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
Charging Forward: Choose Less, Aim High, Grow Smarter
We lean into winter as a time for rest, clarity, and choosing less to achieve more. Health rises to the top, an agronomy shift targets smarter yield, and we press pause on feeders to protect the farm while urging stronger local food support.
• winter as a natural season for rest and planning
• cutting long resolution lists to two core priorities
• health-first mindset with keto and consistency
• simplifying workloads by removing tasks before adding
• switching from anhydrous to liquid with precise placement
• spoon-feeding crops with sulfur, boron, and drone foliar passes
• pausing feeder cattle due to tight margins and risk
• advocating hedging and protection for those feeding cattle
• reinforcing small family farms and buying direct local food
• inviting connection on social and email
As always, go find us on all of the socials at Farmers Greatest Asset
Send us a message we like hearing from you
If you'd like to hear anything from us, please send us a note
At farmersgreatestasset at gmail.com
And remember, it's a good day
To have a great day
The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast. We believe the Farm's Greatest Asset is the Farmer. Their knowledge, experience, mind, and health. Well, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm Dr. Leah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we have taken a nice little break for the holidays. Which was kind of nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, the holidays were wonderful.
SPEAKER_00:So I trust that all of you had a great and wonderful and joyous holiday season. It was good for us. It was kind of relaxing. It was good. Good family time spent together.
SPEAKER_01:Calm, peaceful, easy. That's kind of how I would say our holiday season was.
SPEAKER_00:It was. It was nice. So that being said, we decided to not have a couple podcasts over the holiday season and take a little break. Here we are, starting a new year, 2026. Here we come.
SPEAKER_01:Big year.
SPEAKER_00:It is because it is the year of what?
SPEAKER_01:The fire horse. So the year is charging in, and it's supposed to be a year of exponential growth. So actually, in the Chinese New Year, the lunar calendar does not restart until mid-February. So this is in the natural seasons, still a part of the winter process and not a new birth or new beginning. So it's still the time for rest and relaxation and really preparation for the spring, which um the so then the Chinese New Year restarts in February, mid-February. So next year is the year of the horse. And just like a charging horse, it's supposed to be exponential growth. Here we come. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
SPEAKER_00:Charging through.
SPEAKER_01:So I can already kind of feel some of that coming. Um, so we're getting rid of, we're still shedding and and then the preparation, trying to go into the new year. Last year was the year of the snake, and it's shedding all of that, shedding the skin and shedding old habits, old identities, stepping into a new nine-year cycle with this next year.
SPEAKER_00:All right. So be aware of that. Be it's be aware that it's the year to charge forward and like Leah said, get rid of some of that old skin, that old habits, the old you. It's time for a new year and charge on through.
SPEAKER_01:But if a lot of you are out there feeling like not starting everything and everything all at once, that's actually a very normal part of this time of year. Like we are really not meant to just push through the winter. We're really meant to rest and relax and use this time.
SPEAKER_00:Hibernate.
SPEAKER_01:Um, yeah, a little bit of a hibernation. Yes. And go inward and really focus on think through what you really want for yourself, your family, your farm, your life, and kind of center yourself around your vision and the real things that are important to you. So I in the past have always, you know, come up with my lists of and goals of everything that I want to do for the year. And it's of course like this huge long list of so many things that we used to do our New Year's Eve date. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And if if you didn't bring a piece of paper and a pen, we would go to a particular restaurant and they give you crayons and you can draw on the table paper. You would make a list every year of our New Year's resolutions or things to do.
SPEAKER_01:How many of those things did we never do? Probably the majority of them.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure you got them somewhere. We could go back and look.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I really this year am fo just choosing to focus on two very important things. So that is the needle, right? Yeah. The number one thing is my health. If you think about when you're 85, 90 years old, looking back on your life, you will never regret choosing to be healthy. You know, I have been putting off too long starting. And I think that's because I in the past have failed with consistency.
SPEAKER_00:I was just gonna say, we've always started, maybe. It's just a matter of charging through and staying consistent.
SPEAKER_01:It's really about not making it hard, right? Making things easier. And I think in the past I've always added so many things on. I have forgotten to take things off my plate. Like, how can I put more things on my plate when it's already full?
SPEAKER_00:So that is the way we are though, babe.
SPEAKER_01:But I really this year am like, what can I get rid of? Like, I am so ready to get rid of things.
SPEAKER_00:So you did your intentions. I I don't know if you want to elaborate what you did, but you had a list of intentions and then you got rid of some of those intentions so you could focus on one big intention.
SPEAKER_01:I have like projects that I want to do, but instead of having the list, I prioritized and then I'm breaking it down into smaller bunches so I can actually accomplish something and it doesn't look so big and feel so big. And I put them in an order of importance so that if I do get through the first four or five things and still have time to focus on other things, then I have more things that I would like to do. But when I have the big long list, I just get overwhelmed and then end up not doing any of the things. And then I feel like I'm not even living the life that I want to because I'm letting all of my everyday busy work get in the way of really moving the needle because I've put too many things on my list. I'm trying to start small and take things off my plate and really focus on one thing at a time. I've never done that actually in my life.
SPEAKER_00:No, we have not.
SPEAKER_01:It's a brand new thing for me. This is like rest. I've actually been doing really well with rest and rejuvenation and not pushing through.
SPEAKER_00:Because we talk about it a lot.
SPEAKER_01:It really made an enjoyable Christmas season, holiday season.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We went to my parents and your parents, but they were on different days, and we spent Christmas Eve here together with our kids, and it was really relaxing and nice.
SPEAKER_01:And played some cards. Yeah, it was good.
SPEAKER_00:So uh but yeah, back to intentions. I I guess I'll piggyback on yours, and it's so cliche, but it's again taking care of me and health, and part of that is losing weight and eat eating better. I know I need to do that. And you and Henry were doing really well on keto, so now it's time for me to get on board with that. I kind of I was having some stomach pain recently, so I did good for a couple days, and my stomach felt so much better, and then you fall right back into the eating the bread and the junk and uh whatever.
SPEAKER_01:So the key is to not have it in the house.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Then you're less likely to eat it.
SPEAKER_00:So my intention is to be on keto and try to follow that to a T. It's gonna be hard, but consistency over perfection. Right. But once we get there, it'll be good, and then if you, Henry, and I can all do it together, maybe we can get the girls on board and they're very much in resistance. But it's a team thing, right? It'll be easier if we all do it together and help each other out. And because you have said it's if we're the girls and I are eating bread and junk and candy and whatever, it's it's hard because you want to eat it too, and you just sit there and have to watch us, and that's not fair to you when you're trying to do good. So I'm gonna do do keto. Hopefully, you'll do it with me. That's my first big one. The next one for me is probably we are changing basically the fertilizer program big time on the farm. Instead of using anhydrous, we're gonna go liquid nitrogen, which is way out of your comfort zone the the box for me when we owned our own anhydris bar. And nothing wrong with anhydrous. Um, it is dangerous, it's got its drawbacks that way. But um we're gonna go straight liquid and put it on with a strip till bar, and that way we can also mix in a little sulfur and a little boron and put it beside the row right where it needs it, and then we'll still come back again and side dress. But um, that's the big change that's kind of out there.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I would like to for us to do more experimentation on applications and pushing the yield numbers. I mean, that's what you have been talking about, but really document it within our specific fields.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna try to push it. I mean, my yield goal is 300 plus everywhere. Um, so I'm trying to push that. And I think by placing the nitrogen there when I need it, along with the sulfur and the boron, and then placement with the planter, and then coming back later with the drone. So that's another big one. Is the foliar feeding with the drone? We have our own drone, just really trying to push the limits, but basically stay on the same budget, not blow the blow the checkbook on all this fertilizer, because it's probably not necessary. It's more about spoon feeding it because you don't you don't have a child. Try to raise a child and give it everything it needs to eat when it's less than a year old, you spoon feed that child. So that's the way I think about it. You gotta spoon feed your crop and give it what it needs when it needs it, rather than just throw it all out there ahead of time and hope for the best.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see how all of it goes. It's exciting. Yeah, new stuff.
SPEAKER_00:So big changes on the farm in that realm, and big things coming this year, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:So, one thing that we have taken off of our plate are cattle.
SPEAKER_00:We have not bought any feeder cattle this year. Normally we would have a barn full of fat cattle for feeders. We literally just sold the last load of fat cattle. Sunday. Um, they went out Sunday, and so we'll move the cows home. Normally the cows just stay on pasture and the barnyard there and uh bringing them home, and they'll get a stand inside all winter and be comfy, cozy, and straw. Um I don't know. I was just talking to somebody just before I come home to do this podcast, and they asked about if I'm buying any cattle. I said, no. I can't I can't find a sharp enough pencil to do it. Sale barn prices just keep keep going. I don't know. I just I guess my comment to him was, I'm not gonna lose the farm over it. I'm gonna save the farm. So that's kind of where we're at. We're just gonna lay low this year, we'll bring the cows home. Sure, we have feed, and was the feed cheap because we raised it our own, sure, but you still gotta put a dollar figure on that, you know, that amount of feed that you put into that that calf. I was even reading an article in Feedlot magazine the other day, and it it's uh$104 a hundred weight for cost of gain. So over a dollar a pound. So by the time you put another six, seven hundred pounds, eight hundred pounds on that seven hundred pound calf you buy, you got another eight hundred to a thousand bucks in it, especially if you insure it. Because insurance is 150 to 200 bucks a head. So you just spent another thousand bucks ahead to feed it and insure it and keep it alive and to possibly break even. So if you're buying cattle today, you I mean you can lock them in, and I hope that you do, and the guys that are doing it. Yes, please just protect yourself, that's all. And I this is just where we're at. We decided to take a year off, and we have cows, so we'll just put the cows in the barn and but uh you can go out there and insure them and play them on the board and do that stuff. And I'm sure that you do. I mean, right now you have to.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But I figured out the other day to break even, you gotta sell fats for 242, and today they're selling for 230. So it's um at the moment it's not worth a risk.
SPEAKER_01:Not for our operation at this time. For us, and you know, there are people out there that are can make it all pencil out, and that's great.
SPEAKER_00:Right. If you're doing it, that's great. I just I'm sure you're protected, just make sure you're protected.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's going like this past year and this year are going to be harder times for family farms, and we just want everyone to be able to continue and move forward. Um, right, because the small family farms are the backbone of our food industry within the United States and um and are key to food freedom. So we want to ensure that we're gonna keep American agriculture strong. That being said, if you are listening and you are not a farmer, or even if you are a farmer, like most of us don't raise everything, support other farmers. So one thing that um I know in our area, there's not a lot of farmers markets or places to go out and buy food, but think about small family farms or homesteads or farmsteads or whatever you call them. Like let's start supporting each other as well. Um you know, if you instead of going to the store and buying chicken, maybe you can find somebody that raises chicken. Instead of going to the store and buying all your fruits and vegetables, go to the go to a local farmer's market and buy your fruits and vegetables. Um, there are dairies selling milk. There, there's so many things that you can and cheese and all of those things. It's going to cost you a little more, but it will become cyclical if we make it part of our habits and our practice. And this is what we really need to do to fortify the agricultural industry within our country is to really support each other. Um, so if you're a cattle farmer and you like sausage, go out and buy a hog from a pork farmer. They all will have some that they would rather sell to you that they can't necessarily take to get butchered or take to the plant. So let's try and help each other out as best we can and support each other as much as our pocketbooks will allow. Because here in corn country, we don't have a lot of vegetable farmers, but they are out there. And um, you know, the more demand there is, the more there more farmers there will be.
SPEAKER_00:And it comes down to knowing where your food comes from, too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So that being said, thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_00:As always, go find us on all of the socials at Farmers Greatest Asset. Send us a message we like hearing from you. If you'd like to hear anything from us, please send us a note.
SPEAKER_01:At farmersgreatestasset at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_00:And remember, it's a good day.
SPEAKER_01:To have a great day. Bye.
