What’s Wrong (and Right) With Agriculture? | The Granary

00:00:00 What's wrong with American agriculture? What's right with American agriculture? Who gets credits 00:00:05 and who takes blame for what's wrong or what's right? That's why I'm covering my friends in this episode of The Grainery. You ready 00:00:11 For a conversation with some real farmers about real issues? And the best part? You are invited. 00:00:16 Support yourself a drink, grab a snack. Most importantly, pull up a chair. Welcome to the greenery. Hey guys. 00:00:33 All right. I'm Sitting here with my friend from FMC, that's Adam Byrne. He's a Michigan guy, 00:00:37 and he's joined by Gail Stratman, who's a Nebraska guy. Both of 'em with FMC are sponsoring this show. We very much appreciate your sponsorship. 00:00:45 We appreciate you coming in from outta state to join us right here at the Green Re Dealers of Farms in Huntington, Indiana. 00:00:50 We're joined by my friend Kelly Garrett, uh, creator of Extreme Ag. Um, alright, 00:00:55 you've been in this business your whole life and another recording. We heard from a friend Adam, very politely saying, well, 00:01:02 I don't have as many years of experience in this industry as Gail does. Which is a nice way of saying, 00:01:07 uh, you're old, but you know what? Gail's only a year older than me. We've been around this business our whole life. 00:01:12 I've got lots of opinions about this business. I comment on this business. I speak at ag functions. I can tell you, I think there's some things wrong 00:01:18 with our business, and I can do it from the farmer standpoint. I can do it from the corporate standpoint. 00:01:22 I can do it from the policy standpoint. I can go from all different angles. There's some things that are really right with our business. 00:01:29 You can do it from the farm perspective. You're a business guy and entrepreneur. You can do it from that angle. What's wrong 00:01:34 with American agriculture? What's right? Where's the credit go? Where's the blame? Go? Gimme any example. 00:01:41 I think what's wrong with American agriculture is the independence of the farmer going down. I, I believe the farmer gets farmed. 00:01:49 I I believe that, you know, Lee Lubert has said that our stream ag partner, I think what's right with American agriculture, uh, is the quality 00:01:57 and the quantity which, which we provide. Food is inexpensive. I know right away you're gonna, you said in the last 00:02:03 episode, food is high priced. I don't agree. When you, um, you know, uh, our president came out and said that beef is expensive. 00:02:09 You know, uh, I I read a metric that, uh, for what the average, uh, employee, the average of wage, right now, the average person needs 00:02:17 to work 10 minutes to buy a pound of beef. Right. In 2015, they need to work 15 minutes. Yeah. So food is not expensive. 00:02:24 And I think that that is a credit to the American farmer. Mm-hmm. Clarify, I said food has gone 00:02:29 through an inflationary period. Yes. From a standpoint of affordability and is less affordable than it was. 00:02:35 But globally, last I did my research, the average Nigerian spends about half of their income eating. 00:02:42 And we spend still about 10 to 11% here. So Yes, that's much sense. Yes. Inflation, we had inflationary food pressure, 00:02:49 but no, it's still affordable. What's wrong with I agree with you, by the way, what's wrong is the, let's just take that one. 00:02:56 The farmer gets farmed. We've got a policy situation. Mm-hmm. We've got, uh, a corporate structure that farmers a lot of times a conduit 00:03:06 Between, You know, the flow of money. And I think that's what you're talking about. That is what I'm talking about. And I'd say so, which, 00:03:13 which goes back to the independence, et cetera. You, it's high end into that one. You were raised on a farm. You've been around this game your whole life. 00:03:19 Yeah. I mean, it, it, we, we've gotten really efficient at doing things, but 00:03:26 because of that we've gotten really, um, dependent upon those systems that we're utilizing to do that. 00:03:35 And like you said, we're getting farmed, so to speak. Um, like I said, yeah, I grew up on a row crop, livestock farm. 00:03:41 Um, you know, I think back to the things that we used to do, and I'm glad one glad there's a lot of things 00:03:47 that we don't do the same way anymore. Because I always told people I grew up, if you could chop it, shovel it 00:03:54 or chase it, I did it. Yeah. And most of the times it wasn't fun. Mm-hmm. And so I'm glad we don't do things that way and, 00:04:01 and some of the innovations we got anymore. But some of the things that we've developed over the years to make things easier, also back us into problems. 00:04:10 I always tell people one of the worst things that ever got invented in farm agriculture was the cab tractor. 00:04:15 Mm-hmm. Because if you had to be out there on an open station tractor, we wouldn't be doing some of the stuff. 00:04:21 In times of the year, we try to do stuff. Mm-hmm. And then we wonder why it didn't turn out The way. And you're talking about things 00:04:26 like compaction or harming the soil or far planting too early. That's Too early. 00:04:34 When is when it's 38 degrees in that. But that tractor's 70 and you got, you got your, your Twitter feed. 00:04:39 You got your satellite radio. Hell, it don't bother you if it's 38 degrees and you're out there on a 6 56 or something like that. 00:04:45 You're like, uh, we're gonna wait until it gets warm to plant. Exactly. You know, you see guys farming in the snow, 00:04:50 you know, and you, you always get the question, what's too early to plant uhhuh? Well, I guarantee if you spend most 00:04:55 of your life in a coveralls from November to May Yeah. You figure out when it's too early to plant. Mm-hmm. You know, kind of stuff. Because if it's too cold 00:05:03 to be on a tractor, it's probably too cold for your seat. If You're gonna have your coveralls on, you 00:05:06 shouldn't, this has To be, this has to be one of my favorite moments of all the shows we've recorded the gray in meat. 00:05:10 'cause this is the first time Gail Stratman has been here. The one of the biggest thing that's wrong 00:05:14 with the bigger agriculture is cad, tractor enclosed environment. I not guess that he wants that person buggy. 00:05:20 I did not have that on my Bingo. I did. I Love that. I do. I do. It's a, it's a great state. You don't like the 00:05:25 Comfort level. Exactly. The f Oh my God. When we got our first cab tractor in the 1970s. Yep. I mean, it was fighting your brothers 00:05:33 because you have one person had to run the cab tractor and you needed everybody else that was shoveling, shoveling Hog manure. When I was 00:05:39 14, 15 years old, we had two nine foot sickle bar mowers. I was on the open station 40, 20. 00:05:45 My uncle Kevin was in the 44 50 with the cab. Yeah. And when he would drive past me on the 90 degree gate, he'd act like he's shivering from the air 00:05:52 and I'm dying Sweating. Yeah. Getting sunburned. You're exactly right. Exactly. And hearing and hearing damage. Yes. Yeah. 00:05:58 Sunburn, skin cancer, hearing damage. And you're out there in the elements and Yeah. What's wrong, Adam? Burn with American Agriculture. 00:06:06 What's right? Who's to get the credit? Who's to get the blame? Take any of those. You want, you know, when I just tee tee off of any of these? 00:06:11 Yeah. When I think about what, it's not quite the same as the cab tractor, but I think we just spent a lot of time talking about innovation. 00:06:16 But I think some, one of the things I think that's wrong right now is there's this a, a dearth of opportunities or products 00:06:23 or things that at the disposal of the grower that is confusing. Right. There's just so many, so much noise right now that, 00:06:29 how do you make these decisions on what to use or what to do? I think we've gotten complicated. 00:06:34 I think we've made things more complicated sometimes than it has to be. And I think what's right with farming is just, I, you know, 00:06:41 as somebody who did come from a university background, the, the farming community, the culture, the family values. 00:06:46 I love interacting with the farmers one-on-one. And so that's what's right. And, you know, maintaining that culture. 00:06:52 So, what's wrong? What's wrong? When you talk about the complexity, is that from that companies like FMC are making it that way 00:07:00 because of all the amazing products? Or is it the technology that we're now using because it's helping us allegedly improve our efficiency? 00:07:07 Or is it the finance? What's, what's the complexity that you thinks wrongest? Well, I think there's, there's a bunch of opportunities 00:07:16 for people to kind of dive into the industry and provide opportunities, whether it's nutritionals or biologicals or ag chemicals. 00:07:22 There's just a lot of opportunities for people to try to come into the system and bring a product and say, this is gonna do this for you, 00:07:28 but we need to understand our system. We need to understand, as you said, kind of a holistic approach. 00:07:34 The nutritional value or nutrition components of our crop. We need to know our soil health. 00:07:38 We need to know the varieties we're planting. And there's more to it than just throwing an additive out there. 00:07:43 But that's so overwhelming. I think sometimes for farmers to understand all these things that are getting dumped on them. 00:07:49 What's, what's the right choice Here? Okay, so what's wrong? You're saying the complexity 00:07:53 and it also probably becomes overwhelming. Yeah. And maybe it doesn't actually end up making us better because it almost is too, too much to sort. 00:08:01 And we sometimes lose the agronomics behind it in terms of, you know, making a choice to make a profit versus making a choice 00:08:08 that makes the most sense to get a return on your investment. Tell you About someone that's Mr. 00:08:13 Negative Nancy and that's Gail Stratman. Because Kelly said, here's what's wrong and here's what's right. 00:08:18 And you said, here's what's wrong and what's right. All he went with was wrong, wrong, wrong. This damn farmers are comfortable on their 00:08:24 camp tractors. That's wrong. He says, I don't have one. These farmers aren't working hard enough. 00:08:28 They should be out there in the, If I remember correctly, Gail's one of the younger ones in his family. 00:08:32 I am. And so he lost that cab tractor Flight. That's where he Never got to ride in the tractor. 00:08:37 You never got to cab tractor. Tractor. I never got, he still holds that I, the similar situation. I 00:08:42 Detect him resentment. Yeah, I guess so. All throughout, well social media Has been a great mm-hmm. Boon 00:08:49 To, to allow people to connect. One of the things I see is I follow social media and a lot of the ag stuff, I see a tremendous amount 00:08:58 of people tossing out information or tossing out things around products. And that, and my first question, 00:09:04 especially over the last year or two, I've, first thing I do when I see something, but especially if I don't know 'em, is my first thought is 00:09:11 what are your credentials that make you the expert to offer this advice? Because you're, you're putting people 00:09:19 if you're not understanding, you know, maybe with their background, maybe they've got a lot of background, maybe they've got a lot of understanding. 00:09:25 Mm-hmm. Or maybe they're just marketing something that sometimes you question where they're coming from. So I, I think one of the things people really gotta do is, 00:09:36 is with all this information coming at us, take a step back and, and ask yourself, is this something I'm trying 00:09:43 to do on my farm or not? And is this good information that might benefit me or not to help you sort through it? 00:09:49 Because there's a ton of it out there and I don't mean that Yeah. That people are offering bad information. Yeah. 00:09:55 But there's so much of it that not everything can work for everybody. There's no way you gotta be able 00:10:00 to figure out a way to sort, you don't Subscribe to the theory that it's on the internet, so it Must be true. 00:10:05 Exactly. That that's, yes. That Part. So that's why I get real careful about what I, what I say sometimes because it's like, 00:10:12 I don't wanna lead people down a path that may not fit them. We covered it once at this very table about the, uh, 00:10:19 sheer volume and information that's out there and how do you parse, how do you parse through it and, and do that. 00:10:25 So you're, you're not wrong in that regard. You still haven't gotten to anything positive about agriculture like you two did. 00:10:32 He talked about the volume and the quantity, I'm sorry. And the, and the quality of our food, et cetera, et cetera. And you said about the people. Yeah. 00:10:39 And I actually, I think that's one thing that is right about this. And I guess I'll throw in my thing. 00:10:43 I'll get to what's wrong, but I'm gonna go ahead and lead off with what's right. You said you think that this industry has, it's got a lot 00:10:50 of family, it's got a lot family orientation. Um, you Know, we're not patting ourselves in the back. Oh, we're ag we're all wholesome. 00:10:56 There's plenty of non wholesome people in here, but in general, there's, it gives you a good feel. Mm-hmm. This is not, you know, we're not out here 00:11:03 with used car sales types. Okay. Uh, as much. Well, I did say something positive earlier. 'cause I said we have gotten 00:11:09 really efficient in agriculture. How many, on your best day, how many thousand bushels can you take out in a day? 00:11:16 Uh, mining. Yeah. Um, 65, 6500 bushels a day. Right. 60,000, 65,000 bushels a day. Right. That's, it fills a larger size grain bin than most 00:11:29 farms ever had 20 years ago. Yeah. That's, and that's five x. So what we used to produce on an entire farm, 00:11:34 and that would take us two months to harvest kind of a thing. Yeah. So we have gotten real with the technology 00:11:40 and all that and, and the efficiencies we have gotten really good at, uh, at maximizing our return and, 00:11:48 and lowering our cost per acre or per bushel. Yeah. We, we've Gotten really good at efficiency. 00:11:54 I wanted to touch on that. We, we've gotten really good at the efficiency, like you talked about, but, and, and the consistency. 00:11:59 Look at how we raise hogs and things like that now. But that's also a negative towards farming. When we've gotten so consistent 00:12:05 and we've gotten so efficient and we've mitigated all that risk. The margins aren't there. The margins aren't there. 00:12:11 Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And, and the margins aren't there because we've gotten so, but the, the, the American government 00:12:15 and the American consumer wants that efficiency and they want that consistency. Yeah. But now it all of that, all of the risk. 00:12:23 Assume we could argue that again, we being a touch older, uh, ends of this table, but not by a lot. 00:12:29 The margins weren't there 40 years ago either, obviously. Uh, there was no, no matter, 00:12:34 no matter whether you were out there with an Oliver 1850 from 1970, like I was out there driving still in 1985, 00:12:40 a 15-year-old treasure with a heat houser that added seven degrees. So instead of it being 19 degrees, it felt like it was 26. 00:12:48 Yeah. But the point is there was no margins in 1985 either. So that's a, a reality, um, uh, people up. 00:12:56 I think that's a really good positive about this industry. And I would say extrapolating off of that, Adam, they, 00:13:02 I used to be in comedy, I used to speak for all different kinds of corporate crowds. All right. You know, funeral directors to insurance people 00:13:09 to finance, to whatever tech. Most people didn't love their work the way ag people love their work. 00:13:17 Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, you have a corporate job and you used to work for university and all that, and maybe there's days you didn't like, 00:13:23 or some of the BS you didn't enjoy about the, you know, the, the organization. 00:13:27 But you probably always liked the work. And that's something that I think is very right about agriculture. 00:13:32 Most people would genuinely love. We use the passion word too damn much. But love the work. You still love the work. I would 00:13:39 go back to it in a heartbeat. You know, I mean, some of the day-to-day tasks weren't the most fun, but at the end of the day, 00:13:46 you, you had a self worth. And, and like I said, growing up where I did, I was gracious enough to have parents who 00:13:55 involved us at a very young age. Hmm. And so, because of that, by the time you got to middle school and high school, you really felt like 00:14:05 you got a part of this, this part of this is you. Um, and, and what, When they think about that, Gail, you know, 00:14:11 you used the word involved. So when I was forced to go out and feed the calves in ag, that's called involvement. 00:14:16 Well, it, it was because, and you, and you learned, and you learned about how the importance of that involvement was. 00:14:22 Because if it, if you didn't do it, you would find out real quick the consequences of you not doing it. 00:14:27 It wasn't, if you decided not to do it that day, somebody else is just gonna go pick it up and do it, no questions asked. 00:14:33 Mm-hmm. All right. So you have I'm sure something to say, but it is about what's wrong, what's right. 00:14:36 And we have to get to the, the blame or credit, because I also then want to do the juxtaposition. What's wrong with corporate? 00:14:43 And then corporate says, what's wrong with the, at the farm level, and I wanna get to that too. So whichever category you wanna go with, 00:14:48 whichever direction you wanna take it. What's wrong with corporate corporate ag? Yes. What's wrong with corporate 00:14:54 Ag? What's wrong with ag? The ag that corporate contributes to? Maybe that's the other way to look at it. 00:14:59 Uh, sometimes it's too big, the corporate part of ag is too big and it's not nimble enough, and they don't, and sometimes corporate ag is so big, 00:15:09 so they're not nimble enough to understand the day-to-day challenges that we have. And sometimes corporate ag has gotten so big and it, 00:15:15 and it's, uh, such a disconnect. You know, how we have a disconnect from our food, because how the average person now in the United States is 00:15:20 how many generations removed from the farm. Mm-hmm. Well, that same employee is also removed from agriculture. 00:15:25 Mm-hmm. And they don't understand what's going on on a farm. I, I have a brother-in-law that wanted 00:15:31 to know if there's different colored milk from different colored cows. Mm-hmm. But he doesn't work at ag. No. But, but, but 00:15:36 Okay. But okay. But think about, no, he doesn't work at ag, but I doubt that his viewpoint, you know, he is been married 00:15:42 to my sister now for a few years now he understands Yeah. And he's gonna be embarrassed when he watches this. 00:15:46 But it, you know, but like that, that same mindset or lack of understanding exists in corporate ag where they don't, they don't understand. 00:15:54 I have been booked to speak at corporate ag events and we always do the pre-call and I said, gimme some demographics. 00:16:00 And they always think it means, you know, ethnicity. I'm like, no, no, no. Tell me about the this crowd. Where are they from? Yeah. What do they look like? 00:16:07 What, what's their age? And I said, so do you think most of 'em are like me, a farm kid that has a degree from a land grant school? 00:16:13 And they said, uh, oh. Oh, no, no, no. More than half our people don't have any ag background and don't even have an ag degree. 00:16:19 And, but they're in these different, you know, shipping, transportation, there's a lot of roles 00:16:22 that an FMC type company has. And I said, oh, I said, so my role, they said, your role is to give 'em some understanding of 00:16:29 what the hell is going on in this business. And Yeah. And because they've, and that's, That's a real different message 00:16:34 than talking to a bunch of farmers. Yeah. Way different. Yeah. Way different. I, I Feel like, yeah. Over 00:16:38 my career, one of the things I've been able to contribute to the company I work for has been that perspective of, I grew up on a farm. 00:16:48 I live in the middle of it. I eat, breathe and, and sneeze it all the time. So it's, it's where I come from 00:16:54 and I offer that perspective. Here's what grower, here's what growers are trying to do. Here's what they're wanting to do out there. 00:17:00 Because so many people don't understand agriculture. They're running up and down interstates. They look out and see something out in a field. 00:17:08 One, they may, they may be able to identify that it is a tractor. They have no clue what they're, what even 00:17:14 that grower is attempting to do out there. And so that, that part of it is, is really difficult. And as generations continue to get more 00:17:22 and more removed from the farm, and there's so few doing it, um, it becomes a challenge for those people that are trying 00:17:27 to support that industry to actually understand what the end user, the grower is trying to do. You know, like we, uh, we talk about like my, 00:17:35 my meat store, GLC beef, you know, growing up on the farm, that that fact that you're gonna butcher that calf 00:17:41 and things like that, that's just a fact of life. And we understand that at a very young age. Yeah. When we started to put out videos for GLC, beef Will, 00:17:48 will Osted our, the producer, he's like, we, I said, well, I'd like to have a picture of the calf and things like that. 00:17:53 And he said, people don't wanna, they don't want to connect those two. And I'm like, Hmm. You, they, 00:17:58 they don't wanna connect those two because it, they don't understand. And I mean, like, that's, that's just part of what we do. 00:18:03 It doesn't mean we're cruel. It's, we we're producing food. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I got asked that back when I had my beef operation. 00:18:09 How do you eat a steer a drink? Braided it. I said that with a fork in a knife. Uh, it, yeah. Um, what's, what's wrong from the corporate standpoint, 00:18:20 looking at the farm, he already did farm looking at the corporate two, sometimes too large, not nimble, um, not doing the business thing. 00:18:29 A lot of ag people, you see that on social media. Big companies gouging the farmer. I, I, I, first off, if that's the case, 00:18:35 they'd all be making like 600% profit margins. Yeah. They're working on 28% profit margins. Mm-hmm. A big ag corporation in general is working on the same type 00:18:46 of profit margins as about every other corporation that is supplying something to someone in or out of ag. It's, uh, it's fascinating to me, 00:18:54 every business I've been involved in, every, every one of them is trying to, to think about the same amount of profit margin. 00:19:00 The outside always sees it differently. I know, it's I know, but they're all the same. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. 00:19:05 Nobody, you're not, you're not knocking back like, uh, yeah. Uh, we brought in a hundred dollars 00:19:10 and we made 93 off of that. I'm like, no, you brought in a hundred and your margin was probably like 00:19:14 $24. It's, it's kind of a law of economics. It just goes there. That's exactly, yeah. You know, the, 00:19:18 the different partners in extreme ag, South Dakota, Iowa, all the way to Maryland with Temple Arkansas, we all, 00:19:24 in a good year, we would all make about the same. And in a bad year, we'd all lose about the same, give or take. 00:19:30 Now, there's some, there's some anomalies, but we all made about the same. But there, there Lee's land in South Dakota was a lot less 00:19:36 expensive, but his crop insurance was astronomical. You know what I mean? The law of economics just, it, it goes to the same spot. Mm-hmm. 00:19:43 Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you gave me a Adam, you gave me a what's wrong and what's right. Is there, is there anybody else you wanna talk about 00:19:49 from the corporate looking to farm? What else, what do you got? So from the farm perspective, like 00:19:53 what do we see from the corporate side on the farmer? Uh, you know, I think, what are they Doing wrong? What are they doing? Right? 00:20:00 I think we talked about this a couple times today. The easy button approach, like looking for the easy option or the easy way out, 00:20:08 or the easy way to approach, whether it's nutrition or, uh, crop protection. I think that's a weakness. 00:20:15 And in doing so, what that has created is over usage of some synthetics, Over usage maybe, but 00:20:21 or improper usage, poorly timed usage. Uh, maybe reliance on others instead of being in tune with your farm and your, your situation. 00:20:29 I think, and, and that's not, that's not a generality I wanna paint across everyone, but I, we do see some of that. 00:20:34 I mean, very progressive farmers I think are more in tune. But I think there's, there's a need there to be really kind 00:20:41 of circumspect on what you're doing and how you're doing and why you're doing it. I, I will tell you something that I think farmers do wrong. 00:20:47 You've got XY way on your shirt. Mm-hmm. If a farmer uses XY way in the wrong way and your dealer comes out, is your dealer gonna say, 00:20:54 you used it in the wrong way, it's your responsibility. They won't because the farmer, you don't wanna lose that customer. 00:20:59 Mm-hmm. And you'll do something to keep that customer. And sometimes there's a lack of education and lack of understanding. 00:21:05 The, the company will then comp it or they'll, there'll be, there'll be vol, uh, free stuff given because you don't wanna lose the customer. 00:21:12 And part of the time it's our responsibility and we should be told that, but we won't, You know, by the way, what We should be told, 00:21:19 it's our responsibility. Dale goes, that is something that is sort of unique. 00:21:26 Unique means there's nothing else like it. Or at least very skewed farmers get their butt kissed more than the average. 00:21:34 If I bought a product just as a normal person in my suburban house in Phoenix, and I misused it, and I started squawking about it from 00:21:42 let's say my pool company, they come out and say, yeah, no, the instructions said don't do this, don't do this. 00:21:47 They don't gimme money. But we do that to farmers. We, We do that in a ton of industry. I have a colleague that I've worked with that's from Brazil, 00:21:56 and I was talking to her earlier this year about, you know, just, you know, sometimes we have to go out and, 00:22:01 and when we're working with our products, we're dealing with farmers. We have to service a claim. 00:22:05 And she, her first comment is, I know Americans in general are very, uh, heavily, they complain a lot. 00:22:14 She says, Americans complain about everything. Yes. She says, I don't care. She says, if it's the cereal doesn't taste right, she says, 00:22:20 you send a note to Kellogg's and tell 'em what do they do? They send you a gift certificate 00:22:24 for free cereal. She says, so You keep buying, You know, so you keep buying it's Right. 00:22:28 And then that, and so I Don't know if I like dealing with Brazilians talking about me. That's right. 00:22:32 And so we, we deal with that a lot. I always tell people, I farmed my entire life. I've got an entire family that farms and, 00:22:39 and I wanna tell, you know, how many years, the years, how many claims we have turned in on stuff Zero. Now does that mean we've done everything right every time? 00:22:48 Heck no. But usually the first person I look at is in the mirror. Yeah. Okay. This didn't go right. Why? 00:22:54 Is it because one, like it or not, mother Nature still controls 80% of what we do. Mm-hmm. And so a lot of the things we do are tools 00:23:04 to help us, you know, manage things in our operation. But there is no guarantee that it's gonna act exactly the same in year one 00:23:13 and year three and year five. And so you gotta understand how those tools and how those things all interact in a biological system 00:23:21 with Mother Nature involved. And, uh, and the more you try to understand that, the better off you're gonna be. 00:23:27 That understand that there's ebbs and flows with everything we do. How many acres 00:23:31 of corn gets planted too wet in the United States every spring and cold, and how many bags of free seed get given to the farmer because the farmer never did anything wrong? 00:23:41 No risks. But the seed company doesn't wanna lose the Yes. And by the way, no offense, but if then the farmer's 00:23:46 complaining, maybe when the cameras aren't on sitting at this table having a beer, well, I'm paying $300 00:23:51 and 43 $40 for a bag that see, I'm like, nah, really? It's one 70 because it gave you two bags. The first one, first you put into four. 00:23:59 The first one you out planted the 41 degree cold wet Indiana soil, April 12th, even though you knew it wasn't gonna germinate 00:24:07 until about the time we got Dini 500 Memorial Day weekend. So you really got two bags from price point. Right. 00:24:11 And the seed dealer, the seed dealer Is never gonna tell the farmer we planted it too much. They're gonna go back to corporate. 00:24:16 They're gonna go back to corporate. A lot about how, um, a lot of times chemist chemicals are so expensive and I, and a fir 00:24:23 and my first comment to that is, okay, a lot of times we don't recognize the value that you get from it. Mm-hmm. Because if herbicides, 00:24:33 what do you spend on an acre in herbicides? Say say 60 bucks. Yeah. Okay. 60 bucks an acre in herbicides. 00:24:38 If you had no herbicides on that acre, what kinda of a yield hit? Would you take more than 60 bucks? It, 00:24:42 It would probably, might not be, get the Combine through. I I would usually just say one third, let's just, 00:24:46 Or, or you'd be out there bent over pulling weeds all the way and you can't possibly do that on mass scale, et cetera, 00:24:50 Et cetera. But, but just say one third, take 200 bushel corn times a third. Yeah. That's, uh, 70 70 bush $280. 280 bucks an acre. Yeah. 00:24:58 For a 60 that's off four to 1 5, 4 and a half to one return on your investment. Yeah. I saw some research min, um, 00:25:05 it was probably a decade ago ago, and they said, besides fertilizer crop protection provides the best ROI on the acre. 00:25:12 That's true. Because think about, think about seed. What's good? Bag of seed costs that 3, 3 50. That's what I just said. I, 00:25:19 I wanna buy this two, 200 bush of corn at four bucks. Yeah. Is 800 bucks an acre. Takes take 800 divided by three 50. 00:25:26 That's what, two and a half? Yeah. More return on herbicide than you get on seed. Uh, what's right? I got a couple things. And what's wrong? 00:25:33 What's right? And we gotta get to who takes claim or who, who gets, who gets blame, who gets credit? Do you have any more rights or you got any wrongs? 00:25:39 No, I think, I mean, from, from the industry perspective, what's right. I think, yeah, We're talking about individual farm, 00:25:46 really just more talking about, you know, macro. Yeah. I think what's right. I, I think we talk about what's right and wrong. 00:25:53 Some of the things that are right are also wrong. I think that somebody else all alluded to that with the technology and innovation, 00:25:58 I think the tools we have are right. But I think they get to be used the wrong way. So I think, I think we're in a situation right now 00:26:04 where it's just really all about how do we best utilize what we have at our disposal and do it the right way. I, I don't, I don't think there's a 00:26:13 underlying right or wrong anymore. It's a matter of how do we refine what we're doing and make sure we're doing things the right way? 00:26:19 I'll go with mine. I kind of said, go last. I, I've been ki you know, kind of kicking in here. What's wrong? We overproduce, uh, 00:26:26 and we think that somehow that that still is what the future needs. And, um, 00:26:32 what's right is we're doing it more efficiently we've ever done. We're doing it with less natural resources Yep. 00:26:36 Than we've ever used. We're doing it less diesel, less chime. Sure. Less, less. Even less, less her, less, less pints 00:26:42 of herbicide per acre. Less pounds of fertility per unit of output of bushels. But what's wrong with it is too many people in our industry, 00:26:50 and it's from, it's from the top on down, think that somehow this is still the future. And I just keep looking around saying, 00:26:56 we're gonna start dumping these soybeans in the Pacific. I mean, I, I don't know where they think 00:26:59 this is going to go. And, um, what's wrong is that we don't seem to understand that that is complete. 00:27:07 This whole is changed like that, and it's just not going to, we don't need any more of this stuff. 00:27:11 What's right. The growth in regenerative, the growth in understanding that we can farm maybe less expensively 00:27:20 and maybe have less yield, but also do better by the ground and do better, uh, versus it just going 00:27:26 and getting high yield competitions at the commodity Classic. Um, that's cute. And it was neat for you, 00:27:30 but you even grew outta that. Like, oh yeah, that was neat, but that's not where we're going anymore. 00:27:34 So that's what's Right. I see a, uh, I see a mind shift coming, maybe not as fast as I want to Un understanding that there's more 00:27:40 to it than just producing more bushels at a cheaper price. Because, you know, we've focused so much. 00:27:46 I mean, American consumer, yeah. Food costs have gone up, but they probably haven't gone up on the scale 00:27:51 of other inputs that would go on in. I had a, uh, I had a family member many years ago said, you know, 1970 something, they loaded up a 00:28:03 pot load of hogs, sold that whole thing, built a house. Mm-hmm. You're Not doing that today. You 00:28:08 couldn't build a house, can't do that today. Can't do and be a big Trailer. Far solution to 00:28:12 that is produce more because that production side is probably the only side of that equation that a grower can really control. 00:28:20 Yeah. Right. Because all those other things have gotten right. So, and I gotta make that small margin now cover more 00:28:25 And more. Okay. So you just put out what's wrong. What's wrong is all you really can do is control the production side because obviously you have no control of it. 00:28:33 Blaming and credit, you're good at this. So you are better at pointing out people's flaws than I am, uh, at being negative and critical. 00:28:43 So why don't you go ahead and tell me who's to blame for any of these things that are wrong 00:28:46 or who's to get credit for things that are right in agriculture? I think It's the same answer to both questions. 00:28:51 Mm-hmm. I think that it's human nature, that we want to get more efficient, we want to get more consistent. We want to do better. And as you define just a, 00:28:59 a few minutes ago, better is producing more. Yeah. And so we're all to blame and we're all to credit. It's, it's the, it's really is the yin 00:29:06 and the yang of this subject government Policy. It's gonna help and hurt. I think it's the same, same answer. Adam, 00:29:15 Are you worried that like your congressman's gonna like call you up? You can't, you can't say 00:29:19 that government policy is part of the problem. Well, certainly there's, there, there's an involvement in the problem, 00:29:24 but we're also highly dependent on government policy too, at the farm level. So I think I, I, I completely agree it's a yin 00:29:31 and yang approach because we need it, but we also, it's, we're sitting in a situation where trade wars 00:29:36 and where to put production right now is a big, big issue. And so I think government policy is creating problems, 00:29:43 but I think we're also gonna turn around and call for help when we need it. Yeah. Opportunity can build both a positive 00:29:51 and a negative opportunity has allowed us to do, to grow agriculture so much. I mean, I, I see where the state of ag was in the 1980s, 00:29:59 and if you'd have been through that, like some of us were, you'd thought, because again, 00:30:05 my dad at the time said, get outta ag. There ain't no money in it. We're, we're basically surviving here. 00:30:10 And so you, you'd looked at that and went, man, I don't know how we're ever gonna get, you know, people are gonna, we're gonna feed the country. 00:30:15 We opportunities arise from that. And so that those opportunities, um, have allowed this, this industry to really thrive. 00:30:24 But, you know, it's, as people adapt and, and, and grasp onto those opportunities, it also creates challenges for the, the, the system 00:30:33 as a whole, whether that's from the corporate level down to to, uh, to feed the, the input side of that thing, 00:30:39 the output side of that, uh, all of that with the farmer in between. So, you know, it's, it's just, it's just the economics 00:30:47 and the, uh, and the livelihood of, of, uh, of growing up in America and, and the agriculture side that, 00:30:52 that offers those opportunities. But there's gonna continue to be challenges that we're gonna have to navigate through government's part 00:30:57 of that, um, you know, uh, chemical companies, seed companies, e everything. Uh, it doesn't matter what, what the input side of it is. 00:31:06 Um, you know, land, resources, all that sort of stuff. One of the challenges I often see is, is we're, we're, as he mentioned, the exports. 00:31:15 We've done a great job of teaching the rest of the world how to get so much better mm-hmm. 00:31:20 At growing things. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That was great because they became self-sufficient. Suddenly we start losing them as customers. Yeah, right. 00:31:28 You know, so, um, you know, there's, is There blame to be, is there blame or credit to be Okay? Give them credit. Yes. Give them credit. Yeah. 00:31:35 Give the Brazilians credit. Give the, uh, people in, yeah. Uzbekistan, credit, 00:31:39 Russians, you know, China, all those sorts of things Australia give them, give them credit for seeing that and, and adapting. 00:31:45 But we also gotta recognize that, that that changes the likelihood of them needing us the way they did 20 years ago. Are the 00:31:53 Corporations to blame for that? They wouldn't sell product in Uzbekistan? No. The corporations aren't blame. 00:31:59 John Deere wanted to sell John Deere's than you, Uzbekistan. It's the chemical companies wanna sell 00:32:02 products and nube, same As consolidation and farming. Everybody's trying to get to make more money Yeah. And trying to grow their business and things like that. 00:32:08 And we're all being pushed in the same direction. And by the way, I was, I'm being a little bit facetious. Yeah, yeah. So I know. Yeah. Another being facetious, 00:32:13 because let's face it, it, it is after all a global economy in many ways. And we are in a situation where we all have 00:32:19 to make a living. Yeah. Human nature is to make your I, uh, you know, is to make your life better. 00:32:24 And they're trying to do it. We're probably a half a century, a century ahead of them on that level, uh, in some cases, but they're catching up. 00:32:34 And like I said, it's a continu, it's a changing planet. And we will continue to adapt and bring new innovations 00:32:39 and those sorts of things, um, make work. But some of the steps they're making now are gonna make bigger leaps than what we're seeing on our end. 00:32:46 Yeah. Because we are already, the, the leaps that far ahead, the Leaps we made 40, 50 years ago, they might be making 00:32:51 Now. They're making now. And those look like monster leaps compared to what we're doing on the local level. 00:32:56 And so that has impact on the global level. It's very true. Mad, while you're on it, you won't gimme any 00:32:59 credit because you're Mr. Positive here. So we're gonna go out with you. Any credit? Credit, I think credit still goes to the farmer. 00:33:06 I think the, the amount of work and the investment, I still think you go back to, you know, we talked about the people. 00:33:11 I, you know, too much of the industry is removed from the farm and doesn't understand the investment, the time, the energy, 00:33:18 the labor love that the farm has. And I, I think that gets lost in the shuffle when we talk about prices and food prices and global markets. 00:33:26 I think the, the people deserve the credit. Well, le it right there. His name's Adam Byrne. He's with FMCs, joined by Gale Stratman, 00:33:33 who's also with FM C. They came in from outta state to sit right here at the greenery. And we always tell you, you don't even have to drive here. 00:33:39 You can just pull up a chair figuratively and sit here, right here with us. And we do this all the time. 00:33:43 Um, more than 40 episodes have released and maybe even 50 at this point. And if you have a topic you'd like us to cover to Greenery, 00:33:49 go ahead and just send a message and we will do so. Please show your friends. Remember we're on YouTube. Go to Extreme Ag Channel on YouTube. It's very simple. 00:33:55 Just type it in. Hit subscribe, doesn't cost anything. Um, and again, we'd like to cover any topics you'd like us to see. 00:34:01 Um, this is all about bringing a little bit of farm stuff to you. Joined by Kelly Garrett. 00:34:04 Kelly Garrett is the founder of Extreme Ag. He's gonna be here, uh, in more and more episodes. And if you wanna learn more about these fine folks at FMC, 00:34:12 where do you go sponsoring this show? Thank you very much. Where do I go? You can go to ag.fmc.com 948 00:34:15.725 --> 00:34:16.925 or like I said, talk to anybody in the countryside, uh, local suppliers, uh, crop protection guys, 00:34:22 and, um, they'll be able to set you up. Till next 10. Thanks for being here. Thank you FMC for sponsoring this. 00:34:26 And until next time, I'm Dam Mason coming at you from Day Lewis Farms and the Greenery. 956 00:34:30.485 --> 00:34:30.845