(upbeat country music) (wrench spinning) - [Man] Oh yeah, this stuff right here. - You know that ain't what the problem is, right? - Are we just not thinking of something that? I want to make sure it works on there now. It's right there, Dad.
- Crank it, see if it'll work. - Aw yeah! That sucker's gonna work now like a top. I told you he could fix it, old buddy. All this work- (machine engine humming) All that for nothing. Come back and if you go get your ditcher, you can do these, this little bit, just one field and those two 48 rows, and then we'll finish up with tilling.
- I've got a gut feeling this is going to be a good year. The farmer is the eternal optimist. - We farm together as a family. But if we all put our heads together, I don't know what we couldn't achieve.
- Hopefully we hit 90 bushel. I think we can do it. Just to have healthy plants and a good return on investment. - One of the worst things about farming is making a decision on planting depth. A quarter of an inch on your depth, sometimes you won't get a stand. (exciting guitar music) - As you can see, my pinky ring is empty.
So obviously I didn't win (laughing). With this class of guys that's in Podfathers, I mean, anyone could win. (exciting soft rock music) (lively banjo music) - Well, that shows you. So it wouldn't work. So we're thinking electrical, because yesterday on this seed cart, the same thing happened and it was electrical. So we spent an hour tracing down wires, cutting wires, moving the solenoid from one to the other. And it was a set screw in the shaft that runs up the motor the whole time.
A lot of times you can work really hard on something for a long time and it not be the right thing. We don't have but a five gallon bucket left. Can we put it in? We can put them in there, can't we? There's about two bags left in this cart. As soon as David Earl plants down and we can get those in it, I'm going to send Daniel up there, and you'll have to go in there, in the warehouse and find them.
They're in the middle bay. There's some AgriGold 48 20s in black boxes. Get a couple of those out where when he gets there, we can dump two boxes in the front hopper. I've got the Podfather team here, so Layne and I are going to be a little bit tied up, but I want to continue to keep everything going. We planted 1,000 acres yesterday.
Between the rice, the corn, and the cotton, we planted 1,000 acres. - [Producer] How many acres of beans do you have left? - There's 4,200 and we planted 1800. So, what does that leave? 2,400, I guess. You asked me last year if I was going to change anything. I said, I was going to plant my corn later and my beans earlier. Yeah, I think it's going to pay us to plant early 'cause of the inversions in the market.
So we're still trying to get everything in as early as we can. We can go look the burnt tractor today, if you want to too. And we can do a little, kind of little section maybe on safety. (upbeat rock music) All right, so what I did, I sent Chris on to Bodell, so that he can get that command out before the wind gets too high there at the monument. So I went and had told him to go do that.
When he got through finished with that, then he can come back and get on the ditcher. He's gonna take his ditcher and come over here and do these few fields and go to tiller and catch that up. If we don't, we're going to forget about it.
- [Producer] Right. - That's what I think I'm going to do. I might have him follow you down there and let you plant two or three rounds, pump the rest of it in you, and then we'll be able to take this cart and go get the other seed. We've got to get the 48 20s and I need to figure out how much.
(upbeat rock music) (somber piano music) That's the same tractor, Seth, that me and you were on earlier. We had a bad weekend, but we also had a miracle at the same time to be honest with you. As you can see behind me, this tractor, $350,000 tractor or it was. This weekend a operator came between this big country pole that's behind us and this water hydrant, and as you see over there, there was a telephone pole and he caught the guide wire of the telephone pole.
So when he caught the guide wire of the telephone pole, pole broke, put the hot wires on the right-hand side of the tractor on the tires. They said it was 16,000 volts coming that was laying on that tractor. He had no choice but to try to bail off, it was that or be in that tractor. So he jumps off the tractor, gets a small shock, small tingling feeling. Nothing major, was 100% fine. So that's the miracle of the story.
We lost a really nice tractor but we saved a really good man. So we get in such a hurry, trying to get things done in a timely manner that sometimes we overlook safety. So I've never had a piece of equipment burn in my life. Of course, we've got good Farm Bureau Insurance so that'll kick in, but it's not about that. It's not about the value of this tractor, but it's more about the value of life.
You know, and everybody that works here is like family to me. So it hit us pretty hard just thinking of what could have happened. So Good Lord took care of him when he jumped off.
We are very thankful he's safe. And just slow down is all I can tell you, and take the extra time it takes to be safe. Hope this never happens to you and hope it never happens to us again. (somber piano music) (intense rock music) - We want the bottom canopy to be healthy with a good fungicide.
We use Revytek on it. - But on our farm, we got a average of six bushel or better with Revytek fungicide than any other fungicide. (exciting rock music) - There are a lot of different trials and one of them is Concept Agritek. We're doing a infurrow starter trial. The thing I'm the most excited to try is Buncha Bugs. It's a biological.
We're excited to see how they work out. (lighthearted hip hop music) - Good morning. (lighthearted music) It's a nice day though.
It'd be dry enough to plant tomorrow, but unfortunately it's supposed to rain tonight. So that's the way it is. We're ready. We have to get all our equipment out. Everything worked pretty good making the final adjustments. So when it does dry out, we can get back in the field and we won't look back.
A lot of our fertility products coming in and it's soil amendments, like all this Monty stuff. We've got a truckload of boron. We got a truckload of zinc. We got our secret stuff.
(truck engine humming) (liquid spraying) Our first truckload of Monty product came in for the year. Calcium Plus, which they're a liquid carbon plus a little bit of calcium. We got some Midnight on there, which is a 10, eight, four plus iron, zinc, and sulfur, which I love that combination.
And then Surge, which is our fulvic acid that we use for mainly foliar application. So excited about that coming in. (forklift engaging) (forklift beeping) Are you going to get your doors? (soft harmonica music) (tracker engine humming) A lot of corn planting going on around here, and it doesn't matter where you look, if there's a Podfather or a Corn Warrior involved, AgriGold is there as well. So we've been planting AgriGold corn seeds for years, and it is the highest quality seed that I plant.
Consistent seed size and goes through the planter just like it's supposed to. Gives us that good picket fence stand. Today it's actually wet.
So we thought we'd take some time to sit down with my Crop Consultant, Joey branch, at ProAg Services, as well as our BASF Rep, Jimmy Pongetti. And glad to have him here as well as Joey and we're going to talk about soybean strategy, production strategy, or part of it at least. Anytime we get a chance to go across the field early especially we need a residual herbicide. It's early in the year. We'll talk about burn down real quick, which is typically Paraquat or glyphosate.
And along with that same shot, we'll put in a little typically Paraquat behind the planter. It's very inexpensive, put it in there, start clean. - I think you're exactly right. You do everything you can up front to start clean. That's the best chance you've got.
That's the best opportunity you've got to keep that field clean. - You know, getting that early application done and just making sure we stay ahead of the game because once we get behind the weed, it's very tough to catch up. - So yeah, that'll go a long way and that'll actually move us all the way into fungicide. I think I'm on record as saying I use Revytek on every acre last year and I did, and I intend on using it again this year.
- Revytek is a brand new chemistry introduced about two years ago or a brand new product that's got three modes of action. You've got a great preventative as well as curative action, plus, you've got the plant health benefits. - All right, so I'm sitting back up now. Brittany's in the room and I'm wide open. So here in about 15 minutes, we put in a crop, taking it all the way to harvest.
With Joey's expertise, Jimmy's expertise, and BASF products, it's a great combination. And looking forward to seeing you all in a few days and $14 beans makes this a lot easier. (cheerful soft rock music) (cow mooing) So last September I bought Belted Galloways.
These are Belted Galloways, they're a heritage breed, they're from Scotland. And by the next Monday I had 13. Chloe had a baby. This is the bull, Tiger.
And they're really tame. You can do whatever you want to them. I haven't tried to ride to them but they're pretty tame.
They love treats. Let me grab a handful of treats. Most cattle wouldn't let you do that. (cow breathing deeply) (jazzy saxophone music) So these are all the yearling heifers. (cows mooing) (jazzy saxophone music) All right, let's go see the other ones real quick before it rains. (jazzy saxophone music) (lively rock music) - Ran the Copperhead Furrow Cruiser this year. It's been very good. Very happy with it.
A lot more aggressive on the closing. Just a simple addition to the planter for a better closing. (jovial electric guitar music) - We got some Monty's product. We use it in a lot of all our crops. It's a changer.
- We focus on things that compliment soil biology, things that compliment soil health. - It just keeps giving back. (high energy country music) - What's going on, Grant? - What's going on? - How are you? - Glad to be here. - Chad. - Chad, how are you? So, I guess welcome to season two of "The Podfathers" right guys? Maybe I won't come in second this year. - I don't think you will.
- Maybe I can drag you down with me. Yeah. (men laughing) - [Temple] So, what are we're going to go look at today? We're going to go look at some fields? - We are. Mud.
- It's muddy here? - Very. - Had a lot of rain. So your family's from here. You kind of started here. You ended up back here. Then you got into doing some NCGA trials and did you win? You won West Virginia? - Yeah, we won West Virginia and we won Maryland last year, irrigated and non irrigated.
- Like what kind of challenges do you face? Do you feel like you are having trouble getting to a yield on your soybeans? - So the biggest thing I think we have is sunlight with the mountains. It's been a while since we've had a drought. It seems like, you know, I put eight pivots in, ever since we put them in, it seems like we've gotten so much rain that we don't need them. - Well, you know, when you make your most amount of money with irrigation is when you don't turn it on.
- Yeah, I know the biggest battle we have is getting our equipment across to the other side. You got to take long roads to get around. It can be challenging. - So you run equipment down some of these logging roads coming through the mountains? - [Grant] Yup. - I'm afraid to go down a small hill at home.
Like, that's crazy to me. - Well, let's go hit the fields and see what we got down there, and see if the ground's any good. - Okay. (cheerful country music) What is your planting date that you're looking for? Do you have a, "This is when I want, it's go time"? - I'm basing it more off of a 10 day forecast.
So I have guys who have already planted corn and beans. - When the 10 day, it's in the 40s and in the evening- - [Temple] What does your next 10 days look like? - It's the cold rain that concerns me more than anything. If we had 45 degree soil temperatures out there in the 10 day and we're warming up to 60 degrees, I wouldn't be afraid to cut it loose.
- With the weather that we've had it's been so wet. And like I said, the 10 day, it looks pretty chilly at night. So we're concerned about that up in the mountains. - And when you told me what time of morning it is when sun actually sets on these fields it's like- - It's about 11 o'clock for the- - Yeah. I mean, that's crazy. - Let's go check the bean field out and the cornfield that we won last year in the state of Maryland.
(lively guitar music) So this is the field we won last year, the corn contest. I got 296 and this fields in Allegheny County, Maryland. This was a whole bunch of different hayfields that we had here. And there was a block of pine trees the power plant had planted just like those over there. We took all of them out, made it one big field. Our pump station is up there.
- [Temple] So you pump out right cross that road over there, out of the river- - Right out of the river. - Right straight here? - Yeah. And you can see it's kind of wet, about a inch of rain. - But you know what? An inch of rain here, this is a lot better shape than my ground is.
I get an inch of rain on mine, you wouldn't even want to walk, you couldn't walk out. - [Mark] That's how we were before the tile drains were in here, I mean- - [Temple] So the tiles made that big of a difference for you guys and it's just keeping it off of here? - Yeah. - [Grant] This is really dried out for after the rain it's had on it. - Yeah, I can't believe that you've had, you know, you've had an inch of rain and you can still do this. You can't do this with my dirt.
My dirt would be like, you'd be playing with mud. I mean, it's wet, but it's really dried out a lot. So what exactly are you like, what's your plan? You're going to hit it with a field cultivator and then you're going to plant this? - No, we're going to run the soil right over it. - [Temple] Oh okay. - And wait a week or two and come back through it.
That's real soil right there. - Is that the real stuff? - Yeah. - Let's head back to the shop and- - You going to show me all your tools? - Yeah, my tools.
- Okay. (chuckles) Let's go see them. (cheerful guitar music) (exciting electric guitar music) - Yeah, it's tight to get in this cab 'cause I got to keep that boom cradle over there in the transport mode because I can't get across the bridge if it's out. - 'Cause it's tight, tight. - So tight. - I mean, does the combine get through there okay? - You got to go over the mountain. - So you're coming down the side of the mountain with the combine because you can't get across the bridge? - Or go through the river.
- Or drive through the river. How do you know how deep it is in the river? Do you guys walk across? - [Chad] When you go across the bridge, we've going an island out there. - The hard part is finding the rocks. When you hit a rock, yeah. - Y'all are fighting some serious challenges around here. Wild and wonderful, baby. Wild and wonderful.
- [Grant] Oh yeah. (exciting electric guitar music) (upbeat rock music) - We want the bottom canopy to be healthy with a good fungicide. We use Revytek on it. - But on our farm, we got a average of six bushel or better with Revytek fungicide than any other fungicide. (upbeat rock music) - Here at Advanced Yield, we're not only just a consulting company, we are now offering a full lineup of select crop inputs. No middleman. For the farmer by a farmer.
Unleash your crop's potential. Visit online or give me a call today. (intense rock music) - Ran the Copperhead Furrow Cruiser this year.
It's very good. Very happy with it. A lot more aggressive on the closing. Just a simple addition to the planter for a better closing. (intense rock music) (relaxing guitar music) - Welcome to season two of "Podfathers".
As you can see my pinky ring is empty, so obviously I didn't win (laughing). It's April 19th. We've been hard at it since April 15th on beans.
We've got about 4,000 acres of beans this year we're putting out. So last year at this time we only had 350 acres of beans out. And we was shut down on beans till the end of the very last day of May, first week of June. So having all the beans in the ground between April 15th and April 20th this year should be a great advantage for us. That's more of our typical timeframe, but in the past three years, we haven't had a typical timeframe.
You know, we're still too early. Mother nature could wipe us out in any given moment, you know, with the snow coming in Tuesday night, that could really play in effect to it. We're trying to do everything that I can to control the controllables to where we don't have to fight it as bad. So we're trying to play into mother nature's hands here. Hopefully for the bean side of things, it will work out better than it did last year.
(energetic rock music) (focused electric guitar music) I can't stress enough how important it is to get the beans out early. That's going to be a huge advantage to us. Hopefully we get more rain than last year.
The contest side of things, I got one of the fields at my house I was inter-cropping last year, we did something a little different on that this year. Maybe you guys will be able to get a chance to see that in another episode. Trying something new, something different. Hopefully it works out.
We're running four gallons of water and Perot with some Exalt and Bella and then New Tech SI IF from TerraMax. That's a liquid inoculant. I go on this, putting it in the soil.
We've seen a great benefit from that. We try not to get too cute for it. Trying to get as much activity as we can within the soil jump-started and especially when it's cold like this, it needs all the help that it can get. We always start out, so right now we're on plan A.
Things are still not perfect, but things are good. Once we get the crop up and out of the ground, and we're get started, now we're going to start thinking about weed control. What are we going to do for food wise for them? Feeding them on full foliar or feeding and different things like that. But the first thing is we've got to get them up out of the ground and get a good stand. So this year we're going to wait for all the beans to be emerged to come back in. For the post-emergent, that's where we're going to have all of our residuals before our weed control.
Then we're going to come back in with the Zidua. But when you're planting early or this cold, we want to come with a post for the weed control. We don't want to hurt the germ at all. We want everything to come up, assess situation, get the ground temperatures warmer and get the weeds going, and then we'll come in and knock them out and kill them. So we're really concentrated on trying to break down the fodder for last year's crop to release the nutrients for this year's crop. So we got to make sure that we're doing a really good job of burying it and breaking it down, and get in as small as pieces that we can.
(dramatic orchestral music) So I'm in one of the planters. Jr. or Doug McCauley, he's another planter, we're actually getting ready to join up with him right now. We're going to join his work. So we make sure everything looks good there.
So now we're fully ready to go. (inspiring violin music) - Cory's got the last pass in the field where we'll leave. And here we'll get set across this ravine.
There's 27 acres in this field. Instead of cutting him off, and both be at the wrong end, we'll switch fields and do this one. Well, my role on the farm is the Farm Manager. I've been with Cory's dad for 33 years. I've known Cory since he was two years old.
So I'm just kind of here, you know? I do the planting, the spraying, the driving the combine in the Fall. I do it all. (lighthearted piano music) - Goals this year is definitely to do better. You know, with this class of guys that's in "Podfathers", I mean anyone could win. You know, that's my goal.
Getting the yields that they're getting is going to take perfection, you know? So if I can be in that 125 to 150 bushel range, I'll be tickled to death. And we've got a great crew from everybody that's working with us. It's not just one person. We all take pride into it, especially with the competition that we're facing. From Temple, to Matt, to Perry, I mean, all these guys, they're class A growers on every crop.
So, I got my work cut out for me trying to beat these guys. I just want to be respectable and be in the mix. (upbeat symphony music) (exuberant rock music) The soil is the best that we've had in a long, long time. Planting conditions are perfect.
- With the rain coming, you don't know what the right decision is. - What do we do best? We plant soybeans.
2022-01-15