Forage Farming, Travel Tales & Tech Innovations in Agriculture

Enjoy this conversation with my friend  Greg Zurlieni, affectionately known as Billy Bob, with Sydenstricker Nobbe Partners as we discuss the vibrant world of small farm communities and agricultural innovation. Greg, who serves as the president of the Illinois Forage and Grassland Council, shares his unique insights into the world of forage farming, revealing the quirks and challenges that come with it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Just Say hey.
The podcast.
Podcast where we talk about thethings that matter in small
farms.
You know why?
Because we are a small farm.
Today's kind of cool.
I've got a friend of minesitting here, billy Bob Zerlini.
Greg's sitting here next to me.
We've been, we've gotten to befriends over the past few years
and and he's just, he has helpedus out on our farm a lot, not
only with you know, he's a heckof a lot smarter than I am, but

(00:21):
he also works for the John Deeredealership that we deal with
and he deals with all of theirlocations.
So anyway, so let's have a goodconversation, we'll get into it
.
Welcome to Just Say hey.
The podcast where we talk aboutwhat matters to small farms,
whether it's business, marketing, agronomy, equipment, livestock
, health.
If it matters to small farms,we'll probably talk about it
here.
So let's get into it, all right.

(00:42):
So, greg, greg, I gotta ask.
The first question that I'msure everybody asks you is why
billy bob?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
well, that's.
Yeah, that is a very goodquestion, john.
Uh, comes up all the time.
Uh, obviously, my real name isgreg zerlini.
I always tell everybody I'm agerman, polack, and then I
always, you know, second, uh,it's been probably back in like
94, 96,.
A movie by the name of VarsityBlues came out and two very good

(01:12):
friends of mine, twin brothers.
I did a lot of livestock showingwhen I was a kid, growing up
and that movie was kind ofcoming on and it was pretty
popular and there was acharacter in there it was Billy
Bob, and he had had hogs and atthe time I was raising hogs
there at home.
So it just kind of stuck.
And ever since then it's justyeah, I mean, it's, I'm a
business card.
Uh, you know, you'll callsomebody and I'll introduce

(01:35):
myself as, uh, greg zerlini,with my current position role at
the outfit I work for, and I'mlike no well, you ever heard of
billy bob?
Oh, yeah, that's you.
Okay, that goes back a longtime ago.
Like I said, um 94, 96,somewhere in there is what I got
as something.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, it's yeah, I look at your business card and
you probably have the longestname on a business card you ever
see yeah, yeah, my last name,uh it's.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It's pretty common in this part of the world.
And then, uh, it's kind ofinteresting as I traveled to
other areas of the United States.
You know, right here inSouthern Illinois, you know my
family's originally originatedover around Aveston and Breeze
and that German settlement inthat area, and then my
grandfather moved over here toWayne County back in the early

(02:24):
70s I guess.
And then I was actually on thephone with a guy the other day,
um out of North Carolina, on aproject I was working on, and he
said are you related to, uh,tim Zerlini?
And I said wow, I said you mustknow him because you can say
his last name.
And he said, yeah, he said Iworked with him for several

(02:44):
years when he was with Bayer.
He worked for pharmaceuticalback in the day.
So yeah, there's some peoplethat pronounce it and then
there's people that I've knownmy whole life that still can't
pronounce it.
So yeah, you know it's one ofthose deals.
I guess that kind of stickswith you.
But yeah, billy Bob's justbecome the norm, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, billy Bob's just become the norm.
You know, yeah, I don't botherme.
I talk to guys at the.
You know, I go into our local,the local dealership here, and
I'll say, yeah, billy Bob, andall of a sudden they refer to
you as oh, it's Greg, it's great.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Great yeah, billy Bob .

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, so I also sit on the Illinois Forge and
Grassland Council.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
You're the current president of the Illinois For
grassland castle.
Can you describe what they do?
So, uh, that, yeah, that's agood, good thing to bring up
there too.
So the illinois forage andgrassland council is made up of
uh 12 different peoplethroughout the state, different
quarters of the state as well.
You know, john, you're involvedwith it as much as I am here in
the southern end, and you knowillinois is a very rare state.
We're about 400 miles from oneend of the other and we're about
160 from one side to the other,and we've got a lot of

(03:49):
agriculture, we've got a lot offorage production in Illinois.
Obviously, illinois is knownfor corn as well.
One thing about the Forage andGrassland Council is that it
brings together guys and pointsof view and ideas from every
industry from the education side, from the industry side and, as

(04:10):
you, and the producer side.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
And I think that's the one of the interesting
things about it is, you knowthat it's not only you know,
it's not just guys who raiseforage, it's not just guys who
sell forage equipment, it's notjust, you know, people in the
industry, you know in theeducation side, it's all of it.
And that, really, that reallyhas a got to turn my phone off.
My phone just rang.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, well, I've been on my way.
We don't need to talk to thosepeople, yeah, so you know.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
But being on the producer side and getting to
interface with the industry sideand the education side and
being able to ask questionsBecause you know, if you ask a
forage grower up in northernIllinois, their advice just
isn't going to work down here wehave such a different climate
from one end of the state to theother.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Absolutely, and that's a valid point that I've
noticed in the last since I'vebeen involved with this group is
, you know, as we seedifficulties here in southern
Illinois with raising alfalfaand some different types of
grass, and you know the guys upnorth, you know they don't even
deal with this bug pressure thatwe deal with down here.
You know I mean we're you knowyou and I as well.

(05:15):
I mean we're scouting fieldsearly on first part of March.
You know we're looking foraphids, we're looking for
weevils, we're you.
You know I always telleverybody you know the worst
three days that we ever get inthe growing seasons, we get
three days of south wind.
Yeah, and when you get threedays of south wind in southern
illinois you can bet some moneythat there's going to be some

(05:36):
army worms blow in somewhere andyou don't have to tell me about
that.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
We dealt with it.
I had, uh.
I had people calling me fromall over the southern part of
the state.
Guys from uh that were scoutingfields for agri-liquid.
Guys were scouting fields ontheir own.
Their alfalfa growers, a littlebit, a little bit east of here,
call and say hey, we've gotworms, you better go check.
And you know it's amazing, ifyou're an alfalfa grower, how
fast that happens yeah, there,there's no.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
I mean when, um, you know, and some of the producers
that I work with on the you know, such as yourself, on what I'd
call the high end alfalfaproducers, Um, you know, it's,
it's money every time we make atrip across that field with a
pesticide or fungicide.
But in the end, you know, whenwe're shooting for what we

(06:22):
consider to be the highestquality feed we can put up, it
pays long-term.
And I always say, you know,everybody's like oh, you got to
look for three.
And you know one guy that Ideal with.
He's like well, I talked to myagronomist and I said, well, you
know, I mean, I just asked himwhen I said I mean, hayfields,
is your agronomist go throughbesides yours?
Well, probably nobody.
Yeah, Okay, so he's scoutingcorn and beans.

(06:43):
He's got that.
You know, kind of on his deal.
I said you know, I said I ain'tsaying I'm an agronomist or
anything, but I said I can tellyou what the weather's right and
just by what I'm seeing.
And you know, you just got tothink about nature too.
You know, like I said, uh, it'sa, it's a highly managed crop
these days, alfalfa it is.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
You know, we learned.
We learned the hard way we putthat first year in.
You know, we did a springplanting and luckily we didn't
have the the aphid problem orthe army worm problem, but we
had a weed problem that we just,I mean it, it almost put us
under.
I mean, it was that bad.
We planted what was it?
Almost 200 acres and did notharvest one bale from that, our

(07:24):
first year in production.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, and it's a it's .
It's a challenging crop, youknow.
Going to refer back to theForage and Grasslands Council,
you know cause the guys that wedeal with up North, you know the
top part of the state, all theway down through the center part
of the state.
You know we they've got a wholedifferent soil structure, you
know, and a soil type and youknow they've got topsoil up

(07:46):
there and down here.
If you find topsoil around hereit's usually where somebody's
fed hay 30 years ago We've got alittle black spot, but most of
the time it's pretty red, prettyclay.
Yeah, you get south of 64,interstate 64, and it's just.
I say that's a whole differentzone in the world.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah Well, not only you know temperature differences
, moisture differences and thensoil differences.
I mean, it really is acompletely different beast
farming down here versus youknow heck.
I've got a friend up in centralIllinois that has an indoor
arena that I swear, with nosunlight could grow 250 bushels.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, yeah, one of the guys that's on the IFGC with
us.
He's right there out ofChampaign and you know I always
kind of scratch my head when Ileave his farm, kind of thinking
man, I mean you just drive byhere with a bag of seed corn in
the back of your truck and it'sguaranteed 280 an acre, and this
guy's got 800 acres of alfalfa.

(08:42):
You know, and I imagine hisneighbors are looking at him a
little bit like what's wrongwith him.
But you know, at the end of theday, forage production in the
state of Illinois is key.
I don't know where we rank at.
We're probably about 20thoverall in the nation as far as
acres, you know, because westill have a really good dairy
industry up in the northwestcorner and then, as you know,

(09:04):
like where you're at here insouthern Illinois, I mean we've
got a large equine that's arecreational sport and you know
all those producers and I saythis all the time as we're in
every meeting and you know,trying to promote the forage
industries, no matter whatruminant it is, it's got to have
dry matter.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, yeah, you know we're exploring pelletization,
we're exploring a lot ofdifferent opportunities.
But you know, when you get intothe business side of it and
then you add the agronomicchallenges we have a little bit
further south here it's a littletough.
But the agronomic challenges weface, with the soil
differentials, the moisturechanges, the temperature, we

(09:45):
make up a lot of that becausewith the equine community down
here we deal with several largestables.
We also have over 400 miles ofhorse trails in the area.
A lot of people are travelingin.
But trucking, trucking justkills you.
We sent, we donated twosemi-loads of hay and have
another couple ready to go outhere, probably in December, when

(10:06):
they sort of get it figured outover there.
Um, you know, getting truckingdone is it costs almost as much
as the hay itself.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, the the freight business is, uh, it's a
nightmare anymore.
Just because you know when I'min the freight business those
guys are dealing with so much.
Um, you know mandatoryregulations on drivers time they
can work and I'm not going tolie to you.
I just talked to a truck driverthis morning.
I mean you could put a set 18tires on it.
Oh, good Lord, yeah, you'regoing to the bank to borrow

(10:37):
money nowadays.
You know, it ain't like werolled in the tire shop 20 years
ago and we got a flat fixed forfive bucks and it's like hey,
we got to have a work order inat least $125 minimum.
And you know all that comesinto consideration and just you
know Well the electronic logbooks that you know.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
I talked to a driver the other day and he was saying
that you know he liked, he usedto like to go into like places
like Atlanta, roll, roll Northof Atlanta, be there five
o'clock in the afternoon, pulloff, sleep for a few hours, jump
up and run through downtownAtlanta at midnight, one o'clock
in the morning, two o'clock inthe morning and then get another
couple hours of sleep.

(11:13):
It was safer for everybody elseon the road.
It was safer for him, butbecause of the electronic log
booking he can't do it, he's gotto stop.
He's got to stop and that's hisday.
So he's got to stop.
He's got to stop and that's hisday.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
So he's got to fight through and just sit in traffic,
yeah.
And then you know I don't knowif you've been through Atlanta
lately, but the last time Idrove through there two years
ago, you just plan on two hourstop to bottom.
I don't care which side you goto, if you want to take west
side bypass or the east sidesometimes just splitting it

(11:49):
right down the middle is just asgood as any.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I used to live there and when I lived there I
remember we had my wife and Ilived up north of the city and
when I started working for thatone outfit down there I was.
You know, it was about a 45minute drive to work.
By the time I moved on intoanother position with another
company, that drive was over twohours.
I mean Atlanta during the.
You know, during that timeperiod from the, you know, from
the mid nineties through theearly two thousands was growing

(12:11):
at an exponential rate andtraffic, the road system just
couldn't keep up with the growth.
Yeah, yeah, so it's always beenhorrible.
My worst was I would have toplan if I had an eight o'clock
meeting, eight o'clock in themorning.
If I had an 8 o'clock meeting,I would have to plan to be
leaving my house by 5.30.
Oh, yeah, to have a safe, andit was.

(12:32):
You want to know how far it wasto my office?
Probably five, six miles.
That was a little further.
It was 23 miles, yeah, all, butabout two miles was interstate
and I had to plan.
Two and a half hours.
Oh, I don't doubt one bit.
Yeah, it's horrible.
You know people complain abouttractors getting behind a
tractor during planting orharvest season and you know what
?
I'll take that any day.
Yeah, I'll take that any dayover sitting two and a half

(12:53):
hours, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, there ain't.
Yeah, it's going to be likeanother 10, 15 years from now.
Oh yeah, you know, we thinkthat our cell phones are
outdated now and they're twodays old, you know, I think I.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
So when I was a kid, I was a big, uh big fan of louis
lamore.
Yeah, I read, I read all of itstill, still to this day.
If I get bored, I'll pick up alittle louis lamore book and
read it and I think about whatit was like.
You're not not all that longago and that long ago in the
real scheme of things.
But here we go in 100 years.
Go from being able to cover 20miles in a day and that was a

(13:32):
big day.
I mean 12, 14 miles wasprobably much closer to the
average and here we go, we cancover.
If you don't care about thepolice, you'd cover 100 miles an
hour.
Oh yeah, and on, get on anairplane and you're sitting,
perfect, and you're having yourheat, you know your seats heated
and you're you know the airconditioning and yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's definitely a the way things change.
And even in my role now it'slike last Friday.
I mean I left, I flew out ofSyracuse, new York, at five.
We took off, we boarded at fiveo'clock.
I mean, we were in there at5.30 and stopped in Detroit.
I was sitting in St Louis atnine o'clock on Friday morning.
A lot of people probably hadn'teven clocked in or went to work

(14:16):
yet.
You know.
I mean it's just the way theworld works.
It's like, you know, you wakeup in time zone on the East
coast and next thing you know,it's five o'clock in the Midwest
and I'm ready for bed.
I've already got my 12 hours inhere, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
I remember doing a business trip back in the oh,
this had probably been the midnineties early two thousands,
and when I was out in San Diegoor I'm sorry, I started in Los

(14:52):
Angeles, went up to SanFrancisco, back to Los Angeles
for another meeting, down to SanDiego, from San Diego to Miami
and then Miami up, did a fewstops through the Midwest and
all.
And I remember it being soamazing to me that one night I'm
sitting on the Pacific Oceandipping my feet in the water in
the Pacific Ocean.
The next morning I'm sitting onthe Atlanticlantic ocean
dipping my head on the atlanticocean yeah, I had to.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
You know that was one thing in my old uh, my old role
with another manufacturer waswe, we've been, I've been
blessed to travel a lot and oneand one 24 hour period.
I started in salt lake city,utah, at a sales training as a
product product specialist.
So I started there.
I had to go to somewhere inminnesota that next morning.

(15:29):
You know, flew that night andthen I ended up, like down in
orlando at the ncba convention.
Within 24 hours I'd went, I was100 degrees and temperature
changed from salt lake city tominnesota and then like, like,
it was like minus 20 that daywhen I got on the plane in
Minnesota and then I ended up inOrlando and it's like 87

(15:49):
degrees.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
So how do you pack for that?

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I mean really uh, you know, I got really, really good
at packing clothes and I meanI've, I've been fortunate to
travel a lot.
Basically, I kind of startedtraveling really, really heavy
when I was 18, 19, 20 years,probably about after I graduated
high school, and uh, you know,there's times you you just don't
pack.

(16:11):
I mean you buy, you gotta buyclothes when you get there.
Uh, at, I've gotten really goodat folding jeans and making,
making the best everything, butI was pretty big, you know, you
just kind of got it.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
I remember in another long shot in another lifetime.
I lived on the beach and I Idon't think I owned a pair of
socks.
I got this.
I got this gig up in Chicagoaround Christmas time and I flew
up there and I got off theplane and I'd I it had been a
long time since I'd been in coldweather, yeah, and I got off
the plane and I didn't have Iwasn't wearing socks had you
know, man, you just man, youjust think, man, that was stupid

(16:46):
.
But, you know so okay.
So while you're traveling,you're doing all this traveling.
What do you do?
You listen to podcasts, youlisten to music, you listen to.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, I don't.
Well, I'm not going to lie toyou, I listen to podcasts a lot.
One thing that I don't know Ithink's kind of went by the
wayside and I don't know I liketo read.
I mean, I'm an old school, Iwas born in 81.
I mean, I grew up, you know,reading the newspaper to find
out the news and sorting throughall that kind of stuff as a kid

(17:15):
.
I mean I can remember wheneverI read market reports from the
you know East always find itinteresting to read, because I
think to me, when I readarticles either in magazines or
newspapers or whatever, that'ssomebody else's artwork, you
know.
So whenever somebody writes anarticle about equipment, you

(17:38):
know I want to know that guy'sview about.
You know, is the equipment tooexpensive?
Are we getting too technical?
You know X Y Z you about.
You know, is the equipment tooexpensive?
Are we getting too technical?
You know xyz.
So, traveling, uh, when I get onan airplane, honestly, uh,
first, first step uh is usuallyI try to go to sleep and
everybody's like what?
I mean, I'll just, I'll justhunker down at three o'clock in

(17:59):
the afternoon and I'll sleep.
I don't know if it's theinertia from taking off, but I
listen to a lot of podcasts, um,and I'll do some of them, the
audiobooks, but I'm always, I'malways reading, I've always got
a magazine with me of some sortand driving my pickup.
You know, when I'm on the roadin a pickup, I average right now
probably 50, some phone calls aday and, uh, that's that.

(18:24):
You know that's not a lot, butthat's usually 50 different
people you're talking to a dayand anywhere from 30 to 50 text
messages, yeah, mixed in with,you know, a reply to an email,
and you know you're not supposedto text and drive, so I talk to
text a lot, but so, yeah, uh,and just out seeing the
countryside, you know, it's kindof like driving down here this

(18:46):
morning.
I mean watching the sun come upand, uh, you know, burn, the
burn, the frost off the horizon,the deer were moving, and so I
saw five bald eagles on the waydown.
Really, this morning, as we has, really it's a pretty morning.
You know.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
So I'll tell you I.
I never get tired of that.
I guess we're, you know, duringthese we I don't even know how
old you- are how old are you?

Speaker 2 (19:07):
I was born in 81, so I guess you do the math there.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
I've got a few years on you.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
I don't like to tell anybody, you know.
I mean, everybody says well,you don't look that old.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
I say well you know I'm back in.
I'm yeah, they're studyingtheir own family.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
I always say you're just aged, you're seasoned,
you're seasoned.
Yeah, it's not the years.
Yeah, that's right, that'sright.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
I remember as a kid, though, thinking that you know,
man, there was so much publicityabout the bald eagles were
going extinct, yeah, and now wesee them in the fields all the
time up here, and I knew it, itnever gets old.
I remember there's a fieldwe'll probably we'll go up and
scout it and we'll map it today.
But, um, I remember goingthrough that field and seeing a
bald eagle carrying a snakeacross the field and I still

(19:49):
just I had to stop the tractorand just watch.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, it's a magnificent bird.
Uh, you know, I couldn't thinkof a better bird to be.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
I don't know.
Benjamin Franklin wanted it tobe the turkey.
Yeah, I think that'd have beena horror.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
You know when it.
You know when them things arefull.
You know, come around Februarywhen they're full plumage I mean
they're at a per year site, soncoming up and them eating on a
deer carcass or something.
But yeah, the same way, john,you know, I grew up right there,
uh, south of Fairfield, and Iremember I remember I was
probably 15, 16 years old, uh,when my dad's friends come by

(20:24):
and he's like man, you've beendown there on the interstate,
you know we're like what for?
And he's like man, there's aneagle's nest down there and you
know that's a big deal.
Yeah, I mean, like I said,we're right there, we're just
skillet fork and a little wabashriver come together.
I mean yeah, I mean it was likehey, and I mean now it's

(20:46):
nothing right?

Speaker 1 (20:47):
I mean, if I don't, I've seen five today, if I don't
see three, two or three atleast a week.
It it's surprising, yeah.
Yeah, I'm sort of like you.
You know I.
I grew up I love to read, loveto read and as as I've, you know
, aged, the mileage has gone upon me a little bit.
I listen to audiobooks andpodcasts a lot.
I mean, I'm a huge audio, but Iprobably have a thousand titles
in my audible account.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
I listened to so and so many different varieties, but
it's you know.
You get, you know, like a dayin the swather.
I get 12 hours in the swatherand I turn my a lot of times.
I'll turn my phone off and Ijust listen to a book all day
and I'm good.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
I'm good, I can do 120, 160 acres in a day and just
cruise.
Yeah, my favorite thing to dois when I get in a piece of
machinery and get running in ahome.
You know, I'm zoned in.
I just, you know, I sit thereand listen for the motor to rev
up and, you know, am I going toload this thing down.
Or, especially if I'm balinghay, I'm like, well, you know,
can I get another half milethere?
You know what, get another halfmile there.
You know what, how, you knowwhat can I do today?

(21:47):
And, like I said, I'd sometimesjust get a day of peace and
quiet, not having the phoneringing.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
It's, it's, it's beautiful, oh, man, I'll tell
you, you know, we used to actwhen I worked for a big company
we used to call it the leash,you know, because you had your
phone back even before then hadpagers and yeah, you know it's.
It's rare nowadays, it's rarein today's times, to be able to
get that peace.
You know, there's a lot oftimes we don't have to see
people in in person because wedo.

(22:10):
I mean, how many times do youand I talk on the phone or send
texts back and forth?
I may go a month or two monthsand not see you.
Yeah, but we still stay incontact.
But the downside of that is youknow that that interruption of
your time, I mean, I, I live mylife now almost totally to find
peace.
I, I just, I don't like con, Idon't mind conflict as much.

(22:30):
It's the.
I don't like drama.
I don't deal with drama.
Stupid conflict just drives menuts.
That's right.
That's right, you know we've gota real beef, let's sit down,
talk and figure it out.
But if you're if you're, youknow, mad because your
hairdresser messed up you, youknow, I really don't care.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Yeah, yeah, I'm same way and that's.
You know.
I have to a lot of my friendsfrom back here at home.
You know they they don't, theydon't work in the same role as I
work in.
You know one of my best friendsfrom back home, I mean he's a.
He's a heavy equipment operator.
You know he's out there on abulldozer taking his anger out
on a pile of dirt right now andI'm over here getting a butt

(23:03):
tune from a guy and it'ssomewhere because this thing
didn't work like it's supposedto.
And you know I I ended up, youknow, blah, blah, blah, you know
.
But at the end of the day I, youknow, usually got him fixed
over the phone and it's like youknow why you park your.
He said why you park your truckbehind your house.
I said I don't want peoplestout.
I was there.
I said just, I said my truckwill be in the shed.

(23:27):
I said locked up, myside-by-side will be kind of
here.
And he's like, well, I didn'tknow you was homeless, I didn't
want you to know I was homeless.
So yeah, it's weird how thingschange over time and as you age
and you know and everything thata lot of my friends have
struggles with when, especiallywhen I'm back home they're like

(23:48):
well, why don't you come overtonight?
We're going to cook supper,we're going to do that.
Let's go out to eat, you know.
And I'm like, yeah, I've beenon the road five days this week
and I ate out every single meal.
I just want to sit on the couchand eat something.
I'll take a damn damn boiledhot dog, you know I'm good, you
know.
So, yeah, it's, it's crazy howthings change, but I just like

(24:09):
you said, with the age I don'tmean nothing.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
So how many head of cattle are you running these
days?

Speaker 2 (24:12):
so yeah, over there in missouri, um, in brock meyer,
um, we got around.
Right now we're at about 420mama cows.
There'll 225, 250 of them beregistered Angus, right, and
then you know, the balance ofthem cows would be.
They would have started out asregistered Angus but they're a

(24:33):
female, that you know.
I've got a lot of Baldies andwe run a Brock.
Brock's really really got hishead geared towards the genetic
side of it.
It works out good.
I, I think in our level ofpartnership is he?
He's always studying, studyingand breeding and feeding, and
I'm always kind of looking atother things like the land

(24:54):
management, you know, andrunning cows here and I like to
just get out and fix fence andbe around the cow.
So, yeah, we, oh, I'd say we're, we're four, four, 50, pretty
easy, and then we'll calve out.
You know, here we just got donefall calving right there at the
end of October.
Uh, we had right at a hundred.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
How long is your, how long is your window for calving
?

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Uh, we're, we're pushing everything now, uh into
a 60 day window just with.
Uh, you know, it's just a timemanagement deal.
I know this year well, in a10-day period there this fall
that works out good for my workis I kind of schedule stuff
around that.
But out of those 100, I thinkwe had 86 of them hit the ground

(25:39):
in a 10-day window, so there's25 re-sip cows over on one
pasture.
Everything we kind of do it towhere we can make it quick work
and yeah, we've got a goodfacility.
Um, you know, calving theheifers, we will.
We can have that about 20, 25heifers here and we've got a
rigged up in a barn and I mean,basically, the protocol is, as

(26:01):
soon as I see feet and if it's aheifer, we just go through so
much temperature swings duringthe day and if I see feet I'm
pulling it out.
Yeah, I ain't got time going tohouse, give her 15 minutes.
Most of the time them heifersgo to calving.
I mean they'll wear down,they'll just get hot, you know,
and then they'll just give upand the next thing you know you

(26:22):
got a swelled head and a deadcalf.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
And we all know those don't pay the bills.
Oh no, we, we, we talked we gota mutual friend, uh the
beasleys.
Yeah, uh, I was talking withdave the other and they, they,
like you know they're, I thinkthey do like a 60 or 65 day
window.
Uh, we're on a 90 day window.
Um, just because we, you knownatural cover and we let our
bull out and he's got 90 days,so we put him in on july 4th,
pull him out october 4th andyeah, you know yeah, and that
cabin window works forcommercial guys.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
You know the way way we're set up over there is.
You know we're we have a salein the springs.
The first friday night in aprilwe have our annual sale and
we'll sell several bulls andsome females this year probably
be over 100 head in it this year.
And, um, you know we've got apile of customers, just like
yourself, that are traditional.

(27:10):
You know kind of a uh, low, lowmanagement strategy how it
works.
The cow, the cows bring.
You know we got a 90 daycalving window but you know
they'll come to us.
Matter of fact, one of ourcustomers calls quite a bit and
he's like, well, you know thisand that.
And I'm like, well, you knowyou need to watch.
So-and-so's calls quite a bitand he's like, well, you know
this and that.
And I'm like, well, you knowyou need to watch.
So-and-so's calves sell a day.
And he's like, why is that?
And I'm like you're going tofind out.

(27:32):
And then he'll call me like manthem, things were like $2,400 a
head.
And I'm like you know, I saidhe took, you know he took group
of 30 big steers, 30 big heifers, and I said then he had you
know the rest.
You know kind of what we callthe sword offs, and I said you
know, when it comes to dollarsand cents, I said that's what

(27:54):
you're after.
No, so getting them in atighter windows and nothing.
You know it's, it's just now doyou ai?
oh yeah, everything on the brock.
He's got pretty, really stricton this ai protocol and and you
and everything will go throughthe chute as a heifer.
We'll put a seeder in and thenhe'll AI one time and then I've

(28:17):
kind of been keeping somerecords myself.
Usually if they stick AI thatfirst time, they're going to
have a pretty good reproductionhistory with us.
If they stick AI that secondtime, you know kind of in that
second window that they get andwe catch them in heat, um I the
success of them being highly youknow, boom 60 days after they

(28:41):
cab post calving coming in heat,starting to cycle again,
usually gets stretched out to 90and then I'll start to see
those cows, um, you know whatI'd call age out of that calving
window.
So, like right now, I thinkthere's four left that are,
there's one particularly, Idon't think's brebit.
There's three cows that arewhat I'd consider a late calver.

(29:01):
They're going to calve afterthe first of november and you
know they probably need to besold as just a commercial to
somebody.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
I think it's interesting, the data, the data
side of cattle making thehelping make, it helps make
those decisions.
I mean back, you know, back 20years ago, though the cattle
guys be walking out ago.
That one's not gonna be.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, we're gonna get rid of that one we're gonna get
rid of that one.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
You know now you look on a on.
You know you look on yourspreadsheet or whatever cat,
whatever cattle application youuse.
Yeah, and you're.
So you know what this one has.
You know she's just aboutcalved out.
She's not producing, she's late.
Every time she's going to go,she's going to go and you can
make that decision based on adollars and cents type of
approach.
Yeah, you know, and it's that'snot just for the big guys.
I mean the small cattle guyscan can store that data and be

(29:45):
able to call that up at any timeyeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
That's a valid point and as I see the, you know the
transition.
You know we don't have manyproducers in the world I
shouldn't say the world, butnorth america that that run
between 20 and 100 cows.
We got a lot, I mean inmissouri, yeah, we our average
cow herd size like 46 head forthe state, but that don't

(30:08):
include the guys in NorthMissouri that run 1,000.
You know, I've got customers inour AOR that run 1,000, 1,200
mama cows.
I mean we're a full-time ranchand you get to different areas,
you know, such as this area herewhere you've got 1,215 cows
running on 40 acres and you know, at the end of of the day it's

(30:33):
still got to bring a littlemoney and those people are still
that.
You know they're utilizing thatdata.
You know, hey, I want a bullthat you know it's going to
convert some energy to.
You know, three, three poundsof gain.
Um, you know, good friend ofmine lives over here on the
towards chester and pinknewville and out at ducoin area.
I mean he runs quite a few cowstoo and known him my whole life
and you know we're alwaystalking about conversion and one
thing that I always say is youknow, in missouri we we rely on

(30:55):
grass, our cattle, we got a lotof grass, we got good grass in
missouri.
That's one thing I noticed whenI moved over there in 16 was uh
, man, just just, the grass isjust phenomenal.
And yeah, I'm doing someresearch and I always say to
have good, you got to have alittle rock.
Well, there's some places wegot a lot of rock that uh, cause

(31:15):
we're right here on thefoothills of Mississippi.
But you know when, when corn isreadily available, such as in
Illinois and Iowa and Indiana, Imean that's a whole different
level of protein and you can doabout anything you want to with
a buck of corn.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
When protein and you can do about anything you want
to with a buck of corn.
When, when the corn ain'treadily available, uh, you got
to figure out how to make themthings convert.
So, yeah, and you know, thedollar comes with it, like now
the corn prices are down so lowa lot of guys are feeding corn
because it's it.
It's so cheap comparatively,yeah, you know, for energy gain
when you look at it on a per ton, you know.
So yeah, I know, on our end, weknow we're looking back at for
a while we were in the, you know, the direct to consumer beef
and we did that for a few years.

(31:52):
We're pretty successful at it.
My dad passed away and so wesort of got out of it.
But I think, with some of thenew regulations that I think are
on the horizon, I think it'sgoing to open up a lot of
opportunities for the small, forthe small producers especially
opportunities for the small, forthe small producers especially.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, you're absolutely correct there, john,
and I look at that long-term ondown the road in the next five
to six years.
You know, one of the meetings Ihave with John Deere this year
on some stuff is like I mean theproducers are differentiating.
I mean the guys that arerunning 25 cows and I'm not
going to lie, I mean marketinghas just went through the rough
in the last 20 years.
I mean people have learned howto market stuff.

(32:32):
And I know people that are, forinstance, a customer that buys
some bread heifers off of me upin central Illinois.
I mean his boy is like eighthgrade and he's selling like 18
butcher beef a year and he's noteven promoting it.
It's just from within.
You know, kind of like schoolteachers and in word of mouth.

(32:54):
And you know those guys finishcattle.
They got a lot of corn.
But like I said that, thatsmall guy I mean the the sky's
the limit on how big you want tobe.
And I mean I know one of myanother good friend, uh, they
got into the.
You know they had their ownlabel for beef back in 17.
You know 6, 16, 15, 16somewhere in there and you know,

(33:17):
at that time you know peopleweren't uh buying based on food
security.
Uh, everybody buys now on foodsecurity.
Yeah, I mean it's uh.
Everybody says it's COVID, butit wasn't COVID.
I mean it's just a transitionin how people eat and how people
purchase.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
We did this back in 16, 15, 16.
And you know, at that point itwas the high-end stuff, was what
we sold a whole lot of.
We were selling fillets, wewere shipping them to California
, we were shipping individualcuts all over the place.
Now it's about you know, themarketing I see is about making

(33:54):
sure that you build arelationship with your neighbors
and that your local communitybecause trucking, shipping, all
of that comes into play.
And then you put thebiosecurity you want to have,
food security, know where thatcow came from.
You want that type of arelationship.
It's really opening the doorsto the small producers, yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
You know, yes, and especially in rural America.
You know, just like last week Isaid I was in New York and that
niche market and you know,obviously I mean the world's
getting bigger, we're gettingmore people to feed, we've got
to have more groceries.
You know, obviously I mean theworld's getting bigger, we're
getting more people to feed,we've got to have more groceries
.
And you know, those people arebuying based off of what they
feel.
They feel that the purchasingpoint has no problem of price

(34:39):
when it comes down to knowingthey've got the quality.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Well, and I think you look at some other things like
oh, one of the big retailers, Ithink it's's Walmart has their
own feed lots now that they'refeeding out Holstein steers and
that when you go to the grocerystore and you're buying, when
you go to them and you're buyingthat, that $4 B, that $4
hamburger, it's it, it's an oldHolstein that they fed out and I

(35:02):
think it it.
You know, on the consumer sideI saw a guy the other day.
I mean, I don't do the groceryshopping so I can't really say,
but I think a dozen eggs is what, five, six bucks at the grocery
store.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
now, yeah, I don't know exactly, but yeah, they
ain't cheap.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
And somebody was complaining.
My neighbor here has a bunch ofchickens and he sells his eggs
for $2 a dozen and people werecomplaining about the price.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
I'm like you know what.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Go to the grocery store Instead, go buy this.
These are nationally raised.
You know where the eggs comefrom.
They're not a commercialfactory.
Yeah, and I think the smallproducer and you know I talk a
lot about the small producerbecause I think with my
background in marketing, I liketo help the small producer learn
to market themselves a littlebetter and I think this is a

(35:42):
real opportunity, some realopportunities coming up.
There's some scary things, youknow that could happen too with
the PMOs and the.
You know the pesticide and theherbicide restrictions that may
come.
So I think those are, those aresome things to watch.
So let's talk.
You know, here's a questionthat I I talk a lot about
technology cause I'm, I'm, I'm adork, but you know, on the
forage side, the whole reasonyou're down here today is we are

(36:05):
making a major upgrade in ourprocess.
I was writing my own databasesto track stuff, but John Deere
has released their what's calledBailDoc.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
BailDoc, just you know, 23 model.
Yeah, it really hit the groundrunning here in 24.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, and so we're jumping on board with that.
We switched out our balers andI've talked about the pain of
that, and you guys talked meinto the green one and so you
know, and I've said this before,I did not buy the green one
based on the technology.
I didn't buy it based, I boughtit on dealer service.
I mean, most guys in today'smarket are completely buying on

(36:43):
dealer service, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
You know, I mean people ask what truck I drive
and it's I drive the truck thatI can get serviced.
I can't get the service, I'mnot driving it.
That's.
That's a valid, very validpoint.
And yeah, it's uh.
Yeah, just, you know, you canbuy any color you want.
We've got the internet now youcan buy it wherever you want.
You can buy in europe.
Yeah, they don't come over hereand work, they're gonna, that's
right, keep going.
And that's one thing in thisbusiness that I take a lot of
pride in is keeping my guysgoing.
And yeah, I get a littleaggravated with saying my phone

(37:15):
on 24-7.
Don't mean I got to answer, butyou've always taken.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
I mean, you guys have always taken care of me.
I mean when I was, when I firstcame out here back this is long
before, uh, sidenstriker andObi, you know, before they
bought the dealership.
It was a different, differentcompany, same same location, but
I didn't get great service andI didn't buy deer for a long
time.
Yeah, um, and it was based onservice.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Um, now that we've gotten into it and, and
Sidenstriker and Obi, we've hada really good relationship with
you.
I won't say it's perfect.
Oh, toby, we've had a reallygood relationship with you.
I won't say it's perfect, oh,nothing's perfect.
I've never had a relationshipwith a dealership on anything.
That's perfect, yeah, but therehas to be give and take and you
know we made this switch andone of the things I am most

(38:01):
excited about is the technologyside.
I mean, talk to me about youknow how.
You know, in compared to therest of the country, I'm a small
operator and compared to therest of the country.
I'm a small operator, oh no,you're pretty good size.
Well, I'm a pretty smalloperator when you talk about
acreage and you talk about thatstuff, but we're going to be
able to use this.
You know, use this bale dockand it's really going to help us
.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah, so that's one thing that in the past and
forging hay business is it'salways kind of took the backseat
to a lot of people and I guess,probably from a young age, I
always kind of knew that you wasgoing to have to have hay and

(38:41):
of course, like I said, any roomthat you know, whether it be a
sheep or cow or horse orwhatever, I mean they got to
have dry matter to operate andyou know if they don't have dry
matter they ain't going tosurvive and so so deer, um, deer
, really kind of charged intothis deal, probably five, six
years ago, and and you know, weseen, you know they seen that

(39:01):
yield maps and stuff justsimilar to a corn farmer.
So now, um, like I said, withthe technology and the stuff
hitting the forage and you knowhay and forage side, with the
windrowers such as yourself, uh,just like I spoke earlier, you
know we're starting, you knowstarting to put on more
fertilizer.
We're looking at variable ratefertilizer, we're looking at

(39:22):
variable rate spraying.
We're spraying for bugs, we'respraying for, you know, fungus
and this and that.
So, as a cost operation andeverything costs money, but in
the long run it actually savesyou money if we've got this
stuff documented and that's atough pill for a lot of guys.
Oh, it ain't going to save memoney.
You know, I've always just putup that field, made four bales

(39:45):
of the acre.
Well, did you weigh them?

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, exactly, I mean people ask, well, how much do
those bales weigh?
And I can tell you, yeah, I cantell you.
I mean, I can tell you our, ourround bales are weighing a
thousand.
You know, on different fieldswith the densities there may be
1200, our, our square bales.
We're shooting for an 800, 800pound bale average in the field
and I can make you know.
Even in the database I wrotefor our operation I would say,

(40:08):
okay, these bales are averaging800.
How many tons did we get?
I think with this new system,not only do I not have to
remember to put it in thedatabase so I can make those
decisions, but it goes thereautomatically.
And then being able to makethose decisions at the beginning
of the year, looking at okayand well, and mid-year changes,
but at the beginning of the yearwe're looking at, okay, this is

(40:28):
what our plan is going in.
We looked at what happened lastyear.
Now we can make real decisionswith real data, not just guesses
and going forward.
I mean I think for smalloperators that I think this is
an important.
You know this is an importantstep and as Deere gets into it,

(40:51):
I mean I shouldn't say this, butyou know, even the round baler
cause.
We don't.
We don't track a lot of datawith our round baler Cause.
For us in our operation, roundbales are a secondary thought,
absolutely.
I mean, if a field gets foxtailin it or get something like
that that our horse customers isnot good for them, we round
bale it.
Yeah, you know if it gets, youknow if it's, you know, but we
don't track that.
Yeah, you know it would be.
You know that's one of thethings we're going to be looking
at.
Coming down the you know,coming down the road is go ahead

(41:12):
and tracking that data with theround bales because we still
need the yield data for thefield.
Absolutely.
We've just made a plan rightnow where we're going to start.
Every field that we have isgoing to get soil sampled this
year.
Oh, yeah, so that we know havesome better, like in the.
In the past years we would onlydo certain fields where we saw
trouble, and now we're every,every field.
Yep, so that's.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
That's a good point and we just brought that up
because a lot of people, similarto hey, sample.
They don't want to sample a badbale.
That's right.
I always want to sample a goodspot in the field because then
they don't have to put as muchlime on it.
You know, and and and in yourworld we've got a lot of a lot
of alfalfa.
You know you got to that pHlevel is so critical anymore on
this alfalfa.

(41:53):
And I tell guys, you know thepH level is what, what rolls
into the.
You know the plant survival andthe hardiness but that also
affects.
You know, the chemistry of howyour chemical works when you do
spray.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
That's right.
It also affects weed pressure.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Weed pressure.
I works when you do spread,that's right.
It also affects weed pressure.
Weed pressure, I mean, the listgoes on.
But yeah, back.
To go back to the.
You know, what we're going todo today is we're going to map
your fields and and then, like Isaid, we're going to enter all
that into the john deeroperations center.
So then it, you basically canknow how many passes.
You know, if you've got a xyzwindow of opportunity that you
need you, hey, I think we canput up 40 acres.
Or you know, I've got a guy that, uh, just, you know, this year
he's like man, I never thoughtabout it doing that away.

(42:34):
And uh, you know, first cutting, he goes out and I'm sure
you'll probably, you know,convert to this over time, but
he goes and cuts all theseheadlands first and then he goes
and bails all these headlandsfirst, really all these
headlands first, and then hegoes and bails all these
headlands first, really out of,out of about three different
fields, huh, but he said youknow about that.

(42:54):
Yeah, see, so I'm saying youknow thinking outside the box,
but he goes in and you know, outof those headland passes, I
know with your, with yourwindrow, or you know your 16
foot cut.
You make four passes aroundthat outside the field.
Yeah, it's here, here, here,and you know usually what do we
have?
You know, in this area obviouslywe've got a lot of deer
pressure on our, on our headlandrows and the yield, the yield

(43:18):
is usually a little bit weakeron that point of the field and
his philosophy is he goes outand cuts them because he gets
them out of the way.
I mean, you run a big squarebaler, you know a large square
baler and you dump a bale.
I mean you don't have anycontrol of where them things
come off.
That's the original nonstopbalers, I tell everybody.

(43:40):
And you don't have any control.
Well, he goes out there.
You know it's always like well,I want to do the end rows and
we'll start here.
Well then, you know, if theweather's right and that's
that's part of you know, whatwe're doing today is you can
pull up three fields and say,well, I and I think I got a
weather window to do this manyacres, I need to go in here and
do this, and then, yeah, boom,you can go back in there three

(44:02):
days later and you can do, dothe middle of the field, or you
can do 12 acres out of this, 80or whatever.
So, yeah, technology isn'tgoing away.
I will say that, um, and we'recharging on pretty hard in the,
you know, foraging livestockside here with what I do in my
role and, like I said, a lot ofguys didn't ever think about it,
but once they do, you know,they're like well, yeah, I can

(44:25):
see where I can utilize this onseveral different things heroin,
pasture um, I'll tell you, we,you know the technology we use
and, like I said, we're not abig operation but we use a lot
of technology.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
I mean, I, I, I contract with a company called
bam weather.
You ever hear those guys?
Oh, yeah, man, they're awesome,they are absolutely awesome.
You know, they're one of thoseguys I love the under,
under-promise and over-deliverand when we, you know somebody,
says, well, you pay X number ofdollars a year for that, I was
like you know what it's worth it?
First time we ever got them wehad.

(44:58):
You know, you look at yourtypical, you watch your TV
weather and you have all of yourapps.
Well, those apps just pick a,they pick a weather model and
that's your forecast for the day.
Apps just pick a, they, theypick a weather model and that's
your forecast for the day.
Yeah, and you know, I got onphone or got on a text chat with
these guys and said, hey, I'mseeing some something that's a
little scary here, some pop-upshowers heading up a little
north of us, and and they were,they looked at and said you've

(45:18):
got about three hours and I, assoon as I got off or got off the
text with them, I'm callingeverybody saying, okay, turn
baler off, get everybody jumpinga loader.
We saved 250 bales, that's youknow 20, $25,000 that we got in
a barn.
That was completely, I mean,perfect.
Hey, uh, that we would neverhave.

(45:39):
You know, it had been rained on, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Well, I shouldn't say run, but it'd been a market.
The marketability would havebeen decreased.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
Yeah, yeah.
So you know the technology sideof it, allowing us to not only
make in-season decisions.
Yeah, the more information wecan get to be able to make
decisions faster, earlier yeahIs better.
You know more better.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Yeah, and I mean, that's the way agriculture is
right now.
We're just, you know, we aren'tdoing anything different than
we did 25, 30 years ago.
We're just doing it better withthe resources we have.
And you know, just like you'resaying, the data and technology,
I mean, and weather, weather'sthe main thing, weather's the

(46:19):
number one thing in agricultureright now and labor's the second
.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Well, I'll tell you.
I mean, I used to work in thetelevision business and you know
, work with a lot ofmeteorologists and I was like
you know what, I don't know howthe heck you have a job where
you get it wrong more than 50%of the time and you still have a
job.
If I did that I'd be fired,yeah, over time and the.
You know, like I said, wecontract with that company, bam.

(46:46):
They're, they're fantastic,they do us, they do a really
good job for us.
But you know, those decisions,anything you can use to make
better decisions, I, you know mykids would ask me how?
You know, dad, how do you makedecisions like this?
And you know, and I, the it'sthe same answer every time it's
you take all the information youhave, you ask the people who
you think are a lot smarter thanyou in it, you take all the
information you have and thenyou make a decision, you move

(47:08):
forward.
Sometimes you're going to win,sometimes you're going to lose,
but you learn something eitherway, yeah yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I like your, your input there, because that's kind
of how me and brock operateover there.
When we go to cut and hay it'slike, well you know, we'll say,
darn if you do, darn if you'mworried, well, it ain't going to
get bailed if it's standing up.
That's right, and you know werun a pretty heavy fleet of
equipment and we do a lot of hayourselves for cattle operation

(47:36):
and bedding and that's one thingthat I can manage it once I get
it cut.
If I ain't got it cut and itjust keeps getting rained on, we
can get into a pinch wherewe've got a really bad situation
and I've seen some badsituations unfold with producers
that you know there's days thatthe baler don't need to be

(47:59):
running at 5 o'clock, that'sright.
The moisture's coming up fromthe ground that baler really
needs to be running at fiveo'clock, that's right.
The moisture's coming up fromthe ground that baler really
needs to be running at 10.
And you know that's one thingthat brock and I will.
We'll text back and forth andI'll be like, hey, man, I think
we need to roll with it.
And you know, let's get goingat 9, 30 this morning.
There could be a shower comingin here this afternoon, we don't
know.
Uh, xyz, and you know we, that'sone thing you know, same as you

(48:23):
and your operations.
I mean you can't go.
You've got how many acres?
800, something like that okay,you go out.
You know, with your labor andyour fleet of equipment.
You can't go out and do thefirst cutting all in one week.
No, it's gonna work, no, no, Imean you'd have the biggest mess
you'd ever seen in your life wetried this past year we tried
to do as an experiment.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
I say it was an experiment I got.
I got a little aggressive, yeah, and I mowed down 300 and
because in southern illinoisthat were those weather
conditions, we mow one day, itsits a day, sits another day and
then we bail, bail, you know,rake and bail the fourth day.
So when we saw those were theweather conditions coming, we we
jumped in, I said, okay, I'mgoing to mow 100 acres a day,

(49:03):
we're going to put 300, 350acres on the ground.
And then what a mess.
My guys were revolting, heck.
I was about ready to quit, youknow we couldn't.
And we ran into the logisticalproblem of, you know, with, with
the big squares, you have toget them off the field that day.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
I mean, you just can't let them sit.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
The risk is too, too much.
And getting them, you know,getting them loaded on trailers,
hauled to the barns, loaded inthe barn, stacked, sorted, so
that you know.
You know, I try to moweverything on our operation.
I try to mow every blade ofgrass on the farm because that's
where I'm making the firstjudgment of who's the customer
for this.
Hey, is it high enough quality?

(49:40):
Does it look good, is it, youknow, going to be retail?
And then you know going to beretail.
And then you know you get intothe raking and bailing and all
of all of the, the further steps.
But you know what a mistake.
I mean three.
We got it all bailed and it wasa nightmare.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Yeah, managing that process is is is tough uh-huh,
you know, yeah, it's a challenge, you know, and I feel the same
way, you know, I'll be mowinghay one morning, you know, and
I'll be like, well, you knowwhat if I go put down another 15
acres, you know, and I'm like,ah, you know.

(50:15):
Then the next thing, I know,we're sitting there seven days
later and that 15 acres is justkind of like uh-oh, but you know
, it's all got to get done,which we're not near.
You know the alfalfa size thatyou are.
We got a lot of grass, hay andwe grow a lot of brome over
there too, and but you stillhave a little logistic of
knocking it down.
They still got to be mowed,raked, baled, hauled, stored

(50:39):
yeah, and that's that's onething that you know I like the
way you said that there.
I really admire that is.
I do myself as I always thinkfrom the end to the beginning.
You know, when I'm out therescouting fields and I'm like,
man, this is a good field of of.
You know, bro, hey, this youknow we, we want to do this
right.
I want, I want this to be myweaned calf feeder.

(51:01):
Yeah, this is is gonna be thefeed, this is gonna be the hay
that we feed.
You know wet cows.
That are spring calvers.
You know when they're, whenthey're heavy in cat.
You know they got a 60 day oldcalf nursing their side and the
nutrition I want to be feedingthe best that they can get, and
that makes a big difference tooon our cutting window and that's
kind of just kind of how we'vegot it all planned out

(51:22):
logistically as well as and westart out with our top quality
and work our way to the basementyeah, I mean that usually
usually when we get down withthe crp, we've got bedding you
know.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
So, yeah, we do the same thing.
I mean, I'm looking at, youknow, as you know, in the horse
market, when you get alfalfa,that's too hot, you know, when
you get over there in that, 189rV, 190 plus, I mean there are
some people that want that andthere are some, definitely some
needs for that, but most people,most horse owners, that's far

(51:54):
too hot for them.
I mean too high proteins, toohigh the, you know.
So there you really want themto have 150, 160, you know, in
that that middle, middle area,and so we have a large dairy
goat.
There's a lot of dairy goats inthis area and this year,

(52:15):
because of the way you know, wehad the all the extra rain early
in the season and the droughtin the late season.
I didn't bail one bale that Ithought was good enough quality
for them.
And I think you know one of thethings that I've always liked
when I've talked to you you giveme the real deal and I'm able
to make decisions because Itrust the.
The information you're givingme is you know you're not.
You know it's not always asales job.
Oh yeah, I don't know, and youknow I didn't.

(52:37):
I got a call from them the othercouple of those dairies the
other day and said, well, wehaven't heard from you this year
.
Do you have hay for us?
And I said no, that's why Ididn't call you.
I don't think I had anythingthat I bailed.
But I don't think I had enoughof what I bailed that was high
enough quality for you.
So I'm not going to bother youwith it.
You know I I'm always trying,but they are.
You know, for us that's asecondary or tertiary market.

(52:58):
So you know, if I get somethingout there I'm bailing for the
horse people.
I want the horse people.
We had Dr Travis Bees.
I don't know.
You know Travis.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
I know the name down in this area.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Yeah, he's fantastic.
His dad was fantastic and he'sreally come on.
He's a great guy.
And we were talking about how.
You were talking about how ifit's a ruminant, it needs dry
matter.
Well, if it's a horse, you knowa lot of people are going to
pellets and from a nutritionstandpoint that's fine, but when
you look at the overall healthof the animal, they still need

(53:32):
hay in their gut.
Oh yeah, especially if you'regoing to be active with them.
Like we have a barn full ofrope horses.
Yeah, and you know, when theystart to run he described it as
you know you've got to have thatforage in their stomach.
That's what stops the acid fromsplashing up on the sidewalls.
You know where it's not linedfor dealing with that acid.
And so you know there's thatbalance because we're, you know

(53:54):
we're looking at things likepelletization or cubing or
something like that, but youhave to have that forage because
those horses are designed Goddesigned them to eat forage and
that's what stops the splashingof the acid.
So when they go to run or youput them in strenuous activities
that you will save your horses,you will save a ton in medical

(54:16):
bills by buying high quality,yeah, you know.
So that decision to you know,move in those other directions
is one that's tough because wehave to base it on.
You know we're trying.
We want to take the best careof our customers as we can.
So do you move all that way ordo you move partially that way?
What do you do?

Speaker 2 (54:33):
You know, yeah, it's a good question too and, like I
said, I feel that there's a lotof education that could go on
with a lot of things in thisworld.
You know, one of them would beanimal owners, you know.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Yeah, I think that's a place that.
One of the reasons I acceptedthe role and was pleased to
accept the role in the board ofdirectors of the IFCC is, you
know, that education portion.
Yeah, you know, educate peopleabout the forage and the, not
only the, the, the landstewardship and the, you know

(55:10):
the, the nutritional side, butalso the other health reasons.
Why forage production?
If you look at the pyramid of,you know and me, I'm sort of in
the equine market but we feed alot of cattle as well.
But when you look at forageproduction and a pyramid of of
producing beef or producingforage is sort of the bottom of
the pyramid without that itdoesn't work.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, that's, that's a veryvalid point.
You know we got to have grassand you know my, my experience
working with I'll say this rightnow that you know we can try.
But the, the people in thedairy business, I mean they are
the experts of gas and forage.
I mean, yeah, uh, you know my,my work in minnesota and
wisconsin over the years and mypast, and I've been fortunate
enough to go across the pondover to holland and germany and

(55:52):
spend some time over there andalways say they farm by the inch
and we farm by the acre overhere in north america and
they'll kind of tell you that,you know, when I worked for that
company out of germany I meanthey were, they don't grow
alfalfa over there, you know.
So their machinery was comingin here and we got a different
expectation of what we want thecrop to look like coming through

(56:13):
the machine.
But yeah, back to what I'd callthe concrete.
The solid foundation we got tobuild off of is the forage and
the forage production, becauseit's like you said with the
horse business.
I mean, I don't know how manypeople buy their kid a horse and
then they're like man, thisthing cost me money.
I gotta buy hay, while they,you know, and I I got a really,

(56:35):
really good friend he's a goodfriend of yours too up here at
noble, I mean, and phil phil'stop, I mean he's top notch.
Hey, man, he's business man.
Phil phil knows the businessand him and his boy Scotty, been
friends with them ever sincethey've got.
Actually they bought my buddy'sequipment and you know people
send me Facebook messages.

(56:56):
Hey, we know you're involved inthe hay business.
You know in the equipment, wheredo we buy?
I'm looking for some hay, theequipment, where do we buy?
I'm looking for some hay.
And you know, I'm like, well, Ialways want to say, well, when
you go to the grocery store, doyou buy the lettuce that's brown
and shitty, that's right, oryou buy the good looking green
stuff up front.
If you, if you want to buy justwhat I call, it's both lettuce,

(57:17):
it's two different prices.
Yeah, but well, you know thateducation, that the quality
beyond of the price, and I knowof two or three people, are like
man, we can't believe thecondition of our horses and I'm
like, well, they go from eating4% crude protein to eating nine.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
That's right.
I've got a friend of mine thathe doesn't buy any bagged feed
at all.
He feeds a high-cotton.
In fact he buys all of his hayfor most of it, the vast
majority of his hay from us.
And then he fact he buys all ofhis hay for the most of it, the
vast majority of his hay fromus, and then he feeds.
He's got a special.
You know he puts his own diettogether and every barn, every
horse in his barn is justbloomed out and looks show ready
and it's.
You know nutrition that.

(57:56):
You know that if you spend, say, you know, 12 cents a pound on
hay and you're buying highquality stuff, and then you
compare that to going out andbuying the CRP, you know the CRP
head that you can buy for fivecents a pound.
It's night and day difference.
It's.
You know it's the McDonald'sfrench fry versus going to you
know Peter Luger's in New York.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Absolutely yeah, and that's the same way that Brock
and I, you know, like I said, wedo quite a bit of wet feed, do
a lot of wet rye, and you knowthat's usually our first good.
We're mad at each other thatfirst week because you know
we've got everything in theworld going on and I'll be out
scouting on a friday and I'llsay, man, we got flag leaf,
looks like we got a window, andthat that protein level and and

(58:37):
that wet feed is so critical, um, yeah, to us, because the way
we feed it, I mean I got to haveprotein for those cows, those
pears, so I can always find drymatter.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
But I got to have, you know, my wet, my wet side,
and you know, dry matter intakeand balance the ration to make
it as cheap and affordable forus as we can.
That's right, as is a big deal.
And, and you know, within fivedays that number can go from.
You know, I've, I've, I've, putsome up in the high tens, like

(59:12):
a 10, 10, eight on the protein.
And then, you know, the nexttime we got into we were back
down to a four and what I'm hereto tell you we can buy a straw
for you know, uh, so, and then,and then we also have to look at
, you know, the cost of the bailtoo.
You know, as we, you know, putless, you know 50 product into a
bail, you know we get down to40.

(59:32):
We're putting more material inthe bail.
It's not going to ensile andmake our feet as it is.
It needs to be.
So, yeah, there's a lot ofeducation out there.
Uh, and just and just, you know, that's like I said, I, I find
myself reading a lot.
I like to educate myself off ofwhat you know, what John does
and what Phil does and what'swhat's.
You know, uh, I'll, I'll pullin there, like last week, I'll

(59:56):
talk to the Amish you know whatI mean, I don't have no problem
with it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Well, billy Bob, we could talk for hours.
Oh yeah, you.
Well, billy Bob, we could talkfor hours.
Oh yeah, you know, I think, youknow, I think the world of you
and I really appreciate youtaking the time to spend the
morning with us.
So anyway, with that said, I'lllet you all go.
You have a.
Have a good day, good luck.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
God bless.