Latest / AG Bull / Ag Squawk with April Hemmes | Midwest Grain Markets and a Farmer’s Reality Check

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Ag Squawk with April Hemmes | Midwest Grain Markets and a Farmer’s Reality Check · AG Bull

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: While the markets were a little quieter today, taking a breath, maybe after yesterday's impressive performance, we'll check in with Genuine Ag Royalty.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: And from what I hear, she's bringing a bonnet full of bees.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: From behind the big blue bodacious microphone of Ag Bull in Kansas City, USA, welcome to AgSquawk, everybody.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Your pal Davis Michelson here with you.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a super great guest today.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm really excited.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: She agreed to meet with us.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: We'll get to her in a moment.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: But first, we should at least look at the markets today.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: You can get all the details, I guess, at Agbull.com with Ag Bull Intel.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: But after some upside fireworks in the corn and beans and the wheat, all three markets opened steady to hire, but quickly fell under light selling pressure with winter wheat futures leading lower.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Chicago wheat was the first to stick its neck out, firming two cents into positive territory ahead of mid-borning.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: By the end of the lunch hour, corn, beans, and Chicago wheat were all into positive territory.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about the closes.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: As you might know, we get our closes from plus 500.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: We use plus 500 T4 software every day for real-time quotes and many, many more very usable features.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's plus 500 plus 500 says.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: At the settlements today, corn up, I'll call it five six and a half cents.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: December corn up six and a half to four sixty-four and a quarter.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Beaners up about by the same amount.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, uh up nine and three quarters in the August.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: The Nove up five and a half to eleven ninety-seven and three-quarters, bumping up on 12 bucks in the Novi beans, bean meal, bean oil, both higher on the day.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: And uh both Chicago and KC wheat higher.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Chicago up about four to six cents.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's call out the Sept up four and a half to six eighteen and a half.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: The September KC up three cents, even to 66.52 and three quarters.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Over to the livestock, cattle and hogs under pressure for most of the day.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Lean hogs leading declines at noon central time.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Cattle ended the day under light selling pressure with hogs moderately lower.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to click over here on my plus 500.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: There we go.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: It looks like your September cattle down 47.5.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: The October contract and beyond out to the January down just over a dollar.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is after the closes.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Let's look at the August, the October there actually.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: 62.5 lower, 234.02.5 in the hogs.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of a tough day for the hogs.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh let's go, let's go October, 92.5 lower, 81.65.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: And December lean hogs closed 75 cents lower on the day, 73.57 and a half.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: And if you happen to catch this morning's morning edition of Ag Squawk, you might have noticed that Judge Jed did sign me up to shout out the crude markets this afternoon.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Getting a little hot again.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: What do you know?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: Over in the Strait of Hormuz.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm calling it quiet-ish in the West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures today.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: Your August up$2.11 presently.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's as of uh 2.04 Central Time.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Then we look out, let's look out a little further.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: The D's up a buck 42.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the September right now trading right just over$70 a barrel.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: So uh not a whole lot of fireworks in the in the crude oil today, despite you know, those ongoing tensions at some point.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I talked to Brian Split about this just last week.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, at some point it's all factored in, and the news sort of looks elsewhere.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: It seems a little early.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: This conflict is not that old, but I there may be just enough talk of peace sort of mixed in with the incendiaries that the people are hoping for a resolution here and proving it with with the way the crude oil futures look.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: All right, with that.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: With that, we're on to the good part, people.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna bring in farmer and ag diplomat, her royal hemis.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: Join me in welcoming April Hemis, everybody.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: April Hemis, welcome to Ag Squawk.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's so great to see you.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's quite the greeting.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, uh hot, humid here in Iowa, been working outside.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: I have my two PMSs, personal man servants, out there moving some rocks.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: We're deconstructing a pond.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm letting maybe mistakenly, one's running a skid loader and the other one's my mini excavator, and they're taking turns, so they're so happy.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Deconstructing a pond, is that just a fancy way?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: We're filling in a hole, pretty much, yeah, yeah.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: It was my husband's, and I go, decide what you're gonna do with this because when you die, I am don't want to move all those rocks again.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: So we're moving them while we have help.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, very good, very good.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: I uh now seriously, you you really do uh an awful lot to spread the good news of agriculture around the world.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: You've been on some boards and things, you've got all kinds of stuff going.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, in addition to farming, we'll talk about your farming in just a moment, but give us just a couple of uh bullet points, a little something to look forward to in the conversation.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: What is talk about your diplomatic work?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, I do a lot of things like this.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm talking to people around the world doing podcasts.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: I've been on the Iowa Soybean Board, United Soybean Board, and a lot of other boards that have enabled me to travel around the world and talk about how great best agriculture is and what we do to raise fantastic crops.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, this, Davis, is my 41st year farming.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: I cannot believe I've been farming that long.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: Soybeans and corn here in north central Iowa.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: You must have started farming when you were like two years old, right?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: Is that the secret?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: 12.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was 12, yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I know among your uh among your list of accomplishments, you've been on a show that I listen to sometimes.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's Marketplace with Kai Rizdall.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: Kai's driven my combine, he's been out to my farm.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, very good.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to us about that farm.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you at?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, how how's it looked this year?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: I talked to Hamer last week.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: I asked him if he was knee high.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: He said it's over his head and he's 5'10.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, he's it's it's tasseling now.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: I started tasseling the 4th of July, so no more knee high by the 4th of July.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's tasseling right now.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: Beans are really catching up.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: They were short for a while, don't like that wet feet, but now they're growing.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: I just put just sprayed, re-sprayed some.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: If anyone can tell me how to kill water hemp once, I would love to know.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: But re-sprayed the inroads that I sprayed once.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: So hopefully that gets it under control.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, it's it's July in Iowa and we're kind of winding down.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: And so you take care of the special projects like deconstructing a pond.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Has it it sounded like Ted had a pretty has had pretty easy sailing.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: I believe he's up a little further north of you.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: How is the weather training?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: He's actually south of me.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: South east, east and south.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's beautiful.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: We're getting just the right amount of rain, not too much wind, not the big storms.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: Had like two and a half inches of rain last week, and I was out spraying today, so you know, it's I'm not gonna complain.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: I just hope Illinois keeps getting crappy weather, so the price goes up.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, have you done anything differently this year?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know what?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: No, I've talked to some people who are cutting back on fungicide or you know, trying to handle those input costs.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: And every time I've tried to go cheap, it just does not work well for me.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I just did the same thing.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: Fungicides going on because of all the wet weather we had.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know, those diseases are out there.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: So, and then I already have the bugs if I have to spray insecticides.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: So fingers crossed, no bugs.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: All right, well, good.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for letting us get to know your uh your operation just a little bit.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: I need to do some housekeeping here, April.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Viewers, if you I don't have to sweep or anything, do I?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing at all.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, continue to look pretty.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's all we need you to do.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: So yesterday we had the the premiere entry from the Ag Bowl Glee Club, and I went back and listened to it, and something was wrong with the audio.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: They gave it to me on eight-track tape, and it just it didn't come through.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: So if you don't mind, I said, guys, you gotta give this.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: This is a digital age now.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta give it to me on digital.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I've got another piece of tape here.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: I would like to play it if you don't mind, and that'll help us into our into our next topic of conversation.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: Are you ready?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Here comes uh the ag here comes the Ag Bull Glee Club.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Take two.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hope she works.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Work will be a breeze.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe finally get that brand new flying pickup truck.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Walk around and fill the suits with matching silver boots.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be like Star Trek on the farm in 250.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Automatic gate fails, that's back without your help.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Farm without the blisters or gold ears, in two hundred and fifty years.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: That'd be nice.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, maybe we'll have cold ears.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, but in all seriousness, beers would be better than cold ears.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, and it rhymes.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'll write that down for the guys.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Cold beer and cold ears.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: All right, you got it?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, they already wrote it down.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they love it, they're loving it.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about the future of ag.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: I was looking at the Purdue Ag Economy Barometer today.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: You shouldn't have.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: It just seems like, you know, there's a lot of talk about AI and technology and all this sort of stuff.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like farmers are thinking, yeah, okay, but prove it before I'm gonna spend any money on this, before I'm going to invest in, you know, this or that technology, and yet they keep telling us this is the future.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we we we've got to progress somewhere.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about in your mind, what does the future of agriculture look like, April?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I think we're pretty good at progressing, really.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: Think of how far we've come, and I always tell the story of my grandpa who lived to be 101 years old.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: He started farming with three horses and lived long enough to see auto steer come in.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's one lifetime.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, I think back in when I started farming, I have almost doubled my corn production, double my bean production for sure.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Roundup Ready Beans.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: And but um, you know, think as far as seed technology and the equipment technology and everything we have.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: Now we're looking towards autonomous and drones.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: I remember doing a little pot, well, it wasn't a podcast thing because it was a while ago, but John Deere asked, you know, the future in 15 years, and I said, drones that shoot out lasers and kill weeds as it goes through the field.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: Ugh seed and spray, you know, not lasers, but you know, so and I know so think about that.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: It was unthinkable 15 years ago to us, you know, out there.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: So I think sky's the limit, and it really excites me.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: You just have to make it affordable for those of us who farm, you know, who can't who buy the you know, the dumpster divers, as I call myself.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: I get the one the I don't get the brand new shiny out of the box.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: I get the oh, you're done with that?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, let you know, I'll buy it from you.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, you just have to make it affordable for us.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I gotta say, there's probably gotta be something pretty satisfying about weed control where you can actually see fire shoot out and incinerate weeds.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: How many farmers have sat on tractors over the last, I don't know, however many years.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: He flames his corn, and then I'm like, oh my god, when did I spray?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: I automatically think, and then I text him and I go, Please tell me you flamed your corn.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I love hearing you seeing you freak out.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, we have a great relationship.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and he brought up a good point about how you know yields have doubled and and all this sort of stuff.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't heard anything like this, so don't panic, everyone.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: I I just want to bounce this off you.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: At some point, don't we reach terminal productivity?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're getting as much as we can out of a plant, out of the dirt, and at some point we just sort of hit the ceiling on productivity.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: I would I I agree with you.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, how much can a corn, you know?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: I know you do the short stature, but is the ear gonna be as big as the stock, you know, there, you know, or do we move away from corn and go to something else?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: Are there gonna be, you know, another type of breeding where they, you know, put two together and figure something else out?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Who knows?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: The technology is amazing.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: And like and like one of my PMSs, I said you figure, I'm sorry, personal man servant, Wes or Wesley is what I call him.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_03: He I said, 'You figure your hours out, and he goes, 'Just a minute, let AI do it for me.' Well, he had his, I worked from eight till four, whatever.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: He wrote that down in the notes, and then he had AI figure his hours out for him.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I went, super genius.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and and he's gonna be a sophomore in high school, so you know, so they're already learning as old parts like me.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: It'll take a while.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: I use Claude to make spreadsheets and stuff like that, which I think is pretty cool for me, but just just the ability of the AI to do figure out cost of production and things like that, you know, has been great.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: But I think we've used AI out in the fields a lot more than what we're given credit for.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: And farmers are very good at adapting to technology.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: If we see it works and we can afford it, we'll do it.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: And usually, even if we can't afford it, we'll do it.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let me just throw out just AI can't duplicate the rubber pencil.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm doing this just so that the viewers will know that we are actually real people, and that I'm doing the rubber pencil trick right here.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: No, if I was AI, you'd make me a lot better looking.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just saying.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, here's the thing the wife and I were just talking about this actually over lunch, the data centers.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if if we want to do if we want to support increased AI function, if we want to support autonomy out in the field with implements and such, that makes kind of a stronger case for the the data centers.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: What are you hearing in your area about?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_03: Nobody wants because they use water, yeah, yeah.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I I guess one of my beeps with it is no one has really made the case for why we need this.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: I I I feel like they know what they wanted, what they want it for, but part of what kind of makes it creepy is no one will just say, Well, what is because it makes it easier for human beings, we don't have to figure things out, you know.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I remember somebody asking me, Why do you need auto steer?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: You can just steer.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I looked at them and I thought, because I can.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I said it frees me up to look for rocks to pick up my phone, watch the markets, you know, things I said it's a lot easier on my brain, and people who don't farm or sit in a combine for the entire day don't get that, you know.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: So all right, yeah.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's fair.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about uh your your travels to and from distant lands over the years.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: We touched on it just a little bit.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: Roberto, we've got uh we've got some pictures here.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Would you pull up those photographs for us, please, sir?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: And and April, once we get him here, we'll talk about uh who we've got there.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: You've been all over the place, various boards and things like that.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: I have been very fortunate to talk around the world.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think I've been, I counted about 30 countries and um China, I think eight times.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't need to go to China again.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just saying.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: But but it was great, and you get to know the people, and like the the head guy at the time, the honorable Mr.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_03: President Bien, is what we called him, and his first name was like really long, so I just called him Bob, not to his face, and so anyway, he drove my combine, but he was in charge of all of the products, agriculture products that China imports except or exports except soybeans, and they import it.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: So he's kind of a big big deal there, and you know, I knew him as Bob, not to his face, but you know, to see him in my combine and his face, and it just lit up.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: This was a I just hosted last week.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: There are soybean buyers from Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, all around Pakistan, Dubai, Africa.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: One of them goes, I saw you do a talk in Dubai, and I said, Oh, great.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: So it's fun, especially showing like crappy intros right there.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: So all of you farmers watching, that's an inro, and I ran on those beans a lot.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I just figured that all those people trampled over those beans on their way to the field there.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: I wish I'm like, why did we take our picture there?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, they had been to Iowa State to the feed mill doing classes and learning all there.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then they brought in they showed Cargill at Paul's, and that's where most of my beans go.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: Came up to my farm and I took them out to the bean field, and then they went to a neighbor's farm and saw a big grain leg set up.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: So anytime you can show them what they're buying, you know, and prove to them how we take care of our land and talk to them.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: That that goes a long way.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: Those personal relationships can't beat them.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is is that typically the objective when you either have people come over from overseas or when you go visit far-flung places there just to just to sort of be there and say, hey, we're real people here, we're doing real stuff, and we've got a really, really great product that's better than get any place else.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: Is that well, yeah, especially especially like when they say, but I get so much foreign material and higher, you know.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so I'll show them a video of either the a field or when I'm combining.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Do you see any weeds?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: Do you just see beans?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: I said, It's just how you know, I might take it to my local co-op.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that goes on a train, well, that goes down to the port, you know, they mix it in.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's how we do things here in the US.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: So you can show them this is well, how much foreign material?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: I pull up the thing from cargo or the co-op and say 0.1% FM, you know.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: So just knowing it that and showing them what we do, it really does go a long way.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: So and and the personal relationships are are something, especially when they go.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: you farm you're a girl you know that really that really gets them and then when it's a woman buyer like i am treated like her royal hemis so i i have no doubt as you should be oh sound sound effects let me ask you this you so you've been all over the place where where have they served you the weirdest food what's the weird thing that you've eaten could you could you jellyfish brains philippines jellyfish brains in china yeah who knew they had brains i think it was just uh scrambled eggs with a bunch of really yucky steak tasting stuff in it well i was gonna ask was it good the one that the one that gets everybody's in when i was in south korea and they don't do this everywhere but the guy with me wanted uh and i can't remember the name of it they cut the legs off the octopus and then put lemon juice on them so they're still moving and then we dip them in hot sauce and and eat them and i videoed that and it gave a lot of people nightmares yeah yeah yeah i may don't choose it by the way just swallow it yeah just swallow that's the trick yeah yeah yeah so why eat it you know but that's that's two of the more memorable ones yeah and they're a pretty gutsy eater oh my favorite drink so we went to ukraine and russia in one trip now you couldn't do that today right no yeah and they were doing the Ukrainian song you know it was they're singing and dancing and they bring over this drink and it's yellow it's in a little glass and I go oh lemon cello I love lemon cello and I took a big swig of it horseradish vodka horseradish vodka who so think of your brain ready for lemon cello and it's horseradish vodka that's uh that's an unwelcome surprise to be sure I wonder who was the first that was like you know what we should do vodka yes yes and they're high five and really this is what and then they were probably the back watch and going he's gonna drink it he's gonna drink it and then we go to Russia and then you have to have shots of vodka with lunch right you know and you do a toast so I say you know we we may speak different languages but we all talk ag you know blah blah blah yeah and this this was during the first trade war with Trump and so all their soybeans our second biggest soybean region is over by China way over to the I don't know east or west whichever it is on the other side of the world but they just puked our beans right down to China and this big old soybean breeder gets up and he goes if Trump keeps up these cheg for we will give him Russian metal and it's like okay wow well and so I've had some good experiences.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah yeah that's that's really eye-opening because we've you know we we talk about on paper well you know that demand's got to go somewhere and you you saw that first hand didn't you yep sure did yeah well april if we're not we're gonna run out of time before we get some of these bees loosed from your bonus yes let's talk about the bees what's what's on your mind let we'll go one at a time give me a I'm trying to do this without swearing because one goes into the other one nitrates in the water okay you guys don't have the Des Moines Waterworks who is anyway so that's all they report on is the nitrate levels in the water and the thing is is the nitrate levels come out of your drinking tap they take in Des Moines they take it out of Des Moines River which my water doesn't go there mine goes the other way to Cedar Rapids so they're always reporting this and then we'll go but it's safe to drink but it's safe to drink well then why are they reporting the nitrate levels and if they've gone up or down and things like that.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: And then all these politicians see you really got me on it are talking about nitrates in the water and how these pesticides and everything the farmers doing is giving us cancer.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why Iowa has the second highest new cancer rate whatever you know they go on and on and we're I'm going show me the proof you know they don't have proof but it's we're in the middle of a blame game and that's what upsets me and gets me going.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know you can blame the farmers on a lot but show us the proof that that is really what's happening here.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: And why isn't Minnesota and why isn't Illinois and why isn't Nebraska you know so so for me since I love a good challenge the Holden Cancer Center which is the only accredited cancer center in the state of Iowa called after they heard me on it was either Marketplace or the daily podcast I was on that one too with Michael Babero.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: And they said we realized we don't have a farmer on our advisory council and I go oh you don't have somebody you're blaming all the cancer on or I didn't say you I meant the people and they go yeah we don't and so I said oh okay I'll be on it but don't think I'm gonna be quiet and so I got on that then they're paying my way on the Iowa Cancer Consortium and I'm on the environmental work group there.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been it's been fun representing the farmers let's put it that way but the good thing about it is that the can't the the cancer people all the people working on this research they get it it's not just from one thing and a lot of it's personal choices of what we do you know so so that's why I I'm giving the farmers a voice and saying you know hey we're doing all we can and we have I have I have cover crops, edge field practices, no teal no till you know it's not you know let's then let's do the research let's see what's causing this and then you hear well it's really hard to research that well then quit blaming every us you know yeah I remember sitting and talking with then and this would have been well probably 10 years ago with the Iowa State Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northy.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: I know you know you knew Bill.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes I knew Bill very well I took him to a house party at Iowa State that sounds I lived with his sister yeah that surprised me but I I went there specifically to talk to him about the nutrient reduction uh strategy or that all the time and you know he was he was quick to say well yeah okay maybe there are things that farmers can do to help minimize that but we've also got to look at I believe it's what they called point sources which are other industrial sources that have nothing to do with farming that find you know that that end up with with chemicals in the in the water as well especially in and around the Des Moines area plus our beautiful black soils naturally decompose you know and then they're not talking about the radon which is like people are getting lung cancer and that's proven you know so it's just that we're the easy target to blame so I like to give farmers a voice and say now wait a minute you know and I'm not that nice trust me well because because farmers are known bless their hearts I came from a a multi-generational farming folk farmers aren't one to to speak up and raise their hands and and make a stink you know it's it's that's not how I was raised and so when there is a farmer who is skilled in doing that and not not intimidated to do so uh like yourself we really we really you are a treasure you're a treasure to agriculture this is where we're like come on just don't you give me compliments no it's it and it is you just it's hard it's it like I said you cannot put the this in a tweet it doesn't fit in a social media little box you know we just have to have the conversations and I don't mind having them so yeah yeah no you're right and that's I think that's one of the big problems with this is it's it's a very complicated problem with a series of sources and just the way that we are the most people are in the modern day it's this is the problem it's that person's fault it's the people's fault it's the blame game I don't want to go any further than that and just say oh well I've I've settled that in my mind and uh that's what that is now.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what the politicians and media are doing and it's it's a bee in my bonnet there my dangers.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah you got an that's only one of them give me one more give me one more that was a really good one that was really good.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Really okay uh the well then we don't have to talk about the price of inputs and how it's not gonna get better and what do old people like me looking going well do I retire or keep going and you know it's not gonna get better.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: So all the messing around by the government and what here's the okay and here's the big the big huge B.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_03: How do we get away from depending on the government all these ad hoc payments let's figure it out and there's no easy here here we go we which that's another one we're gonna have to sit down talk about it negotiate and try to figure something out because farmers we cannot keep going like we are you know and and as the well the country can't the country can't keep we can't we don't have that much money well you may just have to run for Congress April if you no see I used to say this has no filter but then we elected Donald Trump so I can't say that anymore.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm there I got political I didn't mean to oh that's all right you just sort of hinted hinted at the uh at the political world um that's all right I'm banished anyway so you know well that's kind of one of the reasons you you mentioned inputs and just sort of the cost of the cost of doing business as a farmer you know we we'll we'll see it come down a little bit at some point probably but you know I'm kind of of the mind if you look at the chart once it's gone up to a certain level it's only going to come back so far because now it's almost like well we've we've set the we've set the the highest tolerance that farm country will put up with and that's going to be the new low price is that right and I remember going on marketplace when the prices were really high and said well our inputs always go up when our corn and soybean prices are high and Kai goes well why and I go because they can yeah because they know we'll pay it it's capitalism and he's like oh yeah and it shoots up like they say shoots up like a rocket comes down like a feather you know yeah and they're all saying oh well fertilizers come down well not a lot of us are using fertilizer right now but I do want to book it in August is when I always do so you know oh well and we can't keep raising I mean our inputs went up whatever two to four percent two years ago then last year then this year that's you know it's gonna be 15 to 20 percent in a few years and that's something not sustainable for my farm and I'm a pretty darn low cost producer so I imagine you know yeah well you got those two guys helping you out too I imagine that's that's right PMS are out there.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah cheap labor they have a baseball game so I don't know if they've gone there I'm a pretty easy first boss let me say that you gotta go go yeah well very good April with that let's save the uh the rest of the bees for another time uh tell me about the weather you mentioned when you came on it was did you say hot and dry there right now or yes it hasn't rained for like two days so that's oh yeah well we missed the showers this morning but ample moisture like I said we're tasseling now beans are flowering life is pretty good here in north central Iowa outstanding well the National Weather Service says severe thunderstorms producing damaging winds are most likely over parts of the Dakotas into Minnesota from this afternoon into the overnight with other isolated storms producing hailer wind over the northern high plains in the northern plains and the upper great lakes and mid-Atlantic heavy to excessive rain may bring flash and urban flooding through Wednesday with that April just with the the little bit of time that we have left I have some my items of mild interest are you uh are you interested in being mildly interested I'm mildly interested in being mildly interested excellent well on this day in 1954 I'm gonna need my guitar for this one do you mind if I grab my guitar?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how it's gonna sound coming through here I'm not really set on okay but in 1954 on WHBQ in Memphis Tennessee Elvis Elvis Presley's first single That's All Right debuted this day July 7 in 1954 goes a little something like this well that's all right mama that's all right for you that's all right mama just anyway do that's all right now well that's all right mama anyway do all right that's enough of that the celebration of World Chocolate Day is all about the consumption of chocolate chocolate was introduced to Europe on July 7 the year 1550 and finally in Chilla Coffee Missouri I uh did some extensive research to make sure I'm pronouncing that right Chilla Coffee Missouri 1928 July 7 1928 sliced bread was sold for the first time by the Chilla Coffee baking company of Chilla Coffee April I imagine you don't have time to slice your own bread you may not even bake your own bread fair statement my husband bakes bread oh well he does yeah yeah yeah he hasn't lately used to bake one time he baked like 60 some loaves for people for Christmas wow I know wow is there anything better than fresh baked bread out of the oven with butter on it and well except maybe fresh baked sliced bread perhaps okay that's true yes perhaps if they go to chilli coffee then okay coffee we know how to say that now it's been a good day it's been a good day a quick random thought to ponder from President Abraham Lincoln who said quote in April I I bet you can get behind this Abraham Lincoln says quote the best way to predict your future is to create it I like that a lot farming is one of those businesses where you can kind of do that.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yep we can create it we can create or screw it up there is that risk as well that's you know that's true freedom to create or that's that's freedom that's freedom well thanks for watching everybody for Royal hemis hemis April hemis thank you so much for spending a pleasure I know you're busy you got the pond thing going you got dignitaries coming in you're giving tractor rides thanks for carving out a little bit of time for us April that's uh that's really great we really do appreciate it I hope you'll come back on again sometime anytime good to see you Dennis well and may I direct you beloved viewer to agbull.com where you can dig deeper with Ag Bull Intel when Abraham Lincoln says the best way to predict your future is to create it look for agbull.com take your marketing by the horns with agbull visit agbol.com or call 855-737 Farm for the details tomorrow afternoon I'll chat with Doug Hensley president of Hertz Real Estate about farmland trends right here on AgSquawk for Jed Joe Lindsay and Guillermo it's Davis Michelson saying thanks for being here we'll be back tomorrow with more Ag Squawking