April 1, 2026 • 25 mins
Lessons From the Delta continues — this time from the perspective of farmers managing one of the most intensive production systems in U.S. agriculture.
In Episode 6 of the Purdue Commercial AgCast mini-series, Chad Fiechter and Todd Kuethe visit with Terry and Trent Dabs of LTD Farms near Stuttgart, Arkansas, to discuss what it takes to operate a rice-based farming system in the Mississippi Delta.
What emerges is a detailed look at a production environment shaped by water management, labor demands, and capital intensity—where daily decisions around irrigation, equipment, and timing carry significant economic consequences.
The conversation also discusses:
• Why rice production requires constant water management and monitoring • How labor constraints shape daily operations and long-term strategy • The impact of intensive field conditions on machinery and capital decisions • How rice is marketed and how payment differs from corn and soybeans • The role of global markets in determining profitability
As Delta farmers navigate a system defined by irrigation dependence and production intensity, the discussion raises important questions: What does it take to manage risk in a high-cost production system? How do labor and water constraints shape farm structure? And what lessons apply beyond the Delta?
This episode builds on earlier conversations about production systems and farmland economics, and brings the focus directly to the farm level.
We’ll also continue sharing video clips and behind-the-scenes footage from the Arkansas trip on our YouTube channel throughout the series.
Subscribe to the Purdue Commercial AgCast so you don’t miss upcoming episodes in the Lessons From the Delta series.
For more farm management resources, visit: 👉 https://purdue.ag/commercialag
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We can take a brand new combineand wear it out in three years.
Rice is very labor intensive.
It is also very hard on your equipment.
Welcome to the Purdue Commercial AgCast.
This is Chad Fiechter.
And Todd and I spent some timein Arkansas, talking with farmers
(00:20):
about what they're seeing.
What's working, what's changing,and what might be surprising
to Midwestern grain farmers.
This special series, Lessons fromthe Delta, is what we learned.
I'm Trent Dabs.
I'm here with my dad,Terry Dabs, uh, LTD Farms.
We're about eight miles south,the Stuttgart, Arkansas.
Right smack dab in the middle ofthe Grand Prairie area they call it.
(00:42):
And, uh, big, big rice growing area.
But we also grow corn,soybeans, and oats as well.
Oh wow, okay.
We feel more comfortable now.
Yeah.
We grow a little bit of Midwest stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's good.
Not, not quite as good as ya are, but
We spend a lot of time talking to folksabout water specifically, and you said
something very interesting at the,when we, when we rolled up, which is
(01:05):
that you're not using groundwater here.
Right.
So this, this farm where we're at and alarge area right here in this southeast
part of Arkansas, stretching up to thenortheast, where you guys were earlier,
uh, groundwater's really been depletedand kind of in a cone of depression here.
And, uh, this spot here, the,the last time we checked, um,
(01:26):
groundwater, if we drilled a well,it had to be about 400 feet deep.
Geez.
And you're only talking aboutgetting what, maybe a thousand
gallons per minute out of that.
Oh man.
And then the energy cost to operate it.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
You talking about two?
We've got one, one deep well lefton this, on this area, on this farm.
We've got 1500 acre block and then anotherblock and it still has one deep well.
(01:48):
And it's got a 200 horseelectric that pulls it.
Uh, and when you turn it on,the meter spins really fast.
Yeah.
So we try not.
Unless we just have to.
How long, how long haveyou guys been farming here?
Um, we took over in '98.
Yeah.
'98. Yeah.
This farm was actually owned by myfather-in-law, my wife's family.
(02:10):
Okay.
And so he retired in '98 and we started.
We were farming down theroad about eight miles.
Okay.
And, and then our families,our family farms down there.
Gotcha.
And then, so he decided to retire,asked us to take this over.
So like I said, we started here in '98.
And, uh, made lots and lotsof improvements, uh, because
(02:33):
of the water situation.
We put in, it had open canals on it,so we put in all underground pipe and
then we got in into a program that hadsome cost share in it and precision
level this whole 1500 acre block.
Wow.
Whoa.
That's, uh, we're learningThat's quite an investment.
Yeah.
(02:54):
Kidding?
Yeah.
Big investments.
Yeah.
And we couldn't do it withoutsome cost share programs.
There's no way youcould do it on your own.
Right.
Yeah.
It's just too expensive.
So are they, are they, uh, sowe've learned a little bit that
they're some that are gradedto some degree of, of slope.
Are these flat?
What are,
We've got one field, theone right here behind you.
(03:14):
Is what we call a zero grade.
So it's perfectly flat.
The rest of them, uh, have straight leveesand they're just whatever fit that field.
Okay.
Some levees are 200 feet apart in somefields, and some are a hundred feet part.
Uh, we just tried to work with whatthe natural contour of the ground
(03:35):
was to start with, to, to keepfrom having to move a lot of dirt.
Yeah.
And you put like a 10th, 10th drop on it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Some of 'em we have wherever you need to.
We have a 10th, a 10th, everyhundred feet, and some of 'em
we have a 10th every 200 feet.
Right.
Got it.
Okay.
So we told you when we walked upthat we've talked to a lot of people
(03:55):
who maybe tell you how you should,uh, you should be doing this.
So give us the, what we wanna knownow is like the real farmer behind
the scenes, what's reality of farmingrice, corn, and soybeans here?
Throw all that out thewindow that you've learned.
Um, it's, this year especiallyhas been real challenging.
(04:18):
We thought we were set up really good.
We had a early dry spring,got a lot of field work done.
We got started planning probablywhat, uh, end of March, 1st of
April, and then it started raining.
Hasn't quit yet.
I mean, we, we've, we're sittinghere, we've been sitting for a week
trying to get the rest of our beansplanted behind our oats that we had.
(04:39):
And seems like about the time itdries up, we get another half.
Fence to an inch rain.
And so, uh, it's been real challengingthis year, and especially in rice, uh,
it gets worse because the timing ongetting chemical applications out for
grass control, uh, is very importantand, and getting, uh, fertilizer out
(05:01):
and establishing that first flood on therise, that's, that's really critical.
And it's been a big challenge this year.
And in the last four or fiveyears, it's been a big challenge
trying to get that timing down.
And, uh, get everything out on time.
So the other thing we've, uh, heardfolks talk about, uh, is like the
(05:23):
challenge of finding good labor.
Like what's, what is thatfor you guys as well here?
How many people
It is.
So two of you and,
well, up until this year we had mydad and I, and we had two full-time
people and, uh, that was a stretchfor, we farmed right at 3,500 acres.
Uh, a little over a thousand of that rock.
(05:43):
Rice is very labor intensive, especiallythe beginning of the year getting,
getting that flood established.
Uh, it is pretty labor intensive.
So we were, we were in apretty tough situation.
Uh, we were luckily enough tofind another guy, a local guy this
year who had a ton of experience.
Him and his dad farmed and, uh, theydecided to re decided to retire.
(06:07):
So he's, he's helping us now.
And then we, uh, went the H two A routeand picked up a, a guy from South Africa.
Good.
That's, uh, he's been here before.
Worked for a neighbor of ours before,and it's, uh, it's, man, it's, it's,
it's made a huge difference for us.
But yeah, the labor,labor situation's bad.
I, I would love to hire four localguys if I could, but we just.
(06:29):
We can't do it anymore.
I mean, that's worth, worth having,
is it?
Okay, so we on our farm too, we hadit where we were paying virtually
the same price to have H two A. Itwas just that they, he was, they
were here and, and wanted to work.
Do you find the same?
I, I do.
So far, like I said, that guy's, he'sonly been here a couple months with us.
Uh, and, and I'm very pleased with it.
(06:50):
Uh, yeah, like I said, he's, he's,he's here to work and, and that's fine.
And like I said, we did the same thing.
We, it's not like we weren'tpaying the guys to, to do the job.
It just, it just wouldn't show up or, youknow, there was always something happening
and, um, it just, sometimes you just gettired of it and you gotta do something.
I mean, we've gotta have, gotta have help.
Uh, either he or i'sgetting any younger, so.
(07:16):
Okay.
So, alright, so give us the,um, what I'm also interested
in is like farming culture.
It, it seems like you were sayingit's maybe a tiny bit with rice,
especially more labor intensive.
How does that affect sort of likethe way you think through your year
planning for next year labor machinery?
Like what, what are the bottlenecks?
What do you, what are you planning for?
(07:37):
Well, there's the issue with ricethat I see that's different from the
other crops is how do you manage.
The residue at the end of the year.
Uh, you know, a lot of programs now are,are cover crop programs, you know, minimum
till no till conservation programs.
We love those.
(07:58):
There's nothing wrong with those, but ina rice situation that's very difficult.
There's, there's a lotof residue behind rice.
You get a wet fall, you rut yourfields up trying to get the rice out.
I mean, you've got to do tillage.
I mean, it's, it's eitherthat or burn fields.
I mean, that's pretty much.
Options now, we do a lot of, ofconservation efforts, uh, for waterfowl.
(08:20):
We pretty, a lot of our rice, weflood back up at the end of the
year, leave water on it, all wintercomes duck and geese habitat.
Uh, but then springtime nowyou're in the situation where
your ground's been flooded.
It's extremely wet now.
You gotta have a month or so to getall that water off and dried up.
So, uh, that's, that's the difference,the biggest difference to me in rice
(08:42):
farming culture versus grow crop.
Other, other culture is how wehad to manage residue and, and
get ready for the next year.
And then, uh, again, trying toalways contrast our experience
in corn Belt in Midwest.
Um, what are the sort of like.
Inputs that you like, not likethe, in, like how many people like,
(09:06):
do, like, do you have like seedsales and crop protection and all
the same sort of things, right?
Uh, um, but like, sort of likehow many different kind of
businesses are you interact.
With or entities, if that makes sense.
So we usually about two companiesthat we deal with mainly on seed, um,
(09:28):
that are large national companies.
And then we have some, a couplecompanies that we, uh, deliver
direct to us that we work with.
Uh, kind of the same deal on chemicals.
Um, okay.
As far as application, I doall, we do as much of our own
spraying, especially as we can.
We've got our own ground rig.
(09:48):
Matter of fact, I got a dronethat's supposed to be here Tuesday,
so I'm going to get into that.
Nice.
Uh, but then we use, and that's theother difference on rice is once it's
flooded, we have to use an airplane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There, there's no going out therewith a ground rig or like I said,
so is that something you likecustom in, you pay somebody to
come do the airplane right there.
So there's a couple services aroundhere that have three or four planes
(10:09):
each and, and they pretty muchcover the whole area, uh, especially
spraying and, and fertilizing.
So
when we first got here,I saw one and I was so.
That was like the coolest,and then we just like every 20
minutes kept seeing him again.
Again.
I was like, I guess it's not special.
It was special to me the first time Isaw it, but I could see you guys being
like, this dude's a total tourist dude.
(10:29):
So yeah, that, but kinda likeMidwestern as far as chemical and seed.
I mean, you got a couple, couple.
Companies that we deal withand kind of same varieties.
We, we grow decal corn,we grow revere corn.
That's one of the varieties that uh,we get that bring us direct to us.
And, uh,
are y'all mostly hybrid rice or,
well, we varieties.
We, for the past probably what,10 plus years we have been,
(10:52):
but we've kind of swapped.
Come back and Yeah, we've, uh,we're starting to, uh, grow
some Donna Grove varieties.
Okay.
Yeah.
Um, and we've got a coupleuniversity varieties Ozark.
Okay.
A couple fields of that this year,
you know, roec had turnedwith Seed Supply this year.
Mm-hmm.
So it forced us to goto some other varieties.
And then, and then at Harvest youtake it, and then do you mark it like
(11:15):
through a co-op or how does that work?
Yeah, most of our rice we do, we,there's the two, I don't know if they
are the largest, but they are two ofthe largest rice mill in the world are
about 10 miles from us in Stuttgart.
You got producers, ricemill and Riceland foods.
Uh, and we deliver to both those.
And, uh, every now and then wewill store some rice in our bins.
Just depends on the yearand what's going on, but.
(11:38):
Mainly we put corn and, and somesoybeans in our bins if we have to.
Um, because we have a, a poultryplant that's about 45 minutes from us
that, uh, they take a large portionof the corn that's grown around here.
Is there a difference?
Okay, so because there's not acommodity in exchange for rice.
So is it, how do you think about it for
(12:00):
Mark is on the Chicago?
There is,
it is.
Okay.
But it's very small trade.
Probably traded.
Okay.
There's only like two companiesthat trade on the board, but
it is listed on the board.
So how do you do it, how do you marketrice relative to your corn and soybeans?
Like what are the different steps?
Is it the same or what do you do?
No, the, the co-ops that we usehave uh, two marketing options.
(12:21):
One of 'em is called the pool option,which you just haul your, your rice,
say, I wanna put it in the pool.
They market it for youduring the entire year.
Mm-hmm.
So about every two to three monthsthey'll mail you, mail you a check.
Okay.
And, uh, they do all the marketing.
They also have an option that ifyou want to sell it yourself, then
(12:42):
you can call anytime you want to andsay how I want, sell the rice today.
Or you can, or you can call 'emand set a price on it and if it
reaches that price, it sells.
Uh, but that's their twomain marketing options.
And what, what's the, what's thefundamental price they're looking at like.
The day to day changes are just whatthey're seeing other people paying.
What's, how do they set that price?
(13:04):
It's a lot on what theycall the world price.
So things going on in India and Asiaand Vietnam affect the rice price a
lot more, uh, than say another crowd.
Okay.
So they're, they're having to watch thingsall over the world and, and they're trying
to sell rice from here all over the world.
(13:26):
Gotcha.
Really a on the global scale usIs Rice really a small player?
Yeah.
Uh, you know, you got China andIndia probably the two largest.
Yeah.
Rice growers in the world.
A lot of Southeast Asian rice.
Uh, so yeah, we're kind of a smallplayer when it comes to it, but, uh,
there's only six states that rice.
(13:47):
In the us.
In the us yeah.
And half of that comes from Arkansas.
Over half.
Over half.
Oh, over.
Man, come on.
It's, it's grown over the course of a day.
Don't sell a short, I'mnot gonna sell you short.
No, I'm here.
I'm here to, yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So Todd asked a really goodquestion about what is the most
underrated way to eat rice?
(14:10):
Underrated.
Yeah.
I mean,
or how should we be eating it?
Yeah.
How should our listener eat rice?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, well, you gottaput it with some gumbo.
I mean, that's okay.
Here we go.
Yeah.
Cement, gumbo.
I mean, I just like it plainwith butter, but that's just me.
That's,
people eat it like potatoes.
Yeah.
Okay.
(14:31):
Like you said, just put some butter,
put some butter on it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So people eat it forbreakfast, put milk on it.
Oh.
So whatever you prefer.
Okay.
So, uh, this, I mean,
it's used in a lot in cooking in a lot of,you can make casserole with it, green bean
rice casserole, hamburger, rice casserole.
Uh, it can be used in that way.
(14:53):
So this might be, uh, I mightget in trouble back home for this
one, but it seems like in Indiana.
Farmers grow soybeans because of likeeconomic or, or, uh, agronomic reasons,
but they really want to grow corn, right?
Mm-hmm.
It's like corn is whatthey really wanna do.
So if, if you,
I will confirm that's true.
Yeah.
(15:13):
It was true for Chad and, well, I thinklike, its like the right, like it's,
it's the, it's the main event, right?
The
combine's
more fun.
Everything's more fun.
Yeah.
So if you didn't have to worry aboutthe prices or costs because you grow
several commodities, what would you grow?
Would you grow rice?
Or do you?
No.
Okay.
So what would you grow if you,would you grow, if you didn't
(15:33):
have to worry about costs?
Probably.
It's just like broke cornerbeans and be like, you guys go
to the lake the rest of the year.
Okay.
Now we will get in trouble.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Like he said earlier, riceis very labor intensive.
It is also very hard on your equipment.
Yeah.
It's a very, very abrasive crop to grow.
I mean, we can take a brand newcombine and wear it out in three years.
(15:54):
Oh, seriously?
Yeah.
Yes.
I'm serious.
Completely wore out.
Completely wore out in three.
So I look, that was one of thethings I was interested in is like,
what's the machinery bottleneck?
Where, where do you get hung upin the rice production system?
Hmm.
I mean, I probably combines becauseas far as planning and, and equipment
(16:15):
like that, everything's the same.
You know, we use an airdrill John Deere air drill.
Um, same thing.
We, we plant soybeans with it too.
So really not a hang up there.
It's just the, the wear andtear on the combines is our.
Our toughest thing, like I said,I mean, it's, it's hard to spend.
You gotta make that decision.
Are you gonna spend 60, $70,000 everycouple years on the combine or are you
(16:38):
gonna trade it in, or, well, what'syour, everybody's got a different
idea and plan on that and situation.
So, and then do you need, we're kindof in the, in the situation where,
hey, if we get any bigger, we're gonnahave to have another combine, another
grain cart, more trucks, more people.
So do we want to expand?
Do we.
(16:58):
Want to just try to stay where we'reat and be, try to be as efficient and
as good as we can where we're at or, soit's, it's, it's tough, tough decisions.
You like pulling levies?
No,
in, in rice you gotta, uh,be in the field every day.
'cause you got a constant flood on it.
And you gotta check that water.
Things happen, uh, to your levees.
(17:20):
Muskrat cuts a hole in it, and thatlevee's dry and you get there in
the morning, you gotta fix that,get water back on that levee.
So it's nothing likegrowing corn, soybeans.
I mean, we hear you guys plant cornand soybeans and then you go play
softball all summer or something,and you come back and harvest it.
We don't get to do that.
No, no comment.
Yeah, he's, he's right.
(17:41):
You know, sometimes people.
When we say you flood rice, it's not floodlike a lot of people think we're trying
to hold like a four inch depth of water.
Yeah.
So, but you know, I mean, we're standinghere today, it's probably 90 plus
degrees and about, feels like about80% humidity and that water doesn't
(18:02):
allow, you know, three, four or fivedays you're back pumping across it,
trying to get it pumped back up.
Yeah.
And, and we, we keep that flood,that, that is our weed control
and dry once it, once we get itsprayed and it gets established.
That's our weed control.
Uh, that flood keeps anyother weeds from coming up.
So we let the water go down, which we do.
(18:22):
There's, there's some new, um, studiesand things that we do, a process
called alternate wetting and drying.
So we will flood it, let it get muddy, notcompletely dry, and then pump it back up.
Yeah.
So it's, and it's working.
Um, and that's all for waterconservation, just Sure.
Trying to do everything we do to, sinceour groundwater situation to conserve.
I was gonna ask 'cause.
(18:43):
You're not pumping 400 feet down.
Right.
So you're using all surface water.
So where do you have a reservoir?
We do.
Okay.
You got a reservoir?
They're back, back to the west here.
We've got, and it is probably,we probably got total about 350,
400 acres worth of reservoirs.
Wow.
And they're not super deep.
I mean, they're, uh, like the oneback here is probably what the,
(19:05):
probably eight to 10 foot on one side.
But it was originally builtwhat, in the forties and fifties?
Thirties and forties.
Wow.
So it's been there long time.
And there's a bow.
It runs right behind it.
So during the winter you can fill it up.
We fill it up and then duringthe summer we pump it down.
So we, uh, that was one of the thingswhen, and he mentioned we've got our
(19:25):
family's side farm about seven, eightmiles west of here, water table's 35 feet.
Whoa.
We're 400 here.
Yeah.
Wow.
So when we came out here andstarted farming, we had to almost
totally reset our whole mindset.
Yeah, yeah.
Because it was different.
It was like an alien planet.
I mean, it was totally different.
The first year or two, wefarmed, we ran outta water.
(19:47):
Um, because we were, Imean, well, what happened?
The soybeans suffered becauserice was our cash crop, and we
already had all our inputs in it.
We had to finish it.
Right?
So we made the decision, Hey,we're gonna pump water under.
Rice and keep it flooded.
The beans are just going to,we're just going to pray for rain.
And there for a couple years wemade some 25, 30 bushel beans.
(20:10):
And, uh, yeah.
So we, we had to totallychange our mindset and become
better conservationists,better farmers to mm-hmm.
Manage this farm.
So Chad, uh.
As we mentioned earlier, uh, used tofarm before he became a professor.
Uh, and he sort of misses it sometimes.
Uh, and so we've been here the whole time.
He is been talking about like,oh, I miss, miss about farming.
(20:33):
Uh, but the one thing is he seemsto be afraid of a lot of things you
have here, like ticks and snakes andalligators, mosquitoes and mosquito.
I, I will, I will affirm all those things.
Do you have a good, uh, like,uh, thing about nature that
was scary, that to scare Chad?
That's all.
I just want.
Chad to be, I want Chad.
Dad, what is your most scar uh,terrifying experience with one of
(20:53):
the animals he's just commented on.
So, uh, I was gonna say whichone you wanna talk about.
Yeah, just this other onewill scare Chad the most.
So when you're, we were out outputting,uh, in, in the rice field you have a
levee where you cut a hole in it andyou put especially like a little piece
of tarp to let the water flow through.
And then we put a, um, we call 'em mage.
It's basic piece of rebarwith two legs on it.
(21:13):
And that's how we set the levelof the water in the field.
Okay.
Well.
Little critters like tolive under those levy gates.
And when you go out there to pullthat gate back and stick that rod
under, there's usually a cottonmouth or something like that
under, and you had to fight it.
And, and uh,
can you, can you explain, 'causelike Aaron was saying, cotton
(21:34):
mouths are, uh, they're not passive.
They are aggressive.
Like they come after you.
They come after you.
Yes.
They, uh.
Yeah, so usually you don't ever stickyour hand down and pull that gate back.
Use your shovel.
That's my key for the day.
Use the shovel.
Use the shovel first.
'cause he's sitting there waiting on you.
Yep.
Yeah, I like short disease or something.
We, uh, we've also, recently wehad, uh, what was it, about a
(21:56):
12 foot gator in the reservoir.
Well, foot.
Oh man.
I got pictures of him.
He's pretty good size.
Yeah.
During the gator season.
So we, we have a gator seasonhere and they got a permit.
No way.
Yeah, he was large.
12 feet is a That's huge.
That's cost.
I mean, that's like people,
people used to come bring theirdogs to train for duck season and
(22:17):
uh, I told 'em, I said, Hey guys,y'all might not wanna do that.
Yeah, sure enough.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then, uh, Aaron Olson have beensaying that that duck hunting's a thing.
So do you, can you use any ofthe fields you guys have to
make money off of duck hunting?
Yeah, we, we flood, I'd say probably 75plus percent of our rice acres back up.
(22:38):
Uh, and rent it all that way.
Have a. Guy, local guy thatguides and takes people hunting
and he, he rents it for the year.
And, uh, so yeah, it's, it's a big deal.
That's, that's a big money makeraround here during, uh, yeah.
This, we don't even go out to eatin Stuttgart during duck season.
'cause it's just, just crazy.
Yeah.
It's, it is.
Yeah.
Where is the place to go?
Do you want, what do you want?
(22:59):
Burger.
You gotta go to Sportsman's.
Get a burger.
Okay.
Yeah,
I think that's their plan.
Right?
I feel like outside of talking tofarmers, uh, our, our goal has been.
Food oriented thought.
So one new restaurant, I saynew, it's what, three years old?
Yeah, open season's.
The name of it.
Okay.
That's pretty nice.
Okay.
Yeah, I think a lot of, A lot Mexican.
(23:21):
So a lot of huntingthemed restaurants here.
I know.
I like it.
Open season, the sportsman.
Yeah.
I have, I have, my last serious questionis, so if I, if I wanted to assimilate
into the culture and walk onto your farmand you think that guy's from the Delta,
what do I need to be, what do I need tochange about my current outfit to fit in?
And or haircut.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
(23:41):
Yeah.
No, black black's bad.
Okay.
Alright.
All wear black shirt.
Okay.
Yeah, it's hot.
Uh, you gotta get some hip boots, man.
Yeah.
Some what?
Some hip boots.
Hip boots?
Yeah.
They little hip boots arm.
No.
So if you're gonna walker a ricefield, you gotta have hip boots.
So I, I, I bought 'em somerubber boots from Walmart.
Uh, but yeah, hip boot, same thing.
But, so basically it's a all, it'sa knee boot, but then they pull,
(24:03):
come up here and hook to your belt.
So then you got full coverage in casethat cotton mouth gets after you.
Oh yeah.
See?
That's what I was thinking, thatit was, it was wildlife related.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So that's it.
I need hip boots and justa, a light colored shirt.
You a light colored shirt and yougotta get a wide broom hat and shovel.
Yeah.
And a shovel and a, a shovel pair.
Shovel on the shovel.
(24:23):
Yeah.
And is the shovel Okay.
The shovels for the gatesplus snakes, plus the fights.
So how much is the, okay.
All right.
It's 50 50.
Is it 50 50?
So I, I, I can't comment whether or not.
Farmers in Indiana are playingsoftball, summer, or playing basketball.
Yeah.
Or water skiing.
(24:44):
Uh, but I can say with prettystrong confidence, not a lot
of snake fighting happen.
No, we don't fight snakes.
Yeah.
So, uh, yeah, competitionfrom me for farmland, I can
promise you I'm not coming.
Yeah.
Not many are, see, unless you'rea doctor or lawyer, then, then
they want it for duck hunting.
But, uh, yeah.
Yeah.
So.
(25:04):
All right.
Thanks guys.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
If you're finding value in this series- we had a lot of fun making it, but
hopefully it's good for you - make sureyou subscribe to the Purdue Commercial
AgCast so you don't miss out on what'scoming next, including our regular
Ag Economy Barometer insights andfuture conversations like this one.
We're also sharing short videos onYouTube from each stop as we were
(25:26):
spending time throughout the Delta,so be sure to check those out as well.
Thanks for joining us, andwe'll see you next time.
We can take a brand new combineand wear it out in three years.
Rice is very labor intensive.
It is also very hard on your equipment.
Welcome to the Purdue Commercial AgCast.
This is Chad Fiechter.
And Todd and I spent some timein Arkansas, talking with farmers
(00:20):
about what they're seeing.
What's working, what's changing,and what might be surprising
to Midwestern grain farmers.
This special series, Lessons fromthe Delta, is what we learned.
I'm Trent Dabs.
I'm here with my dad,Terry Dabs, uh, LTD Farms.
We're about eight miles south,the Stuttgart, Arkansas.
Right smack dab in the middle ofthe Grand Prairie area they call it.
(00:42):
And, uh, big, big rice growing area.
But we also grow corn,soybeans, and oats as well.
Oh wow, okay.
We feel more comfortable now.
Yeah.
We grow a little bit of Midwest stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's good.
Not, not quite as good as ya are, but
We spend a lot of time talking to folksabout water specifically, and you said
something very interesting at the,when we, when we rolled up, which is
(01:05):
that you're not using groundwater here.
Right.
So this, this farm where we're at and alarge area right here in this southeast
part of Arkansas, stretching up to thenortheast, where you guys were earlier,
uh, groundwater's really been depletedand kind of in a cone of depression here.
And, uh, this spot here, the,the last time we checked, um,
(01:26):
groundwater, if we drilled a well,it had to be about 400 feet deep.
Geez.
And you're only talking aboutgetting what, maybe a thousand
gallons per minute out of that.
Oh man.
And then the energy cost to operate it.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
You talking about two?
We've got one, one deep well lefton this, on this area, on this farm.
We've got 1500 acre block and then anotherblock and it still has one deep well.
(01:48):
And it's got a 200 horseelectric that pulls it.
Uh, and when you turn it on,the meter spins really fast.
Yeah.
So we try not.
Unless we just have to.
How long, how long haveyou guys been farming here?
Um, we took over in '98.
Yeah.
'98. Yeah.
This farm was actually owned by myfather-in-law, my wife's family.
(02:10):
Okay.
And so he retired in '98 and we started.
We were farming down theroad about eight miles.
Okay.
And, and then our families,our family farms down there.
Gotcha.
And then, so he decided to retire,asked us to take this over.
So like I said, we started here in '98.
And, uh, made lots and lotsof improvements, uh, because
(02:33):
of the water situation.
We put in, it had open canals on it,so we put in all underground pipe and
then we got in into a program that hadsome cost share in it and precision
level this whole 1500 acre block.
Wow.
Whoa.
That's, uh, we're learningThat's quite an investment.
Yeah.
(02:54):
Kidding?
Yeah.
Big investments.
Yeah.
And we couldn't do it withoutsome cost share programs.
There's no way youcould do it on your own.
Right.
Yeah.
It's just too expensive.
So are they, are they, uh, sowe've learned a little bit that
they're some that are gradedto some degree of, of slope.
Are these flat?
What are,
We've got one field, theone right here behind you.
(03:14):
Is what we call a zero grade.
So it's perfectly flat.
The rest of them, uh, have straight leveesand they're just whatever fit that field.
Okay.
Some levees are 200 feet apart in somefields, and some are a hundred feet part.
Uh, we just tried to work with whatthe natural contour of the ground
(03:35):
was to start with, to, to keepfrom having to move a lot of dirt.
Yeah.
And you put like a 10th, 10th drop on it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Some of 'em we have wherever you need to.
We have a 10th, a 10th, everyhundred feet, and some of 'em
we have a 10th every 200 feet.
Right.
Got it.
Okay.
So we told you when we walked upthat we've talked to a lot of people
(03:55):
who maybe tell you how you should,uh, you should be doing this.
So give us the, what we wanna knownow is like the real farmer behind
the scenes, what's reality of farmingrice, corn, and soybeans here?
Throw all that out thewindow that you've learned.
Um, it's, this year especiallyhas been real challenging.
(04:18):
We thought we were set up really good.
We had a early dry spring,got a lot of field work done.
We got started planning probablywhat, uh, end of March, 1st of
April, and then it started raining.
Hasn't quit yet.
I mean, we, we've, we're sittinghere, we've been sitting for a week
trying to get the rest of our beansplanted behind our oats that we had.
(04:39):
And seems like about the time itdries up, we get another half.
Fence to an inch rain.
And so, uh, it's been real challengingthis year, and especially in rice, uh,
it gets worse because the timing ongetting chemical applications out for
grass control, uh, is very importantand, and getting, uh, fertilizer out
(05:01):
and establishing that first flood on therise, that's, that's really critical.
And it's been a big challenge this year.
And in the last four or fiveyears, it's been a big challenge
trying to get that timing down.
And, uh, get everything out on time.
So the other thing we've, uh, heardfolks talk about, uh, is like the
(05:23):
challenge of finding good labor.
Like what's, what is thatfor you guys as well here?
How many people
It is.
So two of you and,
well, up until this year we had mydad and I, and we had two full-time
people and, uh, that was a stretchfor, we farmed right at 3,500 acres.
Uh, a little over a thousand of that rock.
(05:43):
Rice is very labor intensive, especiallythe beginning of the year getting,
getting that flood established.
Uh, it is pretty labor intensive.
So we were, we were in apretty tough situation.
Uh, we were luckily enough tofind another guy, a local guy this
year who had a ton of experience.
Him and his dad farmed and, uh, theydecided to re decided to retire.
(06:07):
So he's, he's helping us now.
And then we, uh, went the H two A routeand picked up a, a guy from South Africa.
Good.
That's, uh, he's been here before.
Worked for a neighbor of ours before,and it's, uh, it's, man, it's, it's,
it's made a huge difference for us.
But yeah, the labor,labor situation's bad.
I, I would love to hire four localguys if I could, but we just.
(06:29):
We can't do it anymore.
I mean, that's worth, worth having,
is it?
Okay, so we on our farm too, we hadit where we were paying virtually
the same price to have H two A. Itwas just that they, he was, they
were here and, and wanted to work.
Do you find the same?
I, I do.
So far, like I said, that guy's, he'sonly been here a couple months with us.
Uh, and, and I'm very pleased with it.
(06:50):
Uh, yeah, like I said, he's, he's,he's here to work and, and that's fine.
And like I said, we did the same thing.
We, it's not like we weren'tpaying the guys to, to do the job.
It just, it just wouldn't show up or, youknow, there was always something happening
and, um, it just, sometimes you just gettired of it and you gotta do something.
I mean, we've gotta have, gotta have help.
Uh, either he or i'sgetting any younger, so.
(07:16):
Okay.
So, alright, so give us the,um, what I'm also interested
in is like farming culture.
It, it seems like you were sayingit's maybe a tiny bit with rice,
especially more labor intensive.
How does that affect sort of likethe way you think through your year
planning for next year labor machinery?
Like what, what are the bottlenecks?
What do you, what are you planning for?
(07:37):
Well, there's the issue with ricethat I see that's different from the
other crops is how do you manage.
The residue at the end of the year.
Uh, you know, a lot of programs now are,are cover crop programs, you know, minimum
till no till conservation programs.
We love those.
(07:58):
There's nothing wrong with those, but ina rice situation that's very difficult.
There's, there's a lotof residue behind rice.
You get a wet fall, you rut yourfields up trying to get the rice out.
I mean, you've got to do tillage.
I mean, it's, it's eitherthat or burn fields.
I mean, that's pretty much.
Options now, we do a lot of, ofconservation efforts, uh, for waterfowl.
(08:20):
We pretty, a lot of our rice, weflood back up at the end of the
year, leave water on it, all wintercomes duck and geese habitat.
Uh, but then springtime nowyou're in the situation where
your ground's been flooded.
It's extremely wet now.
You gotta have a month or so to getall that water off and dried up.
So, uh, that's, that's the difference,the biggest difference to me in rice
(08:42):
farming culture versus grow crop.
Other, other culture is how wehad to manage residue and, and
get ready for the next year.
And then, uh, again, trying toalways contrast our experience
in corn Belt in Midwest.
Um, what are the sort of like.
Inputs that you like, not likethe, in, like how many people like,
(09:06):
do, like, do you have like seedsales and crop protection and all
the same sort of things, right?
Uh, um, but like, sort of likehow many different kind of
businesses are you interact.
With or entities, if that makes sense.
So we usually about two companiesthat we deal with mainly on seed, um,
(09:28):
that are large national companies.
And then we have some, a couplecompanies that we, uh, deliver
direct to us that we work with.
Uh, kind of the same deal on chemicals.
Um, okay.
As far as application, I doall, we do as much of our own
spraying, especially as we can.
We've got our own ground rig.
(09:48):
Matter of fact, I got a dronethat's supposed to be here Tuesday,
so I'm going to get into that.
Nice.
Uh, but then we use, and that's theother difference on rice is once it's
flooded, we have to use an airplane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There, there's no going out therewith a ground rig or like I said,
so is that something you likecustom in, you pay somebody to
come do the airplane right there.
So there's a couple services aroundhere that have three or four planes
(10:09):
each and, and they pretty muchcover the whole area, uh, especially
spraying and, and fertilizing.
So
when we first got here,I saw one and I was so.
That was like the coolest,and then we just like every 20
minutes kept seeing him again.
Again.
I was like, I guess it's not special.
It was special to me the first time Isaw it, but I could see you guys being
like, this dude's a total tourist dude.
(10:29):
So yeah, that, but kinda likeMidwestern as far as chemical and seed.
I mean, you got a couple, couple.
Companies that we deal withand kind of same varieties.
We, we grow decal corn,we grow revere corn.
That's one of the varieties that uh,we get that bring us direct to us.
And, uh,
are y'all mostly hybrid rice or,
well, we varieties.
We, for the past probably what,10 plus years we have been,
(10:52):
but we've kind of swapped.
Come back and Yeah, we've, uh,we're starting to, uh, grow
some Donna Grove varieties.
Okay.
Yeah.
Um, and we've got a coupleuniversity varieties Ozark.
Okay.
A couple fields of that this year,
you know, roec had turnedwith Seed Supply this year.
Mm-hmm.
So it forced us to goto some other varieties.
And then, and then at Harvest youtake it, and then do you mark it like
(11:15):
through a co-op or how does that work?
Yeah, most of our rice we do, we,there's the two, I don't know if they
are the largest, but they are two ofthe largest rice mill in the world are
about 10 miles from us in Stuttgart.
You got producers, ricemill and Riceland foods.
Uh, and we deliver to both those.
And, uh, every now and then wewill store some rice in our bins.
Just depends on the yearand what's going on, but.
(11:38):
Mainly we put corn and, and somesoybeans in our bins if we have to.
Um, because we have a, a poultryplant that's about 45 minutes from us
that, uh, they take a large portionof the corn that's grown around here.
Is there a difference?
Okay, so because there's not acommodity in exchange for rice.
So is it, how do you think about it for
(12:00):
Mark is on the Chicago?
There is,
it is.
Okay.
But it's very small trade.
Probably traded.
Okay.
There's only like two companiesthat trade on the board, but
it is listed on the board.
So how do you do it, how do you marketrice relative to your corn and soybeans?
Like what are the different steps?
Is it the same or what do you do?
No, the, the co-ops that we usehave uh, two marketing options.
(12:21):
One of 'em is called the pool option,which you just haul your, your rice,
say, I wanna put it in the pool.
They market it for youduring the entire year.
Mm-hmm.
So about every two to three monthsthey'll mail you, mail you a check.
Okay.
And, uh, they do all the marketing.
They also have an option that ifyou want to sell it yourself, then
(12:42):
you can call anytime you want to andsay how I want, sell the rice today.
Or you can, or you can call 'emand set a price on it and if it
reaches that price, it sells.
Uh, but that's their twomain marketing options.
And what, what's the, what's thefundamental price they're looking at like.
The day to day changes are just whatthey're seeing other people paying.
What's, how do they set that price?
(13:04):
It's a lot on what theycall the world price.
So things going on in India and Asiaand Vietnam affect the rice price a
lot more, uh, than say another crowd.
Okay.
So they're, they're having to watch thingsall over the world and, and they're trying
to sell rice from here all over the world.
(13:26):
Gotcha.
Really a on the global scale usIs Rice really a small player?
Yeah.
Uh, you know, you got China andIndia probably the two largest.
Yeah.
Rice growers in the world.
A lot of Southeast Asian rice.
Uh, so yeah, we're kind of a smallplayer when it comes to it, but, uh,
there's only six states that rice.
(13:47):
In the us.
In the us yeah.
And half of that comes from Arkansas.
Over half.
Over half.
Oh, over.
Man, come on.
It's, it's grown over the course of a day.
Don't sell a short, I'mnot gonna sell you short.
No, I'm here.
I'm here to, yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So Todd asked a really goodquestion about what is the most
underrated way to eat rice?
(14:10):
Underrated.
Yeah.
I mean,
or how should we be eating it?
Yeah.
How should our listener eat rice?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, well, you gottaput it with some gumbo.
I mean, that's okay.
Here we go.
Yeah.
Cement, gumbo.
I mean, I just like it plainwith butter, but that's just me.
That's,
people eat it like potatoes.
Yeah.
Okay.
(14:31):
Like you said, just put some butter,
put some butter on it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So people eat it forbreakfast, put milk on it.
Oh.
So whatever you prefer.
Okay.
So, uh, this, I mean,
it's used in a lot in cooking in a lot of,you can make casserole with it, green bean
rice casserole, hamburger, rice casserole.
Uh, it can be used in that way.
(14:53):
So this might be, uh, I mightget in trouble back home for this
one, but it seems like in Indiana.
Farmers grow soybeans because of likeeconomic or, or, uh, agronomic reasons,
but they really want to grow corn, right?
Mm-hmm.
It's like corn is whatthey really wanna do.
So if, if you,
I will confirm that's true.
Yeah.
(15:13):
It was true for Chad and, well, I thinklike, its like the right, like it's,
it's the, it's the main event, right?
The
combine's
more fun.
Everything's more fun.
Yeah.
So if you didn't have to worry aboutthe prices or costs because you grow
several commodities, what would you grow?
Would you grow rice?
Or do you?
No.
Okay.
So what would you grow if you,would you grow, if you didn't
(15:33):
have to worry about costs?
Probably.
It's just like broke cornerbeans and be like, you guys go
to the lake the rest of the year.
Okay.
Now we will get in trouble.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Like he said earlier, riceis very labor intensive.
It is also very hard on your equipment.
Yeah.
It's a very, very abrasive crop to grow.
I mean, we can take a brand newcombine and wear it out in three years.
(15:54):
Oh, seriously?
Yeah.
Yes.
I'm serious.
Completely wore out.
Completely wore out in three.
So I look, that was one of thethings I was interested in is like,
what's the machinery bottleneck?
Where, where do you get hung upin the rice production system?
Hmm.
I mean, I probably combines becauseas far as planning and, and equipment
(16:15):
like that, everything's the same.
You know, we use an airdrill John Deere air drill.
Um, same thing.
We, we plant soybeans with it too.
So really not a hang up there.
It's just the, the wear andtear on the combines is our.
Our toughest thing, like I said,I mean, it's, it's hard to spend.
You gotta make that decision.
Are you gonna spend 60, $70,000 everycouple years on the combine or are you
(16:38):
gonna trade it in, or, well, what'syour, everybody's got a different
idea and plan on that and situation.
So, and then do you need, we're kindof in the, in the situation where,
hey, if we get any bigger, we're gonnahave to have another combine, another
grain cart, more trucks, more people.
So do we want to expand?
Do we.
(16:58):
Want to just try to stay where we'reat and be, try to be as efficient and
as good as we can where we're at or, soit's, it's, it's tough, tough decisions.
You like pulling levies?
No,
in, in rice you gotta, uh,be in the field every day.
'cause you got a constant flood on it.
And you gotta check that water.
Things happen, uh, to your levees.
(17:20):
Muskrat cuts a hole in it, and thatlevee's dry and you get there in
the morning, you gotta fix that,get water back on that levee.
So it's nothing likegrowing corn, soybeans.
I mean, we hear you guys plant cornand soybeans and then you go play
softball all summer or something,and you come back and harvest it.
We don't get to do that.
No, no comment.
Yeah, he's, he's right.
(17:41):
You know, sometimes people.
When we say you flood rice, it's not floodlike a lot of people think we're trying
to hold like a four inch depth of water.
Yeah.
So, but you know, I mean, we're standinghere today, it's probably 90 plus
degrees and about, feels like about80% humidity and that water doesn't
(18:02):
allow, you know, three, four or fivedays you're back pumping across it,
trying to get it pumped back up.
Yeah.
And, and we, we keep that flood,that, that is our weed control
and dry once it, once we get itsprayed and it gets established.
That's our weed control.
Uh, that flood keeps anyother weeds from coming up.
So we let the water go down, which we do.
(18:22):
There's, there's some new, um, studiesand things that we do, a process
called alternate wetting and drying.
So we will flood it, let it get muddy, notcompletely dry, and then pump it back up.
Yeah.
So it's, and it's working.
Um, and that's all for waterconservation, just Sure.
Trying to do everything we do to, sinceour groundwater situation to conserve.
I was gonna ask 'cause.
(18:43):
You're not pumping 400 feet down.
Right.
So you're using all surface water.
So where do you have a reservoir?
We do.
Okay.
You got a reservoir?
They're back, back to the west here.
We've got, and it is probably,we probably got total about 350,
400 acres worth of reservoirs.
Wow.
And they're not super deep.
I mean, they're, uh, like the oneback here is probably what the,
(19:05):
probably eight to 10 foot on one side.
But it was originally builtwhat, in the forties and fifties?
Thirties and forties.
Wow.
So it's been there long time.
And there's a bow.
It runs right behind it.
So during the winter you can fill it up.
We fill it up and then duringthe summer we pump it down.
So we, uh, that was one of the thingswhen, and he mentioned we've got our
(19:25):
family's side farm about seven, eightmiles west of here, water table's 35 feet.
Whoa.
We're 400 here.
Yeah.
Wow.
So when we came out here andstarted farming, we had to almost
totally reset our whole mindset.
Yeah, yeah.
Because it was different.
It was like an alien planet.
I mean, it was totally different.
The first year or two, wefarmed, we ran outta water.
(19:47):
Um, because we were, Imean, well, what happened?
The soybeans suffered becauserice was our cash crop, and we
already had all our inputs in it.
We had to finish it.
Right?
So we made the decision, Hey,we're gonna pump water under.
Rice and keep it flooded.
The beans are just going to,we're just going to pray for rain.
And there for a couple years wemade some 25, 30 bushel beans.
(20:10):
And, uh, yeah.
So we, we had to totallychange our mindset and become
better conservationists,better farmers to mm-hmm.
Manage this farm.
So Chad, uh.
As we mentioned earlier, uh, used tofarm before he became a professor.
Uh, and he sort of misses it sometimes.
Uh, and so we've been here the whole time.
He is been talking about like,oh, I miss, miss about farming.
(20:33):
Uh, but the one thing is he seemsto be afraid of a lot of things you
have here, like ticks and snakes andalligators, mosquitoes and mosquito.
I, I will, I will affirm all those things.
Do you have a good, uh, like,uh, thing about nature that
was scary, that to scare Chad?
That's all.
I just want.
Chad to be, I want Chad.
Dad, what is your most scar uh,terrifying experience with one of
(20:53):
the animals he's just commented on.
So, uh, I was gonna say whichone you wanna talk about.
Yeah, just this other onewill scare Chad the most.
So when you're, we were out outputting,uh, in, in the rice field you have a
levee where you cut a hole in it andyou put especially like a little piece
of tarp to let the water flow through.
And then we put a, um, we call 'em mage.
It's basic piece of rebarwith two legs on it.
(21:13):
And that's how we set the levelof the water in the field.
Okay.
Well.
Little critters like tolive under those levy gates.
And when you go out there to pullthat gate back and stick that rod
under, there's usually a cottonmouth or something like that
under, and you had to fight it.
And, and uh,
can you, can you explain, 'causelike Aaron was saying, cotton
(21:34):
mouths are, uh, they're not passive.
They are aggressive.
Like they come after you.
They come after you.
Yes.
They, uh.
Yeah, so usually you don't ever stickyour hand down and pull that gate back.
Use your shovel.
That's my key for the day.
Use the shovel.
Use the shovel first.
'cause he's sitting there waiting on you.
Yep.
Yeah, I like short disease or something.
We, uh, we've also, recently wehad, uh, what was it, about a
(21:56):
12 foot gator in the reservoir.
Well, foot.
Oh man.
I got pictures of him.
He's pretty good size.
Yeah.
During the gator season.
So we, we have a gator seasonhere and they got a permit.
No way.
Yeah, he was large.
12 feet is a That's huge.
That's cost.
I mean, that's like people,
people used to come bring theirdogs to train for duck season and
(22:17):
uh, I told 'em, I said, Hey guys,y'all might not wanna do that.
Yeah, sure enough.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then, uh, Aaron Olson have beensaying that that duck hunting's a thing.
So do you, can you use any ofthe fields you guys have to
make money off of duck hunting?
Yeah, we, we flood, I'd say probably 75plus percent of our rice acres back up.
(22:38):
Uh, and rent it all that way.
Have a. Guy, local guy thatguides and takes people hunting
and he, he rents it for the year.
And, uh, so yeah, it's, it's a big deal.
That's, that's a big money makeraround here during, uh, yeah.
This, we don't even go out to eatin Stuttgart during duck season.
'cause it's just, just crazy.
Yeah.
It's, it is.
Yeah.
Where is the place to go?
Do you want, what do you want?
(22:59):
Burger.
You gotta go to Sportsman's.
Get a burger.
Okay.
Yeah,
I think that's their plan.
Right?
I feel like outside of talking tofarmers, uh, our, our goal has been.
Food oriented thought.
So one new restaurant, I saynew, it's what, three years old?
Yeah, open season's.
The name of it.
Okay.
That's pretty nice.
Okay.
Yeah, I think a lot of, A lot Mexican.
(23:21):
So a lot of huntingthemed restaurants here.
I know.
I like it.
Open season, the sportsman.
Yeah.
I have, I have, my last serious questionis, so if I, if I wanted to assimilate
into the culture and walk onto your farmand you think that guy's from the Delta,
what do I need to be, what do I need tochange about my current outfit to fit in?
And or haircut.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
(23:41):
Yeah.
No, black black's bad.
Okay.
Alright.
All wear black shirt.
Okay.
Yeah, it's hot.
Uh, you gotta get some hip boots, man.
Yeah.
Some what?
Some hip boots.
Hip boots?
Yeah.
They little hip boots arm.
No.
So if you're gonna walker a ricefield, you gotta have hip boots.
So I, I, I bought 'em somerubber boots from Walmart.
Uh, but yeah, hip boot, same thing.
But, so basically it's a all, it'sa knee boot, but then they pull,
(24:03):
come up here and hook to your belt.
So then you got full coverage in casethat cotton mouth gets after you.
Oh yeah.
See?
That's what I was thinking, thatit was, it was wildlife related.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So that's it.
I need hip boots and justa, a light colored shirt.
You a light colored shirt and yougotta get a wide broom hat and shovel.
Yeah.
And a shovel and a, a shovel pair.
Shovel on the shovel.
(24:23):
Yeah.
And is the shovel Okay.
The shovels for the gatesplus snakes, plus the fights.
So how much is the, okay.
All right.
It's 50 50.
Is it 50 50?
So I, I, I can't comment whether or not.
Farmers in Indiana are playingsoftball, summer, or playing basketball.
Yeah.
Or water skiing.
(24:44):
Uh, but I can say with prettystrong confidence, not a lot
of snake fighting happen.
No, we don't fight snakes.
Yeah.
So, uh, yeah, competitionfrom me for farmland, I can
promise you I'm not coming.
Yeah.
Not many are, see, unless you'rea doctor or lawyer, then, then
they want it for duck hunting.
But, uh, yeah.
Yeah.
So.
(25:04):
All right.
Thanks guys.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
If you're finding value in this series- we had a lot of fun making it, but
hopefully it's good for you - make sureyou subscribe to the Purdue Commercial
AgCast so you don't miss out on what'scoming next, including our regular
Ag Economy Barometer insights andfuture conversations like this one.
We're also sharing short videos onYouTube from each stop as we were
(25:26):
spending time throughout the Delta,so be sure to check those out as well.
Thanks for joining us, andwe'll see you next time.
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