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
From Fields To Family: What's Truly Important
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Harvest wraps and we face the cost of fatigue, the price of convenience food, and the myth that more hours always means more success. We slow the pace, protect family time, and set intentions for the darker months so rest becomes part of the plan, not an afterthought.
• harvest finish, cleanup, and recovery
• real food vs lunch meat costs and health
• taking days off without guilt
• redefining success beyond acres and hours
• seasonal slowing and winter intentions
• family, legacy, and presence over pace
• scheduling priorities and mental quiet
• choosing enjoyment over pushing to exhaustion
• gratitude for the crop and the people
Go find us on all of the socials at farmers greatest asset. Like and share and follow us. Send us a message at farmersgreatestasset at gmail.com. We love hearing from you
Welcome And Harvest Recap
SPEAKER_01The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast. We believe the Farm's Greatest Asset is the Farmer. Their knowledge, experience, mind, and health.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the podcast. I'm Jesse.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Dr. Leah.
SPEAKER_02Well, here we are again. A little late on the recording of the podcast.
SPEAKER_00But it's been for good reason.
SPEAKER_02Harvest is done.
SPEAKER_00Yay!
SPEAKER_02Harvest took its toll on everybody, I believe. Everybody's a little worn out, a little tired.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna say exhausted is a good word for it. Physically, mentally. I don't know as much emotionally or spiritually, but definitely physically and mentally exhausted.
SPEAKER_02Fall is one of those. Actually, fall is really not done with tillage and clinging equipment up and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00But harvest is done.
SPEAKER_02Harvest is done.
SPEAKER_00And now it's the tidying.
SPEAKER_02And it's still it's a long. We started September 10th. And uh it just takes a while.
SPEAKER_00I'm just glad I don't have to take any meals out to the field for a little while.
SPEAKER_02Fair enough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I mean, I love taking hot meals out to you guys because I like to provide you with good nutrition.
SPEAKER_02But I
Field Meals And Real Food Costs
SPEAKER_02appreciate the hot meals.
SPEAKER_00It gets it's it's a lot. I mean, it's five hours of the day prepping and delivering and moving and but it's so much better than all of the lunch meat sandwiches. Oh, I know. Gosh, we did lunch meat and but like I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I just felt bloated and yuck and we were doing it.
SPEAKER_00So appreciate the meals. So even if I I don't even we stopped counting at how many hamburgers you had in the field. Hamburgers and brats, but they're you know from our farm. So um definitely a healthier option than the lunch meat. And the cr the really I'm gonna use the word crazy thing about it is so expensive. Our our ground beef and our brats are cheaper, so much cheaper than lunch meat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and here we're talking in the country at the moment about beef prices and how high they are and bring in Argentinian beef and but we'll go out and buy ten dollar a pound lunch meat.
SPEAKER_00Eleven.
SPEAKER_02Right. Ten dollars is cheap, probably anymore for lunch meat. Fake meat, more or less. I mean it's meat, but it's just process. It's I don't know. We are backwards this world.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't know that it's that we're backwards. This is again just another example of how we are so removed, like we as a society are so removed from the farm and agriculture that and we have been and and we have also been trained that lunch meat and you know, like those lunch meat chains are healthy.
SPEAKER_02Remember, was it Jared and Subway? Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Lunch meat's so bad for you.
SPEAKER_00It is. This is not where I thought today would go at all. Maybe we should like swing the other way. So, yes, lunch meat is bad for you, but harvest is over. Yay! Let's let's go down that road. People know how we feel about lunch meat, and we do do it as well, because like sometimes it's all you can get done.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's easy, it's convenient, so you you do it, right? It's no right or wrong to it.
SPEAKER_00It's just right, it is it is what it is, and sometimes you just gotta do it.
SPEAKER_02You just gotta get through. So we all do it, right?
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. All choices.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_02So now we'll move on to some of the tillage that we gotta do yet and clean equipment up. The guys are headed down today to start blowing stuff off. We finished Monday, afternoon, evening, and kind of just shoved everything in the the shed and said
Post-Harvest Cleanup And Taking Days Off
SPEAKER_02it's gonna rain, so we'll keep it dry so it blows off easier. And uh now it's time to get it out, to get it cleaned up, to get put away.
SPEAKER_00And I am so proud of you, honey. You I I had made planted the seed for you to maybe take a couple of days off and not have to manage people, not have to manage farm. I was like, let's just pretend that it's Saturday and Sunday, and chores need to get done, and we're not doing anything extra. Let's give the guys the day off, and you you take the day off, or those two days off, and you did it. I am so proud of you.
SPEAKER_02I needed it because I am still tired. Henry and I went on a little road trip on Tuesday, so I don't know. I didn't get a whole lot of rest then, but that was fine. Gotta spend a day with Henry. So I am still exhausted. But feel better because we took a break for two days.
SPEAKER_00You can continue to take a little bit more of a break. It doesn't have to be 150 miles an hour right now.
SPEAKER_02No, we're totally slowing down. So and that's okay, because it is October 30th, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00It is.
SPEAKER_02Days are still just kind of running together.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I totally convinced myself that the last two days were Saturday and Sunday, and I woke up this morning thinking, well, it's Monday. And in my mind, the forecast is supposed to be warm on Monday. I'm like, wait, no, it's Thursday.
SPEAKER_02We gotta do the podcast. And we'll have a whole nother weekend again.
SPEAKER_00I know, I'm excited. I think we should just have, you know, three Saturday Sundays in a row.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I think that's what we should do. Let's do it. Why can't we?
SPEAKER_02We should.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Everybody should. You press so hard.
SPEAKER_00Not everybody's done with their harvest, but fair enough. If you are not, I strongly suggest taking time off. Like you get done, just take a little break. It does a body good, especially mentally.
SPEAKER_02It's okay to slow down a second and take in the blessings of what the harvest has been. Um and somebody said to me the other day, it was a week before we were done, probably, and there was like an inch forecasted, just like normal forecast, you know, oh, there's an inch coming. Oh, now it's now down to half. Oh, we get a half a tenth, right? So it's like a heavy dew. And they were like, man, I needed an inch because I need a break. Well, take a break. Like, you don't have to push through that hard all of the time. And I know that's just how we are. And what we do.
SPEAKER_00Would you have taken a break? Because you needed a break, you wouldn't have taken a break. You needed a break at that time.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00But you did go up to Wisconsin with me. You took that break. That was good.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think it's so ingrained in farming culture that if you work hard, that's that's what you have to do. Just always work hard and you will be quote unquote successful. And what does that really mean? Like you can continue to grow your ground, but when you think about your legacy and where you want, like what's really important. If your family is important and you are sure, providing for your family from a masculine perspective, it's about providing and safety and protection, right? But if you are not there for them mentally, physically, emotionally, are you really providing what
Challenging The Always-Work Culture
SPEAKER_00is truly needed for your family?
SPEAKER_02Generally no. And I could see that coming home. I'm exhausted and yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think this year uh something has shifted for me um just in the last month. And I really see the importance, and it's always kind of been there, but even more this year, I see the importance of allowing yourself to change with the seasons. So we are halfway through fall, getting closer to winter, which will be, you know, at the end of December. The holiday season is coming. And in our society of, you know, we production, production, production, and go, go, go, and this event to that event and checking all the boxes, we don't take time to allow ourselves to slow down and reset and really regroup. And when you sit down and think about what's really important over the holidays, it's not the shopping lists and the parties and getting everything, the gifts.
SPEAKER_02Going here, going there.
SPEAKER_00And and I am as guilty about that production, like in both, you know, like always producing and checking the boxes production, as well as like putting on the mask and production, and I am here because I feel like I have to be. Look, stepping back and being like, all right, this year I want it to be different. I want it to be us sitting by the fire and playing a board game. I want it to be us having a meal together and then cleaning up and talking while we're doing dishes. I want it to be that you and I are not so exhausted at the end of the day because we have so much work to do that we need to numb out on our phones and our kids will go and do the same. I want it to be about what's truly important, what we want our legacy to be, and that's our family. And we are just as guilty as everyone else about checking the boxes. But this year I have the intention that we're gonna make
Seasonal Shift: Slow Down For Winter
SPEAKER_00it different, and what that means for us is gonna be different than what it means for other people. But I just strongly encourage you to step back as we're going into the season where it gets to be dark. Um, our bodies really need the time to not always produce. We need the time to have fun, we need the time to reflect, we need the time to plan and to really sit and think about your purpose, your mindset. And that's how we can tie it back to nature. Like it's time to start slowing down, it's time to turn the lights off at night. It's time to spend time with your family and the people that you love. And make and put the time in your schedule for them now that the harvest is done. It's time to really prioritize what's truly important.
SPEAKER_02And we know that the work never ends on the farm, especially when you have livestock. We get it, we have livestock. Um, but it is it is the time to count your blessings. Your harvest has come in. Look for those blessings, find them, see them, um, but then have your intentions and what is really important to you. And for us, it is family, and uh spending quality time. Part of that is Henry is almost 18, so um probably will be leaving soon, whatever it is, wherever he goes. Uh so that's kind of setting in on us a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Well, we got one and then another.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So Henry and then Lucy.
SPEAKER_02So we want to spend as much quality good time with our our kids as we can. So we suggest to everybody that use this time of you know less daylight to reflect and count your blessings and do what is truly important to you. Figure that out what it is, and act on it.
SPEAKER_00The only time that you can truly figure out what isn't what that is, is in the quiet, in the still, in the peace, in those fringe times that you get, and it might be in the middle of the day when you're out waiting for the feed to go out in the bunk while you're feeding the cows. It may be when you're out in doing your ripping in the tractor. But you like utilize that calm, that peace.
SPEAKER_02Right. When we say slow down, you gotta slow your mind down. Instead of your mind racing all the time thinking about everything you gotta do. Yep. We do. We've got a lot of stuff to do yet, but figure out what is important to you.
SPEAKER_00And then make time for that. Prioritize it, schedule around it. And we're asking ourselves that too. How are we scheduling in time for family? Are we making it the priority that we say that it is?
SPEAKER_02So the holidays are coming up, and make it a time of spending time with family and quality time and Yes it is a hustle and a bustle, but enjoy it for what it is.
SPEAKER_00Enjoy your time together. Right. So if you're done with harvest, yay!
Family, Legacy, And Intentional Time
SPEAKER_00Enjoy the slowing down and the peace that comes at this time of year with nature. If you're not yet done with harvest, um, it's almost there. Um try to enjoy the harvest as much as you can. It's it's a busy time, but it it can be enjoyable. Slow down if a little bit if you can.
SPEAKER_02So with us, our harvest was winding down, and we had I don't remember, X amount of acres. And I said, Yep, we're gonna be done Saturday or Sunday, but we needed to bag it. Uh so we were my cousin was using a bagger, and uh we got the bagger back, and like we can pound this out in two, two and a half days, we can just power through. But then I was like, why? I enjoy harvest. Let's just plug through, enjoy it, and instead of power through and work until 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night just to get it done. We can enjoy this. The last two days. Let's enjoy it and slow down.
SPEAKER_00So I'm thankful for that. I'm I'm thankful that you are not just powering through anymore.
SPEAKER_02And ironically, the last day we had to fill up with fuel or put some in, so we we ran out the night before because I like to have everything low. Henry was filling it with fuel and the fuel nozzle slipped out, so he spilled some fuel. And I was, I don't know, maybe tired and it came out wrong, but I said we went all year long without spilling, and he got upset. It's like, yeah, fall has taken his toll.
SPEAKER_00Everybody was tired.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Still are.
SPEAKER_02Still recovering.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, with that, enjoy your time wherever you are in this harvest harvest season.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Go find us on all of the socials.
SPEAKER_00At farmers greatest asset.
SPEAKER_02Like and share and follow us. Uh send us a message at farmersgreatestasset at gmail.com. We love hearing from you. It's a good day. To have a great day.
SPEAKER_00Bye.
