 60. 00:12:14 Yeah. And I'm sure I can drop up to one 10 to one 20 if I can go in like few weeks before you One 10 to one 20. 00:12:21 Yep. 110, 120,000. Even on your early stuff, you're not worried about losing certain amount to the season? 00:12:27 Maybe, but you know, we can last couple percent and it still yield good beads. It's gonna branch out. 00:12:36 Got it. All right. So we're going earlier with soybeans. You're gonna do later passes on fertility on 00:12:41 both corn and soybeans. You got a new wide drop, you're gonna definitely push the envelope on your corn and you're gonna do over the top 00:12:46 foliar with your new sprayer with a wider boom on soybeans. I'm, I'm summarizing biggest lesson from 2024 00:12:52 that you either learned on your farm or from one of the extreme ag guys, biggest takeaway from 2024 00:12:57 that you think is gonna help you be a better farmer in 2025 that somebody else can learn from. 00:13:03 Uh, not putting all, all upfront and f all go adjust to the season. Okay. So your biggest takeaway was don't put all your 00:13:11 fertility up front loaded, space it out adjusting for the season. Yep. I think we'll leave it right there. 00:13:18 My man, Sam of the north, we might be going to Quebec, the Extreme Act guys might be going to our friend Sam of the North Farm in August. 00:13:25 We'll keep you posted. We have field days scheduled at all. The other, um, this side of the border American by August, 00:13:32 Canada might be the 51st state. That's the other thing that we need. Am I right Sam? We never know And they might have a prime Minister up 00:13:40 there by then or they might just decide that they don't need one since they're gonna be one of our states. 00:13:44 Anyway, if that's the case, no matter what, we're gonna keep you posted. We're gonna be at all the guys farms, uh, this year. 00:13:50 Uh, field days begin in May. That's right. May we're gonna be down at Chad Henderson's his field day. Let me look at my calendar. It's on May 22nd. 00:13:58 So our first field day of the season's gonna be in, uh, north Alabama. That's right. Um, in Madison, Alabama up there where, uh, 00:14:05 Chad's from, um, always a great field day. Then we're gonna have two in June. We're gonna have several in August. 00:14:10 So you'll wanna check this out. We'll keep you posted about all of our field days. Mark your calendar, we'd love to see you there. 00:14:14 And we'll let you know if we're going up to state number 51 or as you call it Canada. 00:14:18 And with our friend Sam. Sam, thanks for being here my friend. Thanks a lot. Alright, till next time. 00:14:23 I'm Damien Mason with extreme Ag cutting the curve. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm 00:14:31 for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out 00:14:34.955 --> 00:14:36.235