00:00:00 How to make money growing wheat. That's the question we're asking. We're getting great answers from Lee Luber in this episode 00:00:05 of Extreme Ag Cutting the Curve. Welcome to Extreme Ag Cutting the Curve podcast, where real farmers share real insights 00:00:13 and real results to help you improve your farming operation. And now here's your host, Damien Mason. 00:00:21 Hey there. Welcome to another fantastic episode, oft extreme acts cutting the curve. I've got a great one for you today 00:00:25 because you know what, we're talking to Lee Lubert. I always love talking to Lee 'cause we talk about the business stuff, 00:00:29 we talk about all kinds of cool things. Lee just got, uh, an award. He is the South Dakota High Wheat Producer, 00:00:36 138.35 bushels per acre. That's with the National Association of Wheat Growers, uh, in a WGI spoke 00:00:44 to their conference about a decade ago when the whole gluten craze was going. The anti-gluten craze just began. 00:00:50 So, um, I like the whole thing. I like talking about Wheat Lee. Um, we're talking about your wheat evolution. 00:00:57 You've been doing this, you're from South Dakota. Uh, wheat has been something that you've looked out and seen in the field since the time 00:01:03 you climbed outta your crib. Um, I said, can you make money growing wheat? And you said, before I hit record button, 00:01:10 you said we wouldn't be doing this if we weren't. So there's a, there's a, a conception, or I'm sorry, a, a perception out there that, uh, 00:01:19 wheat's tough to make money on. Our friend Matt Miles says, I can't justify growing wheat if it's not over $7 a bushel. 00:01:27 And you said, yeah, because he's got the irrigation cost. How do you make money growing wheat? 00:01:32 Uh, we strive to be low cost producer, uh, even with the yields that we are getting. Our goal is to be a low cost producer. 00:01:40 So we're trying to, uh, dial in on the practices and the products where we can maximize our ROI. So we, our, our yields have been going up. 00:01:51 Cost per bushel is going down. Yeah. So that's the way with everything. I mean, obviously if you're getting 250 bushel corn versus 00:01:59 150 bushel corn, your cost per bushel goes down because you're maximizing the utilization of resources, et cetera, et cetera. 00:02:06 But you weren't exactly out there blowing money unnecessarily 30 years ago. So you've always kind of been keeping an eye on your inputs. 00:02:13 Uh, what changed? We just started looking at, at wheat differently, uh, in the 1980s, late 1980s when we got started, uh, 00:02:26 we started to do some winter wheat, uh, behind soybeans. And nobody was doing that. 00:02:33 Everybody was wheat and summer fallow with the philosophy that you've gotta let it lay dormant and then fallow 00:02:39 and then then two years to get a crop, we're like, no, we're not doing that. So that's how we kind of made our baby steps in the no-till, 00:02:48 uh, was with trying to figure out how to get wheat into the ground behind the combine. And, uh, then we just started looking at, okay, 00:02:57 we're getting this for bushels. How can we get, get more? And then when we really started looking at the, uh, the nature of wheat 00:03:05 and what it needs throughout the stages, that's where we really started gaining by leaps and bounds is when we really started looking at the plant. 00:03:14 Uh, not, not planned it and forget it, you know, uh, that was not gonna keep us raising wheat. We had to pay attention to the plant 00:03:24 and see what it was gonna be needing coming up. So what's interesting is, uh, growing up in Indiana, I had never been to South Dakota, 00:03:33 North Dakota, any of those western states. Um, and uh, I got told as a little farm boy that yep, bunch of those places, 00:03:41 they only get one crop every two years because there's no rain. You know, we don't have that problem in Indiana. 00:03:46 We got 40 inches of precipitation. And you just said it was still the practice to leave land fallow to gain moisture. 00:03:52 And I still know, there's places like in, I've been to, I've been to, uh, Morrow, Oregon where they definitely have to do that because they get no rain. 00:04:01 But you went to no-till you and I recorded one of the first episodes we recorded three years ago was about your switch to no-till wasn't 00:04:09 because you're a zealot, wasn't because you're organic. It's because conservation of moisture was number one reason 'cause of where you are in Gregory, South Dakota. 00:04:18 Your number two reason you said was because of manpower. You wanted to do as many acres you can with 00:04:24 as few of people. 'cause it's you, your brother, and a couple of employees. And now you just brought up another one. 00:04:28 It allowed you by switching to no-till and then preserving moisture, it allowed you to get a crop every year. 00:04:35 That's seems to me like a doubling of income. Uh, yeah, it made a huge difference. Uh, uh, the biggest challenge was at 00:04:45 that time there was Harlan equipment out there for no-till and trying to get it 00:04:50 where we could get the seed in the ground effectively to raise the best crop. So we've evolved a long ways there with what we can do, uh, 00:04:58 just because equipment has changed and, uh, but really we got a lot more dialed in on our actual practices, uh, of, you know, prepping for seeding, 00:05:10 the actual seeding and every step all the way through harvest. It's, we just got a lot more dialed in, in what we're doing. 00:05:17 And, uh, even in our area, like, uh, this year we raised an exceptionally good, uh, wheat crop. It was the highest farm average we've had 00:05:25 so far in the history of our operation. We're very proud of that. And by the way, we should the person listen to this, 00:05:32 you didn't get 138.35 bushels on every acre. That was your, your submitted, that was your acreage that you did for the contest, 00:05:41 but you still did the biggest wheat yield you've ever done, um, in, in your 30 years or so. 00:05:49 Uh, 35 years of farming. Yeah, exactly. Uh, we had numerous landlords, uh, when we told 'em what, uh, on our share acres, what we got, 00:05:59 they were just like, wow. Uh, they were just ecstatic with it. Uh, even got a lot of thank you notes from landlords 00:06:07 that we've worked with for a lot of years. Uh, they they were very proud of that. So that, that makes us feel pretty good. Uh, 00:06:15 Was it weather? I mean, how much of it's weather? How much of it's weather? How much of it's you? 00:06:19 Uh, weather is always our wild card. We never know really what it's gonna be. Uh, even this year we had a little bit of a challenge. 00:06:26 We had a late season frost and, uh, that did come back. It did cost us some yield. Uh, we could see that in, in the heads 00:06:34 how they developed. Um, So the, the wheat started taking off. It's, it's April and May, 00:06:40 and then you get whacked what mid-May or something. When, when, uh, We actually got hit at FES three, FES four. 00:06:46 We were just getting ready to start applying herbicide and we were really dry right at that time. And, uh, normally if you get a freeze, 00:06:57 then your wheat's gonna turn black and lay on the ground. And we kept waiting for it 00:07:01 to turn black and fall on the ground. And it didn't. It was, uh, you never know really how frost damage is going to affect you. 00:07:08 And so we held off a few days to spray, then we got hit with, uh, we actually got wind and rain, about 10 days of wind and rain. 00:07:16 We ended up getting about five to over six inches of rain. And that's really what made our crop. 00:07:22 And then we got dry again. Uh, when we were flowering, we actually were had, when had wheat on ridges actually starting to burn again. 00:07:30 It was starting to run outta moisture. And then we got a nice rain, uh, over about a three day period, uh, 00:07:37 when we were getting into, uh, uh, late milk and early dough. So we had some challenges there. 00:07:44 Uh, but we came through with a good crop. So like I said, weather is always our wild card. Mm-Hmm. Always. Mm-Hmm. Uh, 00:07:53 All right. So the journey was, first off, you stopped doing fallow, you switched to no-till that helped you preserve moisture. 00:08:00 Do your wheat acres still go following soybeans? Is that pretty much the practice at Luber Farms? Uh, we do, uh, part of it on soybeans st double, 00:08:11 and we do a percentage also wheat on wheat. Uh, we do two years wheat on wheat, and we run axium wheat, uh, currently, uh, 00:08:19 behind those wheat acres. And that's been working really well for us. I don't Know what that, for the person like me that does, uh, it's 00:08:25 A new chemistry. We have ran, uh, uh, Clearfield Wheat prior, and uh, now we've switched to Axium. 00:08:33 It's a new chemistry so we can take care of the volunteer wheat or any cheap grass, uh, with a herbicide application. 00:08:39 Uh, and you have to be very precise in it. Uh, you have to do it by the label, by the book. That's where you see the real benefit from it. Mm-Hmm. 00:08:47 Uh, the technology is great for us on wheat, on wheat acres. Uh, traditionally on wheat, on wheat, we would figure a 10 00:08:56 to 15% minimum yield drag for doing that. Yeah. But we do it in part of our acres, uh, with collapse. Do you get the yield drag 00:09:03 Because fertility, do you get that yield drag because, uh, if I go wheat on wheat, is it fertility or is there some new disease that I'm getting? 00:09:12 What, why would it be a, I mean, that's a pretty significant, Uh, there's a, 00:09:17 well you're taking a higher risk on disease. Yeah. 'cause you're going wheat on wheat. Yep. Uh, higher risk of, uh, insects, uh, infecting you 00:09:27 with diseases, uh, you're getting from the residue, uh, especially in heavy residue as we're getting into higher yields, uh, 00:09:34 what they call an allopathic effect from the residue that can hold your seedlings back as it's coming through all that residue, it actually, uh, hurts your seedlings, 00:09:46 uh, coming in contact with that residue. Yep. And so there are some variables there. And then with beyond, when we sprayed that, uh, you, 00:09:54 when you sprayed out your volunteer wheat, it would turn yellow and it'd take two, three weeks to really, to show Mm-Hmm. 00:10:02 And it's like, you made it sick, but it's not totally dead. And we knew that was holding us back. Mm-Hmm. 00:10:08 Where with the coaxing, when we spray that, it looks like you hit it with a cord roundup. I mean, in five to seven days, other than the coaxing wheat, 00:10:18 everything is dead brown. Okay. So I think that has been a factor for eliminating yield drag. 00:10:23 And we're getting better in, we know we have to manage very intensively on our wheat, on weed acres. Uh, a very high level of management 00:10:32 because of the risk of the residue diseases, uh, the volunteer, et cetera. We've got to really, we can't miss a step, 00:10:41 especially in the, uh, first two months. We cannot miss a step. So we talk about you having huge yields 00:10:48 and then, uh, your wheat evolution and to make money with wheat, the person that says, all right. 00:10:55 Uh, because wheat seems to me like we always sometimes joke on extreme ag that soybeans get treated like, uh, you know, uh, 00:11:03 a second class citizen kind of thing. 'cause everybody loves to grow corn. We, there's this perception that you just, hey, 00:11:09 you just go out there and drill yourself some wheat and then, you know, maybe hit it with some nitrogen and then, uh, spray it once you manage it more 00:11:15 intensively to make the money. Um, what are you doing differently now than you did even just 10 or 20 years ago? 00:11:24 Uh, our use of PG has really evolved. Uh, that's that growth Regulator because the, the wheat would get too tall 00:11:32 because why? Why, why do you need a plant with Regulator? Uh, we're using PG in the sense 00:11:37 of initiating triggers in the plant for all the growth. Uh, and then also, uh, our use of growth regulators have entered the picture, 00:11:52 uh, depending on the year. That's all in, uh, dictated by our environment, what we're going through in weather at the time. 00:11:59 Uh, and that's saying, uh, plant growth regulators, you're into cytokine and oxon, you're into promoting plant growth, cell division, 00:12:10 uh, giving it that boost. Uh, so those are earlier. And then when you get from after herbicide application to jointing, 00:12:20 that's when it's growth regulator, it's a narrow window and it's very precise, very specialized. You're actually doing the opposite. 00:12:30 You are compacting the plant Yep. And thickening the nodes. We actually can physically shorten the height 00:12:36 of our plant one to two inches. Mm-Hmm. Uh, but we cannot do it when we're in an environment where it's getting dry or we have some heat and dry coming 00:12:45 because we can actually burn our wheat. So it depends on the year, whether we use that as a management tool. 00:12:53 So plant growth regulators go on at when, Uh, PGRs can go on, they can go on in your seed treatment, uh, at a spec specified rate. 00:13:05 Uh, they can go on at greenup, they can go on at your herbicide pass in, in your, like, up to FES four, FES five, uh, growth regulators. 00:13:16 A lot of people, they throw out the term that like palisade is a, oh, that's a PGR. No, that's a growth regulator. 00:13:24 It's actually, uh, your plant growth, reregulate, pg, they are, uh, uh, create a giin in the plant 00:13:37 and they're fostering growth where if you do a growth regulator, they're actually classed as a rein acid inhibitor. 00:13:46 You're doing the exact opposite effect. So when you do, these are at two total different times. What about the, uh, fertility? 00:13:56 Because the answer, uh, you and I did a recording about increasing the protein content of your wheat because you get a premium for doing so. 00:14:05 And the answer a lot of people would think was, yeah, throw more nitrogen at it. Well, you can spend yourself right out 00:14:11 of any premium you're getting for, um, a protein boost. The person that says, well, Lee gets big yields on wheat because he just goes out there and 00:14:18 blows too much money on fertility. And you say, no, we're a low cost producer. So the answer isn't just pouring fertility to it. 00:14:25 No. We, we are not, we have not increased our fertility rates, uh, in the last five years. 00:14:33 And, uh, we've actually reduced them a little bit. We're just putting it on our timing is better. Mm-Hmm. And, uh, more balanced approach. 00:14:42 And that's starting from when we seed our wheat all the way through the broadcast and, uh, we do dry application 00:14:50 where some people think in high management wheat, you have to be all liquid and stream bar and multiple passes. 00:14:56 Right? Like, okay, you do, you we wanted to try to make it work with dry applications. And we are. 00:15:05 So you're doing that all at, you know, you're not flinging it out there. Uh, your winter wheat, you do all winter no spring, correct? 00:15:14 Uh, we're all a hundred percent winter wheat. All right. So right now the wheat in your fields is four inches tall, 00:15:21 Actually just germinated. Oh, just the joys of South Dakota. Okay. So you planted it. And 00:15:26 So hopefully we don't get, uh, too many, uh, blizzards and freezing temperatures. So is it safe to think you've got adequate moisture? 00:15:36 Uh, we were bone dry. We planted all our wheat. It laid there. Nothing was germinating, uh, in the last 10 days, we got 70 hundreds to an inch. 00:15:45 So it's finally germinating. Uh, we, we look at it, it as like a cat at s nine lives. Mm-Hmm. So in a good year, 00:15:56 we're gonna use five or six of them. In a bad year, we're gonna use all eight or nine mm-Hmm. You're going to use 'em up all nine. 00:16:02 You're not gonna raise a crop. That doesn't happen very often. So, uh, a lot of years we do not have the luxury 00:16:09 of good fall growth. The years we do, then we change our management plan and we tailor for that. 00:16:15 But this year it's, uh, we could tell with mother nature, it's just, let's get it germinated 00:16:21 so we can alize this winter so that we actually have a wheat crop and then we'll start managing it more intensively in the 00:16:28 spring, if we would've got it up out of the ground, uh, we would've been out there in the field and doing a fall pass, which is unheard of in our area. 00:16:38 Mm-Hmm. Uh, to do that prior to dormancy, because we feel that's setting the stage for the wintertime and for when it breaks dormancy in the spring. 00:16:48 So if we, if you have the right, we're recording this on November 21st. Uh, so if you get the right 00:16:55 and which a lot of times it's pretty damn cold and, and nasty this time of year, but you get, you get no freeze 00:17:00 for the ne I know hard freeze here for the next few days. Next week, your, your wheat will get up 00:17:04 to be a few inches tall. And that's what you, you probably want that. No, uh, actually I don't think 00:17:10 it'll spike through this year. Okay. So our temperatures we're hitting 35, 40 highs for the day 20 at night. 00:17:17 Uh, growth is really slow. Uh, we probably won't see it spike through. It'll look like spring wheat in the spring 00:17:24 When it comes. So the struggle though is it is not gonna die. It's gonna be fine, but it doesn't four inches. 00:17:29 If you had four inches of growth, that helps you hold a lot of the snow, which then helps your moisture, uh, 00:17:35 snow pack hold for your moisture for come spring. So this, this might harm you come spring on the moisture. Uh, yeah. That's why we're no tilling 00:17:45 conserve every ounce that we can. Got it. Uh, yep. Hey, I wanna ask you another question about the money and the business side of it. 00:17:51 Before I do that, we're talking about fertility a little bit ago. Wanna remind you that nature's a business partner here 00:17:55 with extreme Ag and Nature's is focused on providing you fertility products 00:18:00 that you can apply at points, at periods of influence. You know what? Putting the product where it needs to be when it plant can utilize it, 00:18:06 is gonna help your economics. We're in a low commodity price environment. We might be here for a while. So you know what? 00:18:11 You better get really smart about your inputs. Nature's can help you target periods of influence within your crop. 00:18:17 It'll enhance your crop yield, it'll decrease the plant stress, and most importantly, it'll boost your farms. 00:18:22 R oi Go to natures.com to learn more about the products. They have fertility powered by Bio K technology. Alright. 00:18:30 On the money side of it, um, you don't spend a bunch of money on fancy seed. It's like wheat's the one thing that's not got GGMO. 00:18:38 Uh, it's not so the, you're not, you're not, you're talking about low cost producer. You're not saving money on wheat. 00:18:45 You're not buying your wheat any cheaper than the guy down the road. I don't suppose Are you 00:18:49 We're paying the same price the other guy does? Yeah. And then seed treatment. What's your seed treatment strategy? 00:18:56 Uh, we wanna load it up. Seed treatment. Uh, we do not plant what they call naked seed. Uh, we want, uh, multiple modes of chemistry on fungicide, 00:19:08 uh, insecticide all on the seed. That helps a lot in our environment, uh, to, uh, ward off diseases. And why do 00:19:17 You need insecticide to go on? Uh, uh, a seed that you planted a couple of weeks ago and now it's 20 degrees at night. 00:19:24 There's no insect pressure, there's no, there's no worm pressure in 20 degree, uh, night, uh, type soil. I wouldn't think, 00:19:31 Uh, it's not gonna be the insect pressure right now, but you can have wireworms where Wireworms can attack your seed 00:19:39 Still, still in November. Yes. And actually we have seen, uh, uh, what they're called bird cherry aphis. 00:19:48 And, uh, they can attack in the fall and if you do have the growth and they're down around the crown 00:19:55 and, uh, they can really hurt you. And probably 95% of wheat growers don't even know they exist 'cause they haven't looked for. Okay. And, uh, so there, 00:20:04 there are times if we have the growth, we're out there applying insecticide to kill them right before freeze up. We've actually had to put our sprayers inside at night 00:20:15 so we didn't freeze up and break the fittings and then go out the next day. And we're killing bird cherry o aphids on wheat in November. 00:20:25 We've had to do that before. That's for scouting. Knowing your crop, knowing your fields comes into play. All right. So seed treatment, you just went through, 00:20:32 you put a battery of stuff on your seed, it goes in the ground, typically after soy, it's got a, is it a different seed treatment if, 00:20:39 if it's wheat following wheat? Uh, no. We're running, uh, a seed treatment on all acres the same. 00:20:45 Uh, it's very loaded up. We like it. And then we also, uh, add some biologicals to it to induce some triggers for, uh, phosphorus breakdown and, 00:20:55 and, uh, and just better rooting, you know. And So biologicals are, are a part of the seed treatment or you go out and spray those on? 00:21:03 Nope. Seed treatment, we actually set up our own seed treater. Uh, we have two cones 00:21:08 and one's biology with our own concoction and one is chemistry and then two lines and it comes right into the treater 00:21:16 and vaporizes at the last second and goes onto the wheat and then up into the truck. 00:21:23 What about the, uh, fall application? Is there anything that's applied in the fall once, uh, you said you've had it before where the, 00:21:30 those aphid things you talked about, does that, is that, was that was because of scouting? 00:21:34 Is there anything you do as a normal practice in the fall? If we would get enough growth, uh, we would like to go out 00:21:43 prior to dormancy and, uh, depending on the year, especially weed on weed acres, we may even apply a fungicide in, into late October. 00:21:55 We have seen tan spot come in late season in the fall, in a warmer fall. Or we could be in there with insecticide. 00:22:02 We could be in there with a PGR also. Because really we look at wheat going into dormancy, like a bear into hibernate hibernation. 00:22:10 Do you ever see a bear going on a diet before he goes into hibernation? Right. No. Why do you 00:22:15 Wanna do that? With your wheat? Yeah, you want your wheat to be as good and as healthy and as fed as it can be going into 00:22:23 that period, especially in our environment because, uh, we could see 40, 50 minus 40 50 wind chills in the winter. 00:22:31 We could see bear periods, we could see three foot of snow on it. We never know. It's gonna be a little bit harsh, so 00:22:38 we want it in good shape. There's a person that would listen to this and say, yeah, but why throw all 00:22:43 that out there when the plant is just about ready to go dormant? Why not wait until it is ready to pop again in the spring 00:22:49 and then put that stuff out there? You can do both. Okay. So you don't think it's wasteful Tan spots hurting you? 00:22:56 I don't care if it's October. Yeah. Or if it's April, it's gonna hurt you. It's, it's taking away, 00:23:03 it's gonna take away bushels from you. What about the, um, I mean you did things different on your competitive acres 00:23:10 to get your 138 bushels to be Nope. Nope. We do, we do nothing different for any, we do not farm for five acres or for a contest. 00:23:18 Everything we do is scalable for our whole whole operation. So the 138 bushels 00:23:23 that you did on your contest acres got the same treatment as everything else? Yes. Mm-Hmm. Interesting. We don't farm for a contest. 00:23:30 We, we farm to farm. It's, it's all about, uh, field average and whole farm average. That's what drives us. And low cost per bushel inputs. 00:23:40 Okay. Then we talked, we were telling us how to make money with wheat. Then we talked, we focused on the agronomics. 00:23:44 Uh, and let's talk about the business. You talked about Lowcost producer. There's somebody that's listening to this gonna say, uh, 00:23:49 lowcost producer, you're putting a hell of a lot of stuff on there. You did all that seed treatment, all that fancy stuff. 00:23:53 You did all that stuff. Sometimes you have to go out there and even do a application in the November. 00:23:58 Um, and then in the spring you're gonna bank it, you know, bump it again with, uh, 00:24:02 fertility doesn't sound very low cost. Is it more just that you're putting it at the right time? It's the old thing of you're, you're tending it better. 00:24:10 Is that where the thing comes in? 'cause some folks might just plant it and forget about it. We're doing all those steps to prevent 00:24:18 taking away bushels from the potential. And we're not, and we're not, we're not, uh, our goal isn't 50 bushel wheat, you know, uh, we're looking, 00:24:27 our goal is to do a lot higher than that. Yeah. So that's where it comes down to is we're trying to minimize or eliminate the things 00:24:36 that are gonna take away from yield and do it in a low cost manner. Even a fall pass depending on the year. Uh, we can do that. 00:24:43 It's very low cost insecticide. We can do a cheap fungicide. We don't need a full spectrum one. 00:24:49 Uh, PGR very reasonable reduced rate. Uh, it's a very minor pass. Actually. The cost of running the sprayer over at per acre 00:24:59 is almost higher than what we're putting on. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So the, the actual application, uh, is, is isn't the, the bigger 00:25:08 cost is in the machine and the time. Mm-Hmm. What about then, um, your, your thing that I like when we record, you talk 00:25:15 about keep rounding the basis. Do you do something toward the end that makes you, uh, make money off of your wheat 00:25:23 that others might say, ah, screw it. You know what, it's a month away from the combines rolling. Uh, we focus on it right through flowering. 00:25:31 We're starting to play coming into, uh, actually into dough. If we can, uh, do something that's really unheard 00:25:39 of in our area, even going past flowering grain fill and try to see if we can maximize anything for yield, we feel we're doing a pretty good job at it right now. 00:25:50 Because we looked at our test weights and protein, uh, this year we were running 62 to 64 pound test weights 00:25:58 and we had good protein and we had yield. Yeah. So we feel we're doing a pretty good job. But thing is, it's, it's keep rounding the bases. 00:26:06 We're not giving up on our wheat, but we're not just throwing the kitchen sink at it. Mm-Hmm. Uh, for years we always had a, uh, 00:26:14 yield contest at the hefty field day and we'd have a, a yield plot and I did wheat for multiple years. 00:26:20 And, uh, virtually about, basically every year I would end up on top, but I never did the high cost approach. 00:26:29 I just would switch things around. But every year it's trying to do a good job with what we had. 00:26:34 They'd send me videos and pictures, soil tests, tissue tests, and I'd work off of that. If I didn't get my eyes on it. 00:26:41 They would give me eyes, they'd give me pictures and video to work with. And then, like I said, soil test, tissue test. 00:26:49 Brian, just to prove his point, every year he would do the kitchen sink approach. He would spare nothing. Mm-Hmm. 00:26:56 Bri Brian would never end up with the high yield, but he didn't end up with the highest cost per bush oil. Right, right, right. So again, we're looking at 00:27:03 how can we try to drive yield, but do it, do it in an effective manner. And that's by staying with the needs 00:27:10 of the plant throughout the stages. You Tissue sample, you say We do a little bit of it. Uh, the problem is that we have in our area is snail mail. 00:27:19 Uh, a lot of times we cannot even get UL results back in seven to 10 days. We look at the plant and, uh, kind of as the physiology 00:27:28 of it, what's gonna need its stages. We know we've done it long enough and we're trying to stay ahead of that with what we need. 00:27:35 And that might be some foliar nutrition, uh, and fungicides at the right time, uh, A PGR or a growth regulator at the right time. 00:27:45 Yep. It's just, it's looking ahead, seeing what you need. Yeah. So tissue sampling's not the answer. 00:27:51 Obviously you do a lot of scouting, you got a lot of acres to cover. Do you go and do this yourself or do you send out your guy 00:27:56 and say, come back and tell me how the wheat looks? Uh, I'm, me, myself, and I, mm-Hmm. So Is your, is Terry a crop scouter or is he, he, he, your 00:28:05 He's full-time a planter, and then I am in second planter row crop planter and then I'm scouting too. 00:28:13 Got it. There's a, I do have one friend I'll call him in every now and then when we get in around flag leaf, uh, I'll pay him 00:28:21 to go out and just check for observing for flag leaf because I'm wanting to watch when flag leaf comes out and get ready for that if I'm in a planter. 00:28:29 But otherwise, it's, it's me, myself, and I, How to make money with wheat is what we talked about. And let's talk about the, the selling game. 00:28:37 Um, you contract ahead and sell 50% of what you expected yield. Do you sell 75% of expected yield? Do you not even do that? 00:28:46 Do you store the stuff? Is most of your stuff already sold before you, you combine even rolls? 00:28:50 How do you, how do you handle that Man? Damien, you only threw out like 20 scenarios there. 00:28:57 I know, because you know what, uh, you probably do a few of them. Uh, we believe in managing our risk. 00:29:04 We're, uh, we do a lot of hedging and we will do puts call spreads when we feel the market we can maximize or add to our price. 00:29:13 Uh, then really it comes down to we're looking at the quality of our crop, and that's when we start negotiating with terminals 00:29:21 and we want to be a, uh, premier provider for them. We want to have a good quality crop. And that's where this year, that really paid for us. 00:29:31 Uh, once they saw the samples of what we had, they wanted it because they wanted to use our wheat to blend 00:29:38 with other stuff that was not that good. So that's where that comes into play. So a lot of times, by the 00:29:44 Way, is that that protein thing, like we talked about before, where you bring in 15% protein wheat and they've got some 11 and need to blend it together 00:29:53 to make it 13 or something. I think that's exactly Same thing on test weight when they're, but you make sure you 00:29:58 Get premium When they're getting in 58 pound wheat and we've got 62, they want our 62. So, but you're not, you're not selling your, 00:30:05 you're not selling, you're making sure that your 62 pound, 15% protein wheat gets paid a premium. 00:30:12 We are gonna leverage what we've got. That's why we're doing a lot more on paper and then we're negotiating on the physical 00:30:18 product is what we're doing. So is that how that works? Premium? We can, You, you, uh, you let 'em sample it and you say, yeah, 00:30:25 but we're not selling this for, uh, the price you got posted. Uh, we sample it 00:30:31 and then we give the same thing to them so they can see it. Mm-Hmm. And then we have the good working relationships 00:30:37 where they go, okay, you guys have got this. And then we can, we have a lot of trucks that we can pull from a guy that we work with a lot. 00:30:47 And, uh, if we've gotta move 200,000 or 400,030 days, we'll do it. Yeah. But there's, there is a little a 00:30:56 negotiation between you and the, uh, Provider. Yes. Uh, if the opportunity's there to fill the train, 00:31:00 we'll fill the train if the, if it pays. But you make sure that you, you don't just go and accept what the posted price is. 00:31:07 We don't bumble in the door and look lost. We come in to make a deal How to make money with wheat. 00:31:13 Uh, we talked about, uh, the, the agronomics talked about the practices no-till and some of those things. 00:31:20 And then we just talked about the money side of it. What's the last, what's, what else do I need to know to the person listening to this that says, 00:31:25 I wanna make money with wheat, I wanna be like Lee Lubert. What do they need to know? 00:31:31 Know your wheat, know your fields. Uh, the fe scale. That's how you scale your wheat. Uh, if you raise wheat, you should know that, have 00:31:39 that imprinted in your mind, uh, because that will dictate how you're going to manage for spraying and also manage for fertility and growth 00:31:50 and disease and what's coming up next. And that's by knowing that fe scale and watching that, uh, 00:31:57 you're gonna know what's happening in your wheat. Got it. His name's Lee Lubert, how to Make Money with Wheat. 00:32:04 He's doing it. And he also is the South Dakota National Association of Wheat Growers Contest winner for 2024 with 138.35 bushels per acre. 00:32:12 That's pretty remarkable. And by the way, if you've never been to Gregory, South Dakota, everything this guy does is pretty remarkable 00:32:17 because for God's sakes, I had I her, our friend Chad Henderson, when I, we talked about, uh, uh, whose uh, farm would you rather have in terms of ground. 00:32:27 He said, Lee doesn't even want Lee's farm ground. But anyway, he does actually have very good farm ground. It's, it's neat up there. 00:32:33 Uh, very rich, a lot of organic matter. It just, uh, sometimes it's kind of dry and sometimes it's kind of cold 00:32:39 and occasionally it's really windy. Other than that, Gregory, South Dakota is a hell of a place to farm. 00:32:44 And if you wanna check out more stuff with me and Lee, we recorded a bunch of different episodes about the business side of farming, 00:32:49 about wheat, about uh, rounding the bases. Go check it out at Extreme Ag Do Farm, there's a library, if you will, of free content 00:32:57 to help you farm better hundreds of episodes of this show Cutting the Curve, which is doing very, very well. 00:33:03 And also videos we shoot at these guys farms that can help you improve your farming operation and get you bigger returns. 00:33:10 So next time, thanks for being here Lee. I'm Damien Mason. This is extreme max Cutting the curve. 00:33:16 That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out 778 00:33:24.745 --> 00:33:26.025