Dirt to Dollars

Episode 44 - Katie and Jonathan French with Southern States Hardin Co-op

• Farmers • Season 1 • Episode 44

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0:00 | 45:11

Thanks to Southern States for sponsoring this week's episode! We were happy to have the French's on with us to talk about their experiences at Southern States Hardin Co-op. 

And thanks to our studio sponsor Biotech Innovations.  Learn more about them at www.biotechinnovationsag.com.

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to Dirt to Dollars, where we cover everything from the dirt on your land to the dollars in your hand.

SPEAKER_01

We're talking all things agriculture and central can, from the field to the farm office.

SPEAKER_03

Join your hosts, Daniel Carpenter, Matt Adams, and Mark Thomas as we dig into current ag news, practices, and more. And now, coming to you from the biotech innovation studios, here's Dirt to Dollars. Now let's get innovative. Welcome back to Dirt to Dollars Hot and Steamy edition.

SPEAKER_04

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03

Oh. It kind of makes it sound dirty. Yeah, I probably should have come up with something.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That's almost as bad as Daniel's let get let's get dirty. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Anyway, we're back again here with my co-hosts Daniel Carpenter. Hello. And Mark Thomas.

SPEAKER_01

Hello.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, it's been a hot one this week already.

SPEAKER_01

It's been very hot.

SPEAKER_03

I have sweat.

SPEAKER_01

Nine o'clock in the morning sweating through your t-shirt.

SPEAKER_02

Don't know that it's been as maybe as hot as they said it was gonna be. Like I know it's been hot.

SPEAKER_01

You've just been sitting inside on the computer. You hush your own. I saw 99 on my truck today.

SPEAKER_03

I saw 115 on mine, but I think you'd been sitting inside.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, you're down there a little south. You're you're a little south, you're a little closer to the equator. You got so many rocks reflecting heat back up. I don't know. Yeah. There could be a lot of things going on there that make that happen.

SPEAKER_03

So speaking of going on, who's who's our sponsor this week, Mark?

SPEAKER_01

Well, this week on Dirt to Dollars, we have our very first sibling interview. And a very intricate part of the Southern States Harden Co-op. So they're our sponsor this week. That's our sponsor. I can ding it now. You can ding it now.

SPEAKER_03

You were being very vague with that.

SPEAKER_01

I was being very vague. I had that I had that uh on purpose. So uh one of the one of the siblings is YouTube famous.

SPEAKER_03

Famous or somewhat famous?

SPEAKER_01

Probably famous. He's full on famous. I'm somewhat famous. So he's probably he's YouTube, so he's full-on famous.

SPEAKER_03

That's true.

SPEAKER_01

So without further ado, that's right. Welcome to the show, Jonathan and Katie French.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for having us. Yep. How y'all doing?

SPEAKER_01

Doing all right. Glad to have you here. And um you guys, uh, if you've been in if you've been in Southern States Hard and Co-op at any given point, you've probably run into one of these two two faces. So tell us a little bit about you all and how you uh started out at Southern States.

SPEAKER_00

I'm Jonathan French. Uh started at Southern States August 1st of 2016. I was uh uh senior in high school, started co-op co-op there, uh been there ever since. Started out in the warehouse, loading customers, sleeping in the warehouse, unloading trucks and all that, and then that spring I loaded fertilize out on the pad, and then after that, I turned 18, got a temporary CDL, and the rest is history. CDL, truck driver.

SPEAKER_06

I am Katie. I am his younger sister. Um, I also started as a co-op in high school. Um mine's a little different. I was actually told I was not allowed to work there as I became a senior um for the reason that my brother was there. And like any younger sister, I said, I'm not gonna listen. I'm gonna do what I want to. So I started in August of 2018 as a high school co-op as well. I started at the front counter, um, answering phones, waiting on customers as they came in. I actually had no intention on staying. I thought I'll just work senior year, make some money, go off to college, um, probably get an ag business job somewhere, lending something like that. And then my second semester of college, COVID happened. Uh didn't really have a normal year in college after that. And eight years later, I'm still at Southern States, uh doing a little bit different. Um, I handle a lot of our bulk feed and bulk fertilize. Uh, do our social media marketing, um, different inventory. I order quite a bit of our feed mineral, different day-to-day tasks with the operation.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, she you can you can blame her for the vector video on Facebook. I was just operating.

SPEAKER_01

No, we're not blaming for that. We're giving her credit for that. We had to we're giving her credit for that now. We we uh we we didn't. Matt got scolded for uh his comment thinking it was you, but it and it was really Katie. So so Jonathan, you got 10 years coming up. Are they gonna they're gonna throw you a party and get you a cake or something?

SPEAKER_00

Or I hey if they do, I'll be all right with that.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. Like on Dairy Queen, right? You have to make your way through the roundabouts to get over to Dairy Queen and get you a big one. You get it, you get your diet. It's a double dog bone. It's double dog bone. So uh that's that's one thing that's probably changed in the tenure tenure that you guys have been there is is the traffic to get in and out. Uh but on regards to that, what's changed, you think, in the amount of time that you've been there?

SPEAKER_00

Probably I've been there 10 years. Probably the biggest change was when we when us at e town finally got a vector. Uh, we'd been running, we were running two spreader trucks up until that point, and the cars just lined up to where we were able to acquire a vector, and that brought a lot of top dressing business in. And I I I was always hounding Bill about one. I was like, Bill, we need one of these. We need one of these since day one. He said, No, no, no. And then the first year we got one, he was he turned to me and he said, You're right about this thing.

SPEAKER_01

So there's something about the vectors, and I and I think anybody that's ever run one or or had one run, you can cover a lot of ground with two spreader trucks, but when it comes to the vector, you the infrastructure behind it makes it more efficient because you try to keep that vector in the field all the time and you tender to it. A spreader truck 50-60% of its loads are coming back to the store, getting fertilized and going back. So that that helps any store that's got that. And uh, we were glad to see y'all get that.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, it was a welcome site, it was.

SPEAKER_06

So I think for me, the biggest change I've seen, which COVID may be to blame with this, it also might just be our society. Before you had you had store traffic that was continuous, but most of the people came into the office to do their business. Now you get a text message, you get a phone call, it's completely changed. Some people you see maybe once, twice a year, but you do quite a bit of business with them.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_06

But I think that's been the biggest change I've seen.

SPEAKER_03

That's what I was just about to ask you. How many fertilize orders do you get via text message versus five years ago? Oh.

SPEAKER_01

A lot. I know when I do a fertilize order, I take a list of everything in there and drop it off. And this is what it this is what it's gonna be. And then and then there's a text message that okay, you can spread this now or spread this, spread this, this, and this, and you know, kind of one trip in and some text messages to make it happen.

SPEAKER_06

So which some days that does make my job quite a bit easier. If I have a billing question, if I have an acre question, a name, I can just shoot a text and say, Hey, what way do I split this? What do you want me to call this field? Are we changing this? So it does make it simpler in effect, but you still don't get that face-to-face interaction like you once did.

SPEAKER_03

But like you said, it's a whole lot simpler because you can send that question or whatever in a text, and you're not playing phone tag back and forth with the farmer three or four times. You just send it if it's if it's five minutes when he answers, that's fine. If it's five hours where he answers, that's fine too. But you haven't haven't wasted the time calling back and forth.

SPEAKER_01

But and you have a paper trail. Yes. There's no there's none of this. Uh and Daniel, you probably ran into this a few times when you were in egg retail business of well, that's not what I said. That's not what I wanted. Well, you got it right here. That's what you said.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but unfortunately, the ones that still say that are the ones that will never text anything. Probably true. There's no way it's just how it is.

SPEAKER_03

That's probably true. So just to back up just a little bit, uh, y'all talked about you both got to southern states as co-op students. What drew you to southern states? Why southern states and not somewhere else?

SPEAKER_00

Uh well, we did all of our cattle mineral, you know, uh bag feed and all that stuff through southern states. We didn't really get any fertilizer from them at that point. Um, but I don't know, I just walked in one day and looking for co-op jobs and talked to Bill and he said, yeah. And the rest is history, but there there was some connection there that, you know, Bill k Bill says he remembers me coming in there when I was little with Kitty or whoever. And uh it just worked out, it worked out, and I'm still there to this day.

SPEAKER_06

I was a little bit different. Um, there was a girl the year in between Jonathan and I that she co-oped at Southern States, and I was pretty good friends with her. And she texted me one day and she said, Katie, I need a friend to work here. Please work here. At that point, she was one of three women versus 15 men. So she was like, I just want a friend here, I want a girl here that I can talk to and not be lonely all day long. So I thought, well, Jonathan's there, we do business there. I may as well go and ask.

SPEAKER_01

So one thing I've noticed a about Southern States Harden Co-op is that uh the the co-op student in high school, you know, fits with the name, obviously, but there's a whole lot of employees that are there now that started out as co-op students, and they they've stayed through college or they've stayed uh longer than that. Um you know, and and that says a lot about the business. So I don't know how many how many employees are are at the store now.

SPEAKER_06

On a daily basis or on payroll, uh there are 22 at Etown. Wow. You have you do have some that float back and forth Hodginville to Etown, depending on the season, whether it's propane or fertilized season.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

But there's there's quite a few.

SPEAKER_00

And then a good there's a good chunk of those that are part-time right help. They're not there every day of the week, you know, they're only there probably, I don't know, 10, 20, 30 hours a week or something like that. Yeah. So full full-time people, what is there? 12, 12 to 14, I'd say, at E Town.

SPEAKER_01

And three of those full-time people are are related.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, yep. They are. Yep. They are. We got an we got our Uncle Kenny works there. Yep. He started in 2019, but he retired from Gates Rubber Company and was looking for a part-time job. Turned into a full-time job.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Yeah. So we have we have a lot of farmers that listen to this, and even farmers that are on this show that work with their family on the farm. What's it like working at Southern States with family?

SPEAKER_06

Some days are easier than others.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_06

Um, it's not always fun taking orders from your younger sister, and it's very hard not to let the work come home, especially when your job involves your own farm. Um I am relied on heavily on fertilizer analysis, billing. Uh, he's the labor, him and Kenny are. So it's it's not always not always easy, but we make it work for sure.

SPEAKER_01

And y'all had a little bit of uh maybe I don't know if we call it family rivalry or not, but uh your dad, Charlie, worked for Nutrient for a couple years as part-time help. So our so was there any uh can can you know whatever you want to call it behind the scenes? How many how many buggies y'all send out today? We sent out this many.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, that is still a discussion at the t table because he likes likes their hats better than our hats.

SPEAKER_00

And that that's how I got Bill to order some new hats, is because I walked in there with a nutrient hat on and he threw That'll do it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it'll do it every time.

SPEAKER_02

Within two weeks or whatever. That'll do it every time.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. But it is kind of neat because if we needed something down at Nutrient, dad took care of it. Yeah. If we needed something at Southern States, we took care of it. So it made it made it simpler on us for sure.

SPEAKER_00

That's the thing with farm. Everybody, our dad and our uncles, they farm on the side, but they all had public jobs. So I mean that in this line of work, it makes it makes it simpler on the back end because we are a in a farm-related business. So it it makes it flow uh most times better than not.

SPEAKER_01

It pushes some of your farm work or a lot of your farm work to after hours and weekends and vacation days and stuff like that. So um, you know, and and having keys to the store probably works pretty good if you need to get a load of fertilize out on the weekend, you know, to spread on your home farms.

SPEAKER_06

So fertilized season is usually spread on Sundays. So Randall's rule, our Uncle Randall, his rule is you can work as long as it's after 12 o'clock.

SPEAKER_01

So that's a good rule. Yeah, that's a good rule. It's 12 o'clock somewhere, though.

SPEAKER_06

Correct. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_02

Personally, I like to push that to like two, where I can at least get like a little bit of a nap. A little bit of a nap. Just a little nap. Yep. So I know uh Mark, you mentioned this earlier about um and talked about how Southern State's got a vector and has some trucks that they use to spread too, but you all still have a lot of uh fertilizer buggies um on the lot, which I think is kind of kind of unique anymore. Uh seems like there's not as many of those around. Um any any reason for keeping a lot of buggies on the on the lot or that there's a place for them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

When you're in the fertilizer business, there's a place for them.

SPEAKER_03

Especially coming from the spreader man, you know there's a place for them. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_06

And we did not realize just how large the need for fertilized buggies were until we had a very large increase in buggies two years ago. And we added up one day. We take fertilized buggies in 11 different counties. Golly.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_06

Yes, all the way up to Brooks down to Caneyville, Breckenridge County, Battletown, the Ohio River, Green County, Jefferson County.

SPEAKER_00

We took a couple to Jefferson County, but there are still Jefferson County.

SPEAKER_01

That's that's a big that's a big loop. Um you know, and and we're glad to to see you all service that and have that um available for people because from an economic standpoint, buggies probably don't make sense for any business to own.

SPEAKER_00

They don't.

SPEAKER_01

You can never and and Bill and I have had this conversation over the years, and I hope he doesn't get mad at me for for you know saying we've had this conversation, but you know, when you look at the cost of a buggy and and the rental return, you're never gonna come out on that as a as a company, but to have that service for your employ for your customers means more to them than anything that they'll remember you next time. Well, they had a buggy for me, so when I need grass seed or I need you know my ear tags for my cattle or whatever, they're gonna pick it up from you guys.

SPEAKER_02

So well, and we still have a lot of farmers that are uh like in my my farm, it's not really set up for a truck to come through and and spread very easily. Um, so you know that's the only way I'm gonna fertilize is I'm I'm gonna have to have a buggy. And that's just uh I can't do it any other way. So I I know I appreciate having that that option there um as well.

SPEAKER_00

I know since 2022, the um between us and Hodginville, I think there's been close to 20 new buggies bought. 2025, something like that.

SPEAKER_03

So what's the total number? Do you know off the top of your head?

SPEAKER_06

Um on our board at Etown, 36. I want to say Hodginville has about 25. Yeah. So pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_01

Daniel, any guesses how many you guys had in the in the old Cecil Farm Service days? I don't think we had much more than 30. Yeah, I was thinking 25, 30, maybe. You had 25 that were probably good, and you had the other five. How bad do you want one? How bad do you need a buggy today?

SPEAKER_00

That's that's the thing. Everybody that comes in, they want the brand new door buggies. Uh-huh. They want the door hydraulic buggies, which I don't blame them. I mean, there's no belts to break off on them. They're simple. I mean, as long as you keep them greased, they'll run. They will.

SPEAKER_03

That's I know Greg Thomas and I had that conversation when he was at Cecilia uh one day about he said he had opened up what his tire bill was for the month. Thought, man, how do we go through those that many tires? He said he sat down and started counting how many tires they had on that lot.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you take 35 buggies times four. Four.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, between you and southern states or between you and and Hodginville, I figured it up there's about 240, almost 250 tires.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and that's probably a little high because some of those are two-wheel buggies, those high clearance buggies are two-wheel buggies, but so they cut that number out. Tires that cost as much as two of the other ones.

SPEAKER_00

Something like that, yeah. Whatever the normal buggy tire is, double it. That's about what.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Yeah. That sounds about right.

SPEAKER_02

All right, so I'm gonna change it up a little bit more here. Talked earlier about how things have how things that you all seen change there. How have things changed there with just what's going on in Etown? You know, we we joke about the roundabout, but we've got a lot of people that have uh moved into Elizabethtown, Hardin County, you know, the city's moving out. You all are still, you know, in the same place. Um has has what have you noticed this changed just as being in the middle of all that?

SPEAKER_06

You definitely get a whole lot more random walk-in traffic, I would say. Um, which we get a different kind of clientele filling propane tanks, anyways. Um, they're not your standard run-of-the-mill farmer. Um but people will just drive by and say, I've never been in here. What do you have here? Or springtime, oh, I've never planted a garden before, but let me try. So we get quite a bit of that. And those people, it's kind of interesting because they rely heavily on the employee to know what they're talking about. So they kind of want to learn from you, and I think that's kind of cool. Um a different kind of clientele is more willing to accept your information that you're that you're able to give. So I think that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03

What you're saying is you're a garden expert.

SPEAKER_06

No, I can't do nothing.

SPEAKER_02

I can see everybody listening for all your gardening, all your gardening questions seem once it leaves the store, I'm out. Well, I know whenever I worked at Cecilia Farm Service, you know, we would get some of that, but we weren't really like on the main drag. So we didn't have that many walk-in type of customers. So even though I I knew a little bit of what I was talking about there, luckily that that didn't happen because it never fails, but that always happens like when you're just slammed busy in the spring, you know, making sure everything's getting where it needs to go. And it's just sometimes it's hard to concentrate on on the advice that you give.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Our uh, well, our location right there in the middle of eTown, that helps with walk-in traffic. I mean, it really does. I mean, you get quite a bit more walk-in.

SPEAKER_01

And there's not too many places in town that will actually fill a propane tank now.

SPEAKER_00

Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So most places you have to do an exchange, uh, but you guys will actually fill your fill their tanks. And and I know driving by there, I've seen uh, of course, I've filled grill tanks and forklift tanks and everything there. I've seen RVs getting, you know, tanks filled and food trucks. And do they ever have any extra food or anything that they throw out and give you lunch or anything while they're there?

SPEAKER_06

We've occasionally gotten some food. Um, if we uh talk to 'em enough and kind of throw out, hey, food for propane. Uh doesn't happen a lot, but it has happened before.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So there you go. If you're a food truck and you're listening, get your propane at Southern States, you can you can trade your food for propane. The best food, in my opinion, we're gonna rabbit hole here for a little bit, but uh the best food truck out there is the old-fashioned flavor trailer. Have y'all had it yet? Yeah, it's pretty good. They sell that they got the fish sandwich. Oh man, it's good. It's like it's like Otter Creek fish sandwich, good.

SPEAKER_02

Really? I don't know if I know talking like that nonsense. But well, but it's it's it's it's it's good. It is good. I'm I'm not a big I'm not a big food truck person. Yeah, but it's gotta be the right one. That one's good. Yeah. So I'm a fan of bus and bites. I really am. The big orange. Yeah, I've seen that one. I've not gotten anything from there. I'm gonna have to try that out.

SPEAKER_01

Check that one out too.

SPEAKER_02

Is it in a bus? Is that why they call it that?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, it's in a business. It's not a trailer. They have a full-fledged, they drive it. It's it's your uh standard American food, but it's made like well, it's not healthy by any means. So it's good.

SPEAKER_04

That means it's good.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's good. Yep.

SPEAKER_01

All right, y'all uh y'all got anything else you want to tell us about Southern State?

SPEAKER_00

We serve Harden and the surrounding counties. Uh we have bulk fertilize, bulk feed, bulk propane, uh bag options too. I mean, we're pretty much we've got anything you can need.

SPEAKER_06

If you're listening, yes, yep.

SPEAKER_01

Fence and supplies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

If you're listening to this uh Thursday morning, preferably, we are running our 4th of July propane special on grill tanks until Monday. We are closed Friday and Saturday for the 4th.

SPEAKER_01

But but you you can go on Monday and get the deal as well too.

SPEAKER_03

Refill from the 4th on Monday.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. So go go on the on the second and fill it up the first time and then use it over the weekend and refill it again on Monday.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Be a lot of grilling.

SPEAKER_02

Life hacked.

SPEAKER_01

That's right.

unknown

Mark.

SPEAKER_01

Even if you just use part of it, you could Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

One of us is gonna have to get by and get a video of the line of trucks coming in to get propane to get a little bit of a few. I'll I'll be by there.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. But now I'm kind of upset because uh I believe it was yesterday we were in there and filled our forklift tank, so I I should have waited. Of course, I guess I could have told him it was a tell him it was a forklift tank. I use that on my grill too.

SPEAKER_06

Did you get your popsicle for your daughter?

SPEAKER_01

No, they weren't with me. That's one thing. Uh if if you take your kids in there, they uh they might have some popsicles hidden back. They didn't offer me a popsicle, but I've never been offered a popsicle that got a popsicle. So and then one day I had picked our middle one up and was taking her home from school, and we were driving by and she goes, That's where the popsicles are as we drove by on 62.

SPEAKER_02

And I was like, Yep, they got two figured out. We were, you know, the FSA had their lunch uh this week and they had popsicles, and like I was really wanting a popsicle, but I was like, I don't know if they're for adults or if they're for kids.

SPEAKER_01

Like, I don't I really want a popsicle, but it's in there right after uh all the Masterson kids had left. So I don't even think they got a popsicle.

SPEAKER_06

Daniel, next time you're at the store, if you want a popsicle, I will get you.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, that sounds good.

SPEAKER_06

You only have three options though. It's only red, white, or blue.

SPEAKER_02

Oh well, that's fine as long as it's phrased.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, very good. Right.

SPEAKER_03

All right. All right. Well, thank you all for coming on with us this week. We know you all are loyal listeners and we appreciate uh appreciate Southern States and your all's whole team for supporting us uh really since the beginning. So uh glad we could get you on and we'll uh get you on some other time.

SPEAKER_06

Go anytime. Yeah, thanks for having us. I do expect a t-shirt at this point.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, I wasn't that's a no-brainer. I was sure it's on air, it's gotta happen now.

SPEAKER_06

OG sponsorship, like I I think I need one now.

SPEAKER_01

Do you need a hat too? I know you don't like the floppy matte hats, but I'm good on a hat.

SPEAKER_06

I'll take the t-shirt. I'll leave the hat for somebody else.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, sounds good. I think we can arrange that.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you all again.

SPEAKER_06

Yep, thank you all.

SPEAKER_01

Uh thanks again to uh the uh French siblings, two of the three Southern States Frenches for coming on this week. French Squared. French Squared. I like that. So again, check them out for for anything you need uh for your farm, home, or garden or food truck.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, make sure to ask Katie for you know if you have gardening questions, ask for Katie. That's right.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. So I think we had y'all had a little giveaway you started without me. I don't I guess you all technically could have outvoted me, but I wasn't involved in that decision. So I just want to set the record straight.

SPEAKER_01

Consider it set straight.

SPEAKER_03

But but I'm good with it.

SPEAKER_01

So we we did get some feedback on that.

SPEAKER_03

We did. And we got some some good topics and some good guest ideas. Yeah, and you know what?

SPEAKER_02

We actually a lot of people were just like, I want to be on the show. Yeah, yeah. So maybe we got a few that way. If you want to be on the show, by all means let us know. One of them just wanted a five-minute rant session, so instead of doing that, we just brought him on and let him talk on the show.

SPEAKER_03

I think he was getting at a five-minute Daniel rant session, like a weekly segment.

SPEAKER_01

I think if we work hard enough, I think we could we could probably handle that fired up every week for a five-minute rant session. Not just on glyphosate.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So you're right, the show's not over.

SPEAKER_03

But our winner goes to Mr. Chuck Masterson. Uh, here was was his suggestion. So that the podcast needs to be longer, maybe two hours, and there needs to be an episode every day. That way he doesn't have to wait a week in between episodes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So maybe we'll get Chuck a hat. Maybe that'll buy us some time to not have to do a two-hour show every day.

SPEAKER_03

Uh you would definitely start getting some rant sessions from Daniel if we did a two-hour show today because he would he would be very grumpy.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that would be a lot.

SPEAKER_01

But it'd be fun. It would be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02

We'd be talking about some random stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. We might have to do uh maybe this winter when things get slowed down, we'll do a a two-hour uh not safe for radio show and just release it on the podcast side. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02

Uh we and I think we've even chatted about that a little bit is maybe doing some yes. Not not said nothing bad. Like we're I don't think we're gonna talk about anything bad, but just maybe something we may not put out on the radio. Who knows? We'll we'll we'll look at doing that some this this winter, maybe if Matt can ever get done combining that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we'll we'll see.

SPEAKER_01

Sorry, I had to throw a jab in there.

SPEAKER_03

Man, it's not even it's just now July. And you're already dogging me on late harvest.

SPEAKER_01

I was talking to another listener today and we got talking to me. He said, Man, it's gonna be an early harvest. I said, Well, I said it might be like planting season, start as an early planting season, it rolls into a late plant season, so it might be uh early harvest into a late harvest. He said, Don't talk like that.

SPEAKER_03

I said, as early as it could happen.

SPEAKER_01

As early as planting was, you better hope it's an early harvest because that could get so I did some math today, and and there's no way this math would would completely work out. But uh what's the maximum of GDUs that you can accumulate in a day, like 36? Um so from today, corn at at the point of our earliest corn planted April 15th. If we maxed out GDUs every day for the next uh 43 days, it would be mature black layered on August 15th. And I can't think of very many times we've had corn black layered by the end of August. So there'll be a lot there this year.

SPEAKER_03

So you better clear your calendar from about the last two weeks of August on, because Larry T's gonna fire the corn dryer up and y'all are gonna be shelling corn in August.

SPEAKER_01

I'll guarantee it. Guarantee it. We'll be we'll be wide open.

SPEAKER_03

You will be I would say you'd be calling southern states and getting that propane lined up, but y'all are big city farmers.

SPEAKER_01

See, that's that's the downfall. Um it's the advantage in the downfall to have natural gas out to the to the bin site. So I don't have to worry about calling a propane truck to keep us filled up. And you know, the downside of that is you don't get to keep track of how many.

SPEAKER_04

You don't keep track of how many times that tank got filled.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, exactly. You just get the bill at the end, you're like, oh my. We burned a lot of gas last week. Or last month. So but the the advantage to that as well, if you're drying corn in August, it's typically hot in August. Right. So it doesn't take a lot of gas to get an ambient temperature from you know of a hundred and eighty in the bin. It don't take a lot of gas to get from 95 to 180. Not like going from 65 to 180.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And here's something we'll have to watch. If you've got corn black layered in August and we've got beans that are matured in August, what else do we typically get in August? Hurricanes. Yep. Hurricane remnants.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

So this early matured crop may not withstand that. What was it 10 years ago, maybe that we had a bunch it was kind of the start of early bean planting around here. And uh that was when there was a big push for planting group two beans in April or whenever you started, or whatever, and we had a hurricane come through and dump like six inches of rain.

SPEAKER_01

I planted things. We only did something awful. Yep. We only did one farm that year super early. I planted uh ten acres behind my house April 10th. I was like, man, this is crazy. I can't believe I'm doing this. It was a 3-7, I think. Well then, you know, we waited a week and a half and was like, well, let's go on and plant some more. So we planted a bunch, and then yes, that hurricane hit and and we had combined part of a field. And when we came back and we were out for like 10 days, came back, and we were fortunate we didn't have as as bad as some people, but there were they were talking about not buying beans and and major dockage, you know, two dollars a bushel. So if if you planted early beans, be mindful of the timeliness of getting them out.

SPEAKER_03

It's almost like growing wheat.

SPEAKER_01

It brought up a lot of memories of growing wheat in that year, and we had another one of those years 2024, maybe, had that happen a little bit. So it's happened a little more recently than than that first event in 2017.

SPEAKER_02

But not to be a Debbie Downer, but still a lot of good lot of potential out there. It's just don't don't count your what's it don't count your eggs until they're uh until they're hatched.

SPEAKER_01

Is that don't count your chickens before they hatched it depends on what kinds are the chicken or the egg. That's a good question. Uh that's a good question. The age, the age old question.

SPEAKER_03

Uh speaking of hurricanes and a lot of rain, we got a got a little rain. Little rain, not little wane. Yeah this last week.

SPEAKER_01

I got the least amount of rain of the three of us. What'd you say? And I had and I had like I think we had four or eight or almost five. I think I was a little over five.

SPEAKER_03

I was pushing nine, I think.

SPEAKER_01

So if you looked at a map, there was there was a strip just barely across Etown that had you know that little bit, but then south that probably would have got Daniel and and you was pretty significant rainfall.

SPEAKER_02

And just wasn't it just a little south of you, Matt?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the big rain was south of me. So you got south and west. Like we were right on the edge of it. Every time a system or a storm or whatever would roll through, you'd pull the radar up and it'd be going through the same place. Yep. So it was basically cutting across Grayson County to go right across Nolan Lake, uh, and then just slice Hart County right down the middle, and then I think was catching some of Edmondson. I think there was a lot of flooding in uh and going over on kind of that Green County line.

SPEAKER_02

So there was that line that was just north of like Radcliffe or but like between Radcliffe and Fort Knox, and they got like 10 or 11 inches and 12 hours, like it was a crazy amount of rain.

SPEAKER_01

And and they got some Sunday night.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they got a they got a bunch, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

They got you know some of that meat county bunch got four and a half or five inches, and right of that coming to Bullet County. I talked to a guy from Bullet County um whenever all that was happening the other morning. I said, Are y'all okay up there? And he said, We're pushing 20 inches for June already.

SPEAKER_02

Well, there were some of them that were pushing 15 in just two days.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So they they've been hit pretty yard.

SPEAKER_03

I think some of the totals I saw on that swipe south of me were 12, 12 and a half, thirteen. So that's a lot of water in a small amount of time.

SPEAKER_01

I saw a few pictures and videos today from from some different agronomists uh that had been out scouting some fields that had water up way up high on corn, some of it over the the ear. Um if you got something like that, you might want to you might want to check them out before you move on with the gear. It it didn't look good.

SPEAKER_03

So I went, I've got one farm that's on the Nolan River down here, uh and went and took a side side over there today where I could drive down into it or drive down along the river and and see how high it got up. Um fortunately it's only V tennish of So you know we're not pollinating yet, and all the water was gone, but some of it you could tell hadn't been gone very long. Um and there really wasn't a whole lot that had gone over the corn. I think really what flooded it more was backwater, uh back and back up into it instead of actually the river getting out of the completely out of the bank. Um and there were still some channels and drains and stuff that drained down into the river that were physically running water on top of the ground here three days after we got any rain. So it's gonna take a while to hear people talk about saturated soils. It's gonna take a while to unsaturate that.

SPEAKER_01

It was uh anybody that that follows me on Facebook saw our saturated soil Saturday morning that was flushing the earthworms out of the ground. They had so much water and that was thousands upon thousands of earthworms come up out of the ground. Um I'm sure that happened everywhere. But when there's when there's no uh air left in the pores in the soil, I guess they got to catch their breath somehow.

SPEAKER_03

Look for higher ground.

SPEAKER_01

Look for higher ground. A duck drowned, or it was a worm drowned in rain.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I know. Seems like there's a lot of pollinating corn that got underwater and uh kind of a bad time to hit it. I can remember, Mark, I think we were talking earlier this week that I had some, I think I may have said it was a few two or three years ago. I got to thinking about it earlier today. I think it was closer to 10. Uh, that we caught one of these big July rains right as it was pollinating and had a three or four acre bottom that had water standing in it a foot deep or so for three or four days right in pollination. And that corn, when you'd look at it the rest of the season, was the most beautiful corn you've ever seen. It stayed healthy, the leaves all stayed intact. It was green up until we ran the combine through it. Not a kernel on an ear anywhere, just blank cobs all the way through. Basically, just ran the combine through it to knock the stalks down.

SPEAKER_01

That's enough to make you sick.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And when you see corn that pretty and that intact and that healthy looking, you don't want to just leave it because you think there's gotta be a few ears in there somewhere.

SPEAKER_01

You would think.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so that could be uh a big blow to some some folks.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Hopefully, hopefully not, but there may be some some spots. On a lighter note.

SPEAKER_02

Y'all see any uh highlights from Alan Jackson's final concert?

SPEAKER_01

Saw a few. Really? I saw a few.

SPEAKER_02

I must be in the algorithm because I've been seeing a bunch of it.

SPEAKER_01

Um it was uh I would have liked I wish I'd have thought about it. I would have liked to have win. I don't know. I think I've seen Alan Jackson concert one time back in. We were like in high school when he was at State Fair or something.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, now he came to E Town.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't go to November.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, that's right. And it poured down rain. Yeah, so me and Whitney went and we set out in the rain, so I can say I have Freeman Lake or something.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. And there was a um I don't remember who was opening for him at that point, but I remember her making a comment. It was a female artist and her making a comment and said, Well, she got to play and Alan never did. Is that correct, Daniel? Is that how you remember it? I was thinking I was thinking Alan didn't get to play, or maybe he got to play for a few minutes before it just cut loose.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know, because see, there was like two years in a row they had that concert and it rang. One year the person that came didn't sing, and then one year they didn't. And I for I I don't know. It's been it's been several years now, but I'm pretty sure Alan Jackson sang.

SPEAKER_01

But I remember her saying in a in an interview on one of the uh some radio somewhere, saying, uh well, at least now I can put on my resume that I almost drowned at a concert with Alan Jackson.

SPEAKER_02

I'm just it stormed. It stormed bad and everybody was saying was out there in it.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Yeah, I didn't get to see that, but I did get to see him years and years ago. So that's yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You asked if we saw any clips. Is that where I saw that uh they posted like a Taylor Swift video or something? She got booed. The whole crowd did it. Yes, yeah. Okay. That's what's in my algorithm, apparently.

SPEAKER_01

I had not seen that one.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's like I think there was a bunch of artists that had messages that formed that I couldn't be there because there was a bunch out there and that sang with him on stage and performed different songs. Um, but yeah, it was uh I I really like Alan Jackson.

SPEAKER_01

And uh the one clip I did see was uh him singing five o'clock somewhere, and when he got to the part of, you know, what would Jimmy Buffett do? And you know, typically it says, Well, funny you should ask Alan, you know, and it was just silent, you know, in that as a as a tribute to Jimmy Buffett. That was that was pretty neat. So our our whole country music childhood is is retiring.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, and I think he's just giving he's got some health issues where he just can't physically do it anymore. It was my first CD. I think I've said it on here before, but my Mama and Papa gave me uh Alan Jackson Greatest Hit C D for Christmas, and then I was like, and we have Christmas at their house on Christmas Eve, and I was just like, what am I gonna do with this? I don't even have a CD player, and the next day I got a CD player for Christmas.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah. Fitting that his last concert was this week while it was hotter than a hoochie coochie.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Uh and he was in Nashville, so he wasn't too far from the Chattahoochee.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. But yeah, all that rain that we got here, they got a lot of that down there too. So it was uh it was uh it was a mess. But it looks like they were able to pull it off.

SPEAKER_01

They did well.

SPEAKER_02

We don't um probably don't have enough time to get really into it, but might just mention it briefly. Um I'm sure many of you may see this in uh coming up to this weekend, but uh David Beck had been um has been, I guess, removed uh for lack of a better term, or maybe I'm not exactly sure what all happened there, but is not um the director for Kentucky venues anymore. Um he had he has done an amazing job to make that place rocking and looking nice. Um I think he really got did wrong in this process and not sure um don't really have a lot of time to talk about it, but uh maybe maybe next week we can we can touch on a little more. We had we just kind of learned about it before we started recording this week. But uh yeah, not a not a not a great look there on behalf of our governor.

SPEAKER_01

Been some major changes at the in the Kentucky venue uh sector. And yeah, we probably need a little more time to dabble into that. Maybe a little more will come out by next week and we can formulate our opinions maybe a little bit better, but uh it seems as though our our politics of some have gotten in the way of what's maybe right or wrong for agriculture.

SPEAKER_02

Well, the even bigger deal than than David Beck being ousted there is the the fact that we're agriculture is supposed to be what that place is about. And uh just been some stuff to come out where they've removed agriculture name from a lot of things in just uh a very uh brief amount of time. So uh be interesting to see what plays out there, and you might hear some rants next week.

SPEAKER_03

I was gonna say this sounds like a good way to get into a five-minute Daniel rant.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, but unfortunately, um we're out of time. So sorry, Jonathan. I'll get you get you next time.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks again to Southern State's Art and Co-op for sponsorship this week. Appreciate them. Thanks, Jonathan Katie, again for being on. Stay cool. Happy 250 America. Yep, happy forward. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_03

Daniel, enjoy a FUD drown and a Pepsi this week.

SPEAKER_02

Can't be a Pepsi. Yep. I may have to pass on the FUD drown now. I'll just I'll have a maybe have a dye Pepsi. That'll work. All right. See y'all.