Coffee on the Porch: Copper and Sugar

In this hot and humid Iowa summer, we share updates on our hay making, crop conditions, and innovative approaches to foliar feeding crops with precise nutrient mixtures. We discuss how we're transitioning to drone technology for better application of nutrients while reducing compaction and crop damage.

• Corn is looking good at V10 stage and standing over 6½ feet tall
• Moving to drone technology for foliar feeding and fungicide application
• Using targeted nutrition based on tissue samples rather than blanket applications
• Copper serves as a natural fungicide while sugar acts as a natural insecticide
• Dr. Leah visited an integrative medicine clinic in Wisconsin to connect with other healers
• Discussing parallels between physician burnout and farmer stress
• Building community connections to combat isolation in both professions
• Home garden providing abundant produce with potential for a small farm stand

Subscribe, like, and share this podcast with all your friends. Send us a note at farmersgreatestasset@gmail.com to let us know what topics you'd like us to cover.

Transcript

Coffee Talk on a Summer Afternoon

Speaker 1 0:14

The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer their knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.

Speaker 2 0:39

And I'm Dr Leah.

Speaker 1 0:43

What do we got on the books today, Mama?

Speaker 2 0:45

Well, as it is a very busy season on the farm, we are just going to bring you more coffee talk. Except it's the afternoon, so the unsweet tea talk.

Speaker 1 1:04

Still coffee on the porch. Just a little hot for coffee it is too hot for coffee.

Speaker 2 1:09

How about we just call it water? Lots of ice water on the porch.

Speaker 1 1:13

Water on the porch. So welcome to June in Iowa.

Speaker 2 1:18

Holy moly.

Speaker 1 1:19

It is humid out there.

Speaker 2 1:23

I think that there needs to be a whole different classification for the level of humidity that is outside, especially in the greenhouse. Like the greenhouse is above and beyond humid 1,000% humidity out there. According to Weatherbug.

Speaker 1 1:39

It's only 70% humidity here, but I don't buy it. It is sticky.

Speaker 2 1:46

I know I cannot wait to get in the pool today.

Speaker 1 1:48

So it's been mid-90s this week with crazy high humidity.

Speaker 2 1:52

And really like very hot south winds.

Speaker 1 1:57

It made good hot hay drying weather.

Speaker 2 1:59

Yeah, it did that south wind.

Speaker 1 2:01

It was very drying 92, 30 mile an hour, winds out of the south and sunny. We dried some alfalfa and made some beautiful hay.

Speaker 2 2:10

It was a good time to make some hay. It was also a very hot time to make some hay.

Speaker 1 2:15

Sun was shining.

Speaker 2 2:16

And a very short window, just like a day and a half, two days.

Speaker 1 2:21

Well, we were able to get it done that quick, but I was in a hurry because the forecast said starting Tuesday we were supposed to have basically seven days of rain. It didn't rain at all until Tuesday night last night. So I'll take the rain, though it's fine by me.

Speaker 2 2:37

Yeah, we could use a little more.

Speaker 1 2:39

We're not hurting for rain, but never want to turn it down for sure.

Speaker 2 2:44

But we're done like with the field work, you know, like getting in the field with the heavy equipment. So we'll take a little bit.

Speaker 1 2:50

Yeah, absolutely We'll take those guys a little west of us.

Speaker 2 2:54

Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:57

He says he's just talked to a friend today. He said he's still a little wet on the wet side and wanted to wide drop some nitrogen and it's still too muddy so he doesn't want the rain and I'll take it, yeah, and I think ohio out in the whole ohio area.

Speaker 2 3:10

I think that's pretty wet out there too.

Crop Updates and Field Conditions

Speaker 1 3:11

Yeah according to the radar this morning, like minnesota was, whole state of minnesota was getting it today, so but we're sitting pretty good. I had a inch and something last week and had a little bit again last night, so was out in the cornfield this morning. Corn looks good it is tall really tall. It is taller than I am. It's six and a half foot tall, for sure, so it's probably v10 ish.

Speaker 2 3:39

So yeah, I'm gonna be sticking that video out on youtube so, if you guys want to, to check Jesse out and see how tall that corn is. It looks pretty.

Speaker 1 3:49

I'm going to start putting more videos on YouTube. So I was out in the cornfield this morning and it's about V10. So that's why I called Chris this morning to get some tissue sample bags coming so we can take some tissue samples and see what the crop is looking for and give it what it needs. Give it some more groceries, get the drone flying and foliar feed the corn and some of the soybeans Stuff's rocking and rolling out there.

Speaker 2 4:15

I like the foliar feeding. I like to give the plant what it needs when it needs it, so it has what it needs. But you're not putting extra stuff out there.

Speaker 1 4:24

Better ROI If it doesn't need manganese and you're not putting extra stuff out there Better ROI If it doesn't need manganese and you're throwing manganese in the mix like it's, maybe you're going to give it too much and cause an imbalance. So that was kind of the talk a little bit this morning with Chris and that you know there's certain things that you do want to kind of put there all the time. Sugar is one of them and he really likes copper because it's like a natural fungicide If you think of copper and all the properties that are good about it and the antibacterial properties of copper. It made sense to me when he said that We'll take some tissue samples, get the report back and put in there what it needs. We're getting a drone to start spraying with a drone rather than ground rig, so that'll be fun that'll help with compaction issues as well and just running stuff over well, yeah, so we were.

Speaker 1 5:17

I was doing some of the post pesticide spraying, herbicide spraying, and every time you're out there you're running corn down. So we would do a pass with straight herbicide and then we'd come back with our foliar pass.

Speaker 2 5:31

Tell people why you were doing that. Why were you separating them and not doing them at the same time?

Speaker 1 5:37

Well, so the herbicide, we just want to kill the weeds and then when we're doing the foliar feeding, we are trying to make a mist out of it, make a fog to make as fine of particles as we can and let that just float down onto the plant and try to wrap around the plant to try to get those micronutrients and macronutrients into the plant macronutrients and macronutrients into the plant.

Foliar Feeding and Drone Technology

Speaker 1 6:07

So they got to go in through the stomata, which easiest way to put it is basically it's got to go in through a tiny little hole. So we're trying to make this fertilizer light and airy and small particles to get into the plant. So we make a separate pass, we switch nozzles, make a really high pressure and low volume pretty concentrated mix. We can ground rig. We can do 200 acres in a crack because we're only doing five gallon an acre high pressure and the neighbors think we are idiots, probably because we've got this fog behind the sprayer and they think we're going to kill all their crops when in all actuality we're probably giving them a little extra added goodness You're welcome.

Speaker 2 6:42

In all actuality, we're probably giving them a little extra added.

Speaker 1 6:44

Goodness You're welcome Amazing's an extra sprayer pass, but if that's going to boost our yield, that's worth the pass. We own the sprayer, so it's time.

Speaker 2 6:57

Well, after we get the drone, we won't have to worry about putting it through the ground rig.

Speaker 1 7:02

Right.

Speaker 1 7:02

So every time I'm out there spraying, you try to drive over the same track and same path, but you never hit the same spot.

Speaker 1 7:10

So you're running more crop down and this time of year we're not creating a ton of compaction, but you just run the risk of running crop down Decided to go with a drone and we'll just fly the drone over and do our own stuff and that way we'll be able to do all of our foliar passes with the drone and all of our fungicide passes. So we used to hire a helicopter. Last year we hired a helicopter to do 100% of our acre, soybeans included, because it was wet enough that I didn't want to take the ground rig out there and make tracks. So we hired a helicopter to do it where normally we would have run the ground rig over the soybeans. But now with the drone, we'll be able to do all that ourselves and pay for the drone in a heartbeat, just by not having to hire the helicopter wouldn't it be great if we don't have to use fungicide because our plants are so healthy from all the foliar?

Speaker 1 8:10

so that is going to be one of the studies I'm trying, especially now that I have my own drone. We'll leave some strips without fungicide but we'll have had all of the extra foliar passes. And they say the sugar is actually kind of like a natural insecticide because the sugar in it, the bugs cannot process it it's kind of it's like an artificial sweetener in human beings Right.

Speaker 1 8:40

Right, so the sugar is like a natural insecticide but then, like Chris said this morning, the copper helps with like a fungicide and that totally made sense to me. But we give it the sugar. That helps with the biology in the plant and the dirt, but it's also just good for the plant. Trying lots of new things, yeah, this year I'm really so.

Speaker 2 9:05

My hypothesis it is not a null hypothesis is the more the longer that we can give the beans sugar, the healthier they will stay, the slower they will dry.

Speaker 1 9:20

The more they'll retain the moisture.

Speaker 2 9:21

So we can maintain the moisture and improve our bushel count out of the field.

Speaker 1 9:27

That is the hope. That's what we're trying. We have never made. Until last year I hadn't made extra foliar passes with fertilizer, so now we're making extra foliar passes. Some of them will have probably three foliar fertilizer passes on them.

Speaker 2 9:43

It's all about keeping the plant happy and healthy just like I try to do for you, honey, keep you happy and healthy you're trying you have more say than the soybeans.

Speaker 1 9:58

Do right so back to the foliar stuff. Like you can also throw too much at it. So if you're just throwing, throwing everything in there, just like, okay, throw the bucket at it, you could get too much and you can burn the plant. You can almost see that happening. When you have too much, you're just burning the plant.

Speaker 2 10:21

Well, you know, if you put too much on the leaves, it makes sense Like those products are going to change the absorption of the sun. So, you know, is the sunlight getting extra concentrated and frying it? Or you know, there's something going on there. I don't know exactly what it is scientifically, but it makes sense on there. I don't know exactly what it is scientifically, but it makes sense like you need to give it what it will absorb, but too much of it is going to damage the plant right.

Speaker 1 10:47

Visually you can see it like that away. So it's, you know. And everybody says, oh, it'll grow out of it, yep, it'll green up again. And we used to go out. We never did it, unless it was like a rescue situation where the weeds got so bad. But a lot of people would spray cobra and go out and burn the beans and the theory was that you're stressing them, that they're going to branch out. More to me, you stress on a plant. That can't be good. I don't like doing that.

Speaker 2 11:16

Well in my greenhouse studies and providing an excellent environment for my plants. They are growing like bananas.

Speaker 1 11:27

Right, well, I guess I don't know how bananas grow, but growing a lot.

Speaker 2 11:32

I don't think that stressing a plant a lot is going to be in its benefit. I mean, you can't give too much Too much water, too much fertilizer, too much, and that's stress too. All right, so we did hay sprayed.

Speaker 1 11:50

Post-turbocytus. Done so putting the sprayer away.

Speaker 2 11:53

That feels good, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 11:55

It's going to get cleaned up yet, but we're going to get it put away. Move on to foliar.

Speaker 2 12:05

And then you're gonna have to get started on the combine have some major maintenance to do.

Farm Maintenance and Equipment Rebuilding

Speaker 1 12:07

On the corn head, yes, we do blew a hole in it last year. Corn was too good, just blew a hole in the bottom lots of acres went through that corn head it's just rebuilding. It's one of those things you got to do. It's just the economy, right, you're just going to try to maintain what you got and can't go out and buy new stuff all the time. So it's time to rebuild a corn head, which is fairly simple. There's nothing to them I'll.

Integrative Medicine and Community Building

Speaker 2 12:30

I'll see how you feel about that mid rebuild. I'm gonna play this back and be like, oh simple, mm-hmm. This last weekend I went up to Wisconsin to visit my friend, dr Kat Hopkins, at her integrative medicine clinic. I met with a wonderful group of ladies, which we call the female healers, a bunch of doctors and nurse practitioners that really focus on integrative medicine, functional healing and really getting down to the core of what is ailing their patients. It's fun to see like and to hear them talk about the breakthroughs that they're making and the different modalities that they're they are doing. So if you are in that area or if you are looking for an integrative medicine doctor, I have a wonderful friend and you will just love her. She actually is hosting a farm to table dinner on her farm, which is where she sees her patients she's got her office is actually in a barn. It's kind of offices actually in a barn. It's kind of an amazing space.

Speaker 1 13:41

Yeah, I haven't got to see it. I'd kind of like to go up there and see it.

Speaker 2 13:44

Well, I'm speaking at the farm-to-table dinner, but it is in October, so I'm just going to will that it rains here and then maybe you can come with me.

Speaker 1 13:57

sweetheart, that is poor timing.

Speaker 2 13:59

We're going to make it work. There is another organization that is helping put on the farm-to-table dinner, which is we Care, which helps physicians tackle burnout. I am going to be speaking on kind of my story and what I went through when I left medicine and how I incorporated nature and lifestyle into healing life, my mind and my body and some of those things that we put into practice when you are in your healing from your injury as well.

Speaker 1 14:32

Physicians are getting burnt out, as well as farmers do.

Speaker 2 14:36

There are so many correlations between what's happening right now in medicine, with physicians, and what is happening in agriculture, with farmers and farming families. Suicide rates are going up. People are leaving because they just can't handle it. This is one of the reasons that we're creating our community. I think that people are getting. There's so much social media so you feel like you're connected worldwide, but there's such a lack of connection.

Speaker 1 15:07

Right, you're not actually connected.

Speaker 2 15:08

There's a lack of connection Right, You're not actually connected there's a lack of community. So we, we are creating the farmer's greatest asset community so we can help bridge that gap and help people heal in the agricultural community and and other communities and just bring people together so they can be heard and not feel alone.

Speaker 1 15:30

It's good stuff.

Speaker 2 15:32

So every little bit I can take in and be with wonderful people like those ladies that I was with and Kat and her family, and go to her beautiful farm and she's got like walking paths and it was just amazing to get up and go for a walk in the morning on our walking path. And, and it was just amazing to get up and go for a walk in the morning on our walking path. And I have not created that yet here, but it is on my list.

Speaker 1 15:56

You've had dreams and plans of doing so. It's just happening slowly.

Speaker 2 16:01

Well, and it's all divine timing, it will happen when it's meant to happen.

Speaker 1 16:06

Right, we kind of live in a unique spot too. We're flat and so wide open and no trees, except for the few we have planted around the house and that is about to change my dear.

Speaker 2 16:19

So many trees and bushes going into that ground over the next few months, not the best time to plant, but it's going to be. I just we just got the mulch delivered. Thank you, caleb.

Speaker 1 16:32

And Dewey for letting us use your truck, oh yes, thank you, dewey.

Speaker 2 16:37

And thank you, dewey, for helping Henry with his cattle while we took a little hiatus for a few days.

Speaker 1 16:41

A little family getaway.

Speaker 2 16:43

We were able to get Henry away from his heifers for a few days, and it was so good for him to be out on the lake. We were down there last week and now we're gearing up for the county fair.

Speaker 1 16:58

Yeah, here we come Brush your teeth, comb your hair, it's the county fair.

Speaker 2 17:06

Where did that come from?

Speaker 1 17:07

I don't know when I was on the fair board.

Speaker 2 17:08

They would say that I don't know if it was on a koozie or what, but yeah, Did the people on the fair board need that reminder Cause they were working so late into the night Like oh gosh? I just remember when you were on the fair board it was like you would roll home at two, three in the morning after cleaning up after whatever event and there's a lot of drinking. That's going on that time of day time of night morning.

Garden Progress and Future Plans

Speaker 1 17:35

So yeah, we probably did need a reminder to brush your teeth and comb your hair. You didn't have a whole lot of hair then either, but you know thanks it doesn't bother me, I love you anyway babe things are still happening on the farm and moving on to the next project, crops are growing. Leah's green beans are really growing they are.

Speaker 2 18:03

How tall do you, would you say they are?

Speaker 1 18:05

oh man, they're ten inches tall, maybe a foot.

Speaker 2 18:09

Oh, they're probably at least a foot most of them. I have like six-foot tomato plants out there. They're crazy tall Like. I got these tomato cages and I've had to like rig up bamboo poles in them because they're growing like crazy.

Speaker 1 18:27

Yeah, perfect growing conditions.

Speaker 2 18:29

So we're going to have lots of food, maybe even set up a little farm stand out there. I don't know, but we'll see what's going to come about.

Speaker 1 18:35

Yeah, I even admitted to that the other day, didn't?

Speaker 2 18:37

I Actually, that was your idea.

Speaker 1 18:39

You are going to have so much produce and stuff.

Speaker 2 18:44

Lots of stuff. The strawberries are just like starting to bloom and produce strawberries. I had one from out there this morning.

Speaker 1 18:52

That were just planted.

Speaker 2 18:54

A month ago. Right so in all actuality, the first year you're supposed to like pick the blooms off. They aren't going to be large strawberries, but they'll be perfect for jam.

Speaker 1 19:03

Right, those little ones are the best, I think. But you still had on your little outside patch here by the garage. They were still. I picked a strawberry off there this morning.

Speaker 2 19:12

Those are the early glows. They are yummy. They're my fave, I think I'm usually not a strawberry fan, but holy cow, that was good. So what do we got on the agenda for the next week?

Speaker 1 19:22

Oh, man, got some fat cuddle going out this weekend. So this is actually the time of year that it does slow down a little bit. Weekend so this is actually the time of year that it does slow down a little bit. We'll probably haul some grain around the county fair time. If we haven't wrapped up post-spring, we are wrapping it up. Our county fair is always right after the 4th of July. We are starting to wrap that kind of stuff up. Cousin down the road is going to cut some wheat that we're going to bale the straw, take the straw. So we got that coming up, but besides that, nothing huge planned. I say that.

Speaker 2 19:53

Markets are down, down, down, down, yep, down, we'll talk about that.

Speaker 1 20:01

Start flying a drone, figure that out, getting my license for that, that's fun.

Speaker 2 20:06

I've been working on the website, so if you get onto our website and it looks a little dysfunctional right now, come back in a week. It's going to be up and beautiful.

Speaker 1 20:15

You're working hard on that and it looks good yeah.

Speaker 2 20:18

Yep, the newsletter will be ready to go too. So we're going to be putting out some good information in our newsletter called the farmhouse table, because that is where it all begins, right, you sit around it and have your meals, you sit around it and write out checks, and a lot of times we'll be sitting at it working on our computer, playing games with the family all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1 20:46

Yeah, so we'd be putting a newsletter out trying to get some YouTube videos up and out. Lots of good stuff coming your way. Yeah, so we'll be putting a newsletter out trying to get some YouTube videos up and out.

Speaker 2 20:52

Lots of good stuff coming your way.

Speaker 1 20:53

Yeah, stay tuned, keep watching.

Speaker 2 20:56

We'd love to hear what you would like to hear more of.

Speaker 1 20:59

It's been good hearing from people, so send us a note at farmersgreatestasset, at gmailcom.

Speaker 2 21:07

Go to all the socials. We're at farmersers Greatest Asset.

Speaker 1 21:11

So go subscribe, hit the like button and share this podcast with all of your friends. It is a good day to have a great day.

Speaker 2 21:20

Bye.