Show Notes
You can't out-yield your way to profit anymore, so Will Cannon is chasing margin with 2 or 3 bucks an acre of homemade compost instead of $40 an acre of bugs in a jug. Two Iowa corn farmers came to the barn this week: Will, an Iowa Corn Growers director from near Prairie City, and Paul Gieselman, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, from near Morning Sun.
Will has run cover crops on 100 percent of his acres for about 18 years. He has seen 0 to 10 bushels back from his compost, and 50 on one tough spot. Paul got out of hogs in 1998, farmed on his dad's money for 10 years, and went out on his own in 2008. Today he runs just under 1,000 acres and 25 British White Park cows. And Japan is now the number 2 buyer of American corn, behind only Mexico.
Then Paul said the hard part out loud. He has watched a lot of his equity drain away, and if either of his boys came home today there would not be room for them. He doesn't figure he'll be the one doing the consolidating. He figures he's the one getting consolidated. Will sees the other side: the biggest handoff of farm assets in peacetime history, and real opportunity 5 to 7 years out for young guys who stay patient.
Also in this one: the wettest fall either of them can remember, why cattle belong back on row crop ground, the USDA fertilizer hearing in Ogden, E15 in NASCAR, Brazil's 90 million acres it hasn't farmed yet, and what the checkoff actually pays for.
Put it on just enough acres that it's a little painful, so you pay attention to it, but not so many it hurts you long term.
What are you trying on 40 or 80 acres next year? Drop it in the comments and we read them.
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THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
● Iowa Corn ➱ https://www.iowacorn.org
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Two guests and a harvest stuck in the rain
05:02 Out of hogs in 1998, farming on Dad's money
06:19 2008, buying the gear and going out alone
10:53 Why he runs British White Park cattle
13:18 A teacher's son goes full time farming
14:25 The bachelor farmer who handed over his acres
19:12 See us at Gateway Farm Expo and HayCon
20:58 A homemade strip-till bar for a couple grand
24:08 No paid-off land, but no ghosts either
27:01 Try it on enough acres that it hurts a little
29:34 You can't out-yield your way to profit
34:01 Do cover crops actually pay?
39:34 The resident hippie's homemade compost tea
41:57 $3 an acre vs $40 of bugs in a jug
45:25 Putting cattle back on row crop ground
48:23 $4.75 a day for hay out west vs stalks here
53:53 Stuck in the first 2 acres of harvest
58:22 How two farmers ended up on the Corn boards
1:03:13 Checkoff vs Corn Growers, who does what
1:05:53 Ethanol was Granddad's, bio-based is yours
1:08:20 Did the ethanol boom encourage bad habits?
1:11:10 Japan is now our number 2 corn buyer
1:14:43 Why buyers in Asia want to meet the farmer
1:22:12 NASCAR, E15, and the Cy-Hawk game
1:27:47 Mexico's GMO fight began in his machine shed
1:34:26 Most farmers just haven't been asked
1:36:24 Corn Growers is like going to church
1:40:28 Equity draining and no room for the kids
1:44:59 Fertilizer, the DOJ, and phosphate duties
1:48:13 Biggest farm wealth handoff in peacetime
1:50:00 What farmers want vs what they need
1:54:29 Brazil's 90 million acres it hasn't farmed
2:00:46 Tip of the Hat
2:05:58 How to join Iowa Corn
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