Can Farmers Diversify Beyond Corn and Soybeans? | The Granary

00:00 There are calls for American agriculture to diversify its crop mix. How realistic is that, and what would we diversify to? 00:00:06 That's what I'm covering with my very special farmer panel in this episode of XtremeAg's "The Granary." You ready for a conversation with some real farmers 00:00:14 about real issues? And the best part, you're invited. So pour yourself a drink, grab a snack, most importantly, pull up a chair. 00:00:24 Welcome to "The Granary." Hey, guys. All right, guys. You heard the topic. I'm sitting here with Adam Ulrich. He is an Iowa attorney and farmer, friend of Kelly Garrett, founder of 00:00:40 XtremeAg. We're joined by Galen Beer with TitleGrow AgriScience. Thank you very much for being here, Galen. 00:00:45 TitleGrow AgriScience is a sponsor of this show, and we appreciate your involvement. You also are doing a plot just down the road from where we're sitting 00:00:52 right here at my farm for the second year in a row, using some of your cool products. If you want to learn more about the TitleGrow lineup of products that can 00:00:57 help you farm better, go to titlegrowag.com. This topic came up with my Business of Ag Success Group. I recorded about this with Mark and Ryan from the Business of Ag 00:01:08 Group, and said, how likely, how realistic is it that we could actually diversify away from corn and soy? Some rough numbers, 360 million cropland 00:01:19 acres, but about 25 to 30 million of those are in CRP and some other programs. So it really comes down to about 328 million 00:01:27 acres do all of the crops in the United States of America, and I'm talking vines to rice to wheat to predominantly corn and 00:01:34 soybeans. Last year, we grew just about 100 million acres of corn. So of the 328 million, almost 100 00:01:41 million are with maize. Another 85 to 90 million go into soy. 180 million cropland acres are corn and soy. Soybeans right now are maybe break even, 00:01:53 probably actually the market price below cost of production. Corn got a shot in the arm through ethanol in the E15 situation. 00:02:00 How long? It's a little bit tenuous. So I asked the question to the Business of Ag Group. I'm going to start with you. Do we diversify away from those crops? 00:02:09 Well, I think that we're going to have to find some way to bring more value with our farmland, and diversification would be one of the ways that we 00:02:18 could do it. I think the trick is going to be, how do you diversify to something that there's demand 00:02:25 for? A few years ago, on my family's farm, we grew a crop called camelina, and it's for the jet fuel market. The problem is, when you grow a 00:02:36 specific crop like that, you don't have openness to market anywhere you want. It had to be hauled to a different place. 00:02:44 You're dependent on the financial ability of that entity. So I think 00:02:50 diversifying has to, first of all, provide a realistic market, and then there has to be enough of that market to give the grower options. 00:03:00 All right. You say you already are diversifying, and you are. Compared to most of Iowa, which is corn and then 00:03:06 some soybeans, you've got some other stuff going on. But let's face it, your neighbors don't. Most of the acres, the 22 or 24 million acres of cropland in 00:03:16 Iowa, are still going to be... Let's be clear. One of the crops we diversified to is wheat. Who's ever heard of that? 00:03:26 Diversified into wheat? Okay. So what do you think? I think this year wheat will potentially be the most profitable crop I have. And I think you need to think outside the box. 00:03:37 We have a really nice basis for wheat, which you have a really nice basis for corn. Yeah. True. 00:03:41 The wheat affords me, we bale the straw, and then we turn the cattle back out. It's for the fall calving part of our herd. 00:03:47 It's a double crop scenario, and wheat for us for this year, we'll expand our wheat acres, Galen, and we've sold a lot of wheat for 00:03:55 27. Because that's where the market was. So by the way, what's wheat, six bucks? It's come down some now, but it was up over seven, and we made some 00:04:05 sales on 27 at 7.50. And typically- And I should point out, we're recording this in June of 2026. Yeah. Yes, June 2026. I've made a lot of wheat sales for 27, 00:04:14 and we made our best sale at 7.49. Dang. And we'll typically have a 25 or 30 cent positive basis. Do you sell the straw? 00:04:21 No, we grind it. You grind it, use it for- We grind the straw, and we'll use it for bedding or for feed- Uh-huh 00:04:26 ... because it'll mix with the syrup. But now actually, and this is one thing we've done, I learned about this too late last year. 00:04:32 We registered with the DOT, and then they need to come out and inspect your fields. And then for federal highway projects, 00:04:40 they need to buy certified clean straw- Hmm ... for the mulches and bedding. Over to the seeding? 00:04:45 Yes. Yeah. Like Windex clean? Yeah. So you get that, but then also you turn your cows out. So the person that says, "Well, I don't have cows," that's another diversification 00:04:54 method though. That's another. Maybe you should. Adam's doing that right now. Do you- 00:04:57 I've been a bad influence on Adam ... you turn those cows out on wheat stubble. Is there regrowth of some spilled wheat that they're eating on it by the- 00:05:03 There is ... fall comes around? There is. Well, two things. Number one, there is, and if you're going to shave the ground like we do to get the straw, you're going to 00:05:11 have some wheat go out the back if you're going to have a clean sample. Yeah. 00:05:14 We cannot help that because of the volume going through there. But I really don't worry about that anymore because I want something to regrow 00:05:19 because I want to turn the cows out. Well, and also it's a cover crop. It's also- It's a cover, and then we'll drill some sorghum or something else out there to 00:05:25 pasture the cows on as well. I'm going to remember that next time I'm on the combine. I'm harvesting and planting- 00:05:32 That's right ... at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. So. It's true. Yeah. It's less effective when it's corn going out the back. That's my... 00:05:38 If you're back selling it to the combine. No, it's next year's cover crop. Yep. 00:05:41 So diversification, I gave you some numbers. I'm going to go through some other stuff here, Adam, and I'm going to give you some numbers because here is, I think, the real challenge. 00:05:50 Iowa is set up to grow corn and soybeans. It is climatologically set up to grow corn. Your soil, your weather, everything works for that. 00:06:01 The rail, the ethanol plants that are now in 80 of the 100 counties in Iowa, or whatever that number should be. So I don't know that there's a reason to diversify Iowa. 00:06:11 Yeah. I think the reason you look at diversification, though, is from a bottom-line standpoint. The cost of 00:06:19 production for corn in Iowa right now is about $4.33. Well, it just so happens that we can sell corn for about $4.40, so there's really nothing there, right? 00:06:29 Getting rich. So we're farming for zero on the corn, and as Kelly indicated earlier, beans are at a loss, and wheat 00:06:37 might be his most profitable crop. We've started to look at some diversification. Haven't gone to the extent that Kelly has yet, but with wheat, 00:06:47 we've got a lot lower cost of production. It's profitable today, and I want to do things that are profitable on our farm. I don't really care that the rest of Iowa is not doing that. 00:06:58 In fact, it probably helps us be a little bit more profitable- Yeah, for sure 00:07:01 ... on the wheat. For sure. Now, Kelly said earlier that he's been a bad influence, and certainly in more ways than one. 00:07:11 I've not farmed wheat before, so I know I'm going to have a learning curve. I know I'm not going to be able to go out and yield with 00:07:18 wheat what we can yield with corn. Yeah. And I've got to have that factored into my- And I just want to point out something here, when you're concerned about your 00:07:26 ability to grow wheat. There are places that they farm with camels, and they grow wheat. It's not hard. 00:07:32 This is like- I want to farm wheat and do it better than everybody else, though. And I know it's going to take a little bit. 00:07:38 It's not hard. Well, good. I mean, I- Then I need to get more wheat. It's grown everywhere, isn't wheat harvested somewhere in the world 00:07:48 11 out of 12 months? No, I think every month. I think every month- Yeah 00:07:51 ... there's somewhere that's harvesting wheat. Antarctica is- I find farming wheat- 00:07:54 Antarctica is the only place that doesn't grow- I find farming wheat harder than growing corn because I've only done it 10 years. By the way, I just p****d off- 00:08:00 Versus your- ... all my wheat farmer friends by saying- Right. ... it was hard. 00:08:02 Yeah. And I want to know- I find it to be a super simple. I find it to be harder. I- 00:08:06 I'm going to feel great now when we struggle through this wheat harvest, and I can't figure it out. 00:08:10 There's wheat right out here behind my building. It's beautiful, and I love seeing it. So anyway, to all my wheat friends out there, I'm hard timing you. 00:08:16 Let me just go ahead and give you some numbers, though. After you get past corn and soybeans, of that 328 million acres we're talking about, what more do we need? What other thing would we need? 00:08:26 Wheat's 37 million acres. All hay is 50 million. Cotton's just under 8 million acres. Sorghum, grain sorghum, which down there where you are, Oklahoma, Kansas is... 00:08:37 I think Kansas is the biggest state for grain sorghum. Six million acres. You say, all right, let's take three million acres out of corn and stick it into 00:08:43 grain sorghum. That means you just 50% increased sorghum. Where the hell does it go? 00:08:48 Right. Last year I had 7,000 acres of corn. This year I have 5,500 acres of corn, but we expanded our beans, we expanded some wheat, and we expanded our oats, and a little bit we 00:08:59 expanded a bigger field this year of rye that'll go back into sorghum to chop. So why does it all... 00:09:07 Don't deal in absolutes. Why does it all have to go into sorghum? No, I'm not. I'm just saying- ... because there's so many million acres that are in 00:09:13 corn and soy, you start sprinkling them around, you still are more than doubling these others. 00:09:18 But think of- But there's 2.74 million acres of rice in the United States. Grab a million acres of corn or soy- 00:09:24 Right ... which is nothing. It's spit in the wind- Right ... and throw it at rice, and you just- 00:09:28 Yeah ... increased rice acres by 35%. Yeah. What if you could shrink three million acres of corn at 00:09:38 180 bushel crop? Yeah. You're talking- Oh, significant supply when you start getting rid of three mil- Right. 00:09:46 But again- What a difference it would make. What if that three million acres is spread over four or five crops and people run some more cows? 00:09:54 By the way, how about flaxseed? Is at .08 million acres. Yeah. 00:09:58 Safflower, .07. Sugarcane, .2, which none of us could do that. I don't know that we climatologists could raise sugarcane. 00:10:06 You know what? I advise you give it a shot there and just see. If somebody's going to, it might be Kelly. 00:10:11 Do you know you're- Yeah ... you're messing around with oats. There's less than one million acres worth of oats in the United States of America. 00:10:17 We started in the oats when we identified that oat plant, and then we identified the soil problems we have, and oats is a deterrent of 00:10:26 fusarium. It's one of the biggest soil problems I have. Actually, I think oats, I've worked for the oats people, most of our oats, even in the United States, come from Canada. 00:10:35 Oh, is there a 51st state? Anyway, most of our oats come from Canada. Right now it's just under one million acres of oats in the United States. 00:10:42 There's plenty of places that could grow oats that right now are growing corn. Corn went to North Dakota, and North Dakota used to be oats. 00:10:48 Corn went to other place- And wheat ... Yeah, and wheat. So I just think the tough part is, and this is why I cover with Ryan and Mark, is they've got an infrastructure set up. 00:10:57 The Chicago Board of Trade wants it to be corn and soybeans. The Chicago Board of Trade doesn't have any business dealings with 00:11:03 rye, or millet, or any of these other things here. Lentils. Lentils? Yeah, but the Board of Trade thing is fine. You know what, talking with Jared. 00:11:12 Jared does our marketing. He said wheat and corn typically run pretty parallel, and so we have been very heavy sellers of the July 27 wheat board- 00:11:21 Mm-hmm ... because of the profitability there. If for some reason we decided we don't want to put wheat in, that wheat hedge can act as a corn hedge for us. 00:11:28 Yeah. So that's irrelevant a little bit to me. Okay. The terminals- The terminals are different. 00:11:34 They're nowhere for the Board of Trade. Tell me how you're going to take 5,000 acres of... Let's just name these other things on here. Dry edible beans. 00:11:42 Those are on a contract, right? And even segregating them in storage facilities- Right 00:11:46 ... you have a million bushel bin. Are you going to drop 10,000 bushels of dry beans in there? You're not. 00:11:52 Yeah. You know? And many of those things, as you said, are on a contractual arrangement, and they need to be, because otherwise it becomes- 00:11:58 Yeah ... okay, we would put the stuff in. We would grow, as I always point out, I was raised at the end of Flax Mill Road I've never seen a field of flax in Huntington County. 00:12:09 I've never seen a flax mill, but presumably at some point in the development of this community, there was a flax mill there. 00:12:16 Maybe there will be again, and it'll be produced by me, and it'll be organic. I'll bag it in organic burlap and I'll call it 00:12:23 fair trade- Okay ... we'll use all those ads. You laugh about that a little bit, but that may be the direction that you have to go to more specialized production. 00:12:31 And I wrote about it in my book, and I said that's exactly where the thing would be. Very specialized, and then it's used as a, 00:12:37 whatever, somebody that's into the organic thing, and I use all the adjectives, fair trade, and environmentally friendly, and hugged 00:12:45 by a rabbi, and all that kind of stuff. But once you start doing the internet, that's cool, but your market is limited. 00:12:52 I agree. And that's the challenge. But another thing that we're going to do, and this year we have three acres. I hope it works out so well that we have 10 acres next year. 00:13:01 Sweet corn. Sweet corn. Mm. Yeah. And by the way, there's a lot of farmers that do that because it ties right into what you already do. You know how to grow corn. 00:13:08 Right. You have the equipment to grow corn. You have the herbicide to grow corn. Boom, boom. Now it's just a different kind of corn. Right? 00:13:13 So true diversification, I'm all for it, and I want it to happen. It's just 00:13:18 we've got a lot of acres to eat, and that's where I think you struggle. Well, and I think to your point, if you take out 4 million acres 00:13:25 of corn, okay, so about a 3.5% reduction in acres, we're probably going to gain 3.5% in yield, so you haven't solved the problem. 00:13:34 Exactly, and you still have a huge oversupply. And then I've also pointed out one impetus for this should be while we're trying like hell to use up corn via ethanol regulation, 00:13:44 there is an absolute bullseye on the back of sugar, particularly that derived from corn. Almost 5 million acres of corn goes to corn syrup. 00:13:54 Yeah. Corn sweetener's predominantly high fructose corn syrup. Well, there's a bullseye on that. The diabetic 00:14:01 issue, the obesity issue, the MAHA issue. Okay? Get rid of a few million acres of corn that no longer is making it corn syrup. Again, that's more than all the acres of rice in the United 00:14:12 States of America at 2.74 million. So it's just a lot of acres to be gobbled up. Where do you see it going? 00:14:20 Yeah, I mean- You want to be an investor in my flax operation? The way you make it sound, I don't want to be an investor in anything. 00:14:28 But- It's tough out there, isn't it? It's tough. It's tough. You have this many acres that have to be in production, right? 00:14:37 I think- Well, or do they? So that's going to be my point. So look at all the corn and soybeans that came into production when we had $7, $8 00:14:46 corn, right? Yeah. We took things that should've probably never been farmed and put them into production. 00:14:53 Acres. Yeah. Yeah. We grew acres- We- ... with stuff that had been idled- Forever 00:14:58 ... or at least probably not forever. Probably it was farmed in the '20s, '30s, '40s. In our area, yeah, probably. There's places that were 00:15:05 idle for decades- Yes ... that really had no business being in- I did that 00:15:09 ... row crop production. Yep. So did we. And I think maybe some of the fix is in the market, right? 00:15:17 I don't want to see this happen, but if you drop grain prices, say you take a dollar off corn, there might not be so many corn acres. 00:15:24 Yeah. The market will find a way- Mm ... to do what we're talking about, in my opinion. Yeah. 00:15:28 The invisible hand. Yes. Yeah, of course. It's very present. But the problem is we have the other hand of government continuing to prop it up, 00:15:35 and then it's like, well, of course I'm going to keep farming those below average acres of marginal land. 00:15:38 But we're seeing it now, Damian, right? So I mean, you see a glut of commodity that goes through, and then all of a sudden you see subsidies 00:15:48 increase very dramatically. Yep. I think the thing that's going to weigh in on it some is what's the most productive use of an asset? 00:15:56 People have paid $20,000 or $30,000 an acre to grow corn because that's the thing that's profitable there. 00:16:03 I don't know, maybe Kelly can't. I don't see how wheat works on that price. When GM's building cars, they're 00:16:11 not sitting around thinking, "Hey, let's shut down the car factory and start building cabinets for kitchens- 00:16:15 Yeah ... because it's not the productive use of that asset." Well, and by the way, that's the argument against diversification. 00:16:20 Maybe all you should do, and let's face it, if you are in central Illinois, you should never consider 00:16:28 diversification. You know what? Just keep building GM trucks because that's why, God, what you do, that's what you're good at doing, and that's what you've got the 00:16:33 entire infrastructure, your ecosystem, all of your stuff. How to acquire steel, how to get your rubber. 00:16:39 I mean, at some point. But there are places that absolutely you're almost being economically 00:16:49 irresponsible attempting to grow those two big commodities. And they're doing it because the government 00:16:54 is policy. I have yet to see almonds be torn out in California to grow wheat. Yeah. 00:16:59 You know? Right. Because it just doesn't work. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so- And so that weighs in there as well 00:17:03 ... I don't know what our, we're going to have to ask Will, our producer, what the number, percentage of our viewers are in the wheat business. 00:17:09 We've lost them all by now. We've lost every one of them by now. We gained Kelly and I. 00:17:14 Yeah. We picked up two. We lost off everybody else. I mean, where I live, we're on the northern edge of cotton production, and yet you'll see cotton grown in that marginal area, 00:17:25 and you'll drive down to South Texas, and you'll see abandoned cotton gins. It's the same sort of argument. The cotton grower down there says, "I can't make it 00:17:33 on cotton," and here we are on the very northern fringes going, "Let's grow cotton." So. 00:17:38 And by the way, there's some regionality, and I think there's going to be, and as we recorded this, I've got a firestorm going over on social media about my views 00:17:48 on water in some of the western states, like where you are. Because 00:17:52 again, there's going to be a lot of problems for ag in doing that. I live in Arizona during the winter. I go dove hunting by the dairy farms. 00:17:59 And by the dairy farms, they're using literally boatloads of water to grow corn to feed dairy cows In Wisconsin, dairy farms are closing up shop. 00:18:12 They don't need to irrigate in Wisconsin. So we still have not only a diversification, but we have a regional usage of stuff that is almost- 00:18:19 Well, I think you need to expand your view when you make that statement that you just did there about Wisconsin and things like that. 00:18:24 In the previous episode when Trey talked about you have to look at the agronomy and you have to look at the logistics, the reason they can do that, and now will the 00:18:31 water be sustainable in Arizona? Maybe not. Mm. But the reason that they can do it there and not in Wisconsin is the logistics to get the milk to Phoenix. 00:18:38 5.1 million humans are 60 miles up the road versus 1,800 miles up the road. Exactly. 00:18:45 And it's a perishable product that- Exactly ... and let's face it, you're trucking a lot of water because milk is 94% water. 00:18:51 Yes. When everything is in the news about Wisconsin dairy farms or South Texas cotton farms and things like that, part of what is always lost is 00:18:59 the logistical expense to move that- Yeah ... commodity. Right. 00:19:02 Yep. That's right. That point has- And especially if we're supposed to be more envi- It's part of the equation 00:19:06 ... and especially if we're supposed to have a more- Yes ... environmental- 00:19:08 Yes ... component. Eat local and all that. With $4, $5 diesel. Yeah. So, it's not lost to me on that, that again, using 00:19:15 dairy as a great example- No, it's not lost on you, but I think we need to make that point- Yeah 00:19:17 ... to the viewer that that's always lost in the media. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 00:19:21 But then, okay, there are farmable acres in Arizona, on a percentage of the state, not as many as there are in places like Iowa, obviously, but 00:19:31 those things mostly, why would they diversify? They're in the things that make the most sense to be there. Lettuce by Yuma, 00:19:38 tomatoes- Alfalfa ... alfalfa to feed the dairies, to feed the metroplex of Phoenix, whatever. So going through here, 00:19:46 I just want to know which one you're going to put in there at your farm. Peanuts, 00:19:51 1.54 million acres of peanuts. You got interest in that? Probably not. 00:19:54 Sunflowers at 1.72. I think we've reached my capacity with wheat. Canola at 2.31 million. So there's the diversification story. 00:20:03 Canola didn't even used to exist until the '80s. Right. Now, I could make the argument, again, there's some pressure, Maha, et cetera, seed oils might go away, so now you've got even less demand for soy- 00:20:16 Yeah ... sunflower, canola, even corn oil. Well, I think, again, some things drive innovation. It's not the seed oils themselves that are unhealthy, 00:20:26 it's the processing of the seed oil, so maybe we come up with better ways to process some of those seed oils that still bring some 00:20:34 value to them. You just said that seed oil, it's the processing. I mean, this is like, "I smoke, but I don't inhale" kind of a thing. 00:20:39 How in the hell can that be a thing? Well, it is, because they have to heat it, they have to add things to it. Well, how do you get- 00:20:46 It's not the actual seed oil ... don't you have to heat it to get the oil out of the seed? Yeah. It's still the process of getting it in the bottle that- 00:20:52 And it's what else goes in there, right? Exactly. We have products in this country that started out pretty good, that are so full of 00:21:01 everything else that's artificial- Yeah ... that have that same product in another country that's relatively healthy. Do we see acres just go away? My prediction is that it will or it'll 00:21:10 go down, and I think it's going to happen with water. I don't think we're going to diversify. Indiana's diversification is going to be data centers and homes because we've got 00:21:18 seven and a half million people in a state that is not that big. And the diversification in Iowa doesn't need to happen because you're doing exactly what you should be doing. 00:21:28 The diversification comes, unfortunately, in Guymon, Oklahoma, where the water squeeze gets tighter, and then they go from corn to sorghum, and sorghum to 00:21:37 grazing. And that's where we'll have to see innovation. I mean, and I don't know what that looks like today, and I live there. But is it that with the limited resource you have, you 00:21:47 grow buffalo, you grow bison, and have a high protein crop coming off of that acre that provides you some sort of return that you used to get out of 00:21:57 corn when you were irrigating it? I- What does it take a buffalo to go from birth to butcher weight? Like four years? I'm kidding. It's got to be a long time because they're massively big, right? 00:22:07 I'm not saying patience won't be involved. You got some investment in time. By the time you get four years, now you got to start running an NPV on 00:22:15 that. So, yeah, it gets more complicated. But my point is, I think we're going to be forced to think outside the box. 00:22:24 Okay, sunflowers, there's not a lot of acres for sunflowers, but if you grow sunflowers and we can grow grain sorghum, is there some mix 00:22:32 of sunflowers and grain sorghum that's the perfect bird seed? You can't have 10 million acres of it, but for an individual farmer- 00:22:39 Yeah ... finding a market for his product, he might be able to do that. And then you've got to have the place that takes those products and does the 00:22:47 processing of it because, as I point out, there was somebody that did sunflowers around here, and they got trucked to 00:22:54 400 miles away because that place needed them. Mm-hmm. At some point, transportation becomes an issue and you need a market. You do need a market. 00:23:01 And I don't know that anybody can just come out here and find lentils, half a million acres of lentils. We could probably grow those. 00:23:08 Actually, I don't think we can because they're more cool weather. Where the hell would you go with a truck full of lentils? 00:23:13 I would have no idea. You're not even really sure what a lentil is, are you? No. 00:23:17 I'm not either. One of the things it does make me think about, though, is I'm not that old, but I'm old enough to remember before ethanol, and I can remember 00:23:26 before biodiesel. And who's to say that that type of innovation, that type of market, doesn't occur in one of these smaller crops? 00:23:35 Right. We talk about lentils, talk about sunflowers. I would love to see that. I don't know if it's there. I don't know that it will happen, but it happened with ethanol. 00:23:45 It happened with biodiesel. There's a- We've talked about aviation fuel. Yeah. 00:23:49 There are a few reasons why it happens, Adam, and Galen, and Kelly. First off, there's an environmental component to it that doesn't necessarily 00:23:56 like the fact that we monocrop, and then we fertilize the heck out of it, and then fertility ends up creating a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. 00:24:04 Mm-hmm. There's an environmental component to it. Ag people think I'm being bashing on them to say that. Trust me- 00:24:10 It's a reality ... I read a lot of other places, and I see what the non-ag people are saying, and trust me, there's a bit of a growing assault on corn, 00:24:18 especially when the consumer- Yeah ... just got told, not only are we going to pay you to grow it, we're going to also subsidize crop insurance, and then also you're going to force it into the gas 00:24:27 supply, right? So I can see there being many reasons to the diversification They're coming from outside of ag. 00:24:36 We think about it from an economic standpoint, being the producer. I'm seeing it coming from 00:24:40 outside of ag, but I've also got a bright spot. We didn't grow soybeans in any significant manner until really the '60s. 00:24:49 After World War II, acres started growing. There was no soybean. But what did you just say the local dairy's going to do with soybeans this year? 00:24:56 Yeah, they're going to turn them into a- They're going to roast them ... a dairy ration. 00:24:58 Okay, I'm totally unfamiliar with that, but that's a new use for soybeans if they pull it off successfully. And I think we don't have to replace 90 million 00:25:06 acres of corn and 90 million acres of soybeans. We've got to find alternate uses for a few million acres here and there. Roasting soybeans, other things that are through the value 00:25:16 add chain that will support those acres is probably going to be the answer. It's just hard to know what those are. 00:25:22 But roasting soybeans, never heard of it, and there might be a good use for that. 00:25:26 Huge demand for that. Yeah. And there were no soybeans on Garrett land and cattle land 00:25:31 100 years ago, period. No, when my dad was a kid, he talked about it was oats, alfalfa, corn. 00:25:37 Yeah. It was the rotation. And he was the beginning of soybeans. When he was a kid. 00:25:43 Yeah. Very early. Yeah. Yeah. My grandfather- About the '50s. Yeah. 00:25:46 About the '50s is really when the soybeans became a thing. Maybe even early '60s, yeah. 00:25:49 Yeah. So the '60s, that's when it became a more significant thing. Well, that sounds like a long time ago to the 20-year-old, but to those of us who 00:25:55 are sitting around here, that's only 70 years ago, 65, 70 years ago that became a thing. So I think we could switch to other stuff. 00:26:01 The problem is we can always outproduce all of our demand. Well, the other thing we're going to have to do is, and you kind of pointed this 00:26:08 out earlier, is I think it's easy in ag to be tone deaf to the consumer because what we do in the field, there's so many steps 00:26:16 between us and the consumer. And I think some of the progress that has to be made is for us to not view them as an adversary, "Oh, I'll put on my nitrogen if I want 00:26:27 to put it on," but look at them and go, "Okay, wait, this is our customer. Let's listen a little more closely to what they're asking for." 00:26:34 We have to be the worst industry ever to- Yeah ... as far as listening to the customer. Yeah. 00:26:39 We are. You used the example of an automobile manufacturer. Can you imagine? "No, damn it, we made this 00:26:49 Pinto- Yeah ... and we're Ford Motor Company, and we think you need a Pinto." "I don't want a Pinto." "Well, you know what?" 00:26:54 Yeah. "We're going to get some legislation done out there in DC- Yeah 00:26:57 ... that says you have to have a Pinto." Yeah. What's interesting about that, though, is that's kind of how it started, even for Ford, right? You can have any color you want as long as it's black. 00:27:04 And then they realized they're in a cons- But then what? And then they had to change. 00:27:08 They had to change. Because they had to. But here's the why. They had to listen to the customer. Because otherwise, they're- 00:27:12 I hate black. Yeah. Otherwise, it's going to be somebody other than Ford. Yeah. 00:27:15 Right. And that's what we have to- Mm-hmm ... be paying attention to. Is it going to happen? 00:27:21 I think it has to happen, Damian. Is it going to happen? It's going to happen so slowly, it's going to be painful. But it's going to happen. 00:27:26 You won't even be alive when it happens, is what I'm hearing. No, I think it's happening very slowly now, and I don't think the government is 00:27:32 stopping it. No. Which is what was implied a little bit earlier. The government isn't stopping it. The government just may slow- 00:27:36 Wait, who implied that? Oh. The government isn't stopping it. The government's just slowing it down so you don't have a boom or bust, feast or 00:27:45 famine cycle. Well, speaking of the diversification and the government, let's face it, on the crop insurance and on the policy side, we have a government 00:27:52 policy with US Department of Agriculture that very much perpetuates the corn and soy complex. They didn't invent the- 00:28:01 They have. I think they've stolen- Is it the largest subsidy to peanuts? So sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, no, no, I think they have, but I don't know that significantly. 00:28:08 But I'm saying biofuel. Right. There's almost 200 ethanol plants that were invented because of the Renewable Fuel Act- 00:28:13 Mm-hmm ... of 2004 or '05, so 20 or so years ago. That has a lot to do with this. The downside is the government controlling it, the subsidies and things like that, 00:28:23 that everybody talks about. The upside is there isn't a feast or famine. There isn't- 00:28:28 Yeah ... people aren't hungry. You know what I mean? And the government, it's slowing down the change so there isn't- Well, it also prevents economic calamity from places like we're in- 00:28:37 Exactly ... Crawford County, Iowa, and Huntingtown, Indiana. I mean, all of a sudden, you've got- 00:28:40 And all of those things are, I understand it's not all positive, but all of those things are necessary. 00:28:45 Yeah, and we're not going to struggle to feed the world. I mean, I can't imagine what event would cause that. 00:28:52 And so we have to really change our focus, and we've talked about this on one of these episodes before, is feed the world better. 00:29:01 What are the things they want? What are the things that's going to maybe be an offsetting entry to health costs? Feed the world better. 00:29:08 And that may not be corn and soy. It may not be. Maybe it's lentils. That's the truth. 00:29:12 Yeah. That's the truth. Or dry edible peas. Proso millet, that's 0.4 million acres. Don't even know what that is. Chickpeas. It's mostly bird food. 00:29:20 I just want to throw it out there. I don't even like to call them chickpeas because garbanzo is a better word. I mean, it's 00:29:26 a better word. Garbanzo? Garbanzo. I would agree, yeah. Maybe that would increase the acres. All right. 00:29:31 Maybe switch the name, and garbanzo it is. Well, make it so that you can't even call them chickpeas. And all of- 00:29:36 You have to call them garbanzo peas ... all of a sudden, the problem is solved. All right. 00:29:39 They can call themselves whatever they want, Damian. Well, it depends on how they identify. That's true. 00:29:45 All right, until next time. We talked about diversification of the United States crop mix. Is it a possibility? Can it happen? Will it happen in your lifetime? 00:29:51 Well, it depends on how old you are, but remember, there are some compelling arguments here. Last I looked, canola, about 80% to 00:29:58 90% of the country's canola is grown in North Dakota, and we didn't even have canola until the 1980s. We didn't really have soybeans in any 00:30:05 significant fashion until the 1960s. We've always been a corn country from the time the Indians planted it when putting the little fish next to the seeds. So anyway, it's been around for a long time. 00:30:14 I do believe there's going to be diversification. I believe there's going to be more people like you that are experimenting, new stuff, a little bit cutting edge. It'll be small bites. 00:30:22 I'm going to take this 500 acres here and do this. I'm going to take this and do that, and that's where... But there has to be the economics, which I think is better now to try new stuff 00:30:30 than it's been. If you go back to the Indians putting a fish by every corn plant to grow, was that the first rendition of TitleGrow? 00:30:38 It was, and I use that all the time. Oh my goodness. So that should probably remind you, dear listeners- ... this episode is brought to you by our friends at TitleGrow Agriscience. 00:30:46 TitleGrow Agriscience, their sign is right there. Their plot's just down the road from where I'm sitting right here. We'll keep you posted about what we learn from their plot. 00:30:53 This will be the second year I've worked with TitleGrow Agriscience. You can go to their website, learn all about their seafood-derived 00:30:59 products. TitleGrowAg. Title like a big wave of water, Grow Ag, TitleGrowAg.com. Till next time, that's my friend Adam Horich. 00:31:06 This is Galen Bear, our sponsor with TitleGrow Agriscience, and then our man Kelly Garrett with XtremeAg. Till next time, thanks for being here. 00:31:12 Please share this with somebody. Make a comment. And also, if you want us to cover something at this very table, let me know, because we'd love to respond to you. 00:31:21 If you're a wheat producer, I'm sorry. All right, guys, here we go. 00:31:27.286 --> 00:31:28.556