Ep. 19 Part 1 2024 Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention and Advocacy Efforts with John McMinn

00;00;07;20 – 00;00;09;04
Riley Smith
Alright we’re live.

00;00;09;06 – 00;00;10;14
Dr. Ryan Loy
Well, John, how’s your week been?

00;00;10;16 – 00;00;13;14
John McMinn
It’s good. It’s Friday. So that’s plus.

00;00;13;15 – 00;00;13;29
Dr. Ryan Loy
That’s right.

00;00;13;29 – 00;00;25;28
John McMinn
But, Yeah, we’ve been been pretty busy at Farm Bureau, to say the least, for the convention coming up. I bet we had resolutions last week. I think it was last week now, but yeah, we’ve been been at it. Plus, I got a two year old at home.

00;00;25;28 – 00;00;26;15
Riley Smith
So that.

00;00;26;15 – 00;00;27;26
Dr. Ryan Loy
Keeps you busy, doesn’t it?

00;00;27;29 – 00;00;31;11
John McMinn
Yes. We run a that’s plenty.

00;00;31;14 – 00;00;34;19
Dr. Ryan Loy
Is your kid sleeping through the night like hunters is? Hunters is very good at it.

00;00;34;20 – 00;00;34;29
John McMinn
You know.

00;00;35;00 – 00;00;35;16
Dr. Ryan Loy
Hunter is really.

00;00;35;16 – 00;00;54;14
John McMinn
Hunter and I had that conversation on the way up here. And, What a joke. I always try to tell people, ask me that question. So we’re very blessed. Anthony, after. I think he stopped after he didn’t have to have a bottle. Every two hours throughout the night, he almost immediately start sleeping eight hours all throughout the night. Wow.

00;00;54;16 – 00;00;56;18
John McMinn
And, so it so you.

00;00;56;22 – 00;00;57;12
Dr. Hunter Biram
Reed needs to meet with Anthony

00;00;57;15 – 00;01;03;03
John McMinn
You know, they need to have a little power. They need about. Well, you better make sure there’s a lot of snacks there.

00;01;03;05 – 00;01;06;11
Dr. Hunter Biram
Okay what kinda of snacks? We got lots and snacks.

00;01;06;11 – 00;01;08;24
John McMinn
Grapes. Specifically. Cotton candy. Grapes.

00;01;08;29 – 00;01;10;09
Riley Smith
Oh, yeah, I like those.

00;01;10;09 – 00;01;11;21
Dr. Hunter Biram
And so Nana’s.

00;01;11;23 – 00;01;16;23
John McMinn
Nanny’s as they’re called at the house and nannies and grapes.

00;01;16;26 – 00;01;19;22
Dr. Ryan Loy
And for us.

00;01;19;24 – 00;01;21;08
Dr. Ryan Loy
That’s good stuff, man. Yeah.

00;01;21;09 – 00;01;22;03
John McMinn
How y’all been?

00;01;22;05 – 00;01;38;01
Dr. Ryan Loy
Good, good. It’s been busy on our end as well. We had riceland membership meeting yesterday. We, Hunter was, hosting a panel, and I was part of it, and, it was it was a good time. I thought we had good turnout. Even if I didn’t speak as loud as I should have been speaking.

00;01;38;03 – 00;01;40;01
Dr. Ryan Loy
But it was, That was good.

00;01;40;02 – 00;01;41;00
John McMinn
It’s in Stuttgart this year.

00;01;41;01 – 00;01;41;11
Dr. Ryan Loy
It was?

00;01;41;11 – 00;01;42;25
Dr. Hunter Biram
Yeah. They made Prairie Center.

00;01;42;25 – 00;01;45;05
John McMinn
They rotate between Stuttgart and Jonesboro, don’t they?

00;01;45;07 – 00;01;45;26
Riley Smith
I don’t know, do they?

00;01;45;29 – 00;01;46;11
John McMinn
I have no idea.

00;01;46;19 – 00;01;48;23
Dr. Ryan Loy
Yeah. That’s a that’s the first time I’ve ever been to it. So.

00;01;48;23 – 00;01;50;00
John McMinn
Yeah, it’s a good meeting.

00;01;50;02 – 00;01;53;10
Dr. Ryan Loy
I thought so. There’s a lot of movers and shakers there. A lot of acres in the room, though.

00;01;53;11 – 00;01;55;25
John McMinn
Yeah. Yep, yep. Yeah. For sure.

00;01;55;27 – 00;01;56;25
Dr. Ryan Loy
That was good.

00;01;56;28 – 00;01;59;25
Riley Smith
Yep, yep. Well. Y’all ready?

00;01;59;26 – 00;02;01;01
Dr. Ryan Loy
I think we’re ready, man

00;02;01;02 – 00;02;13;06
Riley Smith
All right. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to another episode of Morning Coffee and AG Markets with your host, Riley Smith. We got Mister John McMinn in us in the studio today. From Arkansas Farm Bureau. How are you?

00;02;13;07 – 00;02;14;11
John McMinn
I’m good. Riley, how are you?

00;02;14;12 – 00;02;15;20
Riley Smith
I’m doing wonderful.

00;02;15;23 – 00;02;16;17
John McMinn
Thanks for having me.

00;02;16;23 – 00;02;21;26
Riley Smith
Yeah, absolutely. We got Doctor Ryan Loy with us across the table.

00;02;21;28 – 00;02;22;29
Dr. Ryan Loy
Hello, Riley. How are you doing?

00;02;23;00 – 00;02;24;02
Riley Smith
Are you feeling better now?

00;02;24;03 – 00;02;33;02
Dr. Ryan Loy
I’m feeling much better. Yeah. I, I went to a concert the night before that Riceland meeting, and that was. That was. I need to start figuring out how to make good choices versus have poor ones.

00;02;33;03 – 00;02;35;23
John McMinn
Let me tell you, the older you get, the harder those weekday.

00;02;35;23 – 00;02;37;08
Dr. Ryan Loy
I’m sure.

00;02;37;10 – 00;02;44;11
Dr. Ryan Loy
Yeah, yeah. Have you ever heard of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard? That’s what’s up. And that was. That was a tiring, tiring ordeal.

00;02;44;16 – 00;02;46;05
Riley Smith
Me and Hunter are just out on the loop.

00;02;46;12 – 00;02;47;14
Dr. Hunter Biram
Yeah, not in that way.

00;02;47;17 – 00;02;50;23
Riley Smith
And then on my right hand side, I got doctor Hunter with me.

00;02;50;25 – 00;02;52;04
Dr. Hunter Biram
I’m just your right hand man.

00;02;52;08 – 00;02;56;11
Riley Smith
Just my right hand man. I’m just your left hand man.

00;02;56;14 – 00;02;58;07
John McMinn
And I’m one way up the other. Yeah, that’s.

00;02;58;07 – 00;03;03;21
Riley Smith
Right. But, Mr. John, we got you in here talking about the Arkansas Farm Bureau. Annual convention coming up.

00;03;03;24 – 00;03;04;04
John McMinn
Yes, sir.

00;03;04;11 – 00;03;08;15
Riley Smith
You just want to brief us on that, and then you can roll right into. You run into your topics.

00;03;08;15 – 00;03;33;15
John McMinn
Yeah, yeah. So, just to introduce myself a little bit, I work in our commodity and regulatory affairs department at Farm Bureau, and the director of, commodity and regulatory affairs for specialty crops and soybeans. So I deal with a lot of row crop, given my background from Stuttgart and, work in local foods, given my experience working here at extension, actually, with Doctor Ron Rainey, in the ag econ department.

00;03;33;15 – 00;04;08;26
John McMinn
So. But, yeah, point is, I annual conventions coming up this year, it’ll be in Hot Springs, Hot Springs Convention Center. It’ll be December 4th through the 6th. And, we will have, you know, usually around thousand 1200, maybe a little bit more people attend. And the people that, make up that are our membership from all the counties across the, the state, whether it be our board leadership in each county to our general membership there, it just kind of depends on how many people each county wants to send in.

00;04;08;28 – 00;04;34;29
John McMinn
But it’s a it’s a big, big, big operation. Specifically, this year, we have over 180 vendors in our trade show. Wow. So, even before that, it was considered the biggest or largest, trade show, ag based trade show in the state. I believe it, and we’ve grown it even more so this year. And last year, there’s a lot of we’ve added things to the trade show or the convention over the last 2 or 3 years.

00;04;35;01 – 00;04;54;06
John McMinn
And last year we for the first time, we added the farmers market within our trade show, as well as the ag mechanics show. So our our farmers market, I’ll start off with that because, it’s kind of my responsibility and my little baby I created, but, we had the ag department, the Arkansas Grown Arts our main label company in and sponsor that that space.

00;04;54;09 – 00;05;13;15
John McMinn
And the reason we did that is we wanted to make that space available to vendors of farmers, market vendors for free. And the reason for that was because we wanted them to keep their profits as a small business. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we had a lot of questions of, you know, are y’all going to take a tax or, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, we don’t take it.

00;05;13;18 – 00;05;31;10
John McMinn
It’s all your money. So last year we had about 30 spaces. We had about 100 people. And that was a really hard cut to make because there were a lot of good decision, good, good vendors this year with such, demand for last year. We opened it up to 40. So this year we actually have 42.

00;05;31;13 – 00;05;32;20
John McMinn
So we’ve grown it.

00;05;32;22 – 00;05;33;06
Dr. Ryan Loy
Awesome.

00;05;33;06 – 00;05;54;12
John McMinn
So, that’ll be there as well as, the ag mechanics show. And that is for, FFA students, our high school students that build trailers, grills, deer stands, fire pits. Last year, I think the winner, the winner of it built some sort of, like a three point attachment for your tractor to pick up hay bales.

00;05;54;14 – 00;06;00;25
John McMinn
Oh, wow. But it also had like 2 or 3 different other things that did all. And once I can’t remember what exactly it was.

00;06;00;25 – 00;06;02;03
Dr. Ryan Loy
So the innovation going on okay.

00;06;02;03 – 00;06;07;01
Riley Smith
Sounds like it sounds like a quick attach. That’s what it sounds like on a three point.

00;06;07;04 – 00;06;30;02
John McMinn
Yeah it was I I’m talking about something that I don’t know a lot about to be honest with you being a flat land or crop. Yeah. But it, it was pretty cool and I was very jealous that I didn’t win one of those trailers for deer stands because after the show, it’s auction, and they auction all those items off the money that goes for that particular item goes back to that school or that chapter’s FFA.

00;06;30;04 – 00;06;40;01
Riley Smith
My baby brother was in something like that here not too long ago. He built, he built a rope swing. I don’t know if you know what that is.

00;06;40;01 – 00;06;41;09
Dr. Ryan Loy
Like a with a tire on it from a.

00;06;41;09 – 00;06;41;19
Dr. Ryan Loy
Tree.

00;06;41;19 – 00;06;51;09
Riley Smith
No, it’s a it’s a little rope swing. Like, you build the frame and then you weave the team ropes through it, and the swing itself is rope.

00;06;51;12 – 00;06;53;20
Dr. Ryan Loy
Oh. Interesting.

00;06;53;20 – 00;07;10;26
Riley Smith
We had built several of those rope rocking chair I had, and then I built the swing when I was in high school. And then my brother entered, something a lot like the mechanics thing you’re talking about for, to win. He took second. But that’s interesting. It’s, good promotion for FFA.

00;07;10;27 – 00;07;17;15
John McMinn
They they do it somewhere else, too. And that’s where we got the idea. And I think they they also do it this year at the, state Fair.

00;07;17;18 – 00;07;19;05
Riley Smith
That’s where it was. It was a state fair.

00;07;19;05 – 00;07;39;21
John McMinn
Yeah. Yeah. So and I think last year, maybe this year, I don’t know who won, but they had like a flatbed trailer. For a pickup truck that they had repurposed and rebuilt in the sky. I think for that one in particular, or maybe some of these other shows that somebody in the community like, I want y’all to build this enter in your show and I’ll pay for it, blah, blah.

00;07;39;23 – 00;08;01;25
John McMinn
But they redid the whole thing and then, like, had all these specific little details he wanted for his operation. Right. So it was pretty cool. But, yeah, we’ll have that going on. We also have workshops like we do every year at convention this year we have two blocks. Total of nine workshops. The first block will be Thursday, the fifth at 8:15

00;08;01;28 – 00;08;33;18
John McMinn
And then the second block will be right after it at 9:15 And then we’ll, this year we’re doing something a little bit different. I think they’ve done it in the past, but it was before my time at Farm Bureau. We’re going to have two workshops with the trade show. So on the fifth at 11, we’ll have a, Department of Transportation’s coming in and giving a walk around of actual semi truck to go over with farmers that, you know, whether you’re hauling grain or cattle or whatever it may be on the highway, what are the things you need to focus on that vehicle or that truck trailer to make sure you’re legal?

00;08;33;24 – 00;08;57;28
John McMinn
Right? So, that’ll be about an hour. And then we also have another kind of livestock Orient, Orient orientated or whatever. I’m of learning oriented, that’s the word. But, about, livestock genetics or. Good. Yeah. It’s, that that will actually be one of our vendors on the trade show. That’ll be putting that on. I think that’s at 130 on Thursday, too.

00;08;58;01 – 00;09;24;20
John McMinn
But all of our we’ll have the livestock outlook. We’ll have a, drone regulation update. We’ll have a row crop sustainability panel, financial literacy, I think farm credit’s going to put that on. And then, there’s a few more such a small ruminant production, and then there’s going to be another one specifically to how do, how can people connect or get active with their FFA and forage, chapters in our counties?

00;09;24;28 – 00;09;38;13
John McMinn
That’s great. So we got a lot of stuff. And those workshops we specifically try to represent all of AG, just like just like we do in I work at Farm Bureau. So row crop, livestock, etc., county work leadership, all that’s kind of addressed there.

00;09;38;16 – 00;09;57;00
Riley Smith
It sounds like a I’ve never been to that one. I’m sure my dad has just because my dad and my granddad were both on the board. At white county where they and I was part of young farmers and ranchers. And so we went to the Young Farmers and Ranchers Convention at Little Rock. But that’s and that would be, pretty awesome.

00;09;57;00 – 00;09;57;22
Riley Smith
Go to.

00;09;57;25 – 00;10;03;29
Dr. Ryan Loy
The meetings. Great. I had first time was my first time was last year. And it was awesome. And a lot of lot of movies.

00;10;04;02 – 00;10;06;14
Riley Smith
So we get to go to it. So what are you saying?

00;10;06;14 – 00;10;07;22
Dr. Ryan Loy
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

00;10;07;24 – 00;10;14;04
Dr. Hunter Biram
Absolutely. That’d be awesome. John, I’ve got a question. Yeah. You don’t have any coverage on, you know, farm Bill or Farm Act or anything like that.

00;10;14;07 – 00;10;27;26
John McMinn
Yeah, yeah. So at the, at the convention specifically, we’ll have somebody come in from Bozeman’s office give a workshop on a farm bill update. If you’re asking me what I think the state of the farm bill is, you probably know just as much as I do. We don’t have one.

00;10;27;28 – 00;10;28;29
Dr. Ryan Loy
Yep.

00;10;29;02 – 00;10;31;13
John McMinn
And we desperately do need one.

00;10;31;15 – 00;10;39;27
John McMinn
But now, with the election that just happened, and, other things going on, it, it kind of got a back seat, I guess.

00;10;40;00 – 00;10;40;21
Riley Smith
Oh, man.

00;10;40;21 – 00;10;48;24
John McMinn
I hope to see something soon. You know, specifically in the spring. I’d hate to go all the way till June and still not have anything. You know.

00;10;49;00 – 00;10;49;10
Dr. Ryan Loy
That would be.

00;10;49;10 – 00;10;50;22
John McMinn
Tough. Yeah, that’d be really tough.

00;10;50;22 – 00;10;50;28
Dr. Ryan Loy
Yeah.

00;10;51;01 – 00;11;13;17
John McMinn
So. And then when we also have that that bill out there for ad hoc or disaster assistance, I should say, I, I would be hard pressed to think that somebody is going to vote against that, you know, but you never know. But, I imagine that’s going to be coming down the pipe pretty soon, especially with how the election went.

00;11;13;20 – 00;11;34;08
John McMinn
So, we’ll, we’ll see there. Another thing I wanted to note about the convention that I think to be pretty cool is that John? Or. Excuse me, Dwyer Brown. Does that ring a bill? He’s going to be our keynote speaker. Other than our president, Mr.. Dan. Right. Dwyer Brown was, in the movie Field of Dreams, though.

00;11;34;10 – 00;11;35;27
John McMinn
He was Kevin Costner’s dad.

00;11;36;01 – 00;11;37;02
Dr. Hunter Biram
No. way!

00;11;37;05 – 00;11;37;23
Dr. Ryan Loy
Okay.

00;11;37;25 – 00;11;54;07
John McMinn
And, I think correct me, I don’t know if I’m right on this, but I think that’s his farm, too. He’s a farmer, he’s written a few books. And what Jason, our co-host on a podcast, was telling me is that he, after he did the movie, there was, you know, there was a very the clear message.

00;11;54;07 – 00;12;11;19
John McMinn
That movie was Kevin Costner’s character and missing his father and doing all this because of his father, what he instilled in him. And he said after that movie, everybody that recognized him out public told him all their stories about their relationship with their father. So he put a book together about it. Yeah. And that’s what he’s going to be speaking on.

00;12;11;19 – 00;12;12;03
John McMinn
There.

00;12;12;03 – 00;12;13;05
Dr. Ryan Loy
And that’s that’s great,

00;12;13;10 – 00;12;14;07
Dr. Hunter Biram
I cannot wait.

00;12;14;08 – 00;12;14;28
Dr. Ryan Loy
That’s awesome.

00;12;14;29 – 00;12;15;18
Dr. Hunter Biram
I cannot wait

00;12;15;18 – 00;12;34;03
John McMinn
so that that that should be pretty cool. And then one thing I also wanted to address about the AG mechanic show is that this year it they’re going to, feature the, for the first time, a technical school and career fair and support of the recent passage of issue one, which allowed, was it, lottery lottery.

00;12;34;08 – 00;12;34;14
Dr. Ryan Loy
Money.

00;12;34;20 – 00;12;59;17
John McMinn
To use towards technical schools? So that’ll be there. And then of course, we have our business session where, if anybody’s not familiar with Farm Bureau, we, we, conduct policy discussion and development every year. And these guys in this room have been to our Winter division meetings. That’s where that process starts. We’re going to have our summer meetings, where that kind of concludes the, I don’t know, commodities specific discussions.

00;12;59;19 – 00;13;25;21
John McMinn
And those discussions go into each and every county in the state, and their Farm bureau. And then those farm bureaus develop resolutions or policy they would like to see in our our Farm Bureau policy book. And then what we just had was resolutions meeting was this past week or week before, where we kind of cleaned up that language because you’re going to have a lot of resolutions coming in that basically said the same thing from several different counties where they just trying to determine what the best word or verbiage is in that.

00;13;25;24 – 00;13;44;23
John McMinn
Then at the state convention, that’s where they vote, whether that policy or that resolution becomes policy. So you’ll have on the fourth and fifth our trade show and John, conventional workshops. And then on the sixth, they’ll come in and have representatives from every county, and they’ll present every resolution or new potential policy and vote on.

00;13;44;25 – 00;13;54;27
Dr. Hunter Biram
I think that’s fantastic, John. And you might, if you don’t mind, go into more detail about how Farm Bureau. Yeah, there’s the Farm Bureau insurance, but there’s also the advocacy group. And you’re talking more about the advocacy, right?

00;13;55;01 – 00;14;04;10
John McMinn
Correct. Right. It’s very similar to when, I worked here at Extension. I try to tell people where the extension office or state office was like, oh, you work for you are. No, no, I don’t work for you.

00;14;04;10 – 00;14;04;25
Riley Smith

00;14;04;28 – 00;14;05;22
Dr. Ryan Loy
Which we have the same.

00;14;05;27 – 00;14;06;10
Riley Smith

00;14;06;10 – 00;14;25;09
John McMinn
Next door. But yeah, though so, I think a lot of people and I was working at extension opened my eyes to what the Farm Bureau Federation was, and that it existed pretty much because, you see the Farm Bureau insurance everywhere. Oh, yeah. So over every county, majority of farmers in the state have some sort of insurance product through Farm Bureau.

00;14;25;12 – 00;14;49;17
John McMinn
And but what people don’t know, and maybe we should be better at doing is telling our story is the Federation came first. And the difference between the insurance federation we’re under the same Farm Bureau umbrella, but the federation is an agricultural or farmer specific advocacy group, and we advocate on our members behalf. And our members are farmers and their rural way of life and the way they make money and their business.

00;14;49;19 – 00;15;16;04
John McMinn
So anything from taxes to trying to get a bridge fixed on a gravel road to a farm bill or, you know, any state specific issues we have something that either opposes or, is for that, that particular issue. And, you know, we’re, we have 3 or 4 different departments. Like I said, I working on our commodity and regulatory regulatory affairs department.

00;15;16;04 – 00;15;46;03
John McMinn
I kind of say that we’re kind of the brains of the organization. Some people that work with point laugh at that. But, but we also have a PR department and we have, organization member, programs, which is our kind of boots on the ground field staff that work with the county specifically and directly, and then kind of our, the face of the organization, if you will, as our governmental affairs department, our lobbyist, and we have somebody that focuses on state affairs, another one for local, another one for national.

00;15;46;05 – 00;16;01;14
John McMinn
And they all do a really, really good job. And they they’re kind of we’ve got I think our department sits really well. I’m kind of good on the more detail than what y’all are asking, but we sit really well of like being out in the field, but also coming to talk to you guys or maybe even being at the Capitol or DC.

00;16;01;14 – 00;16;02;27
Dr. Ryan Loy
Absolutely.

00;16;03;00 – 00;16;08;00
John McMinn
We, we kind of come in when an issue needs to be talked about more. One issue.

00;16;08;06 – 00;16;08;14
Dr. Ryan Loy
Yeah.

00;16;08;21 – 00;16;27;01
John McMinn
You know, and whether that be the farm bill or maybe that’s the milk marketing order for dairy or the Stocker and Packers Act, or maybe, you know, whatever it may be, we have somebody that’s specific to that commodity and that’s their responsibility to come in and can push that, that information.

00;16;27;01 – 00;16;56;12
John McMinn
But again, our there’s the insurance department or division or part of the company. They sell insurance products. They do a really, really good job at it. And then there’s an office in every county that sells insurance. But in that office, as a board of members, from president, vice president, secretary, and so on. And every county’s boards, a different amount or different seats, they all run each other and they all run independently of each other and independent of the state.

00;16;56;15 – 00;17;15;11
John McMinn
So they’re ran just like the state is, but just in that county, they don’t answer to us. We answer to them, you know, more or less like I that’s what I kind of tell people is I don’t I don’t have just one boss. I have 180,000 of them. Right. You know, and if they ask me for something and they tell me to jump, I say how high you know, I’m here.

00;17;15;16 – 00;17;32;25
John McMinn
And service of them just, you know, same as extension is to some extent too. So but yeah, that that board is, is, involved in the community and that that county, and they also help drive policy and development and our grassroots process.

00;17;32;27 – 00;17;42;01
Dr. Ryan Loy
There’s that board, that you mentioned in the counties is that is that member is that, you know, kind of the co-op structure where it’s membership driven and those people on the board are members or. Okay.

00;17;42;01 – 00;17;57;15
John McMinn
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So everybody active in the Farm Bureau is a Farm Bureau member. And what people tend to, not realize is you don’t have to buy insurance from Farm Bureau to be a Farm Bureau member. And, you know, we have plenty of people that pay their $40 membership to sit on a board somewhere, maybe, I guess more or less.

00;17;57;15 – 00;18;14;17
John McMinn
But they do want you to have insurance product health support that that office. But, I’ve got several people in the specialty crop room that are members, but they may not have insurance through Farm Bureau. Gotcha. And, you know, I’ve heard a lot of people. Well, we have members inside of Farm Bureau that have told me.

00;18;14;17 – 00;18;39;10
John McMinn
I don’t understand how you’re not a member of Farm Bureau if you’re farming. Right, because we advocate for that. And then, you know, there’s other people I’ve also heard. Well, my so my son in law works for, you know, State Farm, whoever it may be. We’re not trying to take you there. Right. Your insurance business, we just need we love for you to be a member of Farm Bureau, because without your input, we don’t know exactly how to address a problem.

00;18;39;16 – 00;18;56;20
John McMinn
Or maybe something on the farm. And that’s kind of my work. And our specialty crops division is trying to grow that division. Right. And I always tell people, like, if you’re not in that room, then I don’t know what you need. That’s right. I don’t know how to help. And I can sit here and research everything I possibly can.

00;18;56;20 – 00;19;04;13
John McMinn
But you may have something going on in your farm, right? Or in your area of the state that I just can’t reach by the internet, you know what I mean?

00;19;04;16 – 00;19;14;27
Dr. Ryan Loy
And likely other people have the same problem too. So, you know, if you’re the more kind of people you get behind an issue, then you know, I don’t know if easier is the word, but, you know, the better you can work on it and address those issues.

00;19;14;27 – 00;19;37;27
John McMinn
Right. And the the other thing is that we’ve we’ve had people or I’ve heard this saying like, well, Farm Bureau stands for this and their policy opposes or supports this. Well, I’ve always said, you know, if you want to see change, then you have to be that change, right? You know, if you don’t agree with that, then come in.

00;19;38;02 – 00;19;57;07
John McMinn
Right. You know, and have that conversation. I think also a lot of the times is that if you don’t see out of out of somebody, there’s no reason to push back against that. You know, that’s an opportunity to educate one another on something. Right? So there’s no reason to be mad. You know, it’s an opportunity to come together and discuss an issue problem and try to fix it.

00;19;57;10 – 00;19;57;25
Dr. Ryan Loy
It’s right.

00;19;57;27 – 00;19;58;15
Dr. Hunter Biram
Absolutely.

00;19;58;19 – 00;20;09;11
Riley Smith
Oh, it’s kind of off base. But it’s like, you know, you’re not on a whole lot older than I am, but you’re still older than I am. And it’s just like in the situation, like voting.

00;20;09;14 – 00;20;11;01
Dr. Ryan Loy
Yeah, it’s exactly right.

00;20;11;03 – 00;20;17;19
Riley Smith
Everybody wants to gripe about it. But if you don’t get off your butt and go vote, yeah, you have no say in it. Yeah.

00;20;17;22 – 00;20;19;10
Dr. Ryan Loy
So or you can’t be upset about the.

00;20;19;10 – 00;20;37;00
Riley Smith
Outcome if you want something, if you want policy change in farming or want something to change, get up and go. You have a voice, go use that voice. And that’s why Farm Bureau is here is because they are a lobbyist group for farmers and ranchers, and that’s why they have young farmers and ranchers to introduce. Go ahead and introduce the Federation side.

00;20;37;01 – 00;21;00;24
Riley Smith
Yeah. At a very early age. I was introduced to it when I was nine years old. Now, given my dad and my granddad were heavily involved in Farm Bureau, my uncle sold insurance for Farm Bureau for 15 years. Yeah, but I remember the days of doing, the farm safety diagrams when I was a kid and stuff, and that if you want, if you want change.

00;21;00;24 – 00;21;07;25
Riley Smith
The moral of that is, if you want change, like you say, get up, go voice your opinion or whatever you want changed.

00;21;07;27 – 00;21;27;07
John McMinn
And I think something else that’s very unique to Farm Bureau is that we represent all ag. Right. And that’s where our commodity divisions come in. We have specific divisions within the Farm Bureau just made up of beef producers. There’s a specific one for just soybean farmers, one just for equine. And we just had we just created in the last year a small ruminants division.

00;21;27;10 – 00;21;41;14
John McMinn
So, I’ll add to that and say that each one of those divisions may see something differently than the other, but you’re not going to see the rice guys come in or gals come step on the toes of the beef, folks.

00;21;41;20 – 00;21;41;29
Dr. Ryan Loy
Right.

00;21;42;02 – 00;22;00;28
John McMinn
I we’re going to support one another one way or another. But it’s just a good examples like corn prices are low and the beef people are really enjoying the low crop, of course, of corn. But at the same time it’s a corn to continue to fall. The price does then they’re not going to be able to have anybody that yeah, that’s a very extreme situation.

00;22;00;28 – 00;22;11;07
John McMinn
But yeah, if you want that corn to continue to grow, you want people grow on the corn to make money doing it. Absolutely. So that’s a that’s an example of kind of how that never ending circle. Absolutely.

00;22;11;10 – 00;22;12;07
Dr. Ryan Loy
Just a cycle. Right.

00;22;12;09 – 00;22;31;04
Dr. Hunter Biram
Yeah I think it’s just one big community. And I’ve seen it firsthand. I know, we had a we had a listening session with a member of Congress not too long ago where all the ag groups got together to visit with this member of Congress. And that’s exactly what you just said, is what I heard. I mean, from the livestock and poultry side, they were like, listen, we want to support those in the commodities and and in the row crops.

00;22;31;04 – 00;22;38;17
Dr. Hunter Biram
We want you guys to continue to farm and do what you’re doing. And I definitely, I think is just one big community. And I really appreciate that. Yeah.

00;22;38;19 – 00;22;56;26
John McMinn
Seeing that. Right. Yeah. I mean, it’s pretty cool when you have like our Winter Division meetings you’ve been to and you’ve got, you know, a row crop group talking with the beef people or the chicken people or, you know, whatever it might be. And, and I’ve heard it firsthand, like, I would not even know that person exist if it wasn’t for Farm Bureau.

00;22;56;26 – 00;22;57;12
Dr. Ryan Loy
It’s all right.

00;22;57;14 – 00;23;19;28
John McMinn
You know, I never would have met him or her if it wasn’t for my activity and Farm Bureau. And now our kids play together, right? So, you know, we go play golf together and, you know, and it’s just. And then I think, you know, being also somebody from Stuttgart, a rural community, for example, very small community. And there’s even smaller you kind of get stuck in your own little bubble and your own little concerns.

00;23;20;05 – 00;23;39;06
John McMinn
But when you come to like a statewide meeting or has the opportunity to represent Arkansas Bureau on a national level, you’re really opened up to so much more. And it’s a very good growing opportunity. And being able to understand the there’s a lot more going on in this world that you know of, you know, in some, some of your problems at home may be may feel smaller than what they did before.

00;23;39;07 – 00;23;48;12
John McMinn
And that’s something personal. I’ve taken away from it. Absolutely. And then when you understand how Farm Bureau works and all the logistics and the moving parts, it’s almost overwhelming.

00;23;48;14 – 00;23;49;07
Dr. Ryan Loy
Oh, absolutely.

00;23;49;07 – 00;23;49;27
John McMinn
You know.

00;23;49;29 – 00;24;05;12
Dr. Ryan Loy
So I definitely was too me when I first came to just understanding the full, you know, the full sphere of what goes on and everything. And one of the things, you know, before we end this, you kind of touched briefly on, you know, bringing in people in the sense of community and doing outreach very similar to extension.

00;24;05;12 – 00;24;12;09
Dr. Ryan Loy
And I know one thing you, you and Jason do is, podcast. Yeah. And you just kind of talk a little bit about that.

00;24;12;09 – 00;24;39;19
John McMinn
Yeah, yeah. So, Arkansas AG cast, brought to you by Arkansas Farm Bureau, as our little slogan. But, yeah. So the Farm Bureau has been Arkansas Farm Bureau had a podcast for a few years now, or even longer if you want to get back in the podcast first came out and what form of it? So whatever your definition of podcasts are, it’s been around for a while, but the and it’s version now with me on the show, it’s been I think January is either a year or two years.

00;24;39;19 – 00;24;59;00
John McMinn
I really can’t remember. So when you have a kid like just kind of existing right now, but, yeah, I’ve been on the AG cast for a year or two now. And what we kind of do, we have an audio visual. We have a video in audio version. Our video version is our main AG cast, the main podcast.

00;24;59;00 – 00;25;29;14
John McMinn
And, Jason Brown and I are, both the hosts of the show. We also have a producer, Brian Pistole, who’s also active in the show. And then sometimes with brands out there, we have Matthew Magner from and he’s he brings in another fun element as well. But, you know, where the show’s based as we want to present or offer ag news, news that our listeners can take back to the farm of potentially used to make a decision to better them or avoid something or take an opportunity of anything.

00;25;29;14 – 00;25;50;07
John McMinn
And, but the that’s kind of the last half of our show, the first half of the show, we kind of we incorporated because we didn’t just want to make this here, listen to us tell you what’s in the news. And, and we wanted some sort of entertainment value. So we brought in just a, the first half of the show.

00;25;50;07 – 00;26;06;14
John McMinn
The front part of it is just us talking about whatever we feel like talking about at that point. And it’s probably a lot of us giving each other a hard time. From what we said the last time we were on the show or whatever it may be, or we’re talking about sports and, you know, Jason went to ASU or to UVA.

00;26;06;14 – 00;26;22;28
John McMinn
So we kind of have that banter there. We’ll find out next year when they play each other. Yeah, I think that’ll be interesting. And what do you have a fantasy football league at work. So we talk about that and we we talk about food a lot which makes sense for our ag based podcast. So

00;26;23;00 – 00;26;25;19
Dr. Ryan Loy
The producer is a big Sourdough guy isn’t he? If I remember correctly.

00;26;25;19 – 00;26;30;14
John McMinn
That’s correct. Yeah. He likes sourdough We had a big discussion the other day about how my wife is just got.

00;26;30;15 – 00;26;31;18
Dr. Ryan Loy
So that’s what it was. Yeah.

00;26;31;18 – 00;26;36;20
John McMinn
That’s when they were both very unhappy with me that I just now told them about that.

00;26;36;25 – 00;26;39;09
Dr. Ryan Loy
That’s what it was. They were getting up to you about not bringing in the sourdough

00;26;39;13 – 00;27;01;28
John McMinn
So, I like to tell people that it’s it’s, we’re trying to put out helpful information. Right. As hard as that is, some weeks, because trying to find the right news and dancing around politics sometimes can be difficult. But, we’re trying to bring some entertainment to it, and let our listeners know exactly that. We’re we’re still human beings.

00;27;01;28 – 00;27;18;26
John McMinn
We’re not just Farm Bureau staff, right? We still have everything going on. And a lot of just like you do. So they can relate to that. You know? So it’s it’s been a lot of fun. I found out I talk more than I thought I did, cause it but again, it’s just been another another point for.

00;27;18;26 – 00;27;20;12
Dr. Hunter Biram
You to say that, like, it’s a bad thing.

00;27;20;14 – 00;27;21;22
John McMinn
It’s like it’s.

00;27;21;22 – 00;27;23;20
Dr. Ryan Loy
Bad. It’s great.

00;27;23;22 – 00;27;40;04
John McMinn
It’s a lot of fun. And, and, I remember I looked. I’m not trying to talk about myself to my own horn, too much, but I think it might have been like sixth or seventh grade. No one knows what. I was at the community college and speech class, and my teacher called my mom, and I didn’t know that.

00;27;40;06 – 00;27;52;20
John McMinn
My mom was like, what? Your teacher called today? I was like, oh, ma’am. And she was like, well, don’t think it’s too bad. She just want to tell me that you had you had a bright future in public speaking. And I was like, wow, I didn’t expect you to say that.

00;27;52;20 – 00;27;55;11
Riley Smith
But that’s good. Yeah.

00;27;55;13 – 00;27;57;28
John McMinn
So that’s good. Yeah. Here we are. And,

00;27;58;01 – 00;27;59;27
Dr. Hunter Biram
And you thought about pursuing broadcast journalism?

00;27;59;27 – 00;28;08;16
John McMinn
Yeah. That’s what we talked about earlier, is that, at one point, I was growing up, I was either going to play for the Dallas Cowboys or I was going to farm.

00;28;08;16 – 00;28;08;27
Dr. Ryan Loy
Right.

00;28;09;02 – 00;28;09;17
John McMinn
You know,

00;28;09;17 – 00;28;10;11
Dr. Ryan Loy
or an astronaut.

00;28;10;13 – 00;28;19;09
John McMinn
Yeah. Or astronaut. Yeah. And then when I realized that I didn’t have any land to farm, that how difficult it was, that was the inner economist in me coming out.

00;28;19;10 – 00;28;19;21
Dr. Ryan Loy
Right.

00;28;19;26 – 00;28;40;14
John McMinn
You know, and and that my risk was too high for me to personally. But anyways, I got an AG Econ.I was almost got out and, went into broadcast journalism because, when I was growing up in high school, when I wasn’t playing baseball, I would announce the baseball players and do their intro songs. But I was in the booth with the radio guy that did the broadcast.

00;28;40;16 – 00;28;42;00
John McMinn
But I always thought that was really cool.

00;28;42;00 – 00;28;42;11
Dr. Ryan Loy
Oh yeah.

00;28;42;12 – 00;29;02;08
John McMinn
When I was driving a tractor in the summer, I was always listening to sports talk radio, so. And I still do to this day. So it was just kind of fitting that, this opportunity came up for me to be on the podcast, and I always remind Farm Bureau, or at least Jason, the PR department, that I still haven’t seen that that line item on my paycheck yet says podcast.

00;29;02;11 – 00;29;20;08
John McMinn
So but it’s, it’s it’s given us a lot of, objects that it’s giving us a lot of, let’s give them a big audience. People are starting to recognize this, and it’s just kind of it’s kind of funny when you go to, like, some of these meetings and you run across people you know or you don’t know, I’m like, yeah, let’s do a show this morning on the way up here, it’s like.

00;29;20;10 – 00;29;21;10
Dr. Hunter Biram
It’s makes you feel so good.

00;29;21;14 – 00;29;22;21
Dr. Ryan Loy
Yeah, yeah. It’s like.

00;29;22;24 – 00;29;37;24
John McMinn
Yeah, I’m here to work and do my normal stuff. And somebody comes up and tells you they listen to your podcast. You’re like, oh man. Well, it was good. Yeah, it feels good. That’s expected. And so and what y’all are doing here we’ve had Ryan on the podcast that that was one thing I left out the audio version of our podcast.

00;29;37;26 – 00;29;53;20
John McMinn
We call it Deep Dive. And whatever news piece we give on the regular ag cast, the video version. If we think it’s that important, we’ll bring somebody in to come and talk about it and more depth. The farm bill would be a good, good one. And and Ryan and I talked about the economy.

00;29;53;20 – 00;29;55;03
Dr. Ryan Loy
You talked about a whole lot.

00;29;55;10 – 00;29;58;19
John McMinn
Of prices and expenses, and we geeked out a little bit.

00;29;58;20 – 00;30;00;07
Dr. Ryan Loy
We did. It was a good it was a good discussion.

00;30;00;07 – 00;30;05;16
John McMinn
But it was a really good time. And we we’ve got somebody else in this room coming up here pretty soon too, so.

00;30;05;16 – 00;30;22;25
Dr. Ryan Loy
Good deal. Yeah. He’ll he’ll do great. And then I tell you from our perspective, I think, and just for me, I knew you all did the podcast, which was part of the reason that we got motivated to kind of do it here, you know, and, we really enjoy it. And I think you’ll do a great job of, of providing the fun, but also providing the real information.

00;30;22;25 – 00;30;34;24
Dr. Ryan Loy
And, and that’s very important, especially with us economists like what we define is fun often is not. Yeah. The general public would define as fun. And so I think it’s great. And where can they find you?

00;30;34;26 – 00;30;41;13
John McMinn
You can find us on, iTunes. Spotify, you know, wherever you listen to podcasts, you can get us on YouTube. Facebook.

00;30;41;17 – 00;30;42;09
Dr. Ryan Loy
Perfect

00;30;42;12 – 00;30;43;25
Dr. Hunter Biram
as Arkansas AG cast.

00;30;43;26 – 00;30;52;13
John McMinn
Yeah. Arkansas air cast. No. Nothing to brag about, but I think we’re, like the second or third and the search. But that’s out of like.

00;30;52;15 – 00;30;52;29
Dr. Hunter Biram
That’s awesome.

00;30;52;29 – 00;30;57;07
John McMinn
Five ag based podcasts in the state. So it’s not

00;30;57;10 – 00;30;58;21
Dr. Hunter Biram
We might be five.

00;30;58;24 – 00;30;59;19
Dr. Ryan Loy
Out of the five.

00;30;59;21 – 00;31;03;05
John McMinn
But I was a kid. I won, third place in duck calling contest.

00;31;03;08 – 00;31;04;07
Dr. Ryan Loy
There you go.

00;31;04;09 – 00;31;17;12
John McMinn
Out of three people, it was amazing. So. But, yeah, it’s it’s been a lot of fun. And, you know, when y’all started, y’all saying that was one of our goals. Media. It was trying to get one of y’all and help you push your podcast to.

00;31;17;14 – 00;31;21;29
Dr. Ryan Loy
We’ve had some fun with it and and using y’all’s of what y’all do as a model for as much as we can.

00;31;21;29 – 00;31;40;16
John McMinn
So and your point to The Economist is, I told Jason the other day on the show was like a good economist can take information and make it make sense and tell a story with it. Right. You know, and I kind of pushed him or it was kind of hard on. I was like, you know, for people like you that just, get it, you know, that’s why a good economist can help you get it.

00;31;40;18 – 00;31;42;28
John McMinn
He was like, come on, man.

00;31;43;00 – 00;31;43;26
Riley Smith

00;31;43;29 – 00;31;46;06
John McMinn
So yeah. But yeah. Thank you all for having me, man. It’s been.

00;31;46;06 – 00;31;58;18
Dr. Ryan Loy
A blast. It’s been a blast. We really appreciate your time. Thank you for coming over here and taking time out of your day and been great getting to learn about you, learn about Farm Bureau and learn about the Federation as a whole. And just, you know, if there’s anything you want to leave our listeners with, you’re welcome to do so.

00;31;58;18 – 00;32;01;23
Dr. Ryan Loy
Otherwise, I just really thank you for your time and always a great conversation. Yeah.

00;32;01;24 – 00;32;13;00
John McMinn
Thanks for having me. If there’s anything you’re curious about Farm Bureau wise, you want to get involved, feel free to contact me. My emails. John.McMinn@arfb.com

00;32;13;04 – 00;32;15;04
Dr. Ryan Loy
And we’ll link it in the newsletter, if you don’t mind.

00;32;15;07 – 00;32;18;02
John McMinn
Yeah, absolutely. Just don’t put my home address on. Okay.

00;32;18;04 – 00;32;20;05
Dr. Ryan Loy
So open your Social Security instead.

00;32;20;07 – 00;32;21;03
John McMinn

00;32;21;05 – 00;32;32;20
Riley Smith
I want to thank all you guys coming in today. And, Mr. John taking the time coming over here. And thanks for having me. All our listeners, please, if you ain’t a Farm Bureau member, go be a Farm Bureau member.

00;32;32;23 – 00;32;34;12
John McMinn
And you can apply online now.

00;32;34;14 – 00;32;35;04
Dr. Ryan Loy
Very good.

00;32;35;06 – 00;32;36;13
Dr. Hunter Biram
But you put a link to that. Yeah.

00;32;36;13 – 00;32;37;19
Dr. Ryan Loy
We can. Yeah, absolutely.

00;32;37;22 – 00;32;43;03
Riley Smith
If you get Farm Bureau insurance, you’re you member already. If you didn’t know that, they charge that on the front end.

00;32;43;10 – 00;32;55;22
John McMinn
And I’ll add like another I think another positive being a Farm Bureau member and we kind of hinted at it earlier, is that not only we advocating for agriculture, but it’s a networking. You receive the farmers inside of the community, a farm bureau.

00;32;55;22 – 00;33;03;00
Dr. Ryan Loy
And it comes back to what we were just talking about, you pulling a piece from this person, and you can just learn. You’re always learn and you can and you can take that skillset back to make this.

00;33;03;07 – 00;33;06;26
John McMinn
Work of people like, man, I bet Joe’s had this problem for like, call him. That’s right.

00;33;06;29 – 00;33;17;02
Riley Smith
Or you’ll be sitting there. You go. I’ve been fighting that for ten years and I didn’t think of that. That’s I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened. Yeah. But anyway.

00;33;17;03 – 00;33;20;29
John McMinn
Yeah. Thank you all, man. Of course, a lot of fun and a lot of diverse conversation.

00;33;21;00 – 00;33;23;21
Dr. Ryan Loy
That’s right. Now, not always a blast here. It’s always all right.

00;33;23;22 – 00;33;25;04
John McMinn
So yeah.

00;33;25;06 – 00;33;47;13
Riley Smith
But anyhow well you guys stay tuned for my market report. Thanks. All right, guys, I’m back in the studio. So this, the audio sounds going to sound a little different, but here we go. Here’s your market report. December 24 Corn current prices at $4.27 per bushel. A month agos price was at $4.08 per bushel. That’s up $0.19 a year agos

00;33;47;14 – 00;34;18;18
Riley Smith
price is at $4.78 per bushel. That’s down $0.51. November 24 rice. Current prices at $14.98 per bushel, per cwt Excuse me a month ago prices at $15.25 per cwt That’s down $0.27 year ago was at $16.78 per cwt That’s down $1.80. November 24t soybeans current price is at $10.08 per bushel. A month agos, price was at $10.12 per bushel, and that’s down $0.04 a year.

00;34;18;18 – 00;34;46;00
Riley Smith
agos price is at $13.90 per bushel. That’s down $3.82. July 25 wheat is at $5.74 per bushel month. month agos price was at $6.25 per bushel. That’s down $0.51 year agos price is at $6.27 per bushel, thats down $0.53. Your December 24 cotton current prices at $0.69 per pound month agos price is at $0.71 per pound. That’s down $0.02. Year agoes price is at $0.79 per pound.

00;34;46;00 – 00;35;12;26
Riley Smith
That’s down $0.10. Your weekly U.S average for peanuts $490 $498 per ton month agos price is at $474 per ton. That’s up $24 a year agos price is at $504 per ton. That’s down $6. That’s your weekly commodity futures this week. Your input prices this week Urea is at $490 per ton, ammonium nitrate at $465 per ton, ammonium sulfates at $520 per ton.

00;35;12;26 – 00;35;43;12
Riley Smith
DAP is at 792 50 a ton. Triple Super Phosphates at $687 per ton, potash at $475 per ton, and your pellet lime is at $225 per ton. This week. Your diesel prices this week off road diesel at $2.51 per gallon. You’re highway diesel’s at $3.21 per gallon, and your Mississippi River level at Memphis of Memphis, Tennessee this week. Current level is at 6.6ft, and a year ago was at -8.37ft.

00;35;43;18 – 00;35;56;01
Riley Smith
I want to thank you all again for joining in on another episode of Morning Coffee and AG Markets. We hope you enjoyed this episode and your morning coffee as you tuned in. We hope to catch you next week. So until next time we’ll catch you on the flip flop. Bye bye now!