Barn Talk

Neil Koch walked away from a good job 4 miles from his house at almost 50 to go full time on YouTube. His channel, Dig Drive DIY, sits at 348,000 subscribers, and it started with videos of a backhoe he was trying to sell on Craigslist. He drove 6 hours from northeast Indiana to tell us the whole story.

DIG DRIVE DIY ➱ https://www.youtube.com/@digdrivediy

Neil was a farmhand at 14 on a culti-mulcher, then worked weekends on a 700 sow farrow to feeder operation. After that came three 10 year careers. He ran heavy equipment out of high school, spent about 10 years fitting some of the first hydraulic auto steer systems on tractors, then 10 more as an agronomist.

Years later, a clip of his buddy Jack side loading a dozer racked up 7 or 8 million views and had him monetized before he ever made a video on purpose. He has now posted 250 or 260 Sunday videos in a row without missing one.

Then we got into why people actually watch. Neil says it’s a look at rural, blue collar, middle class life that mainstream TV quit showing, and foreign viewers tell him all the time they’re glad this America still exists. We also got into the hard parts: young people with no house to get started in, farmhouses getting leveled when ground sells, and 10 bad comments that outweigh 1,000 good ones.

Also in this one: the backyard swimming pond that hit trending, why he heats with firewood when he has propane, small towns getting coffee shops and butcher shops back, a professor pitching Google in 1999, what he tells his 15 year old daughters, and running a John Deere scraper again after 20 years.

“I finally decided I’m going to be an idiot if I don’t. Like, what am I waiting on?”

What’s the project you’d buy a backhoe for? Drop it in the comments and we read them.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We’re on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we’re hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻

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THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Iowa Corn ➱ https://www.iowacorn.org

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Hog sheds gone after 138 haul truck loads

03:44 Remembering Jonesy, trucker extraordinaire

05:16 Who Neil Koch is and why he drove 6 hours

08:09 Farmhand at 14 on a culti-mulcher

10:07 Weekends on a 700 sow farrow to feeder farm

11:45 No Google, no YouTube, just figure it out

14:07 Why kids are afraid to drive now

16:19 Dirt work in summer, hauling milk in winter

20:29 FFA kid, drummer, no idea what was next

22:38 Iowa Corn and the Farm Bill fight

23:45 A teaching degree he never used

28:33 Vinyl graphics and the first websites

31:18 Fitting the first hydraulic auto steer

34:00 Learning agronomy from scratch

37:35 She called him out of the blue

40:23 The kid who always had a camcorder

42:45 A phone video with 7 or 8 million views

44:21 Monetized before he ever tried

47:51 Why vinyl and VHS are cool again

55:24 Everybody ate fried bologna

59:05 348,000 subscribers and going full time

1:02:49 Buying a bulldozer for the channel

1:05:39 The backyard pond that hit trending

1:08:24 Walking away at almost 50 to bet on himself

1:11:24 Why people say this America still exists

1:17:29 No houses left for kids to start in

1:21:23 Small towns are getting their shops back

1:23:39 Who’s left to wire an outlet?

1:28:48 I live in New York but want a dump truck

1:33:52 Why he still heats with firewood

1:36:08 10 bad comments beat 1,000 good ones

1:37:36 He hit 100,000 and found no finish line

1:42:47 Ambition is a blessing and a curse

1:48:22 What he’s teaching his daughters

1:51:13 Advice to 20 year old Neil

1:54:24 Tip of the Hat



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⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠

Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#IowaCorn

#EP222
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Corn is over $5 and beans are near $13, and a lot of farmers still won't make any more money than they did at $4.50 corn. Every time the grain price goes up, something takes it back, and the front half of this Hot Topics episode is about what's doing the taking.

Diesel is $6.13 in Iowa. One Illinois farmer spent $1,000 filling a single semi. Anhydrous is close to $1,000 a ton, up 25% from a year ago. Refineries over there are putting out about 60% of the diesel they did before the Iran war, so more oil doesn't mean cheaper diesel. The White House is letting dyed diesel run on the road for the rest of the year with the federal tax deferred, about $640 million of relief by USDA's count. Deferred, not forgiven.

Then the bigger point. Farming spent decades specializing, and that bill is coming due. We don't think 10,000 acres is big enough to win on scale anymore, and at that size you're a CEO, not a farmer. For everybody else the answer is diversity: livestock back on the ground, manure in place of high priced nitrogen, shared equipment. And China cut tariffs on corn, wheat, meat and dairy but kept 10% on soybeans, so bean marketing is about politics now, with Brazil getting better every year.

Also in this one: 17,000 fewer cattle through the packing plants in one week, why immigration reform keeps dying with no middle left in politics, a Kentucky family turning down $26 million for 900 acres, 70 to 80 trucks showing up to pull a sick neighbor's beets, and a 2,598 pound pumpkin.

Maybe that's why we don't just grow corn and soybeans on every acre. Maybe we need to diversify.

What's taking the $5 back on your operation this fall? Drop it in the comments and we read them.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻

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THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Conterra Ag ➱ https://www.conterraag.com

● AcreEdge Soil NXT ➱ https://www.acreedge.com

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Hot Topics before the pigs get chored

02:35 Why Tork came in fiery this morning

05:25 Tearing out Grandpa's 1970s hog barns

08:16 Market Update presented by Conterra Ag

10:30 $5 corn that pays no better than $4.50

11:28 The red diesel order and $640 million

14:46 Presented by AcreEdge Soil NXT

15:25 Diesel hauls everything you buy

18:43 We've hit the end of specialization

19:27 10,000 acres doesn't catch it anymore

21:43 Put livestock back on the land

23:02 No money behind you? Don't start in grain

23:34 The answer to high priced nitrogen

26:04 Red diesel vs green diesel, explained

29:31 Deferred, not forgiven. Who pays?

31:31 17,000 fewer cattle processed in a week

33:54 Why ag needs immigration reform

36:32 The death of the middle in politics

41:56 Packing plants were always the starter job

44:50 The post World War II order is ending

51:43 Why we want Peter Zeihan at the barn

52:55 China cut tariffs on everything but beans

54:05 Bean marketing is about politics now

57:27 Why Brazil worries every young farmer

1:00:20 100 year old locks and dams

1:02:44 Data centers are coming for farmland

1:04:40 $26 million for 900 acres, and they said no

1:08:59 Why Tork says they get built anyway

1:10:39 Great Grandpa would call me an idiot

1:15:56 Take the principles, not the assets

1:16:34 The good: College GameDay in Iowa City

1:17:52 70 to 80 trucks show up for Bill Cotton

1:18:41 The 2,598 pound pumpkin

1:23:09 Big plans for 2027

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FOLLOW BEHIND THE SCENES 👇🏻

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● Tork's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS

● Sawyer's X ➱ https://x.com/SawyerWhisler

● Tork's X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler

-------------------------------

⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠

Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#ConterraAg #Landus #EP221
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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.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻

Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com

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 farmers ended up on the Corn boards

1:03:13 Checkoff vs Corn Growers, who does what

1:05:53 Ethanol was Granddad's, bio-based is yours

1:08:20 Did the ethanol boom encourage bad habits?

1:11:10 Japan is now our number 2 corn buyer

1:14:43 Why buyers in Asia want to meet the farmer

1:22:12 NASCAR, E15, and the Cy-Hawk game

1:27:47 Mexico's GMO fight began in his machine shed

1:34:26 Most farmers just haven't been asked

1:36:24 Corn Growers is like going to church

1:40:28 Equity draining and no room for the kids

1:44:59 Fertilizer, the DOJ, and phosphate duties

1:48:13 Biggest farm wealth handoff in peacetime

1:50:00 What farmers want vs what they need

1:54:29 Brazil's 90 million acres it hasn't farmed

2:00:46 Tip of the Hat

2:05:58 How to join Iowa Corn

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SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY

APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049

FOLLOW BEHIND THE SCENES 👇🏻

● Barn Talk Instagram ➱ https://www.instagram.com/barntalkshow

● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS

● Sawyer's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4

● Tork's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS

● Sawyer's X ➱ https://x.com/SawyerWhisler

● Tork's X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler

-------------------------------

⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠

Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#BarnTalk #CoverCrops

#IowaCorn

#EP220
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Tork's dad lived to 99, flew fighters, practiced law, and paid for a farm. In July 2018 he fell down the basement stairs, and Tork brought him home to die in the same house he was born in. No guest this week. Sawyer and Tork each picked three days that changed their lives, and this is all six.

Tork sat up alone that night giving the hospice doses every few hours, and his dad passed around 5:30 in the morning. The first year he went to the gravesite about once a month, by himself, and bawled most times. He felt guilty grieving a man who had lived to 99. Sawyer was 12 when he rolled a four wheeler at 60 miles an hour, ruptured his spleen, and spent seven days at the University of Iowa. In 2001 Tork was out of hogs, setting trusses on a 2,400 head finisher near Wayland, when a phone call changed his whole life.

The part most farm guys never say out loud is what comes after. When your dad goes, nobody is coming to save you. Every field and bin site has a memory. You don't want to be the generation that screws it up. And now Tork is tearing out the hog buildings his dad put everything into, and he feels guilty about it.

Also in this one: how to know she's the one, the 10 percent days in a marriage, why it gets easier to quit the second time, 380 yards of concrete and a trip to Texas Roadhouse, the boss who taught Tork to stack equity, and the Market Update with copper near a record.

Some may be bigger, but this'll do.

What day changed your life? Drop it in the comments and we read them.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS:
We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻
Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Conterra Ag ➱ https://www.conterraag.com
● Propane Farm Research Program ➱ https://propane.com/farmfunding

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Just Dad and I, and prayers for Dougo Larson
03:14 Breaking outside the ag echo chamber
04:30 7 inches of rain in 10 days, harvest on hold
06:14 Market Update presented by Conterra Ag
10:48 The fuel price trend is not your friend
11:51 We need term limits, whatever side you're on
12:40 Three days each that changed our lives
13:51 See us at Gateway Farm Expo and HayCon
14:47 12 years old, a four wheeler, and 60 mph
17:12 A ruptured spleen and internal bleeding
20:59 The nurse who tapped the doctor's shoulder
22:32 "Four wheeler injury? He'll be all right"
26:24 July 11, 2018, the day my dad died at 99
28:52 Bringing him home to the house he was born in
32:38 What they don't tell you in the brochure
33:47 Nobody's coming to save you now
35:59 Every field and bin site has a memory
37:43 Guilt over tearing out Dad's hog buildings
38:37 How a farmer is supposed to grieve
42:28 Great American Farmer at the funeral
44:21 Some may be bigger, but this'll do
45:06 Why I can't pick the greatest day of my life
49:22 Summer of 1991, the first "I love you"
53:13 How to know she's the one: make her mad
56:18 The 10 percent days in a marriage
59:29 Why it's easier to quit the second time
1:00:26 Trajectory days vs grind days
1:04:40 The first Shopify notifications
1:07:24 380 yards of concrete and Texas Roadhouse
1:10:19 A phone call on a hog barn roof in 2001
1:13:03 The crazy guy who took that job
1:15:55 The boss who saw opportunity in risk
1:22:23 What day changed your life?

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LISTEN ON:

SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY
APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049

FOLLOW BEHIND THE SCENES 👇🏻

● Barn Talk Instagram ➱ https://www.instagram.com/barntalkshow
● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS
● Sawyer's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4
● Tork's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS
● Sawyer's X ➱ https://x.com/SawyerWhisler
● Tork's X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler

-------------------------------
⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠
Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#BarnTalk #perc #gateway #haycon

#EP219
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He grew up with kiddie pools in the attic catching roof leaks and frost forming on the inside of his bedroom wall, and today 1.33 million people watch him drag dead cars out of Iowa fence rows. Kevin Brown runs Junkyard Digs out of Ames, two hours up the road from the barn, and this one is mostly about what being broke actually builds.

The house sagged corner to corner and the ceiling collapsed while the family was gone for a weekend. Four of them lived in one room of an office building in town, no walls, three beds, for three years of his high school life. His dad pulled his entire 401k to put up a shell so they could finish the inside themselves. He paid for Iowa State by joining the National Guard as a Chinook mechanic, deployed to Kuwait and Iraq, and built the channel from a cot on government internet. He came home with 130,000 subscribers and two paychecks.

His rule is the part worth sitting with. He would not quit engineering school until the channel paid double an engineer's starting salary. He says the first time in his life he felt safe was the day the math cleared, not the day the subscribers did.

The farming is the cheapest operation in this state. Four and a half acres, a John Deere 620 with three gallons of gas in the oil pan, a $500 planter, and a 6600 combine he bought for $2,200 and drove home. He put $212 into inputs one year and sold the crop for $2,000.

Also in this one: only 3 percent of channels ever crack 100,000 subscribers, a million Shorts views that paid $412, copper at a record and the wire in your grain bin, and why his dad said the 1980s sucked while his buddy's dad called them the best years of his life.

His advice at the end sounds exactly like his dad: do not put your hands in your pockets. Learn to work hard and you will not fail in life.

What do you want us to dig into next week? Drop it in the comments and we read them.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻

Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Propane Farm Research Program ➱ propane.com/farmfunding

● AcreEdge Soil NXT ➱ acreedge.com

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cold open and guest introduction

04:25 800 shirts in three weeks for a stranger's roof

13:22 Sponsor break, Propane Farm Research Program

14:16 Kiddie pools in the attic, frost inside the walls

16:08 Four people, one room, three years

16:35 What being broke gave him that money never could

21:27 The Guard paid for college, so he fixed Chinooks

25:12 Building a channel on Army internet in Iraq

27:00 Home with 130,000 subs and two paychecks

30:47 Sponsor break, AcreEdge Soil NXT

33:15 No quitting until it paid double an engineer

35:13 His wife's 45 minute video got a million views

41:15 Get it running and drive it home, no trailer

58:26 Make it run, make it move, make it safe

1:04:19 The Junkyard Digs farming operation, laid out

1:07:15 A $2,200 combine with no reverser

1:12:45 $212 in, $2,000 out, most profitable farmer around

1:18:06 The part of being a creator nobody sees

1:25:11 Only 3 percent of channels ever crack 100,000

1:27:59 A million Shorts views paid $412

1:34:18 Can you build a whole life in rural America now

1:35:40 Nobody should ever move to Iowa, and he means it

1:40:46 What is actually killing small towns

1:55:12 His dad said the 80s sucked, his buddy's dad loved them

2:02:55 If 1995 did not get the hog guys, 1998 did

2:05:53 Is AI actually coming for the trades

2:12:17 25 CRT TVs, 15 VCRs, and 300 VHS tapes

2:16:26 The first time in his life he felt safe

2:21:47 Do not put your hands in your pockets

2:22:10 Tip of the Hat

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR

SUBSCRIBE TO THIS'LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c

LISTEN ON:

SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY

APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049

FOLLOW BEHIND THE SCENES 👇🏻

● Barn Talk Instagram ➱ https://www.instagram.com/barntalkshow

● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS

● Sawyer's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4

● Tork's Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS

● Sawyer's X ➱ https://x.com/SawyerWhisler

● Tork's X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler

-------------------------------

⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠

Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#BarnTalk #RuralAmerica #perc #landus

#EP218

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices