00:24 This episode of the Extreme Ag Show is presented by concept Agritech Cowboy is the game changer, getting it in 00:32 through the leaves and into the plant circulatory system. That's why this product is 00:37 so effective at delivering both calcium and boron to plants at critical times when they need it the most. 00:49 In the vast American heartland, farming isn't just a job, it's a shared journey Through an unpredictable dance 00:58 of constant obstacles, We're farming in a complete different world than we've ever been in the past. 01:06 The stereotypical farmer is not a guy that is, you know, holding a pitchfork with straw in his mouth 01:13 and a straw cap on. There's no cookie cutter designs like they have in other corporate world. You know, this is like we're problem solvers every day. 01:23 As farmers From the ever changing weather patterns to the escalating costs of production, the landscape of American agriculture is transforming the land. 01:36 Once plentiful is disappearing and the next generation is choosing career paths divergent from the fields that have sustained us for generations. 01:47 Our nation's farmers face challenges that shape not just their livelihoods, but the future of farming itself. 01:56 This ain't like construction or other businesses in agriculture. When it's planting season, the whole United States is going 02:04 to plant the whole crop in a six to eight week time period. If I gotta run to five 02:08 the next morning, we're going to do it. We ain't got no jokes, we're rolling. Yet they remain the backbone of our nation. 02:16 Resilient in the face of adversity. Committed to providing the food fiber and wisdom to nurture the fields 02:23 and the minds of those who follow. Oh, I love farming. Farming is farming's not a job to me. But when you wake up in the mornings 02:31 and you go to work with your best friends and the people you love, it's hard to really call that a job. 02:37 Meet extreme ag. A group of farmers rewriting the story of American agriculture. I've never met a bunch of men that wore more out 02:46 of the box thinkers in my Life. Really the goal of extreme ag isn't necessarily high yields. It's a better ROI. 02:54 And when you can balance the soil and raise more with less, that's a better ROI. And that's sustainable. 03:00 Raising the bar, overcoming obstacles, breaking records, and passionately sharing their knowledge 03:07 to create a brighter future for farming. So the reason I'm so driven is because I really only have about 40 crops 03:15 that I'm intimately involved with. So we're on a clock. That clock is ticking. Fast days go slow and years go fast. 03:22 And I swear that clock is speeding up. Five farmers driven by a passion to explore, educate and equip the next generation of farmers. 03:33 We're here for support and to help you think outside the box to better your farm. That's one thing with extreme ag is we all try to go 03:40 to each other's farms and learn during the growing season. 'cause you know it's easy to go during the off season, 03:46 but you know the growing season is when you see 'em in action and we actually get to learn from 'em Together. They are shaping 03:53 a more sustainable future, cultivating not just crops, but a legacy for generations. A journey of triumph, a testament to perseverance 04:06 and a reflection of the enduring spirit of American agriculture. This is their story. 04:19 Their Story. Amino Grow is an exciting new product put out by concept agritech. What we've seen is an increase in fruiting sites 04:28 as well as branching. And this has equated to yield Spot Less. Introducing the cleanup for Tar Spot, gray leaf spot, 04:44 Southern Rust and more novel next generation at Astria. Fungicide from FMC broadens your spectrum and strengthens your residual foliar disease control. 04:53 Protect your corn fields with a proprietary combination of three modes of action. Visit your FMC retailer or@astro.ag.fmc.com 05:03 to clean up this season In introducing Dem CO's newest dual auger grain cart design. 05:16 Now equipped with the front folding auger and available in right side or left side unload options featuring Dem CO's quarter auger 05:24 design for optimal visibility with a 22 inch vertical auger unload at speeds of 600 bushels per minute. 05:32 Demco outpace harvest time every time. Some farmers I know swear by a name say they never operate anything else. 05:44 Well, here are a few names for my Fent 900 Tractor Fuel Saver, time maximizer Game changer. 05:57 I like those names. BioHealth is a product by concept Agritech made up of a consortium of beneficial biology 06:11 that actually colonized the plant and boost the plant's immune system from the inside. From the sandy soils of McKee, Arkansas. 06:25 Meet Matt Miles, a farmer challenged with growing crops in the Mississippi Delta. A region where growing corn 06:32 and soybeans requires great skill and patience. We've got a little less than 12,000 acres, but it's scattered into 1, 2, 3, 4 counties. 06:48 Just to kind of give you an idea, that's my soul. So you see just a little, a little bit of it fell on the ground. 06:55 A lot of it went out there in the dust. So this is what we're growing our crops in. Very little nutrient holding capacity about a six inch 07:05 topsoil at the max. You know, we have a lot of different challenges between the heat, but our soils 07:10 is one of our biggest challenges. The sweltering heat and high humidity of the summer months are both friend 07:16 and foe demanding that Matt plant his crops early, ensuring they pollinate before the scorching temperature set in. 07:25 Probably our biggest limiting factor in corn production is the nighttime heat, nighttime temperatures 07:30 during pollination. And that can take 20 bushels off our crop in just a matter of a few days during pollinations. 07:39 Big thing we have to deal with sometimes is gators. You know, they'll be in our rice fields, they'll be in our corn fields, 07:45 they'll be in our cotton fields. You know, you never know when you're gonna walk up on one. Matt is no stranger to success. 07:55 His many awards are a reflection of the hard work and commitment to excellence that speaks louder than words. I grow two crops that no one else in extreme ag grows. 08:06 One of 'em is rice and one of 'em is cotton. And I have a love-hate relationship with both of them. My love-hate relationship with rice is mud. 08:15 Everything you do, you seems to almost do in the mud. Cotton's the same way. You know, cotton's difficult to grow, 08:21 harvest later towards more where the hurricanes are. But I'm pretty sentimental with cotton because that's what I learned to do. 08:28 That's what my dad taught me to do. I grow, a lot of the reason I grow cotton is 'cause it's still here. 08:33 It's hard to kind of get away from that. One of the main, I guess, things that's happened in my life during my farm career was when my dad passed. 08:46 You know, I was 31 years old when he passed and I really hadn't learned everything I needed to know. Once he passed, every decision was on me. 08:56 And at that point I leaned on people that were good farmers. One good thing about this community, 09:01 when you're down, they're gonna help you. Me and my dad now probably have one of the best relationships a father and son can have. 09:15 I mean he, he's absolutely my best friend. But it's pretty humbling when you have a hero that is someone younger than you and, 09:23 and Lane is truly one of my heroes in my life. I can't really tell you that I would be farming today if he hadn't have been there in my life, you know? 09:32 So it's such a blessing to, to be able to call your children your hero As stressful as a job as farming is 09:41 and be able to still be friends and work with my dad is, it's unreal. Working with Lane today is a lot different. 09:49 It was 10 years ago, uh, a lot different. It was five years ago. He is, uh, he's 28 years old 09:55 and he's really become a superstar. I think he's a better farmer at 28 than I was at 40, to be honest with you. 10:02 It's inspiring to be able to watch the things that he can do at his age In the suburban city of Madison, Alabama. 10:17 Meet extreme ag farmer Chad Henderson, together with his father Mike, his cousin Stewart and son Jackson. Chad navigates the challenges of farming 10:27 and the unforgiving climate and soils of northern Alabama. So when we talk about different crops, 10:33 we run about 2,400 acres a week. And then we're gonna double crop those. We'll have about a thousand or 1500 acres of beans. 10:39 It's not double crop. And then the rest will be corn probably somewhere around 26 to 3000 acres. And every year we work a lot of river bottom ground. 10:47 So you don't ever know, like if you're gonna plant that this year or not plant it or what it's going to be in. The thing I'm worried about the most is if I'm gonna be 10:55 able to do this when I'm my dad's age, because so many plants and businesses is coming in here. It's a, you know, thriving city. 11:00 Huntsville is the biggest, biggest city in the state now. It's a, I guess, a fight of survival. 11:07 So this farm here on one side is 150 acre cornfield. On the other side of the road is Amazon building. Took up 150 acres here. 11:19 Besides the constant race, against the clock in farming, Chad does a different type of racing. 11:27 For nearly three decades, he's been racing cars on the drag strip. The parallels between farming and racing are uncanny. 11:35 The precision, the timing, and the unyielding commitment. I'm a competitive spirit, you know, and I do love racing. 11:43 I, I, I do love it. You know, the racing's how I met ma, she liked cool cars. And you know, we happen to have a cool car about our life. 11:54 There's no reason that we should still be racing. Like we don't have an ego. We don't have anything to prove. You know, we're doing this for the people that's around us, 12:02 the family that's involved. The race car has cost us, you know, a lot of money over the years. But no education is free. It's taught me about quality. 12:11 It's taught me about nice things. It's, it's taught me about patience. It's taught me about trials and frustrations 12:18 and you start putting that into your everyday life. Whether it's at your home and your family, whether it's at your farm, whether it's at 12:24 what you're growing for a crop. I mean, when you start putting that into perspective and the way you run your businesses 12:30 and the way you run your life, this race car's taught me how to live. Is it great to do this and enjoy a sport with your family? 12:38 That's where it's at. I think my dad watching even Stewart and I, you know, run the farm, you know, 12:49 and him just there for more support. You know, like he told me, he said, I'm not farming to be farming, I'm farming to be here with y'all. 12:55 He farms to be around family, Chad and Jackson as they've grown up. I look at their passion, they are developing too. 13:03 And it makes me proud. They out here for a reason. You know, a great way of life. It worries me death. I'm not gonna get 13:11 to watch my son run this farm. I'm not scared to die, but you know, I just don't wanna miss out. You know, I feel like I've done my 13:21 part for this farm, right? Well, I wanna see my son blow through it and be like, man, yeah, it was so far back there. 13:28 You know, we just blowed right by where he's at, checked on out. And so I can't wait to see 13:34 where the next generation's gonna push this farm. Adding Raytheon into your infer application or even an over the top application round V three V four, 13:49 can do wonders in helping that plant navigate tough soil conditions. As far as nutrient tie up is concerned, 13:58 Control the toughest weeds with overlapping residuals. Lock in the longest lasting control for your soybean fields authority brand herbicides such 14:06 as Authority, edge herbicide and Authority Supreme herbicide combine the industry's most effective group. 14:12 14 and 15 active ingredients for a clean start and long lasting residual control. Following up 14 to 28 days later with a post application 14:20 of Anthem Max herbicide through V six establishes a heavy duty economical, overlapping residual program. 14:29 Claims are good and all, but I'm more interested in results. My fent momentum planter delivers them the only planter 14:38 with automatic tire pressure adjustments, weight transfer across its frame, and inline center tandem wheels that eliminate intros. 14:48 It's just another way I know Fence got my bottom line. Top of mind. Sweet success has been in the product lineup 15:00 of concept agritech for a while. We've seen it do a lot of things that you wouldn't think a black 15:05 strap molasses product would do. Anytime you could increase the bricks content of your plant, the more healthy it's gonna be. 15:15 Nestled in the heart of Iowa's corn Belt meet Kelly Garrett, the pioneer in the world of regenerative farming where the soil is rich, 15:26 a corn grows tall. The picturesque landscape presents a distinct set of challenges. We farm about 7,000 acres, mostly corn, 15:36 quite a few soybeans and just a little bit of winter wheat. And we'll range from four to 500 head 15:41 of cows depending on the market. And so we have a cow cfer. So besides the farming operation 15:48 and the cow-calf operation, we now have a meat store in town. We're taking some of our beef direct to the consumer. 15:55 We're proud of the product that we raise. Kelly is driven. There isn't a day where he says 16:02 there, I don't wanna farm today. That never ever happens. While every farmer battles the elements, 16:13 it's western Iowa's rolling terrain that presents Kelly the greatest hurdle. Yeah, you get in these hills 16:23 and it's kind of a whole different game. Anybody could farm a flat postage stamp piece of ground. But this here requires 16:31 a little bit of thinking and planting. I mean, it's tough to communicate even to people who have been around farming their whole 16:37 lives, how different it is. I'm gonna have to combine the corn one way 'cause I can't pull the hill the other way, 16:42 or I've gotta back out duct with only half a hopper on because that, that weight is too much to get over that hill. I mean, there's just so many different kinds 16:50 of things you gotta think about that are really gonna limit your productivity. Good. Combine salesman want tell you the different 16:59 how many acres per hour, how many bushels per hour you could do. But that's not really even worth measuring out here 17:04 because it is a very high, your, your productivity's gonna go way down and you're gonna have to do a lot of different things 17:10 that are gonna slow it down. But you just gotta do it to get the corn out. It's harder on the machine. It's, it's harder on the guy. 17:16 There's there's a lot going on out here that's makes it different than just a flat spot out in North Dakota or something. 17:28 Heli was the first farmer in the United States to sell his carbon credits and have it be legit. He was the first guy for Marion, Iowa. 17:36 I mean, who would ever think of such a thing? When I talk about the goals of soil health and conserving the soil and, 17:43 and conservation farming that my grandfathers had, that was the way I was raised. It's ingrained in me. 17:48 But now with the technology and the education we have, the, the products that we have high yield 17:53 and great regenerative practices are very much becoming one for us, not just for the good of agriculture and, 18:00 and farm income. It's for the good of the environment and the world. And it's what the consumer's asking for. 18:05 And I'm, I take great pride in being one of the leaders, I guess in that space. 18:13 So the reason I'm so driven is because I really only have about 40 crops that I'm intimately involved with. 18:20 In the last eight years. I learned way more than I did in the previous 18 years of farming before that I wanna accomplish as much as I can 18:29 to leave the world a better place. I hope that my son spar surpass what I've accomplished. I hope I have a lot left to accomplish 18:38 and I hope they blow me out of the water. That would be, uh, that would be the legacy that I wanna live. 18:43 Lift In the rolling foothills of North Carolina. Kevin Matthews and his daughter Danielle represent five generations of farmers 19:05 battling against extreme weather, crop disease and urban encroachment. Kevin has adapted to the unique challenges 19:12 of farming in the Yadkin River Valley. Our location here in the Yakkin River Valley, we're at the foothills 19:19 of the Appalachian Mountains on the western side of the state of North Carolina. We're, we're kind of in a microclimate area 19:25 because of the river valley. A lot of vineyards around now. Tobacco was king here in this area. 19:31 If you ever watch the Andy Griffith show, we're just right down the road from May Bayberry. And I can look right out of my house and see Mount Pilot. 19:39 We'll have 2000 plus acres of soybeans planted this year with 550 of 'em 19:46 or being double crop acres behind soft red winter wheat and then sometimes barley as well. We've got 3,300 acres of corn. 19:54 Most everything we have is no till farming. Um, we'll try to keep cover crops on it to keep a good clean waterway. 20:01 And pretty much, you know, our soil is our big investment. We're probably some of the biggest environmentalists in the 20:08 world as an American farmer. We take that pretty daggone serious. We spend about 33% 20:15 of our time traveling up and down the road. So we're, we're very inefficient compared to other areas of the United States. 20:21 The challenge we have is our fields are smaller and, uh, tobacco's kind of the reason for that. 'cause typically, if a family had 20, 25 acres of land, 20:32 they could grow 10 acres of tobacco and have a good living for their family. And they've done very well. 20:37 You know, tobacco's went away and row crops has become more predominant. It takes acres, uh, lots of acres 20:43 to make a family sustainable. It's is one of the biggest challenges we face here is the amount of people, the urban sprawl. 20:53 I can't tell you how many times that we've had close encounters. People nearly hit us. So our children 21:00 that Cindy and I have, Danielle is the oldest. It's the honor for a father to get to work alongside his daughter. 21:07 And she knows every aspect of the business. Anything we buy, any financial situation we're in, we make sure she's involved in it. 21:16 It makes you so proud that when you see her out there in that tractor planting corn with a 24 row planter, 21:22 getting on a combine, picking corn, moving grain carts up and down the road, I think it's pretty neat. 21:29 Get to be the next generation coming in. It's kind of a pride thing too. Like, I mean, we're, my dad's the fourth generation 21:38 and I'm the fifth generation of the farm. And if my brother decides to come back to the farm, he'll be there with me and have my husband there too. 21:46 So that's, I mean, that's pretty awesome. A lot of people that farm with their parents are stuck with doing the way their parents do it, 21:54 and their parents don't let 'em try new things. But that is one thing like my dad has done, is he lets me try different things. 22:00 Sometimes it's the wrong choice, but he wants me to see why it's the wrong choice and go ahead and do it while he's here to help me 22:07 learn the right way to do it. My one advice I've got for other farmers out there is if you've got daughters, keep 'em on your heels that 22:20 they, they can be just as important and vital to your farming operation as the boys can. And, uh, it's, it's pretty daggone fun 22:38 Gold law long for season long foliar disease protection that starts at plant active ingredient flu triol moves through your corn plants as they grow for 22:47 inside out protection from roots to tassel. A single at plant application provides comparable performance in corn yield protection to that 22:54 of VTR one foliar fungicides against diseases like gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, common rust and more. 23:09 Some farmers I know swear by a name, say they'd never operate anything else. Well, here are a few names for my Fent 900 Tractor 23:20 Fuel Saver time maximizer game changer. I like those names. All you need to do is tell concept 23:38 what your total work is, how much you wanna put out per acre. And if everything is compatible 23:43 and stable, we can blend it at the plant and ship it to you ready to go. Where all you have to do is just add water. 23:54 So we talk about boron. So I got labeled as the boron person of the group, or boron guru would be a good word. 24:01 So, boron guru of the group. And it's just because I like to put it out in a lot of different ways. 24:06 People have seen a lot of responses from boron and a lot of the reason is, is we put it on a per reproductive time for the plants. 24:13 Um, it's important for pollen tubing, seed sizing and moving of sugars in the plant. So it's got a very important role in reproduction. 24:22 And reproductions are a time when all our growers are making their money. You gotta think about boron or like sulfur 24:29 or anything else, like it's in a screen door. And the way we figured out to do this, we just have to keep treating it in slow amounts 24:35 because it's almost like it's just running through a screen door. We never wanna put it in a trench with a seed. 24:40 But when I'm going into tube by two or in a strip fresh, then we're gonna put a sniff of boron down from anywhere from a pint to a quart. 24:47 And when you say this, we're gonna talk about a quarter pound, half a pound, a whole pound, you know, of actual boron that we'll be putting down. 24:55 We'll take it in a planter and in the strip till in the spring of the year, we're going to be looking at a draft product. 25:01 It just, it just works good for me. Borons really important in there. Uh, 'cause really moving that photosynthetic energy, 25:08 the sugars and stuff that are produced in the leaves into the reproduction, uh, the seeds and, 25:13 and helping get that movement, keep it going back and forth. And then when we're going over the top, a lot of times 25:19 I really like to go with something that's liquid. It's a lot of it's sticky. It has a sticky agent in my mind, the simplicity part of it 25:26 that we're just sticking fungicides, uh, micro packs, we're sticking things to it and kind of getting a better stick on the leaf. 25:34 And also it has the boron in it as well. You need to treat boron with respect. I yet it took, it takes a lot to get to boron toxicity. 25:42 I'm gonna laugh about that. And y'all that know me know I've tried it. So it takes a lot to get there. 25:47 But what I'm saying is I don't think there's any one way that you can address boron. 25:52 And if you can, you need to dress it in spoonfuls, you know, if you will. So we're gonna address it a little bit at 25:59 a time in each stage. And every time we go across the field, we will have some amount of boron in the tank, 26:05 whether it's on wheat beans or corn. And when you start looking at tissue samples and the way that the boron moves through the plant 26:11 and how long it stays in the plant, then you wonder when does it need to be in the plant. And with that being said, sometimes you don't need 26:18 to just leave the levels up all the time in the plant. 'cause the boron is there to actually, it's actually there to help a pollination. 26:25 It helps there. So I wanna really run 'em up. I'm gonna, if I'm gonna run 'em up, I'm gonna run 'em up in that V 10 or 12 and start ramping 'em higher. 26:32 Headed into pollination is when I really wanna see my best numbers. And that's a hard time to run it up. 26:37 But we figured out that if you just let it be low and then you try to run it up, it's really hard to run it up if you're in a deficit with it. 26:46 So if you're in a marginal area and you just hold it marginal, hold it marginal, hold it marginal, and then run it up, 26:51 it's a lot easier to do. So that's why I say that a lot of times what I wanna do is take it 26:56 and give it spoonful, spoonful, spoonfuls, keep it trickling in where I'm keeping it in the normal range, if you will, in the plant. 27:04 And when I keep it in normal range, it's easier to sp it at certain times when the plant may need it, It changes everything. 27:15 So says Indiana Corn grower Nathan Davis about innovative xw LFR fungicide from FMC Xw brand fungicides are the first 27:23 and only at plant corn fungicides to provide unprecedented season long inside out foliar disease protection 27:31 Success isn't just about maintaining your operation, how you make out for the season, or how much you can get from each acre. 27:41 It's about doing precisely what needs to be done to feed your crop and grow your legacy all the way down to the last drop 27:51 agro liquid precision crop nutrition. Apply less, expect more. Find a retailer@agroliquid.com. 28:00 Cowboy is the game changer, getting it in through the leaves and into the plant circulatory system. That's why this product is 28:08 so effective at delivering both calcium and boron to plants at critical times when they need it the most. 28:16 A stone's throw from the nation's capital on the eastern shore, a thousand miles from the heartland lies acres 28:24 of fields that thousands of beachgoers pass every day here. One extreme ag farmer has achieved success through trial 28:33 and error and with it a unique title. I'm Temple Rhodes, I'm the senate guy. When you talk about being a senate guy, you know, 28:43 the Senate guy is the guy that just doesn't really give up. Doesn't matter what happens, take it 28:49 to the extreme, let's go. Don't look back. We'll see what happens at the end. He's, he's definitely kind of a mad scientist. 28:59 And out here, you can't be scared to try anything. I mean, you can't, you, you just gotta, you gotta try it. And if it don't work, then you know not to do it again. 29:07 So there's a lot to be learned by taking things too far. You, you don't, you don't worry about if you put too much 29:14 in, if you put too much in, it's probably just right. So we're in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. We have a nutrient management plan. We farm by regulation. 29:25 We have to be extremely efficient with everything, all of our usage. Where I am, I'm 45 minutes from 29:34 DC I'm 45, 50 minutes away from Baltimore. Um, 55, 60 minutes away from Philadelphia. We're living close to the cities. 29:41 We're trying to save the bay. The farmers in this community have figured out how to spoonfeed a crop. 29:49 It is very, very hard to farm up here just because of the way our soils are. We got low CEC soils for one. 29:56 We spread some fertilizer one year and it, it might be gone the next, you know what I mean? Just because it, it, it goes through that soil so fast. 30:05 There's always buffer strips have grass. Every single acre that we till goes in cover crops over winter. 30:13 We're trying to do the right thing. You know, farmers are stewards of the land. We're not trying to do the wrong thing. 30:19 We're constantly trying to do the right thing. Me, myself, I'm eighth or ninth generation that's been in agriculture. 30:31 A lot of our family is waterman and some of our family is from agriculture and we've combined both of 'em. 30:37 So there is a love of the Chesapeake Bay and then we farm on the other side. So I go to work every day 30:45 and I look forward to getting up every morning. And it's not just because I love farming, it's because of the way that our farm works. 30:52 The way that my farm works is, is that it's a family operation. So I get to go work with my kids every day. 30:59 You know, one of the moments that I look forward to is when dinner is brought to us in the field by my wife. And she stops at the end of the field 31:08 and we all stop for a moment in time. Now we might be talking about what happened at school. We might be talking about the problems that we're having and 31:18 and farming that day. But each and every one of 'em, they love that. And I think that they value that as much as I do. 31:25 This is not, you know, a job for me. This is my life. So what I hope for America is I want to change the way that people think about agriculture. 31:42 There is another level that people aren't seeing in agriculture. And for us to do all that 31:47 and still bring to the table a really, really safe source of food that has been grown in a sustainable environment, 31:57 that we have done the absolute best that we can do to be stewards of our land for the next generation and still be able to tell that story is amazing to me. 32:07 That's my hope for x extreme ag. On the next extreme ag show, We're about 10% right now. 32:21 Not quite 10% on planting. The infer system is not working every hour that we lose. 32:30 When we delay the planning, it's costing us huge money. One hour is 50 acres that that's bad.