00:00 Taking back control of your farm, and we're talking about the decisions that happen on the farm, especially agronomic. 00:07 Are you really making those choices or are you falling in the trap of hitting the easy button? That's what we're talking about in this episode 00:12 of Extreme Ag Cutting the Curve. Welcome to Extreme ags Cutting the Curve Podcast, where you get a guaranteed return on investment of your time 00:24 as we cut your learning curve with the information you can apply to your farming operation immediately. 00:30 Extreme ag, we've already made the mistakes so you don't have to. Managing your farm's water resources is a critical component 00:39 to a successful and sustainable farming operation. Advanced drainage systems helps farmers just like you increase their yields up to 30% 00:48 with their technologically advanced water management products. Visit ad s pipe.com to see 00:55 how they can keep your business flowing. Now, here's your host, Damien Mason. Hey There. Welcome to another fantastic 01:02 episode of extreme Ag Cutting the curve. We're talking about taking back control of your farm, specifically about what happens out there on those acres. 01:10 Agronomically, I've got Burt Riggin, he is with concept Agritech, and I got Temple Roads. One of our extreme ag guys. 01:17 And what we're getting at here is this subject came up in a prior recording with these two, 01:22 and Burt brought it up about, Hey, you know, there's so many decisions that have to happen on a farmer. So many different things that go on. 01:28 Farmer can't wear all these hats. And eventually what happens is you've got the co-op, you've got the retailer, you've got the agronomic 01:34 consultant, and they help you make these decisions. But the thing is, after two years, three years, four years, five years, they're making a lot of decisions 01:42 and they essentially are more in control of what happens on your farm than you are. It says anything bad, it just happens over time. 01:49 You probably know it whether you wanna admit it or not. That's what these guys are talking about. Bert, you brought up the topic and bur, 01:55 and when you said it, temple started nodding his head and I said, let's make this another episode of Extrem Ice cutting the curve. 02:00 So anyway, why, why'd you say it? Well, I was, uh, up in Maryland, Vista in Temple, and uh, we had some, uh, 02:09 one-on-one time there in, in the combine. And, you know, conversations just kind of wandered around and, and that topic came up 02:19 and Temple, you know, got pretty animated about it because he sees it going on. Um, and it's one of the things he's had to, 02:26 to help try to manage too. You know, it's, it, it just, it just happens. Like you said, farmers, farmers have so many hats they have 02:35 to wear and they can't wear 'em all and do everything equally. And it, you know, I think in the last episode, I I, I kind 02:44 of, you know, mentioned the Walmart model one stop shopping. You know, essentially you walk through the door, 02:49 you load a basket, you walk out and you pay for it. Um, the only difference is, is that when you're loading a basket, 02:56 you're the one loading the basket. Um, in, in farming a lot of times, you know, especially if you don't want to have a lot of equipment, uh, 03:06 if you don't have a lot of labor, things like that, the, the larger retailers and co-ops 03:11 and some of these other things, you know, have the opportunity for you to take advantage of their equipment, their labor as far as spreading 03:19 or applying and things like that. But what can happen is, is that because you rely on somebody else 03:28 to get all these things done, you wind up not necessarily being the major participant in deciding what exactly needs to go out 03:39 and when it needs to go out. And since you're relying on somebody else's equipment and somebody else's labor 03:45 and things like that, what can happen is, is that application doesn't necessarily go out when you want it to go out or when it needs to go out. 03:53 It goes out when whoever your provider can get it out. Yeah. So it's kinda like that thing of, we'll, we'll get you when we can get to you. 04:03 And I understand it because they have a business to run. Also, ag retailer, whoever that should be, co-op, you know, 04:08 they, they're trying to crank out whatever, it's tons of fertilizer, you know, uh, the sprayer, the sprayer only can run so many hours a day. 04:15 And, and then there's the weather and the wind and the conditions that even shorten those number of hours. So the point is, temple, you understand it. 04:24 Like, yeah, well, they told me they're gonna get to me when they can get to me, but that crop needed this treatment 04:30 three and a half days ago. You're talking about real bushels. And so again, we talk about taking back control. 04:35 It's in that regard. It's that you couldn't control the timing of something and it cost you money. 04:42 It, that, that happens a lot. You know, um, you know, local retailers in this area, whether it's your making a airplane, pay us on it 04:50 or whatever it might take, you know, it, it you are at their, you know, you don't really have a choice, right? 05:02 But I mean, and all those applications need to happen at a certain time. You know, here in extreme ag we're finding out that all 05:09 that stuff is so time sensitive. Mm-Hmm. That at some point that costs you money. Let's just take for instance, you know, 05:16 the late season application thing that I did, I I, I figured it out on gdu. Damien, you and I have had multiple conversations about 05:25 that late season trying to dial in the exact gdu we did it on a, uh, on a podcast. Uh, that thing there is 05:34 so time sensitive. If you are not able to jump on that thing and get ahead of that, you, you've lost money. 05:42 I mean, it was a 30 bushel swing between 400 gdu. Like that's how big of a swing. It can go back and forth. So I Burt's right, you know, the timeliness of it, the, the, 05:54 the relying on somebody else, you know, taking back your farm not only talks about the timeliness thing, it also talks about, um, when you 06:07 are in, in business or in bed or in a relationship with your, with a local retailer, you have a, you know, a great relationship with them, 06:16 but they're also coming to you and saying, Hey, I want you to use this product because the neighbor had that product 06:23 and he did very well with it, and so on and so forth. Well, I don't take any of that testimony. And the reason that I don't, 06:31 because all the data that I collect myself for my own, you know, farm that tells me what the next step is gonna be, that that aids to my GSP, 06:43 that aids all these things and all these things take a lot of time. You know, if you want take back your farm 06:50 and you want to take over that, that end of it, you, you have to be more timely as well. Like not just more timely with understanding stages 07:00 of crops, all these things, but you also gotta prepare yourself for what's coming. You can't rely on, you know, your local retailer be like, 07:10 Hey, my VN pass that I generally do on corn, it's usually X, y, Z. I'm gonna follow exactly what you tell me to do 07:20 because it's in your warehouse and I could be putting on the wrong thing at the wrong time. How many times does that happen, Bert, where you've, 07:29 you know, talked to a farmer and they said they used a micronutrient pack and it didn't work at all, which doesn't mean 07:36 that it's not good quality stuff, it was just probably put on at the wrong time. So that's gonna take some time out of the operators, um, 07:46 you know, AK farmer, you know, to actually do those things. And not only that, we're talking about pre-ordering things 07:55 like, you know, you gotta take that part of your farm back over. If you pre-order something 07:59 and you prepay for it, you're gonna get it a little bit cheaper. And like, this is a, if you're not careful, this, you know, 08:06 it's not just about pushing the easy button. This is not the easy button, but it is the route to, um, higher yields in my opinion. 08:16 Yeah. I just wrote down a few things here Burton, I want you to comment on. The first one we talked about was timing of application. 08:22 And if you don't have the equipment, in other words, temple, these guys in extreme ag tend to be larger scale operators. 08:29 They have, you know, they have their equipment. Some, most of 'em have a couple, you know, a couple sprayers, couple combines, couple whatever. 08:36 But let's be real here. A lot of the farm operations have one or maybe none of those things. 08:42 You know, I'm a, I'm a thousand acre operator. I can't afford to have all the stuff that the retailer has. So I, so you can understand 08:50 and sympathize with them like, Hey, the economically, I can't have, uh, a dry spray, a dry spread rig, you know, so I do have to be dependent on the retailer. 09:02 So let's just realize that some operators, the controlling the time of applications, that might be a little bit outta their hands 09:09 because of the number of acres or the capital expenditure. But then let's go to control of the products. 09:16 'cause Temple just talked about that. Mm-Hmm. That's another one. You know, we kind of intrinsically know the ag retailer 09:23 is gonna sell you what? Maybe they have a little bonus from the manufacturer. Hey, let's face it, uh, I I I do really well 09:30 with this particular manufacturer. Yeah. If I sell more of their crap, I get to go to Acapulco with my wife come January. 09:37 What about the product control of product? So, you know, part of this, this whole thing we're talking about, 09:46 about taking back control of your farm means that, that you need to be aware of what your farm needs. 09:57 And that I, if, if you've been doing the same thing for 10 years in a row, and let's say you're satisfied with, with how your retailer 10:06 or co-op, whoever treats you as far as the applications and all that. But if, if you haven't been able to 10:13 increase your return on investment, then you need to take a look at am I using the right products? And that's where, that's where you need to sit down. 10:24 And you need, you need to not be afraid to go outside and get somebody else to take a look at what's going on, to maybe try 10:35 to help shepherd you, give you some other options, give you some things, some ideas that you might need to be looking at. 10:44 Because again, it's real easy if somebody else is pulling your soil samples, they're sending it off to the lab, 10:52 and you get a report back. And basically only thing anybody's keying on is down at the bottom. 10:57 And that's how many tons of something per a that needs to go out. But is that really what you need to have for your farm? 11:04 And so part of taking back control of your farm is sitting down and you taking a look at that data outside of recommendations that are printed on the bottom of 11:15 that soil sample test and, and bringing somebody in to say, Hey, would you take a look at this? 11:23 Do I need this? Do I need to make some changes? Because, you know, like I said, we're, we're not trying to kick big retailers. 11:32 We're not trying to, you know, accuse anybody of being lazy or anything like that. 11:37 It's just with so many things going on, I think what, what we're seeing more and more often is, is that people are relying on something 11:48 that, that in the past has worked. But if you're not making those gains, if you're not increasing your profitability, um, 11:57 you have to take control of that back. And you have to bring somebody in that can give you some, you know, a different, different perspective. 12:06 I wanna throw it to Temple because there's a thought that I just had when you were going through that Bert on the product. 12:13 I don't know that these, whether it's an agronomic consultant or an employee from where you buy your stuff, 12:20 I don't think they're trying to screw you. I don't think that they're, I think there's just that, Hey, when, when Temple said, you know what, 12:27 down the road we use product X and product X works pretty damn well, uh, we use product G, product G works pretty damn well. 12:36 I think that's probably true. They probably have, and and they can't possibly be an expert on the 160 different products that they have access to. 12:44 So they know they had good success with that and is kind of like what they know. And maybe that's the thing, 12:50 when you talk about taking back control, it's because you're taking back the, the knowledge. You're, you're, you're, you're saying, I get it that you, 12:59 this is supposed to be your expertise, but I think you got really good at being a seller of Product G because that's what, you know, simple. 13:07 You thought your thoughts That, that that's, that's very true. You know, one, the retailer is only gonna sell you 13:15 what he has in stock, and he's only gonna sell you what he has the most in stock of, right? So it's not their fault they're doing their job. 13:24 How many times have you heard of, um, farmers taking advice from their salesperson or whatever, knowing 13:33 that their salesperson doesn't even have an agronomy degree? But when you, when you, I, this is what I've asked a lot 13:40 of the salespeople that have come up here and tried to sell me stuff, um, how many acres of corn or beans or wheat or whatever 13:49 have you grown in your lifetime? Oh, well, I, you know, I've helped, you know, grow hundreds of thousands of acres. 13:54 Well, how many acres of them have you been at risk at? Because you're asking me to be at risk. Um, and you don't have an agronomy degree 14:03 and you're just going by what, um, you have in stock and you're also going by now. I mean, that's not how it is necessarily in my community. 14:12 I mean, in my community, you know, we're lucky enough that I, I've got great people, 14:17 but I've, I've surrounded myself right, as a farmer with people that I have relationships with 14:27 that have great agronomy backgrounds, um, that, that just have been in my life for years. And when all else fails, I call them, it's like, 14:37 Hey, I need to know about this. Here's an idea that I have. Here's this, here's that, here's some tissue samples 14:43 that I had from last year. Here's my soil samples. How can I prove this? How can we get better? So if you can have that, 14:50 but having done that, like every retailer, every company, even if we're talking about concept agritech, 14:57 there's not everything in their portfolio can facilitate my needs. No. So it does create a lot more work when we go 15:05 and pull and pick and play. Um, there's one other thing I wanna make a point out to Damien. 15:11 You know, you said something about sprayers, you know, large scale farmers, you know, we've got sprayers, yada, yada, yada. 15:17 Well, that, that's actually true. Um, and the problem is, is, you know, let's say that, uh, I'm a small scale farmer and I don't have, um, a sprayer, 15:28 but I wanna use concept agritech, you know, you know, whatever, um, product, because I think that it'll improve my farm. 15:37 Well, the problem is, is if I take that to a custom applicator and say, Hey, look, I need you to add this in. 15:43 They, they don't want to do that. And it is a problem. Now, having said that, I'm not saying that every small scale farmer out there needs 15:52 to go buy a sprayer, but we've got guys that are, um, you know, Russ from Tennessee, you did a podcast from him not too long ago. 16:00 He told me that he's a hundred percent thinking about buying a sprayer, and he's a small scale farmer, but he believes 16:07 after doing what he did this year with different programs throughout extreme ag and some different products 16:14 that he talked his retailer into adding into his mix, he made that much of a difference that he's gonna, he's gonna get his own application rig 16:23 that he can apply on small acres. You know, small sprayers aren't that expensive and sprayers last a long time. 16:31 Yeah. So there's, it's, it's not saying that that, you know, just a large scale farmers can take back over their farm, 16:38 these small scale guys, they can a hundred percent take over their farm. And these guys have made a big bang for their buck 16:47 because, you know, you gotta remember the small scale guys, they have more of a tendency to make a bunch of changes 16:54 because they're trying to make more on less acres than what large scale farmers are. Large scale farmers need that easy button 17:03 because they don't have time to do all the rest of the stuff. You know? Well, maybe, maybe I gotta say 17:09 that sometimes the small guys that I can think of smaller scale farm operations, do what the retailer tells 'em 17:14 because they aren't as, maybe they're working in town and have 500 acres, you know, whatever, that kind of thing. So they tend to be a little bit more, uh, influenced by 17:26 who they do business with because they think, well, I don't get as many sns, you know, I, I don't farm 10,000 acres, so I don't get everybody, 17:32 their sister coming to my, you know, my office and calling on me to try and get my business. Let's talk about the, uh, other aspects about decisions. 17:41 Bert, you're in the business of advising. You are agronomic educated. You have been out here for 35 years doing what you do, 17:49 and you do work for a company. So it's not, you know, there's probably that thing where it's like, I should probably go ahead 17:54 and tell 'em to use the heck out of concept agritech products. But you do that once and, you know, 18:03 So, you know, Damien, in, in my career, um, I've gotta, I've gotta put my head on my pill and I gotta go to sleep at night with a clear conscience. 18:13 And anybody that's ever worked with, with me or any of the other agronomists, that concept and a lot of other good agronomists across the country, 18:22 you're gonna recommend what the farmer needs, whether you're the company you're repping for, sells it or not. 18:27 Because if they need it, they need it. If you maintain that level of honesty and that trust and are free with your information, and, 18:36 and make sure you explain the why, I can go out there and say, man, yeah, you need to use this product, man, it's so great. 18:43 But if I can't explain the why to that individual, you know, why it's gonna work on his farm, 18:49 why it's gonna give him the benefit, then I'm just a glorified salesman. Mm-Hmm. And that's not how agronomics are supposed to work. 18:59 You know, temple Temple brought up a point there, and I'm gonna just touch right back on the, the equipment thing. 19:06 If you got 500 acres of corn and, and just by changing that one application, making that correct G-D-G-D-U application 19:15 at 30 bushels difference at $5, you know, $5 corn, 500 acres, that's $75,000, how many years 19:27 is it gonna take for you to completely pay for a sprayer in order for you to make that application? That's the thing that that, you know, part 19:38 of being an agronomist is respecting the economics and trying to help guide management decisions. Everybody wants to think about the here and now, 19:47 but when you take a look and say, you know, in five years, if I can just average 20 bushels an acre at $5 corn 19:56 or $5 corn on 500 acres, that goes a hell of a long way in getting you a good sprayer. And like Tipple says, that's an investment 20:05 that's gonna last a while. So, you know, run the numbers don't, Yeah. So there, there's that thing 20:11 about equipment. You talking about the control part of it, taking back control. So the economics are what probably 20:19 it's probably the risk or the economics or just the ease that are the three reasons you, you, you lose control. 20:28 Does that sound right? Temple? Okay. The three reasons that somebody else is kind of making decisions, even though you've, you know, 20:34 you're grudgingly the farmer will grudgingly admit. Yeah, you're right. I'm not really as in, in controls I once was, it's either the, 20:41 it's either the capital outlay for equipment or whatever, it's the easy button, or it's the, maybe it's a lack of knowledge. 20:47 Maybe it's like, I got too much stuff to cover. I, I, I can't possibly be the expert on all this. So what, what are the reasons when you think there's things 20:54 that you're not in control of as you'd like to be, what are the reasons? I mean, it's mostly, it's ease 20:59 to be honest with you, Damien. Like, um, we find a tendency to push the easy button. And we also all have, whether you're a large scale farmer 21:09 or you're a small scale farmer, you've got that relationship with your local retailer or whoever, and you trust that guy. 21:17 You know what I mean? Like, he's a part of your family. You trust that guy, so you, you tend to go down that road. And, and I found myself in that predicament. 21:26 But let, let me give you a for instance. So there's a, there's an extreme ag member, um, that is local to our community. 21:34 And he, he, matter of fact, you did a podcast with him not too long ago, and he kind of, he would be the greatest one that 21:41 to be on this because he went from his father having, um, given all the control to a retailer, and he took over all that control. 21:51 You know, one of the things that they didn't have was they didn't have a lot of technology then, right? 21:55 And then they didn't have a sprayer. Well, Charlie just so happened to add all those things and he took that farm back over 22:02 and he's a great example of that. And he started putting on these products. Now, did it create more work for him? 22:09 Like I said, yes, he needed to pre-order things. He had to find a different dealer that had different things that our local retailer couldn't supply him. 22:19 So he found a way around all that and started getting all those shipments of different products in. 22:24 But it changed the way that he farms. It completely changed the way he farms. Now he's finally satisfied. 22:32 Now he's like addicted to agronomy, addicted to all of it. Like he's, he's so out of the box. 22:38 I think you have to get yourself out the box. And I think education plays the biggest role in this. Whether it's extreme aga starting to help that journey 22:48 of education or whatever it may be. You have to start educating yourself so you can make better decisions for your farm. 22:55 Not for anybody else, it's for your stuff. So bur he's talking about Charlie Liger, who is an extreme ag member in Maryland. 23:01 I recorded something with Charlie and he talked about the story of coming back full-time into the farming 23:06 operation after his father died. The reason his dad was on the easy button was because his dad was in his seventies. 23:11 The reason his dad was not in control is because probably some of the technology got away from his 23:16 dad, still had the assets. His dad still wanted to be the farmer, but his dad said, heck, I, 23:20 I gotta admit I don't know about this. So all of a sudden you start seeding control, uh, and, and, and that's kind of what we're talking about here. 23:29 You see it, you see it all the time. So what's your advice? I wanna take control. I wanna take back control 23:33 of my farm is a topic that you brought up. How do I do it? So one of the first things you can do is convince yourself 23:41 that you are not an island in the middle of nowhere. There are people in the exact same situation you are temple hit on it, it's education, it's out there. 23:56 You don't have to pick the phone up and call me, pick the phone up and call some of the guys that, 24:01 that are successful in your area. You're, you're all peers, you're all farmers. Start with that peer group and start asking questions. 24:13 Who do you talk to? How do you do this? It's, it's not like, you know, getting grandma's secret biscuit recipe. 24:21 These guys, you know, everybody wants to be successful and find, find those individuals that are willing to sit down and talk to you and share some things. 24:32 Once you, once you get that established, then you can start branching out farther and go to recognized individuals in the industry 24:43 that will take the time and sit down and, and, you know, again, bring education to you, bring options to you. 24:49 Not just agronomically, but financially. All of the different aspects that make a successful farm. But you gotta get it outta your head. You're not an island. 25:00 You're in a community and you need to take advantage of that community. Temple uses that work a lot. 25:05 I, I was gonna go down, you know, compare this to any other thing. Uh, all right, I've got an estate attorney. 25:12 'cause uh, we set up some stuff now that you start having to where you, you have some stuff, right? 25:16 You know, land farms, whatever. And I can tell you that while I went to that person and sought their expert opinion, I also asked other people 25:26 that I know who have stuff, mm-Hmm. And said, you, what did you set up? And how did your professional preparer do it? 25:34 So that way it's kind of like, I will trust the professional, but I'm gonna also find out what other people 25:39 that have done their thing successfully have used their professional prepare for. So it's almost like even if you have an agronomic 25:46 consultant, it wouldn't be bad for Temple to say to, uh, Chad Henderson, what is your agronomic consultant telling 25:54 you when you're dealing with this? I mean, this is kind of like comparing, you're comparing your own thing 25:59 and also what the professional advice tells you. Do that temple. I think you do, don't you Man, man, you have no idea. 26:06 I mean, every day is a learning seminar for me at some, um, some kind of way. Whether it's sitting on a tractor 26:14 and listening in to Damien Mason for crap's sake. I can't, I can't believe I'm gonna say this, you know, on the cutting curve podcast 26:22 or you know, your business of agriculture thing. I listen to it all the time. I probably shouldn't admit that either. 26:28 Um, but the other thing is, you know, he was talking about that peer group, you know, the peer group 26:34 that I'm involved in is, is all the members of XT Extreme Ag. And I can't tell you how much I learned from them. 26:41 And they think that they're learning from me. That is peer groups. That's what they're there for. They're learn. They're there for everybody to spit off, 26:49 you know, to spin something off each other. So every day I'm talking about something and I'm educating myself, whether it's agronomy, 26:56 whether it's business, whether it's equipment, what whatever it is, I'm constantly like trying to be that sponge and pulling in 27:05 and trying to make my, my farm better. The only reason I'm trying to make my farm better is so I have something to, to pay us on. 27:11 I've got that education and that, that piece to pay us on to, you know, the next generation. 27:17 When you talk about this, bur you see this all the time from your perspective, I just wrote down things that you lose control of. 27:24 We talk about applications or application windows, and that's gonna be an issue of timing. It can be an issue of weather, 27:29 but it also can be an issue of I just do whatever the, my ag retailer, you know, when they said they're gonna be hitting my neighborhood 27:36 sometime in the third week of June, that's what I went with. Well, again, you missed that by four and a half days. 27:42 It could be a hell of a difference. Control of product choices. We know that that's the one. And again, I'm not so sure that it's a sinister thing. 27:51 I don't think that these company reps are trying to screw you. I think that they generally go with what they know. I can. 27:57 I compare, I was wrote down this, you ever go to a restaurant and they have a really good menu, and then the poor waiter, the waitress, that's kind 28:03 of not a great, uh, personality. Like what do you recommend? Well, no, burgers are probably good. 28:11 I'm like, you got 90 things on the menu and you said, oh, burgers are probably good. That's like the rep 28:15 that shows up at Temple's Farm says, I don't know. A lot of guys are using this. You should use this. Yeah. I'm like, is that the best you got for me? 28:23 It seems like the product is one that's as important as anything. Well, it it, Go ahead. Go ahead. 28:32 Well, I mean, essentially what? No, I Was gonna say, you know, It goes down to is you, there are, there are so many products out there, 28:41 and technology didn't stop with our equipment. It it, it went into our fertilizer, our pesticides, our herbicides, our fungicides. 28:51 There's technology in everything. Yeah. And like you said before, Damien, technology can get away from people. 28:58 So, you know, education is always gonna be the key. And yes, if you go to a Ford dealership, he's gonna wanna sell you a Ford truck. 29:08 He's not gonna be repping for a dodge, you know? So spread it around. Don't be afraid. You're not gonna insult anybody. 29:16 You're not gonna hurt anybody's feelings. At the end of the day, you're looking out for your operation and you have to do your due diligence. 29:25 And that's, that's one of the big things is, you know, I I I, I liken farmers to, you know, fishermen, right? You got everybody in the world. 29:35 You know, you, you're, you're catching fish the whole time. The farmer's got, got to be the one to determine whether 29:41 or not he needs to keep this fish or throw it back over the side because he's, he's got a limit, you know? 29:48 And your limit as a farmer is what your budget is. How much money, how much money you can lay out every season in order to be successful. 29:56 So when you're catching or having all these fish come across the side rail of the boat, you've got to be the one to, you know, 30:03 take a look and sort out which fish you want to keep so that you maximize your catch and still stay within your limit. 30:11 And that just, that comes from experience that comes from being involved and, and, and wanting to have that curious mind 30:21 to see what is out there that you can take advantage of that's gonna propel your operation to the levels that you want it to be at. 30:31 Pinball, you talk about taking back control things, but when you talk about taking back control, I written down a couple other things here. 30:36 All right, so first I'll get multiple opinions and then you say, all that does is make me more confused. And, and that's, that's the other thing. 30:42 I can see a farmer saying, I got so many things in my head, I just had to go with somebody 30:48 that the reason I gave up control on this decision was because there's too many, too many choices. And I was overwhelmed. I can see that. 30:55 So I, I, well, we just talked about products for a second there. Um, let's just say this and, and, 31:02 and I'm gonna say it like this. All snake holes do work. You know, like they're, I don't know how many times 31:08 that's a snake hole, that's a snake hole, blah, blah, blah. They all all work. It's just where, when and why, right? 31:15 Why do they work? And it, again, the same thing can be done about foliar fertility. They all will work. But where, when and why? 31:22 So all farmers out there, here's how I can sum it up for, for everybody to kind of get started. 31:29 All farmers have a successful program right now. 'cause if they didn't, they wouldn't be farming that. That's as, as volatile 31:40 as the markets can become. We wouldn't be farming if we already don't have a great program. The secret is, is to get a little bit of education, 31:49 to collect your data and use one piece that you think on your farm, on your dirt can make a difference. 31:59 Put it into trials and start using that thing. You know, you'll find one here or there that all 32:05 of a sudden can be your grower standard practice. And slowly but surely you're gonna take back over your farm because it's gonna set you down a different path than just 32:14 following somebody else's recommendation every time. This is your own recommendation of what you think. And if you're having trouble making that decision of 32:23 what product might be where, that's where the relationships come in, reach out, you know, listen to something on extreme ag, pick up the phone, 32:31 call Burt Riggin, call whoever. But somebody will answer the phone and they'll answer these questions and they can fine tune it 32:37 and help you work through it. It's one product that you're gonna trial. Collect the data. You might be surprised what can happen. 32:46 I like that. And we could probably leave it there, but Bert, I, you're the one that brought the topic. So you, you're gonna summarize the whole thing. 32:52 Taking back control of your farm. You're the one that said it, it struck me. I wrote it down. I wrote down my notes. 'cause that's what I do. 32:59 And I said, we gotta come in and hit this. Get me outta here on this. A summary on that. I'm a farm guy. I'm gonna, 33:07 I'm finally admitting, which is hard. Admitting, admitting that you've let go on control is probably the tough part. 33:11 You know, we talked about Charlie's father. He didn't wanna admit that he was no longer control of some of these decisions, but he wasn't. 33:18 So I'm sure that admitting, admitting that you're not in control of some of these things is probably the first, uh, 33:24 the first first step That that's true. And like I said, you know, you can't, you can't change everything all at once. 33:31 Temple made a great point. You know, choose your pain point. Figure out what's your greatest limiting factor. 33:38 Get some help. Get some education. Get some trials in there. Utilize your support group. 33:45 That's everybody else in the farming industry. Start in your community and start going outward. Education is the biggest thing. 33:54 You know, you can't change everything at once, but you've gotta make a positive step in one direction. And it's not ev, every choice you make is not gonna be 34:03 always the right one. So don't be afraid to say, well, I tried that. I gave it three years and it didn't do anything. 34:10 I need to look at something else. But if you want to get your operation to the level that, that like Temple and a lot of other 34:19 of these very successful people are, you know, then you're gonna have to start making some changes. And just temple's a hundred percent right? 34:26 You're in business, you're feeding your family, you're contributing to community, you are being successful. Mm-hmm. But how much are, are you leaving in the field 34:34 that you could possibly be putting into the bin and making, you know, making a better life, not only for you, but your community. 34:43 We're leave it there. I think there's also the confidence Have, have confidence in the fact 34:46 that you can make the decisions to be in control of the, uh, operation, and that's where the knowledge comes in. 34:53 So you guys both did a great job on that. All right. His name is Bert Reagan. He is, uh, my second favorite Mississippian behind Mac McInally. 35:00 If you're, uh, if you're wondering who that is, uh, longtime contributor to the Jimmy Buffett core reefers and a great songwriter back where I come from, 35:08 my favorite song talks about being, I'm proud of a proud Mississippian, and I hope you are too. Anyway, uh, he's with concept Agritech, 35:15 one of our business partners. Uh, go and check out their stuff at Concept. Agritech Tech is with a k concept, agritech.com. 35:22 And then of course Temple Rhodes, uh, who's just awesome all around general. Awesome. I mean, when you look up awesome in the dictionary, 35:29 there's a picture of him with his headset and various, and various notes written on his hand, because he gets overwhelmed. You must, 35:36 You must need Something this week. He's got cow, he's got cows in the background, he clean hands coffee 35:41 and he is, he's just, anyway, he's awesome. Anyway, Maya name's Damian Mason. If you like this, share it with somebody 35:47 that can benefit from it. That's why we're here. The reason we invented the whole reason we invented the Extreme Ag was to be a platform 35:53 to help you up your farming game. Hundreds of videos just like this, hundreds of audio cutting the curve podcasts that I've produced, 36:00 videos that Temple and the guys shoot out in the fields. If you wanna take that to the next level, 36:04 beyond just watching all of our library of resources, you can become a member. $750 a year. That's it. 750 bucks a year. 36:12 And if you do this, you'll get exclusive content. You'll get access to the guys for questions and answers to go a little more in depth. 36:18 You'll even get benefit offers, like for instance, going to Commodity Classic, uh, for free. 36:24 If you're a member, that's one of the pitches that you'll get. So anyway, uh, go to Extreme Ag Farm. 36:28 So next time, thanks for being here. This is Extreme Ask Kind Cook. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve, 36:35 but there's plenty more. Check out Extreme Ag Farm where you can find past episodes, instructional videos 36:42 and articles to help you squeeze more profit outta your farm. Cutting the curve is brought to you 36:48 by Advanced Drainage Systems, the leader in agriculture, water management solutions.