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5 min readWhen you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsor Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed. com slash podcast. That's indeed. com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name Welc to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're gonna let it all out for you guys. Today is gonna be a great guest episode. Got two guests coming to the barn today, talk all things farming, agriculture, corn. It's gonna be a good one. But before we get into it, you guys know the drill. If you get any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know, leave your review on Spotify or Apple. Another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. We have a goal with that right now. If we get to 10,000 newsletter subscribers, we're going to throw a live event right here on the farm. You can join it
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What you'll learn
- 1 (05:00) **Guest Introductions & Origin Stories** - Paul Gilsman and Will Cannon introduce themselves, their farming operations, and how they got started in agriculture.
- 2 (13:47) **Will's Conservation Journey: No-Till, Strip-Till, and Cover Crops** - Will details his early adoption of no-till and strip-till, and his 18-year commitment to cover crops.
- 3 (23:12) **The Advantage of Working Off-Farm** - Will discusses how his 10-year career at Ag Leader Technology gave him a unique perspective.
- 4 (24:35) **First-Generation vs. Multi-Generational Farming** - Will contrasts the disadvantages and surprising advantages of not inheriting a large land base.
- 5 (27:39) **Advice for Farmers Afraid to Innovate** - Will offers practical guidance for farmers hesitant to try new practices on their operation.
- 6 (32:23) **Paul's Motivation for Cover Crops** - Paul explains his personal reasons for adopting cover crops, which started about 8 years ago.
- 7 (37:00) **The Long View on Soil Erosion** - The hosts and guests discuss the dramatic, long-term impact of tillage versus conservation practices.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
You can't out-yield your way to profit anymore, so Will Cannon is chasing margin with 2 or 3 bucks an acre of homemade compost instead of $40 an acre of bugs in a jug. Two Iowa corn farmers came to the barn this week: Will, an Iowa Corn Growers director from near Prairie City, and Paul Gieselman, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, from near Morning Sun.
Will has run cover crops on 100 percent of his acres for about 18 years. He has seen 0 to 10 bushels back from his compost, and 50 on one tough spot. Paul got out of hogs in 1998, farmed on his dad's money for 10 years, and went out on his own in 2008. Today he runs just under 1,000 acres and 25 British White Park cows. And Japan is now the number 2 buyer of American corn, behind only Mexico.
Then Paul said the hard part out loud. He has watched a lot of his equity drain away, and if either of his boys came home today there would not be room for them. He doesn't figure he'll be the one doing the consolidating. He figures he's the one getting consolidated. Will sees the other side: the biggest handoff of farm assets in peacetime history, and real opportunity 5 to 7 years out for young guys who stay patient.
Also in this one: the wettest fall either of them can remember, why cattle belong back on row crop ground, the USDA fertilizer hearing in Ogden, E15 in NASCAR, Brazil's 90 million acres it hasn't farmed yet, and what the checkoff actually pays for.
Put it on just enough acres that it's a little painful, so you pay attention to it, but not so many it hurts you long term.
What are you trying on 40 or 80 acres next year? Drop it in the comments and we read them.
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THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
● Iowa Corn ➱ https://www.iowacorn.org
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Two guests and a harvest stuck in the rain
05:02 Out of hogs in 1998, farming on Dad's money
06:19 2008, buying the gear and going out alone
10:53 Why he runs British White Park cattle
13:18 A teacher's son goes full time farming
14:25 The bachelor farmer who handed over his acres
19:12 See us at Gateway Farm Expo and HayCon
20:58 A homemade strip-till bar for a couple grand
24:08 No paid-off land, but no ghosts either
27:01 Try it on enough acres that it hurts a little
29:34 You can't out-yield your way to profit
34:01 Do cover crops actually pay?
39:34 The resident hippie's homemade compost tea
41:57 $3 an acre vs $40 of bugs in a jug
45:25 Putting cattle back on row crop ground
48:23 $4.75 a day for hay out west vs stalks here
53:53 Stuck in the first 2 acres of harvest
58:22 How two f
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