Farming Podcast | Is There Life Outside the Farm? | XtremeAg

00:00:00 The personal side of Agriculture's Next Generation. That's what we're talking about in this very special edition of Extreme Ag, cutting the curve with next stream ag. 00:00:08 Welcome to Extreme ags Cutting the Curve podcast, where real farmers share real insights and real results to help you improve your farming operation. 00:00:18 This episode is brought to you by TIVA Corp, providing farmers with the most technologically advanced products and innovative ideas to meet their quest 00:00:26 for higher yields, top quality and maximum profit. Visit tiva corporation.com. And now here's your host, Damien Mason. 00:00:35 Hey there. Welcome to another special edition of, uh, next stream ag, if you will, edition of extreme Ag cutting the curve. 00:00:41 Why am I calling it that? Because this is the next generation of the extreme AG people. I've got Verne Connor, Garrett, I've got Lane Miles, 00:00:47 I've got Alexander Evans and I've got Jackson Henderson joined by Caleb Ktz with Tiva. 00:00:51 Tiva Ag is the website, tiva ag.com. Tiva is a company that makes fertility products that help you grow better crops and farm better. 00:00:59 And the Kouts family said, you know what? We wanna sponsor this very special run. We did it in 2024. We did four episodes. We are doing four episodes in 2025. 00:01:08 Also, it's a lot of fun to hear from the next generation. You hear from these guys when we're at their farms when we 00:01:12 do videos, but you know what, it's a little bit more, uh, intimate when we can just do it this way. 00:01:17 Long form on a podcast. So anyway, we're doing this and uh, I'll just go ahead and be honest. They didn't like the topic. I proposed, actually, they said, 00:01:24 your topic sucks, Damien. We don't wanna do that. And I said, all right, we wanna talk about, you wanna talk about, uh, this? 00:01:29 No, you wanna talk about the economics? And Caleb said, I don't know, man. Have a tight economics out there. 00:01:35 Let's talk about how we're coping with, let's talk about the behind the scenes stuff. We know we can talk about the gloomy side 00:01:40 of agriculture all day long. Or we can talk about maybe the fun side. I said, all right, Jackson, you wanna talk about 00:01:46 what you do in your days off? And he said, oh yeah, he'd really talk about that. Then ag. Anyhow, all right, give it to me. You go fast. 00:01:55 Well, we, any free time we get, we try to go racing. We travel a series. We go around, I guess the southern states. 00:02:01 We just got back to Michigan last week. We drag race, uh, we run radio tire stuff. Dad runs about 195 in 3.8 seconds. 00:02:10 I run 160 and 4.4. Uh, it's the one thing that we get to do, you know, outside of the farm that's family related. 00:02:17 And off of that note, like, I've been married for two years, you know, I'm expecting my first kid here in seven weeks. 00:02:24 So, but that's just a little about me. Congratulations, by the way. And then explain for the person that says, okay, 00:02:31 I think I saw something about this on extreme ag, all the different kinds of racing, drag racing. There's the ones that the parachutes fly out the back. 00:02:37 There's the, the funny cars and all that. Your old man's car is a 1985 Buick Grand National. At least that's what it looks like to me. Talk about that. 00:02:46 They're both, both of us have the 1987 Buick Grand National. I was off by two years. Let's not go, let's not go. 00:02:52 I mean, let's not go, let's not go around here catching stones. All right? Gotta learn your facts now. Learn your facts. 00:02:58 But, uh, there's, there's different types of racing. We we're building another car, and then I have a car that I race local and index stuff. 00:03:05 But they're all, it's, it's all just based on weight combinations and the tire you run, the cars we run are on radials, 00:03:11 and we run from October to May. We run during the winter. So this is actually our winter break during the summer, oddly enough. 00:03:18 But, but we do that and then we switch over to the new car we're building where it's a big tire car. 00:03:23 It's be a, a hemi motor on it with a supercharger on it. And it'll run 3.6 seconds, 00:03:28 200, 210 mile an hour when we're done. And we'll race it on the, probably during the east coast, during the summer or whenever. 00:03:34 We're not farming. But you know, we, we do what we can. Farming comes first. Farming, farming pays for the race cars. 00:03:40 So we try to keep our priorities straight and have a little fun on the side. By the way, I'm not the car guy that you are, 00:03:47 but you said it's got a Hemi. If you drop that Hemi and anything other than a Mopar product, there's gonna be like, lightning will strike. 00:03:56 Tell me you putting this in a charger. You putting this, whatcha you putting this in? Well, that hemi's already in that Buick. 00:04:02 I didn't realize that. You know what? Unless we're cross-pollinating manufacturers from engines to car bodies, I'm not a fan. 00:04:09 All right. All right. The personal side, by the way, you're got a kid in seven weeks. Vern just had a kid. Does it change your perspective, Vern? 00:04:18 Is your perspective different now that you're a papa? You just had your first Father's Day with a week old kid, two week old kid. 00:04:24 Yeah, my son was born on, uh, May 28th. And yeah, it's kind of a eyeopening experience and been quite the change. 00:04:32 I I don't feel like I have a lot of free time right now, I guess. Um, but no, it's been great. We're very thankful. 00:04:40 You didn't, you just said it's been great and it, it, I said it changed your perspective. Has it changed? 00:04:44 I, yeah, it definitely changes your perspective, right? It's like, uh, I don't know all the things you're worried about and thinking about beforehand 00:04:50 and all you want to go do that now. You don't really care about that as much. You know, that you, uh, you care about this kid so much more 00:04:58 and that's what you wanna put your time into. Made it. You said another recording about how technology and AI is going to relieve you of some of your duties 00:05:05 and you can get back to the stuff you really love. And you were implying that it was like planting crops and farming. 00:05:11 And I, I was thinking of the things that I've seen that Verne really loves drinking beer and bullshitting with people in Dow City, um, 00:05:20 wise cracking Damian and Dow City. I was just thinking of the things you really love. And, and to be honest, the farming was like fourth 00:05:28 behind the other stuff I've seen that it appears that you love to do. I, you know, I do enjoy those things. 00:05:33 Those are, those are pretty good times to be had. But I, I got other hobbies too, you know, I, yeah, farming outside and I feel like the cow work we do is kind 00:05:41 of a hobby, you know, it's, it doesn't feel like work. We basically handle that just with the family rather than employees. 00:05:47 'cause it's so time and labor intensive. And a lot of weekends we end up working cattle or moving cattle or doing something that's really kind of a 00:05:54 family experience for us. Caleb, the personal side, the personal side of working in the business of agriculture, by the way, 00:06:01 I'm just gonna throw it out there. Since you're the non-farm, I think these farm people do a little too much 00:06:07 of patting themselves on the back. And these social media memes, like, I just saw another one the other day. 00:06:14 A surveyor asked a hundred farmers what they do in their spare time. And 98 of 'em said, what spare time? 00:06:19 And the other two said, what day is it? Oh, all we do is work. Million hour weeks. B******t. Everybody has a personal side. 00:06:27 And farmers pat themselves in the back too much about how they just don't have anything to do, but they just work million hour weeks and all that. 00:06:33 You're, if you care about your business, you work in it. But you know what, at some point you gotta pull back 00:06:40 and have another side of your life also, because otherwise it's very empty. Well, uh, no, we're, we're, uh, you know, 00:06:47 very fortunately, we're in that same boat of patting ourselves in the back. We like to talk about the, the amount 00:06:51 of hours we put in over here, especially A thousand hour week. You do a thousand hours this week. Thousand hours this week. 00:06:55 Yeah, sure. A thousand hours. Don't Know what day it is. Don't have any spare time. I I have no reference of time. 00:07:00 Uh, is it Tuesday? I don't know. Yeah, right. You know. Exactly. But, uh, you know, we're, um, especially now, um, we're big outdoors people. 00:07:09 My family, my, my parents were, my, my wife is, so we're, you know, a big hikers. 00:07:14 My daughter is two and a half, and she's already, I mean, it's, it is hot and muggy here in the boot heel this week. 00:07:20 And she hates that she can't be outside that long. You know, we're, we're all already outdoor people. So, uh, dad and I, before, 00:07:28 before the kiddo was here, we were, uh, big into falconry. So we, uh, we do a lot of that. 00:07:34 Uh, you know, we, I actually, I, I've done a lot of hunting throughout my life, but I actually, For the person, for the person that doesn't realize 00:07:39 what falconry is, you better explain it. Yeah. So, uh, dad and I are both, uh, licensed at the state and federal level. 00:07:46 We can own hawks and falcons, and we use 'em to hunt. So like, I've done a lot of rabbit hunting and I've never once shot a rabbit. 00:07:55 Uh, it, the, the, the bird does all the work. And it's, I promise you, if you, you get the chance to go with this, you won't pick up a gun again. 00:08:01 You'll be asking how to, how to get your license. It's, it's a lot of fun, By the way. You actually clean the 00:08:07 rabbits, or you just let the hawk eat 'em? Uh, we let the hawk eat 'em, you know, they, you, you, you, uh, pull 'em off the rabbit. 00:08:13 Uh, well, I mean, they're, they're, they're wild animals. This is not a, you know, 00:08:17 there's all these people out here like, oh, isn't it cruel, isn't it? You know, he starts to think he's a person. No, at no point. 00:08:23 This is not some pet situation. Like it's a, it's a unspoken contract of I'm only near you because you provide food easy for me. 00:08:33 So they, they take this rabbit and they start, I mean, they'll start eating it alive. So you, you, you go, you go put the poor thing out, 00:08:39 it's misery, and then you, we, we'll save it for the rest of the week. And I mean, that's five, six days worth of food 00:08:45 for a red tail hawk to eat on a rabbit like that. I'm glad Alexander, that you're more of the pacifist type and you would never want to like shoot a harmless animal. 00:08:58 Oh, wait a minute. Oh, wait a minute. No, we Don't. You're sitting in front of an entire wall of duck duck, uh, duck decoys. 00:09:05 Yeah, we, we don't do any of that, but no, like, so there's five of us all together, five kids, and you know, it's me and my little brother, 00:09:12 and then of course, dad, they're on a farm now. So we try to like center everything, whether it's rainy days or whatever, but center it around, you know, family, 00:09:18 whether it's riding four wheelers or playing in the yard or going out to dinner and stuff like that. 00:09:24 And, um, and honestly, it's going to see you all too. Like when dad goes and he goes, sees all your all's field days, like it's, it's better 00:09:32 for me because it gets him off the farm to like, relax, you know, if that makes any sense. It, it gets him off the farm, away from the farm, 00:09:39 doesn't have to worry about it. Me and little t have it. Like, and that's probably the best thing for us is that, 00:09:44 you know, getting him stress free and not having to worry about it. Um, but yeah. 00:09:48 And then, so in the wintertime, that's what we'll do all just about all winter we'll run cows and, and run feeders and all that stuff. 00:09:55 And then we will, we'll go hunting too Leaner. I gotta be honest. You do a good job of managing personal professional. 00:10:07 Your old man even commented you while back. He said, lane does a really good job of, uh, saying, I'm getting outta the tractor. 00:10:15 I know we got a lot to do, but I'm gonna go see the kid's baseball game. It's important to do that. 00:10:20 Yeah. Uh, I mean, I've always been the guy that, that you've gotta have your work life, but if, if all you do your entire li life is work, 00:10:28 then what do you got? Uh, so I mean, I personally, I have a lot of hobbies. I mean, if, if it turns out and rains in the middle of March 00:10:39 and we've worked, you know, those a thousand hour days, um, I'm gonna go home actually. 00:10:45 I'm gonna go to the grocery store and I'm gonna go buy a whole bunch of food and I'm gonna invite my whole family over 00:10:50 and I'm gonna cook this big old meal. And by the end of the meal, I have, uh, probably worked myself down till I really won't even eat it. 00:10:59 But everybody else eats it, enjoys it, and I get a lot out of that. Uh, so I enjoy cooking. 00:11:05 I, we we're big sports people, so I mean, if it's a game on, we're cooking, we're watching the game. 00:11:11 Um, if, if we can be outside playing baseball with the boys or at the golf course hitting the golf ball, I mean, 00:11:18 basically if there's anything to do outside, um, that's what we're doing. And then in the wintertime, all we do is hunt. 00:11:24 I mean, we duck hunt, we deer hunt. Uh, but I got a bunch of hobbies. Are you better? I I'll go with Jackson again. 00:11:34 Are you better at managing at an earlier age? Are you better? It's one thing when people get old and they like, decide they're gonna 00:11:41 make a time for their grandkids. Are you better at an earlier age than your old man about managing the, the per the work from the personal, 00:11:51 Oh, no, I'm horrible at It because all I want to do is just, you know, go play, play, play instead of work, work, work. 00:11:57 And it, it took me a while to realize like, hey, you know, the, the farming's first, 00:12:01 the farming comes before everything else. You know, you still gotta have your time to do your family stuff. 00:12:05 But, but it's definitely is something you have to grow into and evolve and, you know, become responsible enough to say, 00:12:11 you know, put your foot down and say, this comes first, you know, let's, let's take care of business. 00:12:15 And then the rewards after Caleb, are you better at it than Mark? No, uh, my dad did a really good job. 00:12:24 I mean, I remember him being gone, uh, during the busy season while I was in school, but he was always there for the big stuff. 00:12:29 He made sure that he was at, I mean, even through college, I don't think he ever missed a swim meet. 00:12:35 He, he was at every one of 'em that he could be at. He, he always made me, you know, feel like he was there. And in my, you know, you know, having my side. 00:12:44 And he has done a really good job as I've become a husband, as I become a father of, Hey, this is a one person job. 00:12:52 I don't have, you know, I've, I've got your mom at home. But, you know, she'll be, she's used to this. 00:12:57 You need to go home, you need to see your wife, you need to see your kids, you know, 'cause I mean, you guys get it. 00:13:02 You don't want to, you know, you don't wanna leave dad and working, you know, do you wanna be there? You wanna put in your hours? 00:13:07 Do you wanna work just as hard as he is? But my dad has done a really good job of helping me manage that, you know, because I get eat up at the, the, it's, 00:13:15 it's this five months, this six months worth of work, and I can play with my family, you know, in the off season. But he's like, no, you need to be there all the time. 00:13:22 So he's, he's really helped me learn that balance. Alexander, I gotta be honest with you, uh, temple stayed here in August last year 00:13:30 and was up at two in the morning because he can't sleep because he says he's got stuff on his mind stuff to do. I think sometimes I'm kind of high strung then, uh, 00:13:39 and he, he, he gets, he, he, he, he weirds me out a little bit sometimes. Yeah. It's funny you say that, like growing up. 00:13:46 So growing up we definitely missed a lot of birthday parties and all that stuff. 00:13:51 Like when we were busy season we were working, and that's how it was. And I don't blame 'em for that 00:13:56 because here, looking back now, it made us a better people because, you know, we were so focused on work 00:14:01 and now we can kind of like, we understand what needs to get, you know, be done. So we can kind of take a step back on rainy days 00:14:08 and stuff like that to go and do the fun stuff. Um, but it always like, kind of like what Coots was saying is, you know, I'm, I'm sitting here, 00:14:16 I might be, you know, whatever we're doing, doing something fun. And I think of my grandfather, he's 85 still, you know, 00:14:21 getting up every day and working and doing this and that and this and that, and it, you know, it takes a toll on you. 00:14:26 'cause you know, you think he's doing work. Why, why, why shouldn't I be doing work too? So that kind of, that, that's the thing that I fought, 00:14:32 you know, my whole childhood too is like, I need to be doing something. 'cause I know my grandfather would 00:14:36 be doing something right now, you know? Right. By the way, Vern, my thing about farmers carrying on over the top, I, and, 00:14:44 and I think that, uh, uh, very few people in ag will admit this. It's overdone about, uh, you know, feeding the world 00:14:50 and we work all the time and thank a farmer and all that kind of stuff. But I think if you run a business, 00:14:57 the whole thing about work-life balance, that's cute to say. And if I had a government job, 00:15:04 I'd get it from a cubicle at four and leave and it'd be just fine. But if I hang on a second. 00:15:16 All right. So it's interesting to me that farmers think that. Are you able to hear that? 00:15:24 There's some real big noise right there. All right, we're going. There you go. Well, alright. The point is, whether it's farmers 00:15:30 or not, if you run your own business, it's difficult to do this work-life balance thing. It truly is because you're committed to your business. 00:15:38 Every, I had a friend of mine that went from having a normal like government job to all of a sudden working for himself in a law practice. 00:15:46 And he didn't show up for two hours late one night when he said he is gonna be there. And I said, it's all right. 00:15:51 And he said, well, I dunno if you understand, but now that I'm working for myself, every hour is another hour return to me. 00:15:56 I said, I've been self-employed since 1994. Of course I get it. It's tough. But the other reality is like Lane said, you can work 00:16:06 and work and work and work, and you're laying there at some point dying. You're like, boy, I sure worked my ass off. 00:16:14 And I don't think that, I don't think, I think that your generation's better than the older generation about understanding that, to be honest. 00:16:20 Big compliment to the, uh, to your generation versus the one of mine and above Vern. Yeah. Yeah. 00:16:30 Uh, yeah, I feel like around here things have changed so much. Uh, when my dad was my age, it was him 00:16:37 and my grandpa Calvin, 500 cows. And they weren't going anywhere all spring and then they hit planting season 00:16:42 and they, you know, they, they couldn't go anywhere. And now we've got a ton of employees and what does that mean? 00:16:47 Yeah, you can cut out here or there, but I mean, we're not gonna send them into work when we're off goofing off on a very consistent basis, right? 00:16:56 So Sunday, when the cattle need fed, we're gonna be here. And when there's an emergency 00:17:00 and there's a plant food spill, we're gonna be there. You know? So it's, it's a give and take that we've gotta be here more often, 00:17:06 consistently maybe. But we can cut out and, uh, this will be the first year. I didn't go to the College World Series for a game 00:17:12 or two, you know, but it's, you Know, there's a real, there's a reality to the mental health aspect of this. 00:17:18 I recorded an episode of the Grainery about it. Uh, farmers have three and a half times the incidence of suicide 00:17:23 as Main Street America. And that's certainly nothing to be proud of. I think this all is the same. I think this 00:17:28 is all the same ball of wax. Taylor, what do you think? You deal with a lot of farmers. I think it's, I think the mental health 00:17:33 and the personal versus professional work life, family farm, it's all, it's all part of the same thing. 00:17:41 Yeah. I mean, it, it can't not be, I mean, when you're, you spend every single minute of your day worrying about a job where, I mean, let's just be honest. 00:17:51 We can manage, we can work as hard as we want, but at the end of the day, mother Nature has a lot more to say about how, you know, 00:17:59 things are gonna turn out at the end of the year than we do. And so that's a lot to be worried about. 00:18:04 A lot of your job that you're just like, I just, this rain, I pray the rain stops, or I or I pray the rain comes back. 00:18:09 You know what I mean? So how could it not even, even if with a balance, you know, it's, it's stressful. You, you gotta have the other side of it so 00:18:17 that you're not just going crazy. You gotta have a time where you can go back to your family and not have to worry about to be able 00:18:23 to put the weather app down and just sit with your 2-year-old and sing Moana for the 700th time. That part would actually be more stressful than just 00:18:33 working without sleep for a week. I've had to listen to children's Disney music. I think I'd rather just go on one. 00:18:38 I, I love it man. I love every second of it. Uh, we, we, we just, we avoid certain movies, but other than that, you just, you pick the ones 00:18:45 with the good music and you put 'em on the loop and she, it doesn't matter that you're hearing it again. 'cause she's singing it again and she loves it. 00:18:51 And hearing her sing is, is the greatest thing ever. Jackson, you see what you have to look forward to, right? Disney, Disney movie music on, listen, 00:18:58 Liz, all these, all these people give, give the the parenting thing a bad rap. It's, it's great. I love, I love it. 00:19:06 It was a, i I love every second of it. I, I'm so excited for number two here in November. Uh, I probably won't be as excited once they're here 00:19:14 and I realize that I've doubled my workload. But you know, at one, it's, it is awesome. Anybody else got anything on that? All right. 00:19:24 Here's the thing. More than most industries, more than most professions, there's this thing, and this I think does contribute to stress. 00:19:32 And this thing about farmer equals identity. Identity equals farmer. Uh, you know, somebody that works as a janitor doesn't have this idea 00:19:45 or the ideal from society imposed back onto them. Oh, well you're a janitor. That means fill in the blanks. Whatever it means. Go around a horn here, Vern. 00:19:55 Is there something real about this, that the part of the stress of the personal life that farm people have is that they have this identity imposed onto them of 00:20:06 what farmer means. And it it means you're supposed to work all the time. You're supposed to, you know, all this kind of thing. 00:20:14 Yeah, I, I can certainly see that. Yeah. Um, my dad likes to say, farming's not a job. It's a vocation. And you gotta have some of that. 00:20:23 You're, you know, you're putting yourself at risk, you're putting a lot of your time at risk, but you've also gotta be able to detach from that 00:20:29 and maybe be a little stoic about things. You can't control. You can't control the weather. You just gotta take what comes with it. 00:20:34 And you gotta try to find the balance. You gotta have your hobbies, your personal time Lane. Probably my favorite thing 00:20:40 about the Miles brothers, really, you and your dad, when I go down there, you don't have that farmer identity that tells you you have 00:20:48 to wear dirty blue jeans every day, even if it's 104 degrees. I wear shorts. You wear shorts. I don't fall for the farmer. 00:20:56 Identity means you have to wear bib overalls on 104 degree day. I had somebody tell me once when I was out here working, 00:21:02 they pulled in, said, I'm looking for a, a couple of mason brothers, they're farmers. And I said, okay. And he said, well, you're not one of 'em. 00:21:09 I said, I'm not. And he said, you don't look like a farmer. You're wearing shorts. 00:21:14 I've always appreciated the fact that you don't, that you wear shorts Anyway. Yeah. 00:21:18 Farmer identity. Yeah. As far as like the farmer identity, I mean, yeah, we don't, I've never been together. 00:21:24 If I had to wear a pair of pants out, out in the a hundred degree weather, I'm, I think I'm retiring. 00:21:30 Uh, but I mean, I, I'm gonna wear shorts. I'm gonna wear a long sleeve shirt and tennis shoes. It's just, and they're wear waterproof tennis shoes. 00:21:37 They're tennis shoes. Uh, that's just how I am. Um, but I mean, it's, there is something to be said to have that farmer identity. 00:21:47 You, you, you do have a little chip on your shoulder because you do work your rear off. I mean, it's, it's one of those things 00:21:54 that when you're working, you're working and you, you, you wanna say you work harder the next person. But I'm not gonna say that next person that has an uh, uh, 00:22:05 insurance office, I mean, they're, they're working just as hard as anybody. They're gonna, they're gonna put the extra hours in. 00:22:10 They're gonna do whatever it takes. Uh, and then again, you gotta have that balance. You gotta have that balance of, of working personal, uh, 00:22:18 I go to a baseball tournament that, that Luke's playing or Owen's playing and, and you try to shut it off to the best you can, 00:22:26 but being a farmer, your phone still rings, you're still gonna check your weather app. You're still gonna think about things 00:22:32 that are going on at home, uh, and while trying to still have that personal life. So there, there, there is a balance. 00:22:38 But, you know, always and forever that the farm comes first. Alright, Alexander and Jackson, I was gonna toss it 00:22:44 to Jackson, but he always then says, go to Alexander first. So whichever one of you two wants to take it, 00:22:47 farmer identity, do you have it? Or you gonna grow into it? Also, I think the farmer identities create a lot 00:22:53 of stress for a lot of these guys. 'cause they think there's, there's a boxer supposed to fit into two, 00:22:58 usually very hotly wearing long jeans when it's a hundred degrees outside. That's a different story. Alexander, what do you got? 00:23:04 I don't know. I feel like I love it. I love, you know, people walking down the street that know you like, oh yeah, that's farm, that's Alexander, 00:23:10 he's a farmer, you know, he farms here, whatever does this and this and this and that. But, you know, and I, I like what Lane said too is, is, 00:23:17 you know, we, we don't go unrecognized. But also it's hard. Like I think Jackson or somebody touched on it yesterday 00:23:23 or the other day when we were recording. Um, you know, we don't get that appreciation as much around here. 00:23:29 You know, we'll be moving tractors down the road and people will be passing us, flicking us off and this and that, you know, so that's kind of like the hard side 00:23:35 of it is, you know, we're out here busting our tail and you know, the humidity and it's a hundred degrees out today or whatever. 00:23:41 And, you know, people aren't, people don't see that because they don't live that. So it's hard for them to understand, you know, what we go 00:23:47 through to put food on their table every day. There far Do you have the pressure of the farmer identity being imposed upon you now at age 20? 00:23:56 It's only seven. I always forget 27, right? Jackson? Uh, Jackson. Yeah. Yeah. About to be 27 00:24:03 Farmer identity pressure. Is there pressure to be the farmer? Well, I mean, I always think it's pressure, 00:24:08 but it's like, you know, like last week I was, some of my buddies text me and say, Hey, you wanna go out and eat dinner with us? 00:24:13 It's like, I can't. I'm going, you know, it was the eight o'clock. I was like, I'm going to the field to plant something. 00:24:17 They're like, well, I just wouldn't do that. I'm like, well, you know, I, you know, not everybody's built to be a farmer, you know, there's only 00:24:24 a certain percentage of us to do. And I was like, well, you know, this, this is what we, this is what I chose to do. 00:24:28 This is my livelihood. You know, it's, it's hard, you know, a lot of the months, you know, 00:24:32 but it's also like, there's, there's times and stuff when you're on it, you're like, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. 00:24:36 You know, like, it's like, I think farming is also like a, a really rewarding lifestyle, you know, that you get to do. 00:24:43 And especially doing it with family, you know, a lot of us here, you know, we all get to do it with family and we're like blessed to do that. 00:24:48 You know, there's a lot of people that don't get that option. So the person is in the last round, the person 00:24:54 that's your generation that is involved in the family business. 'cause it tends to be in agriculture, lots 00:24:59 of generational family businesses. You get a recommendation form one sentence recommendation, two sentence recommendation. 00:25:04 Caleb, what are you gonna tell a person that says, you've been giving advice to Vern off air, by the way, I should tell the listener that you've given advice 00:25:10 about raising his kid. Now give advice about plumbing and his house. So just go ahead and pretend that the whole audience is 00:25:16 Vern and you want to give him advice. I have a pro, I have approximate knowledge of many things. Uh, no. 00:25:22 If I had one piece of advice for generational is, uh, I mean, do this all episode is, is find a balance, you know, but they're both important. 00:25:31 Work hard, but realize at the end of the day that family family's always gonna come first. Verne Uh, I wanna use my sentence 00:25:43 to get off a pet peeve of mine rather than give advice. I love it is when you're, when you're buddies that don't farm, they always call you, oh, let's go out, 00:25:51 drink some beer, let's go do something. And I was like, all right, I'm down. And then I call them later in the week, Hey, 00:25:56 let's go out, drink some beer, do something. And it's, no, I gotta work tomorrow, man. I'm feeding cattle every day. 00:26:01 I'm gonna be up early I two way street here. That's my, By the way, that's my dream. You know what, I, I can appreciate that. 00:26:07 And it's because for 31 years of being self-employed, they're like, well, yeah, you can, you can jack around and watch football tonight. 00:26:14 Uh, 'cause you don't have to work tomorrow. I'm like, I have to work every day. You realize. I don't, I haven't had a guaranteed paycheck for 31 years. 00:26:22 I, I work every day. I don't. Well, yeah, but you can wake up a little later like, well, that could be true. 00:26:27 Yes, that there's some aspect to that. Uh, and maybe you should be able to figure that out for yourself. 00:26:33 I appreciate that. You know what, hey, lane, either advice or pet peeve advice or pet peeve. 00:26:41 I like the pet peeve just as well. Uh, I would probably say advice, uh, but, but, um, Caleb hit the nail on the head. 00:26:49 We can, we can work, work, work and do, do all this we want to, but you've gotta find that perfect balance to know 00:26:56 that that family's first. That anything you do, you know, you, you always wanna feel like that that farm is here, 00:27:03 but everything you do here is for the people that are here. So, I mean, family's always first. 00:27:09 It's easy for lane to be a little bit more relaxed also, um, I didn't know if I wanted 00:27:15 to put this in the recording or not, but now we're here. Basically, I, I've supported his kids, um, 00:27:20 extracurricular activities. I can't pull into southeast Arkansas without them. Cute little kids coming up 00:27:26 and asking me for money for their baseball, their school play, doing my, you know, how much frozen cookie dough I've 00:27:32 eaten in the last 20 years. Zero ounces. You know how much of it I've bought off his kids. 00:27:37 Enough to fill enough to enough to feed every kid in DHA County for a couple of weeks of cookies. 00:27:41 Anyway, joking. Happy to support it. Jackson, you're the, you're the second to last. Alexander's gonna wrap us up. Advice and or pet peeve. 00:27:50 Pet peeves are fun. I don't know. I would say advice is probably just stay humble. 00:27:56 Say, you know, stay true to yourself in your practices. You know, don't stray too far from the boat. And I don't, I don't really know if I have a pet peeve 00:28:04 that something like that. Really? You need to hang around with me more. I have, I have an endless list, but that's all right. 00:28:11 You'll get there, you'll get there. Alexander, my friend. Uh, let's see how we're gonna close this out. 00:28:19 I think definitely family comes first. Um, and anybody that is farming or trying to get farming and whether you do it with family, with your grandfather 00:28:29 or there's an older person in your operation that you worked, sit by him and listen to his stories. Especially if it's your grandfather. 00:28:35 Sit there and listen to him and, you know, learn the way that he did it. And just because you're gonna miss him when he is gone, 00:28:42 you need to, you know, sit there with him and understand the ways that he worked the ground. And then you, you try to do the same 00:28:47 and be a, you know, be the better person. Gotta leave it right there. Caleb, you happy with this? Well, you, you changed the topic. Said, you know what? 00:28:57 Don't think we should talk about the personal side of the next generation of agriculture. I think, I think it's great. A little bit behind the scenes. 00:29:03 So that's what we did. By the way, it's a special four-part series we're doing, and Tiva Ag is our sponsor. 00:29:08 You can go to tiva ag.com if you wanna learn more about them. That's our sponsor. Proven Fertility 00:29:14 Solutions for today's Farmers. Caleb's a third generation, a Missouri based company and a partner here at Extreme Ag. 00:29:20 We appreciate their sponsorship of this special, bringing on the next generation of extreme ag. That's Connor, Vern, Garrett, lane Miles, Alexander Evans, 00:29:28 Jackson Henderson, Caleb Kouts, and me. If you enjoyed this, go check out all the other great recordings. 00:29:33 We did a four part series in 2024 with Next Stream Ag. The Next Generation did a four part series in 2025. We also put out hundreds of videos just like this as, uh, 00:29:43 learning and also the podcast. And we have our new show, the Grainery, which is shot here at my on-Farm Tavern. 00:29:48 It's a lot of fun. You can see all that at Extreme Ag Farm or at our YouTube channels next time. 00:29:52 Thanks for being here. I'm Damien Mason with Extreme Ag. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. 00:29:58 Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out 00:30:03.925 --> 00:30:05.245