Barn Talk

He grew up with kiddie pools in the attic catching roof leaks and frost forming on the inside of his bedroom wall, and today 1.33 million people watch him drag dead cars out of Iowa fence rows. Kevin Brown runs Junkyard Digs out of Ames, two hours up the road from the barn, and this one is mostly about what being broke actually builds.

The house sagged corner to corner and the ceiling collapsed while the family was gone for a weekend. Four of them lived in one room of an office building in town, no walls, three beds, for three years of his high school life. His dad pulled his entire 401k to put up a shell so they could finish the inside themselves. He paid for Iowa State by joining the National Guard as a Chinook mechanic, deployed to Kuwait and Iraq, and built the channel from a cot on government internet. He came home with 130,000 subscribers and two paychecks.

His rule is the part worth sitting with. He would not quit engineering school until the channel paid double an engineer's starting salary. He says the first time in his life he felt safe was the day the math cleared, not the day the subscribers did.

The farming is the cheapest operation in this state. Four and a half acres, a John Deere 620 with three gallons of gas in the oil pan, a $500 planter, and a 6600 combine he bought for $2,200 and drove home. He put $212 into inputs one year and sold the crop for $2,000.

Also in this one: only 3 percent of channels ever crack 100,000 subscribers, a million Shorts views that paid $412, copper at a record and the wire in your grain bin, and why his dad said the 1980s sucked while his buddy's dad called them the best years of his life.

His advice at the end sounds exactly like his dad: do not put your hands in your pockets. Learn to work hard and you will not fail in life.

What do you want us to dig into next week? Drop it in the comments and we read them.

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THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Propane Farm Research Program ➱ propane.com/farmfunding

● AcreEdge Soil NXT ➱ acreedge.com

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cold open and guest introduction

04:25 800 shirts in three weeks for a stranger's roof

13:22 Sponsor break, Propane Farm Research Program

14:16 Kiddie pools in the attic, frost inside the walls

16:08 Four people, one room, three years

16:35 What being broke gave him that money never could

21:27 The Guard paid for college, so he fixed Chinooks

25:12 Building a channel on Army internet in Iraq

27:00 Home with 130,000 subs and two paychecks

30:47 Sponsor break, AcreEdge Soil NXT

33:15 No quitting until it paid double an engineer

35:13 His wife's 45 minute video got a million views

41:15 Get it running and drive it home, no trailer

58:26 Make it run, make it move, make it safe

1:04:19 The Junkyard Digs farming operation, laid out

1:07:15 A $2,200 combine with no reverser

1:12:45 $212 in, $2,000 out, most profitable farmer around

1:18:06 The part of being a creator nobody sees

1:25:11 Only 3 percent of channels ever crack 100,000

1:27:59 A million Shorts views paid $412

1:34:18 Can you build a whole life in rural America now

1:35:40 Nobody should ever move to Iowa, and he means it

1:40:46 What is actually killing small towns

1:55:12 His dad said the 80s sucked, his buddy's dad loved them

2:02:55 If 1995 did not get the hog guys, 1998 did

2:05:53 Is AI actually coming for the trades

2:12:17 25 CRT TVs, 15 VCRs, and 300 VHS tapes

2:16:26 The first time in his life he felt safe

2:21:47 Do not put your hands in your pockets

2:22:10 Tip of the Hat

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⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠

Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#BarnTalk #RuralAmerica #perc #landus

#EP218

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He stacked every FSA beginning farmer loan he could get, went from about 100 cows to 550 in roughly a year, and when the balance sheet finally settled he was positive by $278. That is the number this whole episode hangs on.

Luke and Natalie Kovarik run Kovarik Cattle Co., a first generation Angus seedstock operation out of Ord, Nebraska, selling around 100 bulls a year in a January sale that started at 30. Luke was a town kid with 160 acres and a dental school plan. Natalie is fourth generation Hereford out of Montana, and today she works four jobs off the ranch, including marketing and equity in Red Ants Pants. Almost everything they earn away from the cows exists to pay for the cows.

The middle of this one is the direct to consumer beef autopsy, twelve straight minutes on why selling your own beef is so much harder than the internet makes it look, why she dreaded Sunday nights, and what happened to the freezer inventory. Then the influencing pivot, why she stepped back from putting her family online, and what she does with the audience now.

Also in this one: custom AI and backgrounding somebody else's calves to make equipment payments, $5,000 of blackjack money wired for embryos, reading bull catalogs like a swimsuit edition, meeting at her family's bull sale, lab grown meat and consumer trust, putting cattle back on grain farms and the pasture that rural towns already lost, hiring and keeping good help, bricking their kids' phones and putting a landline back in the house, twelve landlords and not one under 68, and why they are not building this ranch for their kids.

His line on who the ranch is for: no, we're doing it for us.

What should we dig into next week? Put it in the comments.

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THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Propane Farm Research Program ➱ propane.com/farmfunding
● Iowa Corn Growers ➱ iowacorn.org

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cold open and guest introduction
04:29 A local airport, and a pilot's license he never finished
06:19 The operation, and the four jobs Natalie works
09:22 What subsidizes what, and blackjack money wired for embryos
11:21 Montana, fourth generation Hereford, how Natalie grew up
15:11 Sponsor break, Propane Farm Research Program
15:40 A town kid, 160 acres, dental school, and $278 in the bank
19:49 Custom AI, Genex, and a master's that paid for cows
23:46 First cows in '14, and bull catalogs like a swimsuit edition
26:57 They met at her family's bull sale
32:49 Market outlook, consumer trust, lab grown, Beyond Meat
42:35 Putting cattle back on grain farms, and the pasture we lost
50:01 Calving date, and developing two year old bulls
54:25 Sponsor break, Iowa Corn Growers
55:22 From 30 bulls to 100, growing the herd
59:07 Finding Duncan and Mitch, and keeping them
1:02:24 A bull sale as an event, social media as the marketing
1:06:45 If the podcast tripled, more cows or more time
1:08:14 The direct to consumer beef autopsy
1:19:56 Retiring from influencing, and craving privacy
1:27:00 Working with a spouse and a father
1:32:26 Bricking phones, landlines, parenting in the phone era
1:43:24 Twelve landlords, not one under 68
1:53:23 How the household actually runs
2:00:29 We're not building this ranch for our kids
2:05:39 Why the industry is still worth it
2:10:39 Tip of the Hat

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⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠
Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#BarnTalk #perc #iowacorn

#EP217
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Forty companies own 70 percent of the hogs in this country. Fewer than 100 plants slaughter 99.7 percent of them. Small farms running their own processing account for 0.3 percent of the pork on shelves, 2 percent of the beef. So when a menu names a farm, the math says it almost never is one.

Greg Gunthorp is a fourth generation pastured hog farmer in Indiana, 400 sows on 275 acres, with a USDA-inspected plant on his own farm and pork sold by name at Rick Bayless restaurants, including inside Disney. In 1998 hogs were bringing 8 cents a pound minus trucking. He maxed his credit cards, pulled pennies out of his daughter's piggy bank for a school field trip, and drove a pig packed in ice in the back of his wife's Suzuki Swift into Chicago, where Wine Spectator had just named the restaurant he was selling to the best in the world.

Then the big packers noticed. He calls it winning a few battles and losing the war, shadow brands priced 25 to 40 percent over commodity, selling the same conventional product the independent farmers built their name on. Until January of 2026, foreign meat repackaged here could legally say Product of USA on the label.

Also in this one: why farmers get 14 cents of every food dollar, the JBS bribery scandal and the 97 day pause on Brazilian imports, why he ranks solar grazing above his own kill floor, why 70 percent of the lamb sold in America is imported, and the same four point reform pitch that landed the same way with a MAHA crowd and an antitrust crowd.

His line on what these farms actually export: the topsoil and the kids.

What should we dig into next week? Put it in the comments.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Propane Farm Research Program ➱ propane.com/farmfunding

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cold open and guest introduction04:45 In '94 his dad said the little guy was done05:29 40 companies own 70 percent of America's hogs06:20 600 acres, woven wire fence, hogs on pasture10:14 172 dollars an acre, and a 17,000 dollar silo that same year12:07 A home equity loan, a foreclosure notice, a piggy bank14:01 1988, an exchange trip, sheep farms selling straight to restaurants16:24 Sponsor break, Propane Farm Research Program17:04 Purdue, 1994, buying the family sow herd20:01 8 cent hogs, and nobody was cheap enough to survive22:21 A cold call to a chef who never answers25:30 A hog packed in ice in a Suzuki Swift to Chicago27:06 The best restaurant in the world, by accident28:17 Rick Bayless becomes his biggest customer32:01 Why he had to own the processing himself43:41 Built the plant, maxed the cards, went all in44:31 Farm to table dies, the big guys copy the label45:36 0.3 percent of pork, 2 percent of beef52:02 Box primals with somebody else's label on them58:38 A pallet of pig rectums bound for Thailand1:02:19 What greenwashing actually costs a shopper1:04:01 Product of USA meant nothing for over a decade1:15:09 JBS bribed up to 2,100 officials, then paused 97 days1:19:06 Argentina's beef, antibiotics, and a 25 percent discount1:23:00 Same four reforms, a MAHA crowd and an antitrust crowd1:26:07 275 acres, 15 employees, a USDA plant on the farm1:29:58 Two thousand ewes and a bet on solar grazing1:34:46 Why 70 percent of American lamb is imported1:37:42 Ranking every enterprise, slaughter dead last1:47:06 How to actually fight the USDA and win1:56:12 Farmers get 14 cents of the food dollar2:01:11 Term limits, campaign finance, a balanced budget2:04:21 Born on third base, cheering the home run2:11:23 Delegating, risk, and farming with his son2:23:54 Topsoil and kids, what we really export2:28:19 Tip of the Hat

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LISTEN ON:

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FOLLOW BEHIND THE SCENES 👇🏻

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⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#BarnTalk #Perc

#EP216
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A rancher outside Kansas City put collars on 30 cows and went from moving them every two days to every four or five days on the same ground, at the same cow condition. That is double the carrying capacity overnight, and we spent most of this episode on how virtual fencing works and what it costs.

The collar runs $280 plus a subscription. Users report getting back 8 to 10 hours a week. The GPS is accurate to about 4 or 5 feet, which is roughly one fat cow in any direction. One challenger cow averaged 800 sound warnings a day for three weeks, about one every 30 seconds she was awake, while other cows in the same group got one a week. When a cow does get out, she is back inside 80 percent of the time within 5 to 10 minutes, because her friends are still there. There are around 6,000 of these collars in North America and they only started selling here in June.

Then we put the skeptic hat on. What happens to your herd if the company runs out of money. Who owns the data. Why he tells customers to never trust a virtual fence alone along a highway, because the liability is too big. And what happens to cattlemen when Silicon Valley decides cattle are a robotics problem.

Also in this one: an engineer who quit a VP title in Norway, visa on Monday and a plane on Friday, a farmhouse built in 1318 and the man who will not give it up, why so many farmers keep a town job for the insurance, and what a Norwegian thinks of American water, groceries, and youth sports.

Low profit is the one problem every farmer in every country has in common. The other is that not one of them thinks he owns the land.

What do you want us to dig into next week? Drop it in the comments and we read them.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻

Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

● Propane Farm Research Program ➱ https://propane.com/farmfunding

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Fencing cattle without building any fence

04:00 A Norwegian engineer lands in Kansas

06:24 The engineer who got pulled into sales

07:43 Back from paternity leave to 30% cuts

08:57 The gala dinner that changed everything

12:35 The news story that started a company

14:05 Seven engineers, a prototype in 2 months

18:57 Propane Farm Research Program

19:28 Their US hire quit before he ever moved

21:20 Dying broke with a bank of good stories

23:10 Visa on Monday, gone by Friday

27:32 A float trip with people who bought nothing

33:48 Kruger Dunning and the Mountain of Stupidity

43:18 So what is virtual fencing, exactly

44:18 A sound first, then a shock she remembers

51:46 One cow tested it 800 times in a day

54:42 Splitting 100 acres into 5 acre paddocks

01:00:19 Carrying capacity doubled overnight

01:04:01 Cell service, GPS, and 4 feet of drift

01:10:20 Most escapees walk back in within 10 minutes

01:14:53 $280 a collar and 10 hours a week back

01:19:22 Never trust it alone along a highway

01:22:34 Every farmer, every country, same problem

01:33:21 A farmhouse that was built in 1318

01:34:24 When Silicon Valley calls cattle robotics

01:49:16 The Skeptic Block

01:50:03 What if the company runs out of money

01:52:10 Who actually owns your cattle data

01:55:14 Only 6,000 collars, and why pick them

02:10:05 Raising robust kids on purpose

02:13:40 Rapid Fire

02:16:16 Tip of the Hat

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FOLLOW BEHIND THE SCENES 👇🏻

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● Tork's X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler

-------------------------------

⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠

Barn Talk is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, with no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Nothing here is financial, investment, or trading advice, and none of it is specific to you. Do your own due diligence and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision. Trading stocks, crypto, and NFTs carries real risk and is not suitable for everyone. You use this information at your own risk.

#BarnTalk #perc

#EP215
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Welcome back to Barn Talk! In today’s Hot Topics episode, the conversation focused on what’s really going on across the ag markets and beef industry. The discussion explored the effects of recent government moves to import more foreign beef, the ripple impact of packing plant closures, and what all of this means for ranchers, feedlots, and rural towns like ours. One concept discussed was how these short-term fixes and political decisions rarely touch the real, deep-rooted issues behind cattle shortages and rising grocery prices.

A key theme that emerged was the vulnerability of independent cattle producers as big packers consolidate and government policies seem more aimed at quick wins than long-term solutions. Several points were raised, including how these structural problems are leaving producers with less leverage, what needs to change to keep rural America strong, and why supporting local, independent food systems matters more than ever. If you care about the future of American beef and the backbone of rural life, this episode is a must-listen.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻

Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR

SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c

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APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049

Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻

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● Sawyer’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4

● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS

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● Tork’s X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler

00:00 Promoting the Barn Talk Newsletter

05:28 Ethanol production in Indiana

14:01 Attending a well-organized event

16:18 Value of Live Experiences

24:46 Impact of Guns N' Roses on music

26:52 Trump's foreign beef import plan

34:11 Impact of cattle prices on consumers

39:01 American agriculture and political influence

44:10 Supporting rural America through livestock

50:41 Consolidation of beef packers

55:26 Challenges in the cattle industry

01:02:35 Challenges in cattle industry

01:06:31 Sterile fly program update

01:14:03 Childhood memories of lamb chops

01:18:56 US-Canada trade tensions

01:21:01 US-Canada trade negotiations stall

01:30:55 Global debt crisis concerns

01:32:08 Concerns about future entitlements

01:37:58 Longtime friendship and staying connected

01:44:40 Thanking the audience and supporters

-------------------------------

⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠

The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose.

The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice.

The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory.

Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk.

RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice.

#EP214

#perc
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