The Little Red Barn

Weather has been nearly perfect this past week for drying out fields. Even those with the wettest and toughest ground were able to get after it last week. But, now the social media "weatherists" are crowing about Flash Drought?  Oh come on!  But, there are increasing voices in parts of the state saying "we could use a rain" for various reasons, including activating chemistry. Are fertilizer prices heading down? We take a walk down memory lane on tractors, and also dig in to why its becoming more difficult to navigate repairs and breakdowns.

Adventures with Charlie returns this week, as he wrestles with breakdowns on the corn planter. Its graduation season, along with and end of Track season as planting season rolls on. Markets are not giving huge opportunities as of late, but weather will in many areas this week and next. Plus, another installment of "Ryan's Rants" in this week's episode.

Plenty to rehash this week as USDA served up some WASDE surprises, Trump meets Xi and area farmers made more progress than perhaps we thought they could. But the big story of the week is ASA vs NCGA...or bean guys vs corn guys on the issue of E15. But this is not a new story. Farmers are notorious for not supporting fellow farmers if issues don't pertain to them, and flat out coming against fellow farmers if its in their own best interests. We're sure to ruffle feathers this week, of farmers, trade groups, and who knows who else. But its guaranteed to start conversations.

Episode 138: Anxiety! The calendar says we should be a lot farther along than we are on field work, and some folks are starting to get more nervous. Should we be? Plus, an update on Charlie's "marshmallow" crop (turns out it's not what anyone thought it could be), and a discussion on what could be a busy news headline week. We also dive into Nitrogen concerns related to our wet pattern so far this year.

An otherwise normal, low intensity podcast covering cold temps, planting delays, and general goings on in agriculture gets railroaded this week when Charlie references a spectacular crop of "marshmallows" growing along roadsides and in some of his fields. For the first time in Little Red Barn Podcast history, Ryan is actually speechless and cannot move forward on any topic. Guest Dave Weisflog shares in the befuddlement. The guys also tackle farm bill, E15 and several other things - all of which Ryan deems "don't matter".

This week Ryan and Charlie dive into fertilizer, weather, and the slow start to the growing season. But the big issue on this weeks podcast is "spin".  All sorts of people, groups, companies, and entities are trying to make a story out of high fertilizer. And all have various reasons for the spin they are working. But, while high fertilizer prices are here and we dont like them is it really as big of deal, when it comes to this current crop year, as some are making it out to be?  Food for thought, spurred by the recent highly publicized Farm Bureau Fertilizer Survey.

You know what they say about opinions...right? Well, seems like these days the same thing might be said about marketing consultants. You can find them everywhere, but in this case, we surely don't all have them. This week we talk with a pair of Marketing Gurus out of Indianapolis, and get their take on the current state of commodity markets. We are not looking to get marketing advice, but more to hear about changes in marketing tools and instruments through time. It's an interesting discussion, highlighting the need for anyone with risk exposure to keep up with the times and perhaps look beyond your own "opinion".

Back in the studios again this week, Ryan and Charlie dive into chaos and fiasco at a local energy utility, the true cost of service, and why the heck don't businesses care about their customers anymore?  Plus, USDA chooses to punt again on any kind of WASDE stand-taking and the weather looks like we have a bit yet before we can really get to the fields. But does it really matter at this point?

Back in the dark ages of advertising, Fed Ex had a slogan "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight". Well, now days it seems like our answers to crop issues "absolutely, positively has to be here in the next 30 seconds".  Enter Jeff Frank of CropSmart. This week we examine Jeff's use of no-collection soil sampling probes, digital imaging and readouts, fed through AI, to get real-time answers and last-minute scripts to tackle field by field problems in the world of agronomy. And the use of drones to further that agronomic diagnosis in the weeks following planting. Is it worth it? We'll, you be the judge. Ryan is always skeptical of this technological stuff, and cant stand AI...but Charlie seems to be the believer lemming. Is he right?

We follow up the "Carbon Controversy" from last week with another conversation that might get your dander up, or at least prompt you to look at traditional agriculture differently. This week we were thrilled to be able to feature Damian Mason on the podcast. Damian hosts The Business of Agriculture program and speaks nationwide/worldwide on that topic. We tackle overproduction, policy, globalization, de-globalization, specialization (get the theme? Damian says its all about the "ations")... Here's what it comes down to: Ag is changing at a remarkable pace. Why do we think we can keep doing things - at their most basic levels - the same as we always have been, especially when we hear more and more the complaint of how we "cant keep up in the current markets"?