Legacy, Limits, and the Land: Husbands Tell All (Part 2)

The husbands return to dive into the heavy stuff: the divine reason God paired you with your spouse and the "gut-check" of knowing when to call it quits on the farm. We’re getting honest about the fear of disasters, the safety of diversification, and my heart as a mom trying to pass down a legacy of love and pride of the farm to our kids. It’s an episode about faith, survival, and the next generation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Have we not have we not said this where there's a reason God puts you with who you are with? Because if Cody and I were together, we would be broke as a joke, but we'd have a lot of cool stuff. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

So, Brady, I have a question for you. What's it like when the corn is high, but the chaos is higher?

SPEAKER_02 0:14

It's a lot of things, but it's never boring. This is the Form Why Files, life between the rows.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

Welcome back to the podcast. It's uh sponsored by Heideman Advanced Tag again.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Our only sponsor.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I was gonna say, here we go again.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

First one wasn't too bad.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

How did you guys feel about it?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Yeah. Good. How do you like being podcasters?

SPEAKER_04 0:43

I think Cody and I are gonna take it over. I'm not an interview guy. You wanna do better now. He's got a beer in his hand. Give me a few beers, I get a little more pocket.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Oh, okay. So in the last episode, we asked if this was it for you guys, if farming was always going to be what you were gonna be doing. So you guys kind of answered, Cody maybe would have been a trucker had he not got married, and Tyler said this is it. He's always wanted to farm. So that kind of leads us into your guys' farms. Is it how many generations are we talking? Has it been in your family a long time? Is it rented? Is it what's your what's your scenarios look like?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

You can start us off, Cody. I guess I'm third generation. Um rented-wise, I don't know. I'd probably say I'm a little heavier on the rented side. You guys own a lot of pasture though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Between you and your dad.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Yeah, we own quite a bit. But it's a lot mostly pasture down in the southern part of the county.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

The pretty part.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Yeah, down in the hills.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Yeah. I like it down there a lot. Different from up here by a landslide. We can barely find water for a housewell, and you guys up here are pumping the water out for corner systems on pivots that can take 800 gallons a minute.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

You guys get capped down there, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yeah. We have water restrictions. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

Because our rent's a lot more.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Yeah, I mean, even compared to my family down in Kansas, it's just night and day different. Yeah. But anyway, so you, what's your scenario?

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Well, this is a question, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

What's your operation look like? Is it are you more rented? Is it generational?

SPEAKER_04 2:28

Oh yeah, we rent. I should say I rent all my acres, I farm. Dad's got he owns a little bit, and grandpa owns a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Well, and to preface this, not to interrupt you, but to preface this, majority when we're saying we, like Cody does it with his dad, cows and farming, same with Tyler. He's farming with his dad. So I mean they're two separate generations, father and son, but like right now they're just kind of co-mingling.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

So anyway, continue.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

Yeah, because grandpa he retired now, so it's just dad and I that's really farming. I would say grandpa still helps out a lot, but he's a runner. Yeah, he does parch rods and this and that, but doesn't really drive a whole lot of the equipment anymore. So but yeah, no, most of our is rented, a lot of rented ground.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

He's okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Grandpa, yeah, grandpa owns somebody rent that from Brady and I rent that from him, I guess. So but no, hopefully next year that'll change. We'll have a quarter bot. Not really bot, but the bank will own one for him. So that's all right.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

A whole quarter ground. Yeah. Anything you want to add on to that, or I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

No, I guess kind of as far as if I'm if it was meant for me, yeah, I'd say yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Grew up in it my whole life. I don't really know what else I'd do.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Do you feel like there's like if you grow up and you know, you hit your senior year of high school or even college, and you're like, I just don't want to farm anymore. Do you think that there would be like a crushing weight on your dad and dads, I guess? Like do you think your dad would have supportive you?

SPEAKER_03 4:08

The one's married, and the one's probably gonna get married for one of these days.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Right, but well, like in an episode that we recently talked about, we said, you know, as a son of somebody who farms and you come from that generational farm, it's not necessarily where your parents have kind of like you know, pounded it into you. You're gonna farm, you're gonna farm. Like, I know your parents were very open about go do what you want, go to college, like the farm will always be here if you want to come back to it. So, like it was never pushed on you, but I think coming from it, it's kind of like that deep down, like, I'm the son, like I'm supposed to, yeah, like I'm the next one.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

Yeah, kind of, but my parents really pushed me that you have to.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Right, no.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

If you wanted to go be a doctor, they would have been okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

But like internally, you still don't have that feeling of like since I enjoy farming, I kinda did.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

I I guess that would probably be different. My parents never forced me into anything. I didn't want to do it. When Branson listens, he's gonna be forced into it. Oh, then that's horrible. If not, we're selling out right when he doesn't want to.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:13

Or maybe we'll do the the uh over H2A program. I will say this though. Some people across the pond to work for me. Okay. If you don't want to.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

I will say this. I mean, I guess we own ground and stuff, so I guess if we want to own the ground, I wouldn't want it to come back. I mean, it's hard to get in.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Oh, for sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, I didn't really think about it that way.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

I mean, you don't just start farming today.

SPEAKER_04 5:35

I mean, I think there's people that do, but it's extremely hard. Oh, how is it? I mean you gotta work with you gotta work with somebody that's non-family. Right. Like a non-family member.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

If somebody's retired and wants to You don't just graduate high school and decide, I'm gonna go be a farmer and not know anybody that farms or have any ties to farming.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Um so obviously with you guys both growing up in it, it's it's more of a a love for the farm than it is a farmer. Right.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

Yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Or maybe like even a pride, like this is your family's, and so you want to continue that on.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

You're welcome to add it.

SPEAKER_04 6:14

I don't want to do it and just lose money because that don't make sense either.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

So what's it come down to? You're good with if I mean we get to a point, I mean, we're looking at it in the last what two, three years where inputs are so high and our prices aren't going up. So how long do you do it before you decide, okay, this is not profitable anymore?

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Yeah, so it's not profitable, then I'd move on to something else.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

And it's not like we're in our forties. I mean, we're in our 20s, like we're you we're still, I mean, all of us are still in a situation or scenario to go find something that is that that could still give us a very decent life and retirement.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

You see what I'm saying there?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I like so Tyler, when you say yeah, if it's not profitable, then I would go find something else. I mean, there's years where farming is not profitable. So for how many years would it not have to be profitable for you to say until you start going upside down payments? But like in real realistically, you go upside down one year, you always hopefully have the cash like built up to not, you know, go upside down, aka green. Right, like, but uh if you do that year over year over year, you're gonna you don't have anything else to sell.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

So, like you're I don't know, hopefully not to realize that point, but well, yeah, I would hope no one would have to, but realistically. Once you get so far in that you're you know, not making going afloat, you gotta sell this, this to pay for the next year. I mean, then at that point you might as well just give it up.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Is it fair to say like this the day that you would start having to sell like your like physical assets, and I'm not talking grain, I'm talking like I need to sell this tractor because I can't make my sprayer payment.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of gray areas to it. But like when it doesn't like for me, if farming ain't gonna be able to provide for our living and all that that we want to do, well, I might as well just give it up and go do something they can't provide for that. So I can't really tell you a ballpark number.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Oh, no, no, and I wasn't expecting that. I just wanted to know, like, you know, you say that it's not profitable, but not profitable means a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

And so the farmer you ask. Some farmers say they never make money.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Right.

SPEAKER_04 8:22

You gotta make money sometime, otherwise you're not gonna be doing that.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

We won't tell the government we're making money.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

That's that's different. There's two different numbers. You tell the banker one and the government the other one.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, and then you know if they don't listen to our podcast. I was gonna say, and then you tell the wife the other thing the other numbers.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

No, that's yes, because I do the books, so I do know the numbers.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Most of the time, I mean, I do the books too. I mean, for the most part, and I'm like, Cody, Cody's just the I mean, it was tax season.

SPEAKER_05 8:51

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

And Cody's like, we gotta go spend something. We gotta go. No, it's just like, no, we don't.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

No, we don't. You sit your butt right now. We do not need to be spending any more money. He's like, Yeah, we do. I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Just wait until the day I go buy a pollen tractor and come along with it.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

I'm still waiting for that. He's been talking about this for years.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Cody and I literally just had this conversation as we were we got here and we were waiting for you guys, and we were talking farming, and so there's some land coming up for sale down near us, and it was gonna be like some acres this, some acres this, and it was gonna be split like kind of half and half. Like some of it is row crop, some of it is pasture, whatever. Well, now it's gonna be changing. And so Cody was just like, Well, I would, you know, maybe be interested in it. I was just like, Nope, you're not doing it because you don't have anything rolling on our house. Like we do, but at the same time, it's like I'm not saying yes to the farm, anything farm related, until you give me what I want.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Have we not have we not said this where there's a reason God puts you with who you are with? Because if Cody and I were together, we would be broke as a joke, but we'd have a lot of cool stuff. Yep. If you and Tyler were together, you would you would never spend money.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

100%.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Okay, but we're getting off on a tangent. So back to what we were talking about as far as um like if it's profitable and how long do you do it for? So thankfully we did have some good years. Everybody had some good years when we had high prices in what what was it, 2021, 2022?

SPEAKER_04 10:19

Somewhere in there. Somewhere in there. I got in was good. Yeah, it's kind of been downhill saying. But that's the key. If you get a first, like when you start farming, if you have a first few good years to start you out, that helps a tremendous amount.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

And we were blessed.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

I mean, I will say this being diversified helps.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

For sure, yeah. But that leads me to um is there decisions that you make very differently, or like do you lose sleep on decisions you make now compared to when prices were better? Do you feel like you really you don't? No. You farm the exact same way, not dependent on prices?

SPEAKER_04 10:54

I don't lose sleep over the prices by any means.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

But do you feel like you're a little bit more strategic and for in for instance, the other night we were talking about plant population, and between you as we're kind of rolling up on planting season here and my little 30-acre venture, I don't want to plant as high population as you. So with prices of inputs being higher and markets are down, in my mind, like I don't see you trying to bring back your population to save money on seed costs.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Right. So I guess I think where I'm at is where I want to be and it's working good, so why change it? I don't want to you don't want to drop ten bucks an acre of expenses to lose ten bucks an acre. I mean it's farming is all by return on investment.

SPEAKER_05 11:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

I mean, if you like a thousand bucks an acre to put in a corn crop, well if you could do it for eight hundred but you get seven fifty back, then you lost fifty bucks an acre. Depends, I mean, your expenses you put in.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Get what you put in.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

Yeah, you get what you put in. So I mean, if it takes twelve hundred bucks to raise a crop and you can make fourteen hundred dollars out of it, you know, it's all about the return on investment. Not so much oh, I need to cut expenses, because you can't cut all your expenses because then you're gonna be losing yield.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

So then you can make I mean, sometimes the expenses are there to help prevent you to help make a better return on investment.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Do you agree, or do you feel like once we've gone to more of the like nitty-gritty, tougher years, you've kind of thought a little bit more about what you're for me?

SPEAKER_03 12:28

It's gotten a little easier. I mean, 23 is rough on us, but being a dry year, but kind of recovered from that and got some things paid off, so it's getting easier. Then you also go back into it, start buying more stuff to advance yourself even more. So it just kind of is a cycle, I guess. Like Tyler said, on the good years you buy stuff and make improvements, and on the bad years you kind of throttle back and make do with what you got.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

You guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think um nowadays, I mean, with the percentage of farmers just dwindling down. I mean, every year it's I mean, I think we're in the hundreds of thousands of family farms that are going under.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

You can see it around here.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

There's a lot more retirement sales.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Yeah, for sure. Um, so I just think we're at a point where if you're not progressive in your farming, then you're just I mean, it's just you have to be so to an extent though, but you don't want to be too much either. There's a happy medium.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

You put too much in trying new stuff or trying to be too progressive, well, that can also negatively reflect you, yeah. Negatively affect you.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

What do you think about that as being a farm wife? Do you feel like, okay, I'm seeing that our our ROI is not as high as it had been, so we need to do other things, or do you try to just like let Cody do the farming?

SPEAKER_03 13:49

From the get-go, I guess. Yeah, I understand where I'm coming from.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

I think with Cody, because there's times where I know the bills that are coming, or I know what Cody has spent, or XYZ has happened, and I'm like, why are you even thinking about doing, you know, going out and buying this piece of equipment? Why are you going out and doing this when we have X amount of money in our bank account? And he's just like, Yeah, but I have this and this coming. And I'm like, Yeah, but that's not actionable and like profitable things that we have in our hands. Like, I am like, cash does not exist until it is in my hands and in my account. Like, I and that's something that I struggle with because I'm like, you have to have assets in order to bank gives you a line of credit, which yes, and we have that scared me at first too, though.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

And when you're not from it, it's just different. You guys grew up with your dads. I mean, they may not have one now, but you know, early on, having line of credits or having to buy a new piece of equipment and have a payment on it, and you're not talking like a$20,000 car. I mean, you're talking like of now what a combine's$500,000.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Well, I think with Cody just said, like, I'm thinking about selling some of the green and just paying my pickup off. I'm like, no, you're not doing that. Like, I would rather take that money and go do something else. And he's like, Yeah, but this and this and this. And I was just like, no, like it's not happening. Like, I appreciate that you want to pay things off, but you literally just texted me yesterday, not really yesterday, it was like last week, and you're like, Well, hun, we're an owner of a new tractor, and you just sent me a screenshot of a tractor purchase.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

I forewarned you about this whole deal. I was here when he There can't be when they were saying he bought that.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

It wasn't really a forewarning, it was hey, I'm gonna go look at this tractor, and I'm like, Okay, sounds good. You look at tractors all the time, and then all of a sudden I get this screenshot of you saying the night before that I was probably gonna bet on it. Okay, bidding on something and buying something, thank you, is two separate things.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Why else would I bid on it?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

And it's just yeah, you literally just went and I for the hell of it got stuck with it.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

Oh my gosh. I think the word you're looking for is thank you, Cody, for buying me a nice tracker.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

It no, that is not what I'm saying. I'm proud of him for being able to do that, and you know if I'm coming. I was gonna say, and I he it's a purchase that he's very proud of, and so I I am proud of him for that, but how he communicated it to me is a little bit um not how I wanted it to be communicated with, especially when I've been telling you, and then I got home like, oh yeah, I gotta go tomorrow and borrow the money for this freaking thing. And it was like, Oh yeah, and I'm gonna steal it from savings, and then when I see our savings account X amount of money out just randomly.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Farmers never have a savings account.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Oh no, I live off of my savings, not live off of my savings, but like I will have a savings account. That was something that was drilled into my head ever since I was a very, very young girl. You will have a savings account. No, my parents.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

It's kind of like when people ask me if I have stock, I say, yeah, it's live, live stock.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

And like, I don't know, that's just my philosophy.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

I knew I wasn't gonna have a savings early on. Tyler made that pretty clear.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Oh, yeah, and I I have told Cody, I'm like, I we will not have kids until our savings account is at X amount of money. We will not buy a new car until our savings account is at X amount of money, and we will not use that money in order to have the kids or buy the car. Like that is separate. Like it's savings to savings. Oh, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

So yeah, they'll pull on character by now. Obviously, she cracks the whip on me too much.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Again, this is why you and Brady should never be married.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

I would like to have a savings account, but it's just like when we're paying the bank interest, that seems silly.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Well, yeah, and I it I mean it comes down to that's what I think on my pickup.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Even the banker told me this morning you should pay your pickup off. Okay, here's putting money down on the Here's the other thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

The farm account is different than our savings account. Our savings when have you ever taken money from our farm account and put it to our personal finances?

SPEAKER_03 17:54

I paid your car off the other day, so there's that one.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Okay,$800.

SPEAKER_03 17:59

It's still money out of the farm account, huh?

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Okay,$800. But that's the thing, it's like our savings account is money that I'm realistically bringing in. So it needs to go into savings, and it will go into savings, and you have nothing to say about it. No, that is the farm account.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, on to the next question.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

Um I never win.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

I don't know. If you're a husband, I don't think you do.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Tyler, I was gonna say I was just gonna say, like, if you had to choose Tyler and Cody, what's scarier between weather, markets, and um equipment payment?

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Probably the markets.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

You think that's scarier? Yeah. Okay, Tyler.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Like today. Go ahead, Cody. Like today, they were what? Last night their uh beans were up, what, 28 cents? And then just today, at the end of the day, they ended what only up five or down four, whatever it was.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

I want to know what your answer is, Addie.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

I want to hear Tyler's first.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

I have my answer.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Same with the cattle market. I mean, we were gonna go sell calves last fall, and Trump said one thing, and next thing you know, it's down five dollars a hundred like that.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

See, I'm going up, so I'm gonna go with weather.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

Because you can't control the weather.

SPEAKER_05 19:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

Now you can't control the markets, but you can control how you want to price your grain in the market. I thought the exact same thing. I never really thought about that. I was gonna say weather is my buddy Tyler Reagan helps me out.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

I know I was gonna say trade-offs if you want to sponsor us. We're looking for other sponsors.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

So, yeah, I don't worry about the markets, I don't even look at them every day, to be honest with you. I think weather is where I get if you're not gonna sell grain that day, yeah. It doesn't matter what the market did.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

I think, I mean, there's obviously politics that go into everything in life now, but I don't I again I'm with you. I don't look at the markets really Cody's like, oh, we talk about this in harvest sometimes. Like we did a little video where it was like, who's the crankiest one out here in the field today? And everyone said Cody, and it was because of the markets. And I'm like, why are you so worked up at the markets? You can't do anything about it at this point. Like, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

I'm learning, I need to sell more head.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

No, you're you just get so worked up over it where I get that way with weather.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

I am just like, dude.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

I remember one of the first hails we had. I mean, I could my stomach just knots like a threw up, and Tyler's just like, is what it is.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

I'm like, ain't worth much right now, anyway, so screw it.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

One of the bigger weather things that we had was it was like one of the first years of harv, it was before you were pregnant with Talin and all of that stuff. But when we had that big fire, I mean it was right after harvest. But if that would have happened, there was still fields.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

That was 2023.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yeah, I was gonna say There were still fields that weren't cut yet.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah, I mean if that was any of our fields, and I just remember like you two being in the truck, starting pivots, running through, trying to get things just like I normally started very um like I like I'll get emotional about things after the fact, but like normally in a big um like traumatic event like that, I'm very like I'm very like on top of my yeah, at the top of my game, like good to go, like feeling good.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

But that was the first time I really like felt fearful. Like especially when we're getting that big disc hooked up and the fire was like in the evergreen trees and really around us. I felt like like I could never be a firefighter because I felt legitimately claustrophobic, like kind of scared.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Because really the firewall was like right around you, 30 feet flames because they're in the trees and everything. Like it's it's not fun and not a good feeling.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Props to you, Cody.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

I was gonna say, and Cody's out here fighting them. Like I would don't panic.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

You'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

So how does that work? The people that didn't have stuff cut, all their stuff burnt down. I mean, insurance cover that?

SPEAKER_01 21:53

If they have insurance.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

It depends what kind of insurance you got. Multiparal crop insurance, that'll just cover whatever. What so like even if the harm would go through, you still gotta harvest it and whatever the difference is multi-paralleled.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Can you imagine that though? I gotta go cut the corn stalks with no ears on here.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Yeah, I mean if the crop adjuster comes out and says yeah, it's zero, you don't have to.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Okay. But what crop adjuster is really gonna say that?

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Well, if it burned through, it would be I mean the crop adjuster, even if you get like a hail and stuff like that, they'll come out and look at it. But depends what insurance I would say.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

So they just cover your expenses? Do you or do you make a little bit of that?

SPEAKER_04 22:33

Well, that depends what kind of crop insurance level you buy.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Like is there a standard?

SPEAKER_04 22:37

No, I think what percentage levels you can do.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

I was gonna say, Cody and I, when we had to do crop insurance for wind and hail, well, and the car flipping into the field when the Oh I forgot about that. Yeah, when driver's lovely help. Yeah, or the hired people. Yeah, they flipped don't get into that.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

The flipping in the field was not because of the storm, though.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

No, but yes, whether the hail and white list said that it's the colour driver's air where yes, but anyway, like we had to put all of that, so that plus wind and hail on crop insurance, and they pay the crop adjuster was great, and she came out and she did. Yeah, but like she came out and she was just like, okay, leave, you know, X Matter Rose, and then she with ours, we had to leave it, and then she came back out to review it.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

Yeah, and then Yeah, that was drought, that was a terrible year. It took the that's a year I'll never forget county average.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Okay, and then plus market price.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

So two bushel of corn, that's what it was. That's what it appraised at. So that's for the record we can look back and say, Yeah, multi-parel goes off.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

Multi-pearl goes off your APH is on your farm. And then it's based that's off what percent you buy.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

And then wind and hail, yeah, it's percentage too. Yeah, or so many dollars an acre, whatever you want to buy.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Okay, so now that we've been talking about kind of the kind of the doomsday, the dumps of farming, you have two kids.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

I do.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Cody does not have any children yet.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Max.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Yeah, little Max. Um the dog. Yeah, clarify. What are your feelings towards um our kids getting older as far as the farm? Is there a pressure to stay or is there freedom to leave?

SPEAKER_04 24:32

No, they're good to leave.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

You don't care?

SPEAKER_04 24:34

No, I really don't. I'll sell out. I don't care. At least people look yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

We've talked about this on another podcast about well, what would Tyler do? Like, what would Tyler think if his kids sell out? And then, like, he literally doesn't care. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

Like, I'm a little bit like a farm is a business, not just uh, oh, it's a farm so you gotta keep out. It's a business.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

And I get that part of it. I agree, it's a business, but we're still really prideful of it.

SPEAKER_04 24:58

I don't know about prideful, but I think that's right.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

And I think it so I would be curious, uh Cody, even though we don't have kids.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Yeah, what's your and what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 25:10

I hope we have one eventually.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Somebody to hand it down to.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

So you would So see there's still that want for it to continue.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Yeah, because down my area it's a lot different story. You're getting less and less ranchers and more and more recreational use of land, and it's kind of irritating down there, but that's besides the point. There's no right or run way to it.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

No.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

I mean, everybody's different. Well, yes, we've had it in a family for how long, and I'd like to keep it going.

unknown 25:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Especially the ranching side.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Does it matter if it's a male or female?

SPEAKER_03 25:42

I don't care. Whoever freaking family takes it over, great.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yeah, no, I I think that's why it takes it over, great.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

At least it keeps going. Yeah, I mean, I would hope that somebody would continue it on, but if they don't want to, right. I'm not gonna lose sleep over it by any means.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

I don't remember the title of the episode we did. Kind of it was the legacy weight, I think. Um that's a really good one. If you guys want to pop over and listen to that one before this one, well, you can because you've already listened to most of this one. But anyway, besides the point, I had kind of talked about um not necessarily preaching to them that they need to stay and farm. It's not that at all. I hope they go do whatever they want. But as like them being little, because I brought up about how your mom brought over that book from preschool and you were three and you wrote you want to be a farmer in it. So I just hope, like, as a mom and growing up in farming, I can instill that like love and pride of the farm so they want to come back and do it. Because I mean, you guys, as at three years old, you're like, I want to farm. I mean, you guys just grew up alongside your dads, and it was something it was never like I don't think you sat down with any of your parents and they're like, Would you like to farm? No, like I think they you guys just always knew it was all and your dad's always.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

You we've added stuff when since we've come back. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

So I don't know. Knowing you're a kid, it's fun to write in a tractor. Right, yeah. I mean, this might be kind of fun to do for a while. Yeah, it might be different here in 30 years. Now when you start spending the money and writing all the checks, it's a little different, but it's still fun.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Yeah. Okay, so talking about like writing the checks and having that fun, what's the biggest or most expensive farm mistake that you have made, both of you?

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Do you have an answer?

SPEAKER_01 27:22

I have an answer. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

For you making a mistake on the farm? No, for Cody.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Oh gosh. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

I mean, I never sprayed the wrong chemical and killed the whole field, so that's a plus.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

We had that little mishap.

SPEAKER_04 27:38

That was weird. Yeah, we came three years ago. No, we caught that though before. Not real proud of that one by any means. John's listening, that one's on him.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

RIP can't be. He didn't die, he just left us.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Yeah, yeah. Just to clarify. He is still alive. Hopefully, going to be proposing very soon.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

We caught that before you had to just plant beads around the bar.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

But it's still right along the road where everybody can see it. It's like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 28:06

No, I think my biggest one is back, I don't know if I was graduated college yet. When I whacked the uh boom of the sprayer on the semi. That's what I was gonna say. I'll make that turn, no big deal.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

We were young bucks on that one.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

I could turn and make that. Well, 90 foot boom, it should have been an 80-foot boom at that time. Yeah, sure. And a little bit more grass or something. Swipe the front swipe swipe the front of the semi, but I don't even know what that cost.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

He probably shouldn't have done, but he did. But Brady, that was your answer.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Yeah, okay. And then I have one for Cody too. Okay, Cody.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

What no, what was your what would be yours?

SPEAKER_03 28:45

I don't know. I've done a lot of dumping.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

A professional breaker of all things.

SPEAKER_04 28:51

No, he's good.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

He don't break nothing.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

So I decided we'll take a deer. I will say that.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Okay, we're not talking about that.

SPEAKER_03 28:57

We're talking about four-wheeler.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

I don't know if the one I know for Cody is the most expensive, but it's just a little bit funny.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

I've dumped beans off the trailer when it was raining on accident. I turned the corner too fast.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

That was mine. What's that your thing? Yeah, I didn't remember that. Yeah, when we were farming up north and it was kind of starting to rain.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

I felt really bad about that because I didn't realize the bags had liners on them. I had bags of seed on the back. Oh crap, better get the shape to that. I had it from here up there. And between here and Swanton it started pouring. I'm like, oh no.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

I would have done the same thing too, though.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

We never strapped it down. I mean, heck, we're just going from here to there. It ain't that far. Took corner a little hot. Don't use Bluetooth straps, it don't work out.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

I was gonna say, uh, this didn't happen on your guys' farm, but it happened on our farm. Is Cody was harvesting and he Oh yeah, my tree? Yeah, he hit the auger on the tree.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Don't go around the field with the auger facing the trees. I learned that pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

He's just driving, he's just driving the combine.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

I backed up to go around a ditch and then I turned and it swung and it smoked the tree.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

And it was in the middle of harvest.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

So the good thing is that.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Did it mess up the auger back?

SPEAKER_03 30:07

Yeah, the auger, the flooding was bent.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Sometimes, you know, you can kind of hit something and it's alright.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Oh no. The bottom of the auger is starting to get kind of thin anyway.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

So and I think like that was freshly when I mean Cody and I were dating, but that was back when I was all gung ho, gotta get getting it. Yeah, and he just was so eaten up by it. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Well, that's what I was gonna ask, and it can kind of lead us into next episode. But relationship-wise, like when things break or when there's things that could have been Yeah, you know, that come home. Yeah, how does that work for you? Because I know there's multiple times that like love you to death, honey, but you're so particular and anal about things, especially in the busy season. And so when you've got a little bit of a hold up, you're like go, go, go. And so like when you back the combine into the into the semi.

SPEAKER_04 30:58

No, the semi-to the combine.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Oh, backwards. Okay, well, regardless. Or when you back the seed caddy into the garage door.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Yeah, I barely touched it. Well, maybe partly my fault is I had it halfway up and then you then up the door all the time.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Do not blame it on Cody. But that's what I mean. It's like if we would just slow down a little bit, maybe some of the things could be I that's the thing, it's like Cody just gets so wound over it.

SPEAKER_04 31:22

And I just I have learned no restriction.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

No, stop. I have learned that you just say no. Like you just are like, he wanted to call this morning and he was like yapping, yapping, yapping. I was just like, I don't want to listen to you. And I literally told him that. I'm like, I don't want to hear it. I don't.

SPEAKER_03 31:39

I'm trying to inform you what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

I don't want to hear it. Okay, okay. So then I just am like, okay, tell me, but I am just a very straightforward to the person. Like, I am like, tell me what I need to know, when I need to do it, and why I need to do it. That's all I don't need the backstory. He is a yapper when we go do those things, like even at tax appointments, he's like, Yeah, and so and so I don't no one cares. Just just tell her what we need her to know. And it just makes me crazy.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Well, this is a perfect stopping point. It'll get us into part three. So thanks for listening, and we will see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

See you next week.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

They say a farmer's work is never done, but well, neither is ours. Come back next week for a new episode of Life Between the Rows.