September 25, 2025 • 27 mins
Fall harvest is in full swing as we navigate recent rains and explore grain bagging as a cost-effective storage solution to avoid excessive commercial storage fees. We're implementing this method to circumvent the 24 cents per bushel plus monthly charges that significantly impact our already tight profit margins.
• Storage costs at local elevators have increased to 24 cents per bushel for the first three months plus 3-4 cents monthly thereafter
• Our 300-foot grain bags hold approximately 13,500 bushels each and can be filled in just 3-4 hours
• The grain bagger system increases harvest efficiency while providing flexible storage options
• Staggered planting dates this season have helped distribute our workload and made field operations more manageable
• Dr. Leah is becoming more comfortable with farm equipment operation including running the grain cart
• We're hosting friends for "Farm Camp" where they'll experience harvest firsthand and help with farm activities
• Farm spouses deserve more recognition for their crucial contributions during harvest season
• Our foliar applications of sugar and micronutrients may be contributing to slower bean maturity this year
Send us a message or suggestions for other topics at farmersgreatesasset@gmail.com or find us on social media at Farmer's Greatest Asset.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
the farmer's greatest asset podcast.
We believe the farm's greatestasset is the farmer, their
knowledge, knowledge, experience, mind and health.
Welcome to the podcast.
(00:40):
I am Jesse.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And I'm Dr Leah.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well, we are in the middle of fall.
Fall is in full swing.
Had a few rains so we've kindof taken it easy last weekend
and haven't really got back intothe field yet, but we are in
full swing.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It was nice to rest.
Was it nice for you to rest?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
It was.
It was nice to not have to runall weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I needed that yeah, we've had a cold going through
the house, so I know pretty muchall of us needed it yeah, you
couldn't.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I still could probably sing baritone today,
still getting through it.
But there have been a fewpeople cut beans in the area and
I know there's a few thinkingabout trying trying them again.
So the rain kind of helpedknock off the last of the leaves
and kind of send them over thefinish line.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
So maybe plump them up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
The rain was good for the beans.
Our beans, however, just seemto be changing slower, which to
me is fine because there's stilla lot of green, a lot of yellow
out there.
So if there is, they're gonna,that seed's gonna absorb that
moisture.
So the rain was good.
(01:59):
We had about an inch and a halfout of three different rains.
It was a good rain over thelast week.
It did give us a chance to movesome dry corn out of the bin.
So if anybody follows us onTikTok I don't know if I put a
video on Facebook or not, butyou've seen that we are bagging
(02:21):
some corn.
This year Might even bag somebeans.
We'll see how that goes.
It's a new little adventure forus.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
On the farm, something we are all
experiencing together.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
We're going to learn together.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It's an experience we're going to learn together.
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So we have actually used a grain bagger in the past.
We used it for high moisturecorn for cattle and it worked
really good.
So here we are now.
We're gonna try to bag somecorn in the fall.
So put dry corn in the bag.
It should be dry corn coming.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It will be dry corn coming out so yeah, and I
wouldn't say we're doing some,we're doing quite a bit, which
is good, right, I mean when you.
I don't know about other places, but the quote-unquote storage
costs around here aresignificant.
Um, I'm sure they areeverywhere and even like the
(03:22):
mill and ethanol.
They do price later contractsand things like that.
But to take it there, whateverthey're calling it, it is what?
24 cents here now.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's getting high.
It's just like all thefertilizer and stuff, stuff's
getting high.
I mean it's out of hand.
Let's be honest $1,000 tonfertilizer, what was?
32% nitrogen for somethingbasically 800 anhydrous.
(03:54):
I mean things are just high.
So somewhere down the linesomething's going to have to
change and that could be a wholenother discussion some other
day.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So our solution is to bag our grain rather than take
the storage hit, which would be24 cents right off the top, or
take the in season price.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Cause.
After that it's like three,three, another.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It's 24 cents 24 cents for the first three months
and then, depending whereyou're at, three or four cents I
think it's three and a half orfour depending where you're at
and what crop it is.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A cent three to four cents per bushel per month after
the first three so to get tomarkets, you're already like 28
to 30 cents to well, 28 to 36cents, actually, right, which is
it's an already tight marginsso you scrape 30 cents, 35 cents
right off the top.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
That's a lot of money and it just so happens we don't
have enough storage on the farm, so we have always taken some
to town and stored it ormarketed it ahead and hauled
straight out of the field.
But there again you got to havedry corn to haul out of the
field.
So if you don't haul dry corninto the elevator you take that
(05:19):
hit on damage or drying cost.
All that.
To us this was a goodalternative.
To put it in a bag.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Just trying to be as cost efficient and production
efficient as we can be.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
To improve our family farming operation.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So we have heard that last year the bagger we used we
rented it.
Those guys said they havepeople down that do the wheat
run like down through Texas allthe way up through north.
There are certain customharvesters that won't pull into
your field unless there is abagger there because they go
that quick and we have filledtwo bags of dry corn out of a
(06:03):
bin and it'll eat everything youthrow at it with our big grain
cart.
You open that grain cart wideopen, throttle up and it just
eats it.
So I could see what they say itmakes harvest efficient.
So if you put the bag rightthere in the field where you're
harvesting, I could see where itjust goes quick.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
It is time to get the bag hooked up and that type of
thing.
And that's a learning curve.
We're learning that as well,but how has that been going?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's fine.
After you do a couple, it'sokay.
Okay, so we're just using300-foot bags because we have
talked to others that have donebags for a couple years now and
they tried 500-footers.
So a 500-foot bag will hold alot of grain, but they're so
(06:57):
heavy.
Even the 300-foot bags that weare using are heavy.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So you have to have something else out there to help
move it around.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Well, you can flop the box off of the pickup onto
the ground and there's a winchon the bagger itself.
So once you get it on theground, it's not so bad.
But you've got to get the boxoff the pickup opened up and
then you've got to lay the wholething out and then the winch
will pick it up.
But it's still a a process.
(07:27):
Once everybody knows what'sgoing on, it's not so bad.
With three guys you could do itin 10 minutes or less.
I bet.
Once you know what you're doing, a 300 foot bag will hold 13
500 bushel plus.
Uh, once you get the bag on,you can rock and roll for that
amount of bushels, whatever ittakes, and you can close the bag
(07:49):
back up.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So you know like if you have a contract and it's
5,000 bushel, you can just openit up, get what you need out of
it, or you have to use the wholebag at one time.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I plan on just cleaning the bag up Once we get
into a bag, we just clean it up.
I haven't asked that specificquestion.
Somebody did ask me that though, yesterday, funny enough, um,
and I have not asked.
But to me I don't see how youwould be able to pull that
unloader out of there withoutscrewing up the rest of the bag
(08:22):
and being able to get it closedup tight to keep the critters
out.
The plan is, once we get tounloading the bags, to just
clean up the bag once you start.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So that might be another bonus of just having a
300 foot bag that you don't haveto sell such a large quantity
at one time if you didn't wantto.
Right.
Knowing those types of thingsand how much is in each bag will
be helpful for marketingpurposes as well, right?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So on our grain cart we have scales and then we have
an app to track bushels so youcan literally track if you use
semis you can put it in a semiand then which where the
destination is, and so you cantrack how many bushels that
semi-hauled versus number two,number three, whatever, and then
(09:10):
you can see where every bushelgoes to.
So we used it to track thebushels going into the bag.
So I know we put 13,300 bushelin that first bag and it didn't
take us but three, four hours todo it.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
And that's between 15% and 16% moisture.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It was all 15%.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Right, so we know it coming out of there is good
going to wherever we're takingit.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
It goes into the bag at 15%.
It comes out at 15%, right, Idon't know.
I was talking to Dad andsomebody else yesterday and I
said this may not be a long-termsolution, but it is definitely
going to work this year and itmight just be our long-term
solution for storage.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, when I figured out cost projections of putting
up bins to cover how many bushelwe need, of putting up bins to
cover how many bushel we need,like it's like years of
investment comparatively overrenting a bagger and buying bags
.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Right, bins are expensive, very expensive.
I like having the grain in abin, then you can.
So, specifically beans, like wewant to try to rehydrate some
beans if they get too dry.
So that's why I like puttinggrain in a bin, so you can maybe
(10:37):
manage it that way.
But if you're in 13% beans,they say they're going to come
out at 13%.
So same with corn.
So I guess we'll see how thisgoes.
Again, if you follow me onTikTok, you saw that Dr Leah was
out in the grain cart this lastweek or so she can do it.
(10:59):
The whole point, I guess, wasactually to get Lucy out there,
which we still need to do again,and Lucy was out there and she
did.
She did okay.
She was very worried that shewas going to screw something up
she's very much in resistance ofgetting into the grain cart she
(11:21):
is.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I understand I have been there for years, but this
year it was like, okay, I haveyou know, henry's going to be
coming out.
It's really more about how am Igoing to get the work done at
home when I'm out here?
That's really my big thing, andI think she feels that too.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
So I actually bring that up about me putting it out
there on TikTok, becauseprobably one of the first
comments was the farm wivesdon't get the credit they
deserve.
So I guess this is me publiclythanking you for everything that
you do do, because it's true,the farm wives do so much around
(12:01):
the farm and they deserve morecredit than what they get.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Thanks, honey, that's .
Very nice.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I don't say it, so I guess this is also me telling
the farmers if you have yourfarm wife out there, whatever
she does for you, you need tothank her.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
If you have a lunchbox packed thank her.
Be thankful If you havegroceries in the refrigerator or
a meal when you come home.
Thank her.
Be thankful if you havegroceries in the refrigerator or
some a meal when you come homethank her because I will tell
you, harvest time, there is alot going on.
Getting to the grocery store,I'm I'm thankful that lucy can
(12:41):
do a lot of grocery runs for usnow.
Even getting to the grocerystore in the middle of trying to
plan, you know, get my workdone, that I need to get done
and to plan getting a mealprepped and out to the field hot
and then doing it again, likethen getting it cleaned up and
(13:02):
the laundry and getting it backout there and Lizzie playing
volleyball, and it is thebiggest juggle.
And at this point in my lifeI'm really also trying to not
just push through, because Ihave been trained to to put the
patient first, or now the farmfirst, and so I'm really trying
(13:28):
to retrain my brain to not justpush through all the time.
And I think it's been anuncomfortable, vulnerable time
to really try and change myselfin fall because in the past I
(13:48):
have not enjoyed it and I wantto be able to enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Last year was probably the first year you said
you enjoyed fall.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, and this year has been really good too.
Oh, and what do we have goingon this weekend?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Farm camp.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Harvest camp 2025.
My friend Anita and her husband, Paul are coming up from St
Louis to visit and help on thefarm.
This is the second year thatthey're coming up.
They came up last year andabsolutely loved it, and I can
(14:29):
tell you like I go into a totalshame spiral like, oh, my house
is the best.
Oh, my God, I have weedseverywhere.
I will tell you right now, Ithink it's worse this year than
it was last year.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And I'm like I don't know what?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
what are we gonna do?
Because last year we cannedpumpkin and we canned tomatoes
and this year I'm just throwingeverything in the freezer and
gonna work on it later.
We are going to work on lucy'schicken coop the chicken chicken
and duck duck yeah, but I'mreally looking forward to them
coming up and they look forwardto it.
(15:06):
Last year we planned it.
When they left, they were likewe are coming up, we're here the
first of August for yourbirthday.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And they came back six weeks later to do what we're
calling farm camp.
Yeah, they loved it so much,paul got out there and he rode
around in a grain cart and heran the grain cart that whole
day, pretty much right.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
The whole day.
He ran it by himself, gaveHenry a break and Henry was
super excited about that.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So then I gave him an opportunity to ride in the
combine the next day and combinesome corn.
I'm sure he was like a littlekid in a candy store.
I mean seriously.
I say all the time I say allthe time it's big boys, big toys
.
Yeah, It'd be good to have themback again.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, and it's just sometimes it feels like an
Island.
I'm I'm sure everybody feelslike that.
This time of year too, it feelssomewhat like an island and
it's nice to have visitors evenwhen it's busy.
And there's like noexpectations, right, like Anita
is full on and Paul too they arefull on, like we want to come
(16:19):
and help.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He brought his coveralls last year.
I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
They're going to be hot this year.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
He didn't actually wear them, but he wore them in
that one first day.
It was good and they're just.
St Louis is only three hoursfrom us, and then all around St
Louis there's a lot of farmground.
But I guess the point is isthey're they're not far away
from a farm, but just areremoved from farms and just
(16:54):
understand anything.
So they were just excited tosee how things work and learn
about what, what we do and whywe do it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
yeah, and they I mean they dabble a little in farming
.
They've had chickens in theiryard and they have an apiary.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Have some honey.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, so they've brought that's.
That's exciting, and I wouldlove to learn more about that at
some point, but I do not needone more thing.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I guess my point was with farm camp I.
I do like to educate people,especially when they are open
and want to learn about it.
It was kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, so we're looking forward to that again
this year.
I know they're excited.
Oh, and she did complete sometriathlon out in Maryland.
An Ironman Out in Maryland Likeshe's trying to hit every state
and last year she was there andhad.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's pretty awesome that Anita does that Like good
for you, anita, if you'relistening, good job, that's
awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, she actually had an accident last year and
broke her clavicle, so this washer redemption and she finished.
I saw her post on Facebook andshe was super triumphant about
that.
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
It is impressive.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
She's been doing it for years, like since probably
the last 10 years at least thatshe's been on this and still
practicing as a OBGYN.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
They've raised four kids.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, they're all college age or beyond.
Joe got married just thissummer their oldest I am just.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
that's how impressive it is that she is still that
busy in life and work and doesit and trains for it, and it's
impressive.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
She is an impressive woman, so I am looking forward
to just having some time withher and getting up and having
some coffee by the fire in themorning and relaxing.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It's going to be a hot fire.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
It's going to be hot this weekend we'll figure it out
anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So rolling into corn again today we got.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I think we have 10 days before we get to any beans.
Um, like I, ours just are notturning quite as fast.
Why that is?
We do plant full season as fulla season as I possibly can.
We've also done a lot of foliarpasses with sugar and other
(19:39):
foliar micros, so maybe that'smaking a difference.
That is my hypothesis, so maybeit is doing what we were
wanting it to do.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
That would be amazing .
Speaker 1 (19:56):
But I think we have 10 days before we get to cutting
any beans, so we'll just keepplugging away at some corn, get
some corn dried and moved homeand then, when we get to beans,
then we get those off and by thetime we get back to corn it all
should be dry, so we won't haveto dry anything after that.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That would be great, that would be great, that would
be great.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
We honestly haven't dried a whole lot this year.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I think we've dried more this year than we did have
to last year, though.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Last year everything got so dry so fast.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Things got really dry really fast this year too.
But I don't know it's just, wegot this rain.
I don't know it's just, we havelike we got this rain.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I don't think we got rain like this last year right
and all of ours just just kindof has been sitting around there
.
22.
We had one field that was 19out of the the little bit we've
picked and I think that was justa fungicide timing thing.
The fungicide didn't get on assoon as I wanted it to on that
(20:57):
field.
But everything else is justkind of sitting there at 22%,
which is fine, good by me andwhich is also why we're just
kind of plugging along slowly.
It's only September 24th today.
You don't have to have all thecorn off before October.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So when our friends are here we can maybe end a
little early in the day and likehave time with them.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
That's kind of how it's been rolling, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
We're going to move up north.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So it's the furthest farm away from home, so it's
going to take a little extratime.
But yeah, it's kind of the plan.
Like I said, I've just beenplugging along because we have
not picked corn for four or fivedays.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
One because of the rain, and then we move some dry
corn out of the bin.
But then I'm like it'sSeptember 20th, like we don't
have to dry all of the corn andbe done with corn before October
.
That'd be cool, but we don'thave to, and if we don't have to
dry it, let's just plug along.
I do want to get some offbecause I am worried about the
(22:07):
earlier planted stuff stockquality.
But at the moment ours isstanding, but the early stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Aren't we almost done with that?
The?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
earliest, except for one field, which is righted by
the bins.
So that was I left that becausethen we could just put a bag
there of dry corn.
And it's that field of all ofour fields has always been the
greenest, has always looked thehealthiest, has looked the best.
So that was another reason whyI was just like well, we'll
(22:41):
leave that till last and put itin a bag straight out of the
field.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
But yeah, we have three different plantings so
we'll see how they go it'll beinteresting not that we should
ever like have that plan, but Ithink, having three different
plantings, it's been interestingseeing them grow through the
season and how they have beendifferent and having that space
(23:08):
between them made foliar feedingless, made all of our other
applications easier to time out.
Right.
So that's something I think weshould keep in mind moving
forward.
That it's all very weatherdependent for sure, but that
(23:29):
type of spacing might besomething we want to keep in
mind as well.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And that all just kind of fell into place like it
did, one because of weather andtwo it's.
I was same kind of thing, Likewe started April, I don't know
12th, 13th, 14th, planting beansand planting some corn, and it
was all before Easter.
And I was like, well, you don'thave to have everything planted
(23:55):
before Easter, which was earlythis year in April, where a lot
of the neighbors around here didwhich is great, that's fine.
But I told somebody, I saideverybody's done and I still
have two-thirds of my corn to go, and I said there's all be
ready at the same time.
That's fine, I'll just plugalong on my corn and it'll all
(24:17):
be spaced out.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So far that's kind of how it's played out I think
it's something to, just you know, keep another factor to keep in
the back of our, of our head.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
There, like you said, it's all weather very weather
dependent, right, because thatcould be one of those things
where you just get rained outfor two months and don't get
back in until June.
You know so it's just howfarming goes, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Or fortunately.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Or fortunately.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I think that farmers are they like to roll with it,
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
They have to.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Right, right, I mean that right.
So the, the ones that are goingto be in good mindset are are
going to be the ones that aremore, you know they like risk
isn't as scary to them, right,um, because you have to be able
to roll with it yeah, it's agamble every day, better get get
used to it.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
So I guess I'm going to circle back and say my
biggest takeaway today is thankyour farm wife, no matter what
she does for you, because I knowyou feel the stress and you
don't feel thanked.
So thank you.
So all the farmers.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Appreciate what your wife does for you.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Thank you very much, honey, and I would say the same
is true like I.
Sometimes it feels like thefarm takes over our life it does
and we are so used to ourhusbands going out and doing a
(25:58):
lot of work and it's almost likean expectation.
I don't thank you enough eitherfor all the work that you put
into it.
So thank you for being ourvisionary on the farm, thank you
for being the hardest worker,and thank you for being you and
(26:24):
open to all my crazy ideas.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
There's a lot of crazy ideas that come out of the
both of us.
To be continued yep, with thatbeing said, thank you for
listening.
Uh, go out and check us out onall of the socials at farmer's
greatest asset send us a messagewe hearing from you.
(26:53):
If it's just a comment, uh, orsuggestions for other topics,
you can email us at farmersgreatest asset.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
at gmailcom.
It's a good day to have a greatday.
Bye.
the farmer's greatest asset podcast.
We believe the farm's greatestasset is the farmer, their
knowledge, knowledge, experience, mind and health.
Welcome to the podcast.
(00:40):
I am Jesse.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And I'm Dr Leah.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well, we are in the middle of fall.
Fall is in full swing.
Had a few rains so we've kindof taken it easy last weekend
and haven't really got back intothe field yet, but we are in
full swing.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It was nice to rest.
Was it nice for you to rest?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
It was.
It was nice to not have to runall weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I needed that yeah, we've had a cold going through
the house, so I know pretty muchall of us needed it yeah, you
couldn't.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I still could probably sing baritone today,
still getting through it.
But there have been a fewpeople cut beans in the area and
I know there's a few thinkingabout trying trying them again.
So the rain kind of helpedknock off the last of the leaves
and kind of send them over thefinish line.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
So maybe plump them up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
The rain was good for the beans.
Our beans, however, just seemto be changing slower, which to
me is fine because there's stilla lot of green, a lot of yellow
out there.
So if there is, they're gonna,that seed's gonna absorb that
moisture.
So the rain was good.
(01:59):
We had about an inch and a halfout of three different rains.
It was a good rain over thelast week.
It did give us a chance to movesome dry corn out of the bin.
So if anybody follows us onTikTok I don't know if I put a
video on Facebook or not, butyou've seen that we are bagging
(02:21):
some corn.
This year Might even bag somebeans.
We'll see how that goes.
It's a new little adventure forus.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
On the farm, something we are all
experiencing together.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
We're going to learn together.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It's an experience we're going to learn together.
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So we have actually used a grain bagger in the past.
We used it for high moisturecorn for cattle and it worked
really good.
So here we are now.
We're gonna try to bag somecorn in the fall.
So put dry corn in the bag.
It should be dry corn coming.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It will be dry corn coming out so yeah, and I
wouldn't say we're doing some,we're doing quite a bit, which
is good, right, I mean when you.
I don't know about other places, but the quote-unquote storage
costs around here aresignificant.
Um, I'm sure they areeverywhere and even like the
(03:22):
mill and ethanol.
They do price later contractsand things like that.
But to take it there, whateverthey're calling it, it is what?
24 cents here now.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's getting high.
It's just like all thefertilizer and stuff, stuff's
getting high.
I mean it's out of hand.
Let's be honest $1,000 tonfertilizer, what was?
32% nitrogen for somethingbasically 800 anhydrous.
(03:54):
I mean things are just high.
So somewhere down the linesomething's going to have to
change and that could be a wholenother discussion some other
day.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So our solution is to bag our grain rather than take
the storage hit, which would be24 cents right off the top, or
take the in season price.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Cause.
After that it's like three,three, another.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It's 24 cents 24 cents for the first three months
and then, depending whereyou're at, three or four cents I
think it's three and a half orfour depending where you're at
and what crop it is.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A cent three to four cents per bushel per month after
the first three so to get tomarkets, you're already like 28
to 30 cents to well, 28 to 36cents, actually, right, which is
it's an already tight marginsso you scrape 30 cents, 35 cents
right off the top.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
That's a lot of money and it just so happens we don't
have enough storage on the farm, so we have always taken some
to town and stored it ormarketed it ahead and hauled
straight out of the field.
But there again you got to havedry corn to haul out of the
field.
So if you don't haul dry corninto the elevator you take that
(05:19):
hit on damage or drying cost.
All that.
To us this was a goodalternative.
To put it in a bag.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Just trying to be as cost efficient and production
efficient as we can be.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
To improve our family farming operation.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So we have heard that last year the bagger we used we
rented it.
Those guys said they havepeople down that do the wheat
run like down through Texas allthe way up through north.
There are certain customharvesters that won't pull into
your field unless there is abagger there because they go
that quick and we have filledtwo bags of dry corn out of a
(06:03):
bin and it'll eat everything youthrow at it with our big grain
cart.
You open that grain cart wideopen, throttle up and it just
eats it.
So I could see what they say itmakes harvest efficient.
So if you put the bag rightthere in the field where you're
harvesting, I could see where itjust goes quick.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
It is time to get the bag hooked up and that type of
thing.
And that's a learning curve.
We're learning that as well,but how has that been going?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's fine.
After you do a couple, it'sokay.
Okay, so we're just using300-foot bags because we have
talked to others that have donebags for a couple years now and
they tried 500-footers.
So a 500-foot bag will hold alot of grain, but they're so
(06:57):
heavy.
Even the 300-foot bags that weare using are heavy.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So you have to have something else out there to help
move it around.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Well, you can flop the box off of the pickup onto
the ground and there's a winchon the bagger itself.
So once you get it on theground, it's not so bad.
But you've got to get the boxoff the pickup opened up and
then you've got to lay the wholething out and then the winch
will pick it up.
But it's still a a process.
(07:27):
Once everybody knows what'sgoing on, it's not so bad.
With three guys you could do itin 10 minutes or less.
I bet.
Once you know what you're doing, a 300 foot bag will hold 13
500 bushel plus.
Uh, once you get the bag on,you can rock and roll for that
amount of bushels, whatever ittakes, and you can close the bag
(07:49):
back up.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So you know like if you have a contract and it's
5,000 bushel, you can just openit up, get what you need out of
it, or you have to use the wholebag at one time.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I plan on just cleaning the bag up Once we get
into a bag, we just clean it up.
I haven't asked that specificquestion.
Somebody did ask me that though, yesterday, funny enough, um,
and I have not asked.
But to me I don't see how youwould be able to pull that
unloader out of there withoutscrewing up the rest of the bag
(08:22):
and being able to get it closedup tight to keep the critters
out.
The plan is, once we get tounloading the bags, to just
clean up the bag once you start.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So that might be another bonus of just having a
300 foot bag that you don't haveto sell such a large quantity
at one time if you didn't wantto.
Right.
Knowing those types of thingsand how much is in each bag will
be helpful for marketingpurposes as well, right?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So on our grain cart we have scales and then we have
an app to track bushels so youcan literally track if you use
semis you can put it in a semiand then which where the
destination is, and so you cantrack how many bushels that
semi-hauled versus number two,number three, whatever, and then
(09:10):
you can see where every bushelgoes to.
So we used it to track thebushels going into the bag.
So I know we put 13,300 bushelin that first bag and it didn't
take us but three, four hours todo it.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
And that's between 15% and 16% moisture.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It was all 15%.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Right, so we know it coming out of there is good
going to wherever we're takingit.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
It goes into the bag at 15%.
It comes out at 15%, right, Idon't know.
I was talking to Dad andsomebody else yesterday and I
said this may not be a long-termsolution, but it is definitely
going to work this year and itmight just be our long-term
solution for storage.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, when I figured out cost projections of putting
up bins to cover how many bushelwe need, of putting up bins to
cover how many bushel we need,like it's like years of
investment comparatively overrenting a bagger and buying bags
.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Right, bins are expensive, very expensive.
I like having the grain in abin, then you can.
So, specifically beans, like wewant to try to rehydrate some
beans if they get too dry.
So that's why I like puttinggrain in a bin, so you can maybe
(10:37):
manage it that way.
But if you're in 13% beans,they say they're going to come
out at 13%.
So same with corn.
So I guess we'll see how thisgoes.
Again, if you follow me onTikTok, you saw that Dr Leah was
out in the grain cart this lastweek or so she can do it.
(10:59):
The whole point, I guess, wasactually to get Lucy out there,
which we still need to do again,and Lucy was out there and she
did.
She did okay.
She was very worried that shewas going to screw something up
she's very much in resistance ofgetting into the grain cart she
(11:21):
is.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I understand I have been there for years, but this
year it was like, okay, I haveyou know, henry's going to be
coming out.
It's really more about how am Igoing to get the work done at
home when I'm out here?
That's really my big thing, andI think she feels that too.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
So I actually bring that up about me putting it out
there on TikTok, becauseprobably one of the first
comments was the farm wivesdon't get the credit they
deserve.
So I guess this is me publiclythanking you for everything that
you do do, because it's true,the farm wives do so much around
(12:01):
the farm and they deserve morecredit than what they get.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Thanks, honey, that's .
Very nice.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I don't say it, so I guess this is also me telling
the farmers if you have yourfarm wife out there, whatever
she does for you, you need tothank her.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
If you have a lunchbox packed thank her.
Be thankful If you havegroceries in the refrigerator or
a meal when you come home.
Thank her.
Be thankful if you havegroceries in the refrigerator or
some a meal when you come homethank her because I will tell
you, harvest time, there is alot going on.
Getting to the grocery store,I'm I'm thankful that lucy can
(12:41):
do a lot of grocery runs for usnow.
Even getting to the grocerystore in the middle of trying to
plan, you know, get my workdone, that I need to get done
and to plan getting a mealprepped and out to the field hot
and then doing it again, likethen getting it cleaned up and
(13:02):
the laundry and getting it backout there and Lizzie playing
volleyball, and it is thebiggest juggle.
And at this point in my lifeI'm really also trying to not
just push through, because Ihave been trained to to put the
patient first, or now the farmfirst, and so I'm really trying
(13:28):
to retrain my brain to not justpush through all the time.
And I think it's been anuncomfortable, vulnerable time
to really try and change myselfin fall because in the past I
(13:48):
have not enjoyed it and I wantto be able to enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Last year was probably the first year you said
you enjoyed fall.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, and this year has been really good too.
Oh, and what do we have goingon this weekend?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Farm camp.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Harvest camp 2025.
My friend Anita and her husband, Paul are coming up from St
Louis to visit and help on thefarm.
This is the second year thatthey're coming up.
They came up last year andabsolutely loved it, and I can
(14:29):
tell you like I go into a totalshame spiral like, oh, my house
is the best.
Oh, my God, I have weedseverywhere.
I will tell you right now, Ithink it's worse this year than
it was last year.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And I'm like I don't know what?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
what are we gonna do?
Because last year we cannedpumpkin and we canned tomatoes
and this year I'm just throwingeverything in the freezer and
gonna work on it later.
We are going to work on lucy'schicken coop the chicken chicken
and duck duck yeah, but I'mreally looking forward to them
coming up and they look forwardto it.
(15:06):
Last year we planned it.
When they left, they were likewe are coming up, we're here the
first of August for yourbirthday.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And they came back six weeks later to do what we're
calling farm camp.
Yeah, they loved it so much,paul got out there and he rode
around in a grain cart and heran the grain cart that whole
day, pretty much right.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
The whole day.
He ran it by himself, gaveHenry a break and Henry was
super excited about that.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So then I gave him an opportunity to ride in the
combine the next day and combinesome corn.
I'm sure he was like a littlekid in a candy store.
I mean seriously.
I say all the time I say allthe time it's big boys, big toys
.
Yeah, It'd be good to have themback again.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, and it's just sometimes it feels like an
Island.
I'm I'm sure everybody feelslike that.
This time of year too, it feelssomewhat like an island and
it's nice to have visitors evenwhen it's busy.
And there's like noexpectations, right, like Anita
is full on and Paul too they arefull on, like we want to come
(16:19):
and help.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He brought his coveralls last year.
I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
They're going to be hot this year.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
He didn't actually wear them, but he wore them in
that one first day.
It was good and they're just.
St Louis is only three hoursfrom us, and then all around St
Louis there's a lot of farmground.
But I guess the point is isthey're they're not far away
from a farm, but just areremoved from farms and just
(16:54):
understand anything.
So they were just excited tosee how things work and learn
about what, what we do and whywe do it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
yeah, and they I mean they dabble a little in farming
.
They've had chickens in theiryard and they have an apiary.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Have some honey.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, so they've brought that's.
That's exciting, and I wouldlove to learn more about that at
some point, but I do not needone more thing.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I guess my point was with farm camp I.
I do like to educate people,especially when they are open
and want to learn about it.
It was kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, so we're looking forward to that again
this year.
I know they're excited.
Oh, and she did complete sometriathlon out in Maryland.
An Ironman Out in Maryland Likeshe's trying to hit every state
and last year she was there andhad.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's pretty awesome that Anita does that Like good
for you, anita, if you'relistening, good job, that's
awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, she actually had an accident last year and
broke her clavicle, so this washer redemption and she finished.
I saw her post on Facebook andshe was super triumphant about
that.
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
It is impressive.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
She's been doing it for years, like since probably
the last 10 years at least thatshe's been on this and still
practicing as a OBGYN.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
They've raised four kids.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, they're all college age or beyond.
Joe got married just thissummer their oldest I am just.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
that's how impressive it is that she is still that
busy in life and work and doesit and trains for it, and it's
impressive.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
She is an impressive woman, so I am looking forward
to just having some time withher and getting up and having
some coffee by the fire in themorning and relaxing.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It's going to be a hot fire.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
It's going to be hot this weekend we'll figure it out
anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So rolling into corn again today we got.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I think we have 10 days before we get to any beans.
Um, like I, ours just are notturning quite as fast.
Why that is?
We do plant full season as fulla season as I possibly can.
We've also done a lot of foliarpasses with sugar and other
(19:39):
foliar micros, so maybe that'smaking a difference.
That is my hypothesis, so maybeit is doing what we were
wanting it to do.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
That would be amazing .
Speaker 1 (19:56):
But I think we have 10 days before we get to cutting
any beans, so we'll just keepplugging away at some corn, get
some corn dried and moved homeand then, when we get to beans,
then we get those off and by thetime we get back to corn it all
should be dry, so we won't haveto dry anything after that.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That would be great, that would be great, that would
be great.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
We honestly haven't dried a whole lot this year.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I think we've dried more this year than we did have
to last year, though.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Last year everything got so dry so fast.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Things got really dry really fast this year too.
But I don't know it's just, wegot this rain.
I don't know it's just, we havelike we got this rain.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I don't think we got rain like this last year right
and all of ours just just kindof has been sitting around there
.
22.
We had one field that was 19out of the the little bit we've
picked and I think that was justa fungicide timing thing.
The fungicide didn't get on assoon as I wanted it to on that
(20:57):
field.
But everything else is justkind of sitting there at 22%,
which is fine, good by me andwhich is also why we're just
kind of plugging along slowly.
It's only September 24th today.
You don't have to have all thecorn off before October.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So when our friends are here we can maybe end a
little early in the day and likehave time with them.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
That's kind of how it's been rolling, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
We're going to move up north.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So it's the furthest farm away from home, so it's
going to take a little extratime.
But yeah, it's kind of the plan.
Like I said, I've just beenplugging along because we have
not picked corn for four or fivedays.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
One because of the rain, and then we move some dry
corn out of the bin.
But then I'm like it'sSeptember 20th, like we don't
have to dry all of the corn andbe done with corn before October
.
That'd be cool, but we don'thave to, and if we don't have to
dry it, let's just plug along.
I do want to get some offbecause I am worried about the
(22:07):
earlier planted stuff stockquality.
But at the moment ours isstanding, but the early stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Aren't we almost done with that?
The?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
earliest, except for one field, which is righted by
the bins.
So that was I left that becausethen we could just put a bag
there of dry corn.
And it's that field of all ofour fields has always been the
greenest, has always looked thehealthiest, has looked the best.
So that was another reason whyI was just like well, we'll
(22:41):
leave that till last and put itin a bag straight out of the
field.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
But yeah, we have three different plantings so
we'll see how they go it'll beinteresting not that we should
ever like have that plan, but Ithink, having three different
plantings, it's been interestingseeing them grow through the
season and how they have beendifferent and having that space
(23:08):
between them made foliar feedingless, made all of our other
applications easier to time out.
Right.
So that's something I think weshould keep in mind moving
forward.
That it's all very weatherdependent for sure, but that
(23:29):
type of spacing might besomething we want to keep in
mind as well.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And that all just kind of fell into place like it
did, one because of weather andtwo it's.
I was same kind of thing, Likewe started April, I don't know
12th, 13th, 14th, planting beansand planting some corn, and it
was all before Easter.
And I was like, well, you don'thave to have everything planted
(23:55):
before Easter, which was earlythis year in April, where a lot
of the neighbors around here didwhich is great, that's fine.
But I told somebody, I saideverybody's done and I still
have two-thirds of my corn to go, and I said there's all be
ready at the same time.
That's fine, I'll just plugalong on my corn and it'll all
(24:17):
be spaced out.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So far that's kind of how it's played out I think
it's something to, just you know, keep another factor to keep in
the back of our, of our head.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
There, like you said, it's all weather very weather
dependent, right, because thatcould be one of those things
where you just get rained outfor two months and don't get
back in until June.
You know so it's just howfarming goes, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Or fortunately.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Or fortunately.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I think that farmers are they like to roll with it,
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
They have to.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Right, right, I mean that right.
So the, the ones that are goingto be in good mindset are are
going to be the ones that aremore, you know they like risk
isn't as scary to them, right,um, because you have to be able
to roll with it yeah, it's agamble every day, better get get
used to it.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
So I guess I'm going to circle back and say my
biggest takeaway today is thankyour farm wife, no matter what
she does for you, because I knowyou feel the stress and you
don't feel thanked.
So thank you.
So all the farmers.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Appreciate what your wife does for you.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Thank you very much, honey, and I would say the same
is true like I.
Sometimes it feels like thefarm takes over our life it does
and we are so used to ourhusbands going out and doing a
(25:58):
lot of work and it's almost likean expectation.
I don't thank you enough eitherfor all the work that you put
into it.
So thank you for being ourvisionary on the farm, thank you
for being the hardest worker,and thank you for being you and
(26:24):
open to all my crazy ideas.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
There's a lot of crazy ideas that come out of the
both of us.
To be continued yep, with thatbeing said, thank you for
listening.
Uh, go out and check us out onall of the socials at farmer's
greatest asset send us a messagewe hearing from you.
(26:53):
If it's just a comment, uh, orsuggestions for other topics,
you can email us at farmersgreatest asset.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
at gmailcom.
It's a good day to have a greatday.
Bye.
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