The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast is dedicated to supporting and empowering farmers by recognizing that their greatest assets are the knowledge, experience, mind and health. Hosted by husband-and-wife duo Jesse and Dr. Leah, this podcast combines their unique backgrounds to provide valuable insights. Together, they explore topics that help farmers thrive both personally and professionally. Tune in for a blend of practical advice, real conversations, while having a little fun along the way as they talk about all thing's agriculture and family.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
Sun, Soil, and Supplements: Feed Your Body Like You Feed Your Crops
Jesse and Dr. Leah discuss farming conditions in Iowa after significant rainfall, then share insights about nutritional supplements and their role in maintaining optimal health.
• Recent weather in Southeast Iowa has brought 2.5-4 inches of rain, creating potential challenges for soybeans which dislike wet conditions
• Using drones to apply special nutrition mixes during grain fill stage to improve yield and moisture retention
• Discussion of bean moisture management strategies, including bin management technology to rehydrate harvested beans
• Dr. Leah emphasizes that supplements cannot compensate for a poor diet and reducing gut inflammation is essential for supplement absorption
• Top supplement recommendations include vitamin D (especially for those with limited sun exposure), quality multivitamins, and omega-3s
• Tips for sun exposure without sunscreen to naturally increase vitamin D production and melanin production
• Importance of researching supplement quality rather than purchasing from big box stores
Email us your specific supplement questions at farmersgreatesasset@gmail.com
the farmer's greatest asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer, their knowledge, knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.
Speaker 2:And I'm Dr Leah.
Speaker 1:Well, what's going on in iowa this week?
Speaker 2:we have had a lot of rain here in southeast iowa float.
Speaker 1:It's getting to the point where I'm gonna say it could stop for a while.
Speaker 2:You gotta put.
Speaker 1:You gotta put like limits on that right, because we don't want the brakes to come on completely for the rest of the year sure because that happens too I woke up this morning at 4 30 and heard the rain and the wind and said a little prayer, said okay, lord, we've had enough for a hot minute. Funny, funny enough, it's going to get hot too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is Like when you walk outside and your glasses just steam up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's been that hot 1,000% humidity. I don't think that's possible scientifically, but we'll go with it.
Speaker 1:I think it's possible Now we know what the south feels like. So had, depending where you're at, between two and a half to four inches of rain a couple nights ago. This morning got another pretty good shower.
Speaker 2:It blew like crazy for a little bit yeah, but on the top of the pool cover there's like not a lot there I think it blew away even statistically speaking, I it wasn't like going straight sideways. So I think that you know it's big enough to kind of have a judgment of we. I don't even think we got a half inch like no, like that, no, we are just like.
Speaker 1:We're in the tenths range. The water tank is full at the moment, so every tenth of rain you get, it looks, looks wet yeah, like I I'm looking out the window and there's like puddles out and in the yard area but it's good to get the moisture.
Speaker 1:I always say you don't want to give it up, as we'll take it when you can get it. I am growing concerned that the beans are going to start to suffer a little bit. Beans do not like wet feet, so the flat ground, I think, is going to start to struggle a little bit.
Speaker 2:Don't worry, it'll get hot and dry.
Speaker 1:That's what the beans need. They need some heat. I made that comment the other day to one of the field agronomists we deal with one of the companies and he mentioned in northwest Iowa one of his cohorts mentioned he's seeing that already Beans struggling. We do have a field of beans in the flat spots where you can see some yellowing. All in all, I think our corn crop is set.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're getting good fill.
Speaker 1:Right. So we've been trying to fly the drone and get some good grain fill, get some little shot of nutrition in there, a little extra nutrition.
Speaker 1:Putting some sugar out and Boron and I call it Special K and it's got a little bit of cobalt in it but it's K and then cobalt, boron and some sugar. Got a couple, three different field trials. I got strips and then I got a field where we sprayed crossways. So we'll see how this goes. But I think after last year we got so dry so quick. We're trying to do late season sugar applications. I think that'll help us.
Speaker 2:Especially on the beans.
Speaker 1:I think that'll help us retain some moisture. So we'll see the study we did last year where the sugar product was, we had a half a point of moisture higher. So a half a point is a half a point.
Speaker 2:In bushels, how much would a half a point of moisture higher? So half a point is a half a point in bushels. How, how much would a half a point be approximately?
Speaker 1:well, it's almost. If you figure one point of moisture, it's basically a bushel, an acre, if not more way I see it and with beans and bean prices. We need all that we can get yeah, when you're cutting even 10 moisture beans that's two points of moisture you're giving up. That's weight, that's water, that's the elevators are loving it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we were down to eight percent.
Speaker 1:Every year we get down to eight or better or less so we're missing out on bushelage.
Speaker 2:Bushelage, is that a word?
Speaker 1:it's a leah word, I guess in my world bushelage.
Speaker 2:It is a fixed quantity, no moisture is yes everyone out there feel sorry for jesse. This is what he has to deal with.
Speaker 1:Leo lingo so on the other side of that, if we can't retain moisture with nutrition or sugar at some point, we're gonna if not, build a new bin for beans. Use a bin for beans and put a bin manager in it and rehydrate. A lot of guys are doing that just using humidity and dew point and ambient air temperature to add moisture back into the beans.
Speaker 2:So so I have a question that's just popped in my head. So, in talking about increasing the moisture, will the the, so the beans will take it up with increased humidity. So then I beg to differ, like would this be the best time to haul beans out during the year, like in January, february, march? You would think the moisture is going to be as low as it possibly can be. So now that the humidity is getting higher, would that affect the bean moisture?
Speaker 1:Well, if you have a bin manager and you get it to add back to before January, December, get the moisture added back then before then, like you can have beans in a bin right now that you put in there at 8%, they're probably going to still be at 8%.
Speaker 2:So they aren't going to absorb the humidity.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you ran the fans and stuff, you could get it rehydrated.
Speaker 2:So if you put beans in or I'm sorry if you would put like corn in at 15, you know you dry it to 15 and then it gets cold outside. So it's going to, you know, get all of the humidity out of the air in the winter.
Speaker 1:Then would it get drier, or the bin kind of protects it from changes in moisture basically, yes, if your corn is too wet that, like the outside six inches or whatever, could absorb a little bit off the wall, but not not enough to affect it without running the fans and stuff.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:See, I'm learning use the dew point and the humidity and ambient air temperature. That's why the bin managers, you put the cables in and it measures the moisture and temperature and you can add moisture back in. So it's going to be the next thing. So then the other thing is is you don't want to split your bin? Don't fill your bin so full with eight percent beans and then go and try to rehydrate them up five points of moisture. You could swell those beans and then split your pit open. Nobody talks about that.
Speaker 2:That would not be good.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:That would not be good at all. Yeah, let's not do that.
Speaker 1:So anyway, we digress. So it's been a good growing season. We've been trying to get the extra nutrition on with the drone. It's been a little bit of a struggle because you want to quit before it gets too hot. The rain, the wind.
Speaker 2:We did go and fly a bunch on. I say we, you went and flew a bunch on. Then a storm rolled in suddenly and it all got rained on. I was flying looking east at the and it all got rained on.
Speaker 1:I was flying, looking east at the field that we were flying on and you could just see it was kind of getting darker. And I turned around and was like, ooh, it's fixing to get real out here. And Henry was up there with me flying and I said pull up the radar. And it was building fast.
Speaker 2:Significant. That was the big rain, part of the big rain yeah, that was the start of the big rain yeah so we'll see.
Speaker 1:We'll test the. Uh the rain fast. How? How soon after a rain should you quit spraying fullyiar feed?
Speaker 2:I assume before a rain Should you quit Right, and it was a significant enough amount that if it got into the ground, it.
Speaker 1:I'm sure ran off or diluted it so much. Yeah, so we are increasing our variables to our experiment here, that'll be just one more thing we can look at, but we're in that grain fill stage and we just keep adding nutrition and I think things are going to work out well this year because the growing is growing season has been a good one. So, anyhow, last week we did talk about our diet and we mentioned we'll talk a little bit about supplements. So what have you on supplements?
Speaker 2:probably one of the biggest things when it comes to supplementation is you are never going to correct a bad diet with supplements. It doesn't matter how many supplements that you take, what kind of biohacking you're trying to do, if you aren't eating well, then you are not going to supplement your way out of that unhealthy habit. The number one thing that you need to do before supplementation is to decrease the inflammation within the gut.
Speaker 2:So a healthy diet is yeah, like it's going to be all the things that we talked about last week. You're really going to need to decrease that inflammation, because if there is a lot of inflammation in there, you're not going to be absorbing the supplements. So you're just taking things in and not really getting the benefit out of them. You're just kind of throwing them away in the wind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the worst part is, is we? Our food supply is just not nutrient dense anymore.
Speaker 2:Well, it kind of depends on what you're eating, right?
Speaker 1:I guess I'm saying if you just go to the grocery store and you buy a head of lettuce, well, that's just basically water.
Speaker 2:Especially iceberg lettuce, like if you're an iceberg lettuce eater.
Speaker 1:You're getting nothing but water.
Speaker 2:Like it's. All that is is roughage, and they probably, especially if you don't buy the full head of lettuce and you just buy the chopped up stuff. The reason it tastes a little funny is because of all the preservatives that they put on. I would I would say that it is probably best for you not to eat the lettuce than to eat that and then take half of the ranch off of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, because I am guilty of that. It's the iowa way, right. Put some ranch on it.
Speaker 2:Put some ranch on your pizza let's just they even have a restaurant, pizza ranch. No, it started in Iowa. Oh uh yeah, the best thing will be to, you know, really improve your diet and hydration. If there was one supplement that I recommend you start with, it would be vitamin D. Don't go to Walmart or a big box store what have you and buy your supplements Like they are not going to be the quality that you're going to want. So there are really good supplement lines out there and people are like well, I just want you to point out to me where to go. Well, you need to start researching it like you would a.
Speaker 2:If you are going to start a medication, if you're going to start a new medication, you should look at all of the side effects that can occur from it. This is going to be no different. Supplements are a drug, just like the food you eat is a drug, just like everything you put in your body can be a drug. So it's going to be important to make sure that you're going out there and you are investigating the companies that you are getting supplements from. But vitamin D would be where I would start. It is also very important to get in the sun, so most of us, especially if you have a nine to five job and you are inside all day. You need to get outside. When it's nice out and even when it's not so nice out, try and get outside and get sun on your face and as much of your skin as you can.
Speaker 1:So, that being said, though, like I'm outside a lot, but I am vitamin D deficient, and I always thought, well, that's crazy, I'm out in the sun, I'm not absorbing it, because one my diet is probably. You know, I haven't seen my lab since last went to Okoboji, so maybe I'm not anymore, I don't know, but years ago I was, and my diet was total crap.
Speaker 2:Well, you really haven't started cutting out the grains until the last few months either. So Jesse had.
Speaker 1:The point is that just because you're in the sun, you're not absorbing the vitamin D, which is the best source of vitamin D. But you've got to correct your diet and correct your gut and probably need to supplement with it.
Speaker 2:Especially in the winter. If you work inside, you really need to supplement all year round, but in the winter in Iowa, supplementation of vitamin D is going to be very important. Sunscreen will keep you from absorbing the vitamin D as well. We all need more vitamin D, so, if you really like. I haven't worn sunscreen. I used to be extremely fair. I have not worn sunscreen for a couple of years.
Speaker 1:That reminds me of when we went to Costa Rica and they literally tell you we went on a Beck's vacation trip. They literally tell you, make sure you use sunscreen, because we're close to the equator, the sun's powerful and we bought the spray or whatever down there and you just kept saying you got to put some sunscreen on. Put some sunscreen, you're going to get burnt. You're burning, you're burnt.
Speaker 2:It's like I put it, putting it on yeah, you were totally having a reaction to the sun.
Speaker 1:I just kept getting worse and worse and worse and you're like put the sunscreen on and it's like I don't want the sunscreen anymore. Uh, it's really. It's just a chemical you're just scrubbing on your skin. If you are reacting to the sun, just cover up with long sleeves.
Speaker 2:So I heard this hypothesis and I took it to heart that wearing sunglasses blocks your like the signal to your brain to increase melatonin, not melatonin melanin production your melanocytes, I mean melatonin is part of that whole thing.
Speaker 2:Like it has to do with your circadian rhythm, so it is a little bit of that, but your melanin production. So I would always wear sunglasses every time that I went outside in the summer because I was super squinty and it was too bright for me. The interaction with the sun coming into your eye increases melanin production. Once that is signaled, then you will produce more melanin. But you need to have the sun on your skin. It needs to be a gradual progression as well. So I started experimenting because I was very fair skinned and I was like I never get any sun.
Speaker 2:Well, when I was younger I stayed in the house a lot and then I would just go out and go swimming and then I would get fried. Over the last few years I stopped wearing sunglasses Like I never wear sunglasses at all anymore. I go outside with a gradual progression. So if you go outside in the beginning of the day and as the sun gets hotter and brighter and closer to you, your skin adjusts to it and I can go outside and be outside for 10, 12 hours and not get a sunburn.
Speaker 1:And that's maybe not true for everybody. I wear sunglasses a lot and I tan pretty easily.
Speaker 2:Well, but you have more melanin than I do.
Speaker 1:Right, everybody's skin tone is different in melanin, so, but that's a good way to be.
Speaker 2:So just something to think about. Is it true or not true, or is there just part truths in it? It doesn't matter. I mean, just try it Now.
Speaker 2:If you are working a nine to five and you're not doing that regularly, then you probably will go out and get sunburned. Try to stay out of the sun during the really intense parts of the day or get in the shade. Go outside in the morning and be more in the shade through the afternoon when it's hotter, and then around three or four o'clock you can be out in the sun again. The more sun you have on your skin, the more vitamin D production you will have in your body, and that will be natural. So the supplementation is important because that sun is needed to convert what you're ingesting in vitamin D. So the more sun you have, the more conversion you get, the healthier your body will be. So the supplement will be important Because you need to have that amount in your body and even if you are in like getting full absorption, if you aren't getting it in your diet, then you need the supplement as well. So, healthy diet, vitamin D supplement and get out in the sun that would be my number one pick place to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a good place to start.
Speaker 2:A good multivitamin, especially with the b's. The b vitamins would be the second thing that I would recommend. Again, do your research, do something that's going to be easy for you. So if it's quote unquote cheaper to go out and get all these different pills and take them, I like, I would rather, you know, get as much, like decrease the number of pills you have to take, but you need to have like a multivitamin in there somewhere. The third thing would be omega-3s. So omega-3 fatty acids are are something that we don't get, especially here in Iowa, because there's a lot in fish. Now Wagyu beef actually is, yeah, is higher in omega-3 fatty acids. Um, so that is a bonus, um, so we get more of that in our diet. Since that's, I mean, that's one of the reasons that we decided to go with Wagyu umyu to increase the omega-3 fatty acids. We also have been supporting some fisheries and some fishermen, I should say, and we get fish brought in from Alaska so that we can increase our omega-3s with that. Now, we all love fish, so that works well.
Speaker 1:So that's a good start.
Speaker 2:Now, if you want to start talking about improving your mitochondrial health, which those are the powerhouses of the cell.
Speaker 1:That's a whole other discussion.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is, so there are other supplements that you can take to improve that as well.
Speaker 1:And I am guilty of not taking supplements. I hate taking pills and even the last time we went to Okoboji and saw Brad he's like I know you hate taking pills but you really need to and I know it's one of those habits you just got to get into.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm thinking you know when you have to give the cattle something.
Speaker 1:You got that the pill gun thing. Bolus, huge bolus down the throat.
Speaker 2:I bet if we did that once, you'd probably be like.
Speaker 1:I'll just take them.
Speaker 2:For sure, oh, that was kind of funny.
Speaker 1:So with that, I think we're going to say vitamin D.
Speaker 2:Multivitamin.
Speaker 1:The B's and some omegas. Those are three pretty good essentials to start with, do your research. What is it nature's made is just a cheap brand from walmart well and and I just the quality isn't there.
Speaker 2:like jesse and I actually went and and toured a supplement factory when we went up to Chicago, I thought, wow, this is amazing, like the quality control that that they do there make sure that you're where you're getting it from is doing quality control, and I don't want to. I don't want to plug any one specific supplement brand, but do your research. It's, it's important for your health.
Speaker 1:If you have a question specifically about supplements or something and you want to ask Leah something more specific, please email us at farmers greatest asset.
Speaker 2:at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:Your questions have been good as always. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2:Don't forget to like and share and subscribe to our socials at farmer's greatest asset, on all the platforms until next time.
Speaker 1:It is a good day to have a great day.
Speaker 2:Bye.
