Beyond The Crops

How to Get Through Tough Times on the Farm: Income Diversification Ways To Stay Resilient

• Mary Pat Sass + Jena Ochsner

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Join us for a special live episode of Beyond the Crops, recorded at Husker Harvest Days with FP Next podcast hosts Kurt Ahrens and Sarah McNaughton. In this live conversation, we dive into strategies for preparing farms for economic shifts, exploring ways to diversify operations and stay resilient in today’s evolving agricultural landscape.
Our first-ever live audience made this a memorable experience, and we’re excited to share it with you. Tune in for insights, stories, and practical advice to help farm families weather economic challenges with confidence.

Remember we launch new episodes every Tuesday.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this episode and our succession series on our Instagram page @beyondthecrops_.

We’ve enjoyed connecting with so many of you over there. Let us know if you have any questions or things you’d like us to do a deeper dive on. See ya next time

Connect with us outside of the podcast @‌jenaochsner and @‌marypat.sass @‌beyondthecrops_


Mary Pat: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Crops. This week, we're sharing a live interview episode we did at Husker Harvest Days with the FP Next podcast hosts, Kurt Ahrens and Sarah McNaughton. We had a great conversation with them and we're excited to share it with you.

Having a live audience for our podcast was a first for us, but I definitely hope it won't be a last. We had a great time at Husker Harvest Days with a great crowd. We talked about all things, diversifying our operations, farm economy, and how our farms are working diligently to prepare ourselves for the potential economic downturns.

We hope you enjoy our conversation and we hope you learn something along the way.

Husker Harvest:  . Hello and welcome to our latest episode of our Farmer and Rancher Driven Podcast, FP Next, which is now an award winning podcast, actually. So thank you to all of our listeners. I'm one of your co hosts, Sarah McNaughton, and I'm the editor of Dakota Farmer with Farm Progress, and I'm based in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Husker Harvest: So I'm excited to come down to Nebraska today. And I'm here with Kurt Ahrens, my co host. 

Man Speaker: Yes, I'm, I'm the [00:01:00] editor of Nebraska Farmer. I'm based in Crofton, Nebraska. I've been editor for about three years. So, Sarah, we're here live at Husker Harvest Days. We're really happy to have those, those who have joined us here in the seats and who will join us and listening to us later on, um, at the hospitality tent stage.

Man Speaker: We're happy to have those, uh, who will Listen beyond tonight and, uh, today and, uh, at FP Next and Beyond the Crop, Beyond the Crop's podcast. As we do this collaboration, it's kind of a special thing with a couple of, uh, popular podcasters here at HHD. Uh, we love Husker Harvest Days here in central Nebraska, west of Grand Island, and it's been a little warm.

Man Speaker: on the showgrounds today. I think the clouds helped us out a little bit earlier this morning, but the crowds have been great. Great demos, lots of good information too. So Sarah, maybe you could introduce our collaborators today on this episode. 

Husker Harvest: Absolutely. And so to be on the crops listeners, they don't need an introduction, but today at Husker Harvest Days, we have Jenna Ochner and Mary Patsy.[00:02:00] 

Husker Harvest: So excited to have our collaboration on stage here at the show. Of course, your own listeners know all about you guys, but for FB next listeners and those in the tent, starting with Jenna, could you give us a little bit of a biography of you, your family, your farms, and a little bit about how you got your start in podcasting?

Jena: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Jenna Ochsner and I married into my husband's fifth generation family farm. Three of the generations are actually seated in the front here. We farm commercial corn and soybeans as well as cattle. We finish some of those cattle out and we have a direct to consumer beef business. Um, we have three little boys that make up the sixth generation that we're praying can take over the operation someday and I started sharing online to market our beef business.

Jena: And then that's where I met Mary Pat and kind of through our relationship online turned into a podcast. 

Mary Pat: Yeah, so I'm Mary Pat Sass, and I am not from Nebraska, I'm from Illinois, and I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, and married my husband, who's a crop farmer in northern Illinois. We farm with his two brothers, [00:03:00] and their families, and their parents, so it's a lot of family in the operation, and we have two little kids, a boy and a girl, who love the farm life just as much as we do, and we started harvest today.

Mary Pat: I am unwell sitting here missing out on that, like severe FOMO, but, um, yeah, I started sharing online more to make connections with other women in agriculture and try to bring inspiration to those, um, in the industry and help them enjoy the life that we get to live, and so the podcast started. I called Jenna, I think, a week or two after you had your youngest.

Mary Pat: Like, 

Jena: a week at best. Yeah. Postpartum. 

Mary Pat: Yes. And I asked her, I just wanted something to do socially that involved someone else because anyone who has started a business online or shared socially would probably agree that there's ebbs and flows of creativity and sometimes it just gets really tough to like, Keep the grind going.

Mary Pat: And I wanted to bring someone along with me to help, I guess, motivate me. So I, [00:04:00] I was talking to Jenna. We were close before that and had this idea. Let's start a podcast so we can collaborate on something and bring ideas together and connect with other farm wives and other women in ag. And it took you a little bit before you agreed.

Jena: Well, I literally was about a week postpartum and I was like, I want to say yes, but I also just had a baby. So maybe I should sleep on it for like at least a night or two. I talked to my husband about it and he was like, absolutely, Jenna, that's the next step. You both love sharing and we were sharing on social media platforms where most of the content was disappearing after 24 hours and it was just hard to dive deep and really educate on a level that we wanted to.

Jena: So the podcast platform was just kind of the natural next step to kind of have an evergreen place where, um, the stuff that we love to share can live. 

Mary Pat: Yeah. And so for the past year and a half now, we've had weekly episodes and we've stayed consistent together and share a lot of different things. around farming and beyond the crops as well.

Man Speaker: So Jenna and Mary Pat, you told us a little bit about the how and why on your podcast, but maybe you could share a story or two [00:05:00] about the feedback that you've gotten from your listeners and maybe a favorite episode that you've done. 

Jena: Yeah, I definitely. So I feel like sometimes when we talk about things, especially things that are maybe a hot topic, my husband would be like, are you sure you want to say that?

Jena: And I'm like, well, on a podcast, No one can just comment back and like give you hate like they can't on social media So it's kind of I feel like they have to be really committed to say something negative to you So that's kind of a nice thing about podcasting But on we have a social account for our podcast as well, and we receive a lot of positive feedback there Um, it's called beyond the crop so we share about everything on our farm and beyond my One of the favorite things that i've shared about is like it's the first year we shared we like really heavy agronomy topics that we Really wanted to dive into and then Kind of started going beyond a little more and we have a couple episodes on a personal health journey that I went to to overcome Chronic migraines and I have kind of hid behind a wall of that for so many years with suffering and then like Through the healing process not really talking about it.

Jena: And so sharing that story I got so much feedback from [00:06:00] listeners that also suffered with headaches or were on the own health journey And that was just kind of a really healing process to share that. So that was one of my favorite episodes 

Mary Pat: And I would say, um, we did a couple of interview episodes that just really filled my cup.

Mary Pat: One was with Jenna's grandma, who is, how old is she? 

Jena: She's 97 and she just moved off the farm two years ago. She's at 95. 

Mary Pat: Yeah. So her story was just one that I love that we got to hear from her. And that is something that Jenna's family can treasure forever. And I also did an interview with my dad. Um, that was one that you weren't on and I'm kind of bummed because that would've been a lot of fun, but we had a lot of fun talking and just, I learned stuff about my own farm that I didn't know, because I took the time to sit down with him and talk.

Mary Pat: And I would say, the, probably the topic that I'm most passionate about in the moment right now is the farm safety topics that we've been talking about. It is Farm Safety Week next week, if you didn't know that. And we are the most dangerous occupation in America, is that right? I could be lying. I don't know.

Mary Pat: We're out there for sure. Yeah. So, um, we've been interviewing families and we did an interview [00:07:00] last year that went over really well with our audience that just helped bring awareness to different dangers and how a mom was able to, you know, make her kids aware. And that's something that Jenna and I care deeply about.

Mary Pat: So, and now we're doing, we decided to extend that and interview a lot of different people who have been, um, through different farm safety, like This week was a mycotel exposure. If you don't know what that is, it's a very deadly cattle vaccine. Yeah, so it's just very interesting and there's a lot to learn and we've learned so much from interviewing those people.

Husker Harvest: It's always great to get the positive feedback, right? I know when I was down in Kansas city at media summit, a listener randomly came up to me and told me how much she loved the show and we always love to hear good and good reviews and how people enjoy the show. kind of like you guys. We do the show for listeners for our farmers and ranchers and turning it from our podcast a little bit, the topic of the day, everyone besides farm safety stuff as well is talking about the economic downturn that's expected in 2025.

Husker Harvest: And so [00:08:00] Iowa state university reported on the USDA world ag supply and demand estimates saying that the drop in farm income we saw in 2023 will likely continue into the end of 24 and potentially in a 25. Of course, these are just the forecasts and estimates, but with some tougher times potentially on the horizon, we're having a lot of conversations about preparing for these times in case it does come to fruition.

Husker Harvest: So, of course, farming's a cyclical business, of course. When times are great, they're great, but things can turn on a dime. And you both know this from your own farm experiences. So what are some of your tips you would have to navigate markets and rising input costs? How are your family handling these potential challenges?

Jena: Well, I want to start by saying that our family in particularly has great examples of tight wads ahead of us that are really good at saving money and not spending. And they've been a really good, I guess, just teaching us like evaluating and only spending money on the things that you absolutely need for the farm.

Jena: And also my husband does a great job at trialing new things every year. And. Everything that we use on our operation, whether [00:09:00] it's a seed hybrid or a chemical of some kind or a new biological, we always trial it on a very small scale and then it has to earn every single acre that it's applied to on our farm.

Jena: So I just feel like that's a good way for us to really evaluate the input and decide what is actually necessary. And then when a year comes, like the next few years where it's really unknown, we can look back at all of our data and then decide, okay, like what inputs gave us the most return? Where were we able to cut back on some things?

Jena: What could we? Peel out to make this year a little bit more profitable. 

Mary Pat: And this year, some of the things our family is focusing on is really taking a hard look at our equipment lineup. What, what things might we have wanted to do versus what do we actually need to do and focusing more on the needs rather than the wants.

Mary Pat: And that could be like upgrading a tractor or, um, you know, a lot of different things on the farm that there's always something that needs to be upgraded. So, and then the other thing is, um, just. Just as we're out there, on our farm, we do several applications [00:10:00] across the field throughout the year. We're spoon feeding nitrogen, we're putting on fungicide, we're doing all of the things.

Mary Pat: And one thing that we can take a look at is, um, can we consolidate any of these passes to save a little bit somewhere? We don't want to like short the crop by any means because we still need bushels to pay for our bills. But is there anywhere that we can try to just reallocate or, you know, adjust? And then, um The other thing that we've done a lot of, and I know that regionally this works differently, but for us it's really worked great is we've stopped broadcasting most of our fertilizer.

Mary Pat: We pretty much banned everything through strip till and we're able to reduce our fertilizer by, uh, at a minimum 30 percent and probably more conservatively 50 percent and we're getting it where the plant needs it. So we're focusing on that product placement as well and just continuing those practices and making sure we're, we're looking at our entire farm as a whole and figuring out what we can 

Man Speaker: And today we have a lot of tools, technological tools, to help us be more efficient, and so it sounds like [00:11:00] you're, you know, you're utilizing those to really get the most out of every dollar you spend.

Man Speaker: I know one of the things that my wife and I experienced when we were farming when we were a young family, um, and this was really difficult at times, was tightening our belts for family finances. Um, you know, that's one of the things that a lot of times your financial institutions when they loan you money, they're like, Hey, you need to tighten your belt on the family expenses, but we found it really hard when you have an emergency medical situation with the kids, or, like, what happens with our family all the time, even now, is our, a vehicle dies, or something like that, and you have to have these big repair bills.

Man Speaker: So these are hard things. to really plan for. Do you guys have any particular strategies that you use with your own families on helping with these family expenses during these, you know, challenging times? 

Jena: Yeah, health insurance is something that I'm pretty passionate about. It had a pretty big choke hold on me.

Jena: I had a full time off the farm job and I stayed at that job probably 18 months longer than I should have [00:12:00] because that was providing health insurance for my family. And I was like, I can't step away from that. Um, it was kind of a really scary thing to consider stepping away from because my husband and two of our kids have a heart condition that requires them to be checked out every single year.

Jena: And like, those are expensive appointments. And I was like, I know that I need to be home on the farm, but I. We also need health insurance. So what are we going to do? And so we ended up finding a Christian sharing network that I actually learned from Mary had about, and it was kind of scary to take that leap of faith and leave that health insurance behind.

Jena: Cause we're just kind of taught that like, that's what you need. Um, but after being on that program for two years, they've been so great to work with, even with, um, the heart conditions. And I've had a child on that network now, and we had the money that we spent out of pocket has been way less compared to being on traditional health insurance.

Jena: That is one strategy for farmers. I know like when you're self employed health insurance is expensive and you don't get it from an employer like usual, so that's been huge for us to kind of shift to a sharing network instead of traditional health insurance. 

Mary Pat: Yeah, and I think about family finances. Like, farmers [00:13:00] are entrepreneurs.

Mary Pat: We can really get creative when the times get tough. And looking at how can you diversify your income, we're going to talk about that more in a little bit. Um, we've, that's something my husband and I look at a lot. Is there different investments that we can make that don't directly relate to farming?

Mary Pat: That maybe can be a little more steady on years where the farm just isn't going to be. And, um, yeah, also just living within your means. Take a look at how many subscriptions you have. I have probably too many that need to be cancelled right now. But it's on the list to go through. And just where can you, you know, Where can you cut things that you probably won't even know?

Mary Pat: And those little, those expenses seem small, but they add up.

Husker Harvest: I know those are some good tips and great advice on the health insurance side especially. I know that's a big hurdle for a lot of farmers and we've even had a podcast talking about health insurance for farmers and it's definitely a big topic. And of course marketing's an even bigger topic maybe, especially when times are volatile on the farm and ranch.

Husker Harvest: So in your families, who does the majority of the marketing [00:14:00] on the grain side of the livestock? We talked in another one of our early episodes about how many times the wife is the better marketer on the farm. Is that the case for you guys? 

Jena: I am definitely not the better marketer for the grain. I feel like I can market the beef pretty well, but, uh, my husband does all of the marketing.

Jena: He does a really good job at forward contracting. It's something his dad and grandpa have both commended him for. He learned really early on kind of how to take the emotion out of it. When we first met, it was 2012. And if you remember back then, the prices were pretty awesome and he was farming some makers by himself.

Jena: And I remember I was like new to the farming world and asking so many questions and Um, corn was 5. 50 and my husband said, I think it's going to go to 6. Like, I'm just holding out to sell my first field at 6. And the very next day it dropped to 5. 40 and it never came back up to that until about two years ago.

Jena: And through that whole process, I remember his dad and grandpa telling him like, you just have to know your break even and you need to sell confidently above your break even and then never look back. Take the emotion out of it. [00:15:00] Don't do, what if, oh, I should have waited, I should have waited, I should have done this.

Jena: Like, you have to take that out of it. I think. That advice from the generations ahead of us, it like just being really familiar with where your break even is and then comfortable with selling at a profit and not looking back has just been a really great way for us to take emotion out of marketing because it is an emotional decision.

Mary Pat: I am not the marketer on our family's farm. I don't touch that with a 10 foot pole and I try to avoid looking at the way the markets are going as much as possible. Um, but I would say also just looking at What other markets can you get into? Do you have to be selling number two yellow corn? Can you grow a different kind of corn?

Mary Pat: We grow non GMO corn on our farm, not all of it, just some of it. And it gets us into a different market that we can get some premiums on. And it, um, diversifies our herbicide programs. And it really helps us just diversify the same crop. And then we also grow some, um, food grade soybeans. So there's a different market to enter there.

Mary Pat: Again, same, uh, with the pesticide management. Um, yeah, and I think it's just Just [00:16:00] using these really good years to, the good years that we had, to learn and invest in learning a lot of new things and then on these off years, um, that were kind of lower in the markets, do the tried and true practices that you know are going to be, um, paying you back and maybe, like, not as much of the trialing and pouring money into these things that were not guaranteed.

Jena: And the good years are exciting, but like historically, if you look, the highs are like really high and then they come down and then there's a really long tail of lower years before it comes back up again. So one thing that Levi's dad and grandpa have taught us is to just be very conservative when you do have those good years and that extra income.

Jena: Like, don't just upgrade everything. Like, be conservative in upgrading so that when those hard years do come, you do have cash on hand to make it through that. 

Man Speaker: I know I was talking to a farmer recently, and he said the bad years are the best thing that can happen for your operation, and the reason was because it forces you to look at, you know, new income streams, but also, you know, how to tighten your [00:17:00] belt and how to be the most effective and efficient with what you have, and live, like you say, live within your means.

Man Speaker: I think that's really wonderful advice, um, but farmers are talking more and more about adding. Uh, new income streams, diversifying their income strategies, and finding some, maybe some passive income to help pay the bills. So do you have some, I know you have experiences along these lines, so why don't you share some of that with our listeners?

Jena: Again, this is another situation where I feel like we had great examples that came before us. Our family kind of first diversified in the 80s when the farm crisis was going on and the farms were kind of dropping left and right. Um, and The family started a crop insurance business to start building income away from the farm.

Jena: Um, so that was a good example for my husband and I to watch. We never wanted to be in the situation where we had to diversify because we can't keep the farm afloat if we don't. So we kind of did it at our own pace and started before we had to. I was working full time as a labor and delivery nurse. We [00:18:00] had one kid and we had a really great routine.

Jena: I had worked three nights a week, I had a couple off, and I was just Uh, so like, bored, if you will, it's kind of laughable to think back and how chaotic our life is now that I was bored. And I was willing to help on the farm, and I was like, I can do anything that you can teach me, but I would love to power wash the sprayer off for you, or help put stuff away, or haul this or haul that, but I also feel like I'm equipped enough that I can do something that could generate more income for our family.

Jena: you about that same time that we're having these conversations. We have a friend whose parents vacation in Florida and they were like we went to this Um, farmer's market in Florida and they were selling ground beef for 10 a pound. This was a lot, like, 10 years, not quite, before the craziness of 2020 where prices really went up.

Jena: So, being in Nebraska, where like 10 for ground beef, that's crazy. And that's where we kind of started doing the math on, okay, we finish our beef for local friends and family and as a gift to our landlords, but what if we sold the beef by individual cuts in pounds, like we could definitely increase the profitability from that animal.

Jena: So, that's kind of where [00:19:00] the, uh, idea for our direct to consumer beef business was born. 

Mary Pat: And I was also working a full time job on the farm, er, off the farm in corporate ag and technology. And I quit because I wanted to stay home with my kids and be a stay at home mom and farm wife, but that didn't last long because I just really wanted, I was bored.

Mary Pat: I wanted something to do, so I started sharing online and the social media end of the of the diversification of our businesses has been that for both Jenna and I were able to use social media to share about our farms and our families and then partner with brands that we trust and use on our farms to help generate more income on the marketing side for, on the social media marketing side for our families.

Mary Pat: And then, um, for me, I had built this audience who I really love so much and I pour my heart a lot of my heart into interacting with them. And I saw a need in my own life for a way to keep our family's [00:20:00] memories a little bit easier. I wanted to document life on the farm, but I didn't want it to be so overwhelming.

Mary Pat: I don't know about you, but sitting down with a blank piece of paper and trying to figure out what to write about is really hard. So I created a business. It's called grounded journals. prompted journals and memoirs for farm and ranch families to help record their stories and their memories. So that has been a business that's a little over a year old and it's been another diversification of income for our family.

Jena: And we both kind of took a different way, different journeys to that. Mary Pat started sharing on social and then her business was born out of that. I started sharing on social with the sole, like a goal to build a community that would, uh, Convert to customers that would buy beef from me. And so I was like sharing our story, our day in the life.

Jena: This is how our animals are raised. You mainly birth to butcher where they're in our care. And then I quickly realized through sharing on social media, there was other opportunities to make money. And so then I kind of diversified out from that. So it has been, uh, every story is different. Every journey is so different.

Jena: And then I met Mary [00:21:00] Pat along the way, and then that's kind of where our podcast was born. 

Mary Pat: So we've interviewed farmers and other people in the ag community on our podcast. And we have, um, Asked our audiences to what they've done to diversify their income, but we're curious from you guys What have you learned from other farmers that you've interviewed on how they've diversified their operations?

Husker Harvest: Yeah, absolutely I think a big one that I've seen a lot of especially with all of our ranchie friends and those who raise beef is the Direct to consumer marketing is really taken off It's like kind of like since 2020 since the COVID a lot of people went that route, especially in North Dakota We kind of have a lack of local meat processing plants a lot of people didn't have a chance to do it.

Husker Harvest: So they kind of form partnerships, maybe started their own processing plant, start a direct consumer business. Um, the other thing in North Dakota is a lot of people are getting hogs. They're adding pig barns onto their operation that maybe they were crops only for so long and adding those pigs into their business is a way for them to bring their kids on and have more things to do and.

Husker Harvest: diversify their income. I've also talked to a lot of farmers that I met [00:22:00] on socials where they say that their sponsorships and social media deals, kind of like you guys, add a little bit of extra income to doing something they already love to do. Well, 

Man Speaker: when I was farming, uh, social media didn't exist. So, that was, that was the thing.

Man Speaker: Uh, but back in the early 2000s, when my family was really young, I mean, we totally dried out a couple of years in a row, and that, that caused a lot of financial issues for us. So, um, I knew that we could raise black oil sunflowers because we had been hailed out one year, and my dad planted Sunflowers and we're in northeast Nebraska, so it's not sunflower country.

Man Speaker: Alright. But that's a good thing because there aren't a lot of sunflower pests around. And so, you know, a lot not as many disease issues. So we, my wife and I started raising black oil, sunflowers. and selling them off the farm as wild bird seed. We had them cleaned, we had our own bagging operation on the farm.

Man Speaker: The kids helped and, uh, it worked out really well [00:23:00] for quite a while while corn was like less than 2 a bushel, you know, so that, that was a good thing. Another thing we had was a very small choose and cut Christmas tree farm. So we'd have about 50 customers come out every year and cut trees and it provided income in December to help us out with Christmas.

Man Speaker: And, uh, it was fun for the family, you know, that kind of thing. We also sold some home raised pork, just like you guys, off the farm. And, and that was a really good thing. But it's funny how technology and how, how we promote these things has changed. Because back then, I remember, it was a really big deal that we had a website.

Man Speaker: I mean, that was just huge. Because nobody did that, you know. And look, look how far we've come. And how things have changed and how you promote those types of businesses. So, um, we had uh, an episode, uh, a few months ago with an Illinois farmer and a regular contributor to Farm Progress, Betty Haines. And she talked a little bit about, you know, we talk about the income streams and all that, but also on [00:24:00] handling stress.

Man Speaker: farm through challenging times. And she talked a lot about handling the mental stress and kind of the loneliness. Sometimes you feel like if things are going bad, you're the only one that's feeling that and you're really not. And so would you have some advice, um, for, or experiences on how to handle stress, you know, within your own families, but just in general on the farm?

Jena: One thing our family has always done, ever since they came over on the boat in 1885, is that they don't farm on Sundays. So, no matter how far behind we might be in planting or harvest, we take Sundays off as a family to go to church and rest, relax, just have quality time as a family. And I think, especially during the busy time of the year, that's a huge sanity saver for the whole family to just get a break to kind of rest and relax and recharge, and then jump back into the harvest or whatever season it would be.

Jena: Um Also, practicing daily gratitude has been huge for me in the last year. If you practice that and build mental and spiritual resilience, you just [00:25:00] can get through the hard times so much easier. 

Mary Pat: And I think it's really important to focus on what you can control, because as farmers, there's so much outside of our control that can really get you down mentally really quickly.

Mary Pat: So, what can you control? Well, we can control how we take care of ourselves. Mentally, physically, spiritually. Focus on that. Be really mindful of that going into these tougher times.

Husker Harvest: I know stress management is so important for everybody, but especially for farmers and ranchers kind of like you're saying the most dangerous one of the most stressful industries It's just so important. I love that advice and Switching over to some of the farm shows you both have attended this year You guys saw all the new tech over at farm progress show and you said you got to walk around Husker harvest days a little Bit has anything stood out to you is something really cool.

Husker Harvest: You've seen so far on the grounds either at farm progress show or here 

Mary Pat: I would say, the case AF11 combine. I got to drive an AF10 and that was really [00:26:00] fun. Um, just the technology in that thing and we have a 12 row corn head on our farm and I thought that was big but then I'm like sitting, the first time ever driving a combine sitting in a 16 row head combine and I'm like, Sending videos to my husband.

Mary Pat: This is the coolest thing ever. And there was a button in the cab that you could push and it like maxed out everything. So it was going like seven miles an hour in 250 bushel corn, 16 row head. And the corn was just coming in. And I told the guy, the case guy, so he next to me, we're going to plug it. We're going to plug it.

Mary Pat: And he goes, I assure you, we will not plug it. So that was really fun and something that stood out to me. And, uh, but. My husband won't try a case combine yet, so we got to work on him. We'll see. 

Jena: I had my first farm progress show experience a couple of weeks ago and it was a wonderful show. I learned so much and it was just so progressive.

Jena: Um, that was very exciting. However, I love at Husker Harvest Days being a Nebraska girly where irrigation is huge for our farm. The irrigation presence here is just so much more prominent and it's just exciting to see that irrigation [00:27:00] companies working hard to make our life more easier, create technology like field net that gives our, um, Just better like control of our pivots and gives us time back with our families.

Jena: Um, also I saw Levi, you better listen here. There's a grasshopper combine that has NFTs on it, lawnmower, lawnmower. Oh my goodness. That's embarrassing. A grasshopper lawnmower that has no, like NFTs, no flat tires on it. And then it also has a sunshade and a fan. And I was like, they made this for every farm wife that has to mow their lawn.

Husker Harvest: Nobody likes to deal with flat tires, right? And 

Jena: it's an issue on our farm. The lawnmower having flat tires is a problem. 

Husker Harvest: Sounds like you guys got a booth to visit after this. It seems like we always are able to circle around to the fun side of farming, even with these heavy topics. And of course, we haven't asked about you guys this yet, and we ask about it on every podcast.

Husker Harvest: In your own communities, we have to talk about food. Where would you recommend the best burger be? Kurt and I are making a I think we talked about making a very Full [00:28:00] list nationwide of the best burger tour. And we're going to hit that one of these days. We're going to go on a burger tour. So what's your guys best burger?

Jena: Well, you just need to head east about 45 minutes and drop south down to Sutton, Nebraska, where the flat river grill is. It's our local restaurant in town and they actually buy ground beef from us. So it's all single animal homegrown, dry aged beef. And all of their burgers are made with double O farms beef.

Mary Pat: I cook a lot at home and if I'm going out, I'm probably not ordering a burger because After we get a babysitter and get time away, I'm going to be ordering a filet. But I will say, a local restaurant for us is called Flatlanders, which makes sense because Illinois Flatlanders. And, uh, they serve good burgers.

Mary Pat: I like their other sandwiches there. And when they're delivered to the field, they taste even better.

Man Speaker: Yeah, as an editorial team, uh, we went out to eat a little bit earlier in the show. Uh, last night, uh, went out to Texas T Bone, where we usually eat on Monday night as an editorial team. And it's great food, you build your own salad, and, uh, you know, what's not to like about that? That's kind of my favorite.

Man Speaker: And we, we had a steak last night, it was excellent. [00:29:00] 

Husker Harvest: Kurt and I always order the same thing, it seems like we both always get a sirloin. But I order mine rare, and you orders your, yours what, medium well? 

Man Speaker: Medium well, usually, yeah. So, 

Husker Harvest: I will. This happened last year. It was an issue issue where I was like, God, they overcooked my steak.

Husker Harvest: And you're like, my steak is so bloody. And I'm like, we just got to switch plates. Um, and that's actually exactly what we ordered last. I went to Texas T Bone too. And last year here in Grand Isle, it was the first time I went to this place, but Kincaid Brewing Company downtown was fantastic. Love a good selection of craft beer, especially if I can get a hazy IPA, which pays pairs with just about anything.

Husker Harvest: And Kurt, it just sounds like we like all kinds of beef, whether it's burgers or steaks, it's a good thing that our home States are full of great ranchers to produce all that beef.

Husker Harvest: Otherwise, we could talk about food forever and everything. But, otherwise, did you guys have any comments you wanted to share about, you know, the farm economy? Maybe we didn't ask you questions. Maybe Kurt and I don't come up with all the answers or all the questions like you guys. are experiencing in your everyday lives, like, what's next in the farm economy for you guys farm?

Husker Harvest: Are you buckling down, kind of following the advice you've been talking [00:30:00] about? 

Mary Pat: Yeah, I think we are. And I think one thing that helps get us through too is asking yourself, like, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen here? For us, it would be to not be able to farm anymore. That would suck. But, we still have our health, we still have our family, we have two beautiful children.

Mary Pat: Like, we have so many blessings, and if the worst thing is that we have to go get a job somewhere, we're gonna be okay. And I think, like, having that perspective and that outlook and trying to just, you know, we're gonna be okay as a family, and that's all we really need. I 

Jena: mean, positivity breeds positivity, and there's research that shows that like having a negative outlook on things will negatively impact your future, so I just think working really hard to stay positive and thankful.

Jena: Mary Pat and I went on a, I don't know why we did this, but we went for a three mile run this morning before we were coming to a farm show to walk around, and I'm like, this is so dumb. But we were just like breathing in the fresh air, and we were like, We get to enjoy God's creation every single day. Like what a gift this is.

Jena: So I just think really looking around outside and just being so thankful that we get a farm and raise our families in rural America [00:31:00] and just keeping a positive outlook will have a huge impact on our future. 

Husker Harvest: Absolutely, and tying back in the, our last little comments about the farm finance, we recently discussed this in our Midwestern column, which is titled NextGen Agribus, where the author discusses the importance of staying adaptable during times of potential economic downturn.

Husker Harvest: You know, do your research, know your numbers, think strategically, invest time and energy into planning ahead to prepare your farm for a potential downturn. And that article and the rest of our podcast links and the Beyond the Crops podcast episodes are all going to be linked in the episode description.

Man Speaker: And I, I might add in here as, as the guy up here on the stage and someone who lived through the farm crisis of the 80s, um, that, you know, we remember that ag is very cyclical and, you know, like right now, if you're a beef producer, you're pretty happy, generally speaking, especially cow calf, you're pretty happy.

Man Speaker: Your input costs are plenty high, but, but you have concerns, but, you know, you're happy. The crop guys are disappointed because commodity prices maybe aren't so good, but the crop is going to be pretty good, you know, as it develops. [00:32:00] all across the country. So I guess we, like you say, be thankful for our blessings and the good things, realize that it's always going to get better and, uh, you know, be, be smart about how we adopt and adapt different strategies to kind of take care of things.

Man Speaker: Um, that's about it for this bonus episode of FP next with a special collaboration with the folks from beyond the crops. Uh, Jenna and Mary Pat, and we, we really want to thank you for joining us up here on stage today. It's been a great conversation, so we really appreciate it. 

Mary Pat: Thank you so much for having us.

Mary Pat: We truly appreciate the opportunity to kind of share this with both audiences and get our podcasts out there to each other. So thank you so much. 

Jena: Echoing what Mary Pat said too, we're just honored that you invited us to join you today. Farm people are our people, so it's just always a joy to pour into other farmers and learn from each other and, uh, kind of.

Jena: Gather before harvest and really celebrate this wonderful life we get to live.