The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast is dedicated to supporting and empowering farmers by recognizing that their greatest assets are the knowledge, experience, mind and health. Hosted by husband-and-wife duo Jesse and Dr. Leah, this podcast combines their unique backgrounds to provide valuable insights. Together, they explore topics that help farmers thrive both personally and professionally. Tune in for a blend of practical advice, real conversations, while having a little fun along the way as they talk about all thing's agriculture and family.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
Soil Health, Root Structure, and Spring Planting Decisions Will Define Your Season
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Beck's Field Agronomist Greg Shepard shares insights on spring planting readiness, soil biology research, and practical farming recommendations based on Beck's Practical Farm Research (PFR) findings. The conversation explores the fascinating connection between soil health and crop performance, revealing how understanding root structures and biological processes can dramatically improve yields.
• Spring soil conditions currently showing good freeze-thaw cycles but need rain to settle "fluffy" topsoil
• Planter maintenance is critical with corn being particularly sensitive to depth, spacing, and emergence timing
• Talc replacement powders with biologicals showing consistent ROI in Beck's PFR trials
• "Root Reveal" research project classifying corn hybrids by root structure (horizontal, balanced, vertical)
• Micronutrient applications, particularly boron and sulfur, becoming increasingly important
• Soil biology mirrors gut health - both systems require diverse microorganisms to process nutrients
• Timing field operations properly to avoid microscopic compaction that restricts root growth
• Beck's PFR research available to all farmers, not just Beck's customers
To find out more about Beck's Practical Farm Research and access their studies, visit beckshydrids.com to download the PFR book or speak with a local dealer.
the farmer's greatest asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer, their knowledge, knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse and I'm Dr Leah. I'm excited today to have with us on this episode Greg Shepard, who I got to meet through BEX, both as a dealer and a customer. Not only is he an amazing individual with a great story of his own, but also a wealth of knowledge For me. I have him on speed dial for questions and advice on the professional side, but also, as I get to know him more I'm seeing his presence in our life has a reason as well, because of his story and journey. Welcome, greg Shepard. I guess, greg, I'll let you tell us what your title is and what you do at VEX and where you're from.
Speaker 3Absolutely yes, greg Shepard Glad to be here. It's a beautiful spring day, not raining yet, so my title within V's. I'm a Southeast Iowa field agronomist so I support a team of seed advisors who are Beck's full-time employees and then their whole respective team of dealers all throughout Southeast Iowa. I live I just say I live between Mount Pleasant and Washington, so pretty close to the Jesse and Dr Leah here.
Speaker 1So as a field agronomist you don't, do you get into like seed selection and growing and breeding and that kind of stuff, or is that more someone else's job?
Spring Planting Outlook and Moisture Conditions
Speaker 3I do. I'll say seed placement is kind of where it begins to be the role of the agronomist, and then everything else Environmental fertility, weed control, all those things. But we do have a regional product specialist who does I basically describe it as they spend more time with corn than people in the summer with corn than people in the summer. So they're they're, they're the real. They're evaluating the new hybrids and making the selections to bring new hybrids and soybean varieties commercial, and then my team and I take it from there and really the seed advisors do a lot of placement too, because ultimately they they get to know each and every customer, whereas throughout Southeast Iowa, the territory I cover, we've got I think we just passed 50 dealers. Even so, I know the dealers all quite well, but I don't know every customer in Southeast Iowa for bags.
Speaker 1So I'm looking out the window, Greg. There goes a tillage tool. Yep, Things are starting to move. The neighbors are probably just trying to get everybody fired up they may be moving it from shed to shed right closer to home right I haven't seen any planters yet yeah, not
Speaker 2yet I saw one go by yesterday just down the road goodness gracious, they're just trying to stir the pot a little bit so, yeah, that being said, we are headed into spring.
Speaker 1Um plantings right around the corner, I think. Right here where we're at, we're sitting pretty good on moisture um, so I think we're going to have a decent start to the spring. What do you? What is your outlook at the moment?
Speaker 3yeah, that's a great question as we're headed into some some rain chances within the forecast. I'd really like to see us get a nice rain or two here in the next seven to 10 to 14 days. Our soil temperatures aren't in a bad spot. It's kind of looking like the next string of warm days will probably bring about some planting activity, but as far as we're still at the tail end of March here, and so why not get a nice inch of rain, because it's uh well. Um, just talked to a Beck's customer and they'd been tiling for almost two the last two weeks and it's going well. But they even said the same thing too as much as they love to tile and and that makes some money, they're doing it themselves on their own we've hauled some manure so we're able to get across the ground, but it's pretty fluffy, I guess is how I'll explain it.
Speaker 1So some rain wouldn't hurt to help settle that ground back in, because we had a good freeze yeah, right, yeah which is always the best tillage, yes, and the best bug control.
Speaker 3So now a nice rain would help settle that back in, I think really good freeze and thaw this winter I mean better than I can remember in in years. And yeah, some of what's tricky too is if you think about all the windy days we've been having. It's really drying the top out kind of too much, uh, whereas another just a nice, especially if we can get nice rains. A nice inch of rain would just help the hydrology of the soil and keep moving that frost out, getting the water percolating down in the soil the right way and really just recharge the whole soil profile. So hydrology.
Speaker 1I like that word yeah, so the guys tiling, or what are they saying? Is there moisture down there?
Speaker 3that's so. That's the component to where I I think there's throughout much of iowa there is a bit of concern of drought because most places apart from Southeast Iowa are even pretty dry, I think if you get up to far Northwest Iowa I recall some flooding last year so I would believe that their subsoil is pretty well primed. But back to your question on the tiling and anybody digging a hole. Once you get down, you know, maybe a foot deep to two feet or more, it's pretty dry still. Is it really so? That's kind of a multi-year thing. That it also makes me say I don't want to turn away any good moisture that we can get, especially now, knowing it's going to soak. In nice, just like you said, the soil is nice and fluffy and could really take take quite a bit of water in.
Speaker 2It looks like we're probably going to be having some coming up, so that'll be good.
Planter Maintenance and Corn Performance
Speaker 1The forecast. Last time I looked we got five or six chances and then 10-day forecast yeah, even next week, right? Yeah. So at this point, end of March, I'll take it Absolutely. Take it when you can get it, yeah For sure. So headed into spring, what is the most common piece of advice that you have for farmers this time of year?
Speaker 3I really think of planting and doing, spending the time doing the equipment maintenance on that planter to get it wearable parts replaced, to get it to do as perfect close to perfect as a job as you can Right Really. And Beck's is even within Southeast Iowa, for I think this was our fourth winter where we had fewer this year, but we've had a planter clinic or two, you know, even it's. It's really interesting talking to farmers because you see differing levels of desire to work on a planter and expertise and you know at the end of the day whether it's investment in a piece of equipment or time spent on adjusting and maintaining that piece of equipment. I think that you ought to start with the planner and end with the planner. Really, I mean, it's just the most important pass.
Speaker 1It is. That's where everything starts. Right there, dropping that seed especially for corn.
Speaker 3Right, you know, and we can get into that in terms of priorities and rankings and how you do things, but, um, we're just fine. It seems like we're finding out more and more every year how um simply said corn is kind of a diva of a crop, you know it. It really wants the exact depth, the exact spacing, um to perform best. Such evenness is so important. We talk about that picket fence and you think about spacing, but really we're also learning about the evenness. Of emergence is such a major. I mean, if you get, say you look at a hundred seeds and five, six, seven of them emerge just half a day later, those are going to be a little bit smaller ears, whereas if you can get them to emerge at the same time, what is the key to get them to?
Speaker 1to emerging at the same time Depth, consistent depth.
Speaker 3Yeah, depth. But so that's what's interesting and this is where I I I grew up in West central Iowa and I won't get into too much depth here, but that part of the world we oftentimes are a little bit more limiting on moisture. There's not as much clay content in the soil, so all that drives I'm kind of a no-till kid. You know, grew up in the, was a roundup baby, if you've heard that term, and so that allowed a lot more no-till to be done. My dad was excited about that. Added acres was able to control weeds, and so I still have kind of this backdrop of a lot of no-till.
Speaker 3But that's what's tricky is because with corn being so sensitive that the real major advantage of tillage is to just mix and homogenize that soil temperature, soil moisture. So that leads to it does lead to more evenness, right. But there's other things you can do, such as what we've already talked about tiling, Right. So even emergence is we always want corn to be I mean, we're shooting the PFR, practical farm research proven corn depth ideal corn depth is two inches. But at the end of the day, what drives emergence is temperature, moisture and then obviously distance to the surface. But there can be even if you plant at the perfect two inch depth, there can be a lot of different. There's varying temperatures and moistures at that depth. We've been finding that out with with a innovative product like smart, firmer, knowing right soil temperature just as we run along.
Speaker 1Take all those readings as you're going along.
Speaker 3That's right. I mean we think in terms of averages and you can go stick a probe out in the soil, but that's going to give you one spot on In that little. That's right Inch circle.
Speaker 1Yep, yep, yeah, no we. So looking out our window, we're pretty flat, pretty black right here. So we still do a lot of conventional tillage and it's mainly that, just moisture control. We can get it to dry out a little quicker in the spring. And then we still do run a field cultivator pass so it, like you said, it, mixes that topsoil up and we can get that. We're trying to get it as even as we possibly can on the top there. So, right or wrong, I mean everybody's got their own practice.
Speaker 3Yeah, right well, and that's what's fun about corn is you can see corn bump up 10, 20, 30 bushel relatively quick. I mean it's it's. What's really interesting, in the last few years too on that subject, is these the corn yields we've been getting, say, in the last three, four, five years. Five years have been really impressive and it doesn't seem like we're plateauing either. I don't get to feel like you know, we not. That long ago we talked about 250, 260 bushel farm average, field average being really good, and I hear a lot of two, 80 north of two, 90. And then there's a lot of farmers hitting 300. And I think it just seems like, seems like, yeah, another 10, 20 bushel. We can continue to, and that's exciting, right, I mean, that's I, we all.
Speaker 1It is pretty amazing, like you said, how, how we've peaked, not peaked, but how we're just increasing our yields quickly, because it wasn't that long ago that we were doing 200 bushel corn and all of a sudden it's 225 and now we're talking 275, 300.
Speaker 3I mean that's yeah, it's pretty awesome, yeah, what we can do, and really there's a lot to be said for that in terms of, uh, not only productivity, but efficiency. Right, yeah, we're spending a little bit more on inputs, um nitrogen in particular, but, uh, it's pretty exciting so you kind of mentioned the pfr book.
Speaker 1That's a specific to bex and a lot of people use that thing but it's pretty exciting. So you kind of mentioned the PFR book. That's specific to BECCS and a lot of people use that thing.
Speaker 2But it goes out to all the farmers, not just BECCS customers. It is available to anybody, so that is a very valuable resource to the agricultural community for sure.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, that thing is amazing. All of the studies in there are just awesome. So inside of that is what they say PFR proven. So that means you guys have studied them, you guys being backs for at least three years and they've shown a return on investment. What are three things? Earlier I said I'm going to ask you to give me one thing, so we'll say what are three things that you would add to your farming operation from PFR proven.
Talc Replacement Powders and Biologicals
Speaker 3Oh, pfr proven. Um, yeah, it's. It's really exciting every year when we get the PFR book out. And you mentioned yeah, you said you all within Beck's. And it's kind of funny because I feel like I take some credit and I don't do hardly any of this research. I don't really do the work. We do have Beck's employees and Beck's locations, like in Colfax Iowa, where there's a couple of gentlemen I'll give it Shout out to Chris and Zane up there. They conduct the experiments, you know, but I'm the one that ends up talking about them a lot. So, people, really I should just give credit where credit is due there for a moment right.
Speaker 3Yeah, three things. I think one of the simplest you know. So we've been talking biologicals for several years, right, but it's what will work and how to apply it. I think we're starting to see some multiple good products in this. This talc replacement powder is the first one that I'd call out there.
Speaker 3It's easy there's micronutrients as well. So many of them have some zinc, some manganese, maybe a little sulfur in them and then they're dry products. So you're, you can add them whether you've got a box planter or bulk fill planter, you can run them through a seed tender with kind of the dry box inoculator and then they do have biologicals. And especially for soybean, I am just very excited, passionate I'm not sure what the right word is about inoculating soybeans to try and get them. Soybeans produce their own nitrogen. We're trying to raise those increased soybean yields, right, and so there have been inoculants around for quite a few years Um, well, for many years really, since soybeans have been around. But as a way to increase soybean yield, these talc replacement powders are also an easy way to include a Brady rhizobium to help boost that nitrogen fixation for that soybean plant.
Speaker 1So actually, Jeff Crable brought my seed out yesterday and was talking about something from AgExplorer right Yep, that's one of them yeah, that's one of them.
Speaker 3So I can get rid of the tau, graphite and use this that's right, yeah, that product is called grow pack, um, that is, uh, I've had the most experience with that. There's another product called dust, um, and then another product is called hopper throttle and there might be one or two more. Those are just kind of the two or three that are rising to the top, I'd say, within the PFR book. Yeah, I know, growpak is PFR proven. I think Dust and possibly Hopper Throttle are as well. I have to look that up for sure. But yeah, I mean, they're just kind of bringing a lot of things to the table and back to the biological component. They they're having their, they've got multiple strains of biologicals to to benefit the crop, and the beauty of that is it's going right in the fruit, right. So you know, that's why we call them well, the biologicals can do a lot from that position in that standpoint, right there along in the root zone. And then secondarily, micronutrients. Well, you don't need a whole lot of micronutrients.
Speaker 3Just small amounts can make a big difference. So it's a very efficient way to do it and it's very easy. I've been preaching for seven, eight years on you know in-furrow liquid, but these dry talc replacements are pretty easy. I will say I like it when farmers still keep some 80-20 talc graphite on hand, or maybe even some individual bottles of graphite and some talc, just in case you know hot, humid day where seed doesn't want to flow.
Speaker 1And yeah, you nailed it. We've all been there.
Speaker 3I mean, that's something I carry in my truck in the spring just because um try to be Johnny on the spot. But you know there's a lot more um going on with bulk delivery systems and meters and we really need them to flow well. So, which is one of the strong points of the Beck's hybrid seed, with our good polymer coating and our good quality control, the seed treatment For the most part I've seen these talc replacement powders have been able to yeah, the majority of the time just replace the talcs, which is an expense in itself, right.
Speaker 1You mentioned the Infero liquid. I was going to ask let's just go with a to put boron in furrow.
Speaker 3So boron is good to go, maybe with a post herbicide past or a coupled with a fun foliar or fungicide Yep. But, and then again you know we can talk quantities of fertility, but but a starter, especially banding phosphorus. I always think it's a good way to go, that's something I like to encourage and preach, that's a good thing. And then sometimes I'll see a zinc. So that would be the only thing you might be doubling not doubling up on saying I don't think there's a concern there, but especially for early planting that can help and I pretty sure that there is zinc in that girl pack product.
Speaker 1So I have actually switched a lot to doing a lot of foliar stuff, especially in the micros.
Speaker 3Yep.
Speaker 1Seems like boron lately has been like the big micro everybody's talking about.
Speaker 3Yeah, Is that what you're seeing? I think probably.
Speaker 1Are we just figuring out that boron is really needed towards the end there?
Speaker 3Yeah, I think it's a micronutrient that makes a big difference and especially, really you know we're harvesting the seed right it's a micronutrient that makes a big difference and especially, really you know we're harvesting the seed right, so it has it. It really comes into play with helping seed set and helping a kernel fill, kernel pod fill. I also, you know, it seems like we're doing quite a bit of sulfur research within the Bex practical farm research group as well and just trying to figure out timing, quantity, and really even bex is real good at characterizing hybrids, so we're even trying to drill down to which hybrids respond to maybe a higher rate nitrogen sulfur ratio.
Speaker 1Yeah, you nailed it, jesse, where?
Speaker 3uh, that's uh because we've been fleshing that out on the nitrogen side for years. Well, we really want to talk about nitrogen sulfur ratios. So, as we increase a nitrogen rate, we probably want to. We want to increase that sulfur rate because sulfur kind of stewards the uptake of nitrogen within the corn plant even so. So my, my, my across the board comment on sulfur and boron even. Actually, I'll steal from chris graham, our pfr location lead in colfax. He just says the. The recommendation with boron is to put more on moron yeah he likes that little joke
Micronutrients and Fertilizer Application Methods
Speaker 3so because you know it's a micronutrient you don't need to put a lot on. But let's make sure the plant gets it right and gets it timely, which is in kind of those late vegetative growth stages, right right before seed set, is ideal for boron. Then sulfur, I just it's kind of like you don't want to leave home without it, that's if you're trying to grow even 250 bushel corn and aren't applying any sulfur. Um, you know my early days as agronomist, 15 plus years ago. We talked about you do get some sulfur from like manure, for example. So there's a lot of hog manure in Iowa, there's cattle manure around. But you know, as we have a cleaner atmosphere and sulfur scrubbers, we just the way to help our crops perform the best is to make sure that we have have some sulfur out there. You know, in that 20 units for corn and 13, 14, 15 for beans depends on what your yield goals are, what your yield potential is, but but getting some sulfur out there is pretty important too right anymore.
Speaker 1A lot of these products I use a spray tech product and they're such low use rate, like it's this little half gallon jug you dump in and it'll cover 100 acres, you know, and it's easy to use. Throw it in there and I have never had a flow problem. I have my own sprayer. Never had a problem.
Speaker 2That stuff coming out of the sprayer looks like green jelly, but this stuff I use the boron can you explain to me theoretically, if you, if not exactly how that you know how the biologicals are affecting the seed?
Speaker 3oh wow, that's a that's a great question, right, I will. That's coming from a biology. Yeah, yeah, like what is the direct mechanism of the biologicals.
Speaker 2What is the thought I mean? I'm sure it's fairly theoretical at this point.
Speaker 3There are newer products, or yeah, what's interesting and I've thought about this as a medical doctor Right, because there are microbiologists now going into soil biology.
Speaker 2Oh, yeah, and.
Speaker 3I think that's probably been going on for decades, you know. But I I've heard microbiologists speak on soil biology, and they're talking about a lot of bacteria. I'm going to, I'm going to just do my best as not a microbiologist, but but um, it's okay, I'm asking you as an agronomist.
Speaker 3Well, yeah, as as an agronomist, I'm trying to speak to farmers I guess that's who we hope. Maybe there'll be lots of different walks of life listening. But for the purpose of farmer multiple presentations and some of the soil microbiologists I've heard speak we forget that nutrition, by and large, any NPK sulfur, has to be processed or mineralized through soil biology to be taken up by the plant right. Sometimes we, I think we think about, especially maybe some of the older generation farmers. You know we really and I grew up mostly thinking about farming as chemistry, as the chemistry involved in fertilizer, the chemistry involved in killing weeds, because when I was a kid Killing weeds is pretty tough in the 70s, early 80s even. I mean this wasn't just a foregone conclusion like it is now. I would say for the most part we really fought weeds 40, 50 years ago. So that involved a lot of chemistry and now we're kind of swinging back.
Speaker 3The pendulum is swinging a little bit the other way. We're trying to understand exactly what these microorganisms and biologicals, or soil biology, what each species is doing. And the specific answer I can give to your question is that rhizosphere is the term which is the rooting zone in the soil immediately around the, say, roots of the corn plant or the roots of the soybean plant, which is one of the things that makes me like inoculating soybean corn plant, or the roots of the soybean plant, which is which is one of the things that makes me like inoculating soybean, because we're just trying to supercharge or boost those. You know, fix more nodules early and have them produce more nitrogen on that soybean plant and that's done. That is and always has been and always will be a biological process. You know soybean actually uses more nitrogen per bushel generated than corn does, but it just produces its own.
Speaker 3If you ever really want an experiment on that, plant soybeans into a field that's been in CRP for 10 years, you'll be lucky to get 30 bushel soybean crop. You know because that that Brady rhizobium japonica, that bacteria there's a symbiotic relationship between the soybean plant and that bacteria to nodulate and then therefore produce its own nitrogen. It's not native to our soils. So that's something. As an agronomist I almost every year I find a farmer. That's for whatever reason. Maybe maybe he's it's been a crp, been a pasture, even for whatever reason, maybe it's been corn on corn for 10 years.
Speaker 1So that leads me to ask a question. But I could remember 25 years ago, whatever it was, we had a farm that was in crp for 20, 30 years, whatever it was. You always plant beans in that. It'd be better to throw corn out there now that's a great question I debate.
Speaker 3I used to say yes on corn, um, and there's kind of a debate too on generally land coming out of. Crp is pretty low on the p and k levels and very little to no nitrogen, right. So that's why I think you lean towards soybeans. It's just a little bit more forgiving, more, you might say, a rugged crop. Now soybean are very I shouldn't say very, but it's more. Soybean as a crop are more sensitive to ph, sure, so you can grow. The short answer is you can grow either, but corn, you know, taba in furrow, or two by two or some liquid system takes more management, exactly, and you got to think about short term.
Speaker 3And that's why I mentioned liquid, because even if you put a broadcast dry p and k out there, it's going to take some time to just like back to the biology, back to the mineral mineralizing. And then there's also a component of and that's a whole nother frontier in, you know, kind of biological farming. We'll say Leah um, to just kind of bring it all together, is phosphorus and potassium in the soil, for example. There are levels in the soil there are quantities that are not accessible, and so you know there's a cation exchange. There are quantities that are not accessible, and so you know, there's like cation exchange, that's right.
Speaker 3That's right and that's why I say I think that sometimes we want to put fertilizer out there, whatever NPK S, boron, whatever and we want to just think it's like we're, you know, like we're with a watering, can just pour it on our crop and it gets right to our crop. But then there's this whole world of fertilizer use efficiency. There's the whole back to the rise sphere of. That's why, within BECCS and with one of the best things within PFR, is just this kind of overarching subject of fertilizer placement, Because anytime you can place fertilizer that we're paying for and investing and paying a lot of money, as you guys know, anytime we can put that kind of right there next to the crop, where it can reach it, where it can go. More of that fertility can go into the crop is better. There's still biological processes and mechanisms, a lot of science that's got to happen.
Soil Biology and Plant Nutrition
Speaker 3That's right Right around, the right around the root zone and you know we could get into a little bit more of the biology of the finer roots, can cover more surface area soil and then the hyphae that are extending out from the root and kind of signaling through these biological organisms that plant needs phosphorus or potassium or sulfur or whatever have you. I'm oversimplifying it, but those are. The general idea of where we're going is to try and understand biology. Now, here's, here's the kicker before we move on. Now chemistry. The reason we like chemistry. Well, I hated chemistry in college. By the way, I have a minor in chemistry, it's fascinating because look at, look at where we're going with all of it.
Speaker 3It's all the biochemistry and molecular biology. It is, that's right. It's not all that different from all the biochemistry and molecular biology. It is, that's right. It's not all that different from medicine and from human biology.
Speaker 2And as you're talking, I'm like well, this is just like taking a probiotic for your gut health.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2So and and we can talk to like I I find it important. I think we as humans need some dirt in our gut because of the all of the biology within the soil. I think that we evolutionary, you know, we used to just eat the food from the ground and and we kind of need some of that. So I, I kind of I definitely see the correlation. And, as you're talking about the hyphae, I just went to a medical conference this weekend and we are definitely, as human beings, connected to the earth and and the plants are connected to the soil and connected to each other. And it's amazing that here we are going back to that and watching what will happen with the research and the PFR book. It. It'll just show that.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, well, and that's like at a root level. The chemistry of farming is relatively simpler I won't say easy, but simpler to control adding fertilizer to the soil, controlling weeds with a chemistry, with a, with a crop protection chemical. Now the advantages if we can kind of play our cards right With the soil biology, or if the biological aspects of farming is when we get 20, 30, 40 bushel increase in corn without spending a whole lot of money Cause chemistry. 40 bushel increase in corn without spending a whole lot of money Cause chemistry. It seems like it feels like it's a little bit more one-to-one. Right, you like you put more fertility out there, yeah, you, you raise a higher, uh, more bushels especially, but there's some timing involved there. But biology, I mean, I always like to say that biology is governed by temperature and moisture.
Speaker 3And if we can just think about, uh, whether it be livestock or you know, microbes, the microbial life in the soil, think about what's going on above ground, and then there's a bit of a lag or delay within below ground temperature and moisture Just what we started off talking about here too, Well, as you're talking, I think what I'm hearing and what's coming to me is maybe it's really more about the health of the root system, right?
Speaker 2So that's why all of that microbiology plays such an important role in the growth, and not only that, but how they interact together, like in that row. So if y'all have strong roots roots- then they're going to grow well together.
Speaker 1Maybe you haven't seen some of the new studies that bex is doing with the roots and the root structure no, I haven't no she's stuff is pretty cool.
Speaker 3She is just, yeah, like laying it right out for me here. I love this fantastic yeah, be uh, through our more of our product team and our our research, our product team and our research, uh, folks on, we're doing a project called root reveal for our corn hybrids and this is just another way where Bex is just digging deeper into characterizing hybrids.
Speaker 1uh, understanding different genetics. It's almost like just somebody's science project or something.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, I mean, really, I think there's a lot of different avenues. You can go with it, right, but it's really just trying to learn about the rooting structure of a specific hybrid and those genetics. And when I say rooting structure, I mean we're classifying them into horizontal, balanced, kind of in the middle, so roots that grow out, more horizontally driven roots, and then balanced, and then vertical. Now vertical roots are going to, you know, tend to go straight down and really dig, and we do see. Well, first of all, we've kind of looked at that in relationship to nutrient placement, you know as, uh, where do we put it?
Speaker 3Is it gonna go out and the corn plant going to reach, kind of in that space between the rows, um, or we find that the that the vertical rooted hybrids, they can go deeper for moisture, deeper for nitrogen. You know, I think they will probably lend themselves to a little bit more of a clay content soil, tougher clays. Even so, those are, you know, those are some. We've been doing this for, I think three years already, really, and have almost all of our hybrids characterized. But now we're beginning to, now we've kind of got them classified, I should say, by rooting structure, and then we're trying to build on top of that research with the root reveal from Beck's. It's a little bit of a tongue twister.
Speaker 2That's awesome.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's exciting research from the standpoint of yeah, I'm just such a big believer, if you can't tell, in the power soil and and the soil root interaction our soil is a pretty amazing creature really.
Speaker 1It can do so much. A lot of stuff going on in there. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3well, mike, you know, leah, you mentioned just our, uh, our, our gut and the sim. I do think there's some similarity. I mean, we have a hard time understanding those processes. All influence each other and you know we could talk about, just like I said, temperature and moisture and soil health as a whole.
Speaker 3Nother, that's something I'm continually learning about and really as an industry it's becoming more. People are more and more interested in understanding soil dynamics and soil biology and that ties back into from crops to cover crop to manure, to livestock and really what's kind of neat about that is you see things starting to come a little bit more full circle in a biological farming, regenerative agriculture, those are some things that kind of even. I mean, I have my job within Beck's and that is to I love Beck's because if you haven't heard the tagline at Beck's we just say, especially, my job and as agronomist is just to help farmers succeed and generally that's with I'm helping them grow a crop. I also have these other passions of just as an agronomist and being in agriculture, of soil health and regenerative ag, and that is why I tend to pay attention to the biology a little bit more.
Speaker 2Well, and maybe, as they continue to look at the root structure, I mean there are like different portions of the gut which are absorb things differently and maybe, maybe the root system is more like the gut and so there are different levels of where they're going to be absorbing.
Speaker 1Nitrogen needs to be at these finer ones. And then P and K needs to be and decide which roots like which.
Speaker 2See how fascinating that is. We could really get down there Like how tied to the earth and plants we are as humans.
Speaker 1And maybe they're looking at that already. That's awesome.
Speaker 3And then you know, that's what's fascinating to me is because, of course, I always think in terms of different hybrids and different genetic families. So that's, I mean, that's the beauty of God's creation to me, is that. And that's what's intimidating about biology, though, too, because it just feels like you can get infinitely complex all of a sudden, whereas I can understand. Like chemistry is a little bit more cleaner, lab, straightforward. I mean, there's variables, but there's things just get out of control real quick with biology.
Speaker 2You know we've, we've all mean we've got teenagers right, no joke, it's like wow, biology is powerful and it's just you kind of got to let it happen sometimes, for sure, sometimes you just step back and say okay, we'll just we'll see how this plays out.
Root Reveal Research Project
Speaker 3Yeah, but hey, that's why we've got advanced computing and we've got a lot of help now with keeping track of all these things we've learned.
Speaker 3So you get different genetic families and maybe they want different fertility, different nitrogen, just all around different management, right, and yeah, who knows what we'll find out in terms of we're just trying to learn about the root systems. I'm excited to know not only rooting angle but, like surface area, you know and we've done this root reveal project within just grow boxes which are the size of a chemical shuttle. That's actually what they are and it's in a dry what's used to dry down baseball and softball diamonds. It's diamond dry material and then they're liquid fed and fertigated, so it's kind of a you know it's diamond dry material and then they're liquid fed and fertigated, so it's kind of a you know it's. It's a lab adapted experiment to just allow those roots to express themselves in this media, growing media. Uh, I'm excited about surface area too, because you can't tell me a bigger root system. That's got to be better, right, right, you know it is pretty cool.
Speaker 1You can go on. I think the website has a video of it, because I've seen the videos. Yeah, it's pretty cool just to see the roots. And then they cut the plastic and all the media comes out and there's this huge you know it's 250 gallon tote cage full of roots.
Speaker 3It's pretty cool and and they are very different. You know, I mean, that's what's? It's just this thing of what's below ground we tend to forget or it's harder to understand, but the corn plants may look very similar above ground, but below ground they're completely different in in their structure. So that's really cool.
Speaker 2So anyway, I think that's just the first of the pfr yeah, right, well, that would I would say.
Speaker 3Root reveal is probably my second exciting thing even though I don't know is it's, it's not necessarily pfr proven, it's just a project within um. You know, and this is what's neat about Beck's is that we have our product team, we have our our research team and then PFR. We're all kind of collaborating on that. That project, uh, the root reveal project within Beck's yeah, that, that would be my second one. Even was just root reveal, which Leah or Jesseesse, one of you, just kind of set that up. Yeah, that was a softball for sure do you have any?
Speaker 1do you have any input of as to like what studies they look at or try to do? Or is that all somebody else? Or yeah, no, I I give some input.
Speaker 3Um, I'll say it's more often than not throughout the year and just talking with different PFR folks, most often, yeah, chris Grimm there at Colfax. So they they asked the opinion of. I mean, that's one of the unique things about BEX is they will. They will take feedback from just about anybody. You probably remember that from your days as a dealer, and that's an encouraging thing. At the end of the day, we definitely want to have some replication, I will say within the PFR program, so that we're trying to test things for three years and get some data strength in terms of reps and data.
Speaker 1They're doing it right and making sure that there is replication and value.
Speaker 3And keeping it practical. That's the other component, though, too, because I mean it's a no-cost service, no cost to the farmer, you know, I mean we run a pretty tight budget on the PFR program too. It's amazing how much those, uh, those folks can do and produce a lot of data that is really valuable. Uh, even, and even just around just this earlier this week, I know a I believe it was a dealer that was taken some PFR books to a retailer that wanted some to look at, because, because we're just testing all kinds of different things, um products and different practices and then for me, how many sites are there, cause it's like seven States.
Speaker 3Yeah, I, I believe we're at 11.
Speaker 1I think we've got, if I remember correctly, 10 own sites and then two cooperators, so in total so you can find very specific to your area, recommendations, above and beyond what Beck's does with their hybrid placement, all these other practices that not only studied across the country but are very specific to me here in Iowa.
Speaker 2So I would say, if you are not familiar with the Beck's PFR book, become very familiar with the PFR book, because it will change your farming practices, or should. And that's definitely speaking as a big science nerd, because that's what it is. It's all based on evidence and I just love what they're doing and it's really exciting to see where it's heading to. Yeah, that's right Exciting, and yeah, you don't have doing and it's really exciting to see where it's heading too.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's right. And yeah, you don't have to be a Beck's customer, you don't have to. You know that we're just giving meetings and doing the practical farm research work for just to help farmers succeed, Any farmers, any and all.
Speaker 2Well, thank you, beck's, for doing that, because it is a huge service for the agricultural community.
Speaker 3Yeah, thank you, scott and Sunny for sure.
Speaker 2Yes, definitely, thank you.
Compaction Issues and Field Readiness
Speaker 1So we were kind of joking earlier about the piece of equipment going down the road. We're also seeing anhydrous tanks rolling around. I thought maybe, at least for me. I asked you what would be one piece of advice that you usually give. I'm usually trying to wait, wait, maybe a little bit longer, because I know there's actually some guys running in hydrous. We saw some up north towards Iowa City, so it's going on Now, like I've heard they're drier up there, but right here I think I'm a little too wet to do some. That's usually my advice to myself. Okay, just wait another day, jess.
Speaker 3I think that's good advice really. I mean, the older I get, I learn more about how important timing is, and that's something my lovely wife is helping me learn, I mean I kind of want to go, go, go, get it done, get after it type personality and I just with kids, for example, timing is a really not to say that with with wives too.
Speaker 3Most certainly it's important in farming, and in the spring specifically too, jesse, because there are some operations where we can do about as much harm as good. It's the way I'd answer that question now.
Speaker 1Well, we were talking earlier and it was basically we're too close to go, time to go and screw it up now you don't have time to fix it. You know, one extra day could save you a lot of headaches, a lot of problems.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I think the hidden component here that I oftentimes try to consider, my wife and I we do farm on the side some and there's always that question of workload. So that's kind of what we were discussing just before we came on the side some and there's always that question of workload. So that's kind of what we were discussing just before we came on the podcast here. And oh, I, you know, those are the questions I try to ask. A farmer is you know, what percentage of their nitrogen do they have on, for example? You know, why do they feel the urge to go work that field right now? You know, we kind of mentioned this term or topic of fixing some compaction. You know well, compaction is very much driven by moisture. So you know, yeah, you can go out there and fill in a rut and kind of, on the surface, feel better.
Speaker 3Right Time it into our soil talk.
Speaker 2Lipstick on a pig? That's right.
Speaker 3I mean, okay, it looks better on top Right, but if, just like you saidesse is, we've had this wind blowing hard, it feels like, for the last 10 days, and that's dried out the top inch or two. So if you're going to do anything deeper than an inch or two anhydrous, you know, deep, uh, chiseling, ripping, deep tillage um, it's probably a good time to tile right now I suppose really you know, tile just always kind of messes things up anyway, but helps for future.
Speaker 3But if you're going to do anything deeper than an inch or two and get into that wetter, muckier portion of the soil profile, you're doing some smearing, you're doing some compaction Right and could be doing as much harm as you are. Good is what I'm driving at.
Speaker 2And just for people that might not understand that what kind of harm would they be doing, Like, what is that going to do to their seed? Of harm would they?
Speaker 3be doing Like what is that going to do to their?
Speaker 2seed Gosh, she asked such good questions. I just because you you just.
Speaker 3Well, I mean that, leah, because sometimes my thought process is a little bit kind of like I'm circling around things and you just reminded me of. So I mentioned that soil biology. It's governed by temperature and moisture, right? Well, the other thing there are, there is probably, I don't know, the human gut, I don't know the human body as well as you do, but, but, um, most life in the soil, in particular, even roots. They, it needs oxygen too. There are bacteria, specifically, that can survive in a anaerobic soil conditions, you know, in absence of oxygen. So so how does this tie back to compaction, right? Well, that's what compaction is. Compaction is just a compressing of soil particles and what it drives out is oxygen and moisture. Eventually, I mean, you can also kind of lock moisture in there, but you're, you're, basically, instead of there being poor space and this ability for a root to penetrate, or water to flow, or more bacterial life to be present and live and flourish and reproduce, you're compressing that soil. So, and and I oftentimes this is a good point for me to interject my big belief that we sometimes think about compaction in terms of what we can see, right, I mean, it's it's interesting that God didn't create us with like a little microscope that we could all of a sudden flip in front of one of our eyes, or something like that, or like x-ray power, yeah, like some sort of like maybe we'll have that with glasses one day, where we can just like enhance and it'll like go to microscopic level or or some sort of
Speaker 3like, you know, 3d imagery of the soil of what's going on Like, sort of, like you know, 3d imagery of the soil of what's going on like, wouldn't that be amazing? But but that's my point is that we think of compaction in terms of like no farmer likes ruts, you know, right. But what I'm talking about is compaction on a microscopic level. Right, because that's really, I mean, gosh, even some of the micro fauna is the term, some of the earthworms, for example, or even nematodes, some nematodes you can see with the naked eye. You know, we're even talking smaller than that, where those soil particles where compaction happens, that and that's the type of compaction, that micro compaction is the term that I'm familiar with and use. That's really what impacts uh, you know, fertilizer availability, for example, fertilizer use efficiency.
Speaker 3So, it's a weird thing to think about because, as a farmer, sure I could go out there and I could. Um, I could do some. Make an anhydrous application knife in some anhydrous or manure is another big one. I have a ah man, I love manure. It does so much, it's so good for the soil, so good for the crop, and I oftentimes see it going on in the fall, no matter what the conditions, right. And I just question, like compaction that's happening, smearing of the sidewall of that knife, and those are you know, yeah, we can help. I don't even know if I want to say help, but we can. We can alleviate significant compaction concerns with tillage. But at the end of the day, this is one of the advantages that I talk about with cover crops is because the best thing for compaction is a root, penetrating through that, growing in it and freeze-thaw like you said, jesse too, right which are really more like natural forces, right?
Episode Closing and Preview
Speaker 1Right. So I don't know, maybe it's a sticky situation Fall anhydrous versus spring anhydrous. Well, if you want to know the answer to that question and the remaining pick of Greg's top three PFR practices, you're going to have to come back tomorrow. We've given you a lot of good stuff already. We want to give you a chance to process it and you get an extra episode tomorrow. So if you liked it, remember, share it with your friends Hit the subscribe button. If you want to hear anything from us, email us at farmersgreatestasset at gmailcom. Thank you for listening and remember it's always a good day to have a great day.
