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
Corn, Rust, and Deer With Expensive Taste
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Southern rust is significantly impacting corn yields this season with up to 40 bushel differences between treated and untreated fields, making fungicide applications a solid ROI despite high input costs.
• Corn prices remain similar to 1970s levels while production costs have increased dramatically
• Questioning conventional nitrogen application rates with potential for lower rates if balanced nutrition is maintained
• Deer show preference for corn with higher nutritional value, creating challenges near timber areas
• Optimal corn harvest timing (20-24% moisture) provides highest yield potential but requires artificial drying
• Balancing early corn harvest with soybean timing optimizes equipment usage and workflow
• Challenging the "that's a young man's job" mentality by maintaining muscle mass and activity as we age
• Importance of protein consumption and physical activity for maintaining strength and mobility in later years
Share this podcast if you got any value out of it. You can send us a message at farmersgreatestasset@gmail.com.
the farmer's greatest asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer their knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm jesse and I'm dr leah well what we got going on in Iowa today had a little shower today. Actually we needed it. It is early September. It'll actually help the beans, so that didn't amount to much.
Speaker 2Well, the ground is really hard, so I think it'll help the ground. I mean, I just look at my flower beds and my trees are not looking very good.
Speaker 1They need some water. It is coming up on fall Like it's it's time. Things are changing. Crops around here in Southeast Iowa are changing fast Like lightning McQueen.
Speaker 2Fast Stickers.
Speaker 1Why do we always digress to our kids' cartoon movies? Animated cartoon movies.
Speaker 2Happy memories.
Speaker 1But it is changing fast. I think we have not as good a crop as last year, but it's still pretty decent. But it's changing fast, as fast as it's dying. We're probably taking some yield with it. Southern rust has come in pretty good. We had some good southern hot winds this summer, so fungicide is really going to pay off this year big time so fungicide protects against southern rust.
Speaker 1Southern rust is is a fungus yeah, it's a fungus, fungus among us. It helps. It doesn't completely protect, but if you didn't spray it this year, it's steve, who has been a guest of ours in the past. They've been doing some combining and we've heard it's up to 40 bushel different where fungicide was not sprayed. So the southern rust is.
Speaker 2So how much is the fungicide per acre Ish?
Speaker 1I don't know.
Speaker 2It definitely was an ROI if it's 40 bushel. That was the point I was trying to make, sorry.
Speaker 1I don't know With application costs it's every bit of 25 bucks an acre. I don't know. I'd have to go back and look, but you give a 40 bushel at 370 corn today.
Speaker 2We could use higher numbers, higher than 370 corn.
Speaker 1That would help.
Southern Rust and Fungicide ROI
Speaker 2I've been seeing a lot on my Instagram feed about you know, the price of corn now is the same as it was in the 1970s or 1976 or something like that. And the thing the biggest difference is, I mean they don't put in their yield. I know our yields are a lot higher. The price of corn is the same, but our cost of production is crazy high. It is over $130 more than last fall, which was insanely high. The whole thing is just a little bananas.
Speaker 1It would be a little too much. What are we going to do there? On the anhydrous, I honestly don't know. We have a pretty good trial out there this year where it's actually corn on corn and we don't have near the nitrogen that we normally would for corn on corn applied.
Speaker 2So my theory is your prediction. What is your prediction?
Speaker 1well, my theory is is that nitrogen isn't our limiting factor, like they have always told us. They've said you know, one unit of n per bushel, and we've been tracking that, trying to get it to less. We've been down to 0.7 pounds of n per bushel. I think our limiting factor is everything else 0.7 per bushel 0.7 pounds of N per bushel.
Speaker 1But I think that because that corn that we have, it's corn on corn. I didn't put on as much N as I normally would for corn on corn and it still looks pretty good. The ears are pretty decent. So we'll see. I think there's an imbalance when we don't take care of all of the micros and continue to spoon feed the crop.
Corn Prices and Production Costs
Speaker 2That's our limiting factor time rituals is that when we go to our fields that are close to timber ground there is a lot of deer damage like more deer damage than I have ever seen in any of our fields in 20 years.
Speaker 1The first, I don't know 20 rows of our corn. But then the neighbors. It's like they don't touch it.
Speaker 2It's crazy so our theory is that they are like it's it's a healthier product, it's a more balanced corn there's more nutrition in the corn higher nutrient value. Hopefully we'll be seeing that pay off in yield and weight and I guess there's something out there to keep the deer away.
Speaker 1Let me know I've seen some guys try some different things. They say it's working um, but man, I could use it it's bad?
Speaker 2well, sure, but you, I mean. It might keep the deer away, but what is it doing to the corn plant?
Speaker 1Good question.
Speaker 2So why put in another variable? It could potentially affect the corn plant poorly.
Speaker 1I don't know Good. That's why, if somebody's tried it, I want to know. Yeah, the corn's turning fast. I hand shelled some the other day. It was 30%. Keith checked some, he called it 29%. So we're getting there, but we'll wait until it's about 24% 25% to start picking corn. So a good solid week or 10 days we'll start in probably.
Speaker 2Just to fire up the dryer.
Speaker 1That would be the excuse.
Speaker 2Right, or you just can't stay out of the field any longer no, I like.
Speaker 1We like to get some corn dried. Get started, because your highest yield potential is when you pick that 20 to 24 corn. People talk about the phantom yield loss. I don't know if it's necessarily phantom yield loss, if or it's just.
Speaker 2Isn't it just drying, I think?
Speaker 1the calculation is wrong when you figure the moisture correction but then just mechanical loss. When it's dry it's going to shell more at the head. Everybody has always said you pick the most corn when it's 20%.
Speaker 2But if you dry it down, you lose that weight anyway.
Speaker 1Essentially yes.
Speaker 2Because you can't take it to the elevator or to the ethanol plant at 20. So if you dry it down to 15, you're losing the weight.
Deer Damage and Healthier Crops
Speaker 1That's why I say I don't know if it's actually phantom yield loss. I think it's just in the calculation the correction from 20 to 14% moisture. But when you're picking dry corn you are physically losing more corn because it shells at the at the head quicker. You're physically losing corn when you pick dry corn. So when we get some wet corn picked, we get a good portion of our corn picked and then the beans are ready. So then we go to beans, then we come back to corn and it's drier.
Speaker 2And you're just chomping at the bit.
Speaker 1Not as much as I used to. I'm better about that.
Speaker 2Because it's September 3rd.
Speaker 1This year we're putting some in a bag, so we'll see how that goes, because I have three different planting windows so we might have to run it all through the dryer. I don't know to bag it, because it's got to be dry to go in the bag. Ideally it's dry in the field and we just bag it right there how do we say this is an experience that we will all learn together. The guys like that one.
Speaker 2We will be doing a lot of learning. We have had a lot of learning this year, that's for sure.
Speaker 1For sure. Yeah, the Southern rust is a deal it's. It's going to take a lot of yield this year, I think. Um, but it so it does not winter in the Midwest. It can't survive the cold, so it blows in here. So you guys in the South you could keep it, hold on to it. I don't know, but uh, some gray leaf spot has been out there, um, some Northern it's been there too. So I think the fungicides are helping on those too, not so much as much on the rest.
Speaker 2Well, before we get in the field, we have some more hay to do.
Speaker 1Last cutting of alfalfa to do Got fourth cutting on a couple fields and then there's potential fifth cutting on the one field.
Speaker 2So we'll see Hay has been abundant this year not a, not a problem it's a good problem yeah, and this weekend is the tri-state rodeo look out radio you guys are going to go and see the turnpike troubadours yeah, that's turnpike.
Speaker 1Troubadours are going to be at the tri-state rodeo ino in Fort Madison, iowa. It's kind of exciting.
Speaker 2So that's Friday. You guys are going to go to that.
Speaker 1Yeah, the kids and I are going.
Speaker 2I am going to Farm Wives Club in Troy, Missouri. I'm super excited.
Speaker 1No boys.
Harvest Planning and Moisture Levels
Speaker 2No boys Farm Wives only. So yeah, that'd be good. Kylie Epperson is the one who is coordinating that and I listened to her podcast and she said that 20 different states and are going to be there and someone's also coming from Mexico and she said you know not, mexico, missouri the country of totally different a lot closer, but totally different.
Speaker 2So I am excited. You know, as when our kids were younger especially and she said it too like she was talking on her podcast about how she this was something she needed when she was going through some postpartum depression and when our kids were young, I felt that too, that lonely time when your husband's out working late in the combine, and you really feel like a single parent and you really are craving that connection as a family.
Speaker 1That makes me think of the meme you see going around of dear Edgar. I lost my husband and I'm not dead. That's funny. Sorry, I digress.
Speaker 2So it was really something that I, when she shared that story, I felt that same way when our kids were younger. It was, you know, very challenging because I was practicing medicine at the time on call every other night or every third night and having to have it was a crazy having to have a nanny there all the time.
Speaker 1Crazy life.
Speaker 2It was crazy. It was crazy, crazy Just because I couldn't be on call and be home alone with the kids Because I would get called in all the time. But I see how it's definitely going to be a fun group and I'm really looking forward to going and making some connections with. You know women of very similar interests and really, too, I want to learn how I can help them. You know I have a vast array of knowledge with health and wellbeing-being and medicine and how can I better serve the agricultural community? So that's going to be one of the big questions that I am going to put out there to learn more about this weekend. It's going to be so amazing.
Speaker 1Excited to see or hear how it went. So yeah, the beans around here, sudden deaths coming in and that's because they were planted in cold, wet conditions. Basically.
Speaker 2So then, why do we do that if it creates southern death? Why don't we wait until the conditions are drier?
Speaker 1Sudden death.
Speaker 2What did I say?
Speaker 1Southern death, southern rust, sudden death. What did I say? Southern?
Speaker 2southern rust. Sudden death.
Speaker 1Southern death so when we planted it was good conditions. Then it told turned chilly and it wasn't really wet, but it was just damp and cool, uh, so that's why we treat the soybeans. You can see the fields that are not treated soybeans Even treated soybean fields are shown sudden death.
Speaker 2But would it be better to wait and plant them later?
Speaker 1It's one of those catch-22s.
Speaker 2I know you want them in as early as you can so you can get all the sun in the growth time Early planting has always shown a good yield response.
Speaker 1Capture as much sun as you can and GDUs, and it's just one of those years that we planted in good conditions and it just never warmed up quickly.
Speaker 2Was it early? I can't remember. Like April 10th, we started or something like that, not like March 15th.
Speaker 1No, it wasn't stupid, early it was on time. We've been there before but uh, again, I think the beans are going to be good. There's a lot of pods. It's really hard to estimate bean yield.
Speaker 1We shall see on that harvest is here yeah, there's a couple guys in the area that have started heard anywhere from 25 to 30 percent. They're picking. They're bigger guys so they tend to do that anyway get some early contracts in. Nobody ever talks about yield, which is fine. First liar doesn't have a chance anyway. All in all, I think it's a pretty decent crop. It's no record crop, but it's decent. So the other day you were out, I I don't know, shopping or something, and you just happened to overhear somebody say that's a young man's job.
Upcoming Events and Farm Wife Connections
Speaker 2I found it very interesting. I've kind of been hearing a lot of that kind of terminology from the older generation and you know I'm 51, so I'm not like super young anybody like in their 60s and 70s. I know as you age, things slow down. I no longer believe that they have to. I think we slow down as society and then we age with that. The more you sit around, the more aches and pains you get. The less muscle you have, the more aches and pains you get, and it's just this vicious circle. And I think that what is really missing is that drive for production like a younger person may have. I believe that we can live well, being very active and physically active into our 70s and 80s.
Speaker 1Well, so you always hear that it's your retirement age, you should slow down or you shouldn't do that anymore, and it kind of references or makes you think back to you know our last episode. We kind of talked about your mom having a little fall and she ended up being fine no broken bones or anything.
Speaker 2But she, she is, is she's active, like she goes out and walks we attribute her being okay, in good health because she is in really good health for being in her mid-70s so I think that her walking and being active so that muscle building uh keeps your bones strong and she active so that muscle building uh keeps your bones strong and she was very fortunate that she didn't have any broken bones, but I it is. I attribute that to her being physically active and continuing to go out there and be active.
Speaker 2So I think that it is. I I don't think. I know that it is very vital as we age to not get sedentary, and a lot of people, even in our age group, are becoming more and more sedentary. So not that you have to go out and physically exercise all the time, because, although that would be great, there are not a lot of people that are going to just go to the gym all the time, but if you can go out and at minimum walk, now strength training is actually extremely important. And you don't have to lift weights, you can use your body, you can do calisthenics, um, but you know, Thera bands are good Right Pushups kettlebells.
Speaker 2I mean it doesn't have to be a lot of equipment at the or a gym membership If you don't, if you can't afford that or don't want to go, work at keeping your muscle and your mobility.
Challenging Age Stereotypes and Staying Active
Speaker 2So a lot of times you hear people say, well, you shouldn't be climbing on ladders after you're a certain age, and a lot of that is because we, our sedentary lifestyle, decreases your agility and your, your footwork, so you can't catch yourself and that's how a lot of people break their hips as they get older. So they are more sedentary and they lose their muscle mass so it doesn't keep their bones strong. So the and they're put on all of these medications that are they helping. What they really need is to go out and walk and they need to maintain their muscle mass. And you really, really, really need to make sure you're getting enough protein. You know, going over I was taking meals over to mom and dad and watching the amount of protein they eat. I was like you're never going to maintain your muscle mass with eating that little amount of protein. But you know what do I know?
Speaker 1You're only a doctor.
Speaker 2I thought that degree would help change things, but it doesn't always. I guess the main thing to remember is that you don't have to age and become less than you want to be physically.
Speaker 1Quit telling yourself you're too old, you're too this, you know whatever, or that's a young man's job. Just quit telling yourself that. Tell yourself you can do it.
Speaker 2You're going to have to work at keeping your muscle, just like the rest of us, but you might have and you have to eat more protein. Get rid of the carbs on the plate, eat the protein and the fat, put some veggies on there and you're good With that being said let us know how your crops are doing, where you're at in harvest, or if you're starting and where you're from.
Speaker 1It's been good hearing from people, as always. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2So you can find us on all the socials and like and share it. Share this podcast if you got any value out of it.
Speaker 1You can send us a message at farmersgreatestasset, at gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you. It's a good day. Have a great day.
Speaker 2Bye.
