In this episode of the Ag Tribes Report, host Vance Crowe is joined by Ethan Kohler, a farmer from Edelstein, Illinois, to discuss the latest developments in agriculture. They delve into the Trump administration's decision to drop criminal charges against South Dakota ranchers involved in a fence dispute, highlighting the community's support and the implications of government overreach. The episode also covers the USDA's new web portal for reporting unfair legal actions, the overblown fears of bird flu in California's dairy industry, and the lack of major deportation disruptions in agriculture despite previous concerns.
The conversation touches on the challenges of managing risk in farming, the role of brokers, and the importance of adapting to new market strategies. The episode concludes with a discussion on the Peter Thiel Paradox and the value of having a worthy adversary to challenge one's beliefs, offering listeners a comprehensive look at the current state of agriculture and the diverse perspectives within the industry.
To see Ethan's Substack: https://marketfarmer.substack.com/
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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 Laurie Alt on the joy she experienced looking back on her life as a farm wife and mother.
[00:00:17] Unknown:
My career was raising my children, being a wife to Steve, helping on the farm, and I'm so glad for doing all that. Having this interview with you helps us see those good things that we have done, how happy I was in all those choices that I make. We can say that and put it in this interview to pass it on to our children and our our grandchildren and great grandchildren someday. So I think you have a great gift to give people.
[00:00:50] Unknown:
Welcome to the AgTribe's report, 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.
[00:01:05] Unknown:
Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week, I bring on a cohost that represents one of the perspectives of the many Ag Tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week, we have Ethan Kohler, a dedicated farmer from Edelstein, Illinois. Ethan is a reputation for, being a hands on grower who bridges traditional farming and modern market strategies, managing field operations like hauling dry fertilizer and planting with dual planters. He's also an astute participant in the ag supply chain, crunching futures math and navigating commodities markets. So, Ethan, welcome to the show.
[00:01:44] Unknown:
Thanks, Vance. Glad to be here.
[00:01:46] Unknown:
What have you been paying attention to lately?
[00:01:49] Unknown:
I've been trying to get the crop planted. We finished here on Monday afternoon, so, pretty blessed to have that done.
[00:01:55] Unknown:
So all your crops in, is this early? Is this late? Is this about on time?
[00:02:00] Unknown:
It's early for us. Usually, we're not in done here till, oh, about a week or so from now, but we're pretty happy we had some nice weather to get done. We get it pretty far we went. Is this pretty much everybody around you is in because they're the weather, or did you guys go early? No. We were probably a bit more aggressive than some of our neighbors were, and there's still guys going right now. Well, not right now. We got some rain today and yesterday, but, there's guys that have to see it to finish.
[00:02:25] Unknown:
And now that they're in, how much longer till you start seeing green sprouts coming out of the ground? I've got some outside that window. Oh, wow. That's fantastic. And not worried. No no fear of frost. I mean, we've gotten frost down in St. Louis on mother's day weekend before.
[00:02:42] Unknown:
All we can do about that is pray
[00:02:46] Unknown:
advance. All right, let's get into the show on this week's episode of the Ag tribes report, we're dry. We're going to dive into the Trump administration dropping criminal charges against the South Dakota ranchers in a high profile fence dispute. Then we're going to explore why the flu fears in California. Dairies may, may be overblown. We'll also examine why deportation fears in average agriculture haven't materialized. And I'm gonna play a clip of Trump talking about illegal migrants in farming that I hadn't heard, even though it was done last week, we're gonna do all that. And we're gonna cover the Bitcoin land price report. We'll hear Ethan's take on the Peter teal paradox, and we'll learn about his worthy adversary. And we're gonna do that all in just thirty minutes. So let's get started.
Headline number one, Trump administration drops criminal charges against South Dakota ranching couple. The, ranchers Charles and Heather Maud had criminal trespass charges dropped on April 28, over a 1950s era fence on their ranch near Buffalo Gap, National Grasslands, Secretary Of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins called the case in overzealous prosecution of a fifth generation farm family. The mods who faced losing their home and livelihood held a news conference in DC. The case was sparked after a us forest service dispute. And, it drew in cattlemen groups, decrying government overreach.
This was a big, big story that, caught the news of everybody because the mod family one day said, Hey, We know we've got a fence dispute. And the next day, they had armed, government officials there, asking about that fence. So let's play a little video of the Maud family thanking all those who helped bring this, to the attention of, secretary Rollins.
[00:04:33] Unknown:
And a list of people that were we've worked with the most directly, but I know there are great many others behind the scenes, and we appreciate all of that help. We have my press gals that initially could not speak. We have Carrie Stadheim, editor of Tri State Livestock News, Rachel Gable, assistant editor of The Fence Post, and Mariah Tibbets, who is, not with those publications anymore, but did quite a bit of editing behind the scenes. Healy Covello with American on one, and it kind of grew from there. I've listed several of the people behind me. We also have Karen Budfalon, who is currently serving as the Department of Interior associate deputy secretary. We had, members of our staff were the first ones to come and view the allotment, and Chad Sullivan picked up allotment, and Chad Sullivan picked up quite a bit of press for us on this and has really helped.
We have Ethan Lane, senior vice president of governor affairs within CBA, who is instrumental and really helped us get this going right off the bat. Caitlin Glover, executive director of the Public Lands Council, who I'm very fortunate to have known for a number of years and who has just been by our side from from day one, and we appreciate that. Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, our South Dakota state representative, Liz May, brought 15 state legislative people and elected officials here the April to view the allotment, and they have done a great deal of work since. We appreciate all of their efforts on our behalf.
I wanna thank my mom and dad, and I'd like to thank Charles' parents too, our neighbors who stood up for us at the threat of retribution to their own operations that they still face until we get this completely resolved. And we are so thankful for the efforts that are being rolled out today to help make progress in the right direction.
[00:06:26] Unknown:
So I wanted to play that because there were so people that kept, ringing the bell about this. And, the un one channel on on x was actually the way that I found out about it. How about you, Ethan? Had you heard about this story, and, how does it feel to have it cleared up?
[00:06:42] Unknown:
Well, I had heard loosely about it and then, heard more about it here the last couple days. And, it's it's pretty awesome that we have so many neighbors stand up for our our neighbors together and the united community tend getting together as united fraud against overreach from the government. It's a fence dispute. It shouldn't be a threat to somebody's farm. It's just a fence, guys. Come on.
[00:07:06] Unknown:
I mean, I have to say, I went and looked this up because I had several people talking to me about the story and wanting me to put it in. It was not a small amount of land that they were talking about. It certainly was a fence dispute, but it was over, you know, a fence way up in, places like South Dakota, those fences can run a long way. So being a little bit off, the thing that really struck me was just how much force the government had brought into the whole situation. And then these people were put on a gag order and they weren't allowed to talk about it. So to your point about the neighbors, those people really went out on a limb because, they were, they were worried about being targeted themselves.
[00:07:43] Unknown:
Yep. That's a testament to agriculture. It really is.
[00:07:47] Unknown:
Alright. Headline number two, this goes straight in tandem with, with what was just put out there. The USDA launches a new web portal this week for farmers and ranchers to report, what they consider to be unfair or politically motivated legal actions actions from the Biden administration. The portal was announced by agricultural secretary, Brooke Rollins during a press conference with the mod family and the South Dakota ranch. Those were the South Dakota ranchers. We were just talking about. Rollins said The portal will help identify cases where farmers and ranchers have been targeted by unfair and politically motivated lawfare. The portal is now activeusda.gov/lawfare and allows agricultural producers to submit complaints about government overreach.
The announcement follows the profile case. And there are others that, the Trump administration is apparently, removing now. What do you think? Is this, just a politically motivated, trip to try and say, hey. We're we're out with the old and with the new, or is this an important thing to to make sure we battle back against, Biden area area lawfare?
[00:08:54] Unknown:
Well, Vance, I'm not sure what good this is gonna do for a lot of people. I mean, I I don't know what I would do with that. Maybe there's some special cases like the mods where something happened where somebody got overreached on, they brought force against them. Or, I saw in the comments there's something about Amish in Pennsylvania, but that's over my head. I'm a little bit removed from the news cycle these days. So maybe there's a purpose for that, but I don't think it's unnecessary as a general rule.
[00:09:24] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, I I wonder how it all work out. I mean, I think that as a person, Rollins administration had to have some concept of being able to say, why did this go on this long? Why did it take you time to make those actions? But on the other hand, like to your point, the Amish farmers, I mean, they were having cheese and milk dumped out, the ad that they'd been raising for years and years. There are those, ranchers out in California that were getting forced off of their land that they had leases on. And, so I think there's a lot of lawfare that's gone on, but I don't know, does a portal to the USDA actually help or is it just one more bureaucratic, group? I don't know.
All right. Headline number three, bird flu fears overblown in California dairy industry. The h five n one bird flu second wave hit California dairies, but fears among farmers appear to be overblown over while over seven fifty dairies report cows with reduced milk fevers and lethargy, cows aren't dying and the impacts end up being limited. The virus thrives now in cows, in their utters due to the bird like silly celiac, acid receptors, but it isn't adapting to humans easing pandemic concerns. California's testing and biosecurity measures continue, though less urgently pasteurization, keeps milk safe from, H five N one being passed to consumers.
And so researchers are monitoring the virus and they don't think it's that big of a deal. However, the news is continuing to cover this as a very big story. The center for strategic and international studies is posting articles on X claiming that the current bird flu outbreak has become the longest and deadliest animal disease emergency in US history with devastating losses to poultry flocks nationwide and major implications for US and agriculture food security. So I don't know when I see these articles from think tanks, otherwise known as propaganda outlets, I think they are just trying to, stir the pot. It seems like it is a storm that, never came to be. And, yes, it did kill a lot of birds, but a lot of those birds were killed as a prophylactic measure.
It's not killing cows and it hasn't jumped to humans in a long way. So, Ethan, what do you think? Are we, are we just about to see the the Domino's tip over and have this be a real issue, or is this just media hype?
[00:11:56] Unknown:
It sounds like a lot of media hype to me, Vance. There's really no reason the pasteurization process should take care of the virus in there, which for the consumers, we should have no problem getting our milk in. It is a shame that all those birds tend to be cold, but, we'll get our eggs someday. Let's be a little bit more expensive for a while. Now we'll get some chickens.
[00:12:15] Unknown:
Yeah. And it gave the, the Rollins administration something to do for a little while. It's interesting. I did hear from an egg producer the other day that, secretary Rollins has been doing all of her tours, going to different farms. And, she got rebuked pretty hard by the egg and the poultry industry saying like, Hey, what are you doing? You're, you're going to break up biosecurity. You may be the very person that's tracking, bird flu from, you know, farm to farm.
[00:12:41] Unknown:
Yep. Nice and safe. Gotta remember that.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
Yeah. And I also think like, the bird flu is one of those things that it actually could be a huge problem. And so to overhype, this particular issue is bad thing because there may come an issue, or a certain type of bird flu that comes out that is killing lots of birds or can jump from birds to, mammals. And so this one being overhyped seems like it could have pretty severe costs down the line.
[00:13:09] Unknown:
We don't wanna set up ourselves for failure in the future. It's just, we gotta be realistic about what we're dealing with today and be prepared to be realistic about what's coming next. Don't overreact or under react react accordingly.
[00:13:23] Unknown:
Yeah. Speaking of, overreactions, headline number four, no major deportation disruptions in agriculture yet despite concerns back in January, there is little news of deportations disrupting Us Agriculture. Many people in the media and on the left were saying that Trump's immigration policies were going to make it so our food was unharvestable, because undocumented workers, nearly half of the sectors labor continue harvesting without, interruptions. California Central Valley citrus and vegetable fields are operating more or less. Normally there have been, reports of some of the workers not showing up, but not mass arrests or raids on the farms. And this silence contrast with the fears of labor losses, and all the talk about food prices going up. However, I did find a story that, on April 21, us border patrol agents arrested migrant workers at Pleasant Valley Farms in Berkshire, Vermont.
The state's largest dairy operation with over 3,000 cows. The incident happened after agents reportedly spotted workers walking on the property near the Canadian border, which is a little bit unique because up until this point, ice raids had only been at, restaurants, stores, places where they saw migrants moving to and from, but not on the farms themselves. So I was watching this story and I thought, well, you know, what's Trump saying about all this? And it was interesting back on April 10, this is what Trump said about the illegal immigrant situation.
[00:14:51] Unknown:
Also gonna work with farmers that if they have strong recommendations for their farms, for certain people, we're gonna let them stay in for a while and work with the farmers and then come back and farmers and then come back and go through a process, a legal process. But, we have to take care of our farmers and hotels and, you know, various various places where they're used where they need the people. And, we're gonna be working with you very carefully on that. So a farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people saying they're great. They're working hard.
We're gonna slow it down a little bit for them, and then we're gonna ultimately bring them back. They'll go out. They're gonna come back as legal workers.
[00:15:33] Unknown:
Okay? Yes, sir. Thank you.
[00:15:36] Unknown:
So, Ethan, a lot farmers just a few months ago were saying that using illegals was a form of slavery or something like it. Now Trump is supporting some kind of legal reform. Where do you come out on this?
[00:15:50] Unknown:
I keep hearing mixed messages, and I don't really care for that. It's it's very difficult for me to understand what's truly going on when there seems to be a a lack of continuity, in the messaging. I was definitely afraid for those people, especially in California and Florida, that use the migrant workers to help take care of their harvest. It's a very important thing for our food system. Fruits and especially my kids love fruit, so it's strawberry season again. Thank god. So I I'm a little was nervous about it before. I'm sure the farmers were as well, but, I think it's the best thing to do is to do it the right way and go through it legally, but I don't think there should be any behind the table stuff going on like, oh, you're a good farm. You like me. You should not get that from treatment. That's not okay. They're all the same.
[00:16:39] Unknown:
Yeah. It's it's, it's definitely mixed messages. A few months ago, they were basically like, if you are illegal, it doesn't matter matter whether you're a productive member of society. If you're a grandma, if you've got kids, we're throwing you out. And now it seems as the Trump is walking that back, he ended up, I think later in the clip, talking about the need to support hotel workers and how the economy is held up by this. And it seems like there's this, clarity that, you know, so much of our economy is held up by people that are getting suppressed wages and those suppressed wages come because they're working illegally, knowing that they don't have security, they can't use the regular system.
And, so I guess what I'm hearing from Trump, when I hear him say they gotta leave and then come back. I don't know. That does sound like he understands the reality of the situation, but then also wants to be consistent about removing them. So to me, it seems like he may be walking an incredibly fine line.
[00:17:34] Unknown:
Fine lines in politics are a dangerous thing. Just be careful.
[00:17:39] Unknown:
Well, what do you mean by that?
[00:17:41] Unknown:
Well, as soon as he crosses the wrong side, he's gonna have retribution from the other side. And then he's gonna try and walk back, and then the inverse will happen. So he's saying everybody mad at him. But maybe that's what he wants. Why not?
[00:17:53] Unknown:
Yeah. I don't know. It seems like, there is, this is not playing out as starkly and directly as, the media hyped it up. And that's kind of my point of some of the news stories today. While there wasn't, there's always a bunch going on, when Trump is in office. But I did want to bring up both the immigration and the bird flu where people have been like catastrophe, catastrophe, and then it didn't happen. And so it's good to bring these stories back up and say, Hey, remember when we were talking about this? Cause otherwise people forget. And then the next catastrophe people can, blow it up bigger than it deserves.
Any other, I thoughts on, on this story?
[00:18:30] Unknown:
Nope. I think I'm good.
[00:18:32] Unknown:
All right. If you have news stories that you think I should cover, make sure you send them to me on X at Vance Crow, or you can email them to me directly. Vanslegacyinterviews dot com. All right now onto the Bitcoin land price report. Wow. Things are looking good for Bitcoiners. Last week, was at an amazing $93,446 And today we are sitting at $96,619 which is up 3% from just last week. So Ethan, where do you live and how much does an acre of land cost in terms of US dollars there?
[00:19:10] Unknown:
So I live in Peoria County and land around here goes for roughly 18,000 an acre.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
Okay. So at 18,000 an acre in Bitcoin sitting at $96,001.06 19, that means, 0.19 Bitcoin would buy you an acre of ground or one Bitcoin would buy 5.4 acres in Peoria County. Even what do you think? Is that a good deal? Would you, buy Bitcoin or land? What what do you think there?
[00:19:41] Unknown:
Can I buy both? Oh, wait. I forgot. I don't have infinite money. Dang it. No. I think I definitely wanna have Bitcoin somewhere in my portfolio. I'm just not quite sure how to put it there yet. Agriculture in my branch, it's a pretty capital intensive business, so it's hard for, me to figure that out as a younger producer.
[00:20:04] Unknown:
And so trying to figure out, like, where it fits into, should I buy a tractor? Should I buy more land? Should I buy better inputs? That kind of thing.
[00:20:11] Unknown:
Oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this right for the crop. That's gonna hit first. But, whether I buy more land or invest in Bitcoin or however that moves forward, especially with the if we have reached the point of having a lot of extra income, we have another great price rally to have the crops. No. Come eventually.
[00:20:30] Unknown:
And how are other farmers in Peoria County or other people in your tribe? How do they feel about Bitcoin? Well,
[00:20:39] Unknown:
I think most people are starting to accept it a little more, on the edges. It's definitely not mainstream yet. The older crowd seems to be slower adopter. It's a general rule. But some of the younger guys around, they're interested. Maybe they're not, like, whole hog in it, but they're definitely they see some viability as I do.
[00:21:00] Unknown:
Yeah. I have, kind of my brother-in-law index, which my brother in law's, you know, they're not particularly excited about having me tell them all about, you know, the things that I'm excited about. But when my brother-in-law start, you know, contacting me to be like, hey, just tell me a little bit more about this. Like, what kind of exchange would I buy this on? And if I bought it, what would I do with it? And there is definitely in the last two to three weeks been, been a big uptick there. So I can feel, you know, that it kind of comes in waves of interest. And, my brother-in-law into index is reading very high right now.
[00:21:32] Unknown:
Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, he would he should buy Bitcoin on river. It's where he should buy it.
[00:21:37] Unknown:
That's exactly right. Because if you buy it on river, you, you end up supporting the show and that, and so that's good for you. I think river is a great platform for purchasing. You also get a lightning wallet. And then, is if you as you buy, then it ends up giving the show some Bitcoin. So I'll include those in the show notes below. Thanks for that plug there, Ethan. All right. Now, moving on to the, Peter teal paradox. This is where I'm going to ask Ethan, what is one thing that you believe that almost no one, you know, agrees with you on?
[00:22:10] Unknown:
No. This was a struggle for me, and I chose to go the route that's gonna be more true to my beliefs. And I believe that, I'd say, seven to eight to 10 brokers in the world don't actually do a good job of helping a producer manage their risk. I think they're there to turn trades and help make themselves money. And if the producer makes money, great. They're not actually there to be a risk manager. And you if you have a good broker, a really good one, you cannot pay that guy enough. But if you get a bad broker, he's vastly overpaid.
[00:22:48] Unknown:
And what can a good broker do? What is the difference between a good broker and a bad broker?
[00:22:56] Unknown:
He can give you advice that's not based on his opinion. Helps you actually make money instead of trying to capture moves in the marketplace. That's not his job. His job is to help you manage your risk. And we have large capital expenditures here on the farm every season. We're talking a thousand dollars an acre to grow corn at $7.50 to 900 to grow beans. And grow beans. That's a lot of money when you talk on scale. So if I can manage my risk and I can do a three to 5% better job on my own than any brokers ever helped me do, what value they bring to me? None. So I need to lock in my profit because that's where the margins are in my business is in margins.
[00:23:41] Unknown:
And so if somebody were out there and they were trying to decide, should I spend my time and energy trying to find a good broker or try and teach myself how to do trades? What would be your, advice there?
[00:23:54] Unknown:
I think you should do both. Because if you can't be disciplined enough to do the trading or risk management yourself, however you wanna look at it, then you need to hire somebody else to do it. But you need to make sure you find a good one, and you need to make sure that you communicate what your goals and objectives are. Or they can get misconstrued, and you can do things you shouldn't be doing.
[00:24:17] Unknown:
Well, I'm gonna, give you a score here that's, probably gonna burn a little bit because I think that while it's important to you, I think that everybody knows that, there there are good brokers out there and bad brokers out there. So I'm gonna throw you a 4.5 on this one. Alright. Moving on to the worthy adversary section segment. This is where we try and find those people that help us get out of our ideological echo chambers by, finding who is someone that you respect, but you strongly disagree with?
[00:24:51] Unknown:
Well, I've done a job myself of trying to kinda step away from social media a fair amount. And so my worthy adversary is, maybe on social media. Don't know. That's a neighbor farmer of mine who, is a firm believer in strip till his core. And he believes that his way is the best way and the only way. And that's that's great if he believes that way, but I believe that there should be more nuance in how we take care of our ground. Some ground is made to have initial tillage done to it on occasion. Some grounds may be no till. Some ground is for strip till. There is not a blanket solution across the board anywhere, and that's, he seems to think that his way or the highway, and what he wants to do, and that's fine. Good for you, but I I can't believe that.
[00:25:40] Unknown:
And how does he is that just, like, neighborly conversation?
[00:25:44] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. This when we I see him across the finish line plan, still I'll call him on the phone. I respect the guy a lot. I really do. He we're he's from my dad, and I'm from him. He's a super nice guy. I respect what he says, but, I I don't don't agree.
[00:26:00] Unknown:
Good. Alright. Well, Ethan's, where the adversary is his next door neighbor, and I'm sure there are a lot of people that are, in that boat where they respect their neighbor, but they sure don't agree with them. All right. That is going to wrap up the traditional part of the show. I have been because mother's day is just around the corner. Been asking for, my guests. What is something that your mother, used to say when you were growing up that, that really sticks with you now or impacts the way you make decisions now?
[00:26:34] Unknown:
Eventually, caught me off guard. I was not ready for this. Oh, no. Well, does anything come to mind? I'm thinking. You know, my grandma has always said a penny saved is a penny earned. So that's been something I've kept around for a while. I can't do anything from my mom. Now I'm gonna get in trouble for her from that for sure. That's something that stuck around in my head for a long time.
[00:27:02] Unknown:
Well, that's that's a good one. I mean, it's it's tried and true, and, like, it's it's, it's definitely one that if you internalize, it'll make your life better. My mother, my mother used to have one, people in hell want water. And, I used to think that was so mean. But then when you're raising kids, sometimes you're like, yeah. Well, you may want that, but there's no there's nothing that doesn't make any doesn't have any impact on whether you're gonna get it or not. So, Ethan, I know you've said you're not on social media much, but if people, wanted to touch base with you, wanted to learn more about, trading their own grain or or, your ideas on farming, where would they go?
[00:27:42] Unknown:
You can find me on Twitter. That's the best place to find me on socials. I'm at Ethan Kaylor fourteen. Yeah. It's Kaylor.
[00:27:51] Unknown:
Kaylor. Yeah. I just heard that. I was like, oh, man. I got that wrong.
[00:27:54] Unknown:
Totally fine. Happens literally every single day of my life. And I've got a Substack as market farmer, but it doesn't I only do anything for marketing with that. It's just, I write a synopsis of the bible verse I read every day. It goes out to the world. So feel free to try that. I can include that in the show notes. Be great. I'll send you a link.
[00:28:15] Unknown:
Alright. That's gonna do it for tonight's show. Thank you so much for tuning in. We are one week away from mother's day. So if you've been thinking about getting her a legacy interview, go to legacyinterviews.com to schedule a call with me and we'll talk all about what you'd hope to capture and how we can make this a very special gift for your mother. Alright. We'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 Laurie Alt on the joy she experienced looking back on her life as a farm wife and mother.
[00:00:17] Unknown:
My career was raising my children, being a wife to Steve, helping on the farm, and I'm so glad for doing all that. Having this interview with you helps us see those good things that we have done, how happy I was in all those choices that I make. We can say that and put it in this interview to pass it on to our children and our our grandchildren and great grandchildren someday. So I think you have a great gift to give people.
[00:00:50] Unknown:
Welcome to the AgTribe's report, 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.
[00:01:05] Unknown:
Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week, I bring on a cohost that represents one of the perspectives of the many Ag Tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week, we have Ethan Kohler, a dedicated farmer from Edelstein, Illinois. Ethan is a reputation for, being a hands on grower who bridges traditional farming and modern market strategies, managing field operations like hauling dry fertilizer and planting with dual planters. He's also an astute participant in the ag supply chain, crunching futures math and navigating commodities markets. So, Ethan, welcome to the show.
[00:01:44] Unknown:
Thanks, Vance. Glad to be here.
[00:01:46] Unknown:
What have you been paying attention to lately?
[00:01:49] Unknown:
I've been trying to get the crop planted. We finished here on Monday afternoon, so, pretty blessed to have that done.
[00:01:55] Unknown:
So all your crops in, is this early? Is this late? Is this about on time?
[00:02:00] Unknown:
It's early for us. Usually, we're not in done here till, oh, about a week or so from now, but we're pretty happy we had some nice weather to get done. We get it pretty far we went. Is this pretty much everybody around you is in because they're the weather, or did you guys go early? No. We were probably a bit more aggressive than some of our neighbors were, and there's still guys going right now. Well, not right now. We got some rain today and yesterday, but, there's guys that have to see it to finish.
[00:02:25] Unknown:
And now that they're in, how much longer till you start seeing green sprouts coming out of the ground? I've got some outside that window. Oh, wow. That's fantastic. And not worried. No no fear of frost. I mean, we've gotten frost down in St. Louis on mother's day weekend before.
[00:02:42] Unknown:
All we can do about that is pray
[00:02:46] Unknown:
advance. All right, let's get into the show on this week's episode of the Ag tribes report, we're dry. We're going to dive into the Trump administration dropping criminal charges against the South Dakota ranchers in a high profile fence dispute. Then we're going to explore why the flu fears in California. Dairies may, may be overblown. We'll also examine why deportation fears in average agriculture haven't materialized. And I'm gonna play a clip of Trump talking about illegal migrants in farming that I hadn't heard, even though it was done last week, we're gonna do all that. And we're gonna cover the Bitcoin land price report. We'll hear Ethan's take on the Peter teal paradox, and we'll learn about his worthy adversary. And we're gonna do that all in just thirty minutes. So let's get started.
Headline number one, Trump administration drops criminal charges against South Dakota ranching couple. The, ranchers Charles and Heather Maud had criminal trespass charges dropped on April 28, over a 1950s era fence on their ranch near Buffalo Gap, National Grasslands, Secretary Of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins called the case in overzealous prosecution of a fifth generation farm family. The mods who faced losing their home and livelihood held a news conference in DC. The case was sparked after a us forest service dispute. And, it drew in cattlemen groups, decrying government overreach.
This was a big, big story that, caught the news of everybody because the mod family one day said, Hey, We know we've got a fence dispute. And the next day, they had armed, government officials there, asking about that fence. So let's play a little video of the Maud family thanking all those who helped bring this, to the attention of, secretary Rollins.
[00:04:33] Unknown:
And a list of people that were we've worked with the most directly, but I know there are great many others behind the scenes, and we appreciate all of that help. We have my press gals that initially could not speak. We have Carrie Stadheim, editor of Tri State Livestock News, Rachel Gable, assistant editor of The Fence Post, and Mariah Tibbets, who is, not with those publications anymore, but did quite a bit of editing behind the scenes. Healy Covello with American on one, and it kind of grew from there. I've listed several of the people behind me. We also have Karen Budfalon, who is currently serving as the Department of Interior associate deputy secretary. We had, members of our staff were the first ones to come and view the allotment, and Chad Sullivan picked up allotment, and Chad Sullivan picked up quite a bit of press for us on this and has really helped.
We have Ethan Lane, senior vice president of governor affairs within CBA, who is instrumental and really helped us get this going right off the bat. Caitlin Glover, executive director of the Public Lands Council, who I'm very fortunate to have known for a number of years and who has just been by our side from from day one, and we appreciate that. Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, our South Dakota state representative, Liz May, brought 15 state legislative people and elected officials here the April to view the allotment, and they have done a great deal of work since. We appreciate all of their efforts on our behalf.
I wanna thank my mom and dad, and I'd like to thank Charles' parents too, our neighbors who stood up for us at the threat of retribution to their own operations that they still face until we get this completely resolved. And we are so thankful for the efforts that are being rolled out today to help make progress in the right direction.
[00:06:26] Unknown:
So I wanted to play that because there were so people that kept, ringing the bell about this. And, the un one channel on on x was actually the way that I found out about it. How about you, Ethan? Had you heard about this story, and, how does it feel to have it cleared up?
[00:06:42] Unknown:
Well, I had heard loosely about it and then, heard more about it here the last couple days. And, it's it's pretty awesome that we have so many neighbors stand up for our our neighbors together and the united community tend getting together as united fraud against overreach from the government. It's a fence dispute. It shouldn't be a threat to somebody's farm. It's just a fence, guys. Come on.
[00:07:06] Unknown:
I mean, I have to say, I went and looked this up because I had several people talking to me about the story and wanting me to put it in. It was not a small amount of land that they were talking about. It certainly was a fence dispute, but it was over, you know, a fence way up in, places like South Dakota, those fences can run a long way. So being a little bit off, the thing that really struck me was just how much force the government had brought into the whole situation. And then these people were put on a gag order and they weren't allowed to talk about it. So to your point about the neighbors, those people really went out on a limb because, they were, they were worried about being targeted themselves.
[00:07:43] Unknown:
Yep. That's a testament to agriculture. It really is.
[00:07:47] Unknown:
Alright. Headline number two, this goes straight in tandem with, with what was just put out there. The USDA launches a new web portal this week for farmers and ranchers to report, what they consider to be unfair or politically motivated legal actions actions from the Biden administration. The portal was announced by agricultural secretary, Brooke Rollins during a press conference with the mod family and the South Dakota ranch. Those were the South Dakota ranchers. We were just talking about. Rollins said The portal will help identify cases where farmers and ranchers have been targeted by unfair and politically motivated lawfare. The portal is now activeusda.gov/lawfare and allows agricultural producers to submit complaints about government overreach.
The announcement follows the profile case. And there are others that, the Trump administration is apparently, removing now. What do you think? Is this, just a politically motivated, trip to try and say, hey. We're we're out with the old and with the new, or is this an important thing to to make sure we battle back against, Biden area area lawfare?
[00:08:54] Unknown:
Well, Vance, I'm not sure what good this is gonna do for a lot of people. I mean, I I don't know what I would do with that. Maybe there's some special cases like the mods where something happened where somebody got overreached on, they brought force against them. Or, I saw in the comments there's something about Amish in Pennsylvania, but that's over my head. I'm a little bit removed from the news cycle these days. So maybe there's a purpose for that, but I don't think it's unnecessary as a general rule.
[00:09:24] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, I I wonder how it all work out. I mean, I think that as a person, Rollins administration had to have some concept of being able to say, why did this go on this long? Why did it take you time to make those actions? But on the other hand, like to your point, the Amish farmers, I mean, they were having cheese and milk dumped out, the ad that they'd been raising for years and years. There are those, ranchers out in California that were getting forced off of their land that they had leases on. And, so I think there's a lot of lawfare that's gone on, but I don't know, does a portal to the USDA actually help or is it just one more bureaucratic, group? I don't know.
All right. Headline number three, bird flu fears overblown in California dairy industry. The h five n one bird flu second wave hit California dairies, but fears among farmers appear to be overblown over while over seven fifty dairies report cows with reduced milk fevers and lethargy, cows aren't dying and the impacts end up being limited. The virus thrives now in cows, in their utters due to the bird like silly celiac, acid receptors, but it isn't adapting to humans easing pandemic concerns. California's testing and biosecurity measures continue, though less urgently pasteurization, keeps milk safe from, H five N one being passed to consumers.
And so researchers are monitoring the virus and they don't think it's that big of a deal. However, the news is continuing to cover this as a very big story. The center for strategic and international studies is posting articles on X claiming that the current bird flu outbreak has become the longest and deadliest animal disease emergency in US history with devastating losses to poultry flocks nationwide and major implications for US and agriculture food security. So I don't know when I see these articles from think tanks, otherwise known as propaganda outlets, I think they are just trying to, stir the pot. It seems like it is a storm that, never came to be. And, yes, it did kill a lot of birds, but a lot of those birds were killed as a prophylactic measure.
It's not killing cows and it hasn't jumped to humans in a long way. So, Ethan, what do you think? Are we, are we just about to see the the Domino's tip over and have this be a real issue, or is this just media hype?
[00:11:56] Unknown:
It sounds like a lot of media hype to me, Vance. There's really no reason the pasteurization process should take care of the virus in there, which for the consumers, we should have no problem getting our milk in. It is a shame that all those birds tend to be cold, but, we'll get our eggs someday. Let's be a little bit more expensive for a while. Now we'll get some chickens.
[00:12:15] Unknown:
Yeah. And it gave the, the Rollins administration something to do for a little while. It's interesting. I did hear from an egg producer the other day that, secretary Rollins has been doing all of her tours, going to different farms. And, she got rebuked pretty hard by the egg and the poultry industry saying like, Hey, what are you doing? You're, you're going to break up biosecurity. You may be the very person that's tracking, bird flu from, you know, farm to farm.
[00:12:41] Unknown:
Yep. Nice and safe. Gotta remember that.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
Yeah. And I also think like, the bird flu is one of those things that it actually could be a huge problem. And so to overhype, this particular issue is bad thing because there may come an issue, or a certain type of bird flu that comes out that is killing lots of birds or can jump from birds to, mammals. And so this one being overhyped seems like it could have pretty severe costs down the line.
[00:13:09] Unknown:
We don't wanna set up ourselves for failure in the future. It's just, we gotta be realistic about what we're dealing with today and be prepared to be realistic about what's coming next. Don't overreact or under react react accordingly.
[00:13:23] Unknown:
Yeah. Speaking of, overreactions, headline number four, no major deportation disruptions in agriculture yet despite concerns back in January, there is little news of deportations disrupting Us Agriculture. Many people in the media and on the left were saying that Trump's immigration policies were going to make it so our food was unharvestable, because undocumented workers, nearly half of the sectors labor continue harvesting without, interruptions. California Central Valley citrus and vegetable fields are operating more or less. Normally there have been, reports of some of the workers not showing up, but not mass arrests or raids on the farms. And this silence contrast with the fears of labor losses, and all the talk about food prices going up. However, I did find a story that, on April 21, us border patrol agents arrested migrant workers at Pleasant Valley Farms in Berkshire, Vermont.
The state's largest dairy operation with over 3,000 cows. The incident happened after agents reportedly spotted workers walking on the property near the Canadian border, which is a little bit unique because up until this point, ice raids had only been at, restaurants, stores, places where they saw migrants moving to and from, but not on the farms themselves. So I was watching this story and I thought, well, you know, what's Trump saying about all this? And it was interesting back on April 10, this is what Trump said about the illegal immigrant situation.
[00:14:51] Unknown:
Also gonna work with farmers that if they have strong recommendations for their farms, for certain people, we're gonna let them stay in for a while and work with the farmers and then come back and farmers and then come back and go through a process, a legal process. But, we have to take care of our farmers and hotels and, you know, various various places where they're used where they need the people. And, we're gonna be working with you very carefully on that. So a farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people saying they're great. They're working hard.
We're gonna slow it down a little bit for them, and then we're gonna ultimately bring them back. They'll go out. They're gonna come back as legal workers.
[00:15:33] Unknown:
Okay? Yes, sir. Thank you.
[00:15:36] Unknown:
So, Ethan, a lot farmers just a few months ago were saying that using illegals was a form of slavery or something like it. Now Trump is supporting some kind of legal reform. Where do you come out on this?
[00:15:50] Unknown:
I keep hearing mixed messages, and I don't really care for that. It's it's very difficult for me to understand what's truly going on when there seems to be a a lack of continuity, in the messaging. I was definitely afraid for those people, especially in California and Florida, that use the migrant workers to help take care of their harvest. It's a very important thing for our food system. Fruits and especially my kids love fruit, so it's strawberry season again. Thank god. So I I'm a little was nervous about it before. I'm sure the farmers were as well, but, I think it's the best thing to do is to do it the right way and go through it legally, but I don't think there should be any behind the table stuff going on like, oh, you're a good farm. You like me. You should not get that from treatment. That's not okay. They're all the same.
[00:16:39] Unknown:
Yeah. It's it's, it's definitely mixed messages. A few months ago, they were basically like, if you are illegal, it doesn't matter matter whether you're a productive member of society. If you're a grandma, if you've got kids, we're throwing you out. And now it seems as the Trump is walking that back, he ended up, I think later in the clip, talking about the need to support hotel workers and how the economy is held up by this. And it seems like there's this, clarity that, you know, so much of our economy is held up by people that are getting suppressed wages and those suppressed wages come because they're working illegally, knowing that they don't have security, they can't use the regular system.
And, so I guess what I'm hearing from Trump, when I hear him say they gotta leave and then come back. I don't know. That does sound like he understands the reality of the situation, but then also wants to be consistent about removing them. So to me, it seems like he may be walking an incredibly fine line.
[00:17:34] Unknown:
Fine lines in politics are a dangerous thing. Just be careful.
[00:17:39] Unknown:
Well, what do you mean by that?
[00:17:41] Unknown:
Well, as soon as he crosses the wrong side, he's gonna have retribution from the other side. And then he's gonna try and walk back, and then the inverse will happen. So he's saying everybody mad at him. But maybe that's what he wants. Why not?
[00:17:53] Unknown:
Yeah. I don't know. It seems like, there is, this is not playing out as starkly and directly as, the media hyped it up. And that's kind of my point of some of the news stories today. While there wasn't, there's always a bunch going on, when Trump is in office. But I did want to bring up both the immigration and the bird flu where people have been like catastrophe, catastrophe, and then it didn't happen. And so it's good to bring these stories back up and say, Hey, remember when we were talking about this? Cause otherwise people forget. And then the next catastrophe people can, blow it up bigger than it deserves.
Any other, I thoughts on, on this story?
[00:18:30] Unknown:
Nope. I think I'm good.
[00:18:32] Unknown:
All right. If you have news stories that you think I should cover, make sure you send them to me on X at Vance Crow, or you can email them to me directly. Vanslegacyinterviews dot com. All right now onto the Bitcoin land price report. Wow. Things are looking good for Bitcoiners. Last week, was at an amazing $93,446 And today we are sitting at $96,619 which is up 3% from just last week. So Ethan, where do you live and how much does an acre of land cost in terms of US dollars there?
[00:19:10] Unknown:
So I live in Peoria County and land around here goes for roughly 18,000 an acre.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
Okay. So at 18,000 an acre in Bitcoin sitting at $96,001.06 19, that means, 0.19 Bitcoin would buy you an acre of ground or one Bitcoin would buy 5.4 acres in Peoria County. Even what do you think? Is that a good deal? Would you, buy Bitcoin or land? What what do you think there?
[00:19:41] Unknown:
Can I buy both? Oh, wait. I forgot. I don't have infinite money. Dang it. No. I think I definitely wanna have Bitcoin somewhere in my portfolio. I'm just not quite sure how to put it there yet. Agriculture in my branch, it's a pretty capital intensive business, so it's hard for, me to figure that out as a younger producer.
[00:20:04] Unknown:
And so trying to figure out, like, where it fits into, should I buy a tractor? Should I buy more land? Should I buy better inputs? That kind of thing.
[00:20:11] Unknown:
Oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this right for the crop. That's gonna hit first. But, whether I buy more land or invest in Bitcoin or however that moves forward, especially with the if we have reached the point of having a lot of extra income, we have another great price rally to have the crops. No. Come eventually.
[00:20:30] Unknown:
And how are other farmers in Peoria County or other people in your tribe? How do they feel about Bitcoin? Well,
[00:20:39] Unknown:
I think most people are starting to accept it a little more, on the edges. It's definitely not mainstream yet. The older crowd seems to be slower adopter. It's a general rule. But some of the younger guys around, they're interested. Maybe they're not, like, whole hog in it, but they're definitely they see some viability as I do.
[00:21:00] Unknown:
Yeah. I have, kind of my brother-in-law index, which my brother in law's, you know, they're not particularly excited about having me tell them all about, you know, the things that I'm excited about. But when my brother-in-law start, you know, contacting me to be like, hey, just tell me a little bit more about this. Like, what kind of exchange would I buy this on? And if I bought it, what would I do with it? And there is definitely in the last two to three weeks been, been a big uptick there. So I can feel, you know, that it kind of comes in waves of interest. And, my brother-in-law into index is reading very high right now.
[00:21:32] Unknown:
Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, he would he should buy Bitcoin on river. It's where he should buy it.
[00:21:37] Unknown:
That's exactly right. Because if you buy it on river, you, you end up supporting the show and that, and so that's good for you. I think river is a great platform for purchasing. You also get a lightning wallet. And then, is if you as you buy, then it ends up giving the show some Bitcoin. So I'll include those in the show notes below. Thanks for that plug there, Ethan. All right. Now, moving on to the, Peter teal paradox. This is where I'm going to ask Ethan, what is one thing that you believe that almost no one, you know, agrees with you on?
[00:22:10] Unknown:
No. This was a struggle for me, and I chose to go the route that's gonna be more true to my beliefs. And I believe that, I'd say, seven to eight to 10 brokers in the world don't actually do a good job of helping a producer manage their risk. I think they're there to turn trades and help make themselves money. And if the producer makes money, great. They're not actually there to be a risk manager. And you if you have a good broker, a really good one, you cannot pay that guy enough. But if you get a bad broker, he's vastly overpaid.
[00:22:48] Unknown:
And what can a good broker do? What is the difference between a good broker and a bad broker?
[00:22:56] Unknown:
He can give you advice that's not based on his opinion. Helps you actually make money instead of trying to capture moves in the marketplace. That's not his job. His job is to help you manage your risk. And we have large capital expenditures here on the farm every season. We're talking a thousand dollars an acre to grow corn at $7.50 to 900 to grow beans. And grow beans. That's a lot of money when you talk on scale. So if I can manage my risk and I can do a three to 5% better job on my own than any brokers ever helped me do, what value they bring to me? None. So I need to lock in my profit because that's where the margins are in my business is in margins.
[00:23:41] Unknown:
And so if somebody were out there and they were trying to decide, should I spend my time and energy trying to find a good broker or try and teach myself how to do trades? What would be your, advice there?
[00:23:54] Unknown:
I think you should do both. Because if you can't be disciplined enough to do the trading or risk management yourself, however you wanna look at it, then you need to hire somebody else to do it. But you need to make sure you find a good one, and you need to make sure that you communicate what your goals and objectives are. Or they can get misconstrued, and you can do things you shouldn't be doing.
[00:24:17] Unknown:
Well, I'm gonna, give you a score here that's, probably gonna burn a little bit because I think that while it's important to you, I think that everybody knows that, there there are good brokers out there and bad brokers out there. So I'm gonna throw you a 4.5 on this one. Alright. Moving on to the worthy adversary section segment. This is where we try and find those people that help us get out of our ideological echo chambers by, finding who is someone that you respect, but you strongly disagree with?
[00:24:51] Unknown:
Well, I've done a job myself of trying to kinda step away from social media a fair amount. And so my worthy adversary is, maybe on social media. Don't know. That's a neighbor farmer of mine who, is a firm believer in strip till his core. And he believes that his way is the best way and the only way. And that's that's great if he believes that way, but I believe that there should be more nuance in how we take care of our ground. Some ground is made to have initial tillage done to it on occasion. Some grounds may be no till. Some ground is for strip till. There is not a blanket solution across the board anywhere, and that's, he seems to think that his way or the highway, and what he wants to do, and that's fine. Good for you, but I I can't believe that.
[00:25:40] Unknown:
And how does he is that just, like, neighborly conversation?
[00:25:44] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. This when we I see him across the finish line plan, still I'll call him on the phone. I respect the guy a lot. I really do. He we're he's from my dad, and I'm from him. He's a super nice guy. I respect what he says, but, I I don't don't agree.
[00:26:00] Unknown:
Good. Alright. Well, Ethan's, where the adversary is his next door neighbor, and I'm sure there are a lot of people that are, in that boat where they respect their neighbor, but they sure don't agree with them. All right. That is going to wrap up the traditional part of the show. I have been because mother's day is just around the corner. Been asking for, my guests. What is something that your mother, used to say when you were growing up that, that really sticks with you now or impacts the way you make decisions now?
[00:26:34] Unknown:
Eventually, caught me off guard. I was not ready for this. Oh, no. Well, does anything come to mind? I'm thinking. You know, my grandma has always said a penny saved is a penny earned. So that's been something I've kept around for a while. I can't do anything from my mom. Now I'm gonna get in trouble for her from that for sure. That's something that stuck around in my head for a long time.
[00:27:02] Unknown:
Well, that's that's a good one. I mean, it's it's tried and true, and, like, it's it's, it's definitely one that if you internalize, it'll make your life better. My mother, my mother used to have one, people in hell want water. And, I used to think that was so mean. But then when you're raising kids, sometimes you're like, yeah. Well, you may want that, but there's no there's nothing that doesn't make any doesn't have any impact on whether you're gonna get it or not. So, Ethan, I know you've said you're not on social media much, but if people, wanted to touch base with you, wanted to learn more about, trading their own grain or or, your ideas on farming, where would they go?
[00:27:42] Unknown:
You can find me on Twitter. That's the best place to find me on socials. I'm at Ethan Kaylor fourteen. Yeah. It's Kaylor.
[00:27:51] Unknown:
Kaylor. Yeah. I just heard that. I was like, oh, man. I got that wrong.
[00:27:54] Unknown:
Totally fine. Happens literally every single day of my life. And I've got a Substack as market farmer, but it doesn't I only do anything for marketing with that. It's just, I write a synopsis of the bible verse I read every day. It goes out to the world. So feel free to try that. I can include that in the show notes. Be great. I'll send you a link.
[00:28:15] Unknown:
Alright. That's gonna do it for tonight's show. Thank you so much for tuning in. We are one week away from mother's day. So if you've been thinking about getting her a legacy interview, go to legacyinterviews.com to schedule a call with me and we'll talk all about what you'd hope to capture and how we can make this a very special gift for your mother. Alright. We'll be back next week. And as always, feel free to disagree.
Introduction to the Ag Tribes Report
South Dakota Ranchers' Legal Victory
USDA's New Portal for Legal Complaints
Bird Flu Concerns in California Dairies
Immigration and Agriculture: Reality vs. Hype
Bitcoin Land Price Report
The Peter Thiel Paradox
Worthy Adversary: Farming Practices Debate
Mother's Day Reflections and Closing Remarks
