00:00 So guys, we are here today. I'm very excited. We're in McGee, Arkansas. We're at my first ever field day. 00:05 I think it's the third field day for extreme ag for the year, but it's the first one I've ever had In the winter. 00:10 We decided, we were trying to figure out what kind of plots we were going to do. We started out and, and Mr. 00:15 Galen said, let's do a challenge plot. I'm like, that would be cool. And Kelly's like, I'm in, I'm a hundred percent in, 00:22 we got four plots here. And it's not a competition of high yield as much as it's a competition of ROI. 00:27 Now they've got me a little scared because I spent between 40 and $50 an acre more than they have. 00:33 But right now we're standing here at Mr. Galen's plot, so I'm gonna turn it over to you. Well, Yeah, I think the purpose of this, as you mentioned, was 00:40 to kinda look at the profitability and see how you make decisions as the economics change. And it has changed a little bit this year from, 00:47 say, a couple of years ago. And also how personalities make different decisions. So I tend to be very conscientious of the resource of time. 00:56 I do very simple programs. I don't like to make a lot of trips across the field. And so I'll look at a soil test 01:02 and say, how do I maximize the benefit of the nutrients that I have? So here I have an in furrow program. 01:08 You had already put out some chicken litter, so I went in furrow and I did one wide drop. And so I think that's why I'm a little bit cheaper than you. 01:16 We don't know if it's more profitable, one side of it. And we have to see at the end of the day, am I more profitable? 01:22 So when we started this, Kelly told me, he said, I'm really, I'm gonna kick your butt. And he said, you're gonna be mad at me. 01:27 And I said, you know, really, I'll be happy because if you spend less money, which you spend about 50 bucks an acre less, 01:33 I'm gonna be happy because I'm gonna learn, I'm learning from, from seasoned corn growers that's grow corn since they started. 01:39 You know, I started in 2006. So the way we're doing it may not be the right way. And I've learned that through extreme ag 01:44 and through agri liquids programs and things that, that your way is not always the right way. So what, what you think? Well, 01:51 I think that we learn from each other. And if we can bring some of our corn ideas down here, look at what we've learned from you about terminating the 01:58 beans, you know, the, the desiccation and you're the godfather of desiccation. If we bring some of our fertility ideas down here, 02:05 I think we all are to gain from it. And, you know, we did spend $50 less, you know, Evan's put in the products, bio Aggie backbone, things like 02:12 that, that are the, the, the plant health biological products that we use at home, along with my pro germ liberate, things like that. 02:19 You know, Galen says I'm the calcium guy of the United States now, but I, you know, there's no doubt about that. 02:24 It, it has paid off for me so many times and you know, it's my first time in southeast Arkansas like this. 02:30 This is exciting to see and I don't really know who's gonna win, but we are gonna learn something. 02:34 And I, this is a great, this was a great idea. So let's go look at Stephanie's plot and see what it looks like. 02:40 I know you and Herb did this before in different areas before, so let's go see what hers looks like. That sounds good to me. Let's go see how she's holding up. 02:47 So Stephanie, what you're, what you're thinking here on your plight, you, you're kind of a lower dollar amount also. 02:53 I am, I'm actually the lowest price fertility program we have out here. And I took a very similar approach to Galand is 02:59 that simplistic fertilizer program. But the main thing I did different is I took into account your, your heavier rainfall, your lower CEC soils, 03:06 and I put some nitrogen out up front, so I put a little bit two by two at planting like you and Kelly did, just to make 03:11 sure we had enough nitrogen there. And then I also, you know, reallocate some of those phosphorus and potassium dollars into that two 03:17 by two application as well. Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. Like I said, I'm, I'm a little bit, 03:21 I don't know if you call it nervous or excited. Probably a little bit of both, because I did like the fact you put some out early. 03:27 We've been told here in with our light CCC soils to always spoonfeed, you know, and, and pretty much Kelly and, and, and Galen did one shot. 03:35 Boom, here it is. And, and I spo spoon fed mine more than you did. Right. You know, but it's gonna be really interesting to see 03:42 because there's so many different variations in all of our plots. Y'all are closer to the same numbers. 03:47 I'm way above you, you know, so we'll see what happens. My biggest area for concern is tissue tests. The first numbers came back, I was lower in nitrogen than 03:54 Galen who didn't put any nitrogen out up front. But it's early and you know, as those plants grow throughout the season, 03:59 I think there's time for some improvement in change there. Well, and that's a tissue test for you. 04:03 You know, that's what we gotta be careful, you know, as farmers that we don't chase our tails all the time on tissue cells tests. 04:08 Kelly does SAP tests, you know, and he feels like those are a lot more accurate. Yeah. You know, they're a little more difficult to do. Yep. 04:14 But he feels like they're more accurate, you know, I guess we should have done some here, but they, they work a lot better for you, right? 04:19 They do. SAP testing works better for us with tissue because it's predictive. But now Evans has even started taking those when it's cloudy 04:26 and or when it's sunny and it, it changes the SAP test. So we're finding that there is can be some variation in there as well, but we're still just trying 04:34 to get the best information we can to make the correct decisions. So we're all learning a little bit here. 04:39 But the other point that you know, I might make is that Chad's, we had kind of a challenge plot. There is Chad against himself at different price levels, 04:48 but this point we're trying to make with these is how do you make decisions as corn prices change and profit pays, the bills not revenue. 04:58 And so that's kind of what we're doing here and hopefully guys will learn something from that. But uh, you know, when I start seeing a declining corn 05:04 price, I start thinking how do I get the most bang for my buck? So that's why I did one shot of nitrogen. 05:10 I'm like, I got a resource of time and money and I'm gonna maximize it. So I looked at your soil test, 05:16 you put chicken litter down early. So I rolled the dice and said there's nitrogen in that chicken litter. I could have been bit by that maybe I haven't been this 05:24 year, but I don't know if it would sustain over time. Yeah. Well and, and two, 05:28 this field hasn't been in production since 1969, so you know, we're looking at multiple years of this thing just sitting here in grass, you know, is 05:35 that a good thing or a bad thing? Yeah, you know, I found out that the soils had a little bit more 05:40 challenge than I thought they would. You know, you disc it up, you see that what, what we call good ground, they call their worst ground, 05:45 which is Sandia ground. You know, our clays down here where the soybean plots are changed and they're a little bit different. 05:50 But, uh, you know, it's gonna be interesting to see with that first year getting that fertilizer on there. 05:55 Did you pick up the nitrogen from the chicken litter or is it tied up like they, like they say it is right now we're fixing 06:01 to go check out the two most important ones, which are mine and Kelly's. And we may have a little bit 06:06 of side trash talk going every day about what's going on. So let's go look at the two real plots 06:11 and we'll see what's going on there. Sounds Good. Yep. It's time to see the, where the rubber makes the road, huh? 06:16 That's Right. Tell me what you got going on. Well, we put some stuff in furrow, like we do, we put some, we spoonfed later 06:21 in the season, things like that. Of course, you had a two ton of chicken litter. We didn't spend as much money as you did 06:26 because we're going with our plant health products like we do at home. You know, we've got neutral 06:30 charge in here, things like that. But of course we've got my pro germ, we've got the liberate, we've got the micro 500, we've got all of those things 06:37 that we use at home that are grower standard practices. We basically moved our grower standard practice down here. You know, we will, obviously it's a different environment, 06:44 700 miles south, different soil. But Evans and I feel like we can put up a nice number here, but again, it's not a yield contest, 06:52 it's an ROI contest and Right. Yeah. The, the pile that matters most isn't how big a pile of corn it is. It's how big a pile of money. That's right. 06:58 So we, uh, we, we really think we can have a nice return with the program. We've got. I do think though that, uh, 07:03 the success you've had, you're gonna be tough to beat that $50 that you spent more than me is probably, I, it'd be crazy to think it's not a justified 07:09 $50, but we're about to find Out. And Kelly, I noticed a lot of your savings came on nitrogen. So on your farm, you're what, six tenths of a pound 07:17 of nitrogen for bushel? There's 10, there's times it's down to 0.3. Oh wow. You know, 07:22 But do you think you can pull that off here in the delta? Well, That's another thing we're about to find out. 07:27 When Evan's looked at the soil test, he, he had some confidence that he, he wanted to give it a shot. And I said, well, let's get after it then. 07:33 You know, we just don't feel that, that most agronomic companies or or most growers give enough credit to the, 07:41 the organic nitrogen mineralized outta the soil. That's especially true in our area here at Matt's. Like I just told Matt we're about to find her. 07:48 Anything we have learned, and it's through people like y'all and Kelly, is we are definitely overlying nitrogen. 07:54 Now, did I get scared in this plot 'cause of the competition I'm going up against? Absolutely. I wanted to make dang sure 07:59 that I had the nitrogen there, but we have learned, I have absolutely. If, if someone asked me what's one 08:04 of the most important things I've learned, it's, it's, we're putting out too much nitrogen. Yeah. We're using too much fertilizer. 08:10 You know, I don't give credit to my litter normally at all. I don't the end part, 08:14 but out in the fall, I don't give any credit to it. You know, IU mostly use that for phosphorus and potassium. So this is gonna be really exciting to see what happens. 08:22 Yeah. And I gave credit to We did as well. And that's where The, the opposite things 08:26 that we're doing is really gonna be able to, it'll help me in the long run To make sure everybody understands though 08:31 we are over applying nitrogen. But I really feel that's an incomplete statement. We're over applying nitrogen 08:37 to the amount of micronutrients. Right. And Evans and I feel that the plants are out of balance and we, my program is trying to balance the plant 08:44 and let it reach its potential and make the most ROI we can. Yeah, It's good logic. We're 08:48 gonna find out if it pays. All right. So we're gonna go over now for the last stop to Matt Miles who spent by far the most money. 08:56 So he's got a little bit of a hill to climb here. Well, let's call it a mountain. So Matt, we're standing here in front of your plot. 09:02 Do you really think you can make 10 more bushels to break even with us because you spent so stinking much more money? 09:08 Well, I hope so. You know, we won't know till the end. If you look at the plots today, you can't really tell a whole lot of difference. 09:13 You can't, you know, they all look about the same. The color looks the same. You know, the, the, the rounds 09:19 and the length are pretty close, the same. Am I gonna pick up test weight by some of the products I put out, you know, we'll, 09:24 we'll just have to see how it works. But I'm nervous, I'll be honest with you. I'm nervous. Well, and 09:28 This is where I think grower differences come in a little bit because me being a finance major in college, 09:34 I think about the economics. So you say Tim Bushels makes us even, and I say that I would have a better return on investment 09:40 and Stephanie has proven over the years when we did this, she can get an excellent return on that dollar spent. 09:45 So I say, if you just even match me that I still won based on the money I spent, you probably have another viewpoint of that though 09:53 A little bit. Because when I'm in a different scenario than most guys in the Delta, most everything is share rent. 09:59 So if I make a higher yield, my landowner gets a higher amount of money. If I cut everything back to where my RRI is perfect 10:06 and he makes 25 bushel less than the neighbors around me, that's gonna change his attitude about me being his farmer. 10:12 So not only do we have to look at the, at the ROI, but we all have to also have to look at the landowners on a percentage rent. 10:19 And that makes your mentality change some about what you're doing. And with us being inexperienced in corn growing, you, 10:25 you ever heard the term running scared? Yes. And we don't know when we're going to have, you know, 15 days of heat indexes like they were yesterday. 10:32 You know, so you're not sure. I've, I've learned a lot about this biology and stress mitigators and different things, 10:38 and they seem to be working for us some years. They don't work for us every year. We know the fertility works, you know, we know 10:43 that balancing that fertility. Kelly said this earlier, you know, the, the mentality here is just throw the nitrogen to it. 10:50 But when you get everything out of balance, you don't throw the micro nodes. We talked about this a month or so ago. 10:54 Yes, you can increase your nitrogen, but you're gonna have to also increase all your micros and everything else to balance it. 11:00 And will that go to the bank? Probably not. I Bet that they all come in within four or five bushel and 10 or $12 of each other be, to be quite honest with you, 11:08 which is what Matt would tell me. That's what I would say. That's what Matt would say. That's a quote from Matt Miles, 11:12 You know, I worry about everything and, and everybody else will tell you the same thing. I just wanna make sure that I don't lose, 11:18 yeah, I don't have to win. But if I can just break in with y'all, but it's going to take me seven to 10 bushels 11:23 to do that, can I do that? It, you know, in this environment that we're in, we're just gonna have to see. 11:27 But when you're going up against professional corn growers, it, it's a little nerve wracking, 11:31 but it it, like you said, I'm conflicted. I wanna win because I wanna thank my wage. Right? But I wanna lose, I want you to win 11:38 because I'm like, okay, can I, if I can sustain that, yeah. In a 10 year period, I'm gonna put more money in a bank. 11:44 I mean, the important thing is, is for people to understand the process we're going through here and learn something. 11:49 I mean, there's a lot of guys that hopefully will watch these videos that have paid their memberships, that will learn something. 11:54 They can put it to end application on their farm as Well. I can tell you this, every one of us has got a sign 11:59 with our inputs on there and my sign's twice as big as everyone else. So I really, really need to win.