Latest / The Vance Crowe Podcast / ATR: Trump to Give Tariff money to farmers with Glen Cope
Transcript
- 0:00Unknown: The Ag Tribes Report is brought to you by Legacy Interviews,
- 0:04a video service that captures people as they really are so the future knows who they really were. Here are Legacy Interviews guests, Mark and Stephanie Mendenhall,
- 0:13on the unexpected
- 0:14ease of their experience.
- 0:16Unknown: What'd you guys think? How was it? Much easier than I expected. Yep.
- 0:21Unknown: Much easier. You made us feel very comfortable. Was this something that weighed on you for a while? He had her ideas on it. Well, he looked at it and said, well, we'll just wing it. Because, you know, you give this list of figured out this out and figure this out. Oh, well, we didn't get that done. What what we remember, we remember, and what we forgot, we tell the kids later. Tomorrow, I'll say, god. Why didn't I tell this story? Or why didn't I tell them about this? You do a good job of asking questions.
- 0:49Welcome to the Agtribe's report, a breakdown of the top stories affecting the culture of agriculture
- 0:54with your host, Vance Crowe.
- 0:57The report begins in three,
- 0:59two,
- 1:00one. Let's begin.
- 1:04Unknown: Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week, I bring on a new cohost that represents one of the many ag tribes throughout US and Canadian agriculture.
- 1:14This week, I have my friend and, fellow board member, Glenn Cope,
- 1:19who is a, a fourth generation cow calf operator in Southwest Missouri,
- 1:26otherwise known as the Ozarks.
- 1:28Glenn is not only on FCS Financial, but he is also on the board of MFA Oil. And I've gotten to know Glenn and, highly respect him, and I'm really excited that he decided to come on. So welcome to the show, Glenn.
- 1:40Unknown: Lance, great to be on. Thanks for having me.
- 1:43Unknown: So what have you been paying attention to lately?
- 1:47Unknown: Well,
- 1:48lots going on, I think, in the in the ag world, particularly with the new administration. I think, from still a lot of things, particularly in the tariff realm that has got some farmers concerned. And,
- 1:59you know,
- 2:02some people have a lot of concerns with the tariff. You know, I I we've had this huge trade deficit with all these countries
- 2:09that we've propped up forever.
- 2:11And,
- 2:12we've gotta balance that somehow, and Trump's
- 2:15solution to that is to do these tariffs. And, you know, that seems like agriculture more than any other industry suffered as a result.
- 2:22But, you know, farmers are pretty patriotic people, and, we've we've kinda took it on the chin with that.
- 2:30But also, Vance, there's been a lot of production in in the row crop sector of the business. You know?
- 2:37It seems like farmers can't stand prosperity. So two or three, four years ago when
- 2:41corn was $7, we we high prices cure high prices, and
- 2:46the droughts that we've had the last few years have not seemed to really diminish,
- 2:51yields overall.
- 2:52Technology, genetics,
- 2:55just farmers resiliency, it seems like, has just kinda played into that. And
- 2:59so, you know, it seems like,
- 3:02you know, when I was a kid, I I remember Bill Clinton in one of his State of the Union speeches talked about
- 3:08how we needed to buy more of our things from China because if we supported
- 3:12China, they and propped up their economy, they would move away from communism. Well, that hasn't happened.
- 3:18And,
- 3:19it seems like China more than ever is more of our adversary.
- 3:23You know, what they're doing with their military, what they're doing in the South China Sea.
- 3:29It's caused a lot of concern, and Trump's wanting more stuff produced here in The US. And
- 3:35and his again, his answer has been tariffs, and I don't know if that's
- 3:39I don't have the silver bullet, but
- 3:41it seems like, he's trying to move the needle in that direction.
- 3:44And, obviously, that's been a concern
- 3:46for price.
- 3:47Unknown: Well, we have got a lot to talk about in particular around tariffs and president Trump. So tonight, what we're going to dive into is president Trump directing tariff revenues to support farmers hit by trade disputes.
- 3:59We're also gonna talk about The US bailout of Argentina
- 4:02leading to cheap soybean exports and undercutting American producers.
- 4:06We're also gonna talk about the new world screw worm, which is getting a lot closer to The US border. And finally, we're gonna talk about the government shutdown disruptions to, things like USDA services.
- 4:19We're also going to, talk about the Bitcoin land price report. We're gonna hear Glenn's take on the Peter Thiel paradox, and we'll also hear about his worthy adversary.
- 4:28And we're gonna try and do that in just 30.
- 4:31But before we get started,
- 4:33I did want to,
- 4:35have,
- 4:36a moment to recognize
- 4:38the work of Ryan White house. Ryan was a member of the Illinois Farm Bureau. I knew Ryan for more than ten years, and it was a shock to me,
- 4:47late last week when I found out that he had passed away.
- 4:51Ryan was a,
- 4:53a member of the Farm Bureau community in Illinois, and he was one of those people that if you met him, even if you didn't know anything at all about agriculture,
- 5:02you were welcomed in.
- 5:04He, wanted to hear what you had to say. He had all sorts of great counterpoints and wanted to discuss, and
- 5:10I I I just I am devastated by the loss of Ryan. I know his family is from Normal, Illinois. It's just just outside of where I grew up, and I wanted to mention him
- 5:19and, and honor his memory.
- 5:22So let's get started with story number one.
- 5:25Donald Trump directs tariff revenues to bail out soybean farmers amid the trade war. On October 1, president Trump announced that he would use revenue from tariffs to provide substantial support for American farmers,
- 5:37particularly soybean producers affected by China's reduced purchases.
- 5:42In a Truth Social post, Trump blamed China for using US farmers as pawns in the trade negotiating, noting China's failure to meet soybean import commitments.
- 5:51Treasury secretary Scott Besant confirmed eight announcements soon, emphasizing Trump's
- 5:58backing for farmers who supported him. This comes as US soybean exports to China have halved in early twenty twenty five with farmers facing low prices around $10.50
- 6:08a bushel and storage issues.
- 6:11So this became a hot issue on x,
- 6:14when
- 6:16I came out and said, hey. I'm not so sure that tariff payments are gonna help farmers as much as they think it is. It's gonna make prices go up. But what do you think, Glenn? Should Donald Trump be offering the some of these tariffs to soybean farmers to compensate for the loss they've had in this trade war?
- 6:31Unknown: Well, farmers have taken,
- 6:34kind of on the nose from the tariffs, obviously, and there's he's talked about all the revenues that The US has had
- 6:41as a result of the tariffs. And I think China has kinda had some,
- 6:46give and take with us trying to trying to even the playing field by
- 6:51what, just a couple of years ago, we were sending 10 to 15% of our soybeans here in The US to China. Now it's zero essentially. So,
- 6:59yeah, absolutely.
- 7:00These tariff, revenues need to be going to farmers. It won't make them whole, but maybe it'll help them kinda
- 7:07keep the lenders at bay in the in the short term because, you know, this is this is a challenge.
- 7:12I
- 7:13you see a lot of these farmers, particularly in Eastern Arkansas, that are just really struggling
- 7:19to
- 7:21keep the farm afloat. And,
- 7:23obviously, we've had overproduction
- 7:25the last few years. We've got over buy, but, certainly, the tariffs have played into that. So, yeah, we've gotta send this tariff money to these farmers.
- 7:35Unknown: Yeah. I mean, I I definitely feel for farmers who like, if you get 15%
- 7:41of your market just cut out right out from underneath you,
- 7:45and the Chinese, it appears, are trying to use the
- 7:48the fact that,
- 7:50so much farmer support is under Donald Trump. If you just stop buying soybeans,
- 7:55you can maybe crack the the back there. So it makes sense to me that Trump wants to do this, but man, oh, man. Pumping more money into the, farm economy, whether it's through tariffs
- 8:06or through the printing of money, seems like it's going to continue to do the things that farmers are suffering under right now, which is high input prices. The price of everything,
- 8:16tractors,
- 8:17fertilizer,
- 8:18labor, everything is going up. Seems like this will only exacerbate that.
- 8:23Unknown: Absolutely. You know,
- 8:25if there is a little bit of consolation prize,
- 8:29finally, the senate has confirmed
- 8:32a a a fellow Missourian, Richard Fordyce, as USDA under secretary
- 8:36for farm production and conservation.
- 8:38Richard's a good friend of mine, and, he lives it every day. He he's
- 8:43corn and soybean producer, and he raises cattle like myself. And so he gets it. But now that the government shut down, getting those payments out is gonna be a challenge. But,
- 8:53you know,
- 8:55president Trump chose a good one when he put that guy in in charge of,
- 8:59under secretary of farm production conservation. Richard Richard did a good job, and,
- 9:05he knows what farmers are going through. And, I hope that I hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel.
- 9:11Unknown: Yeah. I I personally like
- 9:14that, Richard Fordyce is from Missouri. I've met Richard, but, I like it because Missouri is such a,
- 9:21a diverse state. Right? You have the one third is is, row crops. One third is,
- 9:27mostly cattle, but also poultry, you know, the livestock.
- 9:31And then a full third is,
- 9:33ag businesses.
- 9:34And so somebody coming from that background is gonna have a big wide open picture of what the agriculture system is really like and what do you need to do in order to keep farmers going.
- 9:45Unknown: Absolutely. You know,
- 9:47Vance, I'm strictly in the cattle business, so a lot of this, I don't understand in terms of, government payments for for those guys. But, you know, farmers don't wanna farm for for,
- 9:59for
- 10:00government check. They wanna they wanna produce according to the market, and and we've come up a lot against a lot of challenges of late. And,
- 10:09you know,
- 10:10in the cattle business, we've had it pretty good, especially the last six months. And, in fact, it's probably as good as it's ever been, and we can't believe what these feeder cattle prices have been. But,
- 10:23my heart goes out to these crop guys that are really strong.
- 10:26Unknown: You can tell just by the way conversations are happening on x that people are more stressed, than they've ever been. It's it's definitely
- 10:34something I hope clears up, but I don't know how quick that'll happen. Alright. Moving on to story number two.
- 10:40$20,000,000,000
- 10:42bailout to Argentina sparks,
- 10:44soybean export surge and undercutting American farmers. In late September, The US approved a $20,000,000,000
- 10:51bailout part package for Argentina
- 10:53amid its economic crisis, including a currency swap line from the Federal Reserve.
- 10:58Shortly after, on September 26, Argentina suspended its 26%
- 11:03export tax on soybeans enabling a cheap sale to China.
- 11:08Over 1,000,000
- 11:10tons booked immediately with 10 plus cargo shipped.
- 11:14This has fueled tensions as leaked texts from treasury secretary Scott Bessens reveal White House frustration over Argentina's move, which undercuts US farmers already strained by trade wars and low prices. Democratic senators like Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren have called for halting aid arguing that it harms American producers who lost market share to Brazil and now Argentina.
- 11:37US soybean exports to China dropped 29
- 11:40in 2025
- 11:41just like we were talking about. And, basically, everybody's saying it in instead of talking about these numbers, China, since the tariff war, has not bought a single soybean.
- 11:50And now the very people that were going to help out, they just shipped, 10,
- 11:55cargos
- 11:56to China. What do you think of this, Glenn?
- 11:59Unknown: Well, it it seems
- 12:00like The US, every time we try to help somebody, they,
- 12:03they turn around and stab us in the back. I remember
- 12:07South Korea several years ago wouldn't take any US beef because of
- 12:12Mad Cow or any any little excuse. They was,
- 12:16refused to take USB.
- 12:18And,
- 12:19I got to think of, you know, we've got American troops over there in South Korea protecting them from the North Korea.
- 12:26Because if we weren't there, the North Koreans would come across the border, take over South Korea.
- 12:31And here we are again
- 12:33helping out a country that,
- 12:36is is sort of stabbing us in the back and skipping all these beans to China that that we ought to be shipping from US here ourselves. And so that's frustrating.
- 12:45It seems like this is just kinda par for the course, though.
- 12:49Unknown: Yeah. I mean, I don't have any sense. Is 1,000,000 tons of soybeans,
- 12:54is that a lot for what China needs, or is that not so much? Any idea?
- 12:59Unknown: Well, I suspect it's a lot for Argentina.
- 13:01No. I I
- 13:03being a cattle guy, I'm not real familiar with all the numbers surrounding,
- 13:07exports and and China's demand.
- 13:10To me, it sounds like a lot of lot of bushels of beans, Vance, and so, certainly, that's something
- 13:16that could could be helping out, bolster the price of soybeans here domestically.
- 13:21Unknown: Yeah. And it certainly puts China in the in the position where they don't they they have more leverage in the in the conversation. You know, they can want to not buy soybeans, but if they wanna keep producing pork and being able to provide the food staples for their own countrymen, they can't grow it themselves.
- 13:36If they can't get it from The US and they can't get it from our allies, then that means they're probably gonna come to the bargaining table a lot easier. So this does seem like it stings a little bit.
- 13:45Unknown: You know, for years, we didn't worry too much about Argentina,
- 13:49Bill, in terms of production because
- 13:51their infrastructure,
- 13:52the roads to get their crop to market, their their,
- 13:56shipping, everything
- 13:58was just way behind
- 13:59the times.
- 14:01And here of light, they've really come on board, and they're they're forced to be reckoned with. And,
- 14:06certainly, when China sees us as an adversary, they're gonna,
- 14:10source as much of their commodities from
- 14:12from South America.
- 14:15Unknown: You know, I was initially very excited about Javier Millet, the president of Argentina. I thought, hey. They're they're getting rid of their,
- 14:23socialist communist, you know, overlords and all of this corruption. But it was very, very quick into his tenure
- 14:29that, he was a part of one of these cryptocurrency,
- 14:32you know, pump the price up way high and then sell it, and then basically mocked people by being like, well, if you're dumb enough to buy it, then that's your problem. And me any anybody that touches
- 14:42something and, like, cryptocurrency and deals with it without integrity,
- 14:47you should just assume that they will not deal with you with integrity on any other issue. And so I went from being a big fan of his libertarian
- 14:54chainsawing to not thinking very much of him, and it turns out this is probably the right perspective to have. Yeah. I agree.
- 15:03Alright. Let's move on to story number three. This is one that, probably hits a little close to home with you, Glenn. We have been talking about new world screwworm
- 15:12for months now. This is that small larvae that, embeds its way into cattle.
- 15:18If, once it hatches, it can fester and kill the cattle. It is a terrible situation.
- 15:24It's a problem that happened in the seventies and eighties, but we fought it back all the way to Colombia. But now it is back. And, Glenn, you are a cattle rancher.
- 15:33What is going on? What's the latest with this? And, where where do you think we go from here?
- 15:38Unknown: My answer, I don't know. You know, my dad,
- 15:41is 74,
- 15:42and
- 15:43he talked about this thing back in the
- 15:46season growing up. He said it was awful.
- 15:48If if he cow or he had a cut on them, this thing would just burrow into way down into the flesh. He said it was just extremely inhumane.
- 15:58And so, you know,
- 16:00The US was able to eradicate that,
- 16:02and, we pushed it,
- 16:04I guess, well into Central America,
- 16:07if not farther south. And they've kind
- 16:10of not been doing their job as far as, keeping that thing at bay. And so I it's it's 70 miles south of the line, last reported. And Vance, it's I think it's a matter of time. It's not if or but when
- 16:23we find that thing north of the border again. And I don't know what this what the damage will be to the beef market.
- 16:30Initially, I think there'll be a stock factor that certainly will come into play.
- 16:35We're enjoying some
- 16:37record high,
- 16:38cattle prices right now, and so we certainly don't want that to go away. But
- 16:42our bigger concern is what this is gonna do to the animal herd and what this particularly is gonna do to tech tech,
- 16:49cattle business. And, you know,
- 16:53it
- 16:54I guess they're working what the how they treat this is they,
- 16:58they radiate,
- 16:59fly larvae and flies, and they release them out to the wild, and they breed with,
- 17:04female screwworm,
- 17:06flies, and they produce aero lake.
- 17:09And that eventually
- 17:10will cause it to go back south again
- 17:13and may advance it. It it got me worried.
- 17:17Unknown: I mean, I I think that everybody that's looked at it very close is worried. Apparently,
- 17:22the FDA just recently
- 17:24conditionally approved,
- 17:27Decomax CA injectables
- 17:29from Zoetis,
- 17:30And, I know that ivermectin
- 17:33is another way that they treat it,
- 17:35but I think that once it's in The United States I was talking to some animal pharma guys, and they said it is not if, it is when, just like you. And that,
- 17:44you know, this is gonna really scare people when they are seeing the imagery of it. There was that woman that had contracted,
- 17:51new world screener,
- 17:53disease while she was traveling in Central America and came back to The United States and died. And it's not just that it will impact cattle. It can get into human beings, and it is a brutal way to go.
- 18:03Unknown: Yeah. Absolutely.
- 18:05Again,
- 18:06we're enjoying some great cattle prices right now, and it's been a long time coming.
- 18:10And we're finally in the cattle business being able to build some equity. And so,
- 18:16again, we can't stand prosperity very long in any segment of agriculture. It seems like I I hope that this is short lived.
- 18:24Time will tell.
- 18:25Maybe as much ado about nothing, but in the short term, it's it's got folks concerned, and
- 18:31we just gotta gotta be,
- 18:33on top of our game here.
- 18:36Make
- 18:37I think a one way that cattlemen can
- 18:39kinda
- 18:41try to eradicate this,
- 18:43make sure we got a good pour on probe that we make that we we put the products on the backs of cattle to keep, flies from even landing on them to begin with. That's that's
- 18:52one way that we're gonna kinda counteract.
- 18:55Unknown: Well and another way to keep it out is, to keep that border shut. I know they tried to do a thing, you know, once this was starting to go. They opened it, then they shut it again, but let's just keep that thing shut. We can let American farmers sell American beef to Americans.
- 19:08And,
- 19:09and if that keeps the price up, then I'd rather have that than New World Screwworm flying around The US.
- 19:16Unknown: Amen, sir. And I tell you, that's
- 19:18if they ever open the border back up, which will happen in this I don't know. Well, I think the wall of metal that'll just come come flooding across the border.
- 19:28We'll see prices, take a hit,
- 19:31I think. But,
- 19:32Unknown: in the meantime aren't gonna want this. The only pressure the only way they're gonna get that pressure is
- 19:37if,
- 19:38the packing houses do or consumers start throwing a fit about prices. I mean, that's why we started importing eggs from Turkey and South Korea is because people were so worried about that. But I think it's a a great time for farmers to be getting the word out that one of the thing yes.
- 19:53Cattle prices or beef prices are high, but a lot better than having new world screw worm here.
- 19:58Unknown: Yeah. And we haven't seen a whole lot of pushback from consumers on high beef prices. Now, Vance, I don't want beef prices I don't want beef to be a luxury item. I don't want it to be like lobster, something, you know, where
- 20:10folks just buy or on a on a birthday or a or Christmas or something. But,
- 20:16certainly, big prices are high. But,
- 20:19in the meantime,
- 20:22these are the levels we as we produce kinda need them to be
- 20:26to kinda make our payment and and,
- 20:29build some equity and have something to pass down to our kid.
- 20:33Unknown: Well, make a hay while there's sunshine as they say. Alright. Moving on to story number four. Government shutdown disrupts USDA services delaying farmer payment and aid. The US government shutdown began at midnight on September 30 due to funding lapses from partisan disputes severely impacting the USDA during peak harvest. Over 42,000
- 20:54employees, half the workforce are furloughed,
- 20:57closing most farm service agency offices
- 21:01and halting new loans, payments, and data releases. Key disruptions include delayed 2,000,000,000 in halting,
- 21:08new loan payments
- 21:09and oh, in, emergency commodity assistance,
- 21:13disaster aid for weather damaged crops and conservation,
- 21:16reserve program reimbursements
- 21:18exacerbating
- 21:19cash flow crises for farmers
- 21:21facing a 25%
- 21:23income drop. Loan processing stops, stranding refinancing
- 21:27needs while research crop,
- 21:29progress reports, and organic certifications
- 21:31all pause.
- 21:33Glenn, you are a good old American,
- 21:36that is a patriot, but I suspect
- 21:38you don't love government spending. So where are you at on government shutdowns?
- 21:45Unknown: I don't mind them.
- 21:47Give our government is our the bureaucracy is absolutely loaded and and needs to be cut.
- 21:53But having said
- 21:55that, the timing for this
- 21:57from USDA and and the farmers that are suffering right now, the timing could not be worse.
- 22:03I mean,
- 22:05guys are
- 22:07a lot of real crop guys are at breakeven on
- 22:10or or below breakeven on
- 22:12on what corn and soybean prices are and and,
- 22:16you know, fossil levels are, what, $800 a ton. Our if the input costs are just
- 22:21out of sight.
- 22:22And,
- 22:23I don't think we've experienced a lot of drought this year throughout The US, but certainly there's pockets. And and so some of that emergency
- 22:30relief,
- 22:32if it's delayed at all, it's just gonna just add and compound to the problem that already exists.
- 22:38Unknown: You know, we today's stories were a lot about a lot of the crises that are happening to agriculture right now. And, I remember a a mentor of mine telling me, you know, whenever you look back on history that there's usually, like, a very simplified, over simplified version of what happened. It's this one thing that happened.
- 22:55But the truth is if we look back on history and ag really does have a stutter step here and really have some challenges and and maybe getting knocked down on its rear for a while, It's not gonna be just because of tariffs. It's gonna be tariffs,
- 23:09and our allies weren't on our team, and our,
- 23:12the the government shutting down, and what farmers were expecting they couldn't do. It seems like there is a whole lot lined up against farmers right now.
- 23:21Unknown: Yeah. And what this does, Vance, is is just
- 23:25exacerbates,
- 23:26consolidation
- 23:27in in farmland.
- 23:30You know, years and years ago, it took several families to take care of a farm. Now it takes,
- 23:35several farms to take care of a fam in terms of of what the return is per acre.
- 23:41And so, you know,
- 23:43you've got these private equity groups that are gobbling up this farmland and and
- 23:49because they've got the capital to do it. And
- 23:52anytime that we see a really,
- 23:54challenging
- 23:55economic situation
- 23:57approach, again, we see more consolidation of farmland. And that breaks the heart because
- 24:03I I I like to see small farms be able to make it and,
- 24:08and just anymore just, like, more more acres.
- 24:11That's that's that's a
- 24:13sad reality.
- 24:16Unknown: Well, it is,
- 24:17it is a rough time out there. That is gonna do it for our news stories today.
- 24:22Moving on to the Bitcoin land price report. This is where we, make a comparison between the price of Bitcoin
- 24:29and, and land. And today,
- 24:32Bitcoin's price is up at a $120,500
- 24:36per Bitcoin,
- 24:37which, is a pretty big walk up from the last couple of weeks, but, still just a little bit below the all time high of 124,000.
- 24:46So, Glenn, what county are you from? And, tell me a little bit about the land out there. Yeah. So I'm from Barrie County,
- 24:54Unknown: Missouri. So
- 24:55McDonald County would be the southwestern
- 24:57most.
- 24:59We are one county east.
- 25:01So our county joins Arkansas.
- 25:03We're in this the heart of the Ozarks here. Pretty rough country,
- 25:07rocky,
- 25:08hilly.
- 25:09And if you've been to Branson, that type of rain, we're just west. So,
- 25:15not very conducive for corn and soybean production, but we are in the heart of cattle country. So that's what we produce here on our farm.
- 25:24Unknown: Yeah. And, if somebody were gonna put up a little bit of, rangeland pasture
- 25:35Unknown: acre probably now. Before COVID, it was three to four. But, unfortunately,
- 25:42like everything else, land awesome.
- 25:45Just skyrocket.
- 25:46I'd say between
- 25:487,000.
- 25:49Unknown: Well, let's call it a cool 6,500.
- 25:51So that means at a 120,500,
- 25:53that means 1 Bitcoin would buy you 18 and a half acres,
- 25:58or,
- 25:58you could get point zero five,
- 26:03the yeah. One Bitcoin would buy you 18.5
- 26:07acres. So, Glenn, how does that sit with you? Do you think, Bitcoin is worth 18 and a half acres out
- 26:13Unknown: there? Well, I'm
- 26:15not, real versed in the Bitcoin world being an old cowboy, but,
- 26:20I do like my land. So I'd if I had any Bitcoin,
- 26:24I would probably
- 26:26Unknown: turn Turn in the land. What do you know about about Bitcoin, Glenn? What's your what's the amount that people in your world, in your tribe, how much do they know about it?
- 26:35Unknown: Very, very little.
- 26:39You know, I I I don't know very much myself, and so, I know it's something that I need to be more versed on, and certainly,
- 26:46it's the future, man. And I appreciate what you do and try to educate farmers, right, and folks in agriculture about the importance of Bitcoin.
- 26:55The the dollar may be
- 26:57something we don't even deal with in the twenty years from now, but,
- 27:01in the short term, I'm slow to adapt, I guess.
- 27:05Unknown: You know, though, Glenn, I mean, we've known each other now almost a year, and I I would say you, like the other people on FCS Financial
- 27:12Board,
- 27:13you're open to learning. You just don't have somebody in your world that's sitting there talking about it. And it's hard to learn about a technology that nobody's around talking to you about. And so it can seem like something that's far away or maybe not that important. I I get it. Very true. Very true.
- 27:28Well, I did, I gave a talk at the, Flinchbaugh Forum for Agriculture, which was held in Manhattan, Kansas, and I stood up and told a group of 250
- 27:38policymakers
- 27:39that I think the people engaging with Bitcoin today are going to be,
- 27:43farmland homeowners tomorrow.
- 27:46And, I I don't know. Maybe you could check out that talk and and give me feedback on on what you thought, but I just published that today. Send me a link.
- 27:54Alright. Moving on to the Peter Thiel paradox. This is where I'm gonna ask Glenn, what is one thing that you believe that almost no one you know agrees with you on?
- 28:04Unknown: Well,
- 28:05I I think I'm I'm probably not alone in this, but,
- 28:09my dad and a lot of his peers think that,
- 28:13land values are gonna
- 28:15plummet again someday. They lived through the eighties,
- 28:18and and dad bought this farm that I live on in 1983 and made 60%
- 28:22interest rate.
- 28:24And,
- 28:25folks that bought land back in the seventies, they saw
- 28:28land go down, prices go down by a third, and he said, boy, these days are coming. Those days will be here again.
- 28:34And I I disagree with that. I I we've seen too much urban sprawl from the Springfield and Branson area. I don't I think I think this is is universal, Vance. I don't think this
- 28:46is necessarily specific to my part of the world, but
- 28:49guys are buying 40 acres to hunt on and and,
- 28:53folks are moving out of the cities,
- 28:55trying to avoid urban
- 28:57all
- 28:58the
- 28:59in
- 29:00an urban air. They
- 29:01can do their job from home,
- 29:03with technology and the Internet today, and, so many folks are working from home. And so they're coming out into our part of the world and working these farms just kinda being
- 29:13divided up into smaller track. And,
- 29:16and I I disagree. I I think land values are they may plateau, but they will never
- 29:22recede in price.
- 29:24That's just my thoughts.
- 29:26Unknown: Yeah. I mean, I gotta tell you, Glenn, I think you failed this one because I absolutely agree with you. I don't think land prices in dollar terms are ever gonna go down because the government is going to continue to print money,
- 29:38and that money has gotta find a home. And I think a lot of people say, hey. I'd rather have,
- 29:44land than I would to put this money into my savings account because if if I leave it in my savings account, it's worth less. And at least land I can raise cattle on or hunt or something. So I'm in total agreement with you. I I don't think land prices are going down at least in terms of dollars.
- 30:00Unknown: Yeah.
- 30:01We had opportunities to buy land years ago that that thought was overvalued, but now looking back, it was pretty much so,
- 30:09it passed up opportunity.
- 30:11Unknown: There you go. I mean, that's the hardest part about, any kind of investment. Right? You have to believe something that people will only agree with you after the fact. You have to believe things that other people don't believe, and you're you're gonna make any money.
- 30:25Alright. So now moving on to the worthy adversary.
- 30:29Glenn, who is one person that you respect but you strongly disagree with?
- 30:34Unknown: Well, you probably got this before,
- 30:37but, I respect this guy, and I respect what he's trying to do.
- 30:41But that's Robert f Kennedy right now.
- 30:45You know, I respect what he's trying to do is in terms of trying to make America healthy,
- 30:50eat healthier. We've got too much,
- 30:52obesity and diabetes in our country.
- 30:55But,
- 30:56when he's targeting farmers and some of the tools that we have in our toolbox,
- 31:00saying that they're not safe,
- 31:02that makes him an.
- 31:04This morning,
- 31:05I was round up I was using round up on some past
- 31:09and I'm gonna put in some wheat, some to raise cattle on this winter and and after spring. But,
- 31:15Roundup's safe. Vance and I know in your former life working at Monsanto, you you
- 31:21you were well versed in that. But Roundup and some of these that we use,
- 31:26there there are tools in our toolbox that I think not only,
- 31:30helps make our jobs
- 31:32more efficient, which we have to be, but, there's
- 31:37so implants and that we use in our cattle. They make, cattle the cost of gain cheaper. They they, feed conversion so much better.
- 31:47And the one,
- 31:49implant and that we use
- 31:51in in a in a steer, for example, I think it has estrogen, but, like, a
- 31:57a head of cabbage, head of lettuce
- 31:59has, like, a thousand times more estrogen
- 32:03than what we're given a a steer.
- 32:06That that really
- 32:08that's your much more that will speed conversion and and that sort of things more efficient. That's what we need to do. We gotta do more or less if we're gonna feed a growing world. So,
- 32:20I guess he would be my adversary.
- 32:23I I again, I respect respect what he's trying to do in terms of
- 32:27we've gotta eat more healthy. We've gotta do away with these ultra processed foods. But, again, it's a choice.
- 32:33But,
- 32:34I respect what he's trying to do, but when it comes to the tools that we have in our toolbox as farmers and ranchers, him going after those things,
- 32:43he's my adversary. 100%.
- 32:45Unknown: So just out of curiosity, Glenn, if you didn't have Roundup to to use on your field, like, what would your dad have been using?
- 32:53Unknown: We would have tilled our ground, which we we've we've done in the past, and we would have till to if we wanted to go from fescue to,
- 33:02let's say, crabgrass
- 33:03or or alfalfa or something else that that we could cut for hay,
- 33:09we we would well, we've been told that tillage we've got to do away with tillage because of the runoff and soil erosion.
- 33:16Well, Roundup
- 33:18lets us
- 33:19use no till we
- 33:20rented a drill off the county
- 33:23and and we've been planting wheat the last few days. So,
- 33:27that's what we'd have to do is we'd have to till plow deep, you know, and then and disk.
- 33:33And so there would just be runoff if we're at a big rain event.
- 33:36Unknown: You know, it's so easy when people,
- 33:38talk about getting rid of something. They don't they don't have to have an answer for for what would be the the opposite of that. And that's why I'm always saying, farmers, if you're getting something taken away, just show people what you did before.
- 33:50Because they often perceive,
- 33:52we're using Roundup because we're either too dumb, we don't we don't know that we that this is this terrible chemical, or we don't care. But that's never true. You choose Roundup because it's superior than the other options, and people don't have any concept what the other options were.
- 34:07Unknown: Well, the only other option is
- 34:10and plow. And we've been taught,
- 34:13you know, in elementary school that,
- 34:15you know, you need to get rid of your plows because,
- 34:18it just causes solar roads. Bad for the environment. We the soil. And and I get it, and I agree. But Roundup is the tool that we have in our toolbox to eliminate tillage.
- 34:29Unknown: Well, I, I'm with you on that one. I think he is a worthy adversary, and I'm I'm also in agreement. Like, something's gotta be done on, on these other issues about American health, and
- 34:39I don't know. I don't know what we're gonna do.
- 34:42Well, Glenn, I wanna thank you so much for coming on the show. If, people found your way of thinking interesting, I don't think you're a social media guy, but, how would people reach out to you?
- 34:54Unknown: Well, I'm chairman of the MFA Oil board of directors, and, I've got, my email address there. But,
- 35:01yeah,
- 35:02you know, Van, I love what I do. And and we're very blessed. I tell my kids every day,
- 35:08be thankful.
- 35:09We live where we do, and we have the occupation to do because,
- 35:13there's you don't have to look very far
- 35:16away. Folks in urban areas, they they may think they got it good, but,
- 35:20us out here in in rural America, we have a good
- 35:25Unknown: Well, Glenn, I am so glad,
- 35:28to have become friends with you, and thank you so much for coming on the show.
- 35:32Unknown: Thank you, man.
- 35:34Unknown: Alright. That's gonna do it for the Ag Tribes report this week.
- 35:37As I sign off, I, I wanted to talk a little bit about something.
- 35:42You know, with legacy interviews, I get a chance to sit down with people reflecting on their lives and the things that happened to them and how they reacted to it.
- 35:51And, one of the things that happened
- 35:54recently was I had a very deep conversation
- 35:56with a woman that had had experienced a lot of tragedy.
- 36:00And, one of the things that she said as we were leaving was, I'm so glad I got to talk about this. I'm so glad I got to
- 36:08really break down what happened and think about it and think about it in the context
- 36:12of my life years after those things.
- 36:16So while I would love to interview your loved ones, this is what we do here, all the time. And if you're interested, you can go to legacyinterviews.com.
- 36:24But I would really encourage
- 36:26everyone out there to talk with your parents,
- 36:30to find the time, not just fitting it in between things, but to make an hour or two to go talk about another person's life, to hear about what it was that they went through,
- 36:41and watch how much it can change their life, their experience of those memories,
- 36:47to give them a chance to reflect on it. And so I really hope and encourage
- 36:51that you do that. And if we can help you out, go to legacyinterviews.com
- 36:55to find out more. I'm gonna wrap up. We will be back next week,
- 36:59but I am so glad that you joined us this week. And as always, feel free to disagree.
- 37:06So the conference organizer has a terrible challenge.
- 37:10The audience can pull out their phone and pull up anyone talking about anything.
- 37:15How do you find somebody
- 37:17that is both going to reach every single person in that audience and yet still have that spike of energy where people are electrified because they're hearing about things that they aren't used to or that make them think about things in a different way?
- 37:30The most important question that I ask a conference organizer is, what is it that you want people to feel? What emotion do you want them to have when we leave this talk? What's their disposition? How are they gonna interact with one another? What does this prompt in the people that are there?
- 37:46It's not just the information. What you're giving them is energy, a reason to be there in that moment.
- 37:53Now they take that energy and they share it amongst each other.
- 37:57For me, the best speech is when people walk away being like, I now have a tangible skill,
- 38:04but they didn't necessarily readily accept it and they had to grapple with it. They set their phone down, they leaned forward, they said, how do I feel about this? And through that, an energy is created that is not about the speaker, it's about the person listening to the speech. It's far beyond motivation,
- 38:21it's actually giving people skills.