“Do whatever you want with it”: Bradie’s Farm Venture

What happens when you’re given 30 acres and a "do whatever you want" green light? You go to work. This episode breaks down Bradie's science-heavy approach to the season, from pulling soil samples to kelp treatments and foliar sprays. We’re going full-on farming this week as she walks us through her new 30-acre row crop venture. If it’s all a flop and all she gains is a newfound appreciation for the grind her husband puts in for the farm, it’s still a win.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Women currently today make up 36% of the US producers operating over 407 million acres. Wow. Women do. The number one state with the most women in ag. Do you want to guess? Is it Midwest? So, Brady, I have a question for you. What's it like when the corn is high but the chaos is higher?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

It's a lot of things, but it's never boring. This is the Farm Why Files. Life between the Rows. Okay. Welcome back. Monday again. So last episode we talked about what we would talk about this episode, as far as what did we even say? Something about the farm? I don't remember how we led into this one.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Farm ventures of just being passionate about the farm and there you go.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Pouring into the farm.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

So a question I had for you before we kind of get into this, because I do feel like this episode is maybe more geared towards me talking. Yeah. How do you feel about like your guys' farm? And like, do you what do you feel like you should be more? I don't know if involved is the right word, because you are, but like you just are the type of person, you do have a lot of ventures outside of the farm. Do you ever feel like you want to have them directed towards the farm?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Or like I would say if I had more time in my life and more resources in my life to pour into the farm and that type of stuff. Yeah, sure. I would love to do that, but I also don't really want to give up anything else that I'm already doing. Or we've talked about like irons in the fire and kind of that. Like I'm just not ready to give that up and I th you know, selfishly or not, because they're not farm related.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I think maybe Cody would also agree that like stay away from the farm because he knows I I don't know if he would be like, I don't want to be farming right next to you, because that's not what I think he would have the intention of. But I do think he knows that I would be asking questions and I would question why we're doing things the way that we're doing things when I don't think they need to be doing it that way.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

And I think Tyler gets sick of me.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I know. So that's where it's like, maybe Cody is glad that I keep myself busy in other ways.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Again, love it. But so yes, I would love to do stuff on the farm.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Do you think that'll come, maybe?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

You know, it it's hard to say because I, you know, I really love what I do right now. And if I even if I scale back on one of those, maybe I just want some time to just like not have something going on. And you know, and it looks different. Maybe it's me starting a farm stand. Like you know, like a little like roadside farm stand. Like that could be something that I would totally like really like do for the farm, and that would be farm related.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

And that would so fill up your cup.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, I would love it, but you know, realistically, not gonna happen right now. But that would also mean that, well, not necessarily, but would I need to do chickens? Absolutely. Do I want to deal with chickens right now? No. Does Cody want to deal with chickens ever? You've only been asking him to build a coop for the last year. I know. And so it's like, we would need to build a coop, and we wouldn't actually need to do chicken chores, and I just don't have the time to do that right now.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

So you know, good for you that you recognize that though, instead of just like adding more to your plate, and then once you're like in it and doing it, you're like, oh my gosh, why did I do this to myself?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Right. Or I'm not gonna be able to give a hundred percent and I'm gonna have to rely on other people to do and that kills us.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that kind of leads me into I think Tyler does get completely sick of maybe not. I know he did make the comment that the conversations that I bring up that are about the farm kind of make his like brain turn.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

So that's kind of fun. But I'll just get right into it. I've we've gotta go with people ask because I've keep mentioning this farm venture in like a handful of episodes, and I've gave I've given no context whatsoever. But anyway, Tyler gave me 30 acres this year that I can do whatever I want with. He's not gonna help at all or do anything, but he won't let me kill it. That's literally the um extent of the details.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah, I was gonna say, like, he literally was just like, Yeah, here's your 30 acres. I don't care what you do with it. Yeah. I and I don't know if it was in the men's tell all episode or it was just a conversation that we were having like before we pushed record at the men's tell all, but he was like, those 30 acres are not gonna make or break the farm. So this is why.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, I don't remember if that made it on the recording or not.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Yeah, but that's why you got the 30 acres. But you were really excited to like I'm excited for you to share it.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Yeah, I just um I think he was a little bit shocked because I was actually I like to dabble in like a whole bunch of podcasts. Because this was before we started ours, and I was just finding myself searching for something like this because I love like the farming and the research, but also relatability and farm wives and farm moms. Like, I just want a niche of everything, I guess. And so hence why we started Life Between the Rows. I wish ours was like a little bit more research farming based, but we'll get there. Maybe we'll have some agronomists or some different guests on or something. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, we'll see. This has been like super short-lived, so but no, I was listening to a a different podcast, and they were talking about just how plants take up nutrients differently, and this was right in the time that I was pregnant with Branson early on, and I was extremely anemic. So I had started taking iron pills, yeah, and still I was extremely anemic and like fatigued and exhausted all the time. And I'm like, why is this not working? And I had like a light bulb moment when I was listening to this podcast, and I'm like, We're like plants, we're like plants. My body's not taking it in as it should, so maybe I should try a different source. Yeah, aka why I started getting infusions, right? And so that made me feel like a ten times better, which just totally led me down a rabbit hole. Because I've always been into the farming and like the seasons, and like I know how things go and all that, but as far as the what actually goes into the soil and like the plant itself, and like there's it's a lot, so like yeah, it just totally sent me down this rabbit hole of things.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

And mind you, when you first started bringing this up, I mean it was months ago, like even before we even recorded this podcast, like we st we talked about this. So it's been a long time coming for this episode to really come to light, but it's finally actually happening because we're putting the Yeah, we're getting there. I mean, we're gonna be start putting seeds in the ground and but when you said, you know, how you're gonna go about saying what you're gonna put on, like for fertilizer and all of that type of stuff, I looked at you like you Yeah, and he's like, What are you talking about? I'm like, huh? Yeah, what where are you even gonna get that? So please, please have that in the back of your head as Brady continues to tell her story. Cause I looked at her like she was absolutely crazy.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

And and maybe like for farmers and like men that are like, you know, really into the progressive farming and trying new things, maybe it won't be like a oh yeah, for sure. No, I yeah, maybe they'll be like, Oh yeah, we've tried it, didn't like it. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

But please tell us because maybe we'll prove you wrong, or Brady will prove you wrong.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

So it kind of started because so anyway, I'm I'm listening to all these podcasts, kind of doing my own research, reading some university studies, and so then I kind of got to thinking, well, I wonder what we implement in our farm. And so it kind of started. I'm like, Tyler, how do you put on nitrogen? Do you do like a split? Do you do like split nitrogen, like you know, some early and then some later? And he's like, Yeah, you know, this is what we do, kind of walk through that. And then what else? Like, I'm just trying to think of all the beginning questions because like Addie said, this was a long time ago. But I was nervous to bring it up to Tyler because I thought he'd be like, You're so stupid.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Like, why do you want to do that? Okay, and if my husband thinks I'm stupid, okay, yeah. Like you think I make stupid decisions all the time. But you still love me, so deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Um and so then like asking about oh, and then I asked him, I said, Would you pull soil samples for a couple of our different farms? And he said, Well, yeah, why? Well, and I th no, no, no, I I asked him how long ago he had pulled soil samples. And he's like, Well, this farm this time, and then the farm I was really wanting to do it on. He's like, I think it's been like five years or something. And I said, Okay, would you pull soil samples for that farm? And he's like, Why? And I was like, Well, I said, I just I kinda wanna do uh something different. He's like, What do you mean? And I was like, Have you ever heard of seaweed? And he's like, Yeah, yeah, it's in the ocean. And I was like, Well, I said, I want to try and put kelp on our soybeans, and he's like, Okay. And he had heard of it, but he had not, he didn't know anything about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Right, he literally has just heard, oh, so and so put kelp on XYZ and left it as that, didn't go down the rabbit hole like you did.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yes, and and Tyler just got into his sugars farming too. Yeah, which when he came to me, he's like, Yeah, we're putting sugar down on our stuff. I'm like, like, literally, I'll go to Tam's and get a big old bag of sugar, and that's what we're putting down, basically. Yeah. Um, so that we kind of had just had that conversation, so that was funny, crazy, like weird. So it was kind of the same thing, me telling him at the kelp, and he's like, Yeah, what do you want to do with it? So I had been talking to something about me that you guys will learn is I kind of do and then tell later because I wanted to figure out if it was something I even wanted to implement or like ask or talk about before I even brought it up to Tyler, and he was like, No, that's so stupid, don't even look it up. I'm like, I'll just figure it out for myself. So if it's not something I want to do, I can just save myself the heartache of like having to feel stupid in front of him. I was like, okay, I already talked to this guy out of I don't remember where he's out of. I think he lived in Florida, but this kelp was out of British Columbia, whatever, blah blah blah. I said, so I talked to him, so we've got a video call with him on Tuesday. Oh, it's Tuesday at like 2 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

in the afternoon, and you're gonna have to stop work or no. No, no, I got one. I did at one so he could come home and eat lunch, and then we'd have a video call. Yeah, I was gonna say that's actually funny. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah. And uh he's like, okay, whatever. So end up having this video call with this guy, and was telling me about was telling us about Kelp, and I had told him, I said to preface this, we've already talked on the phone. I've done a ton of research on this. This is more of like a tell Tyler the backstory of all this, and the he wants he's the numbers and the stats guy. That's what you need to tell him in per acre type stuff. So they kind of did all that talking, and then the what I liked about it the most is that it's like so untried. So like they're just not studies on it, which me, I'm like, ooh, like it just totally sparks my imagination and my like just the research side of me. So I was like, okay, I want to run some trials. Well, then so Tyler was fine with that. He was all good with the kelp trials, okay. But then after more research, I'm like, I want to apply it differently. And he's like, Okay, well, how do you want to apply it? I'm like, well, I'm gonna do a seed treatment, but then I also want to do a foliar pass on it. And he's like, Okay, he's like, You're gonna have to have like four different plots for all these different ways. I'm like, okay, but then we he wanted to put some humic down, um, and shout out to Singular. This is who we're getting, who we we've gotten all this product from them. But anyway, Tyler had already put some humic down. Our freaking John Deere ops is just gonna be like strobing in color because we've got humic that's gonna go on some of it, and then we've got some passes that are gonna be it's a 3-3 bean, but then we're gonna seed treat it with kelp, and so you're gonna have one that's treated with kelp. Next one's gonna be treated with kelp and have a foliar pass before reproductive stage. Then the next one is going to be just foliar. Is that four?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

No, that's I mean, huh if you're just doing humic as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Well, that's gonna be over all of it. Right. So that's everything. That would be number three, then. Okay, okay, let me think about this again. First one, seed.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Oh, just plain seed? Yes. Okay, then that would be four. Yes, okay. So we needed seed and then seed with kelp and then seed. No, no, this is all kelp. This is all okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

There's there's humic on the whole field. Yes, yes, okay. All 38 years. Yes. Okay, so the kelp is going to help it with like stress. So like when I first started this, I was just gonna do it right before it hit reproductive phase, so it could, you know, obviously reproduce, make beans and more of them. And then obviously, it's usually dry here. So in my mind, I'm thinking we're gonna have a dry year, and then we're gonna hit it with this kelp right before it really stresses out, and it gets super hot in July and August. So hopefully this will like give it a little boost it needs. But then after I did more research, I learned a lot more about um seed treatment and germination. So I'm like, oh, I want to try that. So it's all the same product, just put on at different times. Okay. So, yes, we'll have the seed treatment on one, the foliar spray on the other one, and then we'll do both. And then we'll do. Why am I missing a row? I know I'm supposed to have four rows. That's only three.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah, that's why. Unless you're doing maybe nothing. I was gonna say, maybe you're doing just a control row of nothing.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Of GS seed.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah, that's right. Okay. Sorry, I need my little pamphlet of row all the things.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, I was gonna say literally all of your things.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

So yeah, now it's just kind of turned into like a whole thing, and it's only 30 acres. So as you can imagine, when I asked Tyler if he because he's like, well, we'll just put it on the post. And I said, he's like, What do you mean? And I said, Well, I wanna wait a little bit longer. And he's like, So you're gonna make me go out, and it's not even gonna be 30 acres because you're not doing it on all of it.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Literally gonna be like eight acres at this point.

unknown 14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

So he's like, You're gonna make me get the sprayer out and make some whole batch to spray this little bit. And I'm like, Yes, I am, I really am. But I said, when we like when we make ten bushel more an acre, then you'll be thanking me. He's like, if we make ten. Yeah, and he probably wants to see more than that for the work that we're putting in. But um, yeah, that's my venture. I'm really excited about it. I then wanted to try and put some zinc on. He told me no.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Why?

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Because I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

No, why did he say no?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Oh, why did he say no? Yeah. Because we're just saying you. Because we're just like already into the season and I have too much going on, and he's already, I think, a little bit anxious about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

He's like, I am eating my words about giving you 30 acres right now.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

So then this leads me into a whole nother venture. Again, how I said he was a little bit mad at me, he was gonna have to get the sprayer out. So he's like, I'm just gonna give you so-and-so's number and he can come drone spray it.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

And I'm like, okay, well, I kind of looked into that a couple years ago and thought about maybe getting into drone spraying. And he's like, Yeah, I thought about it too, but it's just not profitable for the amount of acres that you can only cover in a day. So you'd have to have multiple drones and this and this and this. So like, okay, so like I'm gonna do my own research, like I do. So I did my own research, and he's right-ish. So then it's like, go big or go home. So if I'm gonna get into drone spraying, like, I'm not gonna buy one drone, I'm probably gonna buy three drones.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

And you're gonna have the trailer that hauls them all.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah, like that what we saw it. Was that Husker Harvest Days? Yeah. No, he probably wouldn't let me be that bougie to begin with. But I told him I so then I wrote the numbers and gave him the numbers on how much I would save just on our farms, as far as like Tyler and Matt's. Um, and then if I went out and sprayed other people's, it could actually be profitable. Right. Which it would be profitable. Uh I mean, I literally, after two years, it would pay for itself just in drone spraying.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

You would have to just upfront the cost, of course. But Cody is literally he was one class away from getting his drone like flying. He was yeah, and it was a college algebra class. I was just like Cody. And if anyone I would do it for you, like you don't like I you like school. Oh, I love school.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Well, and then so I was just gonna do it myself. But so there's a lot. You have to get your pilot's license, and then you have to get like a oh yeah, you gotta get your custom applicator's license, which Tyler already has. Um, and then yeah, there's just a ton of stuff to go through, which it's just like anything, it's a process, but that's why Tyler's like, well I'll just do it with you because we're not gonna have all this stuff and have these drones, and then you're busy with kids, so you can't fly it. But I told him, I said, because he's like, Why can't you just do one thing at a time? He's like, Why do you have to have like why do you have to dabble in like five things? Like, just be really sufficient in one thing, in one thing. And I'm like, Because I don't think you understand. Unless God has really different plans for us, I'm done having kids. So there's like a this sounds real this is this is gonna sound really bad, but I'm like, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Oh, yeah. As far as me and my hobbies, well, because I've kind of put those on the back burner, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

At some point, the kids are going to go to school every single day of the so you're gonna have a day, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

And also, like, I say that light at the end of the tunnel, but I do think I'm kind of protecting myself a little bit for the like emotional um just kind of like drop in like sadness of being out of the stage of like completely mothering all the time. Yeah. I it it goes hand in hand. There's a joy, there's a sadness. So I think I'm trying to like fill my plate and get a lot of irons in the fire. So when that time comes, I'm busy.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Or you at least have a plan. Yeah. I mean, because it's always like, okay, I'm a stay-at-home mom. Yeah, and now the kids go to school. And I know there was there has been some talk about I might keep them home for preschool or you know, first, second grade.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

And Taylor, I think, is just I don't think she's a homeschool kid. And it there's, you know, thrive in the school.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

I was gonna say, total different thing. It is, yes. I am just uh again, bottom line, not going off on a tangent, firm believer in daycare and whether that's one day a week, five days a week, all day long, two hours a day. Don't care. I think daycare provides a lot of beneficial things. Oh, for sure. And we've had that conversation with Taylin. But yeah, no, at some point, kids are gonna have to go to school. Yeah. Kids are gonna have to just go be kids. They have practices, they have all of these things. And so it comes down to like as a stay-at-home mom, you're like, my whole life, or you know, my whole like adult-ish life has been around raising these children, and now I'm sending them off for someone else to not necessarily raise them, but to watch them every day and to like discipline them.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yes, and like what am I gonna do right now? If I get an hour to myself, or even recording today, how many hours would we start at one? Yeah, three hours in, and then like to have three hours to myself, I can imagine like days.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Well, yeah, you have eight sol, I mean, maybe not eight solid hours, but but yeah. I mean, and it's like, am I gonna be less of a woman or less of a stay-at-home mom or less of a wife or a farm wife or whatever, just because now my kids are at school and I'm still staying at home.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Well, and I think that that's why I told Tyler. I'm like, I think I'm just like trying to find things to like prepare myself so that I'm busy when that time comes.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Absolutely. And it's not necessarily like that, but it's you you need something you can't just sit at home and watch TV and be a zombie.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

You know, like you have to go do stuff.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Well, and this goes back to our type A, like, my self-worth is reliant on my productivity. So, like, there's only so clean I can get my house.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah. Or there's art, there's so many books I can read. Yeah, there's literally I can't garden in the middle of the winter.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

And even and even like books, like that does not do it for productivity. Like, I have to be like out, like moving my body, like doing things with my hands, like yeah. So, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

But yeah, so drone spraying would be something that you would quote unquote dabble in.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

That was something I was like, oh, I'll dabble in that, maybe. Lovely. But anyway, Tyler's he's like, let's get through this year of your kelp, and then we will next year look into the drones. Which he's very I need Tyler. There's a reason God put Tyler in my life because I would be like, I would, you know, like Jack of all trades, or like, what's it what how's that saying go? Like you're either a master of one or a Yeah, I don't know, but anyway, you get what I'm saying. I would be that where I'm like dabbling in like literally 50 different things.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

And that sometimes I if am 100% the dip dabbling in 50 million things.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yeah. So he is really good about keeping me realistic.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

And are you saying I'm not realistic?

SPEAKER_00 21:41

I don't think that's it. That's not it. No, but like I'm just the person, but also if I that's why God knew I must stay at home with my children. Because I would never be able and I've said this on the podcast I would never be able to go to work all day giving my whatever percent and then Like I have to be all in in one thing, otherwise I feel like I'm inadequate in the other. Yeah, yeah, no, 100%. I agree. So, and I think Tyler knows that about me, and that's why he kind of sticks it to me and says that. I'm hope we're gonna wait on that, and you can just we're just gonna do this for now. Yeah, anyway, I am really excited to see how it goes. I have to say, it has really been eye-opening for me for Tyler. Like my outlook on him and with the farm. Because of all the decisions. Yeah, it's a little bit stressful. And then it's not like because we're such planners, you know. So in my head, I'm like, okay, you know, he's gonna start planting April 10th. I don't want it planted that early because I I'm a feeling a little bit anxious about this early germination with the seed treating. So I'm scared it's gonna come out of the ground and freeze off. Yeah, no. Die. So I'm like, maybe we'll hold off a little bit on planting early. So if we do that, and then we'll see how it germinates and comes up compared to everything else. And then it's like, I want to hit it with spray before reproductive phase. So we can't plan dates, like we have to watch it, see how it does throughout the year, and then it's gonna be like Tyler goes out and scouts for me, and he's like, Okay, yeah, we're ready to spray, we're going. Which is like great, grand wonderful, but as a planner, it's a little bit stressful. Yeah, you're reliant on weather and yeah, and then also just you know, you're putting on this work, you want to see a yield difference. Yeah. So yeah, it it is it's nice to kind of have that like eye-opening like realization and kind of like appreciation for my husband. 100% because sometimes I think we get into like the daily swing of things, and I know I can be like, and he loves it too. So where I'm at home sometimes in the trenches, changing poopy diapers and like not loving my day job. I know Tyler's sitting in a tractor having like a great, grand, wonderful time. So it's nice to be like, he has big decisions to make too, he's stressed too. I need to remember that.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

So if I get anything out of this quote unquote farm venture, it's that. Yeah, and that's that's enough for me.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yeah, no, I I think uh keeping that in the center of just how we look at our spouses or how we look at their heart and their dedication of what they're putting like out there, I think is huge. Yes, love it.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

I think too, um it has been it's been nice to just like quote unquote talk farming with Tyler because that is his niche, you know, that's something he gets pumped about that he's passionate about. And in the beginning, I did almost feel a little bit embarrassed about it because of the gender roles. You know, I feel like even in agriculture now today, women are still like kind of having to be sneaky about it.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

If that's is that the right word, like yeah, I actually just saw a um statistic about women in agriculture and love me a nice number. Yeah, and it was I'll have to find it, but I believe it was like 48% of new agriculture people like coming into ag are women now.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Really? Yeah, it's almost 50%.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

I'll have to find it. That's wild. But at the end of the day, okay, yeah. Women currently today make up 36% of the US producers operating over 407 million acres. Wow. Women do. The number one state with the most women in ag. Do you want to guess?

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Is it Midwest?

SPEAKER_01 25:34

No.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

It's not? No. What about like California?

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Close. Where? Arizona. What are they farming? I don't know. But um, they so yeah, the number one state with the most women in ag is Arizona, with 48% of their producers being women. 41% of beginning producers are now women.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

I love to hear that. That makes me so pumped for Talon.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

And hey, she may grow up and not want anything to do with AG, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

As somebody who was, I think, one, maybe maybe there's two or three actually from my graduating class that went into agriculture. It's just a good feeling.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Did you so uh back to like the gender roles of like just being women and that stuff? Like when you were setting up these meetings, I know we kind of talked about it, but I think it's important to share on the podcast, like when you set these meetings up and you were like, My husband and I want to talk to you about buying kelp or buying this the person really probably first thought it was Tyler, and you were just gonna be taking notes as the farm wife or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

And my name too.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

So when I sent the email, he originally thought it was a guy. A guy.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

And this would have been a company out of they get their kelp out of British Columbia. This was one we didn't go with, um, but that's who I got a lot of my research from. And there wasn't like a it wasn't like a jump scare or anything like that. He was super great, there was no like gender stereotyping or anything of that nature from him. He did awesome. It comes more from me.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Because now, granted, I didn't have to do a lot of talking with the dealer for singular products because Tyler was already getting product through him, and then also I had already gotten all the information from the guy I talked to previously, but I did feel more intimidated's not the right word, but like, I don't know what's the word am I looking for? Like, not as educated as I said. Right. I was gonna say, like, less of a yeah. I and I don't know why, because I felt so confident when but also the guy I talked to that didn't know me from Joe Blow, you know, he doesn't understand that I'm a stay-at-home mom and uh like my my role isn't the farm, my role is staying at home with the kids and raising the kids. And so I feel like people that know my day-to-day life and that don't know how passionate I am about ag or like how much I like to get into it, it's kind of like a huh. I don't know, I don't know why I feel a type of way about it, but I need that's probably more of a me than anybody else, and I just need to get over it.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

But I it it's hard to get over those types of things. Yeah. I don't know, it's just but I've always been in a role where it's more male like male dominated. I mean, even when I was out of college and working with um doing perina sales, yeah. I had farmers that wouldn't even let me load their feed with forklift because they were worried I guess I was gonna damage the tailgate of their truck or something.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Like watch me. Yeah. Like you're probably gonna damage it before I damage it.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

But here we go. No, I yeah, I think So maybe I just have that, those past experiences and I put them on, you know, future things.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

But do you think that okay, let's you know, I don't hope this happens, but if this does go completely Mike Help? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Well, it can't kill it. Well, no, but Well, I don't think it can kill it.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

I mean, realistically, let's say it like again, I really hope this doesn't happen, but weather takes a beating, or we just have a really crappy year and it doesn't rain anything, or whatever the case is, like, and it's not really successful. Do you think Tyler's gonna be like, well, that was an outlier year and we just really had a shitty year? And so here's year two, let's try it again.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, I think he will.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

You think so?

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Yeah, he's really good about he knows he knows that I like it, and he I think he likes that we get to talk about it. Because even just different like it's just opened up such different things for our farm to ask questions about, and it kind of gets his mind rolling a little bit and makes him think a little bit more. And it's 30 acres.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Again, it's not gonna make or break that your your guys' farm.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Now he may not be stoked when I'm like, oh, so this quarter we bought that's all irrigated, I want to do something to the whole quarter. He may not be as um. He'd be like, Yeah, no. Yeah, no, he may not be as giving when it comes to that.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Because this 30 acres is dry land, it's not irrigated. So I mean that uh that's why I bring up like weather. Like you could have zero rain.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Which this the kelp, that's why I targeted the farm that I did. Right. Because I want it to I want it to be stressed out. I I will be uh that this is really bad to say. For my farm venture, I will be upset if we have a year like last year because the beans thrived, because it was not extremely hot. It was um rainy for our area.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Corn sucked though.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

It did, yeah. Corn was awful because it did not have enough growing degree days whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Well, and it needs the heat, and we just didn't have that.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

And um So no, for as as far as like Tyler farming, I want you know, we love the rain. Yeah, we love it. But for my venture, I want the beans to be a little more stressed than they're just to see if it actually works.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

But so when you came to Tyler and you said, you know, I really want to try planting these beans, and this is what I want to put on them, and let me do a little bit more research XYZ. Did you already have this spot in mind? Or did you No.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

I mean, I didn't really care. I just told him I wanted dryland beans. Or what you know, it had been corn, dry land. So then we could go into dry land beans this year. So then you said I'm like just give me an area, and then the Crick was the only about the only place that would work for all the farmers.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

All of your criteria. It's like it needs this and this. Well, okay. Let me go buy a new farm for you, relatively.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

And then just setting up like how you want to plant and harvest and spray too and timing.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Well, yeah, because you're gonna have to harvest it in those different sections too.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Just well, I wanted to because it's just fun, you know, to watch the monitor, but he's not gonna let me do that. We're just gonna have to do John Deere ops.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

We we can make it work.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

I know, I want to. We can make it work. No, he's so stressed though, because if you're if you're listening, go to YouTube and watch, so you can see my hand gestures. But we've got so we're planting it diagonally. Right. Nope, I'm I'm still I we need to bring Tyler down here. Are we we may be planting it straight and then we're harvesting it diagonally? So some things are happening with different angles, and then plus the test plots. It's just he's a little bit stressed about it. Well, so I quit asking about harvesting it in strips like I want to, and he just wants me to read the monitor. But I'll I when he gets in a better mood, I'll ask again.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Oh, I will bring it up.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Because I want to have like a field day. It'll be so much. Oh, like a little field trip. Let's bring the kids out. No, I don't want to bring the kids out. Oh, okay. I just want kids stay home. Yeah, no. I told Tyler, because he's like, I said I need some a heads up because I want to be out there, you know. Oh yeah, no. And he's like, can't just he's like, I can't just say, Oh yeah, we'll go cut that when you have babysitters for the kids. And I'm like, okay, that's fine, then I'll run it, and you can sit in the car with the kids. And of course we get into the tit for tat. Well, you've if you slug it, then I'm not gonna help you unslug it.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Well, and it's beans, like it's not like you can say I actually like beans better than corn.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

I hate keeping the snoots in between the rows. Oh, yes, harvesting that way. And I just have to slow down or pick the head up or down.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

I love corn though, because one, you go faster beans, it's like literally watching paint dry. It's so slow. Ugh, hate it. And it kind of makes me a little dizzy, which I don't know why corn does it.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

No, see, I think, yeah, that's me, because watching like keeping the snoo in between the rows, I feel like I get a little car sick.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Yeah, I don't necessarily I get beans are just but beans you can't do at night. Like you can, but it once they get tough, they get tough. Yeah, I like beans because they're a little bit But you get your husband home a lot quicker than with beans. I mean, not super quick, but quicker than corn, where I am like work all night, I don't care, get harvest done.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

They're a little bit more of a particular plant, and even in the morning, too, you're not yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

I mean, that's the thing. It's like I would much rather harvest corn than beans all day, every day. You get faster.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

I think that's why I kind of wanted to get into beans too, because Tyler's very much like corn, let's put stuff into our corn, and I'm like, I just kinda like I kind of like beans.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Well, yeah, no, I like beans. Yeah, I mean, you get more per bush bushel, really, but at the same time, it's like beans are just so slow. Even if you like whatever role that you're wearing in the harvest crew, whether it's corn, beans, or whatever, corn, it's balls to the walls nonstop because there's more bushels naked. I just love that. Like it makes the day go by so much quicker. But when you're doing beans, you have a husband that got into your his lunchbox at nine o'clock in the morning and doesn't have a lunch. And then I'm calling you, being like, husband just called saying he needs lunch. Can you please figure out my husband? That's why I like corn because there's no time to eat. Like you're constantly on doing something.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Yeah, the go, go, go is nice, but a break is it's nice to slow down to, I think.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

But no, I mean that's my venture. We'll see how it we'll see how it ventures happen. Yeah, so I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

No, I'm I'm really excited for you. As we wrap up this episode, uh last episode we ended with a Bible quote from that you put on your Snapchat story or you saved on Snapchat or whatever. So um I do have a Bible verse that I wanted to tie into this episode. So um so it's Proverbs 423. And so the verse says, above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. And so what resonated with me with that one is it says it says it doesn't say guard your production. It says, or guard your reputation as a hard worker, it says guard your heart. And I think if you put everything that you want into the if everything that you are pouring out of yourself, you know, you're pouring into these acres of beans or whatever, it's uh it's from your heart. It's not because I have to do it because it's a production. Right. Like you need to do it from your heart. So the heart is such a important thing, and I think it's the most important acre, I guess, on the farm, if you really want to look at it that way. So it says if the well goes dry or if it gets choked out by the weeds or the bitterness, it doesn't matter how green the corn is. So if you're out there scouting for pests or running for parts this week, do a quick heart scout. Don't let the spraying season of the farm become the stifling season of your soul. And you're allowed to take an extra pass for yourself and you're allowed to be the type grace because the harvest God cares about most isn't in the grain bin, it's in you. So I love that.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

So we should start implementing that in our I love that.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

That's why I was just like, I really liked that last episode. And I was just like, I'm gonna do this.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

So Okay, love it. That wraps it up. I guess um, if anybody out there is listening has done some kelp.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah, I mean, hit us up, mainly Brady.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Let me know.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Or just any farm different farming.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

Yeah. All right, we'll see you guys next time. Bye. They say a farmer's work is never done. Well, neither is ours. Come back next week for a new episode of Life Between the Rows.