SPEAKER_00 0:17

But here's the thing I was in the top of the class and the biggest breakfast. And that's exactly what's going to be. No threats, no spend. Just the people living it every day. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

I'm Todd Kimbrell. We farm about an hour south of Dallas in the Hillsborough area. We farm corn, wheat, cotton, sesame. It's a family farm. I'm fifth generation farming my wife and two kids.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Mark Howard from Dalhart, Texas, up in the extreme northwest corner in the Texas Panama. So it's a family farm that uh grows corn and cotton, alfalfa, seed milo. Uh that's what we do.

SPEAKER_04 0:57

I'm Kendall Wright. I farm in uh in Charling County, just uh about an hour east of Dallas. Uh farming my dad, my wife, my two kids. Uh we raise uh wheat and corn primarily on about uh 5,000 acres.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

And I'm David Gibson. I'm the executive director with uh Texas Corn Producer Board and Executive Vice President of our association. It's good for us to sit here and chat. I know uh just prior to beginning here, you know, we're talking about things about planting and the different stages that you're in already. Um we might kind of begin with Todd. He's the further south of here, and where his stage is a little bit about the weather, maybe what's happening with your crop.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

So we jumped out and planted corn earlier than we've ever planted in my whole career. Maybe it's ever in our area. I don't know if it's the earliest, but pretty close. So we jumped out there early, conditions were good, planted early, got it off and smoking looked as good as it's ever looked, and then we had a frost and a light freeze, set some of it back. We did get thinned out in spots, but after all the evaluations, I think in less than 5% got thinned, so there wasn't enough to replant, so we're gonna roll with it. Today the corn looks beautiful. I mean, on early April, it's probably the largest corn I've ever had and looks as healthy as I've ever had on that early stuff. The late stuff's looking good too. We were getting dry, caught a very timely rain. I mean, things are off to a pretty good start right now. So I was lucky, I guess, on that early stuff. So I had some neighbors that weren't so lucky that had to replant a bunch. So it was a risk reward. I the earlier we get it planted, the you know, it's a hedge against the heat. We know the heat's coming in the summer for us. So earlier we can get pollinated and grain fills started before the heat, the better we are.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

I'm basically in the same boat as he as Todd is. Uh, we got I planted corn on February the 12th, which I have never ever even heard of somebody doing that where we're at. Uh I didn't plant much, but a little. I was going to set the planter and got a little carried away. But we started, we got a rain after that, and I started back February the 20th-ish. And man, we we flew through that corn quick. Uh, like I said, we got it all up looking good, got that late freeze. That early corn, I lost about I I got it like 130 acres planted. I lost about 40 acres and the frost had to replant. Uh and then we got hot and dry on on our our blackland there where I'm at, and it dried that ground out so fast that it got a real hard crust to it. And we we developed something I've never seen, I've heard of it, but never seen, which is rootless corn syndrome. And uh man, it's pretty rough right now. Corn's hard to look at. It's laying on the ground. We found we got another rain uh just a couple of days ago, two and a half inches, and every everybody tells me it's gonna pop back up, but man, I'm I'm sweating it. And all my neighbors are too, because every acre up there is the same way. Yeah, I've seen it once.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

The the brace roots don't have any moisture to attach to, so it's just it just flops on the ground in the wind. We had it happen one time, but it ended up being okay in the end. I it's really hard to look at it, like it looks really sick, man. But in the end, in my experience, we got rain and actually had a good crop out of it, so uh it's very hard to look at.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

Well, I hope you're right. There's a lot of nervous farmers around Hunt Collie Counties right now.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

So one thing y'all didn't mention the two of y'all, especially did you have any feral hog problems when you planted this time? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Actually, our feral hog problem is down from what it has been in the past. Um, but like this year I had a farm that I've never had feral hogs on. Uh, so I didn't check it. We took we do our own hog killing. I didn't check it. They they eat the whole thing, it was just a small farm, 22 acres, but they smoked the whole farm. It's all gone. I'd re-plant that. I've got one other farm that I've replanted four times, part of the farm, four times. And uh we've been killing pigs off hill every night, night. Matter of fact, I got two guys there covering for me tonight because I'm here. But yeah, we we we're still fighting hogs. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

It's still That was my experience. So, or my general experience is we think we're good, and they'll pop up in a place we've never seen them. That seems to happen nearly every year, at least every other year. They'll pop up in the most unexpecting place, and it really catches you by surprise. So that's a tough one to manage because you never know where they're gonna pop up.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

This time is surrounded, there's a church on one side, and then surrounded by houses, and and highway 380 is a frontage. Why would you have pigs there? I never have had them there, and now all of a sudden they're there.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

There's no pattern or rhythm. You you you can't out guess them.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

You know, that's one thing that through the Old Gordon Association worked with work to get some federal assistance to help with controlling those. And we haven't let Mark chime in, but even where he's at, there was uh, and he'll he'd talk about his operation a bit more. But uh Allen County even had a fair home quick on it.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

So it's a statewide thing. Go ahead, Mark. It is. It's amazing. It's one thing I like about being on the corn board is being able to go and listen to what's happening all over the state. There's so many things that are different, but then so many things that bring us together. And and we we all have to work at this together. The guys, I was at a meeting in Chicago last week, and the guys were asking me what's Texas doing, and I'd have to start saying, Well, which part do you want to talk about? Because it's all different. I'm closer to y'all than I am to the south side of Texas, where I'm at in my part of Texas. So it's a it's a vastly differentiated type of agriculture. They started planting corn in March if it was organic, and when there is no normal anymore. Uh most corn used to be planted in April and be done. Now we'll plant all the way into July. It depends on its intended use and uh things like that. Things we didn't it's just been big changes through the years.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

We may farm in the same state, but I promise you, if you took me out in your country, it'd be like farming on Mars.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Yeah, that's it's a different world. That's that's why when I introduce a lot of times if I'm out of state, I introduce, like I say I'm from Central Texas, all dry land. I always specify that because it's a total different world than we're marked for. I mean, it's quite opposite, actually. I'm we're probably more similar to the Midwest than we are to Mark. So it's how diverse our state is. Although my yields don't show up like the Midwest. Mine don't either. I like to reiterate reiterate what Mark says too. It's very nice to listen to different challenges from different conditions across the state because you think you've got it worse to the old backyard itis. You think you've got it the worst. I mean, you get out and hear and see what other people are fighting. It's a struggle everywhere right now. Yeah. It's a it's a U.S.

SPEAKER_04 8:37

problem right now.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

So when will you have you started planting yet, Mike? We'll start planting cotton next week, which is uh an anomaly because most of the time people would think middle May for us, but uh our system, it fits us to plant earlier. Then we'll move into the corn. And sounds like I may have corn or cotton planted before Todd does. And that's I never dreamed of that. That's just crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Four or five hundred miles in Texas plus the altitude differences, you know, Mark's probably got some four thousand foot elevations, and y'all probably have some six hundred or eight hundred foot or elevation. So it's a big difference with a lot of variability. But even in Mark's area, if you can go some over four thousand foot elevation on one side of the Texas Panhandle down to about 1,500 foot on the other side, and you're only traveled about 150 miles. Yeah. So uh big differences north to south and east to west. Well, very, very challenging. So are y'all's crop mixes pretty much the same this year, or has some of these you know, the current news is about fertilizer prices being high, uh inputs being high. Are y'all did y'all change, or are you looking at changing your crop mixes on your farms?

SPEAKER_03 10:12

I'll speak for my area, uh extreme downturning wheat acres. And all I would say every one of those acres went into corn. So I don't know the numbers yet, obviously, but I would say record amount of corn acres in the counties I farm. I I mean, there's been a huge switch to wheat. Wheat's had its challenge. We actually had a record wheat crop last year on our farm, and I cut our acres by 85%. So, and all those went to corn. We already had enough cotton, so it had to go to corn. There really wasn't anything else. So, and that might be conservative for my area.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

My acres stayed pretty, I actually went up just a touch on wheat acres, not much. Um, but area-wide, it didn't, it it is down on wheat acres, but those acres didn't go to corn. They went to soybeans because it's a less expensive crop to put in, and farmers are suffering. And I mean, there's lots of people don't even have operating loans to this day. So soybeans is a cheap option, and that's that's what a lot of those acres went to. Corn acres are up, but but a lot of acres went to soybeans.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

I mean, that's a great point, fertilizer. I mean, with the recent, with the especially after the war started, the that really puts a strain on the corn acre. I mean, you added corn, you added acres, of course you had to add fertilizer. Did you have that fertilizer booked? I don't know the real number, but I think it's pretty low, especially for the additional acres that are added above normal. I it's a tough input pricing, especially fertilizer, fertilizer fuel, but more so fertilizer. It's really tough right now.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Mark, what are you seeing up in your part of the state? Personally, we've been 50-50 corn for forever and a day. Uh this year, we'll we start making our plans for the for the upcoming crop year just as soon as the silage choppers are are leaving the field or or the cotton strippers. We we don't have a a dead time. It's it's what what are we gonna do? We gotta get everything going. And so back in August, September, we were looking at the price of fertilizers and and the price of the commodities, and and we kind of broke from our normal rotation. We we added uh 30% uh of our acres to cotton over what it normally is. And uh the corn acres are probably at a historical low for us. When I heard the March 31st uh acreage report, I I thought they were they got it wrong on cotton in in the United States being up 400,000 acres, but it I don't think there's that many people increased acres, but I'm hearing it here today that uh it may be true. We may added that much acreage in Texas.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

You know, nationally we're mentioned inputs and fertilizers out of our board, you guys and your tower parts on the board. That's been input prices have been something y'all have been pushing us as staff and you as board members be working on for the last two years. And uh it's been real interesting hearing what we hear as staff from farmers like you, what you hear from your neighbors, and then airing the national rhetoric being stated about maybe a big majority of folks had all that fertilizer bought and in place. And uh seems like that's uh kind of a challenging thing to have to address. And uh so I'm real curious. I know uh talking with one of the cellar board members earlier that his supplier just told him his his supply was gonna come priced as brought to the field. Have y'all seen or heard your issues with pricing and supplies?

SPEAKER_04 14:29

I have not to answer your question. Uh, but I can promise you that you know, as has been stated, that that farmers had all their input after their fertilizer paid for. That is absolutely not true, at least in my part of the world. As I said before, there are there are producers, good producers also, that are hurting so bad that they don't even have they don't have their funding locked up for this year. So I can promise you they don't have their fertilizer paid for. And I don't and I don't think that's just in Hunt and Collin County. So I think that's pretty widespread.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

It's a dire situation. I mean, the the ratio of fertilizer price to price of corn bushel is the highest it's ever been. And I mean, I think ever, for sure since I've been in business. But I mean, that kind of says it all. That that shows the strain. And that's just one thing. Granted, fertility is on a corn farm probably the largest expense, especially all fertility combined, but I mean that's just one part of it. Equipment, fuel, everything we're touching is way more expensive than it was, even just five years ago. And commodity prices are, you know, I mean, it's it's a it's a strain.

SPEAKER_04 15:49

And like you said, David, this is not a this is not a 2025 or 2026 problem. Uh just for an example, in 2023, I'm 47 years old. I've been farming literally my whole life. I've had skin in the game since 2002. I've become full partner with my dad. In 2023, we made the best corn crop I have ever even heard of, much less seen. I mean, yields that I mean they're north, they're they're I state yields. That year I'm I I know I paid $700 a ton for some nitrogen. We broke even. That's embarrassing to sit here and tell you. I broke even on the best, and by the way, corn prices that year, I know I got six dollars plus for per bushel. And I broke even. And that's not due to I'm not running a brand new set of equipment, you know. I don't I don't have anything new. It it's not it's not bad management, it is purity input costs that are killing us.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

All of us. I heard Mark at a meeting being on a panel, and oh, I'll just kinda ask him about he talked about his data collection that he does and how he looks to the future. Kind of tell us what you've seen in your last in your career, maybe the last 10 or 12 years coming up to now, Mark.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

I think I think at at that meeting that you're talking about, they also ask what keeps you up at night. And what keeps me up at night is thinking about this the generations that need to follow behind us. There and there's some great guys. You guys are doing a wonderful job. But the deck is stacked. We there's two percent of us tasked with growing the food and fiber for 98 percent the other ninety-eight percent of the country and we're doing it selling our products wholesale when every input you can think of is sold to us at retail and they're in such a squeeze. How do you inject enough optimism to keep the younger generations coming back? Somebody has to when we start talking about price supports, farm safety nets, things like that. The future in any industry you want to talk about is to increase in size, to increase in in volume and scale, to try to accomplish stability and growth. And but the at the very same time, when we can't capture the market prices we need to to make it all worthwhile, and we're dependent on the farm safety net, it doesn't matter what size you're at really, you're eventually going to have trouble with payment limits. And and you start realizing part of your farm's not covered by any kind of safety uh factor. And and I know that kind of strayed off your question, but that's where my mind's been going all day. Uh we've got to work as always through through commodity boards and organizations and strengthen strengthening the future for our our upcoming generations who's gonna feed everybody. And and there's got to be a drastic change.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Yeah, I I do remember they did ask you that what keeps you up at night, and that's probably, you know, uh I'm I'm I'm getting that spot in my life that my son's back. We're not really farming, we've got livestock, but I still wake up at night thinking, how how do we make this sustainable?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

And the data collection you're talking about, the younger generation is superb and and they have so many options on where to gather data and and get it. We just have to make sure we get everything, we look at it all, we analyze it carefully and make the right choices. We don't get any m any chances to make too many problems, too many messages.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

Bottom line is some something's gotta give soon. When I say soon, I mean real really soon. Because the the math wants math right now. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

That's what I worry about is the next generation. I mean, the struggle we're in right now, it's hard to want to encourage the both of my kids are involved and want to farm and want to do, want to be completely involved. And just looking down the road, it's hard to be encouraging to that. I mean, and then the old cliche, I say it's cliche, but it's real, the real mental stress of, hey, this, I'm fifth generation, my kids would be sixth. Are they gonna be the ones that hang it up and decide to do something different? That's a real, I'm here to tell you, that's a real anxiety and stress and mental struggle on the farm today that affects 90% maybe. I'm just guessing, 90% of the farm. That's a tough thing. That that's what keeps me up at night.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

Somebody asked me the other day, is your, you know, I've got two girls, and you know, they asked, you know, are are they gonna take over or keep it going? Are they gonna marry somebody, you know, playing the game? And I'm like, no, I do not want my children going through this. I don't want to quit, but I don't want my kids going through it.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

So where is that two percent number headed? To a half a percent? I mean, it won't take much to get there.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

I it's certainly it's been declining for years, but average age of the farmer is getting older. I mean, it's like we we're fortunate that our board has gotten younger. When I began doing that twenty six years ago, we're The average age of my board was older than it is today. So we've got a few, brought in some younger guys, but you know, we've spent time trying to identify and help develop some new leaders, and it's getting real hard to go find anybody under 45, especially. Under 30 gets really hard. And you you look and you know, that's kind of the question. What will that number be in a in a few years? And the the size, the size of our farms, you know, we hear all the time about how big the farms are getting. Or if they didn't get big, who's gonna be working that land?

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Yeah, and what does that look like? Yeah, what that gets that gets, if you think that, or I do think that through, it gets scary. You've got very few people controlling, in my opinion, the the ultimate backbone of a country, any country, is agriculture. That that gets scary in a hurry.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

We're dealing with a lot of thoughts that were developed back when, I mean, used to be 90% of the population farmed. And it's since the since the teens and the 20s, it's just slowly evolved to where we're we're at 2%, but we're still dealing with laws that were designed to keep things smaller, to have more people on the farm, and they're not there. We can't get them there. Did you believe them? No. We need the we need the policies to change to empower the young ones that want to be there to do what they need to do to be successful.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

I might try to take us down a little different path. We've we've had a little bit about the markets and what they are. You know, we we fund work with U.S. Grains Council and Maine Export Federation and things with our corn farmer dollars. But what what are some of the challenges you get in marketing your grain? Uh I'm gonna bring up one example real quick that's fresh in my mind. Just this past fall, we had a grain company that wound up taking bankruptcy and left farmers holding the bag, so to speak. Uh how how available are trusted, reliable markets? How how do you kind of manage yours? Do you do on-farm storage? You a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

It's it's getting super, super hard. I mean, scary hard. Uh, I do not have on-farm storage, which I I desperately need, but these smaller elevators are struggling too, and man, it it just takes one time. And it's gonna put somebody out of business.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Our market market opportunities have changed somewhat. Uh West Texas used to all the all the food corn that what was utilized west of the Mississippi used to be grown from Hereford, Texas, in that area, and now it's about gone. Uh this last year was the first year since 1982 when I started that we didn't have a food corn contract, and they're just not they're just not there anymore. That market has basically gone away for many reasons. It's I can't say it's any one person's fault, but competing crops, uh diseases, genetics, fusarium can sure take a food corn guy down to his knees. Uh there's so many things that change things. Uh basically, what if I want to sell to someone new now, I go talk to the bankers first and get a get uh an idea about what that person's capital is or that company. And uh I I get a good idea who they are before I ever sell to them.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

First time I've noticed it was actually in 2025. Uh I always wonder, you know, we have influx of people wherever they're coming from. It doesn't matter. That part's irrelevant. But where where is all the food coming from? So finally, first time I've ever seen this. Uh there's a milk processing plant that's been put in in Waco and they're making it larger. It's a big retailer that everybody knows. Well, that's caused the dairies to the west of us to increase in size. So I've instantly seen more demand for silids and grain, and that's helped us a lot. Market's not any better, but I feel like the demand is a little more solid. So we have cows to the west and chickens to the east, so we're very lucky in that on that front. But the the dairy market to our west seems to be growing, and it has to be because of the population growth. I mean, it has to be. There's nowhere else for all that milk to go and cheese and dairy products. So that's what I see. But it is stuff. I don't like selling to somebody I've never done business with. It really makes me nervous. If they're paying a nickel or a dime or so more, it's it's really hard for me to go to a new market there.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

One of the big challenges is consolidation. I mean, we can go to the farm, we go to the implement dealer, we go to the fertilizer company, we go to all the way up the line, everything has had to consolidate in order to be to become more profitable. And in doing that, what's really changed the landscape and in my career, you know, the hardest challenge I've had to answer a phone to was when a grower called and said, My my buyer can't paint. Person buying my grain. They've taken my grain, it's been delivered, and they can't or won't pay me. And that's been one of the biggest, the hardest challenges. And that's something that uh I hope we all stay cognizant of. It makes me encouraged to hear Mark say, and you guys saying we're checking out our buyers. I think that's very important. Uh I know buyers probably are checking you out to see that you are what you are. I mean, it's it goes both ways. So big, big, big challenge. Another thing, and this is mentioned briefly just earlier, talking about uh fusarium was brought up, but mycotoxins across Texas are an SE. Everyone uh y'all have well, it's getting to where we kind of have that complex available in water places, and uh that's something that you guys have and your counterparts on the board have really put a lot of funds into. But it seems like with improved uh testing capabilities and all the machines and even uh just the fact of communication, people are knowing for about a lot of these diseases and things that impacts us. So I mean, how have you have you seen any change or increase in scrutiny in your areas over the last few years?

SPEAKER_03 29:36

A little bit in my area. So I just recently heard about fumatic and a few loads getting rejected, and maybe it's happened before and I don't know it, which it's very possible, but this is the first time I've heard of it. Not very large scale, but a little bit's happening. I mean, gosh, we go back to Alpha Toxin days. I had to quit growing corn for two years because of Alpha Toxin. And then we had all the AF-36 and AlphaGuard and now for sure products. It enabled me to grow corn again. So, I mean, I foresee this stuff being the same way, and all the the studies and funding and research that we do to protect that. I mean, that's vital. I mean, way more vital than most realize going forward.

SPEAKER_04 30:18

I'm like you, Todd. We we we had we quit growing corn completely for several years until until there was an alpha toxin control uh method. Um I didn't realize it until I got on the the board, but but alpha toxin, all that was research right here on Texas corn long before I even knew it. Uh and all that come out of Texas corn, Texas corn producers. Uh so this board is this board moves the needle. I've been on several boards uh in my life, and this one, this one's impressive. It moves a needle.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Well, that's that's something that I've watched a lot over the years, and I'd think my staff would tell you the day that we got the uh first approval to use one of those biological controls on to help manage aflatoxin. They were following me, and I about ran off the road, and they were all glad they weren't riding with me. But we'd been doing a series of meetings in the panhandle, and I came. And if you ever visit our office, talk to some of my staff, they'll tell you that was a big day in David's life when that was accomplished.

SPEAKER_03 31:39

But uh what instantly changed the corn, I mean, in my area, instantly changed it because it worked year one. It really fixed the problem year one. I mean, as a matter of fact, and I mean, corn acres instantly took off from that point we were able to raise corn. I mean, I was having to bury some corn that was so out on afterx, and I couldn't do anything with it. Well, that'll teach you real quick not to raise the stuff. So, I mean, it completely changed the landscape of our area.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

We think a lot of times I've often been asked, well, when I began working with the corn producer board, my dad said, Well, yes, what are you gonna do? I said, Well, we're gonna do research and promotion and marketing, and then uh uh legislative side with their association, we're gonna be there to help help form policies that are good from the legislative angle. And he said, Well, how are you gonna do that? They always take care of us. You know, here, and that's I I still face that from a lot of farmers. I promise you, and I think you guys have seen it, and I know Kendall had an insurance claim issue. Uh we make a call, you go up and sit down and have a chat with the policymakers, and lo and behold, you get something done.

SPEAKER_04 33:06

The the check beat me back home.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

But, you know, your dog might have been like my dad saying, gee, Kendall, why are you going up to those folks in DC are gonna take care of us? They take care of the squeaky woods. Uh I don't know, maybe that's that's my analogy of it, and I don't know how y'all should.

SPEAKER_04 33:26

But I've learned you're exactly right. A squeaky wheel is gonna get greased. And if we don't we don't stand up for ourselves, nobody else is going to.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

It's so important for us to have farmers. You know, national have just farmer and a family involved, you know. And we have some of the wives that go with us to DC and make these calls. We got y'all make such an impact when you go because you're talking from the heart. You're the ones that are tilling the soil and hearing this conversation here today, and you pick up the passion in your voices about what's going on out on the Falls.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

I get asked sometimes about if my career on the board has been worthwhile. I've been sitting there thinking through those years, almost every good thing that we can say was a good program or a good policy or a good change. With with all the federal agencies, all a lot of the state agencies, we had our hands in the middle of it. And and it it created an impact. And I am proud of that. Uh, I think time away from the family came back to the family that away. And I think it's good.

SPEAKER_03 34:38

I agree. I like to say our our membership, association membership, has the highest ROI of anything on the farm. I truly believe that. I've I've mentioned that several times, but I I really do believe that. Like those dollars are so well spent and to put into action that gets returned right back to the farm that most of our neighbors don't realize. That's okay. That's okay. But that ROI is extremely high, in my opinion, on what we do. It it has a direct impact on the farmer.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

Direct. And and you're right, most of them don't don't even realize it. But but again, that's okay. It doesn't matter. It doesn't as long as it's getting done. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Spent a lot of time in FSA offices explaining to the guys in line waiting what they're seeing. And of uh it's there has to be a lot of education done.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Before we wrap up, and I know Todd's got some things he wants to say. I I get I've I've got a a neighbor, a young man, that uh I was been working hard trying to get him and his brother and some of the other younger guys involved. If you if you walk that to this young man or he comes to you and he says, Kendall, how do you find time to do this? And why do you do it? What would you tell her?

SPEAKER_04 36:06

It's gonna be corny, but it's the truth. It is absolute love for farming, and that's it. It's not money, because there is none right now, as far as profit goes. It is at it is the absolute love of producing a crop from seed to harvest and being a part of that.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Okay, so with that being your passion, what led you to I I remember talking to you before yes, if I was telling you about becoming on the board, and you said, I'm not qualified. What would you say to someone? I mean, you you've done a lot of things. How would you encourage this young man that he is qualified? He he needs to have the time to do it.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

If your heart's in it and this is what you want to do, you're absolutely qualified. You're right about that. It's just a matter of having your heart in it. I keep saying that, but that's that that's the truth. It it's not about it's not about fame or glory or money, it's not about any of those things. It's about producing something that that moves this country forward, that supports this country. That's my I I didn't serve in the military. Some days I wished I would have. This is how I serve. This is how I serve my country. This is how I serve my God is is to produce to produce a crop for this country.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

I remember you told me about your education, and I told you you had a PhD in farming. You remember that? Yes. You know that yeah. If you're doing it and done it for those years, you've got the PhD. Todd, what about what's driven you and what would you say to help bring in these young folks?

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Easy answer. Why I make time. I don't have time either. I'm way too busy and I don't have near enough help on the farm. I'm blessed to have the help that I do, but it's to ensure the future. I don't, I mean, without organizations like ours and especially ours, uh it's a very tall order to keep our future going on the, you know, in the to keep it going in in general, period. Uh I see fit to make time. I don't always have time and I make sacrifices on my own farm to show up, but that's my reasoning to ensure a future for our youth. Not just my youth, all of them. Because we gotta have them. And it's as discouraging as our talk has been today, we've got to have them.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

I can remember a time before you came on the board, you were doing a pilot project with uh NRCS, and we reached out to you to talk about it, and I thought, this guy absolutely don't want to give up his time to stand and talk, and now I look at you and and I see here he's advocating that about the importance of it.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

That's the most precious thing to me, but I making time is worth every second of it.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

And Mark, what about you? And how how are you encouraging your family to be involved?

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Well, I was blessed by uh able to farm with my dad and my brother, and they both trusted me that if I wasn't there working with them doing the hard hot work, that I what I was doing was bringing good things back to them. And I watched my dad be a mentor to so many people and people asking for his opinions, and it just your guys are your kids are watching that, and as they see you serve, it'll it'll encourage them someday to step up and serve as well. And uh I was just blessed to have uh good people on with us, uh great employees, great family members, and uh we'd implement a lot of the things I brought back home. Uh we would we'd uh tackle new challenges. Uh if if you can get off the farm a little bit, you go see a whole lot of stuff that you wouldn't have seen. And it'll come back to you.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

I I think one of the more interesting things to me is kind of like just sitting here and visiting today is hearing is watching and seeing the expressions as folks have become involved with or more, finding out the differences within the state of Texas, what what the different issues were. You know, I think y'all referenced that earlier. You know, my problem's the worst in the world. Well, lo and behold, nobody brings us another problem that's as bad as mine. That that conversation's up. Somebody's already fixed my problem, and I just gotta go. That's uh, yeah. So that's that's something I I just I I hope that you guys say Saturday morning already guys give us speech about being an example and how people look at you. You guys are being examples and to your kids, and hopefully to all of your neighbors, hopefully, some of them will understand what y'all are doing. And that's one of the things we want to tell that story and and help y'all tell the story.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

That's what I I wanted to end this thing on, is one good thing to come out of this economy that we're in right now is people are learning. I guess they learn always in a downturn, but what I'm seeing in my area and my people is the innovation. People are doing things they don't normally do, and I'm here to tell you they're doing things for the better. I've seen more things happen in my area in the last year or so than I've ever seen. Our on our farm, our nitrogen to a bushel, a pound of nitrogen to one bushel, our ratio is as low as it's ever been, and we made the best crop we ever did. Great growing weather, great conditions, all that. But my point is what's to come good out of this is the innovation and the progressiveness that's come out of it. People are doing so much more things out of the box and way open, more open-minded than I've ever seen before. And I I'm not just saying that, it really are. And only good has come out of it that I've seen so far. So if there's one good thing that's gonna come out of all this stuff, maybe we're gonna be a more sustainable, more viable, more resilient farm on the other side of this thing. I really do believe that.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Totally. It increases the rate of change when you're in a hard place. And we're getting it done.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

You know, we we worked with a lot of uh researchers through the AgriLife Extension and Regen research through Texas Tech, through West Texas AM, USDA, ARS. And the one thing I feel that we've really seen change in a lot of them is they're coming to farmers to see what they're doing because they're having they've had a hard time moving with technology as fast as what the farms had moved, but I feel like some of the work, like some of you guys, some others on our board, other uh commodity boards have really helped bring them fast forward the last few years because of the technology and the communication that's done. I mean, we s we see all of y'all talking, a lot of y'all, a lot of your neighbors talking about what they're doing on their farms, and it's just amazing how how fast that's changed in the last five, I'd just say in five years it's been really, really fast.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

I mean, we're managing our crop totally different than we were five years ago. I mean, I feel like it's a hundred years different on a management approach. I I I mean, from my little career, I just that's the way it feels. It's completely different.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

You know, I was over at Kendall's Place and uh saw his granddad's tractor that was there that and his dad just told me all about that tractor. Bought it brand new in 1954. And uh the thing was it suddenly in a big tractor with guidance system and all this stuff, and who would have ever he would have ever thought from that 1954 model. Yep. And your dad talked about it. I could just tell the passion we had in his voice about it. But this new ton of knowledge was amazing.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

Yeah, granddaddy could see I was flying drones and spraying crops right now, much less the tractor driving itself. I mean, he tell them from he tell them from behind a mule, guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

And that hadn't been that I mean, in real time, that hasn't been that long. Yeah. That's this system amazing. I guess all three of y'all use drones published.

SPEAKER_03 45:51

So well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

Didn't he? Who would have said that five years ago?

SPEAKER_04 45:57

I didn't see that one coming.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Oh, isn't it's amazing the speed that we're moving these days.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

You know, uh one of my grandmothers living to be 103 years old, and she listed all the things, if she listed all the things she saw change in her life. I think y'all in the last 10 years on the farm would say we've had that same amount of change.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Yeah, I have a landlord that uh still alive, he's about to be 100 years old, and he always tells me the story that all him and the neighbors had a stationary thrasher that they were in partners on, and they hauled all their grain and bulk to that thrasher that was powered by mules. So that's all happened within the last 85 years. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

Well, is there anything any one of you'd like to say as we wrap up this conversation that you haven't had a chance to?

SPEAKER_03 46:55

I'd like to say something. Uh our staff, our staff doesn't get enough credit. David, you don't even have to talk here, but our staff does not get enough credit. Amen, bro. They they step up, put us in these positions, take us to all these places that we need to be, and shuffles. I don't know how they do it. Farmers are the hardest people to schedule, so I would say our staff doesn't get enough credit ever. They get it done. Everton.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

Thank you guys. Uh this wraps up this session done by Texas Corn Producers.