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Tommy Grisafi is the main host and content creator for Ag Bull Media.
The Ag Bull Podcast showcases agriculture's top talents in a long-form video format. The Ag Bull Trading Podcast is a deeper discussion of trading with analysts and key players in agriculture nationwide.
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Ag PhD Field Day 2025 | Zach Hefty
The Ag PhD 2025 Field Day on July 31st in Baltic, South Dakota offers farmers a completely free, one-day immersive agricultural learning experience featuring plots, expert speakers, and networking. Zach Hefty shares insights on the meticulous planning involved in creating this premier agricultural event that has evolved from simple plot tours to a comprehensive educational experience feeding up to 10,000 attendees.
• Field Day is completely free including parking, food, and all educational sessions
• Located just 15-20 minutes north of Sioux Falls in Baltic, South Dakota
• Planning begins immediately after each year's event to continually improve the experience
• Features practical crop plots showcasing agronomic practices from multiple companies
• Morning agenda includes market insights, meet-and-greet with Brian and Darren Hefty, and extensive plot tours
• Afternoon offers specialized concurrent sessions where attendees can choose topics most relevant to their operation
• Event focuses on helping farmers maximize ROI through improved agronomy regardless of market prices
• Acres TV provides free agricultural content year-round for those seeking continuing education
• Crops in the Baltic region currently looking good with timely rains, though conditions vary elsewhere
Join us on July 31st at the Ag PhD 2025 Field Day to learn practical strategies for improving your farm's productivity and profitability!
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Thank you, Tommy G
Well, hello everyone, Tom Grisafi with Ag Bull Media. Today we're talking about the Ag PhD 2025 field day and I got just the person to talk about it Now. I met Zach. I guess I haven't formally met him, but I see him all over social media. I see him all over Acres TV. I see him at the show. I had the chance to talk there, but this is a one-day show and I thought I'd bring in Zach to talk about it. Zach, welcome to the show. I'm clicking the buttons myself If I mess anything up. It was me so nice to meet you and, uh, excited to have you here yeah, nice to meet you as well.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me on the show. We're really excited for next week. The ag phd field day is coming up. It's going to be one of our biggest events of all time and it's also, uh, just a one day event and it's all free, so anyone can join. Uh, you don't have to pay for parking or food or entertainment. All that comes for free. Just got to make it to Baltic South Dakota. Baltic South Dakota is how far from Sioux.
Speaker 1:Falls.
Speaker 2:It's about 15 to 20 minutes and it's that distance away from the airport to the airports on the north side of town and Baltic is as well, so it's not very far away from Sioux Falls but it's out in the country. So you get that country feel and there's not very far away from Sioux Falls but it's out in the country. So you get that country feel and there's not a lot of people that know about it in the area because it's off the highway a little bit. So it's mainly people that are farmers that are just coming there to learn more about agronomy and different practices that can help them on their farm make more money.
Speaker 1:I love it. Last year was the first time I went and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had the chance to speak. I joined Acres TV a few years ago, just recently started putting out consistent content a month in review with Don Wick of the Red River Farm Network, and then we have a week in review. We've been doing and of course I'm a markets guy, you are an agronomy guy but I wouldn't be able to trade corn if you guys and all the great farmers out there weren't growing it. So we need to grow big bushels. I hear you guys talk on the radio show. Prices are down. I've noticed that myself as a trader, except corn's, trading $4 today.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the history of the show. I didn't know much about it, but to say I was impressed last year would be an understatement. You are right. Parking was free, food was free, camaraderie was excellent. I learned a lot. I met a lot of those cool people that I see on social media. I don't know where to start, but let's have you start from what you know about the history of the show. Thanks, zach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the show started probably just after I was born, so I don't know all the history of the show, but it started out as just a plot tour going around from different fields. It wasn't at one location like it is today and it's just grown so much over the years into what it is today and it takes so much help and so many different pieces to fit in to just a one-day event. There's so much work that goes into it and the prep starts last year. Right after the field day ends. We meet about things that went well and things that didn't go well and things to change, because we want to make this event the best event you can go to uh, the best ag event there is.
Speaker 2:Um, since it's just one day, we have to fit everything in, so there's a lot to do and the plots growing them. It's always a challenge because you never know what's going to happen with the weather and these plots aren't giant, so if things wrong, there's not acres and acres of crop, that's there. Every single plot that we have is designed for whatever new practice or new product or a different type of agronomic issue that we're dealing with. We're showcasing at the Ag PhD Field Day and so there's just a lot of intricacies to the field day and then bringing in a bunch of great guests that's the key too so farmers from all over the country and all over the world to help teach other farmers about what they're learning and what they're doing on their operation. So then they have a bunch of stuff to take home and to try out on their farm and see if it works on their acres too, and so the egg phd field day coincides. All that.
Speaker 2:It's mainly an agronomy show. Um, that's why we have the plots, actual growing crops and the part honestly about what the field has turned into now is it's just so routine and there's just so many parts and pieces of it that just fit perfectly now. So we have a few different places where we have different speakers, and it's just really great experience for anyone that comes. Obviously, tommy, you had a good experience last year and trying to build on that this year and have as many farmers and people come and experience what this day will bring in it there's. It's a lot of fun, it's a great experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have the whole agenda so I won't stress you out trying to explain each and everything. We'll pull that up, but you've kind of touched on it. But rapid fire, why should someone go to this? And I'm telling you, folks, I went to it last year, I loved it. One day, rain or shine. There are no redos, it costs nothing, you have plenty of cover.
Speaker 2:Wouldn't be the best if it rained, but if it does, it does we'll. We'll make. Do delay a few things, move forward, right. Yeah, the top reasons why you should attend the ag phd field day one. It's one day, it's one long day, it's all free. There's great, fantastic speakers that are there and there's also a lot of cool agronomic pieces that you get to learn there from my dad and darren brian and darren hefty. They will bring you through all the plots, show you what they're learning on their farm and help give you a bunch of advice for you to take back to your operation.
Speaker 1:Let's bring in the star of the show, the actual speakers. I'm pretty pumped about the 7 to 4 o'clock field day, ride and drive. Of course you've got your kids on. That's probably where I'll be hanging out right. Then I kick it off early, 7.05 to 7.30. I'll be talking about markets Myself, tommy Grisafi. I'm now with Nesvik Trading Group. This is the Agable Podcast, and we're going to be talking about markets. We're going to be talking about growing big bushels and what we're going to do with them. Number one thing I'm going to talk about at the field day is what are you going to do with bushels you can't store, regardless of what you think about the price or your cost production, you can store X amount and I will ask you, zach, how do crops look within 50 miles of your home farm?
Speaker 2:I'd say in our area they look pretty good. We've actually been getting some timely rains. When you come to the field day you'll notice things in our area look pretty good as you get away from our area. There's some variability out there depending on if people got too much rain or not enough rain, but in our general area crops are looking pretty good and I'm excited for the yield to see how that turns out in this fall Sounds good, all right, let's continue.
Speaker 1:I think you know these next two characters here, 730 to 820. You want to talk about these guys here in the south entrance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they love the Ag PhD field day. They are really excited to meet every single farmer that comes there, and one key benefit about coming to the field day early is you get to meet them and talk to them one-on-one right at the entrance of the field day. So you're gonna want to be there early and in the afternoon it can get a little bit warmer, but in the morning it's cool, it's nice, it's a great time to be outside after the meet and greet, we start breaking it into sections, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's some different speaking sessions in the morning and then the main plot tour is at 830 to 1030. And that's something you're definitely not going to want to miss. They'll bring you through. But Brian and Darren will bring you through all of the plots and talk about what's in the plots and give you some an opportunity to talk with the companies about different products and what they're seeing out in their plots at field day and and then not only does this get to uh, highlight products that hefty group sells in the brand sells, but also other.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of other brands there, correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, there's a lot of other uh, fertilizer, crop protection, different equipment companies there's everything that you want to see. It's not just one thing there. There's a wide variety of different products and different practices that are utilized at the field there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then we lunch. I see that 1035 to 145. That's an event. That's like feeding an army. They have food for 10 to 11,000 people. Come rain or shine in good food too. I almost wanted to take home a doggy bag last night to the hotel, but top notch top. I don't know how you feed that many people. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, we have a farmer running our catering. He works with us a lot and he knows how to get people through the line and he has great food. So it's it's awesome. They can bring pretty much everyone through the line very quickly. You're not going to have to wait for the line, even with thousands of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, after the crop tour and lunch we break it down to the 11, 11, 25. You have different people. I see some familiar names here Bridget and others here. Yeah, there's. Then you start to spark into the people who show up on Acres TV and whatnot.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, so from eight before the plot tour there's a few different learning sessions. Right after the plot tour there's some learning sessions and then the main educational sessions are in the afternoon from noon to three o'clock. That's where you're going to be given the chance. I think you can go to five different topics throughout the afternoon, but there's a lot of different great speaking sessions there. You'll have to check out all the topics and see what interests you and pick which one, pick and choose which ones you want to listen to. But they're all across the field, they say in all of the speaking tents and in our air conditioned shop You're. You just have to check out what you want to hear from and who you want to hear from and make a plan on where you want to go. Of course they can go to the website.
Speaker 1:If they just Google agphdcom, this is the master website and it has the. I clicked on the agenda button, definitely going to print this out. Meet and greet. I see, like my friend Andy, coming in from Canada. Andy, clean, he's not only a good farmer, good friend, and good soap too. You got the who's who here I wanted to talk about before we go. What is acres tv? And? Uh, well, that would be my first question, zach, what is acres tv show? Is yours?
Speaker 2:so acres tv is a free streaming platform just for agricultural content, uh, or grain markets, like like you, tommy, but it's all agriculture-based content, some education, also some entertainment on there. Ag PhD, our show is on Acres TV and Acres TV will be at the field day. You're going to want to check them out if you haven't. And it's all free. So it's free to sign up, free to watch, no subscription. That's why Acres TV is great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I concur, dr Zach. No subscription. Um, that's why anchors tv is great. Yeah, I, uh, I concur, dr dr zach, because not only because I'm on anchors tv, but actually I uh, you know what I went to bed last night listening to? Can't make this stuff up. The granary, that's a great show. That's a great show. The granary, with damien and all his phenomenal guests. Uh, easy, listen to Just guys sitting around talking about life, about ag. Last night they were talking about social media Is it good or bad? They were talking about using Grok and search engines. Do they use Google or do they use ChatGPT type of things and trying to teach a couple old dogs like ourselves some new tricks, right?
Speaker 2:Yep, there's a lot you can find on Acres TV, so gonna want to check that out. It's an app, it's on your smart tv or it's just online, so it's great put your email in there and away you go.
Speaker 1:That is your username and password. Uh, real quick. Long before millennial farmer and all these ag influencers were cool, your father and uncle were putting out ag education videos. I want to say 15, 20 years ago on youtube, when youtube was uh, uh, rather new, correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, well, the ag phd tv show has been going on for uh 27 years, I think. I think it started in 1998 and so they probably right when uh, a few years after that, started posting onto youtube. And they've been doing uh posting educational content for a long time and it's really good and that's where I learn all my uh agronomy information from and it's just super cool to hear what they have to say and how much knowledge that they have now. But, yeah, they've been doing it for a long time so they got an idea of what to do. But they just take all the information that they're learning and hearing from farmers and then trying to help other farmers do the same and help them make more money and do better on the farm them make more money and do better on the farm, and even long after ag phd field day's over.
Speaker 1:This is how I've kind of gotten to know your personality, and your dads and your uncles is uh. Not only did I have a chance to record last year with rob sharky in the studio, but you guys have that beautiful studio and you go, you guys go live every single day, is that correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, so the tv show is just a new episode once every week, but Ag PhD radio is a new live one hour show every single weekday from 2 PM to 3 PM central time. So if you can't catch us on TV, catch us on the radio. Sometimes I'm on there and we always take live callers and so if you have anything you want to talk about that's going on on your farm or any questions, you can always call in silly question.
Speaker 1:But if you're not around, or your dad or your uncle, who else can step up to the mics and record some stuff?
Speaker 2:what's not recorded. It's live let me be clear yeah, it's all live, but sometimes, uh, we'll pre-record if we're all going to be gone for some reason. But typically that's how you do it. Typically, we're not gone, so there's usually someone around that can do the show. If you've ever tuned in it's, it's pretty much pretty live, most of the time, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah and I've called in and your dad's like hey, what's going on? They're laughing. But one thing I will say that media has changed my career tremendously. But one thing I will say that media has changed my career tremendously my association with RFD TV. When I live now part-time in Nashville and I'm down at the studios and I see all that content going on. They always have the radio station on or the TV station on.
Speaker 1:But your viewers and listeners watch RFD TV. And I really found that out as last week I guest host the Cow Guy Clothes. That's a live hour show. I help on Market Day Report. But I hadn't went out much in public since COVID. Not that I was all worried about COVID or anything, I just kind of 22, 23, 24 chilled out. Last year when I went to your show I couldn't believe how many people actually noticed me. And I'm not growing corn 2020. I'm nobody. I'm a commodity broker outside of Chicago and now, you know, moved to Nashville and work with a lot of North Dakota folks. But how this partnership with RFD TV has been beneficial for a lot of people to you know for us all to connect correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been great. They've been on RFD. They were one of the first shows on RFD TV at PhD was, and it's just been great. There's a lot of people that watch it and watch on actual TV, not on any streaming platform or YouTube. They watch on RFD TV and it's been great. And then that's where the radio show came from to on rural Radio, which is also through RFD on Sirius XM. So RFD has been great and I've been down to the studio there in Nashville and it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:We're going to have you back down because we have a studio now we're recording this. Well, we have a studio in Mayville, north Dakota. I hit the wrong button. We have a studio in Valparaiso, indiana, but yes, we have a studio in Valparaiso, indiana, but yes, we have a studio in Nashville, tennessee. So, now that we clicked every button we have. What we're talking about, though, is the most important button right here. That's this one Next Thursday, july 31st 2025, agphdcom 2025 AgPhD Field Day.
Speaker 1:It's a heck of an event. I'll be speaking early in the morning. Zach and his whole family and whole crew will be out there. I will let you number one. I want to thank you Thanks for coming on and thanks for the partnership we have with Acres TV. I look forward to getting to know you more in the future. I would love to have you in Nashville to the studio and record a podcast, but if it's easier for you to shoot up to Mayville, north Dakota, we could do that also. I don't know why you'd be in Valparaiso, indiana. If you're ever here. I think the Nashville studio would be the best one, and you recorded a podcast with. Who's that? Cool podcast people from Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Oh, root Cause, yeah To Tennessee for that, so maybe I'll have to get on.
Speaker 1:Nashville to uh, you're newly married. I think you need a little trip to Nashville just to uh after harvest and everything else, just to go. But uh, go see RFD, go visit us and uh, of course, uh, we'll, you know, sit you down and explain a little bit more about markets. Last but not least, how often amongst your father or your friends or coworkers or people in the agriculture?
Speaker 2:your uncle. How often do you guys talk about markets? We talk about them some, but I would say we talk mainly more about agronomy and talking about well, whatever the prices are for corn or soybeans, trying to make things work with ROI, regardless of if the corn's lower or higher priced. If it doesn't pay back or return your investment, then it's not worth doing regardless on if it's super high corn or super low corn. So that's mainly what we focus on typically, because we're not grain market people, we don't study it, so we don't know all all the intricacies of the grain market. So I'm curious to learn more about it personally. But that's usually what we focus on is what can we do agronomically that we can control to help get the most bushels and the best crop we can?
Speaker 1:Right I? The way I would explain what you do is you're in the bushel business. I mean, I tell people I'm in the bushel business. I can't market grain if they don't have bushels. But you are a hundred percent in the bushel business. You're not in the insurance business. You guys talk about tile, you talk about all types of things that would help you increase the bushels. Pretty much everyone knows in marketing if the bushels show up, even if the price is low, we need the bushels to make up for the low price, correct?
Speaker 2:exactly that's exactly what we do.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll leave it with that, because you and I sounded smart there at the end and I know you're smart and congratulations on getting married. Last but not least, I hope to see you all there at july 31st 2025, the ag phd field day. Today we're talking with zach hefty and, uh, you're gonna see a lot of names, hefty, there. You're gonna get to get to meet Brian and Darren, but I was impressed with the plot tour. I was impressed with so many things Lunch, people saying hi to me. It was just a good day. I'm going to bring my wife, I want her to experience, and with that we'll upload this to Acres TV. Hope to see you all there. Zach, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
