Surviving the 80s Farm Crisis and Embracing AI as Farmers

Barn Talk

Tork and Sawyer Whisler

Business

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, your hosts Tork and Sawyer are coming to you from the barn with a special hybrid episode—no guest this week, but they’re diving into a mix of hot topics and answering listener questions straight from the barn floor.

The guys kick things off with their signature market updates, breaking down the latest in corn, beans, cattle, and hogs. They discuss the current state of the meat market and why pork is having a moment as the affordable protein option for families. You’ll also hear their thoughts on commodity prices, challenges in the cattle industry, and how upcoming harvests could play out based on this year’s stellar weather.

If you thought artificial intelligence and farming don’t mix, think again. Tork and Sawyer share their excitement—and a few cautionary thoughts—about the rapid rise of AI tools like Grok 4, and how technology is already changing the way they run their direct-to-consumer meat business, Farmer Grade.

Next, they get real about the future of farming. From surviving the farm crisis of the 1980s to the current challenges facing family farms, Tork reflects on how hard work (and a lot of pork) helped their family make it through tough times. Both hosts discuss the ongoing shake-up in agriculture, warning that the days of the “middle-class” farmer are numbered—and sharing ideas on how today’s farm businesses can adapt, innovate, and work together as families to survive and thrive.

You’ll also get insights on tough subjects like farm succession, the value of running your operation like a business, and why open, honest conversations are key to keeping the legacy alive.

Shop Farmer Grade 👇🏻

https://farmergrade.com/

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LISTEN ON:

SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY

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

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

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

00:00 Pollination Issues in Corn Crops

09:22 MP Materials: North America's Rare Earth Monopoly

15:45 Avoid Fungicide Experimentation This Year

20:01 Optimism and Grok 4 Adoption

24:59 "Grok's Rapid AI Advancement"

31:29 Adapt Fast or Fall Behind

38:10 Life on the Farm: Simple Summers

41:41 "Family Rift Over Farm Inheritance"

45:46 Modern Farming Challenges and Costs

51:31 Rethinking Car Ownership and Farming

57:58 "Handling Difficult Family Dynamics"

01:01:42 "Wrap-Up and Thanks"

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Transcript

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0:00.0	All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms.
0:05.6	Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name.
0:54.4	Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a hybrid episode. So, you know, we're Jonesing to get a guest on here. We got some potential guests lined up, but we couldn't get anybody to the barn this week. So we got a mix of questions that you guys have asked, and we got a mix of hot topics that we're going to talk about and just share our overall thoughts and get those questions answered. But before we do, you guys know the drill. If you get any value from the show, all that we ask is you shared out with the people that you know. The that you guys do that the more that the show can grow it's kind of the ticket to admission to watch
0:59.9	or listen to the show and we found here at barn talk the best way to grow podcast is through word
1:05.9	of mouth and so it's through you guys and we appreciate all you that do do that um another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is leave a review on Spotify or Apple.
1:15.8	The more that you guys do that, the more that it gives our show credibility so we can get more guests to come to the barn.
1:23.0	And overall, the podcast just gross and it gets more credibility and more notice and more fame or whatever
1:32.3	you want to say because you know really there's only that's about the only metric people can
1:38.1	see as reviews on podcasts it's so weird we talk about a lot on here podcasts Podcasts, like the podcast platforms are just not very good.
1:47.7	They don't give you a lot of metrics. They don't give people that are tuned in to shows a lot of information about how well the show's doing.
1:55.2	I wish there was a feature that allowed you to like see your most most viewed or most listen to episodes.
2:02.7	Yeah, and you know they've got that info. Yeah. The one thing I will say that I enjoy,
2:08.6	definitely leave those reviews, share it with people you know, but I have to wonder,
2:14.0	like when we get an episode that does really well um like i think the highest
2:19.4	rating episode we got was one that got up to like number 36 or 39 on spotify and i don't
2:26.8	remember what it was on apple it was in the top 50 but you know there's a lot of people there's a lot
2:33.4	of shows out there especially in the business
2:35.2	i don't even know how many shows are in that category but it is a pile and there's probably
2:41.0	some people out there that actually spend a shitload of money producing these episodes i mean
2:47.6	they're very high quality and i just have to to wonder, well, I don't know.
2:53.2	I'll never know one way or another, but I get a lot of pleasure out of the thought that somewhere
2:56.9	there's somebody that like produces this stuff. And they're just like, who are these idiots?
	...

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