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Ranch Wives Supervised: Jorim Tells All on Farm Chemicals · Ranch Wives Unsupervised

• Ranch Wives: this brings me to a really good my next question, my next transition. Great job. You didn't know this was in the books. Tell me all about glyphosate and the hot debate because this is actually kind of a hot topic right now. Glyphosate's bad for you. Don't do this. Tell me what you know. Do you use it? We do use glyphosate. Okay, tell me everything. Dun dun dun! Okay, everybody. I'm really excited for this episode. We are ranch wives supervise. Our first hubby episode. Our first husband episode. Brianna had Questions She was I could go on this. She was like, We need Jorim on the podcast. And I was like, Yeah, let's do it. So if you're watching on YouTube, we're in a new space. This is my home instead of Breanna's home because And it took us two hours to set up. If anyone was wondering, we didn't know what we were doing. Set up was something. It's fine. We're here. We're here. We made it. We're doing it. It's good. And yeah, so welcome to the podcast, Jorim to Thank you. Our resident farmer. Our official resident farmer of the podcast. Yes. Full blown, full fledged farmer. Yeah. So what's almost full fledged farmer. Almost. Almost full-fledged farmer. What does that mean? Well, he still's got he's still got cows. Still have cows. Yeah. You're still a full fledged farmer. Well, I am a full yeah. It runs in the blood. You can't get it out. You can't get rid of it. Can't get rid of that. Okay. First off, Jorim, tell us a fun fact about. You and how you got into farming. You kinda hinted at it a little bit. How I got into farming. Well, so my family's been farmers since like the dawn of time. Yeah, I think so. As f as far back as we can go on my mom's side, every generation has been a farmer. Holy smokes. And on my dad's side, I think my grandpa was the only one that wasn't like full blown farmer. He still was kind of, but he was a pastor. Right. So And then he farmed like on the side. Or whatever. Like he worked for farmers. Did your dad's dad start Rivercrest and your dad take over? No, so my mom's dad. So your mom's dad and then your brother. Well yeah. Tell me tell me everything. I knew I didn't dirty details. So my my so my dad's family, my dad's dad was pastoring in Flat Rock. Mm-hmm. And My dad had just gone my dad wanted to be a farmer, like he always wanted to be a farmer. but being a pastor's kid he didn't really they didn't have, you know that wasn't a thing. That wasn't a thing. So but he went to Ag school in Fairview. And then and then at that s so he was fresh out of school and then at that point in time, this was in the late seventies. so my mom's parents and aunts and uncles were farmers from Germany and they had some good years there and they were kinda looking to invest somewhere else. So they went they actually traveled all of North America and they ended up here of all places. No kidding. And they were believers and so they went to church and they so that well they ended up buying land here and then they went to the local church and they were like, Hey, we're looking for somebody to run our like to farm all this land that we bought. And so my My grandpa, like my dad's dad, was like, well, my son just graduated from college and wants to farm. my gosh. And so they hired him to to run the farm. And he had no experience. Or or some. Well, yeah, they always had animals growing up. Right, okay. Which I mean kind of the era, too. and obviously it went to Ag school, so that helped. but yeah, like he didn't grow up farming. So, yeah. And then and then and then through all that then my dad met my mom and How a cute little love story they would write letters to each other and like mail them to each other. I love that. That's so so And so Jorim's dad didn't know a lick of German. that's a fun one. And Jorim's mom didn't know a lick of English. Yeah. But so so my dad would go over there, so my grandparents, like my mom's parents would come from Germany. Yeah. Spring and fall for what was it? Like six weeks, spring and fall or something like that, or two months? I don't know. Don't ask me. Anyways, they're above my pay grade They would they'd come like for the busy seasons here. Right and help. And help to planting and harvest. Yeah. And then every winter my dad would go to Germany and do bookkeeping. What? for how long? so he would I'm not sure He would bookkeep for for their farming. Maybe it wasn't every year, but I I thought it was for the I thought I thought it was like quite often that he would in bookkeep. Yeah. that's So then they would like go over all the numbers and different things together and then and so and he learned German with a English German dictionary. that's something. Yeah. Like so like he he never No Duolingo. Yeah, no duolingo. Like he had a German English dictionary and he'd be at like so he'd live with them when they were there and he'd have family over and so he'd basically sit in the corner and listen. And try and figure out read his dictionary and figure it out. my goodness. So pretty pretty impressive. That is impressive. Yeah, now he's like fluent. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say, I I've seen your parents here and there and I've s I don't know, they've they've spoken. Who are they talking to? This is a Cecilake thing. I didn't know they were your parents then. Well well yeah, I mean like most of Cecil Lake seems to have German or something. Yeah, German or Swiss, yeah. German Swiss, yeah. Anyways, it doesn't matter. Fun fact. Okay, we do love a good little love story. So so the farm started in 1977 was the first year they were doing business. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. And it was your grandparents from Germany who started it all. That's so interesting. And here out of all places to end up. Like you would think But the land was cheap, right? Like compared to everywhere else. So they could buy way more land. Like I'd have to think how many acres they actually bought right off the bat. It was like three thousand acres at least that they bought or something like that. That's close to that. Yeah. I I something. But it was like a substant for especially back in the day it was a substantial amount of Yeah. Yeah. I know now it's you don't think it's much, but back then it was a especially because clearing land was a lot different than yeah and they cleared a pile like my dad cleared a pile of land. That's so crazy. Okay, I love that. That's so exciting. Okay, my next question. This isn't on the questions I sent you, but I do have to know. What's like your most favorite thing to harvest and why? Favorite thing to harvest? Like what crop? Probably wheat. Wheat, tell me why. Wheat's pretty, I like wheat too, but other than that, I have no answer for you. What do you mean? Like what what could go wrong? Like not many breakdowns or what? Well no, like It's just so beautiful. Like the sun's setting and it's like between like wheat and oats. Oats is fun 'cause it's high yielding, so you're like constantly dumping and it just feels like you're getting a lot done. Okay, so you mean s you mean smooth because like the grain cart is like coming to your combine, then it goes to the other combine, then it goes to the truck. Yeah, but also so like it's smoother than that. So also with peas, like peas sometimes they're flat on the ground so you're picking up so you have to drive slow and then your header plugs. And canola's not bad, but canola can be canola stinks. Yeah, not when you're combining it. No, but I mean right now, right now. Right now, yes. Rank. It's rank. That's all you can smell driving up. Everybody has canola. There's so much canola. Yeah. There's somebody okay, I do have a question. This isn't even a question statement, maybe. Somebody who farms out by us. Yeah. I'm not gonna name drop because I don't know it for sure, but I have like a ninety nine it's the bigger one out by us. Anyways. Yeah. Somebody didn't turn on their seeder I think. Like a way out to you guys? Or on the cut across road. Okay, yeah. Leaving town on the right hand side. Now you're really describing. Anyways, that's where I'll leave it. it's like big chunks, big squares, big rectangles. Like a strip. Like a strip. Yeah. Just for like Probably this maybe half the size of this living room. No seats. I think he had a plugged run or like a plugged section. Okay, interesting. So you don't know Yeah, we noticed a couple fields like that already. It happens. It happens. But you don't just like you wouldn't know until I guess it comes up, hey? or what's the deal? Well it depends if you have blockage on your drill or not. If you have blockage then it would beep at you. What is blo what is blockage? So like a blockage monitor? So like it tells you technology plug. Yeah, technology. Okay. That's fair. So like obviously he had sensor on on every yeah. Obviously, it didn't work. So there's a sensor on every hose. There's all the hoses that go to the openers, and there's a sensor on every hose. You're coming from the you're talking to the to the ranch wife that has a seeder from the nineteen eighties. Yeah. What did I say? I think it was the nineteen eighties. Yeah. And it's fourteen feet long. So we don't have a little bit more. Great, I love to hear it. Minor. Anyways, so then a light comes on or beeps at you or whatever when there's no seed going through the So you stop and you say like how long does it take for it to come on? it's pretty much you should know immediately if you're blocked. So plugged. Plugged, yeah. Blockage. Okay, anyways. Back to your wheat. Do you like it because it's smooth, it's easy going. Yeah. W so oats is higher yield, you just said? Yeah, oats is typically higher yielding. Why? just the way the plant is. Yeah, that's just the way it is, yeah. But oats are itchy. Yeah, oats can be itchy, yeah. You always like blow off the combine and then you're like. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting. Okay, I'm gonna pull up my questions now because I wanna get I wanna get into some topics here. This could be a hot topic depending on what side of the Interweb this we will see We're all just like so like cozy in the couch. We are so cozy. Okay, what's the difference between herbicides and pesticides? Okay, so pesticide is a broad term. Mm-hmm. Pesticides include I think there's just three categories that I know of. Insecticide, herbicide and fungicide. Okay. So pesticide is anything that deals with any kind of pest, like weed, bug, fungus. So a weed is a pest. Yes. Technically. Yeah. According to the according to their to the farmer terminology. Yeah. Okay. Get like I wanna know everything, so tell me all of it. Get into it. Get into it. Get into it, Jorim Well, okay, you need to ask me some more questions here. Okay, so at what point are you spraying for a pest? Like how bad does your field have to be or something in your fields have to be? For to to to spray for it? Yes. so it I mean it really depends. so for weeds, like Depending on the crop. Some crops can handle more competition than others. So meaning you can have more weeds in the field and the crop is not affected as much. Mm-hmm. Whereas, like so now we're doing grazing corn for the cows. And corn is probably out of all the crops we grow, I would say it's probably the pickiest? The pickiest as far as as weeds go. Like if you get Like it doesn't like any competition. Yeah, it doesn't like any competition. So any weeds and you notice that your corn isn't doing as good there. And canola is a little bit that way as well. I mean that yeah, it's any any crop does better without weed competition. Right. So So would you say okay, and then when you spray, let's say you're spraying your corn. Yeah you spray once, you're done. No, not necessarily. K tell me about this. How do you decide these things? Yeah, I mean it depends on how many weeds there is growing, right? So that's Does it depend on the type of weed that's growing as well? yes, it does. Yep. Okay, also question. We're just like drilling these in you. Okay, so at the end of the year, like let's just say there was wheat in that field that we're going to put corn in. Mm-hmm. Do we spray in the fall? Like what it what's what's the prep so that there's So that your corn is going into a clean field. Yeah, so there's no cookie cutter, this is what you do every time. It it really depends on the conditions and the field and the weeds that are there. Certain weeds you want to spray in the fall because they take longer to get going. Like like say a perennial weed, for instance. Which is, give an example. A perennial weed, like this? Clover? Well, this thistle's like I think a cover. Clover's a weed? Yeah, clover's a weed. Clover's a terrible weed. So is fescue. Fescu's a problem. I do have a story on fescue there. So fescue is a per perennial. which fa I mean, we also grow fescue, so it's kind of funny that it's a weed, but it is it can be a weed. I mean anything anything can be a weed. Canola. Yeah, canola, volunteer canola can be a weed. Volunteer canola. So But so if it takes later to get going in the spring, sometimes you want to spray it in the fall. So you knock it out in the fall and then it doesn't grow in the spring. Whereas if it's you know, more early season weeds, you spray in the spring and then. Hmm. So when you say early season, and I don't know what type of weed this is, 'cause I've known weed cones through, but we have like this yellow it's not the buttercup flower. It's some other hawks beard. Mm. Sharp. Let's just say it's hawks beard Is that another Okay, what well what does it look like? Well, it kinda looks like that buttercup, but it's taller and the flower is slightly different. Yeah, like it's in all the ditches too. Just a yellow, like basically a solid yellow flower, just like a little Yeah. And it and it kind of has a It's like a long stem with like little flowers. And then just like a couple little like broadleaves. Yes. Yeah, that's hawksbeard yeah. Okay. Tell me about that. Early? Well, mm, not necessarily. Sometimes it gets going a little bit later. But that's not a perennial technically. It's an annual. So then maybe annual maybe. Actually, I'm not So ours like popped off we or or or you'd call it maybe a winter annual, I think. We did like two hundred Was it? It's roughly now, what is that? Hm. Probably close to two hundred acres or just shy of two hundred acres. Yeah. Keith's gonna be screaming at me 'cause it's probably not that. I'm trying to think it's like ten acres, thirty acres. I don't know. It's a bunch of fields. Bunch of it's on that west side where you remember those fires came through? Yeah. and everything's coming up now. Everything's coming spo so we turned it over. We turned three fields over on that west side and no ever the first two of them were just like covered in those yellow. Yeah. Weeds. But our hay our hay crop out of it is is good. It's surprisingly good. So hawksbeard is it's I wouldn't call it a bad weed. because typically it is in like it doesn't grow well with other competitions. So like if you have an established hay crop, you're never gonna have hawksbeard in it. But because it's first year hay a field right by my parents' yard this year and it's We underseed it last year, so this would like first year hay. Yep, same with us, yeah. and the Hawksbeard's just like ridiculous. So we actually went in and like clipped the Hawksbeard early because it it wa I mean it was so it was blooming already when was that? In June. End of June. Yeah, that was kind of ours too. We didn't c well I mean we don't So you went and clipped it. What do you mean by clipped it? Like we just went and swathed the but like the hay wasn't ready to cut, but we just went and cut it and Early. Got rid of the weeds, yeah. So are you gonna get a hay crop out of it or well and then we grazed it. Instead. Okay. Yeah, so we're we're not You're not cutting it, no, no. So yeah, we'd we You have to pivot, basically. Right? You had to pivot from it being a hay crop. Yeah, but I don't think it it wasn't gonna make a hay crop anyways this year. Right. Like if the the plants weren't not a good not like this is the difference between farmers and ranchers, I feel like is like Jorims like us were like, Yeah, it's it wasn't gonna make A good hay crop anyways. Whereas like ranchers are like, this is like my only field and it's hay. And they're like so sad if it's not a good hay crop. But we're like, well, you just cut it and you graze it. I guess it depends what you have our feed too. Like we have the field down below mom and dad's. This is the first year in three years it's produced any hay. We didn't cut it, we grazed it because it it's it needs to be rejuvenated. So we've agreed like after seven years now we're just gonna graze it. Yeah. And then bring back through but it's the first year we've had hay out of it in probably two or three years. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas like the one where that foxtail came up, it was under seeded. So we got we pulled oats last year. It's first year hay was underseeded. But the hay crop is thick going through there. Yeah. But then we had like the Hmm, where was that? Maybe it's just 'cause we've had so much moisture too though. Yeah. It actually grew. I don't know. 'Cause I was gonna the year. How much rain have you guys had? We got an inch and a half the other day. I think we've had two inches total, probably in the last like this week. In like the week. In the week. How much we've had total? I was like, yeah, like total, like all summer. I actually Jorim do you think I know that off my head? What are we at? Like are we at like five inches? I would have to look at my phone and it might tell me. Something in that I'll send an SOS text to my husband, but I can't guarantee anything. SOS, we need to know the rain. Okay, yeah, so why do you like to somebody asked me this question. Like why why do you track how much it rained? Like why do you care about rain? 'Cause my friend was like, It's it's gonna rain, it's gonna rain, and it's gonna rain however much it's gonna rain. Yeah, but when your crops when your When your checks coming from said rain, you do care, don't you? Yeah. Not that you can control it, but you do care. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't change anything. Like per se, like it rains, you know. It's gonna rain how much it's gonna rain. That is true. But like why do you care if it's rained two inches or five inches, though? Because that's because it gives you an idea of like what kind of crop you're gonna get. Right. And if you're getting in to get that crop off. Because if you've had five inches consistently, you're probably not getting your crop off. Yeah. You're probably swimming in it. yeah. And when Well and you want to know like say you got hay down or like we got perennial ryegrass down right now. You want to know how much it gets rained on because it kind of depends how it's gonna dry or the quality depending how much rain it gets. yeah, you need to know. Did you just say perennial ryegrass? Perennial ryegrass. Yeah yeah. Okay, this is that's what we talked about. So we got into a conversation about fescue and we wanted rye. We have an issue with fescue. Right. Because the old boy that farmed the flat and a couple other places, like all around there, was just like so much fescue. So much fescue. Yeah, you want to do perennial rye. So, okay, in the 170 acre field, we had to spray for oxied daisies, which is a broadleaf, which I didn't know. So when y'all texted me about that, I was like, no, it's not supposed to it does kill everything. What what did they spray it with? you said there was a residual on and now I'm But the guys never heard of a residual. No, I not never heard of residuals. Okay. But nobody around here has residual on their shirt. Typically you wouldn't spray a residual chemical on something like that. Okay, I'm gonna c I'm calling Keith. We'll see if he answers. But that's not that's just yeah. We need the name. Okay, so the reason I'm asking about perennial ryegrass is that field has ki it's killed off everything except for our grasses. Yeah. And it's tragic because it was just coming back. But all our clover is gone. Like everything is gone. Because that's what killed the daisies. And the daisies are a problem. wait, I have a question for you. Mm-hmm. Okay. Do you guys grow alfalfa or just clover? We grow alfalfa, yes. But why okay, why do you have why do you grow clover? Dad loves clover. We good good pasture, they like it in their hay. You said it takes longer to dry in your hay. But we've ha I guess it's bec like our cows seem to I'm gonna speak completely out of turn, so who knows where this is gonna go. I don't know. Dad likes in the hay for the nutritional value 'cause it keeps, I believe, better. Or it keeps well. Mm-hmm. It seems to be a good mm, what's the word I'm looking for? Like the alfalfa does good in some spots and not great yes in others. Yeah. Like like like as far as growing, you're saying? Yes. Yeah. the other thing that we've put in that is doing fairly well that w 'cause before I would say clover was one Clover and alfalfa, in my opinion, this might be a return, was like pretty much our main legumes. Mm-hmm. The rest were grasses. what those grasses are, I don't know. It's like Timothy Brome, a few other Yeah, probably mostly Timothy and Brome. But anyways. Yeah. But we don't do clover. Not at all. No. We we've we've we've grown clover for seed. I would never put hook clover in a hay mix ever. Because it takes too long to dry? Mm-hmm. Interesting. So we we we did some hay for a neighbor. Yes. And he's got clover in his field. it probably took two or three days longer for that stuff to dry. Fair. Whoa. this might ruffle you as a we also don't rake. Yeah, I know. I heard. And so Jorim already cried about it. We also though we bale we probably bale wetter. And less dense than How heavy are your bales? Heavy? A thousand, maybe eleven hundred at the heaviest. We like we don't do big bales Yeah, I mean we don't we don't do like ours are usually twelve hundred. Okay. Or like in that range. In that range, yeah. I don't know. I would say the clover has really saved our hiny. like poundage wise. Yeah, it's in yeah, it's interesting. Yeah. So but your only thing against it is because it it takes too long to dry. Yeah, well Or what else? Like tell me tell me does it take over or what? Yeah, I find Find it needs more moisture than alfalfa too. Mm-hmm. like if you're if you're a little bit drier, which we've been quite a bit drier the last few years, the alfalfa still grows pretty good where I feel like the clover. Except for we have a lot of trees and it seems to be where like on the low ends of our hills our alfalfa doesn't grow worth bananas. Yeah. Okay, so yes we grow a lot of clover, but we are starting to branch out in our leg legumes because we were relying pretty heavily on our clover and our on and on our alfalfa and neither of them were doing super great in the really dry years. What? What are you growing? A lot of f right now? No like in the dry years before? What are you branching out? birch foot tree foil. Okay. And the other one is vetch. A vetch. Yeah. Also like hairy vetch or common vetch, do you know? Hairy vetch, I think. What colour do they c do they flower different colours? They flower the same colour. I actually don't know. I think they're all like kind of like a pinkish purple, aren't they? Okay. Yeah, I don't know. As far as I know anyway. I think it's a hair. I want to say tree four. Tree foil is yellow. Yeah, tree foil is yellow. And alpha alpha can be like. Because you want to hear what's funny? Is when that foxtail or whatever that fox gl what was that weed you told me about? Hawk's beard? Yeah, hawksbeard. I don't know what it is. I was like, look, all that bird's foot tree foil is coming up. And I like, nah, that ain't it. no. It was yellow. So I felt very hopeful about what it was. It was not yellow. Yeah, that would have been nice. Yeah. so. We are starting to branch because they've used what they've done for hay for probably since grandad's start. They've done the same hay for years and years and years. But then our clover wasn't doing great, and neither was our alfalfa. Like, I can think of three fields where I would say like our alfalfa like pops off pretty good. And the rest it probably doesn't. Yeah. So so an interesting thing with alfalfa. They say, the experts say it will not grow in a pH lower than six. Which I would Which like I th I'm sure everything you guys have is lower than six. Probably. I would think. I don't know that for sure. most of what we have is below six and we grow great alfalfa. Interesting. So it's kind of funny because like I've talked to some guys that are like it will not grow below six pH, but it does have they tried it does, yeah. Or they just say that because that's what people say Well, I don't know, these are like this was some the last guy I talked to was he was some scientist from well, he works for the government of BC now, but yeah, so like I would say the parts where alfafa doing good is like back behind Granny's place, but that pff it's been a hay field for ever. Like it it was probably turned to hay when Keith was younger. Maybe a teenager, maybe like twelve to fourteen, somewhere around there. So quite a few years. It's no longer producing hay nor is it producing pasture. But the alfalfa the last couple years has done great. I don't know what that hay field looked like in its prime, though. I could I couldn't tell you. It's producing dandelions mostly now. So the other thing too with what we do and why alfalfa probably works better for us is we don't keep our hay in as long. Yeah. We shouldn't, but for some reason that one often do we rotate out? Probably like five. I think ideally five years, but lots of times we end up being longer than that, more like seven years. But so now that we've 'cause there was kind of a transitional period where things it was just crazy in who was what was going on with granddad phasing out and the whole system with like the brothers. it was just like a lot. So lots of things. There was quite a few fields that got missed when they should have been turned over. So we were kinda like scrambling. Yeah. And so then we got caught with like no feed in one of the really, really dry years. This is the first time the farm had to buy feed in year like ever, as far as I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. but with that being said, now it's like, okay, how do we keep on top of our hay? Cause that's the other thing. Some of our let's see, there's I think the one advantage maybe that we have is a lot of our n new hay fields have always been pasture or have been pasture for right ten plus years. So when they produce hay, they're real like they're really popping off. But some of the hay fields that we were now pasturing to make up for what we lost in like to Switch them out aren't producing. So where but that's also where, for example, that 170 acre field that we had to spray, it wasn't really producing hay. So we're like, okay, well, we'll graze it. And this it was this was year three that we grazed it, I believe. And it was finally coming. And then we had to spray it because of the oxide daisies. So there is something to rotational grazing your cows through it to bring back the stuff that has been killed. But there's also I think there's a sweet spot because I think if you leave it too long yeah, you can definitely you can just no it just might not come back. Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys no till? Wait. Okay. Do you no till? Yeah. Well zero till. Zero till? Okay, what's the difference? well, it's basically the same thing. Same thing. yeah, it's the same thing pretty much, yeah. So we we say zero till 'cause it's it is true zero till 'cause I have a question. Okay. No till no till can be with a hoe drill So you it's direct seeding with a hoe drill Zero till is with a disc drill. So there's no zero soil disturbance. Okay, so what is it when we use the joker? So that's tillage. How are we no till if we if we have tillage? Because we don't do very much. So sometimes we'll work a field lightly, like so it the Joker it's a high speed disc. Okay. And so typically we work shallow. Yeah. typically it's when we're taking out fescue. or fescue because fescue's hard to beat off as well. Yeah, and so what you do is you work it lightly and then it kind of regrows. So you work it lightly after harvest, regrows a little bit, gets nice and green, and then you spray it out with glyphosate. this brings me to a really good my next question, my next transition. Great job. You didn't know this was in the books. Tell me all about glyphosate and the hot debate because this is actually kind of a hot topic right now. Glyphosate's bad for you. Don't do this. Tell me what you know. Do you use it? We do use glyphosate. Okay, tell me everything. Dun dun dun! So glyphosate, for people that don't know, is basically the same as Roundup. Roundup is a brand name. Glyphosate is the chemical. The chemical that is the ac the actual active ingredient in Roundup. So you can buy all kinds of different generic brands, you would say, of glyphosate. so we use it now yeah there's different things you can use it on. You can use it on Roundup Ready canola, Roundup Ready corn, Roundup Ready soybeans, which we do not have, and Roundup Ready sunflowers, I think. Those are the only crops you can actually spray it on without killing the crop. alfalfa too. There are some varieties of alfalfa that's when you say roundup ready. Yeah. Like the seed is not it has nothing to do well, the plant. It's not the seed. So this is another thing. Okay. Chemicals don't affect the seed. Okay. So popular misconception is that the glyphosate can go into the soil and still be effective. Yes. As soon as it hits as soon as it touches dirt, it is totally ineffective. gets tied up in the dirt and is ineffective. So like s if you spray in really dusty like if it's dry and it's dusty and you're spraying, doesn't work. So you want it wet? Well or or like or you don't yeah, you don't want dusty conditions when you're in stress. So then you would spray like in the evening or in the morning. Yeah or more. Well typically when you're spraying it's the field's not dusty anymore anyways. Right. I mean a little bit of dust is a more spraying the plant. Yeah, you're only spraying plant. it gets like the leaves basically. And so Roundup ready means that when you spray the plant with Roundup, the plant does not die. At certain stages. If you're not careful, you can still kill the plants depending on the stage. On the stage. Okay, so why but why are we wanting to spray it? Is the I think why are we wanting to spray Roundup? Glyphosate. Glyphosate, whatever. Like why is it Roundup ready? Yeah, like why is that an option and what's the need? Because Roundup kills pretty much just about everything. Like just about every every plant. Right. Because because the w the way Roundup works. So if you have Roundup ready corn, then you can spray and it kills like every spray and s kills all your weeds pretty much. Kills your pests? Meaning okay, like when I'm thinking pests, I'm thinking like insecticide. No. Just It doesn't kill the bees? It doesn't kill the bees. Well I know. Who would have thought? But no, this is that's this is what people think. No, I know. That's my question. Yes. So this is a big distinction. Herbicides typically sometimes they can have Like effects on the insects, like It can disorient them, but it it will not kill insects. Herbicides don't kill insects. Herbicides do not kill insects. But pesticides. No, no. Insecticides. okay. Insecticides. Kill insects. Hold on! And okay, and so with insecticides too, it's not like you spray an insecticide, you're killing all the bugs. It's not necessarily true. You can get insecticides that only target certain bugs. Yes. So And also, to be clear. Every farmer around here is not spraying insecticides every single year. No. Like that's not a thing. Yeah, that's my gosh. Because it's a first off, it's expensive, folks. Right. Like to spray anything, it does c it is a cost to your Yeah, yeah. yeah. It's an output. No farmer is gonna spray unless there's a significant ep economical benefit to spraying. Yes. So this year we had really bad grasshoppers. So we did spray some insecticide for grasshoppers. Not an This is other thing. We didn't just go out and spray all our fields. Mm-hmm. You scout, you see where the grasshoppers are bad. Most of our fields we just did like an outside round, because they always come in from the outside. Right. Usually from a neighbor that has pasture, that's been pasture for twenty years. Yep. He did anyways, so so that's typically the case. So you maybe spray an outside round or whatever, and then that's it. So you're also not spraying Nearly the acres that you typically would. There are there are certain scenarios where you're. But people who think we're like if we're spraying insecticide, people are like, You're spraying everything and everything and everything and everything. And it's like, no, we're doing just like bare minimum. Yeah. Yeah, and there's different so we sprayed an insecticide. that Okay, hold on. Pause this. Pause. We're gonna quickly cut and go to the hay conversation because he's calling me. Hey babe. Hello. Hey. So I have two questions for you. I'm not gonna put you on speaker, but we are recording. I do have two questions. Jorim wants to know why we believe in clover. Okay, I was right. It's because it it makes a lot like it fills the bale. It's a filler. It's a filler. The cows like high volume, yep. High volume. Okay, we had to cut everybody because Keith called us and Yeah, Keith called and we literally don't know where we are. And yeah, I guess we'll just get back We were saying like why what's the point of spraying your glyphosate? Yeah. like some people are like, I've seen online where people are like, Well, why don't we just not spray at all? Right. because then we would all starve. short and simple. basically, so if you if you did a cut yield comparison on crops sprayed versus not sprayed, and so this isn't necessarily glyphosate, right? This is just a generic general her general herbicide. So cause each Each crop like wheat, typically your cereals are gonna have certain types of herbicide you can spray and then like your canola's gonna have different ones and peas are different yet, right? So and this is also another big thing with herbicide is that you're rotating your crops out. So like we don't s we don't plant the same crop. Every year. It's on the same field. It's in the same field every year. So we we have like a five year rotation. So typically every five years it'll be the same crop. Right. on average, anyways. Like sometimes it's three years or two years, but it's depending, yeah, depending, but it's five year average rotation. and so then you're also rotating your chemical out. So you're not spraying the same weeds because it's always gonna be the same weeds growing in those fields, the same types of weeds. they're not getting sprayed with the same chemical every year. Because if they get sprayed with the same chemical every year, what you can have happen is resistance, herbicide resistance. And then when you spray that chemical, it doesn't kill the weed. Yep. So then you have to get stronger and stronger stuff. It essentially creates like a super bug. But weed form. Basically, yeah. Yeah. and so the reason we spray is so that we can grow better, healthier crops. Healthier crops and this is the thing about organic to and this is this is this is gonna be a hot topic. Yeah, this is something hot water, baby. This is a theory is a theory. Okay, so what do you what do you think is gonna be healthier? A crop like healthier for us to eat. A crop that has all the nutrients it needs. It grows strong and healthy because it doesn't have competition, choking it out. So it can put good nutrients into the head or a crop that is lacking in nutrients, so it's not growing as healthy, not growing as much surviving not thriving. Surviving not thriving, it's getting choked out by weeds. Which one do you think is gonna be more healthy for you? Okay, so this is just food for thought. Question when you spray on the whole field And you're spraying the weeds out and it kills the weed, the spray goes on your wheat. Yeah. And that's it just like gets washed off, like nothing happens. It doesn't go into the plant or what? What it it can go into the plant, yep. Because that's it, that's where people are like, I don't want to eat glyphosate, right? Yeah, so it will go this is the part, yeah. It will go into the plant. But here's the thing that you need to understand. When you're spraying for weeds, so typically when we do in crop herbicide. The plants are really little. Like like not anywhere close to producing out. Yeah. So by the time Yeah, they're really short still. They're only like two inches or what? Yeah, or the yeah, it depends on the It depends on the crop. Depends on the crop. But yeah, that's it's there's no leaves early in in the summer. Yeah. Well yeah, there is leaves. Wow. But there's no heads. Right. They haven't It hasn't headed out. It's not producing it's it's not producing a grain yet. Yeah. If you're spraying for weeds at that point, you're not really doing any good at that point because the weeds have already done their damage. Yeah. so by the time the crop is producing its crop, all those chemicals are gonna be flushed out of the plant already. Mm-hmm. One way or another. so that's that side of it. The thing with glyphosate that people are concerned about is when you do a pre harvest. Burn down is what it's called. And this is all this is where people get confused because it is if you don't know the difference it can be very confusing. So there's desiccation and there's pre harvest burn down. Two very different things. Okay. So a pre harvest burn down is to kill weeds For next year. So it's basically the same as spraying after harvest. It's just sometimes what happens, and this is like with glyphosate, if you combine your crop, what's coming out the back of the combine? A lot of dirt or a lot of chaff and dust, right? So you're covering all your weeds in dust. Now, if you don't get a rain to wash the dust off, your glyphosate isn't gonna do anything. It's not gonna work to the weeds. So if you spray before harvest, you still hit the weeds. Like how how much before harvest, I guess, would be a question. Yeah, so it needs to be there's a certain amount time, right? Yeah, it needs to be I think ninety percent color change on the on the crop that you're gonna harvest. What is it? So like wheat is green, right, when it's growing. And it's golden when it's ready to combine. So it needs to be ninety percent of the way golden? Yeah. it's it'd be your same canola So like not ninety percent of the field, ninety percent of the plant needs to be changed color. I see. So basically the the plant has already died and is drying out. Right. So that the and this is where the misconception is. People say, well they're spraying glyphosate on the c wheat so that it dries down faster. Actually that's not true. Glyphosate takes two weeks, two to three weeks sometimes, especially in the fall. To have any effect on a plant. Okay. So if you're spraying your wheat with glyphosate at 90% color change, by the time the first of all, the wheat's already dead. Hence the color change. Hence the color change. Secondly, by the time the glyphosate would have any effect on the wheat, you would have been able to combine the wheat already because it would be totally dried out. Right. Right. So now so desiccation is a different type of chemical and it acts like typically it acts like a killing frost, so it actually bursts the water cells inside the plant. Right. And then it causes the plant to dry down. Different chemicals. I mean I don't know that there's Been much studies that prove that there's anything harmful in that chemical. I don't know. I don't know. I haven't done my own research on that. Typically that's not a concern though. But that is not glyphosate when you're doing a desiccation Yeah. Okay. So how often are you doing a pre harvest burn down? Is that right? Pre harvest burn down? Pre harvest burn down, yep, that's Yeah, so so actually statistically in Canada twenty percent of wheat gets sprayed with a pre harvest burnout. So glyphosate before harvest. Is and so is there I guess And so in the States that's four percent. Even lower. Even lower. Because they're just that much I mean for the south. They have a longer growing season. They can just wait to get their They can cut and then Yeah, they they c they cut and then like sometimes they you know, they've got well parts of states they hardly even get winter. Yeah. It's a very d it's a different Yeah, and they grow a lot of winter wheat and it's it's just it's different. Very different. Yeah. So Canada is twenty percent. The thing to think about with that too is that and I'm not sure on what percentage, but there's a lot of wheat that is grown for feed. Right. So it's not for human consumption. Yeah. a lot of our crops is that. Is it not? Yeah, yeah, it is, yeah. Yeah. That's another misconception. Like in this area? Well no, just in general. A lot of crops. Yeah, I forget the percentage now on what it is. but yeah, there's a lot of crops that are are feed, right? So Feed. When we say feed, we're not yeah, we're not saying feed for people, we're saying feed for animals. Hum human consumption would be very minimal and feed is for animals. So Yeah, so like What do we grow for human consumption to Well, so a a lot of the wheat does go for human consumption. I mean that's the goal is to grow high quality wheat that goes for human consumption. So break that down for anybody I know a minimal about this, but I'm sure that some of our listeners know very little about this too. What what classifies something as human consumption and what classifies something as feed? Well, I mean that that that just human consumption means it's for people. Sorry, but how do you know but like if we grow the wheat. Yeah, so there's a grading system. Okay, tell us about it. so for wheat there's they call it bread wheat number one, two, and three, and then feed is the fourth grade. So feed is your lowest grade. That's your lowest grade. So are we growing the feed grade or we're growing number one and then they decide from that? Yeah, so it's n any v like you're asking about varieties, basically. Kind of. So you ca there is certain varieties that are typically like only feed only feed varieties. And those are usually higher yielding varieties. So lots of farmers do choose to grow that because you can grow higher yielding. You're gonna get paid less for it, but But you're growing more of it. And and and and the quality doesn't matter. So it's just Whatever goes goes. Yeah, yeah. Right. But typically for us, we're always trying to grow number one bread wheat. So the goal, the ultimate goal is to be growing human consumption. Yeah. A bad year, whatever, something's not gone right, you're still gonna get paid feed rates. Yeah. So you're still making something. It just might not be could be dependent on. Yeah, so and and it it used to be there was a significant like premium on number one and then number two would be a little less, number three would be a little less. Recent years, I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head what it's at right now. I know the spread between one, two and three is not nearly as much as it used to be. Used be. Yeah. The other thing is protein. So protein has a lot to so you can have a number one, low protein, you're getting paid for a number two or number three. Because your protein's not there to make it the number one. And so we only correct me if I'm wrong. We only know what it is once it gets to the elevator. You don't know what your quality is. I mean You can guess as soon as you combine it you can guess, but You take it to the elevator, they grade it. They grade it for you. And then like I we c I can't grade my own wheat and say, yeah, this is number one. Right, because everybody'd be saying it's number one and it's probably feed quality. Yeah. Yeah. So take it to the elevator, they grade it. They grade it. And they give and they do a protein test. Right. And yeah. So then this kind of maybe I feel like we get into the glyphosate more, but I think I think you have to do your research on it, first off. I think there's a lot of misconceptions about it. Yeah. Is there a lot of studies on how it can affect if it is making it to a human consumption? Grain. Yeah, like if it's in the grain. Yes. they have done studies. It's hard to know because there is also there's different studies with different results, right? That was good. And then there's also there's a lot of claims as to what so so there they do find glyphosate in in wheat that has been sprayed. I mean typically if you're spraying your wheat at the right time it won't have glyphosate because that the kernel is already at a stage where the kernel is protected in in the in the head. Right. So the glyphosate never actually touches the kernel. It can't get into the kernel. Unless the plant is really green. Right. So you've done it. And it takes in the glyphosate and puts it into the kernel. So It should never get into the kernel, but it can sometimes if if it's sprayed too early If so, say if it wasn't at the ninety percent color change. Yeah. Say it was at thirty. Seventy yeah, or thirty percent. Yeah. Thirty percent would be really bad. Seventy percent, whatever. At thirty percent you're probably significantly downgrading your crop and you're not gonna make you know. Okay, so let's just say seventy percent. Yeah. You misjudged it by a whole twenty percent. Or does it come down to one of those things, okay, I actually just need to get this crop off? Yeah, but then you would spray you're not gonna spray g spray You're not gonna spray glyphosate to speed. The only reason you spray glyphosate pre harvest is to kill the weeds. Right. It has n it there's no purpose in spraying glyphosate pre harvest for the crop. Okay. That was gonna be my next So then this brings me to the desiccation varieties. Are those chemicals getting into Potentially. Yeah, so that I'm not sure. I've Okay, okay. That's fair. I haven't looked into it enough and I don't I haven't seen anything that they've I mean, I'm sure they've done studies. Yes. I haven't seen any results from these studies. Right. obviously it's not talked about. That's just it, yeah. so I I mean I I'm not Can't claim anyway, won't I? Yeah, yeah, I mean and And so what are we desiccating? Like are we desiccating every field? No, no, no. No. No, no. Like typically it's just peas, isn't it? yeah, but somet we don't always even desiccate peas. Like it really depends on the year and the What okay, what can so and you can s and you can desiccate and do a pre harvest burn at the same time. So you can mix like a ray gloan or a heat. Well no, I think you can't mix Raglo ragloan you just spray on its own. You can mix heat with Roundup. Okay. And heat is a desiccant. And so that will dry the Crop down and the glyphosate kills the weeds basically. So then my okay, that okay, so with if you're doing it both, like you've just said you can do. Mm-hmm. Aren't you desiccating it because the the plant isn't turning? Yeah, so but that chemical acts way quicker, like like within three days. So a desiccant is a really fast acting chemical or whatever. Like so it it goes into the plant, bursts the cells. At what percent are you spraying what percent color change are you spraying a desiccant? It would be this it would be the same. It still has to be a desiccant. If you're spraying So you could spray a desiccant sooner. Yeah. If it's just a desiccant. If you're spraying it with glyphosate It still has to be at the Would you say that it's beneficial for a farmer to To spray the Roundup at 70%. Cause that's where you're saying it could technically still get into the kernel or what it the grain. At seventy percent. Like you're saying if a farmer didn't follow the rules went and said, I'm just gonna go spray this with strictly theoretical, like because there's obviously been some sort of test to show and that's where this fear mongering is. seventy percent, yeah, probably you could gain a little bit of time on your dry down. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that's where some of I think that is where some of this this is coming from? Is it's I a hundred percent. There is guidelines in place. Yeah, but farmers are farmers. but it also makes a bad rep for it though because it does and but I mean there's also like there's nobody checking in on you. Yeah. Yeah. To make sure that you're that's the point, isn't it? So it's it's it's really irresponsible for farmers to do that because you are shooting yourself in the Absolutely. You get a and then we get these things where because there's a bad rep around it and now people are worked up about something. A there's not a lot of research or there's the studies on it are it's hard to say one way or the other. But also then, yeah, you are shooting your s you're kind of Like it's crazy because people probably think that like farmers just spray round up whenever the heck they want and Do whatever and it's like there's so many things about like the plant being this small when you have to spray and all this stuff. Like there's so many things we have to do in place. Like we're not just spraying willy nilly. so another thing to remember about like these chemicals, whenever we spray a chemical is getting mixed with water. Mm-hmm. So majority, you know, you see a sprayer with a big tank on it. Ma like most of that is just water. Mm. Yeah. So like we spray okay now and this is gonna be this is okay. So we spray like Jorim's not the sprayer guy. Ten gallons an acre of water. Yeah, I'm not really the sprayer guy. we spray ten gallons an acre water, sometimes less. I mean it it it's depends, but general. Yeah. General sense. Now we're we're mixing metric and imperial here. But like typically when you're spraying glyphosate, it's like like less than a liter of actual chemical. So you got ten gallons, so ten gallons which would be What would that be? A lot of liters. Yeah, so like that's almost forty liters. Yeah, just over a liter. Let's just call it forty liters. And you've got less than a liter of chemical. Right. Wow. So you know, that's that's also something to think about. That it's not just straight chemical going on. Mm-hmm. It's diluted. Yeah. So then this brings me to my another question I have on this. Unless you've got more points. I will quit asking questions if you have more points. I feel like you have more. To say on this. Well, I was just gonna say, like, so we're we're handling this stuff too. I mean, typically we wear rubber gloves. Yeah. Okay, this is the But that's about the extent of it. Like, like it's not like this stuff is deathly toxic. Okay, so if you were to get this stuff on your pants, will it like bleach it, basically? No. No, you won't know. Like you can get it on it's it's Honestly, you could lick probably yeah, you can. Probably it's like less dangerous than a lot of the stuff people have under their kitchen sink, to be completely honest with you. Valid. So what's the lifespan of these farmers that are spraying versus Yeah. Do we know people? I feel like spray is such a neat thing though, isn't it? Mm, no. I mean, my dad's been spraying since I don't know, the eighties. Yeah, okay. That was so and I mean I think a lot of the chemicals they had back then were probably worse than the ones we're using now. I believe though. Yeah. He's still kicking. He's still kicking. Doing great. My grandpa was a farmer, my uncle was a farmer. Yeah, I mean long lives. Yeah. Yeah. I think there is maybe statistically farmers have a higher rate. Cancer, but I'm I'm not even a hundred percent sure on that. Also, fertilizer dust can be really bad too, like for your health. Which which is which is fertilizers can be a whole other thing. Yeah. But I mean so fertilizer is basically all naturally occurring stuff. It's just it's just how it's when it's in a granulated form and you're inhaling the dust, that can be well it's like silica dust or like yeah any of these you know, like construction. Like if you have a cut yeah, well, it's very salty, right? it's hor like I I don't remember why I had a cut on my finger or something, and we were scooping fertilizer in with like five gallon pails, and my finger was like a burned I smashed my knuckle open on the crank on the trailer this week. And I was loading fertilizer into the drill. Yeah. the worst. Burns like that. That burns. Yeah, I thought it's it was like a giant like But it's because it's such a condensed granular of Minerals and Minerals. Everything. Yeah. But anyways, that's a whole nother thing. That's a whole nother okay. I think I think folks we're gonna have to wrap this and leave it. This is gonna have to be a part two. Yeah. We didn't get through enough. We've got a lot of questions. We hit kind of a hot topic tonight. We're gonna have to split this into two episodes. There's no way around it. Yeah, I think so. And we I don't know when the second episode's gonna air. Like it might be a couple weeks after this one. Yeah. It might be right after. I don't know. TBD. TBD. So bear with us as we figure that out. But if you like this conversation, yes, let us know. If you have questions, let us know. Give us the comments. Yeah. Because we'll do like another we wanna do another more husband episodes. We'll do more supervised episodes. Yes. Is the idea. Yeah. Okay. We like to be supervised. We like to be supervised, that's right. yeah. Okay. Well that's that for now, I guess. Yeah.