00:00:00 United States Department of Agriculture came into being during President Abraham Lincoln's administration. In fact, in the last session that he ever delivered a speech 00:00:08 before Congress, before his assassination, president Abraham Lincoln called the US Department of Agriculture for People's department 00:00:14 because it was so vital to a growing country to have a safe, reliable, and abundant food supply. 00:00:18 Here we are now, so many years later, 2025, US United States Department of Agriculture, obviously still a very important entity, 00:00:26 also very impactful in the business of agriculture. The guys I'm sitting with are farmers. They deal with the US Department of Agriculture quite a bit. 00:00:33 The policy set about the programs that you have to be a part of, from everything from crop insurance to 00:00:39 what ends up happening at the school lunch program, it impacts the business of agriculture. So I decided to bring over the nearest thing 00:00:44 to the USDA expert that I have. My brother, Eric Mason, who's sitting across me at the table here at the Greenery, we're talking about United States Department of Agriculture, 00:00:51 past, present, future, and how it's impacting us in the business of agriculture here at TO Greenery. 00:00:55 You ready for a conversation with some real farmers about real issues? And the best part, you are invited. 00:01:02 Pour yourself a drink, grab a snack. Most importantly, pull up a chair. Welcome to the greenery. Hey Guys. 00:01:18 Anyway, this is one of the few topics that I didn't save as a surprise to throw out because when my brother got here 00:01:24 and it's like, well, what the hell is this guy here for? So now you understand, uh, Eric has been a 00:01:29 almost career entire, you worked in the hog industry out at Purdue, and then you went to the USDA in 1986. 00:01:35 Yep. Almost 40 years. Anyway, thanks for being here. US Department of Agriculture policy, background, past, present, future. 00:01:43 You are on a committee. You still get calls from these people. It's more in, it's more involved in our business than a lot 00:01:49 of people probably realize that just are going shopping to grocery store. We've got a lot of, I I get a lot of USDA stuff I have 00:01:55 to manage and sort through, and I'm not even a real farmer. Talk to me. That's true. I mean, it, it's a vital part of our, of our, 00:02:03 you know, farming business. The USDA is, you know, from different programs to, to that we can get into regulation of our payments 00:02:11 and different things that we have. When you're dealing with a government that's, that makes agriculture political at times, you know, 00:02:19 for trade or whatever, then you have to have an agency there to kind of monitor what's going on. 00:02:24 But, you know, it is our safety net 'cause we're in this world market and, uh, you know, people think that the farmers are 00:02:32 and, and the consumers control our prices, but our hedge funds is, is huge. And now we got computer algorithm traders. 00:02:41 And the risk that we face of farmers is tremendous. And, you know, the goal of, of the, uh, USDA is to try to ensure 00:02:50 that food safety net for the American people. And in doing that, they gotta protect the essential agriculture employees. 00:02:58 You know, whether it's the school lunch program or if it's us putting the seed in the ground, beginning that raw material, creating that, uh, produce 00:03:06 or product that we grow for the farm or the cotton that we grow you, Uh, just, uh, for the viewer county executive director for 00:03:15 20 years to the county, to the North Whitley, and now county Executive Director for Grant County, which is the next county to the south. 00:03:21 You said once to me, uh, the job of the United States Department of Agriculture is your job To Yes. 00:03:29 Is to keep the farmers eligible for any of the programs and that USDA will keep producers in business. And then it's their job then to find that next level 00:03:45 of profit, that there's that safety net and the floor for the products, and to maintain that. 00:03:54 So they'll at least bill pay their bills and hopefully then get to the next Year. And, and the person that's, 00:04:00 uh, living in suburbia says, well, why do my tax dollars need to make sure that the farmers are at least at break even? 00:04:06 And it goes to exactly what you're talking about. Food is national Security. The national 00:04:11 Security. Absolutely. And I, I think that we all understand that. I mean, it takes, once you tell a person the suburbia, like, 00:04:16 oh, okay, I'm good with that. I'm good. Well, and I think they seen a little touch of it during Covid, you know, we talked about this song yesterday. 00:04:23 They did. Yeah. And, and sometimes you've got the, the consumer or the suburbia person has got to feel a little bit of that 00:04:31 to really understand it. You know, And, and I think social media is helping too. We're we're sharing the experiences on our farms with that, 00:04:40 uh, urban mom that, you know, that's never had the opportunity, uh, has no clue, you know, where the ingredient center pantry comes from. 00:04:49 You know, so we're, we're doing a better job educating, and I'm, you know, I'll be quite honest, over the years we got complacent mm-hmm. 00:05:00 To where we just really, we didn't want to get involved. We let the USDA employees 00:05:05 and the extension folks try to educate the public on the importance of food. And we, we'll do our job. Y'all take care of that. Well, 00:05:14 That's one of the biggest mistakes We made, the biggest mistakes we ever made, right There Is when it's, when it, social media actually hurt 00:05:19 us at the beginning because Most everything was inflammatory, most everything was anti. 00:05:23 Yeah. And 90% of it's not true. You know, I mean, yeah, we don't do everything perfect, but it took us to have the adverse 00:05:30 reaction to get on social media. Mm-hmm. And, and educated the farmer. My dad would've never done that. 00:05:35 He would've, he'd been like, you know, screw 'em. I'm gonna do what I want to, and they can just come put me in jail or whatever. 00:05:40 And we've had to, uh, morph to a farmer that on not, not only is producing the food, but explaining why I'm being transparently. So 00:05:49 You brought a couple of your, uh, stuff about current programs. The other one that you, you, you, that we need. 00:05:54 So to that end your pie chart. Yeah. Which US Department of Agriculture budget spending and the pie chart that we know in ag 00:06:02 that the average person in suburbia does not know, uh, is Yeah, It is. I mean, and, 00:06:07 and anybody can pull it up and you know, anybody and everybody, as you said, social media, it's, the web is there 00:06:13 and all you do is type in USDA and ratios or percentages, and it'll show you what crops get, 00:06:24 what percentage of the pie, what programs get percentage of the pie. And that's out there for every farm. 00:06:31 Bill and I, I go back to, uh, Paul Harvey, when I first started with USDA in 86, 87, they had a new farm bill and he put that out there 00:06:44 and he told people what the percentage was that was going to the food nutrition programs 00:06:50 and what was going to the farmer or the commodity sides and the scale. And We all get labeled as it all coming to us. 00:06:59 And it's all and small. What percentage of it goes to actual farmer? Uh, I mean, it's a very, very small it 00:07:05 80% is nutrition. Right? 80% School Of types of food as you guys are this food security and that, yep. 00:07:11 About 43 or 46 million out of a country of 340 million are on. So it's like 12 to 13% of our population gets snap, 00:07:20 which used to be called food stamps. Uh, the free lunch program feeds. I've read the number. It's, gosh, several million kids. And it's 00:07:28 Growing. It's growing Several million kids every day. And you know, nobody that has a heart would ever say, oh, well, let's make sure we can't, don't feed kids. 00:07:35 I mean, obviously we don't want fine with that. Is it always Right. But it gets, it gets bastardized because then the commodity groups lobbied 00:07:44 to get made sure they're in the food school. And we, and we've also lobbied on should we leave it, should we change the name instead of the farm bill? 00:07:51 Because only 20% of it actually goes to the farmers. You know, that's a big thing. A lot of our taxpayers don't realize 00:07:59 that this farm bill is actually the nutrition, you know, for their local schools. 00:08:04 And what they also, that they don't realize the general public is we're competing against countries that give way more subsidies than 00:08:11 We. Huge. Huge. Yes. So We're not playing with a full deck. Even thank, thank the Lord. We have some, but 00:08:18 The wait claim of the full deck is when we talk about somebody's crazy, you mean, uh, we don't have, we don't have all the tools in our toolbox. 00:08:24 Right. Let, we're not, we're not On an equal play. The deck, the deck is stack, you know, once agriculture, once US Department of Agriculture, in almost four decades 00:08:32 of you working there, we're gonna go around the table, but I want you to go first. What's in 40 years? 00:08:36 You say, we got this wrong, or we still get this wrong. What's, what's, what's wrong with USDA policies and programs? 00:08:44 You're gonna retire in a couple years, so, you know, go The crop reports come on. Well, yeah. Crop reports gonna, who stole my thunder? 00:08:51 The crop reports are big. Yes. Um, I mean, they're a disaster. And the fact that the trading can swing so fast 00:09:00 that you'll see a, a 45 cent drop in a, you know, a matter of a second in a day or then it can go the other way. 00:09:09 But, you know, it seems like sometimes they gear those crop reports like they want it to go down. That that's it. Yeah. 00:09:17 That, that's what sometimes it really looks, Is very, very obvious. Well, every arrow will be pointing one way. 00:09:22 And, and so everybody's getting geared up for that. And then U-S-D-A-A will come out with our crop report that's way over here and blows the market 00:09:29 And, and we know it's not. Right. Right. You know, we know as growers is not, we have physically been in these fields in these counties. 00:09:35 It is not possible for that to be Right. But you Have to wait till the end of the year to get To that point. And sometimes 00:09:40 it's, uh, at the, almost the, the beginning September of the following year before you get to it. That's right. These, okay, so the reports, you even admit that, 00:09:50 and that's the, the, the lament from farmers is the USDA is purposely distorting this information to manipulate prices. 00:09:57 That's what you hear the farm guys say. That's what we think. And you say it looks that way. It It does definitely look that way big. But you don't 00:10:03 Think it actually the case? No, no. Yeah. And then, and again, it's, it's that swag, you know? Mm-hmm. I mean, they get numbers here and numbers there, 00:10:12 and then somebody tries to compile all those numbers and thought process of what's going on around the country into this number. 00:10:21 Well, yeah. They won't walk across the hall to the RMA and get the actual crop prove certified recordings. 00:10:29 Mm-hmm. That's the real numbers. I've always wondered why and Farmers mess that up too, 00:10:34 because I, you're like, oh, it's USDA calling and they're going, how much in your grand, How many acres? No. 00:10:39 So you just throw out numbers. Farmers throw out numbers 'cause they're p****d off because they're having to talk to 'em 00:10:43 anyway. Yeah. And so that gives, Well that's because they're too lazy to go across the hall and get it from the insurance company 00:10:48 that we already filled all this information. I mean, they, they'd produce a planting report and they got five 70 eights to go by. 00:10:54 Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, and the report don't reflect the five 70 eights. I'm like, it's, it's, it's your, it's your, 00:11:00 Alright. So division he, he, he says what they got, what we got wrong is the crop report. Okay. What do we get? Right? 00:11:06 What's USDA in 40 years of you working there three, nine years of you working there, you say, you know what? I can be proud of my work, uh, because of this, 00:11:15 The CRP conservation program, because it works for everybody. Any part of this country. There are so many options in it. 00:11:24 So many things available from filter strips to sod waterways to reforestation the bee habitat, you know, 00:11:31 for the pollinator right now is a big thing. But, and it's big right. In the Midwest for loss of honeybees. 00:11:38 Um, so the wide variety of projects that's in it, that is one thing has been perfect. I think for Quip. 00:11:46 There's another one. Yeah. Yeah. Equip know, we've Been able to, which is not crc, but it's a conservation program. 00:11:50 What it makes us do is it makes us, you know, we get, get to reuse our water because the government will come in 00:11:55 and help subsidize some of those costs. This is a problem with that. Now I'm in the middle of one 00:12:01 that started the year before covid. So we got everything done on prices. This is what it's gonna be and this is what you're gonna, 00:12:08 your part that you're gotta pay covid HIT went up 200%. Well then I'm struggling now with being able to afford to do what I signed up for. USDA is 00:12:18 Still, they move so slow. Well, their cost is still from years ago. They, it needs to be updated now. 00:12:24 I know that takes more money, more revenue, more taxes, whatever. But it's reality. But, 00:12:28 But they're 10 or 15 years behind on what it actually costs to do this now. So dirt moving was a dollar yarding and now it's two 50. 00:12:34 All right. So he says what's wrong? Okay. Crop reporting. You guys all agreed on that. In fact, you tossed it to him. 00:12:39 What's right about USDA programs is certainly, well, that's been almost 40 years. Also, the CRP, the CRP conservation program really came into 00:12:46 being right before your career. 85 6 86. The, you know, the market loss programs, the disaster programs, especially 00:12:54 for us being Hurricane Alley right there. Yeah. Um, it's, it's not, it's not the great money that people think, but it's, as he said earlier, wow, 00:13:05 it is enough money to keep you in business now. You don't wanna do two years of that back to back. 'cause I mean, you know, nobody wants to go to work 00:13:15 and work all week and, uh, they get a paycheck and then they get a bill for the same amount of their paycheck that they owe back to their employer. 00:13:21 Mm-hmm. And so they work for nothing all week. Nobody wants to do that, but it's a whole lot better than not getting that paycheck 00:13:28 and having to pay your employer for working there 40 hours that week. All right. I'll give you one that I think 00:13:33 and I'll ask Eric here. The complexity of compliance on some of this stuff. It seems like you got three people in your office just 00:13:42 for the com, just for that to manage the complexity. It's complex. That Farm Bill is how many hundreds of pages of legislation couldn't we simplify this? 00:13:50 I know that that's gotta be something that the average person in agriculture says. Uh, complexity to eligibility. Yeah. 00:13:59 Or compliance. Compliance and administration. No, You Don't think it's too complex? No complex. 00:14:06 Because everything else is so complex involved in it. As he was saying earlier about entities becoming incorporated, it's still farmers, but 00:14:21 because of everything else, you've got all these entities tied together and there's no way around other than looking at 00:14:32 that every day to see, you know, well they just changed because they brought junior in and cousin Billy's gonna join in 00:14:40 and now we have to redo all their entity and eligibility forms because of change in their operation. So you 00:14:51 Didn't, you said something that you think is really important. The crop insurance really goes to the prior, 00:14:55 the very first thing you said that keeping the farmers in business. So we have a food supply for national security. 00:15:02 I don't see that ever going a way. Do you? No. Crop insurance is gonna be there. Subsidized crop insurance. Some, some in some form. 00:15:10 Well you hear, you know, a lot of farmers all the time like, well we don't want farm to government, we want government to go away. Well we 00:15:15 Don't want to, but the profit margins ain't there. Well you've gotta have that safety net, you've gotta have that NASA security protection. 00:15:21 It's almost like an army for us. Like we have an army to protect us against. Yeah. You know, foreign countries. 00:15:27 The US DA protects us against the competition against foreign countries. And so it, you be careful what you wish for 00:15:35 because us out there trying to do this with supply and demand only against these subsidized, Well, the Hunger Society is not happy. 00:15:41 The what now? A hungry Society not happy. And so hence The people's department as it was called in 1864 under Abraham Lincoln. 00:15:49 I don't know though. Some people today, if you gave 'em the choice of being able to be hungry or lose their cell phone, they wouldn't choose be hungry. 00:15:58 I don't know. Honestly, for a while. For a while. Anyway. Alright. You brought some other stuff just to the thought of it. 00:16:04 I was, uh, I look at you talking about the arc and all those kind of things. Yeah. Those are on top of, I 00:16:10 Was, I was looking forward to this because my understanding, he was supposed to tell us exactly the correct program 00:16:15 to chooses from. No, I don't Think Know what crop you got And where you are. So 00:16:18 He's got finish what's your yield's gonna be. Ah, come on now. You did, you're trying to back out on that. 00:16:25 Yeah, that's, Well, s when you get, that's the kinda questions you get when guys come in, right? Yeah. And it, 00:16:29 and it usually becomes, well, what's everybody else doing? Yeah. That's the one my like I'm you, how about you? 00:16:35 Yeah, exactly. But then with, with the crop insurance, there's an option of the crop insurance that guys need to realize there's an option there. 00:16:46 And only option you have is the PLC and that is strictly price Account. Is that the account? 00:16:52 POC account? Uh, S-C-O-S-C-O-S-C. That's right. Sco It's not hitting, it's hard To remember all the stuff. There 00:16:58 is a lot of options. C-R-P-S-C-O-I Mean it goes on on, there's an alphabet soup and it's, there's a lot of complex 00:17:05 Mean you're, if you're irrigated one way works with a little better than if you're dry land. You know, I mean it's, it's all, it's almost, um, 00:17:11 operation by operation basis. So what's the best for your operation? Are you high yield or are you low yielder? 00:17:16 You know, how, how good is your records? Yep. You know, you gotta put all that together to really What's your, what's your ground compared 00:17:22 to the rest of the county? Are you normally lower or are you normally higher than the rest of the county to Arc County work? 00:17:30 Um, very few did the ARC individual. 'cause it's some very high high management. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So the ARC individual has not been, we 00:17:38 Like simple. We like simple simple's Good. Yeah. Well, we've even went into, with our operation, 00:17:43 you know, we, you know, we got larger acres so we can afford to do some different things, but we've got a guy hired 00:17:50 that deals, he is middleman between the USDA and iPhone. Mm-hmm. So he's studying every program. He knows everything. 00:17:57 You probably know, and then he knows which way to go. He tells us what to do. Now we pay you per acre to do that. Yep. Well, 00:18:03 So he, he can do that. But in your position, you can't really just say, this is what you need to do. No, not unless 00:18:09 It wants to serve time. Yeah. Yeah. We don't, we don't do any of that. Um, on, especially like the, our county 00:18:17 and those type of things because it is, it's a flip of a coin. And that's why I say in 00:18:25 this entire farm Bill, 90% have been Arc County because then it looks at price and yields and it looks at the county. 00:18:34 And then if price, you know, bottoms yields are good, it may not pay anything. You know, uh, price and yields are down. 00:18:41 Normally when yields go down, prices go up. So it looks, and then that's also then with the crop insurance, 00:18:48 there's a revenue assurance policy that you can purchase and go to different levels with revenue assurance looks, 00:18:55 your operation for price and yields. So There, the United States Department of Agriculture, there's another one that you'll here, the United States 00:19:03 Department of Agriculture keep some farmers in business. That shouldn't be, 00:19:10 That's a hard one. Um, they're, they're always the ones that are on the edge probably. And by the way, there've been farms on the edge when there 00:19:19 was 3 million farming operations or 5 million farm. In other words, there's always, in any business, there's a, there's a carpet company that's on the edge. 00:19:27 I mean, it's gonna be the case, but there's always Been that. But typically what, what I've seen, you know, in, in my area 00:19:34 and, and a few of other areas that I've been more intimate with is those that are relying 00:19:41 as their business model on the USDA are very shortlived. Mm-hmm. It'll keep them, they'll keep them a afloat 00:19:48 for, I mean, a day or two. A good example, you know, our, when we're doing our projections, 00:19:53 we never put in government payments for our income projections. We do not put that in. You look 00:19:59 At it's bonus If it comes in it, that's profit. That's profit. Yeah. But, you know, we hope it's profit 00:20:05 because I'm telling you, it ain't profit. You've had a bad year. Derek Point about this year, this year, the payment we were 00:20:10 talking about earlier, that's not gonna be for profit. That's gonna get people from get not either getting or not getting 00:20:14 Profit. This, this payment that was approved in December, the market assistance into disaster and, 00:20:21 and our, on the east coast where we're at, I would say all way, really all the way over down towards y'all. 00:20:27 Mm-hmm. In, in Arkansas, the drought and then the hurricanes combination and then this market assistance is going to be 00:20:36 what actually breaks some, even actually without this market assistance, I would say there's probably a, an astonishing percentage that would, 00:20:46 would not be getting an operating loan today. A hundred percent. Yeah. Is that true? And you not think, is that 00:20:52 True at Indiana? Uh, not really. Uh, Indiana fared pretty well, um, this this last year 00:20:59 and especially if they did their marketing homework. Okay. That was a big problem. And, and with farmers in general this year is in marketing 00:21:06 because when it started down, I I, it got, I had orders in, It was in USDA reports. 00:21:12 It was, I mean, it really was. I'm not, we're not trying, we're just being not open. I had Orders in within a nickel of hitting 00:21:17 and then when it fell, it never came. Never even came close. We knew the supplies wasn't there. Mm-hmm. 00:21:24 I mean, there was no way possible it was there. But it, the traders are gonna trade what the USDA reports and they don't care what the farmer said. 00:21:31 And if you're from the south, this sucks. But if you're from the south, you're just almost wishing for the Midwest have a drought every, 00:21:38 You're the second person to say that so far today. Alright, so your buddy Chad, your buddy Chad, your buddy Chad wants me to be, wants this, 00:21:44 wants the daily Rosa farm to be, uh, putting A foreclosure sign out. But's listen to it though. Listen to these guys. 00:21:51 Alright. It's terrible. So to me, what I hear You hear From, Hey, let's run numbers. Alright. You take I gu I would almost guarantee you they is 00:22:00 probably 40, 50% of the Midwest this past year would've made more money with a hundred bushel corn 00:22:07 with $7 50 cent corn futures Yeah. Than what they made with their 210 bushel corn at their current price. 00:22:13 I will guarantee they'd net more money. Yeah. Now if when we have a drought, it, it doesn't matter. It don't affect the market at 00:22:21 All. We, we move. Well, Corn and beans is your Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, uh, Iowa, Iowa and Nebraska. 00:22:30 Yeah. Yeah. That those are the, the big not US factors. Indiana, Michigan and Ohio is a little bit of it. Eastern Indiana, Michigan and Ohio all have 00:22:39 To have, y'all are just a fan in our bases. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Arkansas completely Quit growing. Y'all put it on a 00:22:44 rail and send it by our chickens. Yep. Arkansas could completely quit growing corn and it would not move the market in. 00:22:50 Yeah. Now soybeans, maybe it'd move a little bit at rice could be a disaster. We, because you're the number one rice thing, 00:22:56 But, but we don't even affect the core market and that's the largest acre crop we have. Yeah. You know, well, what's 00:23:02 Interesting is that he keeps up, Eric keeps up more with i I glance at things like commodity reports 00:23:08 because I don't do it. I don't have to do it. I cash rip my land out. You keep up with it on a more daily basis 00:23:13 because truly everybody that comes in your door Yeah. That it matters. It's affected by it, it matters to them. It matters to the things you're doing for them. 00:23:20 Where, where your job's a lot easier when we're making money. Yes. Oh yeah. Absolutely. 00:23:24 All we're doing is getting signatures and filing paperwork, Getting crop reports. Everybody's, everybody's active. 00:23:28 What the UFDA has done on a positive note, we've talked about a lot of negative ones, is they almost force the farmer through assistance 00:23:37 to be better conservationists. Well, yeah. You know, like these tailwater recovery pits that we dig, these reservoirs that we dig, man, 00:23:44 that's so good for the environment. It's good for us, it's good for the environment. It conserves the water and it, 00:23:49 there's no runoff going in the stream because we're reusing it again. So there's a lot of ES with the USDA, you know, 00:23:55 everybody wants to see the bad side of everything, you know, and then, and y'all have some problems. 00:24:00 I mean, government agency who don't Yes, absolutely. We have some problems and we got our own family business. But there is some good there too that where they're, 00:24:07 they're they're, they're making the world a better place or the United States a better place. 00:24:11 Well, you know, the first solution you have is identifying the problem. That's right. That's right. I agree with you. What 00:24:18 Do you think the future looks like from, uh, the, you're gonna be going here another couple years, you're gonna hang it up and you're gonna hang up the cleats. 00:24:26 What's it look like? Um, the farm bill still gonna be an every five Year, You know. Yeah, yeah. Most likely. 00:24:33 Instead of just being, becoming a permanent, because there's nothing else in DC that has to go through this entire new thing every 00:24:40 Five Years. It, they're always gonna look at what's going on in the, in the world economy, as he said. 00:24:47 Where we're, you're, you're going against subsidized stuff in other countries. Um, so they always have to look at 00:24:54 what other countries are doing. Mm-hmm. So the five years kind of became a normal, um, 00:25:01 And we would make commitments. Now we even make amendment, we even make amendments to it in within the 00:25:05 Yes. Yep. There'll be a lot of changes in the next four years, But there's a lot of specialty things in there too now. 00:25:11 Yeah. Didn't used to be in there for specialty crops. So they're wanting guys to start looking at some more 00:25:18 special things, diversification, More farm to Market. Well, we don't overproduce the crops we're Producing, um, the NAP policy, 00:25:25 which is the non-insured programs, um, is getting bigger. And especially right here in the Midwest 00:25:31 for fruit and vegetable guys. So you got guys that, you know, they took that 40 acres over there that is, it's okay, 00:25:40 but not as productive or anything else. And now they're putting apples and cherries and pear trees and things like that out there for the specialty markets. 00:25:48 Um, grapes. Grapes is another thing that is come in different areas for all these old wine companies and breweries 00:25:55 And, and that's hurting the farmer beside him. That's not growing them. That's where you get into anta. Mm-hmm. Antagonism, you know, you're trying 00:26:03 to spray your crop for weeds and grapes or something out there beside you. Mm-hmm. You know, that, that 00:26:07 It don't really hurt you. You just gotta pay more attention. Yeah. You got, you'll be a better sprayer. 00:26:11 It makes you a better sprayer that, I mean, I just buy tobacco crop on That, but it's gonna happen. 00:26:16 Yeah. You'll get, you'll be a better sprayer And that it'll happen. And that is then obviously 00:26:21 with the improvement in the GPS systems and documenting the wind flow and everything on the day you were out there 00:26:27 and that type of stuff to protect yourself. And Can I ask a question? Oh, I mean, this is not my show, 00:26:34 but what do you think, where do you think we're going in the next four years? I mean, with the new administration, you know, 00:26:41 he ain't scared of nobody, um, Should do it to the viewer. We're recording this in February of 2025. Is that what 00:26:48 Yeah, yeah. We're, I mean, I think there's gonna be a lot of changes. I think we're gonna, we're gonna hurt for a little bit, 00:26:53 but in the end it'll be good. We're gonna be, we're gonna be back where we should be, which is at the top of the food chain 00:26:58 as the United States, I think. But I just wanted your opinion from being, working with a government. 00:27:03 It, it's, well, yeah, I mean this is, this is new territory. Um, you just look at what he's done 00:27:10 with a lot of other stuff. Will the tariffs, you know, end up screwing up big time or will it short term her then long term improve? 00:27:25 That's, I mean, you got a better guess on that than I do, you know, be honest with you because 00:27:30 I just was running through how many presidential administrations you've worked under. Because remember, he is gotta have the picture 00:27:35 of the president and the secretary of Al his office. You've changed out, you've changed out pictures eight times, Few times. Few times. 00:27:41 Yeah. For Reagan. He started working when Reagan was a, uh, a president. Think about that. That was a good old days. Do 00:27:46 You, do you feel like, um, the USDA will be open to improvements and change? Are they wanted, do you see, are they things 00:27:57 that you've seen that you feel like could be better? Um, yes and no. That's kind of, you know, that's 00:28:06 A government answer. Yeah, it is. It's it is, it Is. It is a government answer. It Truly is. Now what 00:28:11 are you running? What officer you running for? No way. He's running for retirement. You got his knees fixed. Well, there's an answer. 00:28:21 One could be fixed. Um, reduction in force is coming, speaking of the new administration. Mm-hmm. Um, which is, those are just adjustments. 00:28:29 You're gonna make policies you think stay pretty much the same. They're never gonna change the nutrition. 00:28:33 No. The nutrition is, is gonna always be there. I'll Throw one at you that I predict. There's about 26 million acres in the United States 00:28:41 that are in the conservation reserve program right now. We farm about 360 farm meaning not pasture and range farmed. I think that they're gonna double CRP in the next five 00:28:51 to 10 years because there's marginal ground and the where the prices are, I think that we double CRP. Do you think the US Department 00:28:58 of Agriculture double CRP in the next decade, Maybe not double, but at least half 50% increase another 50%. 00:29:05 But the problem is, it's like I said about the, the equip monies and stuff, you're gonna have to go up on what you're giving the farmer for the CRP 00:29:13 because it now, instead of paying $3,000 for acre in our area, now he's paying seven mean Well if he's paying seven for 00:29:19 that land, he can't afford to do a $50 an acre C RRP too. No, it's gonna have to, 00:29:24 It's gonna have to match what the land rent would be. Or close. Yeah. Yeah. Land rent. That's what you'd have to have. 00:29:28 And we, and I think it's a CRP is a great program. The problem is when when prices go up, everybody pulls that out and then we're it 00:29:36 Destroys Yeah. I mean, leave them alone. Yes. Yeah. I mean, you know, our Secretary of agriculture in North Carolina, he said, 00:29:41 if you wanna fix high prices, just let the American farmer get a high Price. That's exactly right. 00:29:46 He'll fix it overnight. Yeah. High prices are always a cure for high prices. Yeah. I've heard that. We 00:29:52 Cannibalize ourselves on, on supply and demand all the time. Any The predictions where it goes after you hang up 00:29:57 your USDA cleats. You agree with me on the CRP growing by 50%? I said a hundred percent. Yeah. 00:30:04 Yeah, I think so because it's the, the little small things, um, the small acreages. 'cause you know, when it first started 00:30:13 we had producers walking in the door with their landlord, said, Kevin wants to put this five, 00:30:19 six acres over in this corner and CRP I'm going pay pay you more for the rest of the farm because I don't have to screw with 00:30:26 that five acres and Oh, yeah. And you get the, I got some of them i's do that with Right now. So, um, 00:30:31 and that will always be always, um, we see it with the filterer strips, the, the, and then here in the Midwest we have the highly rob ground. 00:30:39 So we have lots of waterways. Um, the open ditches, the filterer strips, and this had some more Kai asking about, um, 00:30:48 wetland restorations. Mm-hmm. And you're talking about the state, same type of things. Yep. So with that, and then they buffer it with trees. 00:30:55 So our long-term thing is always, and especially here in the Midwest, you know, Indiana is a huge hardwood exporter. 00:31:04 Um, people don't realize how much hardwoods and so you get the reforestation and there's double benefits there. Yep. So, 00:31:12 Yeah. And us D's gonna always be involved in our business. Are they? Oh yeah. That's not going away. No 00:31:17 Long after you're, long after you're retired and riding your horse. In sense, Don't, won't too much control to let that go. 00:31:22 His name's Eric Mason. He's my brother. He is number seven. I'm number nine in the family line up. And we are glad he came to join us at the Green River. 00:31:28 We're glad you joined us. The grain r also, we do this quite often. We're always welcome to you coming here 00:31:32 and pulling up a chair figuratively, and pouring yourself a drink and taking part of the conversation. 00:31:35 My brother Eric stopped by to talk to Kevin Matthews and Matt Miles. We're so glad you came here. 00:31:39 You know what, share this with somebody that can benefit from it and make sure you check out other great episodes of the Greenery from Day La Russell Farms. 820 00:31:45.885 --> 00:31:46.045