The Incredible Logistics Behind Corn Farming
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Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
References
[1] www.bancroftiowa.com/index.as...
[2] www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats...
[3] www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/...
[4] www.krugerseed.com/en-us/prod...
[5] www.federalhybrids.com/produc...
[6] www.croptesting.iastate.edu/Co...
[7] www.macrotrends.net/2532/corn...
[8] www.extension.iastate.edu/agd...
[9] crops.extension.iastate.edu/b...
[10] s3.amazonaws.com/media.agrich...
Select footage courtesy Getty and AP; Select imagery courtesy Geolayers; Select music courtesy Epidemic sound
If Sam made a video about the logistics of paper clip manufacturing in Uzbekistan I'd still watch it
Now I want him to make that video
True that
Just as long as they're not using A.I. to maximize their paperclip production.
Ait guys spam Sam with this comment.
The Uzbeks make paper clips? Tell me more.
Im a Farmer and a professional midwesterner and when I clicked on this video, I expected misinformation and inaccurate terminology, I was severely wrong. You sir put your research into this video and I applaud you for that.
@@TheRatsintheWalls seems so common now a days. Most the time when I see an article about modern rowcropping in America its to bash it. There needs to be more videos like this one
Nice! Is it hard to become a professional midwesterner? Do you have to wear shorts in winter?
@@joseville If you aren't standing outside in 10 degree weather, wearing nothing but shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, telling people that "it isn't really THAT cold out", are you even really a midwesterner?
same here, I thought it would be a bunch of outdated BS again.
I have been subscribed to Wendover for the past 5 years, it's rare to see complain regarding misinformation about his videos
As an iowa farmer, i wanna give you props. This is by far the best high level overview of how crop farming in the US works. Obviously its not nuanced (every farm is different) but as a high level overview i cant find anything wrong with how this was presented. Thank you.
Sure you dont want to give him crops?
@jaytheman5386 what a load of crop!!!
My dad is a wheat farmer. We're from Oklahoma, and our cash crops are wheat and cotton. The process is largely the same, but the seasons are flipped. It's mid-September so they're planting right now. They'll water the wheat over fall, but the rain usually starts to come back around this time of year and through October. It'll snow some over winter and it'll get some water that way. They'll also buy some young cattle to turn out to the wheat fields to eat on it. Their poop is valuable as it'll help with fertilization and moisture over winter. The rain comes back between March and May. As it does and they prepare for harvest, they'll sell their cattle (which will have grown over winter) and earn a little side money. Then they'll harvest in late May or early June, depending on how warm the winter was. A warmer winter means an earlier harvest. It might still be raining a lot in May so there's a huge risk associated. If you wait too long, you can't harvest the crop, but it's also impossible to harvest a muddy field. Harvest is absolutely the hardest part of the year for him. He will go 3-4 weeks in late spring working from 4 am to 12 am the following morning. As soon as it's time, it's a race against the clock. A lot of older farmers who can't really do it themselves will outsource the harvest a lot of times. I've talked to guys all the way down from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba looking for work. Most of them come from Montana or the Dakotas, though. It's very lucrative. My pop is 50, still young enough to do it all himself. There's a near constant battle with the weather. You want it to rain, but there's a very small range of acceptable rainfall amounts. Additionally, our rainy seasons often come with severe weather. A bad hailstorm can destroy a crop. You can't get too emotional when it happens. All you can do is take the insurance money and cross your fingers that it works out next year. May/June and September/October are his busy months. He gets all the other time to just piddle. He's an excellent welder so he'll go do welding jobs around the area. He'll maintain the cattle otherwise. There's not much to do in late fall, but once it starts regularly freezing (usually after Christmas), the cows will need the ice broken on the water tanks so they can drink. He also digs cattle ponds to stay busy during the off season. During the winter, there's not a lot to do outside of breaking ice so he spends his days watching football on TV, setting up some cans downrange to practice his shot, or hunting. Once in a great while, they'll hunt deer, but his choice is usually quail or pheasant. It's a pretty comfortable life, but not one I want. I work in finance and prefer this to farming. I drove the grain cart during harvest and decided at 16 that it wasn't for me. But he loves what he does, and it's always really cool to see people doing what they love.
Such a cool story! Thanks for sharing :)
GMO wheat will make you sick boo
@@jammasterjay4298 ok tin foil hatter. Nearly everything you eat is GMO now lmao
I hope you're doing what you love, too. The average age of American farmers is 65 and climbing. Has your dad ever thought of taking on an apprentice?
@@jammasterjay4298 shut up no it will not and it never will
When people talk about farmers being uneducated, I bring up stuff like this. Remaining competitive in this market, especially with a family farm, is really goddamn hard.
Besides farming basics, you now need to knowing marketing (puts, calls, futures) to mitigate risk, technology (gps, field level data per foot, variable rate spraying and planting), finance (interest rates, breakevens), and if you really want to be effective, mechanics, and certified to spay pesticides across your acres as well as keeping up to date with all regulations. It can be overwhelming at times. Hence the stress hotlines they share all the time.
Farmers stopped being uneducated a century ago. Now they're a labourer, a heavy machinery operator, a mechanic, a scientist, and a businessman all in one.
This is a shame that such an essential work is so badly remunerated. Especially when you consider distributors margins... They have fewer risk and bigger rewards, that's not equitable.
@@feuby8480 It's not essential in fact It's the definition of a false economy. Your bread doesn't require that it contains high fructose corn syrup. This is not working.
@@acjohnson1986 Don't forget hacking. Those John Deer tractors get expensive to repair lol
Loving these kinda "hey have you ever considered the complexity behind this everyday human activity? let me blow your mind about it" videos
You could probably take the most mundane product in the room you're in right now and create an interesting logistics video from it.
Wonders of the global market’s economy of scale
When you are dependent upon a support system, you have a vested interest in knowing how it works.
MORE!
It reminds me of the "The whole world is in every pencil" essay (or was it a poem?) about how ordinary items can be profoundly reliant on global supply chains.
appreciate you showing how farming actually happens
Nice farming
Nice
As an Iowan with family that has farmed the same land for over 150 years, I appreciate this video's look at the complexity, hard work, and thin margins that define this essential industry. Also, that derecho you mentioned that hit Iowa in 2020 was DEVASTATING. Cedar Rapids, for example, lost almost 700,000 trees, which was 70% of the trees in the city, and suffered around $60 million in damage.
I knew farming was expensive, especially with machinery, but I had no idead that seeds for a small farm can top well over $50k, plus fertilizer etc. I had no idea, but wow!
@@ryanf922 That farm isn't 'small'. It likely generates enough calories to feed thousands of people(although it often isn't used for that purpose).
As a foreigner, I can't imagine anything more stereotypically American than a small town of 700 that somehow has a golf course and TWO car dealerships.
I'm from a town of about 600 in Iowa and I can tell you that not all small towns have such impressive local economies. As he was listing all those businesses, my eyebrows kept raising because it sounded like a city that must have thousands of residents, but the satellite image was telling me there couldn't be that many. I sure wish my hometown was as fortunate - they can't keep a single restaurant open.
@@EricM818 same haha I’m from iowa and I’ve only heard of one other town this size with a car dealership never two tho. Most have golf courses tho
@@landonboomsma2594 Here in Indiana it's the opposite. I can only think of a couple towns without car dealerships (including unincorporated ones), but golf courses only seem to exist in towns over 1500 people or so
Why?
Those arent your typical car dealerships. It will be a house one a 2 acre property that is selling cars. The golf course is not common. Most likely there is a large city nearby. So people from the city go out there to play golf.
That derecho in 2020 was no joke, it flattened more than 10 percent of the corn in the state, but more importantly it flattened almost all of the corn in the counties it hit hardest, deeply impacting their local economies in a year that had already experienced unbelievable volatility.
Yeah, those scenes from this video weren't an exaggeration. Almost half of the state looked just like that - corn laying completely flat - for weeks after that storm. Most grain bins, most barns, and many houses unlucky enough to be within a couple dozen miles of Highway 30 were decimated. I've never seen a storm that bad in my life.
In Cedar Rapids we lost power for a week after the storms and some areas lost it for longer. Every field around for miles was absolutely flattened. We lost a ton of trees too
Not just corn. derecho absolutely destroyed towns and property. I was working at a car dealership at the time at their body shop, and we had a brand new truck come in with a tree smashed between the tailgate and the bumper. Crazy
@@joebond2099 I remember that. I was working remotely for a certain company with a large presence there (I'm sure you can guess). Almost all my coworkers in a very large department were offline for the next week. I tried to warn them about a big storm after it passed the Des Moines area but I don't thing I appreciated how bad it was at the time.
@@CivBase I was trapped within my neighborhood because so many trees were laying across the road that it took several days for crews to cut them all out
He forgot about the drying of the grain on the farmers property. Most farmers in Iowa have their own grain bins for drying. It's not that common that they bring it to the coop right after harvesting. When I harvest I store it myself since it actually saves me tens of thousands and it gives me the ability to sell loads whenever I want allowing me to have reliable income when I need it. Plus I can also monitor my moisture levels and make it perfect before bringing it in.
Same here we have a few hundred thousand bushels of storage
How long can you store the harvested corn for?
And what is the most popular way farmers around Iowa keep track of the weather to dictate when to harvest?
@@spiannyfor dent corn upwards of 20 years.. so no reason to sell instantly since the market would be flooded around that time sell your excess if you have it and save the rest for when the price goes up.
@@spianny honestly there's about a 1-2 month period where you have all of your equipment out and you hope the day your weather app says it's gonna be sunny is sunny otherwise you just try again tomorrow. You basically just do it when you can and if it starts raining pack it up until it dries again in a day. Most farmers have their harvesting done in around 2-3 weeks for medium sized operations.
I grew up on a sheep/cattle farm in the Scottish Highlands and it’s fascinating to see a very different type of faming. I was struck by how flat everything is, around here completely flat land basically doesn’t exist. Also the complete lack of fences around the fields, again I’m used to there being lots of livestock farms around so even if a farmer doesn’t have animals themselves they’d need to keep other animals out.
Broadacre farming is very different to livestock farming. Even the logistics are very different.
thats part of why the American midwest has been a agricultural powerhouse from pretty much the start of American settlement. Even in the 1800s the English were worried about America crashing their grain market with dirt cheap exports and the US has only improved it's efficiency. The midwest is pretty much perfect for grain production with how flat it is and with the Mississippi cutting right through the middle, and with rotating soy or alfalfa and corn you've got about as close to perfect a system as we can achieve. Even as an American it's kind of mind boggling that the US only employs around 1% of the population but the US is still the worlds largest food exporter.
So glad Sam decided to show the farmers some love. Farming is way more hi-tech and complex than most people give it credit for
It's hard to love someone, when they can't pry their mouths from their assholes.
Unfortunately tractor manufacturers like John Deere want to make tractors so hi-tech that they can't be serviced in the field anymore and have to be sent to John Deere service technician to be fixed for a big markup. They're copying the Apple model for iPhones and Macs.
In the US for sure. In poorer countries, farming is mostly subsistence farming and the decisions are far less complicated.
Definitely. I'm in Iowa and I can tell you farmers are smart people. It's too bad the get stereotyped as hicks
@@andrewaldrich3602 there are farmers and there are farm hands. I grew up in Chicago and got stuck operating tractors on my uncles farm all summer because he couldn't hire "farm" kids who weren't well dip ships. With out fail the kids he'd hire would roll grain wagons a few times the tractor, they'd break chisel plows, they'd run things put of fuel, they'd leave lights on and run batteries out, they would gas in the diesel tractors.
Very good content made. Most of the farming channels doesnt explain our job as great as you did, i think this video will educate people and explain how complex farming is to people who dont know about it
How long do you think it will be before humans are not necessary for farming besides repairing the robots that repair farm equipment?
@@MegaLokopo You can replace humans on some big flat field may be in terms of years. But you cant replace them entirely, still, you would need someone on the field personally.
The problem with hemp is do you have hemp or a controlled substance. Hemp if it is stressed ie no water it starts to produce thc if the thc content gets high enough then it is a controlled substance. So now the farmer is breaking the law. So the hemp need federal regulations so until that time no one will grow it. You can go to Colorado department of agriculture for more information on the state approved strains for hemp.
@@geography_czek5699 What would they do on the field that couldn't be done with a mars rover type robot?
@@MegaLokopo You still need to transport them, maintain them, pull them from mud, manage their work, program them etc. But I am talking in terms of years maybe decades. Maybe after hundred years, there would be robots that would be able to do full tasks on their own.
I used to be contracted to one of these seed companies. I will tell you that the on-the-ground sales reps that travel to each farmer day after day have a huge influence. These megacorps employ a large number of mostly male people to travel to these rural farmers and initiate a company relationship with the farm. They also tend to provide 3 things to the reps: a phone, a computer, and a Ford f-150. Every rep told me that it had to do with the seats and infotainment centers, but I think it was the person running the sales division. These guys know all of the people and all of their competition. So much so that it was not uncommon that they would work for 3-5 years and then get scalped by one of, now, 3 major competitors in the market. Yes, it has consolidated that much.
Pioneer? Name sounds familiar, Marylander!
If this tells you how much farming has evolved, my great grandfather used to make a living picking 100 bushels of corn per DAY by hand. Nowadays we can harvest 5000 bushels per HOUR with our combine
Woah, less than one thousandth of the productivity!
That's why 90% of the people used to work in agriculture.
That's why slavery and feudalism used to exist, because there was not the tech to harvest hundreds or thousands of bushels within a few hours
Before coming to job, I used to work in my farm. When I was small we used to plant Maize(Corn in US) in 6 acres during January-April season. And we put Cotton between June -December season. And 2 acres Paddy is sown. Maize gives 20-25 quintals Or 80-100 bushels yield per acre. Price fluctuates between 1500-2100 (2017-2022 prices) per quintal Or $4.5 to $6.33 per bushal based on expected yield and demand. But still use labour to harvest grains. Which costs just above 1/3 rd of total cost. Whereas Output in Rupees is 30,000 - 45,000 Rupees or $361 - 540. Still we get profit of 5000-15000 rupees or $60 - 180 per acre. When is see this big machines and compare it to labour in my country, maybe that is why still US and European countries can produce for low cost than developing countries.
@@saikumarmadadi7524 that's exactly the reason we have higher yield. We used to need more servants to deal with our product
As someone in the ag industry, I commend you for making this video! Considering your non-ag background, the level of detail in covering the entire supply chain process is incredible, and it shows the world just how advanced this industry has become.
Agreed. Well done.
The native American knew how to farm, this is complete utter garbadge, especially for the environment, we have to completely shift our way of thinking about food production. We should center around permaculture (way more productive than any industrial agriculture), autoproduction, urban horticulture, we don't need to have bigg ass plot of land and try to fight everything, its insane how we are creating our own problem, flowers and other insect are the best pesticides, and biodiversity is the best fertilizer. Also we have acces to traditional knowledge that have been put to test thru scientific experimental archeological research, I am, in fact doing my master on this subject. Feel free to contact me, but we have to change our way of thinking and doing agriculture.
@@Mohawks1608 the number of people on the planet has increased so much in the last 50 years as a direct result of advances in agriculture. We literally cannot go back to the lower yielding sustainable practices without billions of people starving to death. Look up the Green Revolution in the 1950s and 60s
@@Mohawks1608 agree with basically everything you wrote (I practice regenerative agriculture myself) and this video does an excellent job describing how currently corn/soy market works. I think the creator intentionally left any kind of judgement out of it.
@@Mohawks1608 While I do agree that our current way of farming is harmful to the environment (pesticides, monocultures, water depletion etc.), could another way of farming produce enough for the growing world population and would it be more energy-efficient? Genuinely curious.
Great video. My grandpa farmed just a little over an hour from Bancroft. He broke his back to form a sizable property (three farms put together), lasted through the farm crisis of the 80s, and only retiring when he developed Alzheimer’s. I will always remember his sacrifice to provide for our family.
I'm very sorry to hear about your grandpa's back injury
That farm crisis was killer
@@garciaoneris i think it's a metaphor
@@Gsauce08 I think it's sarcasm
@@garciaoneris I think you're right.
I was born and raised on a farm near Mason City, IA. Farming has come a long way! I have a treasured picture of my grandfather driving a team of four horses in a field. It wasn’t easy in those days! I also remember when my dad would pick corn by the cob with a corn picker, then store the cobs in a corn crib, only to auger it out later on, “shell it,” and take it by tractor and wagon to the elevator. This always involved my dad and about four or five other farmers. They always helped each other! Great memories! Thanks for the video!
2:26-2:34 growing up in a farming family, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes (like what we do), you’ll switch the crop of a field from corn to soybeans so that the ground doesn’t get ripped of its nutrients, which can happen if you plant a specific crop over and over each year. Also, switching between crops each year can lead to a greater yield.
corn is hell on soil. inlaws still do the 7 year cycle
Crop rotation! Ah yes!
OMG, do more videos like this! Most farming videos are about the specifics of certain farming tasks but this was a great overview on the economics and logistics.
There is probably enough content in the farming world to do dozens of videos. Things like the logistics of fertilizer and the massive think tanks that combine geodata sources to determine the precise quantity per square meter to apply to crops. Modern farming is amazingly high-tech.
I'd happily watch a 1h video just about the combine harvester.
Repent to Jesus Christ “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 NIV J
and these logistics are ever changing, the largest Co2 releaser in atmoshphere is soil TILLAGE, yeah who would've guesses, soil erosion is a huge issue cause of industrial farming, we have 25 acres land i'm gonna be growing for profit conventionally for a year or two after i have enough funds i will start to transition to soil regenration and inter-cropping methods as well as cover crops and holistic managed grazing etc. hopefully on the 3rd year or 4th i wanna see my land thrive without any cehmicals
@@microRiZu What's stopping you from making the switch to a no-till regime? Sounds like it'd fix your concerns right from the get go.
As a farmer, I greatly appreciate you showing how farming actually happens!
I grew up in Northern NY and while i know mostly how farms work basically all of our farms are family farms with between 20-200 head of cattle. Farming is very hard work and i personally wouldn't want to rely on weather for my income so you have my respect. (The most I've personally done is brush-hog my grandfathers defunct fields with old tractors so we can use them as a shooting range, its fun for a day but the suns hot and it gets old when the novelty wears off. The government build US Route 11 through his and dumped all the rocks from a road cut in them and put like 3 in of dirt on them and called it a day, so you can't plow them if you wanted to)
@@jasonreed7522 I Always respect the family farms like that because they’re what keep things moving. Without little farms, you can’t have these “big farms” if you will. I appreciate you saying that! Bush hogging as we call it can be fun. I love seeing the fruits of my labor at the end of the day, that’s one of the reasons I enjoy what I do. I’m sorry what the govt did to your grandfathers farm, but hey a shooting range you made yourself if pretty cool!
Do you grow corn yourself? Can you explain why you americans grow so much corn?
@@512TheWolf512 yes we grow corn. 2400 acres of corn to be exact. It’s all feed corn.
@@stereoman418 just because it's the most profitable crop to grow? Even with the wheat prices doubling?
A few notes people should also know: Most farming acres in Iowa are owned by people who live out of state and farmers have to pay rent to them. Many farmers are really struggling in Iowa (and other places) because they are competing against large corporate farms that have more resources. This incredible efficiency and logistics comes at a high cost to the environment. Tile drainage from the Midwest draining straight into waterways is a major contributor to a) blue baby syndrome and b) the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the native landscape (above 90%) has been destroyed in the state, mostly because of corn/soy production. Tilling and other practices associated with conventional production of corn is pretty bad for the soil. Iowa has lost FEET of topsoil since the 1800s (another cause of the dead zone). The deracho was really crazy and some rural areas were without power for more than a week. Also, during a few months in the summer, the Midwest becomes more productive (in terms of carbon made into sugar) than the Amazon rainforest!! Overall, Iowa is a marvel, but maybe we can make it better.
Very interesting. How does it cause blue baby syndrome?
All being turned into fucking corn syrup to make people fat. What a waste.
@@grantbearpaws fertilizers are incredibly rich in Nitrates and a common cause of blue baby syndrome is methemoglobinemia, which itself is caused by a high presence of methemoglobin which can be artificially elevated by taking in more Nitrates. Basically, fertilizer in farm runoff goes into water supplies and the nitrates in it get dissolved into the water and drank by mothers, thereby causing blue baby syndrome
I hate the fact that, like so often, people who do the ACTUAL work barely get by, and someone who just owns it, which the farmer has to pay, makes the good money. Why do they even exist? I mean i dont understand the system but it always seems that people who do nothing get the money because they have a peace of paper, and the people who do the work have to make money for the owner. The owner seems pretty useless, its just a big cost for the one who works. The owner doesnt add value, he just has a peace of paper where it is written he is the owner. I hate the system. Thats the way most things work these days. People just own, do nothing, take all the money and wealth and than there are people who work who get next to nothing and are always at the edge of being poor, sometimes even are poor! Even though they make everything and should get paid double and more! It seems like there is a class of people who without them, the world would not only function as before, but even better! Basically the same story as the last thousand years... Man... i wish we could change something. Throw those guys out of the window, say "fuck you" to those men and throw a shovel at them and say "start to work for your money you lazy and fat idiot!"
@@JonesP77 you're absolutely right. Landlords shouldn't exist and they're useless leceches. "im richer than you so im gonna buy this thing you need then rent it to you because you have no other options (because landlords like me bought them all lol)" is a reprehensible thing to do whether it's an acre of farmland or a suburban house.
Another big pain about farming, is the need to time the harvest correctly. For example, a month ago, we thought it was too early to cut all our (hay) fields. But then we've had rainy, wet, cold weather for the last month, and now it's starting to get too late to harvest at the ideal time. You really need to be on top of the ball, and pay attention to the weather.
I am a grain buyer for Cargill, I have to say this is exceptionally accurate, detailed, and informative
You are already in big trouble with God, just take it easy!
@@jamalsmith4979 wtf
ok
ok
@@jamalsmith4979 Uh, can you please explain?
I remember the early days of this channel. I didn't expect to become logistic channel, but I do not regret supporting.
same
Logistics lowers cost and wins war.
wait you didn't? Logistics and the machineries that carry out said logistics have always be a key part. especially sky bound logistics.
I'm retired military, 30 years, I have a farm in southern Ohio and grow corn and soybean. This video is spot on. The cost of fertilizer, diesel fuel, herbicides, equipment, and weather all have a major impact on the bottom line. I love it!
"equipment in the mid 6 figures that will only be used once a year" is something non farmers will never understand. That hits hard lol. Equipment has gotten ridiculously expensive in the past 15 years.
And also to that point. A lot of that equipment is sometimes 20 years old or older, depending on the farm and the exact piece of equipment.
Not to mention that you can't repair it on your own, like the old days.
@@teresabenson3385 You can... it just requires less bailing wire & duct tape and more internet & solder.
in what way should that garner sympathy? farmers are WAY overpaid based on any metric you look at. They don't NEED 6 figure machines, never have... They just don't want to put in the hours needed to do the work without being lazy. Can they justify the cost? Sure if they're paying fair to the help, but we know damn well the lazy pieces of shit keep far more than their worth at the expense of the actual farmers, the ones working the ground.
@@thetruthisonlyperspective4872 well I dont know where you get your information from but if you're a lazy farmer, you aren't gonna be in business very long. Farming isn't an 9-5, farmers are very hard working, sure you can use smaller, cheaper equipment, and most farmers buy used stuff except for the really big ones. I don't know what metric you are talking about for pay but farmers are working a shit ton of hours and doing work not a lot of people want to do, so they absolutely earn every penny they make. It's also not just machines, but everything that is expensive in agriculture. Seed, chemicals, fertilizer, equipment, land, parts, maintenance, fuel, bins, buildings, insurance, etc and stuff never goes according to plan so theres always headaches and stress too. Yeah John Deere is making a shit ton of money of farmers and believe me, farmers aren't overjoyed about it. The only farmers buying new equipment are the big fish. But farming is a thankless and challenging, physically and mentally stressful job
I've been born and raised in Eastern Iowa. Our lives and policy here are partially dictated by crop production. You analyzing the map as an outsider really put in perspective the scale of the logistics going on between the state of illinois and iowa. Logistics is a HUGE profession around here. I live on the border of Iowa and Illinois and the US Arsenal Island in between the two states operated by the US Army. So i am pretty sure logistics play a heroic role in our local economy. We are accessible by air, riverboat travel, and rail travel. Most of our agricultural output goes from western Iowa towards the Mississippi, and eastern ILLINOIS towards the Mississippi by rail. Canadian Pacific Railway has a heavy presence here. The grain goes down the Mississippi by barge, i have a friend that operates one. Once it gets to the delta it can be transferred to larger cross continental ships. Btw Dekalb is pronounced with the L around here. It is not silent. No worries just wanted to let you know.
Thanks for that last point. I'm a Hoosier and just assumed the lack of an L was an Iowa thing
shoutout to the quad cities
There definitely is an L
It's because there's DeKalb County Georgia, and they don't say the L.
you must be talking about Rock Island Arsenal, I was a Army Recruiter in Urbandale Iowa a suburb of Des Moines from 2008-2011 and I had to drive to Rock Island a few times for specialized medical screenings required by the Army
My Father had a farm drainage business. One of the aspects of drainage is it changes the fungi types that grow in the soil. Crops grown such as corn have a symbiotic relationship with the fungi that grow in the soil. Part of the yield has to do with the fungi that grow under the soils lignins form in root systems as well as manure as a source of these lignins feed the fungi. Dry land crops have some air that permeates the soils and supplied oxygen to symbiotic fungi. Wet conditions keep the symbiotic fungi from growing, so drainage is important not only during the current growing season, but also for several previous years as these fungi take years to colonize the subsoil. The carboniferous era was the time before these fungi evolved and because lignins do not decay the lignins formed the base material for the large carboniferous coal beds (I also studied coal formation in graduate studies at the University of North Dakota). Waterlogged conditions do not allow the fungi to grow and if there is no limestone or soda in these soils the soil turns acidic because of bacterial decay, which forms peat bogs. Which are too acid to grow most crops without application of large amounts of lime to the soil, such as the conditions in tropical savanna, as in Brazil. So drainage not only is essential for the growth of most crops, It also is necessary to keep the soil drained for multiple years to establish and maintain soil fertility.
That's fascinating!
Yes, that is why fertilizers are at the center of the Brazilian political debate. We need to decrease our dependence on imports from Russia.
@@guilhermetavares4705 The world has changed over many millions (billions) of years. Do you have local limestone to allow the application of limestone from local supplies? Building soil fertility requires manure or plants (green manure) to increase the amount of lignins in the soil that do retention of potassium and other nutrients even in high rainfall environments. The Prairies and the Pampas had high lignin soils that retained fertility for years even when bad practices were used for many years. In Brazil you are starting from soils that are infertile for commodity crops, and need work and build good soils. Cattle can be a vital link in this process giving income while establishing good soil conditions and developing processes for the unique Brazilian conditions. In the USA cattle provided the reason to install rail capacity where sparse railroads were made up for by the mobility of cattle. The growing of crops then started along the rail lines and as crops increased the density of the rail networks increased. I buy Brazilian corned beef to use in my cooking even though we have plenty of local beef here in North Dakota. The USA still had 750 million hectares of grazing land, and while I do normally buy local products for quality control specialty products like canned corned beef make in into my cooking when I want those special flavors.
@@Alex_Plante When you actually experience in an area it changes the way you view he world seek new experiences in the physical world and you will develop a balanced view of the world as it really exists.
That's some awesome knowledge! Thanks!
My grandparents had a farm just south of Bancroft in Calhoun County and they worked it for decades. I was never a farmer but I've always had a great appreciation for those who produce the food we consume. Thank you for being so detailed in the process of farming, both the technical and the personal side. Given what's happening in Ukraine right now, which is one of the largest grain producers in the world, I feel that it's important for everyone to know what goes into it all.
As a local this was pretty amazing. Its pronounced 'ka-SOOTH' county, but its almost always pronounced wrong by news media other than the local level.. we're used to that! glad I got to see this
Man, driving through Iowa after Derecho was so emotional. If you drive through there is still a ton of damage that people didn't have the money to rebuild. But the sight of entire fields of corn flattened. Trees cut in half and smaller ones ripped apart. Lots of people lost livelihoods and family
My house is still without proper siding. It’s not a financial issue, but an issue of stock, and all of the contractors are still inundated with work for the derecho
Man, I was born and raised on a farm in Humboldt county, the county that borders Kossuth to the south. I have an uncle that farms around Bancroft I think. I never get to see anyone talk about Iowa in a positive light, let alone so close to home. I'm so happy about this video. One thing: At least everyone I know in and around Kossuth pronounces it "Kuh-sooth", not "Koh-suth".
well... if you wanna get technical, Kossuth is a hungarian name, given by the hungarian 1848 revolutionary hero Lajos Kossuth. his name would be prononuned more or less Kohshuth.
I was also going to say that all the Kossuth residents that I know pronounce it Kuh-SOOTH. But, the etymology is duly noted!
Exactly! The Hungarian pronunciation is "Kohshuth". I am Hungarian and I was very surprised to hear that there is a county named after him.
@@csalahuni after the 1848 revolution he toured western Europe and the US a lot. In the US his speeches gained him so many fans that they did ended up naming a county after him. i am unclear however if it was the county was populated by hungarian immigrants at the time or if it was named in recongnition of his actions.
My mom grew up on a corn farm in epworth, Iowa (just outside dubuque) and her brother took up the family business. I still remember him letting me steer the combine when I was 10 years old. The rolling cornfields in IA are one of America's best kept secrets
They're wonderful
I lived in Black Hawk county Iowa for 7 years. Black Hawk County is the home of John Deere Tractor and Engine Engineering. I was not native to the Midwest. Learning the how's and why's of corn and soy production was essential to my job, and I found it amazing to drive across Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota across the years and see the different stages of crop growth.
I'm a native Iowan born and raised (through I probably won't stay), and I'd just like to express thanks to you for your representation. Iowa doesn't often get talked about, and when it does it's often because of something horrible or ridiculous; that said, often times this very warranted condemnation comes bundled together with a significant amount of class elitism, general dismissiveness, and, frankly, predjudice. I love that the environment I've inhabited my whole life is presented with some of it's most awe inspiring features highlighted and how the ingenuity, effort, and humanity involved is so strongly emphasized. Thank you, truly
That August 2020 Derecho is a storm Iowans will never forget. My city lost half it's tree canopy and I was without power for 10 days. Absolutely crazy storm, like a Cat 3 hurricane in the middle of the nation, out of nowhere and it barely got any non-local media attention.
We are from California and we were preparing for a trip to the Midwest which would include Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. I made my boys, 13, 11, 9 watch this. And on the trip, seeing the fields of corn, the grain bins, and the river barges all made the more sense in the big process that is this economy.
Have fun. If you get to the Quad Cities (IA/IL) you can visit the John Deere Pavilion in Moline and your kids can see some of the historic and current tractors and combines up close. While in the Quad Cities you could also take them on a riverboat cruise that departs out of LeClaire IA throughout the summer. I think its called Riverboat Twilight.
Born and raised in Western Iowa. Still live here. Thank you for showing how much work, effort, and education goes into our farming. -Not a farmer, but a person who grew up around farmers and respects what they do
So, an interesting tidbit of information, Bancroft has a small company that sells and services soil sampler probes. Soil sampling is the process of taking a small, handful of dirt from predetermined GPS points in a field for every x acres. These points are then tested for pH, soil composition, and other factors to find the optimum fertilizer application and seed for that particular point. Then they take these points with their corresponding data to map the application across the entire field.
I've become surprisingly invested in the local business of a village in Iowa.
Oh boy time for the logistics of some seemingly obscure thing I’ve not thought much about. My favorite
I like chips!
@@blenderbanana I love lamp.
As a resident of a similar small town in Warren County, Iowa, I feel that you neglected to mention rotational planting, which is a reason that we can achieve higher per acre yields. Corn and soybeans, for most farmers where I'm from, are planted in alternating years. This is so that we can keep soil nutrients balanced and save money on nitrogen because the beans tend to deposit a bit of nitrogen that the corn eats up. Still a great video looking into the logistics for an Iowan farmer.
This video single-handedly made me appreciate farmers so much more. At first I thought it would just be about corn, but it's about so much more. How difficult farming is, how many factors are there to consider, how vulnerable they are to weather, how simple things can completely ruin their yield and bankrupt them, how delicate the supply chain is, how their entire annual income depends on a single season etc.
Sam clearly read way too much about farming for that last video about seeds and now he's trying to do something with that useless knowledge, and honestly I'm here for it
I mean, better him than me. His work is definitely solid👌🏾 Like a Brick
Haha. I mean, that’s kind of the dream for a content creator isn’t it? Do a ton of research and end up with two great episodes instead of just one! I know I personally love when the research for one of my videos leads pretty directly into what I need for my next one!
Tbh, I think he came across the seed stuff while researching for this video. I imagine Wendover videos take significantly more time to put together.
@@ChristophBackhaus while i doubt the claim that hemp alone can solve climate change (the emissions balance is huge amd farming just one aspect). I know that the US cornbelt is insane, taking infrared images of earth with forrest fire watch satellites agriculture makes it look like all of the US & Mexican farm zones are wildfires, and corn in the US makes more oxygen than the Amazon which i just find to be insane statistics. Also we grow corn for food and last i checked hemp isn't a basic food stuff. And making ethanol/biofuel out of crops has highly questionable return on investments with the best crops being sugarcane but that gets farmed in highly destructive ways involving the destruction of tropical forrests. (Admittedly I don't know that stats for using hemp vs corn but ethanol production is all about the sugars/carbs and fiber is just cellulose which is just a super long carbohydrate that is harder to digest into ethanol/methane)
So the effectiveness of that research ex-seeds expectations? ...I'll see myself out.
Amazing that despite our massive improvements in technology, farming is ultimately still controlled by the same primal forces: the soil, the rain, the Sun, the rivers. Our struggles with these elements draw a line straight back to the earliest days of man.
Reminds me of that joke Sadhguru told on Joe Rogan. Scientists told God to retire because they could create whatever he could. He asked them to prove it. Scientists took some soil, made a primordial soup, created life. They said "See? We created life from scratch". Then God said "Now create your own soil".
We can isolate from all of these things. Hydroponic and aeroponic farms pretty much remove it all. It's just more expensive...for now.
It's not amazing to me. Not at all. The notion that mankind controls the world is absurd. All of the scientific advancement throughout history really simply means we have more powerful tools. That's great. It really is. It allows a tiny fraction of the workforce to produce more food than we need (at least here in the USA). But, also, that's it. God runs the world.
It's so funny, I was literally stunned by how much corn footage you had and could not understand how much you must have spent on drone footage etc.. 😂
Khrushchev, the USSR premier in the 1960's, came to the US and was fascinated by our corn product industry. He went home and tried to instill it over there, of course to no avail (in general too cold.) The dwarf hybrid corn we rely on as a cereal crop is a miracle of engineering. A great chunk of our agricultural marketplace is impacted by corn in every form, from food to cooking oil, even plant-based plastics.
Having grown up within 90 minutes of Bancroft, this was an OUTSTANDING documentary on the process of growing corn (and soybeans) in the most efficient way possible. One little side note: farmland in Kossouth County is quite fertile and in 2021 was valued $ 11,300/ acre with some land going for as much. As $16,500/acre. Hats off to the farmers and the rest of the machine dealers, seed and fertilizer dealers, that risk their lives during long planting and harvesting seasons to feed the world.
Just with this video alone, I'm beginning to see the attraction of Farming Simulator 20xx.
I feel that our farmers do not get enough respect for what they do. Lots of hard work, and they keep us fed. Bravo to all you farmers out there. My grandfather was a dairy farmer in upstate New York. He worked hard his whole life and was able to provide a good living for his family. Sent to sons to college, one was my father who became a doctor.
You should look into the taconite production process. Its a pretty wild awesome process. Worked as a pelletizing plant operator for 2 years. From mine, to crusher, to rail, crusher again, slury/concentration, and then balled in massive drums and fired in 1000+ degree furnaces that stand over 3 stories high. Not to mention the loading and unloading onto 1000 footer ships. Coolest job I ever had. Plus we were the EPAs first super site!
I'm in Iowa and I didn't know half of this stuff. Fun fact. In Iowa, most kids first job is some kind of field work summer job. Detasseling is the primary one but corn pollinating and soy related work is important too. My first job was hole punching thousands of soy leafs for Pioneer so they could test the samples to genetically create improved soy beans.
I did that type of stuff in Illinois in the early 1990s for Pioneer in the summer time
Don’t forget bailing hay
Being a someone with a strong farm and grain co-op background from a small town in iowa I have to say you did a pretty good job summing everything up. Few things were a little off and had to laugh on how he pronounced Dekalb. 🤣
Dee-cab? Yeah, noticed that too, used to say it that way as well until I worked for an ad agency that had Dekalb as a client.
I'm curious about the subject so what was off?
As someone who grew up on a Nebraska farm without ever learning much about the industry, thanks for this awesome and educational video!
Logistics is really very important for agriculture. That's why the discussion about investments in roads, railroads, and ports is strong in Brazil.
Growing up a small-town farm boy, I feel like you did alright on this video
My family was about to inherit a farm in Iowa but my parent’s siblings choose to sell it and split the cash. It was large, roughly 200 acres, with a cozy house and equipment. But I guess getting a new car and a year off a mortgage is just as fine as becoming a farmer. I do feel a bit robbed, having to do a salaried or wage job over it, but it’s not like I even know how to farm in the first place, nor did my parent, they only grew up there.
200 acres isn't enough land to be profitable as a farmer.
@@jacobl1657 Yeah, the margins are too small and a single bad year can wipe you out. You can use it to augment a part-time job, however. That is, if you have your family helping.
@@jacobl1657 Yeah ditto, honestly I'd say 200 acres per person is probably enough to be profitable, if we define profitable as making a single dollar... where we live (south of La Crosse, I'm actually sitting in La Crosse right now :)) it's super common for larger families to work together like 2000+ acres but that's supporting 10+ people... I don't know of any 200-acre self-sufficient farms... The flip side is the farm I'm inheriting is technically only 200 acres, with only about 80 croppable on the "home farm", and we simply rent the rest... So if this guy could inherited 200 acres and equipment that could be enough to rent another 500 acres or something and have a farm setup in nothing flat... either way a 200-acre farm in Iowa is worth like a couple million so we're talking way more than a new car and a year off the mortgage even split up a bunch of ways...
@@JayVal90 depends what equipment they have already
@@jacobl1657 What’s cash rent though? That would’ve been the sensible thing.
Great story telling! I grew up outside Toledo on one of those mile square grids and our family farm was soybeans one year, field corn the next and I learned more here with you about corn than I ever knew living there!
As someone with countless hours in farming simulator, I can attest to the accuracy of the information shown in this video. Well done and love the great content
I work in the industry of tracking crops from seed to market. This video does an excellent job in highlighting what I see farmers go through year to year. Well done!
Hey Sam, I just want to thank you for this channel. Logistics has to be probably the single biggest disconnect between importance and common knowledge I can think of. Our world would not function without hundreds of millions of manhours of logistics. It really doesn't matter what you cover the logistics of, I enjoy your research and especially being able to put prices on things I never would've thought about. The coolest part of this one to me, as weird as it may seem, was learning of Iowa Concern and how the number one suggestion included a help line for farmers in crisis or under massive stress to just have someone to talk to. I think we all know how crazy hard hit by suicide the farming community is given the low margins, high costs, and fundamental isolation from others. I'm glad the community has resources to help farmers out.
Always good to hear the good word about how things work back home, farming is a surprisingly deep topic that doesn't get enough love
As a farmer you nailed this on the head. even down to the terminology of the combine components.. well done
Thank you farmers for what you do. As a man born and often in Chicago, IL and often in Los Angeles, CA, always having lived in big cities, it’s always been miraculous how we can feed some 24,000,000 Americans in these two places alone. It’s amazing what you do. And we hope that we can one day make vertical farming a bit easier, so we can introduce city folk like us to farming in our own areas, and also learn from and work with one another as we make more food, needed for a growing population
It's amazing how much work has gone into making this food as cheap and efficiently produced as possible. Even small deviations can cause massive waves in the global economy!
Tremendously informative video. Well done! One aspect of farming that you only touched lightly on was the cost to purchase and maintain all of the equipment farmers use.
Glad you did this one. I grew up in rural Iowa across the street from the town grain elevator, and my first non-babysitting job was detasseling for Dekalb at age 14; my second was walking beans with a corn knife (machete) that same year.
I remember harvesting and processing the corn at my grandparents' farm in El Salvador and it legitimately blew my mind that the combine harvester did everything we did throughout a day in a couple of minutes. it my head, it just collected the whole ear of corn and threw that to the baskets to be processed.
Corn is VERY interesting.
Solid typo
Well, no, but actually yes
@@StraveTube 🧐 👍
@@dmacpher He doesn't give a P
@@Thvndar 👏
I highly recommend you continue learning about this topic, because understanding how damaging modern farming practices are to the health of the soil and to it's water retention, and how the logistics of monocrop planting and machine use and fossil fuel derived fertilizers are the foundation of the population distribution that leads to polluted cities and depopulated rural areas kept alive through subsidies that maintain an economic system based on infinite growth in our finite world.
Very good job Sam. Please do more statistics of agriculture and other industries. Your explanations are always clear. 👍
Great video. Not a topic that initially interested me but this was so informative and well done
10:40 Hail is another weather phenomenon that causes massive damage to crops. Corn is impervious to all but the largest of hail stones, with its thick stalks and spread out planting. Wheat and soybeans however, because of their thin stalks and compact ground covering growing and planting patterns, can have entire fields wiped out with a single not to severe hailstorm. Rice is probably one of the most easily damaged crops though, i have seen what would be considered mild wind storms here in Indiana completely flatten entire fields of rice in California. Rice spends part of its growing life under water, the water supports the stalk and the weight of the grains and leaves. However when it comes time to harvest the fields have to be completely drained to allow the rice to dry without rotting in order fot eh rice grains to be harvested, and this means that they are now completely exposed to the weather with stalks designed to grow in climates which get lots of rainfall but not much wind or hail, and those stalks become more dry and inflexible the closer to harvest it gets.
As someone who literally prints the physical edition of the corn performance test book (Greetings from Iowa Falls, btw) it's kind of a trip seeing it featured here.
Locks and Dam is a key piece of infrastructure that makes America grain bowl compete at an international level. It has falling apart for the past few decades of neglect. But good to see close to a billion dollar investment in this hugely important infrastructure. Also, New Orleans port needs to increase its capacity too. Great video 👍
Made me happy when I realised the county is called Kossuth. It's from Kossuth Lajos, a hungarian noble. We named a bunch of things about him. Bridges, Awards, Schools and... my street that I live in.
I've spent some time on a farmhouse in central Illinois, and it's mind-boggling how incredibly huge and flat the geography is, and how crucial it is for the average farmer to get every detail of their crops right. This was a very enlightening video.
Tiled fields for drainage made crops possible in many of the very flat farms. Quite a bit of Illinois farm land was once too swampy in the spring to plant crops. I'm from West Central Illinois and spent some of my early life on a farm
Anyone realize how his video about cyber warfare was struck down by Bloomsbury publishing?
Why was that video deleted?
I am impressed! This explains so much I wondered about. And it ends at the beginning: demand drives producers to choose what to supply. Thank you!
I love this video, so cool to see it on a big, mainstream channel. I work in the publishing industry for agriculture and these topics hit very close for me (especially all the components about choosing the correct seed), yet very few people outside the industry have much knowledge about what's feeding them.
Excellent video, Sam. As the son of an entomologist, I learned secondhand the ins and outs of these process as well as, of course, pests and insecticides. Those who are not in the know cannot fathom how many possible problems or mistakes can ruin a farmer's entire season with little to no recourse to fix it.
Even gardening at a small scale can be incredibly difficult sometimes. I'm completely in awe of how successfully farmers manage their crops. A little experience goes a long way to appreciating how hard the professionals work to produce things that we often often takes for granted
Good video on farming corn. Many people overlook the financials and logistics of farming. Very unbiased too
Wow. As a life long city person, I am amazed at how complex this world is. I appreciate there are people that do this, so that the rest of us to be able to do what we do. Thank you farmers!
Yeah farmers are great
Excellent video that is a great look at how this process works. One detail missed is that it's usually not economically viable to move crops via truck from the local elevator to a barge terminal 3.5 hours away. Many (most?) elevators have a rail siding or spur used to load crops into railcars. Those elevators which do not have rail typically move the crop via truck to a nearby elevator which does have that capability (usually an elevator owned by the same co-op). By rail the crop moves either to a barge terminal, or a coastal terminal. Even moving grain 15-20 miles via truck between elevators results in paying farmers several cents less per bushel at the truck-only elevator, I can only imagine the significant price difference a 3.5 hour truck movement would cause. An elevator which moves their crops solely by truck is at a significant competitive disadvantage to those which have rail access. Independent elevators which are in this situation tend to fare poorly as a business compared to rail equipped elevators, and eventually are bought out and used as a feeder elevator to the rail equipped elevator.
I used to know a truck driver who actually had to take a load of corn from Indiana to Iowa. Not sure on the finances of it, but he was amazed that Iowa of all places needed more corn
I just can't get over how good Wendover's graphics look. Functional AND impressive-looking. What a great channel.
I appreciate the array of alliterations abundant in this account of agricultural action.
Well done! You even got the parts of a combine you listed accurately!
I don't think some people understand just how important, complex, and endangered farming is. I hope Clarkson's Farm and videos like these can change that.
A fascinating look at the complexity of farming and the decisions these wonderful farmers have to make. Thank you for yet another great video.
Wow. I'm extremely impressed with this video. Great work! As an agriculturalist myself, you hit the nail on the head on just about everything in this video and made it easy to understand for your viewers, who I would imagine, are mostly outsiders. Thanks for being a part of closing the gap between producers and consumers. The only thing I might add, when you talked about what we plant, we put serious thought into crop rotations for many reasons, including getting rid of microbes that may be harmful to a family of plants (such as corn or sorghums) to even replacing some nutrients back into the soil (nitrogen) with soybeans and other legumes, and maybe some wheat in there as well. We essentially plan from years back to years ahead, and we can change depending on the markets or conditions (where I'm from the la nina effects us just the opposite of Iowa, so I am in a record drought). But that is a really detailed explanation. The video was great and awesome to watch.
A really well-produced video. Straight-forward, clear explanation and great graphics. Thank you.
Would love to see an equivalent for Soy! The Argentine drought & Soy export ban is a logistic nightmare for the world animal feed industry !
I don't see this as a bad thing, the meat industry in its current form is needlessly cruel. If it goes through a crisis or dies, I won't shed a tear.
Hemp doesn’t produce nearly as many calories per acre as corn or soy.
@@ChristophBackhaus hemp is legal to grow in several countries. Not a lot is grown because there's little demand for it outside of fad products. There's a lot of pro hemp propaganda that exaggerates the utility of hemp.
@@diesistkeinname795 agreed
@@ChristophBackhaus This is a misguided comment. Hemp wont solve climate change, monocropping is destroying the top soil. We need to think of new ways to farm Period
10:10 This is also an issue with planting and applying chemicals. Not only could we not apply certain chemicals during rain, but some we couldnt even apply to the crop x days before or after expected rain or on the converse side some chemicals require x amount of rain over x amount of time otherwise the chemicals burn the crop and can even kill entire fields. There were times when i would sit on my but without work for WEEKS just watching a pest destroy a field being unable to apply the proper pesticide because of to much rain or not enough only for a 4 day period to arrive between the end of one wet period and the beginning of another for us to try to get as many fields fertilized and pesticized in what would normally take weeks to do.
Or similarly, with the weather issues he was talking about, a lot of pre-emerge didn't work around here a few years back cause it takes moisture to activate and we didn't get any for weeks after planting so it just didn't work. Lost of wasted money and bigger weed issues down the road.
@@acjohnson1986 Yep, loss of money from the wasted pre-emerge, loss of money from the smaller crop yields and you still have to treat it again or risk losing even more money to yield losses.
Fascinating, thorough and perfectly illustrated exploration of the American farming industry, its bounty and constant challenges. Splendid job! 🤩
As someone who has worked directly in this industry and in corn fields, this is so accurate. Good stuff!
The thought that goes into Sam's videos and also these farmers are incredible! Thing to note is that while US farmers can afford those combine harvesters, in mine and many other Asian countries we still use animals to help farm our crops
It doesn't seem fair when poor farmers toil to pay off debt and feed their family. Forever poorer countries have to depend on food import from richer countries.
@@dydactic1112 Because the rich countries make cheaper food they become vulnerable? Yikes, that's bad.
This video is probably the best thing to happen to Bancroft Iowa in the past few decades
Are you gonna stop in one day and double their annual tourism? ;P
One of the best videos you've ever made. Not enough people understand how incredible and complex the United States agriculture industry is. Too often, people want to drastically change something they do not understand. Next, you should talk about the incredible logistics behind the meat industry!
As someone who works in the agriculture industry, I love this kinda stuff. Maybe we can see an episode on Florida's citrus and Cane? Pls?