Beyond Agriculture

Interest Rate, Commodities and Lines of Credit

August 02, 2022 Central Kentucky Ag Credit Season 1 Episode 11
Interest Rate, Commodities and Lines of Credit
Beyond Agriculture
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Beyond Agriculture
Interest Rate, Commodities and Lines of Credit
Aug 02, 2022 Season 1 Episode 11
Central Kentucky Ag Credit

This week join Caleb, Tom Zack, Ben and Shelby and learn about how lines of credit can be used throughout the year. Hear Tom Zack's thoughts on rising input costs and how hay production has been effected by the weather. Caleb helps to explain when it is beneficial to have a line of credit and Ben updates everyone on how inflation and rising interest rates can effect the economy. 

Show Notes Transcript

This week join Caleb, Tom Zack, Ben and Shelby and learn about how lines of credit can be used throughout the year. Hear Tom Zack's thoughts on rising input costs and how hay production has been effected by the weather. Caleb helps to explain when it is beneficial to have a line of credit and Ben updates everyone on how inflation and rising interest rates can effect the economy. 


Caleb Sadler (00:01)

Welcome to Beyond Agriculture, the podcast that takes you beyond the scope of AG and into the real life stories, conversations, and events taking place in our community. Who we are and what we do is Beyond Agriculture. Hello and welcome in to Beyond Agriculture. Caleb Sadler back with you today. I'm also joined with Shelby Wade and Tom Zack Evans, and also the man behind the scenes, been Robin again with us back in our Paris branch today. It's good to have everyone here today. And good morning. How are y'all doing?

 


Shelby Wade (00:38)

Good. Caleb, how's it going with you?

 


Caleb Sadler (00:39)

Good, going excellent. Coming back off a good weekend. Busy weekend at that  Tom Zack, what did you all get into this weekend?

 


Tom Zack (00:48)

It has been busy. We attended the antique tractor show here in Bourbon County and Battle of Bluegrass Pool that Ag Credit was a sponsor of. And I think they had one of the biggest turnouts they've had in several years.

 


Caleb Sadler (01:01)

Yeah, I was out there on Saturday and we were talking there. My family, of course, we exhibited a couple of gas engines, and it was probably one of the biggest shows that we've had out there in a long time.

 


Shelby Wade (01:13)

And the weather was perfect.

 


Tom Zack (01:15)

Yeah, it was. It cooled off some. We just concluded Harrison County Fair last week. Had really good turnout for it from livestock shows, the tractor pull, we work the gate, Ag Credit. Did Thursday night had, I guess, one of the biggest nights of the fair. My gosh, that was really good. And the other thing that can't go without mentioning is the rain we've gotten. I think all of central Kentucky was desperately needing the rain. And now I think I got a little mud on my feet yesterday.

 


Caleb Sadler (01:51)

It feels good. Finally, I was actually talking we went and ate dinner last night in Lexington, and I was talking to a borrower that ran into at the restaurant, and he was talking about his tobacco, and he said they were getting ready to start topping, but they're actually going to start with the latest tobacco they set. And then the earliest is actually looks like it's stunned a little bit from being so dry early on, so man, it's been tough.

 


Tom Zack (02:13)

Yeah, the rain has really been a blessing.

 


Caleb Sadler (02:15)

Ben, what's new with you? It's been a while since you've been on and anything exciting on your end?

 


Ben Robin (02:21)

Yeah, that's been a while. I haven't got to join you all lately. Now we're busy on the farm and taking a few trips, trying to get the girls out and about before they start school, before we get back in the groove of that. So had a pretty good conference this weekend with Farm Bureau Generation Bridge and so just watching it rain.

 


Caleb Sadler (02:44)

Yeah, well, I know what you're meaning on that one. Now, you all were recently in DC. That was a pretty neat trip, wasn't it?

 


Ben Robin (02:50)

Yeah, that was kind of one of the spontaneous trips we took that we didn't really have planned, and it was fun. First time the girls had ever been to DC. First time they'd been on a plane. So we drove out there with one of my wife's friends and flew them back. So it was awesome. Fun trip. Yeah, we really enjoyed it. Really hot out there. Gosh, it was hot.

 


Caleb Sadler (03:08)

We were talking there earlier before we got started recording, and I remember going one time this has been a few years ago, actually, I think it was '18 when I moved to the Paris branch, and we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival. And my gosh, the amount of people is unbelievable. Anytime you're really in DC, it's that way.

 


Shelby Wade (03:31)

I've never been. I'm looking forward to going, but I just haven't been yet. Maybe next time i'll hop on with Ben, we'll go. Yeah, you and the girls. I'll experience it, too.

 


Ben Robin (03:38)

They want to go back. They enjoyed it. They, of course, wanted to see the White House, so we did all that, and it was really fun.

 


Caleb Sadler (03:45)

Now, did you all get to go inside, like tour inside the White House?

 


Ben Robin (03:48)

No, I guess the president had Covid. They didn't have any tours, but you can actually get a lot closer. Last time we were there, you couldn't get close to the they had, like, a barricade up before you can get to the fence, so you could actually go right to the fence.

 


Caleb Sadler (04:06)

When I went time before last, that was one of the tours that we went on. We actually got to go through the White House, so it was really cool.

 


Ben Robin (04:14)

Yeah, no, we didn't get to go in, but we got to see it. It was a fun time.

 


Caleb Sadler (04:17)

Well, back on topic here, just kind of telling you a little bit about what's going on in our lives and what we've been going through the past couple of weeks here, but one thing that we wanted to get in touch on here a line of credit and what it is and truly what it can do to help your operation. So, Tom Zack, tell us a little bit about what technically a line of credit is.

 


Tom Zack (04:39)

Well, we offer some different types of lines of credit here at Central Kentucky Ag Credit, and they offer another tool in your toolbox for cash flow purposes throughout your cattle cycle, your crop year, whatever your operation is, they are another tool there to help you manage risk and also manage the cash flow. And so the most popular would be the crop operating line of credit. So whether your tobacco, corn, beans, wheat, whatever crop you're raising hay sometimes in the spring, you're putting a lot of inputs in. And like this year, things were extremely high, the highest we've ever paid in our life.

 


Caleb Sadler (05:29)

Prime example of that, we've had numerous people come back in and needed to increase their line of credit because they got a fertilizer bill that they were not prepared to see. And I know we've done several that way here across the association and in this branch as well.

 


Tom Zack (05:44)

Yeah. So you're hit with a lot of cost in the spring and sometimes your checkbook just can't handle all that. Another thing is sometimes you could go ahead and lock in some prices earlier if you have the cash flow to do that and lock in a better price than what you would be paying maybe later on for these inputs. So you have the cash there to go ahead and do that. So the crop operating line is one of the most popular. Caleb, I know you deal with a lot of the feeder lines of credit if you want to talk about those.

 


Caleb Sadler (06:24)

Yeah, so the feeder cattle lines of credit, they were very similar, I guess you could say, into a crop line of credit. But they're on a twelve month cycle generally is how we set those up on. And what those lines of credit are used for are to purchase those livestock. If you're turning stocker cattle or feeder cattle out on an annual basis, you'll buy, fund those cattle, the purchases of those cattle off the line of credit. You may have some expenses associated with those cattle in terms of vet, hay, mineral, things like that through the course of the twelve months. And then once you sell those cattle, you would turn that money back to that line of credit. And as long as that line of credit is revolved or the largest principal balance you've had on that line has been turned to the past twelve months, we're good to revolve that line and turn that back over for another year and renew that. I know that there are some unique tools that we have in the toolbox in terms of for young, beginning, smaller farmers. Regarding FSA guarantee lines of credit, tell us a little bit why it's different between those and just a standard in house line of credit.

 


Tom Zack (07:24)

That's right, Caleb. So we offer lines of credit from one to five years. Sometimes the beginning person coming in might just be twelve months and as long as they cycle that line properly, then we can do three years the next time. Sometimes because of the size of the accounts, they're still just twelve months. But on our FSA guaranteed lines of credit, the way those guarantees work, we're able to go out five years on those lines of credit. So that's pretty nice, you're not having to touch those. But those do come with some extra criteria that we have to follow throughout the year per FSA. I was also going to mention that a line of credit for someone's not familiar, it's kind of like a credit card, but it's a lot lower interest rate. Typically ours follow prime. So if prime goes up. Which we've been experiencing. Federal Reserve has been raising rates and so anybody with a line of credit will get notification that that rate has gone up. But it is like a credit card where you would use it to help with those cash flow purposes and then pay it back when you sell your crops.

 


Tom Zack (08:37)

When you sell your cattle. That sort of thing.

 


Caleb Sadler (08:40)

So, Tom Zack, I know that you brought up a really good point, and I'm going to get off topic a little bit here and maybe dig into the weeds a little bit, but you referenced there that our lines

 


Caleb Sadler (08:50)

 of credit are tied to prime, and you said that the Fed sets that rate. And just recently, I know that the Fed raised interest rates. Ben, tell us a little bit about why the Fed has been raising these interest rates of recent and the last jump that they just did last week.

 


Ben Robin (09:08)

Yeah. So you kind of discuss a little bit of how the rates are set at the Federal Reserve level. But really the main purpose of raising rates is to slow down the economy. When there's money moving through the cycles, real estate is in demand. It's cheaper to borrow money. So there's a lot of movement in the markets. Well, the Fed controlling interest rates. They have the barometer of how the economy is going. And if things need to slow down, they raise rates, try to pull the reins back a little bit. That's the easiest explanation.

 


Caleb Sadler (09:47)

Yeah.

 


Tom Zack (09:47)

I would say this inflation is the highest it's been in our lifetimes. I'm sitting here as a 37 year old, and inflation has never been this high. And as they raise rates, then less people can afford to buy stuff. So it's going to slow the economy down. And I think they're trying to target in that 2% to 3% inflation rate and where it's over 9%.

 


Caleb Sadler (10:11)

The last article that I read, the inflation rate was 9.7% and no real signs of slowing down right now.

 


Tom Zack (10:18)

And they're trying really hard to raise these rates cautiously to slow the economy down, but not send us into a recession. Some would argue that we're already in a recession, but the Federal Reserve is trying not to send us into a deep, long recession like we've experienced in the past.

 


Caleb Sadler (10:36)

So we'll get back on topic. Thank you both for answering that for me there and pitching in some Shelby, what should a farmer look to have in preparation to come in to get a line of credit?

 


Shelby Wade (10:50)

Yeah, great question, Caleb. And we get this question a lot. So it's basically going to be if you've never had a line of credit or any other loans with us, bringing the same things that you would just get in a tractor or a landloan. So have on hand recent tax returns. We typically ask for the last three years and then an updated balance sheet. And that updated balance sheet is going to have all the things that you own, all your assets, all your equipment. If you've currently got crops in what you've gotten growing crops, things like that. So have all that ready, bring that to us and then we will kind of simulate from there how big a line you need versus what you think you need. And we want to make sure you have enough but also not go too crazy to kind of get you in a little bit of trouble and make sure it fits your production history. Now, if you're a new farmer, obviously you might not have those historical tax returns, these things that we would need to kind of establish what you've done in the past. We're going to look at what your goals are, how many acres of corn you're looking to grow, how many head of cattle, whatever.

 


Shelby Wade (11:55)

Kind of look at your goals and go from there. Based on current market like you mentioned, feed rates, fertilizer, what it is. So those are kind of the types of things we look at to establish the right line for you.

 


Tom Zack (12:09)

I'll just add to that that if you're a beginning farmer starting out, a lot of times cash is tight because you're trying to get your operation established. So the beginning farmers typically need those lines of credit. Also, the larger operations need the lines of credit. Me personally, I'm not afraid to admit that I'm not a large operation. We're just square baled hay and some cattle, not a huge operation. When I was a beginning farmer, I did have a line of credit because I was raising tobacco and just strictly for cash flow purposes. But now, just with the hay operation I don't have a line of credit anymore. But someone with a larger operation probably would because they got a lot more expenses going out. Also, folks with feeder livestock, a lot of times they have lines of credit because they're purchasing large amounts of cattle and then of course when they sell those cattle, they can pay that back.

 


Caleb Sadler (13:19)

I know we've talked a little bit about it the term wise and we've talked a lot about revolving lines of credit. But there are multiple kinds of lines of credit that Central Kentucky Ag Credit offers, whether that be if you were looking on a construction loan or if you were building a project on the farm. So we offer both revolving line of credit as well as a non revolving line of credit. Shelby, tell us a little bit about the non revolving line of credit and what those we tend to set those up for.

 


Shelby Wade (13:50)

Yeah, that's a good point, Caleb. The nonrevolving lines of credit are also very useful. A lot of times we set those up for, like you mentioned, construction type deals or farm improvement loans. So basically we'll set it up for you. You can take the funds out as you need and then at the end we'll term it out on a certain term depending on what the loan looks like. And we also do that too with breeder cattle we'll do a certain amount of time, usually three to six months depending on how many head you're looking to purchase. So that way you don't have to purchase them all in one place. You can shop around and get the best deal. And then once you get them bought, we'll term out the amount of funds you spend. If you don't use it all, that's great. We'll only term out what you've spent on those catalog or the project.

 


Tom Zack (14:34)

I'll give you a couple of examples on that just for folks listening that maybe haven't done that before. I've got a gentleman right now, he's building a farm shop and of course supplies are hard to come by and so we actually gave him twelve months to do it. And so he's pulling out money as he poured the concrete, as he got it framed, he's going to insulate the inside and put some heat in it and all that. So as he's building that as a non-revolving line because he's just pulling the money out. And then once it's done, then we'll put it out on terms where he can make monthly or annual payments on that. Another one I did recently was just a farm improvement loan. They were doing some dozing and fencing on the farm and so they were having to wait on the dozer guy to get there and then they were having to wait on the fence builder to get there. So instead of paying interest on that money the whole time, you only pay interest as you pull it out. That's people's number one question generally is do I have to pay interest on this the whole time?

 


Tom Zack (15:42)

No, it's just when you pull the money out.

 


Caleb Sadler (15:45)

Yeah.

 


Caleb Sadler (15:45)

And the nice part about the line of credit feature is if you don't know the amount that you're going to need, we are always able to set up a larger amount just out of abundance of caution for you and then turn around and you term out whatever you use. We're not going to term out the full amount, it's just based on the funds that you use at that time. So one thing that we've got a little spreadsheet here that we're going by today a little bit, but one topic that I see on the sheet is renewal season. And this is something that's kind of evolved over the course of time as production has changed in central Kentucky. But when we were predominantly tobacco producers back in the would have said that there was a set renewal season of probably coming up in the spring. Now when you start to look at our portfolio, really the renewal season is all twelve months of the year because everybody's operation is totally different now. It's not just heavily dependent on tobacco or row crop production. A lot of these cattle guys, there's a couple of lines of credit right now that we're working on renewals for stocker and background guys.

 


Caleb Sadler (16:49)

So I would just say that right now the renewal season is basically twelve months out of the year. Now obviously that we're hit with that more heavily in the spring. For those guys that have different aspects of the operation, whether it be cattle, grain, corn, soybeans, or tobacco, those are probably still on that spring renewal schedule, just like normal.

 


Shelby Wade (17:16)

And renewing your line of credit just for those who aren't fully aware of what the process is. Is basically if we've got you set up for a year. Twelve months. Come back to us with your production history. All you've spent. What you've grown. Things of that nature. And if the line worked for you. That was a good amount. We'll renew it for another year or we can take it on out. Or if you don't want the line of credit anymore, we can cancel it. It's not something you have to do. And if there's an issue getting repayment back on the line, we can term it out and put it on terms if need be. But that's kind of a little bit of example of what we mean by renewal.

 


Tom Zack (17:56)

One of the biggest things that we look for is that the line of credit has been turned. That's what we always ask. We look back on the transaction history to make sure that you didn't just take all the money out and it's just kind of sitting there as we would call stale. We like to see that money cycled as you sell your crops, as you sell your cattle, cycle that money back through. That's also cutting down on the amount of interest you pay because it's back on the line. Then when you have more expenses come up, you would pull that money back out.

 


Caleb Sadler (18:30)

So as we're talking about it here, one of the tools that we look at, and Shelby brought this up earlier with requiring three years of tax returns and for the application process. But that's actually one of the tools that we look at when we try to establish and set up a line of credit when you look at the tax returns and the first place we go to is that Schedule F. And if we're looking about setting you up a line of credit. We don't want to set you up a line of credit that's bigger than your operation because that tells us right there that you're not going to turn enough money through the line of credit and there's going to be some stale funds that would establish do that. So that's one of the first places that we go to is the Schedule F on the tax returns and looking at that gross farm income that you have to make sure that we're going to set a lot of credit up that adequately funds your operation. Not too big, but not too small either.

 


Ben Robin (19:20)

You talked a little bit about that there, but you got young beginning farmers. What if they don't have the tax returns, what do you do then?

 


Tom Zack (19:27)

Yeah, well, in that place, Ben, we rely heavily on projections for that kind of stuff and we use the UK, University of Kentucky, Ag econ budgets a lot and we can tailor those to your operation. So don't think that just because the university says this much mineral or this much hay, we tailor that to your operation and what you think you're going to realistically use, but we can use those projections, say, okay, we think based on this, that you're going to gross 80,000 off the farm and you're going to have 60,000 in expenses to gross at $80,000. So that's a big tool in our toolbox to help with beginning farmers that may not know what they're going to need.

 


Caleb Sadler (20:16)

And you brought up a really good point and this kind of goes back to the young beginning farmer side of things too. But I would encourage those people, if you're starting out farming right now or you're a young beginning farmer, go out and look at those budgets that UK has to offer because those are a great place to get started with knowing how much you're going to need and how much return you're expected to have.

 


Ben Robin (20:38)

That's what I was going to say, just to see if it is going to be profitable, given the current Ag landscape in the market.

 


Caleb Sadler (20:44)

And I tell you right now, if you look at the way commodity prices have been the past three weeks, we're knocking on the door of some producers. If they didn't lock in some prices, these fertilizer prices that they put this stuff on with, it could be getting really close to a break even right now.

 


Tom Zack (21:00)

That's right. I was on an adm call, they have a conference call once a month I call into, and that was last week. And a lot of these fertilizer prices, whether it's Urea or Murate, are getting down in that 700 range, depending on your supplier. I think in Cynthia's it was 740 a few weeks ago when I checked. And based on that ADM call and these world economists that are on there, that's probably about as good as we are going to see on prices and that's going to carry on through the fall. If you're an operator that thinks you can lock in a margin for next year with those kinds of prices, then you ought to probably look about doing that. They said obviously, that as we go into winter, fertilizer will follow those natural gas prices pretty heavily. So look for fertilized prices to come back up as we go into winter.

 


Caleb Sadler (21:58)

That gives you some good insight going forward next year, looking at 2023 growing. So make note of that. Go ahead and try to lock in some fertilizer prices right now. So, Shelby, I know that you offer a different aspect because you all do finish out some pigs and things like that. What are commodity prices like right now on that end of it?

 


Shelby Wade (22:17)

Well, as you mentioned, our biggest input is going to be feed, soybean meal particularly, and of course, corn. We don't grow any of our own crops. We purchase from local farmers, which one was 7.50 cash. That's what I had to pay for it and did enjoy it, but that is what it is. But like you mentioned, the price for corn going into fall specifically is going down continuously, which is for my side of things. I like to see kind of being a little selfish because the cheaper I can get corn, the more margin I have on my animals. So I'm looking forward to kind of getting a little bit cheaper according to the fall. But like you said, the other livestock prices in general are pretty strong. I don't sell any of my animals to the market, but I know, for instance, hogs this summer have been over $1.10-$1.15 market, which is, I shouldn't say abnormal, we've seen that before, but that's a very strong hog market here.

 


Caleb Sadler (23:23)

I remember when it was $0.25 there.It wasn't that long ago.

 


Tom Zack (23:27)

Yeah, speaking of that, we sold some pound cows off the farm just a few weeks ago and a $1.05, and I don't remember ever selling these were 1500- 1600lb pound cows that sold amazing. So there's really strong demand for that stuff right now.

 


Caleb Sadler (23:46)

So getting back on topic, talking about lines of credit and things like that, and Tom Zack, and Shelby I will let both of you all answer this question, but what do we look for at Ag Credit in terms of collateral position to secure those lines of credit? Whether that be equipment, cattle, or real estate.

 


Shelby Wade (24:04)

Any and all, we'll take it all. It all depends on the person and what they have to offer. For instance, if we've got your mortgage loan with us, we've got your farm, and we have an open end in there, we can use that to secure your line of credit. Most usually I'll say, though, the lines of credit are secured with the crop that is being raised and or if it's cattle the cattle that are being purchased and whatnot and also equipment. So basically we'll look at your asset list on your balance sheet and see what we have on there and what we can use to best meet our, of course, credit standards and what's going to work for you.

 


Tom Zack (24:42)

One of the first things that I look for is to find collateral that's obviously free and clear. So you might have some equipment loans with another lender or whatever, and they have all your farm equipment taken. So we would say, okay, your cattle are free and clear in that case. So that's the first thing I look for is something that's free and clear. And then obviously we need to have enough collateral to cover the line of credit. And sometimes that's an accumulation of cattle equipment. And if it's a really large line of credit, then we would take real estate in that case. So it's just kind of tailored to meet your needs and your operation. And that's what we're here for as loan officers at Ag Credit, is to help tailor this loan, the time of year, the amount of the loan, the type of collateral, all that to your operation.

 


Caleb Sadler (25:41)

And what I was just going to say, I was going to feed off of that a little bit, too, because that's one area I think that we look at a lot. If you didn't have the collateral or to secure a line of credit, that's where we typically bring in the Farm Service Agency with an FSA guaranteed line of credit that allows us to extend our underwriting standards to where we can make a credit that we typically wouldn't be able to make. And nine times out of ten, if we're making an FSA guarantee line of credit is because the collateral, there's just not enough collateral to secure the loan to keep the loan in house. So just as we're wrapping up here today Tom Zack, I know that you do a lot in the hay side of things and tell us a little bit about how the weather has affected your operation this year.

 


Tom Zack (26:28)

Yeah, so we had a really good first cutting that was back early in May. Off the top of my mind, it was around May 10 or May 15. The weather cooperated. We have a nice window there. The hay barns are full of roll balls that are good enough they could have been square baled. The quality was just phenomenal. And then we ended up getting a really good second cutting on our alfalfa fields. But it turned off dry. It turned off dry right after that kind of the middle of June, right after our second cutting of alfalfa, It turned off dry for a lot of central Kentucky. As I was driving around to some of our equipment dealers here, the southern part of our territory, Lincoln. Garrard down through there, were even drier than us. So we got really dry in June, really from the middle of June and the middle of July, we had guys irrigating tobacco and stuff and got really dry. So that kind of just got really hot and really dry for a month. And it kind of just shut things down. Other than the weeds, it seems like the weeds have just gone rampant.

 


Tom Zack (27:38)

And now here in late July, we've started getting rain. And like we said, we got a lot over the weekend. It was kind of muddy, so things have greened up and started to grow. We're hoping we got a third cutting that is ready on alfalfa. Now grass hay fields are a little different. That hot dry spill really shut those down, and we're hoping that over the next month or so, maybe those grass hay fields will kind of rebound.

 


Caleb Sadler (28:07)

Yeah, hopefully. We'll get into the fall here, we'll get some really nice weather and some good rain at some appropriate times and maybe we can get a good fall cut in the Hayden. How has the weather impacted your end of things, the cow side? Has it been more stress on the cow herd?

 


Ben Robin (28:24)

Yeah, I was just going to kind of chime in with Tom Zack. We're talking about operating lines credit and Tom Zack is obviously hay producer. What's the haysupply look like this year?

 


Tom Zack (28:37)

We still got some guys that are looking for hay, to be honest. I think like we said, we had a good first cutting. Now with that said, the quality of the first cutting was good, but as far as quantity, it was probably down a little bit from the past couple of years. And I think that's where some of our large beef cattle guys that run a lot of cattle are still looking for some hay then on the square bale end of things. We're doing good, but we definitely need a strong finish to the year. Hopefully these rains will get that for us and the hay supply will be okay, but yeah, I think your larger guys are still looking for some round bales.

 


Ben Robin (29:15)

That's why I was thinking too, with the way the drought has been and a lot of cows moving through the market out west, feed them some of that hay making its way out there already.

 


Caleb Sadler (29:26)

That's why I was just about to say there's a ton of cattle that are making their way from Texas up this direction and that drought down there. And it wouldn't surprise me if we don't see some hay that is going in the opposite direction going back down there.

 


Shelby Wade (29:41)

You've been talking about hay, but from a pasture side of things as well. I know that there's a few people that I've already heard of and talked to that have started lightly feeding bales and it's the end of July, so that's kind of scary to think about going into winter and fall. Hopefully these rains that we've got in the last couple of weeks really kind of help get us more grass coming in for pastures. But I'm kind of going to think that there's going to be a definite hay shortage going into fall, winter.

 


Caleb Sadler (30:09)

Yeah, I would have to agree with that. And not only the rain side of things, it's just been so hot that the grass is just not growing.

 


Tom Zack (30:15)

Those full season grasses just won't grow in this hot weather.

 


Caleb Sadler (30:18)

That's exactly right.

 


Ben Robin (30:20)

You're talking about that, asking how the cows are doing and everything. We've more intensely rotationally grazed this year and made the intention to split our fields up a little more and we've been able to rotate every couple of days and now we've got plenty of grass for the time of year, obviously theres been moisture, but that's made a huge impact on our operation, just being able to more intensively graze those fields and cows are good. They're slick and trying to keep flies off of them this time of year.

 


Shelby Wade (30:54)

Yeah, that's always difficult.

 


Caleb Sadler (30:57)

Yeah, we're getting ready to go into fall calving too. So that's a notorious time, I think, for bad face flies and everything like that. Well, as we're wrapping up today, I want to thank you all for joining in. Also, I would like to go ahead and extend some thoughts and prayers with our people in Eastern Kentucky. Those people were just hit with a real devastating flood. So our thoughts and prayers with them from Central Kentucky Ag Credit to those people there in Eastern Kentucky. Thank you all for tuning in and listening to Beyond Agriculture. And be sure to go out and like subscribe and share our podcast. Thank you.

 


Speaker 5 (31:42)

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