00:00 Hey folks coming at you from the AG PhD field day here in Baltic South Dakota. And we're talking about that last dollar, you know, fertilizer prices 00:09 skyrocketed 21 going into 2022. We saw a doubling a fertility and it's very natural for any business minded person to say wait a minute. 00:18 I'm going to figure out how to cut back on expense. I've got to figure out where I can get more bang for my buck using less fertility natural 00:24 to think that way but also are you doing your soils a disservice? I've got Temple roads in affiliate here with extreme. I got Rob Deadman. He's a agronomic advisor 00:33 two miles Farms our friend Matt miles and I've got Galen beer. He's with Agra liquid. All right Galen. Your product was no exception. You're fertilizer doubled 00:43 in price. Yeah. The last year Damian is everyone knows the supply chain challenges and prices of raw materials went up 00:52 some saintly so the the farmer had opportunity to bump up his Revenue but a lot of extra cost came with so 01:00 When I said hey, I want to talk about this fertility price thing. And you said you know one thing I've been discussing with folks is when 01:06 to spend that last dollar when not to spend that last dollar making that dollar decision. It's natural any business 01:12 says okay expenses are so elevated. I'm gonna cut back obviously if you cut back on fertility, you could see it in the hopper or not see it in Hopper or you can see it five years 01:21 from that on the road. What did you advise people in general on the cutback of dollars spent on fertilizer? Yeah, 01:27 and you're you're right. I think you get to this late stage and people get spending fatigue sort of and so we're 01:33 looking at it and telling guys, you've made it this far make sure that we get that crap any Stout there and I know these guys talked about that earlier in a 01:42 session, but you might want to focus on those nutrients, you know, we're giving that thing for the buck at the end things like sulfur things like moron the things that 01:51 crop is going to be demanding here at the end of the season you farm a lot of acres in the Delta region of Arkansas with 01:57 Matt miles. You're the agronomic advisor. Did you cut back on fertility spend you cut back on fertilizer inputs because of the cost? 02:06 The only did we cut back on fertilizer Damon. We we better manage our fertilizer. We paid attention to what we did. You know, I don't think this is really the time 02:15 to cut back, you know, it is it is an increased expense this year. These guys have really spent a lot of money on this cop probably the most expensive crop that most people have 02:24 ever produced and the good news is come out of the prices will support that that's been yes, they're supporting that it's 02:30 important thing the most expensive crop verus you're farming over you're about that daily. All right. Yeah. So Temple farms 02:36 in Eastern, Maryland and he's doing some cool trials with extreme mag. What are what did you do in 02:42 way of your fertilizer program? Did you just cut back? Because hey it's too expensive because you have to look at a different way. So what the way that we kind of Baseline stuff is, you know, 02:51 we always sit here and we talk about extreme Ag and everybody else out here. We talk about protecting our crop protecting our crap. Well what happens if you put out the 03:00 fertility at the beginning age, but you don't know what stage is to you certain micros that 03:06 you Get off of AG liquid or whatever you got to be able to finish that crop, but you need to know what stage it needs to be at to get there. So I 03:15 look at a lot of these microbes and a lot of these different things. I look at it as a crop protection as much as a fungicide is much as insect side. 03:24 Yeah, you have to be able to know where to go. All right, you talk about finishing the finishing it out because you're really talking now about doing even 03:30 late season spoon feeding. But again, it's more expense and it'd be natural right now say right robs. I already spent more money 03:39 on this year's crop that I've ever spent. Yeah in my whole entire life of farming. It's natural say I'm done and you 03:45 tell me don't because yeah because sometimes it's that last little input that goes ahead and brings at home. I mean, you've you've poured money into this crap all year 03:54 and you just don't want to leave that last five or Tim bushels on the table. All right, but you know what we're talking about economics. Some cost 04:00 of sun costs. They taught me an economics. Don't cost us some cost and and it should never be part of onward decision making you 04:06 A I would say that is good advice, but at the same time you don't want to have spent that money and then not support that previous investment with that final five 04:15 or ten dollars. That's a great comment, you know support what support what fertility program you already had. Yes support that program is protect that investment. That's 04:24 what we do out here every day, you know, we start we plant this crop when we take when we take that seat out of that bag that that 04:33 investment occurs and and then we've gotta protect and you know people talk about well, you know, we hear people talk about that the crops starting 04:42 to material in the Delta right now and oh y'all about it now that man we've got the greatest exposure right now that 04:48 there is and so it's our job to make sure that that finishes, you know products like Sure, okay products like, you know further and 04:58 things like that that give that crop that that final push that of nutrition to to get that highest quality seat size get 05:07 the big seat size and the weight that we need our Galen it's natural for people to want to cut back on fertilizer expense and 05:13 they're gonna say yeah, but I got so much money in this thing. You already said the reason not to where can a person cut back where could 05:19 a person say? Hey man, this is dollars and cents. Let's say we move into five dollar core next year and still the input 05:25 prices are elevated. There's gonna be a lot more justification for squeezing. Where do you squeeze? Yeah. I 05:31 I think the the best thing a person can do to know where to squeeze is get that road map early and so that's done through a soul test and that way okay. Maybe 05:40 you have good potassium levels one year you spend on potassium even though they're good. You got to be smart about it. So you got to be, you know, you gotta get the scalpel out and 05:49 that's your road map. But you can support that was tissue testing during the season and make sure that you're making those cuts in the 05:55 right place. But that would be my advice is there's not going to be one cut that fits everybody. You're going to have to look at 06:01 your individual. You really want to take this year's data to make that decision for next year, especially when it comes to tissues and soil absolutely. 06:07 Right and one of the thing Damien that you can run into as an ear like this you might put out a lot of Zinc at the 06:13 end and maybe you do go back and evaluate did a gallon is ink or two pounds of moron was that the right amount or should have been something like, oh go to our farmer friend 06:22 here from Eastern, Maryland. We talked about that last dollar decision. Do you make it purely on balance sheet 06:30 and and an income statements or do you make it a little bit by emotion? I was invite the gut how are you making that last dollar decision and all them 06:39 up together? That's how you're doing it because we're making decisions so out there where we're at. Obviously. We're 06:45 in Chesapeake Bay watershed. We cannot front load a bunch of the fertilizer in the beginning. Yeah, because of the way 06:53 that we're set up, right so we can't put out in the fall. We there's a lot of things that we can't do. So what we've learned to do is how to spoon feed the crop and 07:02 with companies like this. What we're talking about is being able to learn the crop being able to tissue sample and Stage it 07:11 at the exact right time knowing what those things are that they need at that time and spoon feed it into the crowd and then we you're talking about 07:20 extra passes. Yeah, you're talking about all those things. So then what plays into it now weather, please into it. It's too dry. 07:26 It's good. We need to We're not gonna make this pace because it got to dry. We're gonna kind of you might give up 07:32 there. But if you get a rain event, then all of a sudden you're like, okay, we're gonna make that pass and we're gonna do this. So it's 07:38 kind of all those things together. You got to be like all over God. All right, so down at Miles Farms, you're the guy that's always talking about 07:47 Ability and agronomics and then Matt is the guy saying yeah, but it's my business my business. Is there a little bit of a thing there you want 07:53 to do the spin for the fertility and he's saying no no because of the money 07:58 It's where you gotta have that. Man between the agronomist and the producer and in it's my job as the 08:05 agronomist to be conscientious of that dollar to know that the money that has been this year. But also to know what the 08:14 the ability of the crappie you know, where do you see these kind of decisions going next year fertility prices are allegedly coming back down a little bit Galen. So we're gonna 08:27 still be saying oh man, I'll spend that last dollar or is it like now things have more normalized now? It's okay. I think that costs and revenue will adjust. 08:36 I think it is a question that farmers will always have to ask at the end of the season but I think the more experience they they 08:42 get with some of these nutrients and the more good advice they get whether it's from companies like us or they're growing us. They can learn to refine that that answer 08:51 at the end of the season. All right little my last one here. Have you ever not spent that last dollar and then about the 08:57 time you're going? Yeah combine said Holy crap, I sure wish I had spent the money and I've done it more than once and it's a mistake but knowledge is 09:05 power. You know that they learn something it's because of a mistake that we I saved that dollar and it cost me ten. Yep. Yep done it more than once and I've given 09:14 up on the crap. I've gotten to the end. You know, you're right there at the end. You're at the Finish Line. You're like, okay, I'm not 09:22 gonna do it. I'm gonna take a little break and then you find out that you cost yourself. A lot of money is your advice to generally if you're thinking maybe you should maybe you shouldn't if it's still a 09:31 question. Maybe just do it sometimes. Yeah. I'm more of ascendant guy. Me and Chad are gonna get a tattoo on our arms. That's it that last dollars the cheapest 09:40 dollar you're gonna spend all year. I'll agree with that. That's the cheapest dollar you're gonna spend all years that last time finish the 09:46 cross. I think we're really right there. The last dollar you spend is the cheapest dollar you're gonna spend on your crop in terms 09:52 of the production because those feet you got a whole bunch of money goes out the door starting in April, right? And so by that time we're talking about August right now 09:58 late season, Dollar, probably we kind of talk about it has an exponential effect. It's got a synergistic effect. So we're saying yeah 10:05 got it. The question was when to spend that last dollar weather spend that last dollar when it comes fertility. It seems like the consensus here between a farmer and agronomist and a company 10:14 man is that you know, what don't let down your fertility keep your pedal to the metal to get through the season. There was Lee Luber says you got around all the bases. That's right. His name 10:23 is Galen beers with Andrew liquid. I'm David Mason with temple roads and our friend Rob Deadman, both are contributors to extreme egg. We're coming to you from 10:32 the Hefty Field Day involtage South Dakota with more great stuff. Thanks for being here.