Ready to Plant in the ECB With Ben Klick

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Idaho, Ohio. From our base here in Iowa, I'm making it difficult on me this year, but that's what's going to be the fun of our farmers series here on the MToM podcast. I'm Paul Yeager, thanks for joining us this year, we're going to talk with a producer in Idaho and a producer in Ohio, and we're going to find out how things are going. So we've got the Western Plains and in Idaho, the eastern southeastern part of the state, we're also going to Ohio to the northeast section of the state, the Eastern Corn Belt. You've all heard about the Eastern Corn Belt, how rainy it is, how wet it is, and how delayed things have been the last couple of years. We're going to find out firsthand from a farmer on the ground. We're going to talk with Ben Click. He is a fifth generation farmer. A lot of corn, a lot of beans. And some wheat and livestock. So we'll find out about his operation in this installment of the podcast, and we'll have conversations with him throughout the year to find out how things are going. So let's get to it. And our conversation and our Meet the Farmer for 2025. It's all about racing. Or at least that's your connection to Iowa. Had you been to Iowa before you went, and came and visited Iowa for that race?

[Ben Klick] Yeah. So a few times in my past, I actually have a really good friend that farms in northwest Iowa, up near Knierim, that area there. So, then Ben's kind of through that area a little bit, but also, had a don that we bought a couple semis years ago from TMC there in Des Moines. So we went and dad and I drove out and bought two of their semis from there, from their truck dealership and drove home. So that was my first intro to going out to Iowa. Of course, we stopped at the truck stop on a lot fun. Oh yeah.

[Yeager] Oh, you got to go to Walcott, if you haven't been to that before. Highly recommend it. It's always crazy. I used to live over in that area, and you always get these press releases of. Well, we're bigger again. Oh, we're bigger again. We be, you know, and it's just, it's crazy how much stuff there is there.

[Klick] And it's all so crazy how small the world is. When we were in Des Moines, I was just out of college a couple of years, and one of my friends from college, that we were queens, that we were really close. Close. But we were close enough that we, you know, we hung out and stuff, but he saw where I was at. And later when I was in Iowa, he's like, hey, he said me and his wife at the time when they were dating, she went to Iowa State after she left Ohio State to finish out. And so we met them in downtown Des Moines for dinner that night. Just, you know, what a small world. You know, you can't really go anywhere without, you know, running into somebody you know, or talking about something. You have mutual acquaintances or whatever it is. So especially in ag.

[Yeager] Well, if you where that hat of yours, people will know in the know, they'll ask you also, you farm. And that's kind of how that all goes, right?

[Klick] That's the funniest thing my wife absolutely despises when I wear anything farm related out in public, especially if we go somewhere new. We went to Key West three years ago with us, with a couple friend of ours, and we were on the island two minutes, and we were walking down the main drag. I had a DeKalb hat on him from the other side of road.

[Yeager] There's a farmer over there.

[Klick] I mean, we weren't there for five minutes. It's so funny. Stick out like a sore thumb. Anywhere we go.

[Yeager] She's shaking her head, going, well, I guess I knew what I was getting into.

[Klick] And yeah, that's right, I can't. I can't take you anywhere. You'll be talking to some random person you'll meet at a bar or restaurant or something, talking about farming or tractors or something.

[Yeager] So it's, it's a hazard of the occupation. Right? 

[Klick] That's right.

[Yeager] It's not that you can. Well, yeah. You could smell a farmer in some parts of the world, but you can identify a lot of times.

[Klick] Yeah. Oh, yeah, I got that. It doesn't matter how old or young you are. and I feel like it only gets, you know, I'm not old by any means. I'm 30 years old, but I feel like as I get older, you can definitely start a conversation. Our type of personalities and our type of persona. When you see people have like. Oh, yeah, a guy by a farm to this guy does, you know what I mean?

[Yeager] So, And everyone, somebody got thrown for a curveball, you know that?

[Klick] That's right. Yeah, yeah. That's right, that's right.

[Yeager] We have one of our regular market analysts. We just did a live episode with him over in Lincoln, Nebraska, and he was him and his mom were talking about, they had a wedding coming up, and he says, I ain't wearing nothing, but this. Mom, I'm. I'm wearing my jeans, my boots, and, And if they're lucky, I'll wear a sport coat. But no tie, no tuxedo.

[Klick] Yeah, yeah. That's why it's always comical when we, when our group, we go to DC, with our farmer, organization in the spring for, hill visits, and all of us get, you know, in suits and ties. And that's definitely most of the time out of our norm, you know, but it's kind of fun to get, you know, play the part a little bit when we're down there in Washington, D.C., and lobbying on behalf of farmers.

[Klick] So that's the fun part of the of the job.

[Yeager] And that's when you kind of go, oh, this collar is tight. Who bought this? Yeah. Yeah, this is kind of itchy.

[Klick] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially when I first started to tie the ties since, you know, high school you know, before game and stuff retired. You know. So I've been been quite a few years you to get back on your feet learn about tie tied.

[Yeager] Well, we'll talk sports just for one more moment. Iowa hired a new men's basketball coach, and he's known for wearing ties. And so that when his introductory press conference, they had, a couple of people outside, they were giving away a gold ties, and somebody was demonstrating to the students how to do it, and so that they could go into the press conference.

So, see, they could start at any age, whether it's a kid with a clip on or an adult with a clip on, it's still okay to know how to tie it.

[Klick] Well, there's my next related question is, are you a Hawkeye or are you a Cyclone?

[Yeager] I'm sorry we lost connection. I…. you're telling me I have to pick one of these two great institutions of the state? they both have good qualities. To my right, I have the Iowa football poster, and I have the Iowa State football poster. I've gone to games in both stadiums. They both have good natures. I did not go to either of those schools. I went to a small Division three school that, if we want to talk wrestling, we're on, that's, so think, Mount Union, Oh, yeah, are very similar. Wittenberg is where our coach came from. so I'm familiar with you know, Ohio does D3, Wisconsin does D3 football. Well. So, I guess I don't have to pick either.

[Klick] Yeah. Well, Mr. Matt Campbell from Iowa State, he's from my alma mater here in Canton, Ohio, and his brother was my athletic director in high school. So I got some I got some ties to your Iowa State football coach a little bit. 

[Yeager] So, yeah, you can't, you can't always shake it. See, just like, farming, you can always talk sports with people. Usually if you start doing enough.

[Klick] That's right, that's right.

[Yeager] So you mentioned Canton. Your farm. Did you grow up in that same area where you farm there, south of Canton?

[Klick] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So the farm where I'm currently sitting at here, I bought back in 2018 off and older couple that was friends of my grandparents. So this is actually in the town south of where I, where I grew up, about six miles from the home farm, as we call it. So, grew up, the actual town was Ridgeville, but it was a Ohio address. So mass another town very well known for their football and heritage in that realm of things. but, yeah, work. The home farm itself is just south, about 30, kind of getting gobble up pretty good. development pressure and industrial, stuff. Pretty decent there. Right around 30 and 77. The interstate, kind of taken up a lot of that. But where I'm at here, we bought some farms down this way here in the, in the recent past. So we've kind of open our persona to sway a little bit. So it's a little more rural down here. Different, different townships, some different zoning things that kind of help protect us here in this area. So kind of just got to keep up with the times in that sort of way.

[Yeager] And then to widen out even further. You're really between Cleveland and Columbus is that. Yeah. Whiter. Yeah.

[Klick] Yeah yeah. So Columbus would be about two hours southwest of me. And Cleveland is like a straight hour north. Actually, my my wife, works in a Cleveland office. It's actually Independence, but it's the team is Cleveland. She drives there three days a week. So that's about. It's about 60 minutes, 65 minutes for an hour to get there in a day.

[Yeager] So if you've driven I-80 enough, how would you compare what your land is to what you see in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa? Well, we have a we have a little, definitely.

[Klick] The land masses are smaller field wise. I mean, our average field size is probably about 30 acres. Where we're at, we have some upper in the 80s, 90 acres and some as small as two and three acres where we're at, you know, just kind of the persona. We're kind of on the, just on the northern edge of Appalachia, believe it or not, Tuscarora County, which is just south of where we are here by a few miles, is technically still Appalachia, part of Ohio. But, if I want to compare it to the beautiful landscapes across Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, we're rolling. we're not steep, steep, but we're rolling enough. Nothing. Tabletop flat. We still, we still got to. You got tile and stuff, too. But, we do have some on this farm I'm actually on here. We actually have some terrace. We terrace or, strip it, I call it. So we have some. You know, 90, 220ft strips around hillside across the street. So we have, good variants of that and plenty of, you know, waterway issues and erosion, all that fun stuff, too, and goes into our farming practices and so on, so forth.

[Yeager] I'm a Northeast Iowa guy, and behind me right here, there's some crooked things. Those are the terraces, too, in the waterways that we have. So yeah, there's some commonality there. Corn country mostly.

[Klick] Yeah. I tell you what, we're in, we're in a good spot for corn, especially, we have several feed mill, so there's a lot of livestock, chickens. There are dairy left, and some hogs. But, and then we feed beef cattle. So that's our main driver of our corn acres. But, there's a lot of good local demand for corn. We have a plant about 50 miles in the south. That's, taking a good, good chunk of corn. And, it's a lot of the acres are pretty well evenly rotated. But there is quite a good demand here locally for corn. I have a local corn basis of anywhere from 35 to 50 over at the current moment. So we'll, we'll see how that continues on for the summer.

[Yeager] So you mentioned the semis. So is that your primary mode to get corn to where it needs to go?

[Klick] Yeah. Yeah. So one of our, spinoff companies we have is, we have a small trucking company. We have six trucks. Oh. Hopper bottom. We haul high quality soybean meal, distillers grain, soy hulls, fertilizer, grain, feed based ingredients, all that kind of stuff. So we got guys on the road every day, and, like I said, several feed mills around here. We all haul into them the whole grain out for a couple little local, co-ops and stuff as well. So keeps us hopping that way, too. But yeah, so semis and trucks, straight trucks are pretty. Well, everybody around here has gotten away from wagons for the most part. I know. And I mentioned my friend from northwest Iowa. When I got to talking to him about, you know, gravel, you know, farmer practices, whatever he used to be. Pictures of guys with, you know, 8000 series Deere’s pull two gravity wagons behind him pull into the mill. I just kind of shook my head like that's still a thing. You know, it's, kind of made me laugh, but.

[Yeager] Oh, yeah. Well, I got, pictures. I can see them clear this day. And you've got some of the older farmers, and you got younger farmers that need it for whatever the purpose is, because, you know, we still have plenty of farmsteads that have smaller bins that that's what they put in there, because a semi is a waste of the energy that things. Yep. Running off to, to somewhere else. We deal with river traffic. Barge traffic. You're close enough to the lakes, but I don't know how much that impacts you on where your grain could go.

[Klick] Yeah. So a lot of the grain here. for example, like the, local soybean side, there's a company my sister is a grain buyer for, they export a lot of beans on shipping containers. So they, they go to Cleveland, get on a train, and then they head over to the, port of Baltimore, and then they go out that direction. Quite a few on rail. Two to a lot of rail beans and corn that make their way south into the, Virginia, North Carolina, even, like over east and the Delaware and what that livestock market is. Well, there is some, some ship side up on up towards Toledo, up on Lake Erie, that side of things, there is some export mark up that direction. Or if we had actually a river terminal, the way the crow flies directly east of me is the kind of the far north tip of the Ohio River. so our local co-op does have a, river load port there. They offload and then, offload fertilizer and reload grain there, that, that port as well. So. Yeah. Well, we're kind of in a good spot for a lot of different, as far as that goes.

[Yeager] Well, that's what I was picking up. And that's probably why you're basis is as good as it is, because you do have options. And that kind of keeps everybody honest and competitive.

[Klick] Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of where we're at or we're more of a deficit area, for acres and grain because like you said, you go south of us, not too far, and it goes from corn, soybeans to hills and trees and cows very fast. and then obviously west of us, not too far really gets into big grain country, but but yeah, there's a lot of usage here in this eastern, eastern side of the state, eastern corn Belt. But we, there is a lot of grain rolls in here from other parts.

[Yeager] So you mentioned the ECB. Let's talk Eastern Corn Belt weather outlook because that is what's on so many minds because, you know, the weather people that we talked to, who they just they just say, you know, sure looks wet back over there. What's it been like in the last, 8 to 12 months for you weather wise?

[Klick] Yeah. I tell you what, our weather patterns, like the last 4 to 5 years, it's just been continual. are we actually, this year, finally actually had a winter with some snow again? you know, the past 4 or 5 years, it's just an extremely wet winter. Mild temperatures, lots of rain. but we finally got a more of a good old fashioned winter, as my dad and grandpa like to call it. We actually had some snow and the snow stayed on the ground for more than, you know, 2 or 3 days at a time when we got some frozen weather and stuff. So, we were really dry last summer. I was the driest summer we've had since 2012, which was detrimental drought year to most, you know, Corn Belt in the US. But, we were the second. We were just drive almost as dry as 2012. that continued all the way through the fall. Surprisingly, things didn't turn out as bad. Soybeans were kind of, soft story, but corn turned out fairly well, I think with all the moisture we had early. But, then over the winter, it just kind of continued on a kind of a dry winter. I mean, February, March was a little on the dark side. And then the second half of March there. I mean, it was nice. We were spread fertilizer, haul manure, did some groundwork done to fix some tile. I mean, you name it, we were getting stuff done in here. The last seven days we've had over five inches of rain from what everyone would call that trifecta of storms we had come across. I mean, I know we're not as bad as some of the folks there in southern Ohio and Kentucky and those those four guys, I've seen some really heart wrenching videos and stuff on the flooding and and and stuff down there and the tornadoes and all that as well. But, no, the Eastern Corn Belt is going to be wet, and it seems like it's going to continue to stay away.

[Klick] That's been on for some like the last 4 or 5 years. I mean, I remember as a kid, there were times where we actually we used the same tractor to plant corn. So, I mean, we were just under the corn flour being flour up. And we were always done in a very fast, full time. And now there's, the last five years, I think our average start dates been like the second week of May, just because that's the way our, our wet weather patterns just continue to, to trend wetter later. I think I planted more the June the last five years than I ever had. You know, my first, you know, many years of farming. I remember growing up as a kid, you know, so.

[Yeager] Well, what does that do for yield? Because, you know, we hear, oh, it's got to be an earlier to, to be able to maximize yield. I mean, it doesn't sound normal to be planning that late. have you been able to at least get, I guess, five years, if that's what the pattern is? That means the trend is that way. But ten years. Are you at least somewhere in that trend of a ten year yield?

[Klick] Oh, absolutely. I tell you what, I know we as farmers talk about things and we complain about things in the sand on the other. But, one thing we cannot shake a stick at is just for these genetics of covet. No matter what brand you have on your hat, these genetics have just come so far in even in the last, you know, ten, 15 years. I mean, we look at our weather patterns from 2012, and I remember cutting a lot of 20 bushel soybeans, a lot of 130 sub, you know, bushel corn, even worse than that. And we were well above and beyond that for the year for similar for a similar, climate for, for the growing season, you know, so I think in regards to that, our patterns just seem to be at least here in the Corn Belt, we've just been kind of shifted a little bit. You know, our spring carries on a little longer, a little cooler, a little wetter longer into May, but yet it stays warmer in the September-October. And we get those rains late September. We can still, you know, dry down and raise a good, good raise a good crop. Can we have them for the most part, our our trend line years have continued to rise. Our athletes have continued to rise like normal. How most people have expected to. So it's it just kind of gets you a test, your stress level a lot. Whatever. You know, I talked to my friends from Illinois, central Illinois and in northwest Iowa, and they're side grass and corn, and we haven't even playing a quarter, of course. Yes.

[Yeager] Well, and there's been northwest Iowa. I'm sure your friend probably told you the way June turned out last year, is when there were these 9 to 12 inch amounts. And that really kind of messed up his district, northwest Iowa, really kind of. If that doesn't happen, I think Iowa really is a leader in corn production. Otherwise, they were just like everybody else last year because of that heavy rain.

[Klick] Yep. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And there's no two years like we can all agree to that. Especially don't ask any, any guy, you know, 50, 50 years of age or above will tell you that, you know, 88. You know, people want to compare 88 to 12 or 88 to 2024 when we had. But, you know, there's never going to be an 88 again. And those guys as I, you know, so but yeah. So who knows. I mean, I'm, I'm pretty optimistic. you know, even with all that rain, the waters of sorry to recede, the rivers are still high. But as far as stuff puddling and stuff, it's gone back down a little bit. But the where we were at beforehand, I think we'll be all right. Here it is. What, the 8th or 9th of April and and, the two week forecast looks about like a normal April forecast. So things can change, for better or for worse. But I guess we've had enough years here recently now. Or it's like, well, as long as I have everything ready and, you know, like most people are too or well equipped, to, knock out the acres in a timely fashion, you know, with God willing whether need be. We can do it all in a very timely fashion.

[Yeager] So that big equipment can roll and get a lot done. okay. So you mentioned corn. What other things do you plan to there in your, your farm?

[Klick] Yeah, yeah. So we're a little corn heavy. We're like a 6% of our acres are corn. 40%. Well, okay. We'll say 50% corn. 40% beans and, like 10%, we plant a little bit of wheat, but mainly wheat for rotation. And then we feed a lot of cattle, so we better with wheat straw. So we do, we do, raise a little bit of wheat for wheat straw. Then we spread manure in the summertime, tile and all that fun stuff, fixed waterways and ditch all that fun stuff. So. But, yeah.

[Yeager] Is that percentage pretty much the same every year?

[Klick] Yeah. Yeah, for the most part, yeah. For the most part it stays relatively the same. Yeah.

[Yeager] And is there anything that makes you question take your hat off, scratch your head and go, well, maybe what if we add 5% more acres for this crop.

[Klick] Yeah. Well, in which the big one, you know, we it's kind of one of those crops, especially around here where it's like, well, you almost have to raise a certain amount of wheat, even, in my opinion, feel even like I call it messing with we, you know, you know, if you're involved in this plant, 20 or 30 acres of weights, I only have to come right out and do all this work in the dryer. Everything for that little bit of wheat. But graze 150 hundred acres of wheat makes a little more. Just five, in my opinion. Go out, get everything out and go through the whole shebang. And, like I said, we're in a decent market for straw as well. And wheat too, I mean, like a lot of Ohio's grown wheat here used domestically and some flour mills. So all of ours goes to the local flour mill here in north central Ohio that gets turned into goldfish. So eat your goldfish, I appreciate it.

[Yeager] So crackers. I have the goldfish crackers. Yeah.

[Klick] Yes, sir. Yes, sir, yes, sir. So. But, no, the corn is the big one. It fills up to me. Especially with the way our kind of seasonal friends have been for weather. Corn is just so much more favorable. And being able to maintain increased yield versus soybeans. But, you know, it's also one of those things where if we don't have the some of our dirt is very, would be very good to raise continuous corn on others. Not so much. So we kind of pick and choose farms. We have like four farms. We'll do a corn, corn, soybean rotation on two year corn, one year soybeans on, and then some other farms that we incorporate wheat into for a three rotation. And others are just corn being so.

[Yeager] And do you ever keep like 1 to 2% back where you don't commit and kind of how the wind blows you that day?

[Klick] Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Especially when the weather patterns kind of trend a little wetter. And obviously everybody's got the differentiating of farms, but we have some water farms that are kind of always a toss up, because if you can get in there a timely fashion, if they're playing for corn, the state corn, but it's also if it does you a little lighter side, it's not too bad as to put some beans in there too.

[Yeager] So, so it's. And is that what. Oh that's what the market says. It's up $0.30 today. I'm going that way. I mean, have you ever made a decision that way.

[Klick] But a tidbit, the thing with us is, for most guys in this area, storage is the big one, right? So, you know, with the way our yields are kind of drastically increase, I'd say, you know, from from ten years ago to today is a very drastic increase. You know, just kind of see it gradually increase several percent every year. Just again for farming practices and see genetics and just even weather in general. I would say, but with the core demand we have and it's, it's just kind of more favorable towards corn, I'll be fully honest, you know, and farmers, I think now single farmers can tell you that they'd rather I, in my opinion, plant soybeans, corn, cause more fun, more bushels to deal with. You know, everybody likes home, you know, like it. Everything about it. Now, obviously, economics wise, in 2022, we planted more soybeans because of market angle. But this year, in my opinion, at least on our farm, it's definitely more palatable to fly corn. So we're going to be a little more acres corn heavy.

[Yeager] So yeah. And we have one of our regular market analysts always says when in doubt, farmers are always going to plant corn over beans. Just that's that's it's just you love to do it. As he says. Yeah.

[Klick] Yeah. When we with the amount of cash, with the amount of cattle we feed, we always have to, to company a certain acres, regardless that we use to feed our livestock. So anything after that, we kind of, we like to play the market game a little bit and see where we're at with that.

[Yeager] So, well, let's talk about the livestock, because the last couple of years, the last year for sure, it's on that uptrend. have you been trying to expand or how hard is it to hold and not sell? What's kind of been the thinking.

[Klick] Yeah. So I graduated college in 2015, and when I was in high school and decided to go to Ohio State and study agronomy, my dad was like, you want to come out with farm? I said, yep, that's my plan. He's like, well, we gotta do something different than he said, you know the support, too. We were kind of like right on the verge of acre-wise enough to support two families, you know? And honestly, at that age, I didn't have a quote unquote family yet. But, you know, in the near future, it was, you know, in heavily going to college. So, so we, we diversified a little bit and added on to two of our existing small barns and made them so we were up to about 250 at capacity. And then when I graduated college, we built another 250 head barn. So we're feeding currently right now between 5 and 600 head on a couple different farms and very fortunate, the Lord has blessed us with, ample opportunities in that direction. We have, got hooked up with the two suppliers that all of our beef is use here domestically in Ohio. We ship about ten head every week to to one, one facility. And then there's another facility where we take, one load of ten a month. so don't have to. Don't have to look for semis, don't have to play the guessing game with the big Packers. And especially in our side of the state, it's very expensive to get that cattle anywhere the timely fashion.

[Klick] So it's kind of worked out really well in that fashion things. But I tell you, it's, it's a fun time to have fat Cat on the board.

[Yeager] I suppose, but are those ten picked because of they've hit the certain profit point, or just that's the way it's kind of has to be to keep the operation and what you have penciled out.

[Klick] Yeah. So the gentleman, one of the company that we sell beef to our premium beef, they just they buy off of all local farmers guys that range anywhere from size to feed and 50 head to thousand head, and, and they just have their a number of guys that they, they buy a certain amount from every week for their orders. And we're, you know, we've kind of settle on they just religiously almost get ten head a week. So we kind of have our barns and pens set up and size wise to where we can, we can draw a load out of that, spend the day and, you know, next week we can, you know, here move cattle around or whatever. And, and we buy cattle in sizable groups to where it's we kind of plan for that as far as you know, you know, 40 head or so a month that's going to leave our barns and then we replace obviously in a fashion somewhere. Is that so? But, on the other end of things, replacing these feeder calves is also, become quite the interesting, deal here. As of recently, local Report had five weights at four bucks a pound here on local market. So. 

[Yeager] Well, that's what I was going to ask is where do you normally get your feeders from?

[Klick] Yeah. So, like I mentioned earlier, just south of us here, like, my in-laws live out our south. They're Harrison County, Ohio, and it is all oil and gas hills, pasture and cows, no corn. So, we've got hooked up with quite a few, local families down there that, you know, feed your a raised, mama cows or brood cows. And we've got hooked up with buying cattle from one guy and he says, hey, my neighbor John's got, you know, a group of 20. Would you be interested? Yeah, sure. And go look at that guy's cattle. And then just kind of word of mouth. We've gotten groups of cattle in certain areas. And then now I got a good relationship with a gentleman, north south central Ohio that he just a big, cattle background or buys a lot of catalog of Kentucky, West Virginia and southern Ohio and, he backgrounds of about 600 pounds. And then we've established a good relationship. We'll go down there with a get a load of 50 and bring home and start on seed and do our protocols and everything. And, it's worked out really well. It's been a really good established relationship. That was, Facebook, made a relationship. Believe it or not, everybody we like to joke about social media and stuff. But I found this guy on Facebook and, Ohio feeder cattle group just posted on there looking for some feeder cattle for years later. We're buying almost half our half. Our fat cattle herd comes from this guy's farm. So.

[Yeager] Well, you know, Facebook's for all types of things. It's not just right for prom dresses or or hubcaps, for live cattle.

[Klick] Or for cash. That's right, that's right, that's right.

[Yeager] All right, as we sit here in, in early to mid April, you talked about livestock, we talk about the corn outlook. You kind of we both skirted around the soybean talk. What has you the most optimistic in 2025.

[Klick] You know like the big thing always buying and especially watching the watching the markets go up and down drastically here in the last 6 or 7 days after or after the president's, tariff announcements. I, I you almost have to be optimistic that the president knows what he's doing, and this administration's going to get something done. On a positive aspect, I believe that. So, yeah, I, I believe as much as we talk about and, you know, we work towards and finding new uses and new markets for our grain, you know, because the average person just wants to say, well, we can, you know, have to raise corn. So, I mean, we can raise other food, make food cheaper here and there. And, and you know, we both know as well as I do that that's just not how farming and economics work. Right. But there's ample opportunities I feel out there in the world marketplace for our grains. You know, people want American made products that don't matter if it's corn, soybeans or electronics or whatever it is. So I'm pretty optimistic about the future of, I guess I would say, global trade for our products because, you know, we believe and we know that we raise an ample product, whether it's, you know, grains, beans, pork, whatever it is. And I think the world wants that, you know, especially as economic travel get better there. We want to get our products elsewhere. So I'm optimistic about the future for global trade here in the United States.

[Yeager] Well, I'm global for you really is I mean, Canada is I mean, always been a big partner with the United States as as Mexico just kind of depends on your geography. So as long as you can keep that relationship going, I would imagine your optimism would, would, would stay high.

[Klick] Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

[Yeager] All right then let's, is there anything that has a little pessimism in the air? I guess just.

[Klick] I want to say patience. And I can say that as well. I mean, patients in the markets, patients in the weather, it's one of the many things I pray for a daily basis is for more patients. sometimes as farmers, you to get out, get to ahead of the game and get too anxious about, you know, whatever, problems get thrown at us on a daily basis. But I think just trying to be patient, with everything going on and especially once the finals get rolling, you know, we get a good weather stretch so you can get things in the ground and just, just hoping for, I want to say a more normal, weather year. but, you know, we both know that there is no normal anymore in weather. So, I guess I guess we'll see what the, you know, see what the year throws at us for that. You know, I, I hope we, I wish we could shift some of this rain back to the west for my friends and, Iowa and Nebraska and so on in Kansas and so on, that maybe need the rain a lot more than we do as of now. So I guess that's maybe where my pessimist US outcome in there. A little unsure about the weather.

[Yeager] Or even have maybe a June 1st delivery, a July 1st delivery, and August 1st delivery that would be helpful, too.

[Klick] Yeah, yeah, we get like two inches of rain, you know, the beginning of June right after we're done and maybe the second week of July after we're done cutting wheat bales job. Right. But you know, and then a couple so and so I'd be out of that.

[Yeager] So yeah that'd work. and and as we wrap up again mid April time frame here, how soon before you think you can roll and actually put something into the ground.

[Klick] If the weather holds true is what my, weather app on my phone tells us for next 14 days. hopefully we can get the fields there, maybe, next week and start doing some burndown and get the rest fertilizer spread and so on. And, and obviously for our livestock side of things, that kind of comes first we got, you know, spring wind or clean up to do and stuff. But planners are almost ready. So, you know, we don't necessarily get in a planner and go, it's like, we'll start plant some and we'll veer off and go back and do some more of this and get back into a planner. It's kind of all over the place. So but potentially the last week for my a little a little tidbit, I joke about my dad, grandpa. But dad, always dad. Grandpa always said you can't do anything till after Easter. So yeah.

[Yeager] No matter what it is, it's a floating holiday. It's exactly right. That's why you don't plant potatoes until Good Friday. You know, it's all of that stuff.

[Klick] That's right. With Easter being later this year, it, you know, it's shaping up to hold true to those, old timers, old timers things, I guess. So.

[Yeager] Sounds good. All right, Ben, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. And we'll talk to you in the middle of the season and see how things are shaping up.

[Klick] Hey. Sounds good. Looking forward to it. Take care.

[Yeager] Thanks to Ben. Will catch up with him in the middle of the growing season to see how spring turned out, as well how things are shaping up in the summer. New episodes come out each and every Tuesday. Next week we will go to Idaho, find out what's happening out there and how things are vastly different from depending on your elevation.

[Yeager] We'll see you next time. Bye bye.

Contact: paul.yeager@iowapbs.org