In this episode of the Ag Tribes Report, host Vance Crowe is joined by Jacob Babcock, a Michigan agricultural spray drone applicator and maintainer. They discuss the growing role of drones in agriculture, particularly in areas where traditional crop dusters face challenges due to terrain. Jacob shares insights on the effectiveness of drones in crop protection and the potential for drones to complement or replace traditional methods. The conversation also touches on the broader implications of drone technology in agriculture, including the potential for increased efficiency and precision in crop management.
The episode delves into several pressing issues affecting the agriculture sector, including the controversy over corn yield estimates and their impact on market prices, the effects of tariffs on US corn and soybean exports, and the dynamics of beef demand amidst rising prices. Vance and Jacob also explore the rising farmland values and the potential implications for new entrants into farming. The episode concludes with a discussion on Bitcoin's role in agriculture and the potential for it to serve as a financial hedge. Jacob shares his perspective on the future of drone technology and its impact on the agricultural landscape.
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I really didn't know what to expect.
[00:00:18] Unknown:
Were you nervous about it before, or how did you feel about it before? I just wondered what the heck was gonna happen. If somebody was on the fence, what would you tell them? Yeah. I'd tell somebody to do it. Just go and have
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fun. I'll have fun. You're only here for a short time. My grandkids are gonna say, oh, holy cow. Can we believe this stuff?
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Welcome to the AgTribe's report, a breakdown of the top stories affecting the culture of agriculture with your host, Vance Crow. The report begins in three, two, one. Let's begin.
[00:01:03] Unknown:
Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week, I bring on a cohost to represent one of the many Ag Tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week, we have Jacob bag Babcock. Jacob is a dedicated Michigan agricultural spray drone applicator and maintainer who started applicating with his dad in 2021 as one of the first two legal operators to spray fields for hire in the state. They've since expanded to selling drones to custom applicators and farmers while collaborating closely with Michigan State University on research across crops like grapes, pumpkins, carrots, blueberries, asparagus, chestnuts, potatoes, field corn, and cherries.
Their research proven efficacy is elevating crop protection for growers statewide. Welcome to the show, Jacob.
[00:01:51] Unknown:
Hey. Yeah. Thank you. It's, great to be here.
[00:01:55] Unknown:
So what have you been paying attention to lately?
[00:02:00] Unknown:
This man is a busy season right now. The corn fungicide run is when almost all the drones are running right now. So I've just been running around, keeping people flying. So that's been what I've been, mostly paying attention to.
[00:02:14] Unknown:
You know, so I'm so you were one of the people that reached out to me, a farmer I didn't know or somebody in ag. It's great. After you did and I started looking into drone applicator stuff, I started seeing stuff on x. A guy named Mizzou Tiger was out there saying drone applicating, for pesticides is way overhyped. What do you think? Is it are you in an overhyped field?
[00:02:37] Unknown:
It depends on who you ask. I mean, there's some people that say that they're gonna take out the crop dusters and everything else. It's just gonna be drones. It's not. But I do think that there is a lot of room where, like, here in Michigan, all our fields most of our fields are surrounded by trees, power lines. It's really a pain for the crop dusters to get in those fields, so I think that's a great application for that. There's also some growers. Like, I got handful of potato growers that that have, left the the plane, just so they can buy these, not be on someone else's schedule, get everything they want done when they want done.
[00:03:13] Unknown:
Yeah. So what is the comparative advantage for drones as opposed to planes? I imagine with planes, you can do a lot bigger acreage a lot faster.
[00:03:20] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, that is definitely one of the biggest, upsides. And it's I'd say it's different between states. I mean, you go out to, Kansas or something where it's really open. They can do a pretty good job out there. They can be real, close to the crop, getting stuff in there. But the drones, you know, here compared to here, like I said, trees, they gotta pull up, you know, a long time before. They can't get near as close to the crop. So there's a lot of room that they kind of don't get the spray on so close to the crop. So stuff like that. And, also, I mean, you know, you can use the drone in very different ways. You can go fast and just spread it out like a plane kinda, or you can kinda go slower and just force it through the canopy. Like, if you're spraying trees or something, you could force it right through the tree.
[00:04:14] Unknown:
Fascinating. Well, I'm glad that we are bringing your expertise on tonight for today's shows because we should dive into it. We're gonna look at whether corn yield estimates are a market manipulation scheme undermining farmers. We're also gonna talk about if the new tariffs on China are hurting corn and soybean exports. We're gonna talk about how beef demand is holding strong despite soaring prices, and farmland values are hitting new highs, but some people are saying that it is beginning to slow down. We're also gonna compare farmland and Bitcoin prices. We're gonna hear Jacob's take take on the Peter Thiel paradox, and we're gonna learn about his worthy adversary. And we're gonna try and do that in just thirty minutes. And if I sound a little stuttery, it is because my, my wife who just, brought a new child in about six weeks ago into this world is a little under the weather, and so I'm pulling double duty and I'm barely hanging on. So, Jacob, you may have to pull a majority of the load here.
Alright. Story number one, our corn yard our corn yield estimates, estimates, a market manipulation scheme to undermine farmers. In early August twenty five, commodity brokerage, Stonex, projected a staggering 188.1 bushels per acre for US corn yields translating into 16,300,000,000 bushels harvested, far above the USDA's 181 bushel per acre estimate. So this optimistic forecast has sparked accusations of market manipulation as it depresses corn future prices currently $4.10 to $4.30 per bushel, squeezing farmers already grappling with low profitability, delayed planting from excessive rains, and issues like tassel wrap and disease.
Critics are pointing to Stonex lack of methodological transparency saying they didn't say how they did it, who they've asked, anything that's put that they used to put it together. And it ties BlackRock, suggesting corporate interests aim to force land sales at low prices. Historical USDA overestimates like, 2023, which revised down from January to a 173 bushels, fueled skepticism with the upcoming August 12 report expected at one eighty four to 185 bushels. On x, users are echoing frustration and, industry voices are warning that this could deepen financial distress for small operators. I went out and asked Grok, you know, overall, what are the experts on x predicting, is the range of of crops? And they're saying, right now on x, people are expecting it to be between one hundred and eighty two and one hundred and eighty eight bushels per acre with consensus leaning right in the middle at about 184.5 bushels per acre.
Jacob, what do you think? Is this a coordinated plan, to overestimate bushels? Is this just an honest mistake, or are the numbers really that big?
[00:07:09] Unknown:
I mean, the fact that I mean, I didn't know who at all Stonex was until I read this and did a little bit of digging. But the fact that there's any ties to black black rock is kind of concerning to me. Just it seems like anything BlackRock has their hands in. They wanna push some sort of agenda or something. So that's that's always a concern. Yeah. I mean, I guess that that's my main thing, just BlackRock, but also yeah. I mean yeah. Just the,
[00:07:43] Unknown:
To me, like, there there's definitely voices out there. Jared McDaniel has been saying this for years that the numbers, are being consciously manipulated, that people are doing this on purpose. You know, I can remember in '23 when they were way overestimating, all of a sudden it dropped down, and then the people that had held on to their corn watched that price buoy bang like a like a balloon coming out of the water. And, and so you you gotta think, like, there are people that will act on their interests in that way. But that being said, there are a lot of people watching the crop. There are a lot of people that, have driven from, Iowa all the way out to Indiana up to, you know, North Dakota and south. And I feel like you do get a pretty good sense, from farmers looking at what's going on there.
So to me, it's always hard to ascribe, conspiratorial motives from the top, but, you know, I don't know.
[00:08:39] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean I mean, I'm just up here in Michigan. Our corn here looks pretty good, but I I mean, I don't get down to Missouri or Iowa or any of that much. But I do know, like, up in Minnesota, they have had a lot of rain. It seems like that's kind of stressed the corn a little bit, or Minnesota. But I and I have heard a lot about this, tassel wrap, which I didn't even know was a thing until it came out and was like but I mean, it makes sense when I've, looked into it. But
[00:09:13] Unknown:
Yeah. And tassel wrap, man, I I took some heat over the week for some people being like, no. This is way overhyped. But on the same side, I saw, Brian Scott showing, you know, corn that he had that was, that was not looking good. You know, you open up that ear and all of a sudden there's nowhere near the amount of corn in there, corn corn kernels. So it it's really hard to estimate because you do drive. I've done a bunch of driving, over the summer. And, man, those corn crop look big and green and luscious, and so it's hard to say that they aren't a huge bumper crop.
[00:09:47] Unknown:
Yeah. No. I mean, like I said, definitely hear that. But I think we're gonna have a good crop, But we'll see, because the other factor is disease. We've had a lot of good rain, and then recently, we had some nice cool, weather in the mornings and throughout the days, and that's just pretty good for some funguses to, grow in. So we'll see, hopefully,
[00:10:09] Unknown:
not too too many diseases with, all the crops really, but especially corn. Well, I have it marked. So every couple weeks, I will run the same, query with Grok and see what the experts on x are saying and how they get revised up and down. Alright. Moving on to story number two, is the tariff war hurting corn and soybean experts? On 08/06/2025, president Trump announced a 100% tariff on imported semiconductors and chips from China, exempting those built in The US, intensifying the ongoing trade war. While targeting tech, this escalates tensions, raising fears of Chinese retaliation against The US agriculture where China is a key buyer of corn and soybeans.
The ag sector relies on Chinese consumption to reduce domestic supplies and support prices, but China's forward purchasing books for US grains is the smallest since 2021. I actually looked into it, and what I've heard now is that it there are no open orders, and this is the lowest amount that it's been in fifteen years, signaling deterred buying amid amid prior tariffs. US exports could suffer further with corn and soybeans farmers facing lower demand and prices already pressured by global surpluses. Critics from the Corn Refiners Association and soybean groups argue that tariffs disrupt the supply chains and are actually benefiting our competitors like Brazil who continue to get the investment to be able to build out the infrastructures to supply Brazil to supply China with, grain. On x, there is no widespread recent, sentiment, but broader trade war discussions highlight farmer anxiety over lost markets.
Pro tariff voices claim it protects US jobs, but small producers fear this consolidation. So what do you think, Jacob? Is Trump winning the tariff war, or is this fight starting to hurt farmers?
[00:12:02] Unknown:
I don't know. I mean, I kinda came into this presidency thinking it's gonna be a little while before we really see how things shake out. It sir it sure seems like right now, they're it's hurting putting more strain on the American farmer, especially corn and soy. But it's kinda just, I mean, I was looking at all the stories you have coming up here, and it's like, that was kinda just seem like a common theme that there's just a lot of things pushing on the American farmer right now. Doesn't seem like another thing is, you know, it's kinda like what straw maybe, break some bones on the camel's back. But,
[00:12:40] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, this is the the stories I'm running today are all sent to me by, listeners, and it just I try to make this a show on the culture of agriculture, but this is what is shaping things the most. It is price, it is supply, and it is demand. And, you're right. Like, there there is just a lot of pressure right now on farmers and a lot of uncertainty. One thing is clear is I don't think anybody's tired of winning right now. I think even, even cattle producers aren't aren't feeling like they're tired of winning just yet, which is what Trump had promised them. So do you think hold on a little longer, or was that the hook that, got farmers on, and now they're stuck with, an administration that isn't actually putting in policies that help them?
[00:13:24] Unknown:
I mean, I don't know. That's kind of a hard deal. Yeah. I don't I don't feel I don't feel there's a lot of farms that are really winning right now, but like I said, I I I mean, most presidencies just try and see how things shake out. But just everything I mean, tariffs have affected not only farmers, but also other businesses and everything and expected, ours a little bit, and it's definitely hurt, a fair bit. So I'm I'm honestly not 100% sold on the, whole tariff thing that Trump is doing, but, like I said, I'm kind of waiting and just trying to weather the storm, but, yeah, the tariffs on everything is not helping right now. I'm I'm thinking.
[00:14:17] Unknown:
Well, let's head on to the third story where we continue talking about prices because beef prices continue to soar while demand holds strong. Despite skyrocketing beef prices in 2025, US demand remains robust with the beef market projected at a 113,200,000,000.0. Beef prices are up 8.8% this year with June prices 10.6 higher than in 2024, driven by not just a shrinking supply, beef production is down 2.3%, but also skyrocketing demand. High protein diet trends, have pushed six have increased by 61% in, 2024, and 80% of meat eaters viewing animal, proteins as key to a healthy lifestyle, fuel consumption, and, nutrient dense beef supporters for, like, doing things like weight management. So cattle producers are reaping rewards earning $622 per cow in '24 with feeder steers at $2.00 $5.70 per 100 weight. However, packing houses are, reportedly, facing losses of a $133 per head due to high cattle costs.
On x, the chatter reflects consumers grumbling over high prices, but continuing to grill and, beef producers, some of them really celebrating and saying that, they are they earned this after many, many years of depressed prices. So how about you, Jacob? Beef prices are up. Are you still buying plenty of beef and grilling?
[00:15:49] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. We we are. We get beef right from a farmer down the road and, don't once you go to that local beef, it's hard to go back to the grocery store. I'm just kinda wondering, you know, as the time goes on in the coming weeks, maybe months, if you're gonna see any, increase in the, price of pork or chicken or anything of the sort, people. And I wonder if we're gonna hit that point where people are like, you know, maybe a little less beef. Hey. This chicken's a little less for, you know,
[00:16:22] Unknown:
see if curious. Yeah. It's not been that cheap. I will say pork definitely has. My family has increased our our pork eating, which is great with me. I love pork. I think it's, an under celebrated meat in The United States. But, my wife loves chicken, and I can tell you that, like, as the guy that does the grocery shopping, I can see that, chicken prices are pretty high. But I think that that goes along with the idea of, high protein diets. I know my family is much more willing to spend on protein than we probably were a couple of years ago, and I think that that is a cultural trend right now. Oh,
[00:16:56] Unknown:
absolutely. I mean I mean, it's kind of been starting to shift that way in the culture, but it seems like RFK and the handful of other people really push that along really quickly. But
[00:17:13] Unknown:
Yeah. It's, it's gonna be, interesting. They were saying that, prices went up to 4% over the last month, and you would think that that would stall demand, but it's not. And, people often say the cure for high prices is high prices, but maybe if you have, something people want, then it doesn't. And that price just keeps going up. All right. Moving on to another increasing, price. And that is farmland prices. They have hit new highs, but growth is slowing. The USDA's 2025 land value summary report reveals that US farmland values reaching a record high with farm real estate averaging $4,350 per acre, up 4.3% from 24 cropland at $5,830 which is up 4.7 and pastures up, at 19, dollars 120, which is up 5%.
However, growth is decelerating from last prior year's 511.7% from '21 to '22. So this, is showing that there is some, impact from commodity prices and high input costs are making people a little bit more reluctant maybe to take on some acreage. Regional variations, as we know from this show, are very wildly. Michigan leading at 7.8% growth, while high value states like Rhode Island hit 22,500 per acre. So, critics from small farmer advocacy groups worry that rising value prices are cutting out young interest entrants and, favoring large operations.
So what do you think, Jacob? Are, are land prices, they gonna slow down? Are we gonna hit a peak and start going back down, or are they going up forever?
[00:18:57] Unknown:
I mean, personally, I I don't know completely, as I don't think many people probably do. I I think it's definitely gonna, at least for right now, keep going up. I think it's gonna need a we're gonna need a lot of change. I mean, I know a lot of the reason why our car or our, price per acre is going up so much is solar fields, development. They're putting in some factories, people moving in. All everything's as far as land is getting more expensive around here. So unless you can start cutting some of that, I don't see much, change in that, sadly.
[00:19:37] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, it's it's, one of these things that the, the rich get richer in in this kind of a scenario. And as the government prints more money, it is one of the places that, that money floats to as it goes to hard assets like land, and we're watching the price go up and up and up. And it's it definitely is keeping younger people from being able to jump in. I was on the way over listening to a real estate agent talk about housing prices, and the exact same thing is happening there. As inflation has gone up, the price of people's homes have gone up. But, eventually, the cure for high prices is high prices, and, people won't be able to buy. And at least in housing right now, you're watching a huge separation between the number of, buyers and the number of sellers. It's in fact, there are more sellers than buyers at the largest margin in something like twenty five years, which was one of those metrics that people saw going into the, the financial crisis of two thousand and eight.
I don't know that land will follow that same trend, but it does seem that land prices, at least right now, continue to rocket upwards.
[00:20:45] Unknown:
I mean, yeah, honestly, it we'll see if it, ever goes downward, but, hopefully, it don't hopefully, everything else don't come crashing down with it.
[00:20:57] Unknown:
Alright. Well, that's gonna do it for this week's shows. If you have stories that you think I should be covering, send them to me on x at vance crow, or you can send it to me, [email protected]. Every story this week was sent to me by listeners, and I really appreciate it. Moving on now to the Bitcoin land price report. So alright. Jacob, what county do you live in? I live in Calhoun County, Michigan. And what does one acre of high quality farmland cost there?
[00:21:28] Unknown:
It depends, but, I would say around, you know, $7.07 and a half to 8,000. You just say 8,000.
[00:21:37] Unknown:
Alright. Well, this week, Bitcoin's price has been jumping up and down, but right before press time, it was a $117,500. So if we compare that to $8,000 an acre, that means that, 0.068 Bitcoin would buy you an acre of high quality farm ground in Calhoun County, or in other words, one Bitcoin would buy you 14.7 acres. How does that sit with you, Jacob?
[00:22:06] Unknown:
I mean, I think it's probably a common, answer you get. I wish I had some Bitcoin. You know, I wish when I was a kid, my parents would have gave me allowance, and I would put that into Bitcoin. I'd be sitting pretty decent. But, no, I mean, it's Bitcoin's one of those things. I I don't have any, I don't have anything in it right now, but it is definitely something as time goes on. I I think I wanna start looking at it a bit more, maybe putting some money into it as well as other things. But
[00:22:33] Unknown:
Yeah. My, my unsolicited advice here is that, the very first purchase is the hardest one. And even if all you do is go out and buy $5, you'll be over that hurdle, and then you won't be like, I wish I would've done it. You'll be like, well, I'm doing it now. And I think that some big things are happening. I was listening to my favorite Bitcoin podcast, which I would recommend to everyone, which is called This Week in Bitcoin, and they pointed out that the Federal Reserve just published a paper. The paper was Official Reserve Reevaluations, The International Experience.
This was an article that actually mentioned Bitcoin in the context of a US proposal to use the proceeds revaluing gold reserves to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve or sovereign wealth. So I actually went and read the paper, and the paper is saying, look. There's some talk about maybe trying to find budget neutral ways to buy Bitcoin. That's what Trump said he wants to do. And one way that you could do it would be to reprice gold, which right now, The US has 261,500,000 troy ounces of gold, but they're valued at $42.22 per ounce on all of the balance sheets. Now everybody that's watched gold knows that gold is actually more like 3,300 per, dollars per ounce, And it that statutory limit has actually held down the value of gold. So what you could do and what this paper is talking about doing is that other countries, other central banks, have let go that statutory price on their gold and let it be re, repriced.
And then what could you do with what that does with the balance sheet? And the Federal Reserve was hinting at you could potentially buy Bitcoin, which is astounding to think that, the Federal Reserve would do that. What do you think, Jacob? Do you think The US might, reprice their gold and use that repricing to buy Bitcoin?
[00:24:26] Unknown:
I mean, I've heard of other things farther out of left field and that I could see. You know, four, eight years ago, I couldn't see that, but now, honestly, I I wouldn't be that surprised, if something of the sort happened. I'm just I'm not sure how many, people would like or dislike that.
[00:24:47] Unknown:
More than ten years ago, I I attended a couple of meetings at the Federal Reserve about Bitcoin, and they treated it like such a joke. And now it is so amazing to see them writing papers, and I don't think there is any moment too soon. I was also listening to Luke Groman, talk about he's an economist, and he was saying, look. Bitcoin may actually be the solution to the government's problems. We must print money in order to have enough money to pay off our debts. But if you print money, that inflation is gonna go into things. We talked about it's going into land prices. It's going into wherever you have hired assets. Well, if it goes if all of a sudden all of that money flowed straight into commodity prices and commodity prices jumped from $4 all the way up to $18 a bushel or $60 a bushel, you'd have people mass starving around the world. You might have really happy farmers, but this would suddenly be very bad thing. But Bitcoin actually offers an off ramp. Instead of money going into commodities or growing into the housing market or into land, it could go into Bitcoin of which you're not pricing anybody out of anything at that point. You're not keeping them from being able to eat or afford a house or get electricity.
So to me, Bitcoin may be the answer to a lot of the US government and really governments all over the world's problems. What do you think? You think, there's a chance we may funnel all that money, that they print into Bitcoin?
[00:26:16] Unknown:
I don't know about all of it, but I'm sure I mean, I don't see, just thinking about it. I don't know why exactly wouldn't hurt delete. I mean, it makes some sense, but also it make I know, as I kinda was mentioning earlier about, you know, land prices going up with the solar and all that. They're just looking at some way to make a return on their money. So, I mean, if they could see that and see Bitcoin or something of the sort as a just as good or maybe a bit more even or even better investment, then I think that would help, that, issue from story four.
[00:26:55] Unknown:
Yeah. I it's we're gonna see what happens, but I think the world is gonna continue to be, ever shaped by prices. Alright. If you are interested in buying Bitcoin, then I recommend using River. If you use the, link that I'll put in the show notes, then you will both, be buying from a great, exchange where I do my Bitcoin purchasing, but you will also, be supporting the show, which will get a little, bit of Bitcoin if you make a purchase there. So go to river.com and make that purchase. Alright. Moving on to the Peter Thiel paradox. Jacob, what is one thing that you believe that almost nobody in your tribe agrees with you on?
[00:27:32] Unknown:
I mean, I'm sure there's some people that could see this coming, but I really I mean, I kind of we're talking a little bit about at the first of a lot of, you know, jobs for crop dusters getting, you know, sent more over to the drones. Although I think it's gonna broaden just from crop dusters, I think you're gonna see that a lot with I think we already are seeing a bit of that with, traditional boom type sprayers and air blast sprayers and even, some of the few people that do backpack spraying still. There's a lot of those that, I think, eventually will transition over the drone or at least try it.
I mean, they're they're incredibly versatile tool. I mean, you can make it, like, an air blast sprayer. Are you pushing everything through the canopy or you're blanketing it across the field. So
[00:28:22] Unknown:
You were telling me before about, who you think will lead the future in drone manufacturing. Will it be The US?
[00:28:30] Unknown:
I kinda, I mean, the thing is China's already got a huge jump on us. I mean, I have not messed with too much with the, more American assembled drones. I though I have some customers that had some. They ran them for a year or two. They bought one of these. XAG is the main company, we sell for. They bought one of those, and they said it's been the easiest and nicest and fastest year, for their corn fungicide run. So, I mean, I'm American. I would love to see, and I'd love to go to a show and say this is an American drone right here, but I don't think we're gonna see that anytime soon. And what worries me is there's a lot of push to ban Chinese made drones, and there's some good reasons, and I'm open to hearing that.
But a lot of the reasons that they've pushed have kind of been, you know, security audits and whatnot, and so far the companies have been audited past. So, you know, until there's some real serious, I don't, quite buy into the banning. But, I mean, like I said, world's changing. They're like I've said, but, you know, the world's changing. You know, something may happen, and, you know, I may say, you know, we gotta quit using these. But from what I know right now, China's fairly, far ahead, and I've not seen any, like, real big security issues with the ones we are using, at least for what we are using it for.
[00:30:00] Unknown:
It's hard to say what to do in a situation like this. I know personally, like, we have a camera system in my house. In order that I can keep security on things, I can, check-in on my sleeping, you know, newborn. And it turns out that, all these video feeds were hitting servers over in China. And, and so, you know, I don't know that they're sitting there watching me in my house, but it definitely felt weird that they had set up the, you know, the ecosystem for that. I think about that on a grand scale for drones
[00:30:33] Unknown:
seems like it could be an actual national security threat. It could. And, I mean, there's some things I can get, like, you know, like, not using them for federal or some state projects, you know, having it now also just private use. I will say, at least with the manufacturer we work with, XAG, they have worked to move all their servers from China to The US. They're on a Amazon server in North Carolina, I believe, and they worked. And the one thing I've heard from them that was kinda interesting is it's harder for them to access the servers here than it is for us to go the other way across and send stuff to China.
So I I don't know. We'll see. I'm not a sec security expert on that regard, but
[00:31:19] Unknown:
Alright. Moving on to your worthy adversary, who is one person that you respect but you strongly disagree with?
[00:31:27] Unknown:
Kinda in the same realm of drones, but he's done a lot more than just drones. But it's a be a guy by the name of Mark Lediper. He's a spraying guru, as some may call him. He is an expert in the field. Yeah. His dad and, someone else started a spray air air blast spraying company and sold from that and went into consulting, consults for a lot of different companies. He's, you know, got a lot of knowledge. You know, there's some things though that it's like he's like, oh, right now, I don't think that's gonna work there, and then we go out, we do it, it works. Like, well, why is it working? And doesn't have a you know, challenges us a little bit with that and, you know, the job we're doing.
[00:32:13] Unknown:
Alright. So you started off strong. You were willing to name somebody, and you're saying that he this guy thinks, like, yeah. This can't be done, and you've ended up proving him wrong a couple of times?
[00:32:23] Unknown:
Oh, some things. And the the main thing, like, is with coverage is they're very like, you need to have this percent of coverage, and then we do our test. We're not getting even really too much close to it, but it's still, you know, very effective getting the job done. So we kinda pressed him on it a lot of times and kind of not having a real good answer.
[00:32:45] Unknown:
I love it. I'll call him out for that. Well, I your your, Peter Thiel paradox was a little indiscernible to me, but this worthy adversary is one of the good ones. So we will add this to our list. It's good. It's important that, you find people, you say, hey. This guy's built up a reputation. He's done well for himself. But, you know, sometimes we found some things that we don't agree with. That's exactly how you discover new information. So thank you for that. Alright. We are going to close out. But before we do, Jacob, if people wanted to learn more about your, drone company,
[00:33:20] Unknown:
what you guys do and what you're all about, where where would they go to learn more? Yeah. We're based out of, Michigan here. We can kinda get into Northern Indiana and Northern Ohio a little bit, but our company is called OnPoint Applications Group. We sell primarily XAG brand drones. We're kinda working on getting a couple other ones here. But that is our bread and butter. That is the ones that we have you know, we started with two of them, and we've gone pretty much just to this one because we like them so much. They're so much more serviceable and all that stuff.
[00:33:52] Unknown:
And what is the point of differentiation? Why should people come to you?
[00:33:59] Unknown:
I mean, kind of how we came to be was, you know, the thing that we, wanna set ourself, out on with service. I mean, what good is it if I sell you a drone and, yeah, you don't get any service? I mean, I had a guy a couple about a month ago, crash his drone real bad, had to total it. The guy he bought it from, he went to him and was like, hey. I need some service. I need to get this fixed, and the guy just said we don't service those. So he got our got our number from a mutual friend. We got them right up and going. So
[00:34:32] Unknown:
Well, Jacob, that fits perfectly with my experience with you. I had asked last week, hey. If there's anybody out in the ag world that, wants to do the ag tribes report, thinks they might bring a new perspective, You wrote me. You were super responsive. You were provided all kinds of information. And if your service for drones is anything like the way we prep for this, then I think you are probably one hell of a good company.
[00:34:57] Unknown:
Alright. Well, that's fine. You. And just one last thing. Sure. Oh, just one last thing. There's a show here in Michigan. If you're locally, probably heard of it, Agro Expo next week. We'll be doing some demos and have a booth there. If you'll see, check what everything's out, have a conversation, whether you think I'm doing a stupid thing and wanna tell me that, or you think this is a great idea and wanna learn more, go ahead and, find us there.
[00:35:23] Unknown:
Definitely. If you heard, Jacob on the podcast, tell him you heard him on the podcast. I'd love to hear that. Alright. Thanks, Jacob, for coming on, and thank you for tuning into the Ag Tribes Report. That's gonna do it for this week. As I mentioned, I will put a link into, for River. If you're thinking about buying Bitcoin, I could tell you it does seem like the stars are lining up for some pretty big moves, in the short to medium term. And, go check out this week in Bitcoin. Also, if you are somebody that is trying to help your organization get better, a few weeks ago, I was invited to, give a workshop on storytelling.
And, this workshop is called the man on the box. And I start off by telling the story of how I was out competed by a snake oil salesman. I, once was in Africa trying to teach the people how to prevent malaria, thought I was doing a great job, teaching them all about the science. And a man came walking into town one day, stepped up on a box and told the villagers a story. And I remember thinking, like, no way, man. I brought science here. Like, there's no way they're gonna listen to you. And every single person in that village lined up to, give him money for his little vials of snake oil. And from that, I learned that storytelling is actually the most important thing in communications.
And so I offer a workshop that will teach you and your organization how to tell your story, how to introduce yourself, how to talk about what you care about, how to talk about the value that you bring so that you can outcompete, men and women that will come and stand on boxes, trying to outcompete you. If that's something you're interested in, go to vancecrowe.com and, fill out the contact form, and let's see if we can work on something. Alright. That's gonna do it for this week. Next week, I'm a very excited. We have Jim Smith coming on, so he just agreed to that. He is, got some great takes and a great podcast. So I'm looking forward to that. So I'll be back next week. And as always, feel free to disagree.
The Ag Tribes Report is brought to you by Legacy Interviews, a video service that captures people as they really are so the future knows who they really were. Here's Legacy Interviews guest Patricia Showalter on the fun she had sharing stories for her grandchildren.
[00:00:16] Unknown:
I really didn't know what to expect.
[00:00:18] Unknown:
Were you nervous about it before, or how did you feel about it before? I just wondered what the heck was gonna happen. If somebody was on the fence, what would you tell them? Yeah. I'd tell somebody to do it. Just go and have
[00:00:31] Unknown:
fun. I'll have fun. You're only here for a short time. My grandkids are gonna say, oh, holy cow. Can we believe this stuff?
[00:00:47] Unknown:
Welcome to the AgTribe's report, a breakdown of the top stories affecting the culture of agriculture with your host, Vance Crow. The report begins in three, two, one. Let's begin.
[00:01:03] Unknown:
Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week, I bring on a cohost to represent one of the many Ag Tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week, we have Jacob bag Babcock. Jacob is a dedicated Michigan agricultural spray drone applicator and maintainer who started applicating with his dad in 2021 as one of the first two legal operators to spray fields for hire in the state. They've since expanded to selling drones to custom applicators and farmers while collaborating closely with Michigan State University on research across crops like grapes, pumpkins, carrots, blueberries, asparagus, chestnuts, potatoes, field corn, and cherries.
Their research proven efficacy is elevating crop protection for growers statewide. Welcome to the show, Jacob.
[00:01:51] Unknown:
Hey. Yeah. Thank you. It's, great to be here.
[00:01:55] Unknown:
So what have you been paying attention to lately?
[00:02:00] Unknown:
This man is a busy season right now. The corn fungicide run is when almost all the drones are running right now. So I've just been running around, keeping people flying. So that's been what I've been, mostly paying attention to.
[00:02:14] Unknown:
You know, so I'm so you were one of the people that reached out to me, a farmer I didn't know or somebody in ag. It's great. After you did and I started looking into drone applicator stuff, I started seeing stuff on x. A guy named Mizzou Tiger was out there saying drone applicating, for pesticides is way overhyped. What do you think? Is it are you in an overhyped field?
[00:02:37] Unknown:
It depends on who you ask. I mean, there's some people that say that they're gonna take out the crop dusters and everything else. It's just gonna be drones. It's not. But I do think that there is a lot of room where, like, here in Michigan, all our fields most of our fields are surrounded by trees, power lines. It's really a pain for the crop dusters to get in those fields, so I think that's a great application for that. There's also some growers. Like, I got handful of potato growers that that have, left the the plane, just so they can buy these, not be on someone else's schedule, get everything they want done when they want done.
[00:03:13] Unknown:
Yeah. So what is the comparative advantage for drones as opposed to planes? I imagine with planes, you can do a lot bigger acreage a lot faster.
[00:03:20] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, that is definitely one of the biggest, upsides. And it's I'd say it's different between states. I mean, you go out to, Kansas or something where it's really open. They can do a pretty good job out there. They can be real, close to the crop, getting stuff in there. But the drones, you know, here compared to here, like I said, trees, they gotta pull up, you know, a long time before. They can't get near as close to the crop. So there's a lot of room that they kind of don't get the spray on so close to the crop. So stuff like that. And, also, I mean, you know, you can use the drone in very different ways. You can go fast and just spread it out like a plane kinda, or you can kinda go slower and just force it through the canopy. Like, if you're spraying trees or something, you could force it right through the tree.
[00:04:14] Unknown:
Fascinating. Well, I'm glad that we are bringing your expertise on tonight for today's shows because we should dive into it. We're gonna look at whether corn yield estimates are a market manipulation scheme undermining farmers. We're also gonna talk about if the new tariffs on China are hurting corn and soybean exports. We're gonna talk about how beef demand is holding strong despite soaring prices, and farmland values are hitting new highs, but some people are saying that it is beginning to slow down. We're also gonna compare farmland and Bitcoin prices. We're gonna hear Jacob's take take on the Peter Thiel paradox, and we're gonna learn about his worthy adversary. And we're gonna try and do that in just thirty minutes. And if I sound a little stuttery, it is because my, my wife who just, brought a new child in about six weeks ago into this world is a little under the weather, and so I'm pulling double duty and I'm barely hanging on. So, Jacob, you may have to pull a majority of the load here.
Alright. Story number one, our corn yard our corn yield estimates, estimates, a market manipulation scheme to undermine farmers. In early August twenty five, commodity brokerage, Stonex, projected a staggering 188.1 bushels per acre for US corn yields translating into 16,300,000,000 bushels harvested, far above the USDA's 181 bushel per acre estimate. So this optimistic forecast has sparked accusations of market manipulation as it depresses corn future prices currently $4.10 to $4.30 per bushel, squeezing farmers already grappling with low profitability, delayed planting from excessive rains, and issues like tassel wrap and disease.
Critics are pointing to Stonex lack of methodological transparency saying they didn't say how they did it, who they've asked, anything that's put that they used to put it together. And it ties BlackRock, suggesting corporate interests aim to force land sales at low prices. Historical USDA overestimates like, 2023, which revised down from January to a 173 bushels, fueled skepticism with the upcoming August 12 report expected at one eighty four to 185 bushels. On x, users are echoing frustration and, industry voices are warning that this could deepen financial distress for small operators. I went out and asked Grok, you know, overall, what are the experts on x predicting, is the range of of crops? And they're saying, right now on x, people are expecting it to be between one hundred and eighty two and one hundred and eighty eight bushels per acre with consensus leaning right in the middle at about 184.5 bushels per acre.
Jacob, what do you think? Is this a coordinated plan, to overestimate bushels? Is this just an honest mistake, or are the numbers really that big?
[00:07:09] Unknown:
I mean, the fact that I mean, I didn't know who at all Stonex was until I read this and did a little bit of digging. But the fact that there's any ties to black black rock is kind of concerning to me. Just it seems like anything BlackRock has their hands in. They wanna push some sort of agenda or something. So that's that's always a concern. Yeah. I mean, I guess that that's my main thing, just BlackRock, but also yeah. I mean yeah. Just the,
[00:07:43] Unknown:
To me, like, there there's definitely voices out there. Jared McDaniel has been saying this for years that the numbers, are being consciously manipulated, that people are doing this on purpose. You know, I can remember in '23 when they were way overestimating, all of a sudden it dropped down, and then the people that had held on to their corn watched that price buoy bang like a like a balloon coming out of the water. And, and so you you gotta think, like, there are people that will act on their interests in that way. But that being said, there are a lot of people watching the crop. There are a lot of people that, have driven from, Iowa all the way out to Indiana up to, you know, North Dakota and south. And I feel like you do get a pretty good sense, from farmers looking at what's going on there.
So to me, it's always hard to ascribe, conspiratorial motives from the top, but, you know, I don't know.
[00:08:39] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean I mean, I'm just up here in Michigan. Our corn here looks pretty good, but I I mean, I don't get down to Missouri or Iowa or any of that much. But I do know, like, up in Minnesota, they have had a lot of rain. It seems like that's kind of stressed the corn a little bit, or Minnesota. But I and I have heard a lot about this, tassel wrap, which I didn't even know was a thing until it came out and was like but I mean, it makes sense when I've, looked into it. But
[00:09:13] Unknown:
Yeah. And tassel wrap, man, I I took some heat over the week for some people being like, no. This is way overhyped. But on the same side, I saw, Brian Scott showing, you know, corn that he had that was, that was not looking good. You know, you open up that ear and all of a sudden there's nowhere near the amount of corn in there, corn corn kernels. So it it's really hard to estimate because you do drive. I've done a bunch of driving, over the summer. And, man, those corn crop look big and green and luscious, and so it's hard to say that they aren't a huge bumper crop.
[00:09:47] Unknown:
Yeah. No. I mean, like I said, definitely hear that. But I think we're gonna have a good crop, But we'll see, because the other factor is disease. We've had a lot of good rain, and then recently, we had some nice cool, weather in the mornings and throughout the days, and that's just pretty good for some funguses to, grow in. So we'll see, hopefully,
[00:10:09] Unknown:
not too too many diseases with, all the crops really, but especially corn. Well, I have it marked. So every couple weeks, I will run the same, query with Grok and see what the experts on x are saying and how they get revised up and down. Alright. Moving on to story number two, is the tariff war hurting corn and soybean experts? On 08/06/2025, president Trump announced a 100% tariff on imported semiconductors and chips from China, exempting those built in The US, intensifying the ongoing trade war. While targeting tech, this escalates tensions, raising fears of Chinese retaliation against The US agriculture where China is a key buyer of corn and soybeans.
The ag sector relies on Chinese consumption to reduce domestic supplies and support prices, but China's forward purchasing books for US grains is the smallest since 2021. I actually looked into it, and what I've heard now is that it there are no open orders, and this is the lowest amount that it's been in fifteen years, signaling deterred buying amid amid prior tariffs. US exports could suffer further with corn and soybeans farmers facing lower demand and prices already pressured by global surpluses. Critics from the Corn Refiners Association and soybean groups argue that tariffs disrupt the supply chains and are actually benefiting our competitors like Brazil who continue to get the investment to be able to build out the infrastructures to supply Brazil to supply China with, grain. On x, there is no widespread recent, sentiment, but broader trade war discussions highlight farmer anxiety over lost markets.
Pro tariff voices claim it protects US jobs, but small producers fear this consolidation. So what do you think, Jacob? Is Trump winning the tariff war, or is this fight starting to hurt farmers?
[00:12:02] Unknown:
I don't know. I mean, I kinda came into this presidency thinking it's gonna be a little while before we really see how things shake out. It sir it sure seems like right now, they're it's hurting putting more strain on the American farmer, especially corn and soy. But it's kinda just, I mean, I was looking at all the stories you have coming up here, and it's like, that was kinda just seem like a common theme that there's just a lot of things pushing on the American farmer right now. Doesn't seem like another thing is, you know, it's kinda like what straw maybe, break some bones on the camel's back. But,
[00:12:40] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, this is the the stories I'm running today are all sent to me by, listeners, and it just I try to make this a show on the culture of agriculture, but this is what is shaping things the most. It is price, it is supply, and it is demand. And, you're right. Like, there there is just a lot of pressure right now on farmers and a lot of uncertainty. One thing is clear is I don't think anybody's tired of winning right now. I think even, even cattle producers aren't aren't feeling like they're tired of winning just yet, which is what Trump had promised them. So do you think hold on a little longer, or was that the hook that, got farmers on, and now they're stuck with, an administration that isn't actually putting in policies that help them?
[00:13:24] Unknown:
I mean, I don't know. That's kind of a hard deal. Yeah. I don't I don't feel I don't feel there's a lot of farms that are really winning right now, but like I said, I I I mean, most presidencies just try and see how things shake out. But just everything I mean, tariffs have affected not only farmers, but also other businesses and everything and expected, ours a little bit, and it's definitely hurt, a fair bit. So I'm I'm honestly not 100% sold on the, whole tariff thing that Trump is doing, but, like I said, I'm kind of waiting and just trying to weather the storm, but, yeah, the tariffs on everything is not helping right now. I'm I'm thinking.
[00:14:17] Unknown:
Well, let's head on to the third story where we continue talking about prices because beef prices continue to soar while demand holds strong. Despite skyrocketing beef prices in 2025, US demand remains robust with the beef market projected at a 113,200,000,000.0. Beef prices are up 8.8% this year with June prices 10.6 higher than in 2024, driven by not just a shrinking supply, beef production is down 2.3%, but also skyrocketing demand. High protein diet trends, have pushed six have increased by 61% in, 2024, and 80% of meat eaters viewing animal, proteins as key to a healthy lifestyle, fuel consumption, and, nutrient dense beef supporters for, like, doing things like weight management. So cattle producers are reaping rewards earning $622 per cow in '24 with feeder steers at $2.00 $5.70 per 100 weight. However, packing houses are, reportedly, facing losses of a $133 per head due to high cattle costs.
On x, the chatter reflects consumers grumbling over high prices, but continuing to grill and, beef producers, some of them really celebrating and saying that, they are they earned this after many, many years of depressed prices. So how about you, Jacob? Beef prices are up. Are you still buying plenty of beef and grilling?
[00:15:49] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. We we are. We get beef right from a farmer down the road and, don't once you go to that local beef, it's hard to go back to the grocery store. I'm just kinda wondering, you know, as the time goes on in the coming weeks, maybe months, if you're gonna see any, increase in the, price of pork or chicken or anything of the sort, people. And I wonder if we're gonna hit that point where people are like, you know, maybe a little less beef. Hey. This chicken's a little less for, you know,
[00:16:22] Unknown:
see if curious. Yeah. It's not been that cheap. I will say pork definitely has. My family has increased our our pork eating, which is great with me. I love pork. I think it's, an under celebrated meat in The United States. But, my wife loves chicken, and I can tell you that, like, as the guy that does the grocery shopping, I can see that, chicken prices are pretty high. But I think that that goes along with the idea of, high protein diets. I know my family is much more willing to spend on protein than we probably were a couple of years ago, and I think that that is a cultural trend right now. Oh,
[00:16:56] Unknown:
absolutely. I mean I mean, it's kind of been starting to shift that way in the culture, but it seems like RFK and the handful of other people really push that along really quickly. But
[00:17:13] Unknown:
Yeah. It's, it's gonna be, interesting. They were saying that, prices went up to 4% over the last month, and you would think that that would stall demand, but it's not. And, people often say the cure for high prices is high prices, but maybe if you have, something people want, then it doesn't. And that price just keeps going up. All right. Moving on to another increasing, price. And that is farmland prices. They have hit new highs, but growth is slowing. The USDA's 2025 land value summary report reveals that US farmland values reaching a record high with farm real estate averaging $4,350 per acre, up 4.3% from 24 cropland at $5,830 which is up 4.7 and pastures up, at 19, dollars 120, which is up 5%.
However, growth is decelerating from last prior year's 511.7% from '21 to '22. So this, is showing that there is some, impact from commodity prices and high input costs are making people a little bit more reluctant maybe to take on some acreage. Regional variations, as we know from this show, are very wildly. Michigan leading at 7.8% growth, while high value states like Rhode Island hit 22,500 per acre. So, critics from small farmer advocacy groups worry that rising value prices are cutting out young interest entrants and, favoring large operations.
So what do you think, Jacob? Are, are land prices, they gonna slow down? Are we gonna hit a peak and start going back down, or are they going up forever?
[00:18:57] Unknown:
I mean, personally, I I don't know completely, as I don't think many people probably do. I I think it's definitely gonna, at least for right now, keep going up. I think it's gonna need a we're gonna need a lot of change. I mean, I know a lot of the reason why our car or our, price per acre is going up so much is solar fields, development. They're putting in some factories, people moving in. All everything's as far as land is getting more expensive around here. So unless you can start cutting some of that, I don't see much, change in that, sadly.
[00:19:37] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, it's it's, one of these things that the, the rich get richer in in this kind of a scenario. And as the government prints more money, it is one of the places that, that money floats to as it goes to hard assets like land, and we're watching the price go up and up and up. And it's it definitely is keeping younger people from being able to jump in. I was on the way over listening to a real estate agent talk about housing prices, and the exact same thing is happening there. As inflation has gone up, the price of people's homes have gone up. But, eventually, the cure for high prices is high prices, and, people won't be able to buy. And at least in housing right now, you're watching a huge separation between the number of, buyers and the number of sellers. It's in fact, there are more sellers than buyers at the largest margin in something like twenty five years, which was one of those metrics that people saw going into the, the financial crisis of two thousand and eight.
I don't know that land will follow that same trend, but it does seem that land prices, at least right now, continue to rocket upwards.
[00:20:45] Unknown:
I mean, yeah, honestly, it we'll see if it, ever goes downward, but, hopefully, it don't hopefully, everything else don't come crashing down with it.
[00:20:57] Unknown:
Alright. Well, that's gonna do it for this week's shows. If you have stories that you think I should be covering, send them to me on x at vance crow, or you can send it to me, [email protected]. Every story this week was sent to me by listeners, and I really appreciate it. Moving on now to the Bitcoin land price report. So alright. Jacob, what county do you live in? I live in Calhoun County, Michigan. And what does one acre of high quality farmland cost there?
[00:21:28] Unknown:
It depends, but, I would say around, you know, $7.07 and a half to 8,000. You just say 8,000.
[00:21:37] Unknown:
Alright. Well, this week, Bitcoin's price has been jumping up and down, but right before press time, it was a $117,500. So if we compare that to $8,000 an acre, that means that, 0.068 Bitcoin would buy you an acre of high quality farm ground in Calhoun County, or in other words, one Bitcoin would buy you 14.7 acres. How does that sit with you, Jacob?
[00:22:06] Unknown:
I mean, I think it's probably a common, answer you get. I wish I had some Bitcoin. You know, I wish when I was a kid, my parents would have gave me allowance, and I would put that into Bitcoin. I'd be sitting pretty decent. But, no, I mean, it's Bitcoin's one of those things. I I don't have any, I don't have anything in it right now, but it is definitely something as time goes on. I I think I wanna start looking at it a bit more, maybe putting some money into it as well as other things. But
[00:22:33] Unknown:
Yeah. My, my unsolicited advice here is that, the very first purchase is the hardest one. And even if all you do is go out and buy $5, you'll be over that hurdle, and then you won't be like, I wish I would've done it. You'll be like, well, I'm doing it now. And I think that some big things are happening. I was listening to my favorite Bitcoin podcast, which I would recommend to everyone, which is called This Week in Bitcoin, and they pointed out that the Federal Reserve just published a paper. The paper was Official Reserve Reevaluations, The International Experience.
This was an article that actually mentioned Bitcoin in the context of a US proposal to use the proceeds revaluing gold reserves to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve or sovereign wealth. So I actually went and read the paper, and the paper is saying, look. There's some talk about maybe trying to find budget neutral ways to buy Bitcoin. That's what Trump said he wants to do. And one way that you could do it would be to reprice gold, which right now, The US has 261,500,000 troy ounces of gold, but they're valued at $42.22 per ounce on all of the balance sheets. Now everybody that's watched gold knows that gold is actually more like 3,300 per, dollars per ounce, And it that statutory limit has actually held down the value of gold. So what you could do and what this paper is talking about doing is that other countries, other central banks, have let go that statutory price on their gold and let it be re, repriced.
And then what could you do with what that does with the balance sheet? And the Federal Reserve was hinting at you could potentially buy Bitcoin, which is astounding to think that, the Federal Reserve would do that. What do you think, Jacob? Do you think The US might, reprice their gold and use that repricing to buy Bitcoin?
[00:24:26] Unknown:
I mean, I've heard of other things farther out of left field and that I could see. You know, four, eight years ago, I couldn't see that, but now, honestly, I I wouldn't be that surprised, if something of the sort happened. I'm just I'm not sure how many, people would like or dislike that.
[00:24:47] Unknown:
More than ten years ago, I I attended a couple of meetings at the Federal Reserve about Bitcoin, and they treated it like such a joke. And now it is so amazing to see them writing papers, and I don't think there is any moment too soon. I was also listening to Luke Groman, talk about he's an economist, and he was saying, look. Bitcoin may actually be the solution to the government's problems. We must print money in order to have enough money to pay off our debts. But if you print money, that inflation is gonna go into things. We talked about it's going into land prices. It's going into wherever you have hired assets. Well, if it goes if all of a sudden all of that money flowed straight into commodity prices and commodity prices jumped from $4 all the way up to $18 a bushel or $60 a bushel, you'd have people mass starving around the world. You might have really happy farmers, but this would suddenly be very bad thing. But Bitcoin actually offers an off ramp. Instead of money going into commodities or growing into the housing market or into land, it could go into Bitcoin of which you're not pricing anybody out of anything at that point. You're not keeping them from being able to eat or afford a house or get electricity.
So to me, Bitcoin may be the answer to a lot of the US government and really governments all over the world's problems. What do you think? You think, there's a chance we may funnel all that money, that they print into Bitcoin?
[00:26:16] Unknown:
I don't know about all of it, but I'm sure I mean, I don't see, just thinking about it. I don't know why exactly wouldn't hurt delete. I mean, it makes some sense, but also it make I know, as I kinda was mentioning earlier about, you know, land prices going up with the solar and all that. They're just looking at some way to make a return on their money. So, I mean, if they could see that and see Bitcoin or something of the sort as a just as good or maybe a bit more even or even better investment, then I think that would help, that, issue from story four.
[00:26:55] Unknown:
Yeah. I it's we're gonna see what happens, but I think the world is gonna continue to be, ever shaped by prices. Alright. If you are interested in buying Bitcoin, then I recommend using River. If you use the, link that I'll put in the show notes, then you will both, be buying from a great, exchange where I do my Bitcoin purchasing, but you will also, be supporting the show, which will get a little, bit of Bitcoin if you make a purchase there. So go to river.com and make that purchase. Alright. Moving on to the Peter Thiel paradox. Jacob, what is one thing that you believe that almost nobody in your tribe agrees with you on?
[00:27:32] Unknown:
I mean, I'm sure there's some people that could see this coming, but I really I mean, I kind of we're talking a little bit about at the first of a lot of, you know, jobs for crop dusters getting, you know, sent more over to the drones. Although I think it's gonna broaden just from crop dusters, I think you're gonna see that a lot with I think we already are seeing a bit of that with, traditional boom type sprayers and air blast sprayers and even, some of the few people that do backpack spraying still. There's a lot of those that, I think, eventually will transition over the drone or at least try it.
I mean, they're they're incredibly versatile tool. I mean, you can make it, like, an air blast sprayer. Are you pushing everything through the canopy or you're blanketing it across the field. So
[00:28:22] Unknown:
You were telling me before about, who you think will lead the future in drone manufacturing. Will it be The US?
[00:28:30] Unknown:
I kinda, I mean, the thing is China's already got a huge jump on us. I mean, I have not messed with too much with the, more American assembled drones. I though I have some customers that had some. They ran them for a year or two. They bought one of these. XAG is the main company, we sell for. They bought one of those, and they said it's been the easiest and nicest and fastest year, for their corn fungicide run. So, I mean, I'm American. I would love to see, and I'd love to go to a show and say this is an American drone right here, but I don't think we're gonna see that anytime soon. And what worries me is there's a lot of push to ban Chinese made drones, and there's some good reasons, and I'm open to hearing that.
But a lot of the reasons that they've pushed have kind of been, you know, security audits and whatnot, and so far the companies have been audited past. So, you know, until there's some real serious, I don't, quite buy into the banning. But, I mean, like I said, world's changing. They're like I've said, but, you know, the world's changing. You know, something may happen, and, you know, I may say, you know, we gotta quit using these. But from what I know right now, China's fairly, far ahead, and I've not seen any, like, real big security issues with the ones we are using, at least for what we are using it for.
[00:30:00] Unknown:
It's hard to say what to do in a situation like this. I know personally, like, we have a camera system in my house. In order that I can keep security on things, I can, check-in on my sleeping, you know, newborn. And it turns out that, all these video feeds were hitting servers over in China. And, and so, you know, I don't know that they're sitting there watching me in my house, but it definitely felt weird that they had set up the, you know, the ecosystem for that. I think about that on a grand scale for drones
[00:30:33] Unknown:
seems like it could be an actual national security threat. It could. And, I mean, there's some things I can get, like, you know, like, not using them for federal or some state projects, you know, having it now also just private use. I will say, at least with the manufacturer we work with, XAG, they have worked to move all their servers from China to The US. They're on a Amazon server in North Carolina, I believe, and they worked. And the one thing I've heard from them that was kinda interesting is it's harder for them to access the servers here than it is for us to go the other way across and send stuff to China.
So I I don't know. We'll see. I'm not a sec security expert on that regard, but
[00:31:19] Unknown:
Alright. Moving on to your worthy adversary, who is one person that you respect but you strongly disagree with?
[00:31:27] Unknown:
Kinda in the same realm of drones, but he's done a lot more than just drones. But it's a be a guy by the name of Mark Lediper. He's a spraying guru, as some may call him. He is an expert in the field. Yeah. His dad and, someone else started a spray air air blast spraying company and sold from that and went into consulting, consults for a lot of different companies. He's, you know, got a lot of knowledge. You know, there's some things though that it's like he's like, oh, right now, I don't think that's gonna work there, and then we go out, we do it, it works. Like, well, why is it working? And doesn't have a you know, challenges us a little bit with that and, you know, the job we're doing.
[00:32:13] Unknown:
Alright. So you started off strong. You were willing to name somebody, and you're saying that he this guy thinks, like, yeah. This can't be done, and you've ended up proving him wrong a couple of times?
[00:32:23] Unknown:
Oh, some things. And the the main thing, like, is with coverage is they're very like, you need to have this percent of coverage, and then we do our test. We're not getting even really too much close to it, but it's still, you know, very effective getting the job done. So we kinda pressed him on it a lot of times and kind of not having a real good answer.
[00:32:45] Unknown:
I love it. I'll call him out for that. Well, I your your, Peter Thiel paradox was a little indiscernible to me, but this worthy adversary is one of the good ones. So we will add this to our list. It's good. It's important that, you find people, you say, hey. This guy's built up a reputation. He's done well for himself. But, you know, sometimes we found some things that we don't agree with. That's exactly how you discover new information. So thank you for that. Alright. We are going to close out. But before we do, Jacob, if people wanted to learn more about your, drone company,
[00:33:20] Unknown:
what you guys do and what you're all about, where where would they go to learn more? Yeah. We're based out of, Michigan here. We can kinda get into Northern Indiana and Northern Ohio a little bit, but our company is called OnPoint Applications Group. We sell primarily XAG brand drones. We're kinda working on getting a couple other ones here. But that is our bread and butter. That is the ones that we have you know, we started with two of them, and we've gone pretty much just to this one because we like them so much. They're so much more serviceable and all that stuff.
[00:33:52] Unknown:
And what is the point of differentiation? Why should people come to you?
[00:33:59] Unknown:
I mean, kind of how we came to be was, you know, the thing that we, wanna set ourself, out on with service. I mean, what good is it if I sell you a drone and, yeah, you don't get any service? I mean, I had a guy a couple about a month ago, crash his drone real bad, had to total it. The guy he bought it from, he went to him and was like, hey. I need some service. I need to get this fixed, and the guy just said we don't service those. So he got our got our number from a mutual friend. We got them right up and going. So
[00:34:32] Unknown:
Well, Jacob, that fits perfectly with my experience with you. I had asked last week, hey. If there's anybody out in the ag world that, wants to do the ag tribes report, thinks they might bring a new perspective, You wrote me. You were super responsive. You were provided all kinds of information. And if your service for drones is anything like the way we prep for this, then I think you are probably one hell of a good company.
[00:34:57] Unknown:
Alright. Well, that's fine. You. And just one last thing. Sure. Oh, just one last thing. There's a show here in Michigan. If you're locally, probably heard of it, Agro Expo next week. We'll be doing some demos and have a booth there. If you'll see, check what everything's out, have a conversation, whether you think I'm doing a stupid thing and wanna tell me that, or you think this is a great idea and wanna learn more, go ahead and, find us there.
[00:35:23] Unknown:
Definitely. If you heard, Jacob on the podcast, tell him you heard him on the podcast. I'd love to hear that. Alright. Thanks, Jacob, for coming on, and thank you for tuning into the Ag Tribes Report. That's gonna do it for this week. As I mentioned, I will put a link into, for River. If you're thinking about buying Bitcoin, I could tell you it does seem like the stars are lining up for some pretty big moves, in the short to medium term. And, go check out this week in Bitcoin. Also, if you are somebody that is trying to help your organization get better, a few weeks ago, I was invited to, give a workshop on storytelling.
And, this workshop is called the man on the box. And I start off by telling the story of how I was out competed by a snake oil salesman. I, once was in Africa trying to teach the people how to prevent malaria, thought I was doing a great job, teaching them all about the science. And a man came walking into town one day, stepped up on a box and told the villagers a story. And I remember thinking, like, no way, man. I brought science here. Like, there's no way they're gonna listen to you. And every single person in that village lined up to, give him money for his little vials of snake oil. And from that, I learned that storytelling is actually the most important thing in communications.
And so I offer a workshop that will teach you and your organization how to tell your story, how to introduce yourself, how to talk about what you care about, how to talk about the value that you bring so that you can outcompete, men and women that will come and stand on boxes, trying to outcompete you. If that's something you're interested in, go to vancecrowe.com and, fill out the contact form, and let's see if we can work on something. Alright. That's gonna do it for this week. Next week, I'm a very excited. We have Jim Smith coming on, so he just agreed to that. He is, got some great takes and a great podcast. So I'm looking forward to that. So I'll be back next week. And as always, feel free to disagree.
Introduction to the Ag Tribes Report
Meet Jacob Babcock: Drone Innovator
Corn Yield Estimates: Market Manipulation?
Tariff War Impact on Agriculture
Beef Prices and Demand Trends
Farmland Values: Record Highs and Future Trends
Bitcoin and Farmland Price Comparison
The Future of Drone Manufacturing
Worthy Adversary: Mark Lediper
Conclusion and Upcoming Events
