AG Squawk with Davis Michaelsen | Zach Hefty | Inside Ag PhD Field Day

We recap Ag PhD Field Day with Zach Hefty and unpack why a free one day event can draw around 10,000 farmers and still deliver real agronomy value. We also hit the midday grain and livestock markets, energy headlines, and the late season decisions that matter most as harvest gets closer.
• Midday futures check on corn, soybeans, wheat, cattle, and hogs
• Crude oil volatility and Strait of Hormuz headline risk
• Why Ag PhD Field Day works as a one day format
• What makes the event feel hands on and well organized
• Food logistics and a family friendly kids area
• Why showcase specialty crops beyond corn and soybeans
• Research plots, “crazy trials,” and learning from failure
• Dry conditions in South Dakota and what that changes
• Late season scouting for insects and protecting yield
• Fungicide decisions driven by humidity and canopy wetness
• Next year timing and what to expect from new plots and sessions
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Transcript

Welcome And What’s On The Tape

SPEAKER_01 0:13

We come to you today. It's uh Wednesday, August 5th, right around noon central time here. My guest made some time in his busy schedule for us. The grain and livestock, the markets, I would call them medium quiet today. We'll check in with where we're at here noon central time in a little bit. I'm touching base today with Zach Hefty, just one week out from Ag PhD Field Day. They cast a really wide net at Rancho Hefty, and I'd I'd like to get Zach's thoughts on this year's field day while it's still fresh in his mind. From behind the big blue, bodaceous microphone of Ag Bull, your pal, Davis Michelson, here for Ag Squawk in the Afternoon. So glad you've chosen to spend some time with us today. We we spoke with Zach leading up to the event, and then Tommy and I were blessed to have a spot there at the event to deliver Ag Squawk in the afternoon. We were really glad we were there for the day to see what was going on there on the grounds. Tommy had been there before. I do want to ask Zach about because if you saw that show, Tommy got swallowed by the corn for just a short moment. And I don't know what happened in that corn. I wonder if it's some sort of new variety or something that that they're using out there that swallowed poor Tommy Grassofi for a bit. But he did make it out. Tommy made it out. So, you know, everything everything worked out, worked out great. But I just kind of want to talk through some of this and then see what I mean. The hefty crew does an awful lot of media and puts out some great, great information. We're into August now. We got to be thinking about some late season issues. We've got to be thinking about getting ready for harvest and then what comes after that. So I just want to pick his brain a little bit and see what's in there on that sort of thing as well. So I'm glad that you were here. We'll get to Zach in just a moment. Let's talk about the markets today. Let's go to the tail of the tape. Corn and beans built on yesterday's losses in early trade today as wheat futures gained a few cents. Fed and feeder cattle futures

Midday Markets And Strait Of Hormuz

SPEAKER_01 2:34

were higher as lean hog futures fell. I'm calling it sharply. WTI crude oil was down just a few cents to start the day, with nearby hovering around 75 bucks. And get this an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said an agreement has been reached with Oman on a proposed shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, but added the reopening of the strait would be contingent on a quote change in U.S. behavior. I think what that probably translates to is, hey, just leave us alone. Let us do what we want to do. And I don't know if the Trump administration is quite prepared to make that sort of that that's that kind of I don't know what the word I am I'm looking for right now. I don't think they're willing to do that. I really don't. We'll have to see. The crude oil market right now, the West Texas intermediate, the WTI down, oh, in the front end, 90 cents. There's 70 cents lower. There's 57 cents lower in the NOVE, hovering right around, still just below 75 bucks, I guess I would call it. Your September at 74.88 and your October at 73.72. Not very far out. You get a six handle though. The February 27, down 61 cents thus far on the day. This noon central now at 69.96. We've seen very volatile crude oil price action. And I I wouldn't expect that that would come to an end here. You know, the the joke is kind of about the time trade closes on Friday, things heat up again over in Iran between the Ira between the Iranians and the uh United States. We'll see if that's the case. Uh I just I don't know how to take any of this anymore. Take it all with a grain of salt, I guess. Let's move on. Something here at home. U.S. energy data, ethanol production in the weekend of July 31. Actually down slightly, although ethanol stocks were also lower. We like to see them both moving in the same. Actually, we'd prefer to see them moving in opposite directions, but at least we can get that uh the stocks lower. That means we've got some usage going, like that kind of thing. Uh, ethanol stocks were lower, only mildly, though, I would say. U.S. crude inventories rose during the report week, although gasoline and distillate inventories both fell pretty substantially. Uh programming note we'll get deeper into diesel refining and stocks and most importantly, diesel prices in tomorrow's show. I'm going all by myself. I'm going solo on fertilizer and fuels. Maybe you've seen me do this before, but I've got fresh numbers from USDA on retail fertilizer pricing and fuels for Iowa and Illinois. And like I said, if you've if you've seen me do this little workup before, I kind of take an average of those and we call that our retail fertilizer price. And uh, spoiler alert, there are some increases. So something certainly to keep an eye on, as I said, as we move into harvest and as we think beyond what comes what comes next after harvest. So back to the markets. Let's let's have a look at them right now. Rounding into showtime, thanks to plus 500 software. We use plus 500 T4 software to

Quotes, Sponsorships, And AgBull Updates

SPEAKER_01 5:51

keep track of futures and options pricings with a host of features at our fingertips. If you're looking for the best in real-time quotes, look no further than T4 from plus 500. That's plus 500. Over to that software now. December corn presently, again, noon, presently down four and three quarters. It looks like we're uh somewhere in the uh 460 region on the December corn. Nobi beans down three and a quarter at 1174 and three quarters. Meal is lower, soybean oil is lower as well. The wheats are having a pretty okay day. The winter wheats, Chicago December wheat up seven and three quarters presently at six sixty-five. Oh, now six sixty-four and three-quarters. I spoke too soon. I'll get off it quick. Don't worry. The December KC up 11 and a quarter at 735 and one half. Now over to the livestocks, your fed and feeder cattle, both higher so far on the day. The October feeders up $1.55 at $338.70. Your October fats $1.50 higher presently, $229.40. And the lean hogs under some pressure, down almost 2% on the day. The October contract down $1.40 at $82.95. You can check out all of that at AgBull.com. If you're not a premium subscriber, consider subscribing to Agbull.com. You can call 1855-737 Farm or go to AgBull.com. We we do an email in the morning, we do an email in the evening, and we keep you posted throughout the day on moves that are notable. We're not going to blow up your phone every single day, but if something happens, a big move to this way or a big move to that way, or some news that you we feel like you need to know about, we want you to have that news. And so we give you that access over at AgBull.com. It's $25 a month, $250 for an entire year. That means two months are free when you subscribe for an entire year. Consider subscribing over there at uh agbull.com. Having said that, we're more than happy to come to you with some of the light details here. Absolutely for free on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify. And if you're if you're watching on uh on YouTube, maybe drop a comment to us. Say hello. Hi, everybody, and uh like and subscribe, share this around to your friends. We're new, we're getting getting our feet under us, feeling pretty good, feeling our oats, as you might say. And we want to get in front of as many eyes as possible because we've got great guests lined up, just like today's guest, Zach Hefty. And with that, let me do bring in Zach Hefty. Fresh off Ag PhD Field

Field Day Recap With Zach Hefty

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Day, Zach Hefty from up in South Dakota, brother. What a great time we had up there. I want to thank you for your hospitality for me and Tommy for putting up with the both of us uh while you had uh an awful lot of irons and the fire going on there. What a heck of an event, dude. Thank you so much for being here on AG Squawk this afternoon. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

I'm doing great. It was fantastic, Davis. It was awesome to meet you also in person. Just great to hang out and be around. We really appreciate you and Tommy coming up because it's your first time at the field day, and I'm gonna bring that up too. Just wait one second. We'll we'll get to that. But the the field day was just a great event. We had around 10,000 people there, 10,000 farmers there. We had a bunch of great exhibitors that were there, ride and drive area. We had great weather also, which was fantastic because the day before was 97 degrees, the day after was raining all day, and the day of was about 75 degrees, overcast skies all day. It was great. So many amazing conversations that I had with a lot of farmers that were there that are just interested in learning more about all things agronomy and farming to try to improve their farming operations with things that are happening out on the markets that you covered, Davis, with all those things. But my question to you first time at the Egg PhD field day, what was your thoughts? What what did you get yourself into coming up to our farm?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

I was I was very excited to be there. So here's here's my tale, and it it felt good, it felt right. I I don't want you to hear me uh incorrectly here, but I spent the morning back at the hotel room, kind of show prepping, and Tommy was there to kick off the event with his with his little talk, and he was there early and he said, you know what, why don't you sleep in? Make sure that you get get your hands around the news so that we can really get those covered. And so I didn't roll up to Hefty Farms till around 11 o'clock. And I had one of those little badges, you were good enough to let us use Ag PhD Studios to do the podcast. And I rolled up, and the guy was gonna wave me onto the bigger parking lot, and I said, Well, I'm supposed to go to the uh to the Morton shed over to the podcast studio. And he said to me, and rightly so, son, you gotta get here early if you're gonna get a parking space. But here, go ahead and try. So, properly chastised for for showing up late. I uh I felt right at home, you know, I really did, I really did. And I rolled up, found a spot, and just couldn't believe the expanse. Like I looked up over to the top of the hill there, and it looked like the the folks, the pickup trucks and the cars were parked up over the top of the hill. What an enormous bunch of people to to attract to your event there. That's what really struck me, Zach, is is all these folks come out. How many years have you been doing this?

SPEAKER_00 11:35

We've been doing it a lot of years, but howadays like today, in that kind of realm, the last like 15 years, and every year just keeps getting better and better. This year, I think we had people from 39 different states and a lot of other foreign countries. I talked to people from Australia and New Zealand, and then a bunch of different those specifically in other countries, and then also Canada, and then just a bunch of different states from all over. And people were just really excited to be there. That's something that's different. If you weren't at the Egg PhD field, that all the farmers were just so happy to come to our farm and get any education and be able to talk to some of the top people in the country for agronomy, a lot of great special guests that we had, and then also the exhibitors that were there, people that are running these companies, they had their top people there also to answer questions that farmers had, whether it's about new traits or new products, they were there. And and so that's just what made it a lot different. And it's a one-day event, and it's all free. So there's just so many great things that we were so excited about. And I just was happy that we had great weather and we had great farmers that were there to help like learn and just to celebrate us, celebrate having them on the farm. It was just it was just so good. There's so many great things to say about it, but I I'm happy that you made it there, Davis, because uh it's just an extra addition, you know. There's a lot of great people that we had.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yeah, well, there really were, and I I mentioned it a little bit in my intro there, and I know that you probably had a pretty big hand in sending out those invitations to the speakers and the exhibitors and just the sorts of people that would be there. Of course, you you attracted a tremendous amount of farmers, but you also had vendors, you had ag podcasters, you had TikTokers, you had CEOs and higher-ups in in more traditional media that were there at the event. You cast a really wide net, and uh I feel like you got a great cross-section of ag there going on that day.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah, we we really do. I I I want to try to get as much variety of different people that are there because you never know what someone someone might want to come listen to or see. And then when they come to the AG PhD field, uh, we also we have all the plots going on, which were fantastic. We bring you through all of our different uh educational research plots that we're learning different things at, which is great. We have a bunch of guest speakers to learn more about agronomy, different things health-wise, a bunch of different topics. And Tommy was also there talking markets, which was a packed session. And then we have all these special guests that were there, like you, a bunch of different people on social media, all kinds of different media forms that were there. So when you're walking around, you just run into people that you see on on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube or Acres TV or wherever, you you watch entertainment or education, you see those people just walking around the field they say. I just think that makes it a really cool experience for me. And if I was a guest traveling, there's so many reasons to come. Yeah, there's there's just so much going on.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

You mentioned Acres TV. Were you guys I didn't see a whole lot of cameras around or anything like that. Were you guys able to gather content or or were you were you, I mean, all tied up in just keeping the event running?

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah, so for us, Acres TV, they're doing a separate thing. I honestly don't know exactly

Feeding 10,000 And Family Friendly Setup

SPEAKER_00 15:11

what they were all doing uh there either. But for Egg PhD, we had all kinds of different film crews around, getting interviews, getting shots of things happening at field day that we'll use throughout the whole year and different cool things that they were shooting throughout the day that I'm hoping that we can show you some of that edited content that we got from the day of. But there's so many things going on that it's hard to capture it all, and that's why if you didn't make it there, it's always something to mark the last Thursday in July, July 29th for next year. And because you you just kind of have to be there to witness what we're really talking about, because even for you, Davis, you didn't hear about it. We talked about on the show a week or two before the event, and then you came to the event. It's just a lot different talking about it versus actually seeing it in person. Am I right about that?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Absolutely, and one of the things that really drew me because I knew that Tommy was gonna go, and that's really why you know I wanted to talk to you ahead of time on the show, and because it was, I think it was exactly a week before the show that you and I chatted about it here on Ag Squawk, and your enthusiasm for the event was was really uh in inspiring. I don't know, maybe that oversells it. It made me want to be there. I was like, well, this sounds pretty cool, Tommy. I want I want to go too. And he's like, let's go. Absolutely, you know, and then when I got there, it was I was expecting something big, but uh I was not expecting the bigness that I saw there. And not only that, but really, really well organized. I think you had mentioned you were expecting around 10,000 people to attend. That somehow were you able to gather a number? Do you feel like you hit your marks on attendance?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, I feel like I I guess I don't have like the exact number, but I feel like that we've hit a a great amount of people that were there because not you mentioned that it's bigger, it is big, but not as big as some of the other shows, too, where you couldn't get to all the exhibitors that you want to. Like we have around, I think, 80-ish exhibitors, and there's some shows that have 500 exhibitors, so there's a lot there, and there's a lot to see, but it's not too big where you can't get through it in a day. Now it it's pushing it to go all throughout the whole show. But I felt like we had people everywhere, farmers in all booths all the time and all over the field day site, because for Tommy's Tommy's session was at 7 a.m. That's when the show opened, and there was probably 500 people that were in the Morton Center, the the building that he was speaking at, at 7 a.m. bright and early, and people get there early, and it's very comfortable temperature, it's it's great weather typically in the mornings in South Dakota. We start it early, and then we have educational sessions going all throughout the day, too. And so there's just so much different things that were happening, and then free food, obviously. You you got there just in time for the food, Davis. So you got there at the right time.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Well, and the lines were moving along too. I would give props to whoever you had providing the the vittles there on site. I mean, man, they were they were on it. They're bringing more beans and they're bringing more chips and they're they're checking everything and making sure everything is good and just in and out and an absolute hive of activity. I did kind of wonder how are you gonna feed 10,000 people? You know, five loaves and two fishes, kind of a thing, is what came to my mind, to be honest. But bro, they kept it moving. The food was delicious, it was it was just just perfect. And one other thing that uh that I really liked, and I don't know whose idea this was, but there was a kids area. There was someplace where the kids could go, because that's a long day for them, you know. But to be able to bring the kids along too, and even they get something out of the deal.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, the kids area is fantastic, also. We had over 600 kids that went through that area, so there's a lot of kids that were around the field, they say a lot of families that came. It's a family-friendly event, it's free for everyone, and there is something to do for everyone too. Uh, the kids area has a bunch of different stuff. I know they had face painting in there and different games going on, different educational things for the kids, and that was great too. Our our caterer is a a farmer to mention that, and he we've been working with him. Tony's catering for a long time. There's just so many great, fantastic people that we have at our event and with our employees and volunteers. We really couldn't do all of it without them. They helped put together the day and keeping it so organized and clean and just well run. It just takes a big crew of people, and everyone that was a part of it just does a fantastic job that we had.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

I'm gonna send a shout out right now to Tony's Catering. Tony's catering, shout out it was it was really good and impressive. Kept the line moving too, kept the line moving, and that was great because I was starving by the time I got out there. Whole tail coffee will only get you so far through the day. Let's let's move on to some of the other things that you had there. Now, I don't know if if you were aware of this or not. I was up in the booth. I had Tommy on the cell phone, and we kind of went a little bit experimental, but Tommy dialed into the show from his cell phone and was kind of wandering around. He touched uh Shark Farmer's beard at one point during his little escapades. But one of the things that he highlighted was all the different crops that you had going there. You had some you had a little sunflower test plot, you had beets, you had all sorts of things going on. What's the idea with having all you know? I said you cast a wide net,

Specialty Crops And Research Plot Lessons

SPEAKER_01 20:51

and you cast a wide net for crops too. What's the big idea having having so many different crops? A lot of farm shows, you know, just kind of want to stay narrow on corn and soybeans and maybe some wheat, maybe oats. But you guys really got your hands in a lot of pies.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Yeah, well, when we work with farmers from all over the U.S. and we invite all of them to come to our farm, it's cool to have a wide range of specialty crops there too, because a lot of the different companies that we work with, they have products for other crops too. On our farm, we just grow corn, soybeans, and a little bit of alfalfa, but we had 13 different crops there. We even had cotton, rice, edible beans, yeah, sunflowers, like you mentioned, sugar beets, like you mentioned. And uh we it's just really cool. One, it's really cool to show it in South Dakota, crops that aren't maybe necessarily grown here normally. Two, it's cool to show different research trials. Three, when we're having people from all over, it brings in something that is affecting to them because everyone grows different crops. Now, a lot of people grow corn and soybeans that we work with, but they grow specialty crops too. And it's good to showcase that and to provide an area where they can go learn about some research trial that we're doing with their specific crop or They can see it in a place that they've never seen it grown before. And so it just brings in more variety of people, just like the kids' area. Not saying that you always have to have a kids area, but because we do, you can bring the kids to the event and they're gonna have fun too. So there's just something for every single person that comes. And so that's one of the reasons why we have 13 different crops, a bunch of different specialty crops there at our farm.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Now, I don't know if if there's an answer to this. This is sometimes I ask unfair questions, Zach. I don't know why I do this, but I can't help myself. You're doing all kinds of research there, and what I saw just kind of wandering around, everything, everything looked pretty good. How often do you sort of get a trial going and this is not working at all? This is a disaster. Does that ever happen?

SPEAKER_00 23:02

That does happen, not as much on the field, they say, because we want to make sure whatever research trial we're doing, not that it always is gonna turn out like amazing, but at least it's gonna turn out into something. And my dad's not too afraid of making things a fail by doing things a little bit too crazy one way or the other. And so he's not afraid about that because then it's a great thing to talk about. When you're out there looking and everything's looking perfect, you're like, oh, I don't really know what I'm gonna see. But then when you come across a plot where things are destroyed and there's like, okay, what is going on in that spot? He's okay with that, and that's something good to show, and it's a great teaching moment because, like, for me, if I see something drastically not right, you're like, I gotta figure out what's going on there and make sure that I don't do that on some of our fields because it it's it's not working out too well. But all these plots are really small, so even if something does fail or doesn't work out quite right, it's just in a little area you can learn from it. It didn't completely break the bank to do that, and then we can learn from it too. That's the biggest part about all the different trials that we do is just learning something, whether oh, it looks normal and that treatment worked fine, it looks better than normal, or it looks worse.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Yeah. See, I I like that approach. Push it till you break it, and then figure out why it broke is kind of what I'm hearing from you. Sometimes is the approach.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Yeah, no, exactly. And that's why we do across the road, we do some other trials too that we do for different trainings that we do with agronomists, and those are literally called the crazy trials, or that's what we call them. And so there is some things in there that are well, what some people would call crazy, and so then we move some of those things over into the field day site as well.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yeah, very good, very good. Well, I I appreciate you you talking to us. My guest today, if if you don't know him, it's uh Zach Hefty, and we're talking about Ag PhD Field Day, which apparently is gonna go on next year as well. And I'm I'm already excited, I might just leave my bag packed. I don't know. It's it's it's gonna be great. Tommy did get lost in the corn, and he I think he maybe did it to himself. There, you had a test plot there, kind of in the middle of everything, and he said, Oh, maybe, ooh, I should go in here. Maybe it'll be like children of the corn. And he got halfway in there, and we could see the leaves, and he was definitely in there, and then we lost his signal for a moment, but somehow, somehow he he made it through. But I think what he was was demonstrating there, whether he knew it or not, is you can get up close to these plots, you can touch the leaves, you can look at them, you can kind of walk around there and uh really really get a good look, can't you?

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Yeah, you can go right out into the plots, and especially when we're talking about the different things that we've learned. You can go out there and you can speak with experts that are right there at the plots. You can go in there, check it out for yourself, yeah, be able to touch the leaves, be able to look at them, and that that's what makes it really fun to do a summer show. Is in the winter nothing will be growing, but during the summer we have all these great plots that that look good, or or maybe there's some crazy trial that's going on, and you could actually see okay, what are the roots look like? What do the stock looks like comparison? And it's great to just get out there and get hands on.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

I bet it's a little chilly up there in South Dakota for a uh for a winter farm show, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Yeah, you'd want to be inside. I would not recommend being outside. Yeah, it would be very cold.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Well, did you say July 29? Can I say that date out loud?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Yeah, you can. It's always the last Thursday in July. So next year it's July 29th, 2027.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

All right, all right, terrific. Any any thoughts on making it more than one day?

SPEAKER_00 26:53

No, no, these are the yeah, my dad always says it's always gonna be one day, and that's because we want it to be such a great, fantastic day. You put all your effort, all your energy into one day. You can make that happen, but the second you have to wake up and do it again the next day, you're shot, and it's just not the same experience as the first day. And what I always say is people are wanting to come back because they didn't get to see every single thing that they might have wanted to. They saw a lot of amazing stuff, but there's always that one thing that they might have wanted to come back for, and then they'll they can do that the then the next year. There's just so much setup, so much energy that gets expended on that day. It's it's really nice for it to be a one-day show. But yes, we get that question pretty much every single year.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Okay. Well, uh, you you've got the uh you've got the showbiz mentality for sure. Leave them wanting just a little bit more. That's really good. That's a good strategy. One of the things that makes you guys so so good at this is of course the the long history of the hefty boys and their agronomic pursuits and their you know their broadcasting career, which is absolutely uh remarkable and terrific of benefit to agriculture. But that that doesn't come from sitting in the in the study and reading books, does it? It comes from from real farming farmers, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Yeah, it comes from being out in the field and learning some mistakes because if you make a mistake on uh a few thousand acres, that's that's not a good day.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah. Well, and you all are trying to grow a crop just like everybody else through this, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah, yeah. We're we're growing corn, soybeans, alfalfa right now, and our corn is definitely struggling in some of our like lighter grounds or sandier soils on the tops of

Late Season Scouting And Fungicide Logic

SPEAKER_00 28:41

hills because we really haven't gotten any rain. We were supposed to get some rain the day of field day that night, and we got I don't even know if we got a tenth of rain, and we need two inches, which would be great. Our lower ground, our river bottom stuff looks okay, but we could really use some rain. And same thing with the soybeans. The soybeans look fine right now. We're spraying some fungicide on them right now, but we could we need some rain. August rain makes beans, that's what they always say, and we could use it here. I mean, other areas aren't quite like how how dry we are. Our area and west is really dry, and then north, south, and east has all gotten more rain than we have, but we're still scouting out in our fields, our corn and our soybeans, still looking for insects, specifically in soybeans too, looking for those soybean aphids and really any other harmful insects that are out there, because those can still hurt yield, and especially some of them late season can clip off pods. And so if we have any of those bugs, we want to make sure we take care of them because even if you might not have as good a yield as maybe if it rained every single day in South Dakota, you don't want to lose all of your yield because of an insect late season. So it's still something we're scouting for, and even in our corn fields, scouting for similar things, corn rutworm beetles is one of the ones that we always are looking at at this time because we don't want them to uh lay eggs and overwinter again for our next year's corn crop. Right. And so it's something that we're still scouting out for. We might not get that disease pressure here in our area, but there's still chance and possibility of southern roughs moving up. And so it's something that we just look at the south of us, and if we're getting rain and just kind of all those different environmental factors, but we're we haven't given up on the crops just yet.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it's interesting that you mentioned it's it's been a little dry and yet you're applying fungicide. I think that there's a there's an idea out there that, well, I only need fungicide if it's if it's too wet, but here you guys are putting a little bit on here in August.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah, one of the reasons why is we've had so much humidity, so we still have that leaf wetness on the crop, and that's all that the plant needs to be able to, or all the diseases need to get in is some leaf wetness, not necessarily that it has to come from rain, but that it's coming from the dew and the humidity. So we have that in our corn and then obviously in our soybeans too. And we haven't given up on the beans yet because if we get some rains here in August, the thing, I mean, the soybeans will produce pretty well for us, and so we're still trying to make sure that they're as healthy as they can be and make sure that disease doesn't move in, because we've had years where we have white mold move in and it can absolutely destroy at least sections of our crop. And so even though that it might not be like raining a bunch, we're still looking at that for a disease because basically white mold just needs mushrooms to grow in the soil, and then it will shoot spores into flowers where they've been aborted. So if we have that crop canopy, it can still be wet underneath that canopy because of all the humidity, and if we get rain, it will really just transform that crop.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Last year's South Dakota crop was was pretty decent by uh historical standards, as I recall. I was talking with Dwayne Bossey from Bolt Marketing up there in Britain, South Dakota, further north by by a fair stretch from you guys there. How'd you do last year and and how does this year compare corn wise?

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Yeah, uh this year, at least in our area. Sorry, in our area, it's much drier. It's not gonna be nearly as good as it was last year. Last year we had pretty timely rains, honestly, all throughout the season. This year in our area, we have not had that. We've barely had any rain at all. And so our higher spots are really not gonna yield much at all, and our lower spots will yield okay, but nothing to compare with what we had last year. And then our rain kind of shut off at this point last year. So our soybeans weren't great. They are pretty average, but but our corn was pretty solid last year, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Yeah, very good. Well, with that, let's let's just move on. I'm curious. Currently, we're at 84 degrees here in Kansas City. You know, it rained almost all the way. Well, I won't say all the way, but at least down to Omaha and a little further south from from Sioux Falls to here. I came down 29 straight into Kansas City. Today we're sitting presently just after 12 o'clock noon at uh 84 degrees. It's cloudy, and we are expecting a little bit of rain to move in a little bit later on this afternoon. Look out your window there. What uh what kind of day you got going up there in South Dakota?

SPEAKER_00 33:30

It's actually pretty cool. It's like 70-ish degrees and light winds. It's actually a really nice day, cool compared to what it's been last week. It was really hot last week, but temperatures have really cooled down, no rain, at least for today. But it's it's nice cool weather. Definitely cooled down these crops a lot. So that that that was nice. This morning it was like 50 degrees.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Nice, nice. Ooh, that had to feel like about 20 degrees. Yeah, yeah. Um, well, let's talk about the National Weather Service. They're calling for a series of fronts to focus locally, heavy showers and storms across portions of the central and eastern U.S. through

Weather, Odd Facts, And Next Year

SPEAKER_01 34:11

the end of the work week. Dangerous to extreme heat continues across the southwestern United States, eventually spreading eastward over the weekend into early next week. Elevated fire weather conditions do continue across the Great Basin with degraded air quality lingering across the northwest. We've got oh, we've got a nice sort of pattern of green on the screen there. You know, there's all kinds of green on the screen we could talk about, but man, these temperatures, boy, they sure look nice. I'm looking up there in your area. That I think I see a 75 degrees predictive there. That looks awesome, dude.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yeah, that's that's very comfortable temperature for sure. That's nice.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Yeah. Well, all right. I appreciate it. We'll uh we'll wrap up here in just a moment, but I do want to get to, of course, some items of mild interest with you, Zach. And uh, I do want to try and trick you just a little bit too here, if you don't mind. I bet you will. According to uh popculture.com, it's oyster day. Do you do uh do you eat oysters like the raw oysters on the on the half shell?

SPEAKER_00 35:14

I've had them I've had them one time, not in South Dakota, yeah. Um on the coast, and they're actually not bad. They they look much less appealing than how they taste, though.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Yeah, exactly. Well, and it's like here in KC, there are some places that'll fly them in, so we can get reasonably fresh oysters here, and and they are delicious. I'm a fan, but yeah, I'm with you. I would much rather eat eat oysters down somewhere near a coast where they they came out of the the water not too long ago. It was on this day, it's August 5th, Scottish resistance leader William Wallace was captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution. Did you see uh did you see Braveheart?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Not recently.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Okay, okay. Boy, that ending scene. I I about can't take it. That's rough. When once they finally get him and they uh all right, moving on. This day in 1620, the Mayflower departed from Southampton, England, headed toward North America. And in 2013, the world's first bovine stem cell lab grown burger is eaten in London. I didn't uh detect any lab grown stem cells in the burger that I had out there at Hefty Farves. You ever had what about this one? I don't think I've ever had a lab grown burger. Have you?

SPEAKER_00 36:37

No, I don't know if I'd be super interested in doing that. I don't know. But do you have one, Davis?

SPEAKER_01 36:43

I don't think so. I I don't know. I might try it just for you know for the sake of journalism because you know I gotta know. And I have to do it. You have to say you tried it. Yeah, I tried it, maybe. Uh I don't know. I'm against it. I gotta say, I'm just I'm just flat against it. God gave us cows, man, and they are delicious. Gave us pigs, have a pork burger, you know, browst, whatever. All right, you're gonna get me on my soapbox. We're up to today's egg bull injustice.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Your honor, I object.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Today we're gonna go, we're gonna go true or false. Okay? Over the years, science fiction has added a lot to the aspirations of humans, and one of the promises made was that we would all be driving flying cars. Back to the Future Part two had them readily available and popular by the year, I think it was 2015 that they that they went to in part two. The question for you, Zach Hefty, true or false? Do flying cars exist today? True or false, flying cars exist.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

I feel like I'm gonna get tricked either way, but I feel like I do that. I feel like I feel like the answer would be false, but there's some crazy way why it's true. But I'm gonna just get I'm I'm just gonna I'm just gonna assume that you're trying to trick me, and I'm gonna say true.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Healthy skepticism from Zach Hefty. You're a wise man, you've got it figured out. I'm gonna say medium true. I'm gonna say medium true. And you know, that's just what makes it such an injustice, is it's a completely unfair question. Actually, in 2022, on this date, Volkswagen or Volkswagen launched a prototype of its first flying car, an automated electric passenger vehicle nicknamed the flying tiger. I I didn't know that. I don't I I don't see any in my neighborhood, and I don't reckon that I will. And here's the thing, it's it's a lot different for you guys because the flying tractor probably does you you no good, does it?

SPEAKER_00 38:45

No, I I don't think that that would perform very well. It's more it'd be more for transportation, less for actual work, I feel like.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Yeah, very good. Well, that was today's Egg Bull injustice. You're a good sport and a clever fellow, a very clever fellow. I I appreciate that in you. Um, Zach Hefty, before we shut her down here, any any final thoughts on this year or perhaps on next year's Ag PhD field days? As we said, um, I feel like I'm breaking news here. July 29, 2027. 729, 27. I know where I'm gonna be. And uh just just any more thoughts, anything you want to want to get out to our viewers?

SPEAKER_00 39:30

Yeah, I think everything went really well this year. We have great staff that just did an amazing job. And for next year, there's gonna be some small changes, but more changes, I would say, in like what research plots we're going to be doing and different guests that are gonna be there and different educational sessions. Not as much changing the layout or kind of how the schedule is, but just different things that you'll hear or learn about or see when you're there.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

It was a heck of a great day. Tommy and I are super grateful that you were so welcoming to us, as I said, and uh and we will be back. We will absolutely be back and uh and anxiously awaiting next year. Um, maybe we can, I don't know when's the when's a good time to check in with you again because I feel like we've bothered you enough in the last two weeks that we should maybe you know give you give you a little bit of space, but maybe sometime after harvest, you and I could get together and chat again and we could find out how uh how how things shaped up once the combines have rolled. What do you say?

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Yeah, that sounds great, Davis. I appreciate you having me on the show.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Absolutely. That's Zach Hefty uh talking about AgPHD field day. Appreciate you, Zach. Um, we can catch you up on the markets. It's uh, you know, the markets obviously weren't settled by the time I was quoting you here, but uh you can catch up on all of these things, on all the details, the settlements, and much more at Agbol.com. Take your marketing by the horns with AgBull.com or give us a call at 855-737 Farm. Thanks to Trade the News for keeping my whole squad on top of what's moving the markets. Trade the news. News you can trust, news you can actually use. That's trade the news. Jed Sidwell will be back first thing in the morning to get you ready for the day, and I'll take a solo flight to update you on retail fertilizer and fuels prices tomorrow afternoon on Ag Squawk.