Time Management, Fatherhood, and Working at Your Best

This week on the podcast, Kyle and Brad dive into the balancing act of fatherhood, farming, and professional life when schedules get hectic. Brad shares some of his favorite ways to connect with his kids—from unforgettable weekends at DADCAMP to relaxing evenings on the lake—while the two compare their very different approaches to productivity and getting things done. Tune in for an honest conversation about family, work-life balance, and making the most of the time that matters most.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome back to this week's episode of the Turnrow Podcast with your host, Kyle Brumley. Let's tune in.

SPEAKER_03 0:08

All right. Welcome back to the Turnrow Podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Brumley. With me today, we got Brad Downing. I'm back. He's back, everyone. Give me a start singing back in the saddle. No.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

No one wants that, do they? No, he wants not. Not yeah. Yeah, I think I've been gone for a couple episodes.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Yeah, I was out last week. You were out. Um it's been kind of uh a wild ride here in this month. You've got two people out on vacation this week. Alyssa's gonna be out for a couple days. So as scary as it sounds, you and I are on the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Well, they gave you the keys back, so we'll find out what I can get done or lack there up to get done. But you know, I have been gone. I've been in the been in the sprayer for what a better part of the 10 days. Yep. And then I was sick before that, so you know that was fun, and now I'm still coughing, but I'm at these here and I can talk and I'm not hacking like they smoke two packs of camels a day. And we've got fair week this week. So you're gonna be in and out doing that. Yeah, fair weeks this week. So Howard County 4 H Fair starts uh actually today, uh, opening day today. So uh the kids have been busy doing stuff for 4-H projects. We've been back and forth with uh doing all that, and I can uh honestly say it's been fairly busy. That's bad joke, I think. Fairly busy, whatever it works. So no, yeah, fairly this way. I'm pretty sure there'll be some uh um terrible amounts of food and copious amounts of terrible food occupied by all this. So I'm going with the greed gear, I'll be just stay with land. Oh, you gotta go corn dog and shake up at least once. Oh, no cancer sticks for me. I'm okay. Just gotta go with straight up uh greed gear, maybe maybe a tender long or two. Might throw that out. Elephant ear, yeah, maybe uh I don't know if I want the sugar. Final cake. No, I can't do that. Um it's too much, uh, too much fried food for me.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

So well, speaking of Fair Week, um, you know, last time you were and I together, I felt like all we do is talk about agronomy every day, and then we sat down here and it's like an episode of Dr. Phil. So let's just keep that thing going. I thought it was more like Jerry Springer.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

I don't see the audience, so now we got to get Spence to come in here. Forget what that's the big bald guy that's the bonus or scenes, yeah, yeah. Big love goes or something like that. Big Steve, big uh big bald Steve. Yeah, we could do that. Jason can roll in a Steve, you know. We can get Spencer to be Jerry, that might work.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

He kind of looks like Jerry, that curly hair in the back, some mold glasses. Yeah, he's definitely Jerry. Yeah, but no, in all seriousness, um, you know, a couple weeks ago we talked about just you know, stresses, what they do to you know, your body, you know, the mental and the physical side of it. Um I like that's a new word. Yeah, okay. Excuse me out there, everyone. We're trying to get used to all this new technology. He's uh his head bungee fellow nail a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Well, lady, you're not used to hearing me this loud now. Yeah, that's great to I kind of felt like uh we're I don't know if this makes us officials, but it's it's weird to me still. Yeah, I just feel like you're flying a plane right now. But go ahead, back to your mentical kind of things. Um but no, we talked about, like I said, uh the mentical begin. New word. No, that's why we call you mentical.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

We'll try that. We're just gonna bypass that. Okay, moving on. Um, so time management. What I was trying to get at in that episode is we talked about, you know, farmers wear all kinds of hats. You know, I said you're a CEO, a CFO, a laborer, a mechanic. Um with that comes just a lot of you know time management. So I'm curious to hear from you both on uh the personal and the professional side of things, you know, how do you allocate your time?

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Ah, well, let's just start there. Um when things uh I'll kind of backtrack a little bit on time management. Um, when things were smaller, there was less of us who it's a little bit easier to just kind of segment things. And I think as Matt's kind of laughed, you know, I kind of joke around a we're very compartmentalized in our thinking. And you know, I I've got all my compartments that I'm trying to, all the fuckets that we're trying to do stuff in, and I don't like moving on to something else until we complete, you know, I may have 50 web browsers open, but I don't want to deal with the other 14 until the first one's done. I don't like having to run a million of them. And when we were a smaller company starting out, um, it was easier because there wasn't as many buckets, there wasn't many things going on to to manage that time. So um during that point in time, I could really structure what we were doing. You know, there was things going on on the ag solution side for the seed side, there was things going on for um the bio nutrient side that were spreading, they were sparning, and we could just be able to work on one thing at a time, complete it and move on, complete it, move on, and just kept that pace going. Well, as it's gotten to the day, you know, we've already today we're almost halfway through the day, almost gleaned up against lunch here. We've had probably 15 different directions we've already been going, plus on top of trying to film this podcast. So the one thing that I guess I look at is today, looking at the lack there of time management that I've, you know, trying to work on and get better at it's been looking at, you know, what are the top priorities that you've done and what do I need to put out those fires per first? And then ultimately speaking, I think you kind of test this, and it's kind of a excuse me, still coughing. But I think it's something you guys all recognize around here is um a very underlying theme of the entire company is everything stops when a customer calls. I mean, we could be planting, we could be spraying, we could be um in the middle of meeting. If somebody calls and says they need something, they are the number one priority, they always go to the top. And I think you guys have attested that sometimes it drives you crazy. I'm I'm in the middle of doing something or we're doing a project and somebody calls and somebody needs something, we immediately shift in that mode because ultimately speaking, that's that's what drives the company. You know, if we don't have our customers and we don't take care of them and we don't do what they need and work with them when they need it, um, I think we we just don't have a company, you know, and that's that's kind of a very large fiber of what we do here. Um, but when it comes to time management, the the thing I'm trying to work on is trying to get a set schedule for the whole week or for the day, and then realize that it's never going to be and hold on, so I'm gonna say this. I'll say this right. It's never gonna go exactly like I want to planned, and I've got to learn to be okay with that and learn to pivot. And I know many people are very structured. Like if we are planning, this is our plan, let's go execute, and we can't deviate. For me, I live in the world of chaos and deviation and realize the plan hasn't changed. How we get there is changed.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Yeah, no, and that's that's exactly right, and that's why I want to talk about it today is um I think just the ag world in general is like that. And you know, it's just the nature of the beast. And I don't know too many different for I don't know too many operators out there who, you know, do delegate their time, you know, great, which is you know why I wanted to have this conversation today. You know, I think it's important for for us to hash it out and talk about it, but you know, hopefully some of those people out there will get something from it.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Yeah, I mean, I think that's uh you bring up a great point, Kyle, on time management for farmers in general of the ag community. Um not too many I've met that are really just perfect at it and really great at it. And then that's not a dig to anybody because I'm right there with them, first time caller, long time listener, right? Um it's because everything changes and in whether it be weather, whether it be markets, whether it be anything else. I mean, you you have to be willing to deviate from a plan and change when things go on. And and we talked about, you know, we discussed before managing not only your operation and your your day-to-day activities, but you have a family. You got a life outside of Farney, and Farney doesn't define who I am. Um, and those things change. I mean, um, whether we talk about fair this week, you know, those things can change. I can get a phone call right now from Marsh, and she could be like, hey, by the way, I need you to run for something going on 4-H up there for the kids or whatever I gotta do. I mean, it's gonna change my plan, and I was not planning on that. And I'm probably not the best of being super excited about changing when that comes on. But yeah, I mean, the family for for people who work with farms anyway, that's gonna change their plan.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Yeah, so I think you mentioned already kind of from in session to always set now, just the the growth, um, multiple sites now. Um what what are some things that you've had to implement or do to like said help keep you on track? I know that it's still crazy. Like you said, the phone rings and the plane goes out the window, but you know, how have you evolved as a farmer, as a person, as a father? Kind of, you know, I think they all just kind of run together. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Um I'll say one thing, and and I'll probably fumble this a little bit, but there has been a big push within the side of our company on technology, you know, whether in Microsoft Teams we're using, and I'm the worst one. I mean, like I said, first fan caller, longtime listener. I'm probably the worst one in Kyle can attest this of using some of these technologies that we put in place. If you're the worst, I'm probably the second one. So it's always the sales guys, right? Always we're just running gun and then we'll let the clean up later. Um, but that's one thing that has been, you know, whether it be that, whether it be some of the systems and uh apps that Spencer's creating um that we were using, um, some of the things that Jason's been doing on the spreading side of keeping track or inventory, he's keeping track um through Goozle Sheets, you know, a lot of the technology has allowed me to get a better visual visual of what's going on and maybe manage my time a little bit better. Um, but I really think probably more than anything that you know what what has been the one thing is probably just being okay with the fact that I know it's not gonna go always like I plan. And that's not easy because I'm a little bit of a control freak. Um, I've got a vision in my mind how I want to go, and when it doesn't go that way, it's very difficult to be okay with it. So I mean, I know you're cramble bear. I I'm not control of I'm not worried about control of anything, am I?

SPEAKER_03 11:00

No. No, no, that's a good point. I mean, operations very get bigger, um, and just having the right people in the right seats, you know, trusting people. You know, I think it could be especially difficult when let's say a son comes back into the operation. You know, that father-son dynamic is can be an awkward one. You've got, you know, your dad who's essentially kept you alive, raised you, and now you have to start you know turning over some control to him. Um, how about those things can be awkward and you know make for an interesting dynamic?

SPEAKER_02 11:38

No, you're you're dead on them, and whether it be a father, son, grandfather, grandson, you know, nephew, uncle, cousin, what whatever it may be operational, that's inside of everybody's operation. Probably the one thing that, or the two things I guess you look at is communication, respect, and time management, how you work together. Because everybody has their own agenda. And if you're not communicating, working together to understand and have the respect of what you're all trying to accomplish, the common goal, how do you expect to manage your time when everybody has different values of what their time's worth?

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Right. So I think the probably even more important in the professional side of things, like we've been talking on, is the you know, the person of the family side of things. So, you know, everybody here is a father. You've got three kids, I've got two. Um between the farm and everything that we do at Cross Creek Ag Solutions, um, you know, how do you keep how do you keep your family at the forefront? How do you stay connected? Because then again, talking about, you know, hot topics that a lot of people just overlook in agriculture, I think that's that's a big one is making time for your kids, making time for your family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Um it's not easy, right? Yeah, you have to be um very what's the word I'll look at. You have to be very devoted to it, but you also have to be very cognizant of what's going on and what you're doing, and has a deep amount of self-awareness of the time you're spending and where you're spending it. Um you guys been at test. I mean, I'm I'm a workaholic. I love to work. I love you know the fact that we've built this company, this business, this farm, and we continue to grow and look for opportunities too, grow. And that takes a tremendous amount of time and bandwidth and thought all the time. But I I can honestly say, you know, there sometimes I just plain point blankly to suck at it. I'm just gonna be honest. I mean, I think we'll all think we I'm I can be very transparent and honest in this whole conversation and just say, or sometimes I just point blankly suck at it. And the cool part is I have Marsh to back me up. I mean, she's kind of the yin-de-by-ang. She can kind of say, Hey, you need like I I can see, well, you guys actually see it sometimes also coming out of fall or spring, right? I've been running and gunning, not sleeping a lot, just worried about all different things. When I finally get a chance to let down and take a break from a what happens. You get sick, I get sipping quacks. I mean, just uh clockwork if happens twice a year, if not more. Um, I think that's where I need to be more cognizant of that and also the time I'm spending with the kids because ultimately speaking, I think my kids would attest to this from early on. Um, when I was not cross-speed was I developed, you know, I was working for Bex. I was traveling 16, 17 statesy, you know, traveling for the um what at that time was a key account role for Bex. I was gone all the time. And I would when I was home, I was still trying to farm too, the small amount of acres we were farming. So I was just burned the candle at three ends, not both ends, and my family was giving whatever's left over when there was nothing left over. So one of the things that kind of woke me up during that point in time is when my oldest Layton, which is an intern for us this year. You guys have probably seen some of the videos of her. I mean, well, she was six, maybe seven. I won't do the tough woman at this. Anyway, she was six or seven years old. And when I came home from a trip, I think it was in Iowa, I was gone for like four days and came home and she made a comment. She's like, Well, uh, when are you leaving next? Because clearly you don't love us anymore. And I was like, Okay, oof, that's that's tough. That was a pretty big dagger to the heart there. Yeah. So I had to really sit back and say, Why did she say that? Um, what's what's going on? And it wasn't that there was any issue with her being mad, or it's just dad wasn't there. And what was funny is when she well, I wasn't there, she was sleeping in the bed with Marsh. I mean, and so she sort of got used to, you know, about every two weeks, you'd have three or four days of hanging out with mama in bed and being able to sleep there. She got used to that for repetition. And I'm like, okay, something's gotta change my life. Right. I got to manage things differently. That's what one of the reasons and one of the big things that led to, you know, leaving backs and starting Cross Creek Hag. But I look at when I happened, and I started realizing, okay, I need to be very intentional with the hours I have, um, whether it be working, working with customers, dealing with my family, spending time with each of the kids, or something. I mean, if anybody follows us for a long period of time, that's called Dad Camp. Um, it's an organization started by Jason Braun out of Kokomo, Indiana. It's in Melissa, how many 21 countries in 21 states? Um, you know, pretty big organization that's solely focused on the relationship of dads and their fathers, or fathers and their daughters, fathers with their sons. And so we really we dove into that when Late was like six years old. About that point in time, we started going in. I spend one week in them a year with each of the kids as they've been growing up and intentionally pouring into their lives, just you know, the the phrase, you have what it takes, you know, which in turn kind of changed my thought process of understanding that I need to spend time no matter what we're doing. If we're in the backyard playing around swimming, or if we're on the boat like we were last night, we were awake surfing last night, and letting, I mean, London got up for really the first time ever and ran for you know four or five minutes on the board. So, I mean, those are times where you know she's excited. I need to let her know, like I believe in her, I trust in her. Um, she has what it takes. I mean, in basically validating those kids to understand that I appreciate them, I understand them, I hear for them to build that time into it. So um, I don't want them to think that dad was never there because he was too busy worrying about the business or the farm because that's not it at all. And so we we had that, but it really shifted my mindset to even just you know employee side of things. Ultimately speaking, I didn't care about all our team here. I care about their their own lives and I care about their visions, their family's visions. Um, I care about our customers' visions and what though what they want to do. Because ultimately speaking, it's not about what we do, how we do it. It's about the why we do it. And I have to manage that time to make sure that why never disappears.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Yeah, it's a that's a great point. I mean, among the many reasons of of why I'm here, I mean, that's one of them. You and I have talked about it a lot, especially when I first hired on about, you know, kind of the spot that I was in. Um, in a previous life, you know, I was on farm full-time, not a family farm, but um an employee of someone else. And for pretty much the first three years of my oldest daughter's life, you know, I wasn't there much. Um, when you're kind of in the heat of battle, like you said, you don't even really realize that it just becomes just what life is. Um and then as she started getting older, you know, my wife works full-time, she needed help. I realized that this is you know, that this isn't what life's supposed to be. Um, and that was hard because I was doing what I loved, basically. Yeah, it was it was just selfish, is what it was. I mean, sure, you know, you think everything's great, you've got the job you want, you're doing exactly what you want. When you're in the field, everything seems perfect. And then that rare occasion when you are home on a weekend, it's like you felt like a stranger. So yeah. Um, no, except what you said is you know, it hits home. It's important. Um, I think more people need to need to talk about it and and realize that.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Yeah, I think I need to kind of talk about the 12-step program or 12-step program. Sorry, you know, first step in the program is denial, second step is admittance. And I think many of us in agriculture need to we deny a lot. Oh, that's fine. You know, it's all good. The kids I was around or I was around for the kids, or I was around for the grandkids, or whatever. Well, there's a difference between being there and being present. Yeah. I mean, there I can be present, but I'm not part of, you know, I'm not actively involved. Um, that's one thing I think that a lot of us, including myself, sometimes um, I can say, hey, I was there, but was I actually evolved there? Was I was like awake, quote, quote unquote, right? So I think that's one thing. The other part that I thought was really interesting over the time period that I've learned some of this stuff and looking at time management. Um, there's a couple books out there that talk about this, but I'm not I'm gonna fumble through it a little bit, but was understanding when your net effective timing is. So I talked about net effective timing. What does that mean? For me, my best hours of work, and you guys kind of laugh, but I'm not a morning person. No, I I would prefer you're awake, but your brain's not awake. Right. I am not a morning person at all. I I'm very slow to get started. It I'm I'm thinking constantly, but I'm just not at a functioning high level yet. I'm kind of like an old Detroit Beastle. Takes a little while to get her started. Spray a little ether in her and let her crank. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

And I had to get rid of coffee a few years ago, and so now it's just tea and honey. But uh for all of you guys out there, I have coffee and what he's got, water or something. Actually, uh creatine and water.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

So yeah, it looks like diesel fuel right here. So I'm I'm filling that Detroit right now. So that's a little red. That's that's all for him. DOT is not dipping that before me. But no, I mean, like I'm talking about the Detroit diesel. It takes me a while to get running. But once I do, um, my net effective hours that I do the best work are really past five o'clock till 12 o'clock and one in the morning. Couple reasons. One, uh, like I said, when I get the energy going, I just I don't normally slow down until I crash. The other part is it's also quiet in the nighttime. Most everybody's done with their day. The kids could be asleep, the phone calls aren't coming in, and then I can do my best work sometimes between nine and midnight because I have the ability to just focus and it's you know, it's quiet. And so I can get a lot done. Churned out quick, and sometimes you guys get emails from me or text from me at you know 11 45 at night or something and hope you guys are all asleep because I'm still and you never get an answer, but I no mean certain answer.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

I'm usually in bed before the sun goes down.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Yeah. I had to laugh because it used to be uh when I was working for Bex, but this is back in like 2004, 2005, back in the fax machine days. Ooh, yeah, big time there, right? Technology. Um, I remember getting fax from like Lee Rulin, which was uh uh marketing director for Bex and Sonny would send stuff out. I mean, we're talking sometimes one, two in the morning, we'd get a fax and that thing and I'd wake up like, what in the world? Well, they were still up working. And I was always that way, but it was funny because that you know they were still up and going and they were thinking about things that need to be done, and a fax would be sent out at, you know, 11 o'clock, one in the morning, whatever it was. And so I learned that, you know, my I have to operate in my most net effective time. And I would love to be able to get up every morning at four o'clock and just be able to hit the ground, run in, and be like full energy and go. I'm just not built that way. I I've tried it, I've tried working out in the mornings and I can do it, but I'm just dead tired. But I I know once I get going and the flow starts rolling, then the battery doesn't shut off until there's nothing left left left in the battery.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

Yeah, I mean, that that's where that time arrangement piece comes back in again. Like you said, how how have you grown and how have you changed and adapted? I mean, I think that's a great example of you know work when you work best, when you can get things done. Um because you are so dedicated to the business to our customers. Like you said, no phone call goes in unanswered. I mean, I think that can that can derail your productivity and so you've realized that, you know, after about seven o'clock, unless it's in the heat of battle, that phone's gonna stop ringing.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

I mean, am I a telemarketer dream? Yes. I mean, I answered every call because I don't know who it is on the other, and maybe it is a telephone call from telemarketers, which I think they called this morning asking about my 2012 Chrysler uh warranty if I wanted to free you and so. Uh but I mean, yeah, I I don't want to I don't want to go un not unseen, but I don't want to go unheard if people need something.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's probably a good point for us to transition, um, get back in our lane a little bit with what we truly are good at, and neither one of us are doctors. So I try what's what's hyper doctors of plants and talk about uh what's going on in the field, talk about a little agronomy. Um, so we just finished up our V8 to B12 pass on corn. Um, for most of our corn, that was a V10 pass. You did all the spraying, so what'd you see? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

So um for those of you that are new to us, and you know, we we farm in five different counties in north central Indiana. Um anything from black flat, really good dirt, Tipton County, to really good dirt in Grant Howard County to some rolling clays in Miami and Cass County. Um lack of better terms, Kyle. What have we been the last 45 weeks? Wet? Wet. I mean, we've been getting rains, rains, and more rains, and there's a lot of drowned out spots and a lot of fields. I was up in the Hagee in the sprayer, so I could see a lot of people's crops and drive around looking at our own. Um, there was a lot where we've had a lot of rain in Grant County, Howard County. There's there's spots, right? We got drowned out spots, we got spots that had water staying. Um, never gonna fix those. I don't care who you are. Nothing we can do to fix that. It's anaerobic conditions, microbial activity is at an all-time low, roots are saturated. We're gonna see you do the pressure in those parts of the farm. They'll probably spread to some outside um adjoining areas. But overall, I will say Tipton County probably looked the best on corn. Um, shockingly, is but they haven't got the big rains that we had there in early June. It's been a little drier down there.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Yeah, they've missed some of the big ones, even last week, a couple miles north of here about four to six inches, and then as we sat here, nothing.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Yeah, yeah. On Friday, we were here. Um, whatever day that was. Friday. Yeah, a couple days ago. Friday's Friday, yeah. Um, we were sitting here and we were in a meeting, and it was just raining here pretty good. But then Peg said four miles or three to four miles north, they had four to six inches to in less than an hour and a half, and the flooding up there was tremendous. So I will say Howard and Grant County looked pretty good from a foreign standpoint, but there was a lot of areas that were um water stricken, um just some uneven variability across the board. Um, but overall it looked terrible. I mean, I would say there's like I said, overall it's not bad. But do I think it's what the USDA says? And we drove Ohio, I've been over to Illinois, I haven't been down south yet or L out to Iowa, and we haven't been up in Michigan yet in the last 45 days. Um, but do I think the USDA is off on what I see here locally? Um, based on their figures on good expert ratings, yeah. I think they're um a little bit high right now, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Yeah, I'd be curious to see you know what it does to stir. Because, like you said, I think a lot of it's being driven by just there was a lot of early planting in areas, but are those areas completely healthy still? I mean, Saturday, you and I were over on the west side of the state. Um, as good as you talk about that Tipton County dirt is that we've got here, the stuff we were looking at over there's even better. And sure, there's some great-looking corn, uh, but there's a lot of a variability about up and down, even over there.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Well, one thing we saw, and I saw from the sprayer, um, the paper blind corn a lot of guys got out there early. I will say there was quite a few fields that were tasseled, looked pretty even for the most part, but there were also just as many fields that you had all kinds of spots. I mean, there's tassels coming out, there was uneven, there was places that were not even close to tassel yet. So, I mean, you could tell the emergence was dramatically affected. You know, could have been two weeks difference of emergence. I mean, that's how far behind some of that looks. Um, conversely, some of the stuff that was planted in mid to late May, it was in really good conditions, um, may not be a very popular opinion with people out there, but the truth of the matter is, um, I think it's almost caught up. If it would have been a month behind today, I'm gonna say probably 10 days behind, just because it's it's just it hasn't had the issues and the stress uh near as much as the early plant diet.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

I mean, we didn't have that early season stress, and then if you just want to just solely look at heat units, I mean, yeah, it has about caught up.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Yeah, yeah, I agree. So I I I think overall from our crop perspective and some of the testing we got going on, uh Spencer's gonna have a few farms you're gonna have fun with that he's gonna have to cut some data that we're gonna have to take out some you know, wet bowls that are zero spots to be able to make, you know, truly good data and find the spots in the field that we can take um that are are good. Um other farms, I mean, like a name, three or four farms that were just tabletop, perfect, look good. And I'll be honest, there's two I think we'll find out what happens down the road, but I think we saw a 300 plus pushing potential in those fields.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Yeah, I would agree. Um I mean, on beans, I think you know, you look at a lot of corn, I look at a lot of beans. Kind of we split time doing all of those. Um beans are still, I'm gonna call average at best. I mean, we know beans don't like wet feet. They they've been wet through June. Um things have kind of evened out. One thing on notice, then again, we're talking a small geography, but just overall nodulization, all of that is still lacking. Um, root structure in general. I mean, it hasn't had to search for water, it hasn't really had to work very hard. So, you know, they're talking about us turning hot and dry in the next 10 days to two weeks and then beyond, who knows what's gonna happen. So I think corn is gonna continue to get better. The the jury's still out on what beans are gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Yeah, I think with the uh uh weather prediction here for the next seven, 10 days, they're talking about, you know, no rain pretty much across the whole entire Midwest, uh, high temperatures, or at least on the other side. Interesting, there was some data that came out this morning off of uh, you know, when I talk about takes me a while to get ready in the morning and takes me a time to listen to podcasts, just trying to, you know, gather information. There was a um uh gosh, I can't quote who was now. That's terrible loss of my mind. Anyways, uh, they were talking about the last 45 days across all the Midwest, we've been averaging four degree warmer on the nighttime temperatures than we would on a five-year average. I'd buy that. So if you look at that from a respiration standpoint, our factories, our plants, right? Those are our factories. That's what's making us money out there. They have been working overtime more than they normally have over a five-year average based on the nighttime temperatures. So, well, was it two weeks ago? It was just stupidly hot. Yeah. I mean, like high 90s, high humidity out of about five, six days. Yeah, heat index, yeah, 105, 106. So that pushed obviously a lot of that. But I think, you know, now where we're at now with all this rain, this this nighttime temperature, the last 45 days averaging over four degrees warmer. Um, this, if this continues on for the next 45 days, uh, I'll just speak to corn for a second. The the amount of uh pressure and stress that's gonna cause on this crop is gonna be pretty large. It's also gonna get us to the finish line quicker just from GDUs. But the other thing is I believe it will be it's probably gonna bring some more disease pressure than what we've you know been accustomed to the last couple of years. And I know there's one, oh no, but can of worms on this one. Here we go, right? The big T word, our spot. Yep. There's been a tremendous amount of Kyle, you've seen it. I mean, I know you'll have social media, Facebook, you stay off the grid. I'm a ghost. Yeah. And is that like a CIA thing or something? Like you you try and stay out witness protection program. It's not many of them in witness protection. Oh, we better stop. This is not a good idea, is it? Sarah's gonna kill you. Um the fact of the matter is that there has been a tremendous amount of advertisement across many different companies. Interesting is most of those companies sell punished. I'm talking about tar spot has been blow up. I know Darcy Talenko, the Talenko um uh there at Purdue. Yeah, uh Purdue. She's been talking about that have been tar spot found on a lot of different counties across India. I don't disagree. It's out there, it's in a residue, it's gonna be part of a life forever. So everybody just get used to it. Question is, what how are you managing it? And that's where we come into play. There's a lot of things that you have pre-existing conditions, where those plants planted in stressful conditions as their crown rots, is there root rots. Um, that's what's gonna make tar spots show up even worse if you've got pre-existing conditions and get problems. If your plant's really healthy and everything's even, tar may show up, but it's not gonna absolutely blow up. You know, if it does, you you can get to it later.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

Right. I mean, when you think about, you know, kind of the symptomology of the disease. I mean, it is a a scavenger or a parasite. I mean, those, you know, you're essentially feeding off of, you know, sugars, chlorophyll, all those things in the leaf surface. I mean, that's that's where the the yield loss comes from, is you're, you know, that disease is robbing from your factory, so you're not as efficient. So yeah, it only goes to say the the healthier we can keep that plant, you know, the better off you're gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. And that's why, you know, you talk about I was in the sprayer last week and it was catching up on all soil, all the um V, we'll call it V12 or V14 is where we were at spraying. I'm gonna be first tell everybody out there, I'm like, I did. Did we have fungicide in the mix with all our foliar nutrition? You bet we didn't. Because we knew the last 45 days we've been so wet. Did I find any tar in our spots or tar spots in any of our fields or any leaf disease? No, we did not. Do I believe blank applying fungicide is the right thing to do? No. Do I think we have the right environment with the right temperature and everything trending that way for the next 30-day forecast? If you have to believe you know, the weather people out there, uh, do I think it's gonna blow up and be a problem? You bet. Was I willing to put just an oxystrill and a profonazole on, just really cheap for some insurance, but also including with all of our folio program, our sugars, our um our biologicals, our kelps, our you know, around zincs, all the things that we're doing. Am I willing to do that? Because we've seen over time that is paid going into pollination. So I'm protecting the plant and basically stress priming the plant, trying to get through pollination, and then we'll decide when we get the brown soap. Do we need another application of fungicide? If we don't, we're not gonna use it. If we do, we'll put it in there.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Yeah, and I think that's why, you know, all those things that you just said, I mean, I think that's why if you look at our our data out of dirt, why the this pass has been probably the highest RLI pass for five, if not six years running. I mean, I think there's a lot of things going on there, but you know, you look at two of the specific products, uh, a sugar product and a potassium acetate. So we talked about, you know, it it's staying hot at night. You know, if that plant's never getting a chance to respirate, recover, go as corn sweat. Yeah, go to sleep, if you will, you gotta figure out a way to get an extra energy. So, you know, whatever that sugar product may be, um, you know, you've got a a shot of carbon, all of those things in there with that. And then you look at just about what potassium acetate or acetate-based products do in general. So I'm sure we're using potassium acetate. I mean, it gets hot out, you get dehydrated. What do you do? Electrolytes, Gatorade, number of packets of anything, you name it. Baja gold salt, Baja Gold Salt. But okay, Baja Gold Salt. Look at it. Where is it? Trace minerals, um, electrolytes, all of those things. So I think that that past this year is going to pay out probably exponentially higher than it even has in the past, just because of that. So, you know, you talk about moving nutrients, moving water, everything up through that plant. That's kind of a, I think, a hidden function of just acetates in general. So we're thinking about it like we're just putting on potassium, which, you know, in drought type conditions, which we haven't had, is important. But then you look at just, you know, that molecule itself being able to move sugars, move starches, you know, to and from the plant. Um, well, those are two things that I would have in every pass right now, not so much for anything else other than stress mitigation. So 100% agree. Like you said, most people put on fungicide. I would strongly encourage UBIs to be looking at some sort of, you know, acetate, potassium acetate, some sort of, you know, nutrient in that form as well as a sugar product right now.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Yep. Well, that's why we stack so many things, and everybody says, Oh, your program's so complex. Well, that's because we're stacking so many different elements and so many different, you know, minerals or you know, nutrients, because we know we need certain ones. And the other thing is we were tissue setup, we were tissue sampling uh all this year, which we didn't sample as much as I wanted to because of weather. You know, we were trying to sample once a week. We've actually averaged about once every other corn's been once a week or once every other week, we usually then once every other week, which is flip-flop or rotate each week. But the last two tissue samples on corn that came back, most of our fields have been lower K levels in the plant and lower boron levels. Well, not shocking a boron because it's a water soluble KV and mobile and immobile. Right. We've been so wet. I mean, it's been immobile or sorry, too mobile because it's been moving actually.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

That derusion effect within the plant. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

So yeah, I think that's if guys are looking at right now going into TASSIL, what they can do, you know. Obviously, I don't like spraying anything on during tassel time. Um, if they're gonna do stuff, you know, coast house and brown silk, there's things we can do on beans. Pretty simple. If we're getting close to that R3 time, there's programs and ideas to do on beans. There's programs and ideas to do on R4, late R4. Um, you just gotta know what you're doing, and I think that's one thing I encourage everybody to do is you better have a tissue sample or at least go out and take some tissue samples in your field to know what road map you're on. Right. I mean you're flying blood if not.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

But we totally agree. Well, my uh stomach's telling me that it's about lunchtime, so you want that corn dog, don't you? Uh yes.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

We'll have to find out uh what terrible fair food they got for day one. I'm probably just gonna go cold ground beef and a banana. No, no, yeah, that's normal for you. Yeah, be sitting here while we're all eating terrible food that's gonna kill us all. So no, I think that's it. I mean, I I uh I know we got another uh episode coming up here for here in a little bit that will be our first uh first guest on the podcast coming up. So I think people could look forward to that.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

Yeah, they don't have to listen to us for an hour.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

No, uh we're way too stupid for people to listen to it.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

So but no, I appreciate your insight. Um I think it's good for you know all of our viewers, all of our customers to kind of to get a glimpse into your mind and kind of you know how you operate, how this company operates outside of you know the conversation we just had, which is what we had with people 99% of the time. It's you know, it's agronomy, it's crops, it's diagnosing things. But you know, I think it's cool to to get a look on the other side of things as well.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Yeah, yeah, and I'll just leave it with this. From my perspective, if you farm out there, uh be paying attention to the green markets also. I'm gonna dive into that landmine right now, but uh, a lot of things going on geopolitical right now, a lot of things going on with the crop and and what predictions are happening to weather and market is responding. I mean, we opened up big time overnight last night and we opened up again this morning up. So um, you know, be prepared. You know, those of you that farm there listen, be prepared to take profitability. Know what you're dealing with at crop, know what you're dealing with and what you what kind of crop you have, and be prepared to start taking profitability. I don't know how long this profitability is going to last.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

All right. Well, I dropped up landmining right there. That's fine. All right, everyone. Well, like Brad's in the next episode, we will have a guest in. So see you soon. Check you out on the next Turnrow.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of the Turnrow Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Cross Creek Ag Solutions. From precision ag technology to smarter, data-driven decisions. CrossCreek helps farmers maximize every acre. Ready to grow more with less guesswork? Visit CrossCreakAg.com and see what your operations missing. Cross Creek Ag Solutions. Farming Smarter starts here.