Dirt to Dollars
Agriculture, farming, and rural issues in central Kentucky.
Dirt to Dollars
Episode 47 - Drew and Laney Snider with Ruby Branch Farms
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Join us this week for a fun interview with Drew and Laney Snider from Ruby Branch Farms. Learn more about them at www.rubybranchfarms.com
Thanks to Greg Thomas with Helena Agri-Enterprises for sponsoring this week's show!
And thanks to our studio sponsor Biotech Innovations. Learn more about them at www.biotechinnovationsag.com.
Welcome to Dirt to Dollars, where we cover everything from the dirt on your land to the dollars in your hand.
SPEAKER_05We're talking all things agriculture in Central Kentucky, from the field to the farm office.
SPEAKER_04Join your hosts, Daniel Carpenter, Matt Adams, and Mark Thomas as we dig into current ag news, practices, and more. And now, coming to you from the Biotech Innovation Studios, here's Dirt to Dollars. Now let's get innovative. Welcome back to Dirt to Dollars. I'm your host, Matt Adams, along with our co-host here, Daniel Carpenter. Say hello, Daniel.
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SPEAKER_04And birthday boy, somewhat famous Mark Thomas.
SPEAKER_05Do I look any older? Are you 50? I'm not 50.
SPEAKER_04Somebody asked if he was 50.
SPEAKER_05I'm still younger than you. I'm a senior member of this group. You are. You'd be asked to advise us from time to time as the need arises.
SPEAKER_04He has no idea what you're talking about. I know he doesn't.
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SPEAKER_05It certainly was. So speaking of advising us from time to time, do y'all know who our sponsor is this week?
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SPEAKER_05Somebody who advises. Helena Agro Enterprises, one of our nation's foremost agronomic providers of crop inputs, application technology, manufacturing, and data solutions with products like Full Scale, Coron, Metro Fulbore, and Viathon, just to name a few, they can help you maximize your farmers potential. Contact our local Helena Rep, Greg Thomas at 270-723-6019 to learn more. You almost got tongue-tied. I almost you just about crashed, but you recovered nicely. I did. I came back. I came back good. That viathon got me.
SPEAKER_04I was I'm just impressed. It's like you come up with that off the top of your head.
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SPEAKER_04You just that's how well we know our sponsors. That's exactly right. So speaking of getting to know some people, we've got a guest this week. We've got two.
SPEAKER_05We've actually got a couple guests.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and they're they're pretty good. And I think they've got a lot to say, so let's just go on and roll into them.
SPEAKER_02All right. We've got some very special guests this week on Dirt to Dollars. We have Drew and Laney Snyder, um, all the way down in Franklin, Kentucky, and part of Ruby Branch Farms. Drew and Laney, thank you for joining us. Could you all give us a little intro about yourselves and about your farming operation?
SPEAKER_00Sure. First of all, thank you all for having us. We're honored, honored to be with you. Um, so like you said, we are Drew Laney Snyders. We Snyders, Snyder, we own Ruby Branch Farms. Uh, we're down here in Simpson County, and we our farm is right on the Kentucky, Tennessee line. Um, Drew is an eighth-generation farmer where Ruby Branch sits. Um, historically, this farm has been a lot of things, um, a dairy, uh tobacco, and all the traditional road crops. Um, but now Drew still does all of the traditional road crop stuff. We no longer do tobacco or dairy, um, but we do agritourism and raise our own beef that we sell direct to consumer.
SPEAKER_02So I know you mentioned agritourism. Um, what are what are some things that you all are doing agri that's you know that you would that would fall in that agritourism category?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So uh in the spring we do you pick tulips. In the summer, we have Kentucky's largest sunflower maize, and we have some other um flowers that go along with that. In the fall, we do the mums, pumpkins, corn maize, all the fall goodies, and then um at Christmas time, just Black Friday weekend, we sell fresh cut trees and we also sell tulip bulbs.
SPEAKER_03So are you all growing the trees or are they coming in from somewhere else, or how's that work?
SPEAKER_00We are not. That's the only thing that we don't grow. Um uh I halfway mentioned that to my father-in-law one time about planting trees, and he was like, You are not taking any more of our production fields and putting it in something that's gonna be 12 years before you do it.
SPEAKER_01That was a hard note for me, too.
SPEAKER_05Just buy another farm. Just buy another farm, just buy another farm.
SPEAKER_00That's all it takes. It's so easy. It's all why not?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So before we go too far, I just want to say this for all of our listeners. Whenever y'all, you know, we joke about me being somewhat famous. So when you look at Facebook, between Drew and Ruby Branch Farms, they have almost twice as many followers as I do. So if I'm somewhat famous, they're like super famous. So, not to give y'all a big head or anything, but I don't have more than you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you do.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So your farm has 19,000, and you have 13,000. And I only have and I only have 21 on Facebook. So when you add those two together, you got more than me.
SPEAKER_00We're still not as good as you. It takes two to be better than it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_05Still still adds up. Same person.
SPEAKER_04So well, and that's still that's impressive for a farm. It is, absolutely. Nice. Uh, so you mentioned the uh you all raise and sell some beef as well, right? Uh is that kind of a year-round thing, or just as you have supply, or how do you market that?
SPEAKER_00We're getting better at having it year-round, um, you know, supply and demand type situation. Um but yeah, for the most part, we do have it year-round at this point. Um, during our open the seasons that we are open, it's available to purchase anytime. But in the off season, I'll usually have like a day or two a month that I'll open up where I meet people by appointment. And you have a facility there on the farm that you sell out of or yeah, our old milk barn we converted and we put freezers in.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, my wife has actually saw that on Facebook, and we have an old dairy barn on one of our farms as well, and she's had that idea too. But go for it.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it's a perfect use for it. I mean, you can't really use concrete.
SPEAKER_05That's yeah, it's just concrete floor, concrete block walls. It it's perfect for holding in the you know, of course you can put freezers in it, but it's perfect for keeping the weather out and keeping the coolness in.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it works great.
SPEAKER_05So what what started this agriculture? What was the first thing you all did that that's said you all said, I'm gonna do agritourism and we're gonna start here?
SPEAKER_01Well, we were we s when we started dating in when was that? Oh my gosh. 2010? 2010-ish? Yeah. So uh I was working for AgriGold, and about 2012, dad calls and said, Hey, I'm ready for you to come home and take over the farm. Like, cool. So I told Laney, we were two years into dating. I was like, hey, I'm going to the farm. If you would like to come with, come on. Well, she came with.
SPEAKER_00I was in grad school and ran out of money, and I was like, sure, I got nowhere else to go. Why not? I like you enough, and it'll be fine.
SPEAKER_01So, and once we got home, the kind of the deal was I would keep like a public job, and then um as we transitioned into the farm and everything, and Laney would have a public job, and then we just started kind of toying with the idea like we would love to both be on the farm somehow, somehow. And um, I was like, Well, we I used to help raise mums at Murray State. Maybe we can raise some mums and you know do a little side hustle like that uh um raise a little extra money. And so 2014. It was four fourteen, yeah, or 15.
SPEAKER_0015 was our first mum crop.
SPEAKER_01We had 300 mums and a basket of gourds.
SPEAKER_00And well, no, we had I think we had 600 mums. We raised 300 and then we bought 300 wholesale in case we killed the 300.
SPEAKER_05Always good to have a good backup plan. That's a good backup plan.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it was so yeah, that was our first year.
SPEAKER_01That was our first year, and it has grown from then till today. I think we're up to almost 16,000 moms now, and about 10 acres of pumpkins and all that good stuff. So that's kind of how it transitioned. We were wanting to both be on the farm full-time at some point, and that's that's kind of why we started it.
SPEAKER_04You all are both full-time on the farm now.
SPEAKER_01We are. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_05That's I think that's the goal for for a lot of couples in agriculture, and it's it's great that you guys have been able to do that and you know set a model to go by.
SPEAKER_01It it took a lot of work to get to that point. I mean, we had we were talking the other day of all the jobs that we had, also with farming, then also with Ruby Branch, on how to to make this happen, and we were like, we think we're tired now. We were tired then too.
SPEAKER_05I had actually forgot that you were working for Agrigold.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00We were joking, we were like, we're an overnight success. It only took 15 years, you know.
SPEAKER_05Well, slow and steady wins the race. That's right. That's all we're guys have built a great brand and and a great spot down there in Franklin.
SPEAKER_02So the Kentucky's largest sunflower patch, how many how many acres of sunflowers does it take to be the largest sunflower patch?
SPEAKER_01We are we have held steady at 15 acres right now.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So are you are you waiting until somebody tries to yes match you and then you just keep at well no when we started claiming it we were 12, and then like we kind of just like inch up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Last year, I think we were at 15, and this year we're pretty much at 15. But yeah, we we we keep inching it just to make sure.
SPEAKER_01Somebody's like, well, we have 16. I'm like, Well, we got 16 and a quarter this year.
SPEAKER_05I saw Daniel like a good number. Daniel out here taking notes and find somewhere to put 16 acres of sunflowers in the year. I don't think Daniel has 16 acres of spot, no rocks. No, it's too many rocks. He's getting pretty moisture this year to to grow them, but I don't think he's got the he's got the rock crop.
SPEAKER_01I was really hesitant because we started growing the acres. I'm like, man, we're taking away from crop ground. And then when corn got down to like three bucks, I'm like, you know what? Sunflowers sounds really good. I like that idea.
SPEAKER_05We all want to you know go with those easy crops, the row crops, the corn, the soybeans, and wheat, but but really when it comes down to it, you know, we need to be focusing on what makes us the most money. Yes. I think you guys have learned that you know diversification is key, you know, whether it be the sunflowers or uh pumpkins or uh uh watermelons or whatever you've got that you know that that helps make it all happen.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. So you mentioned the sunflower patch there. Uh walk everybody through what do you all do with those sunflowers and uh what are the different revenue streams coming in off of those?
SPEAKER_00So with the sunflowers, uh, we actually cut it into a maze, not a difficult maze, not like a corn maze, because it's a hundred degrees in southern Kentucky. We don't want to kill anybody out in the sunflowers. So um we cut mazes out there with a lawnmower for people to go. They pay admission to come see them. Um they pay extra to pick them if they'd like. And with the sunflowers, we also have a small wildflower patch and I call it a xennia oasis. It's like two acres of xenia's. So people can pick. Um, so that's the first way that we get paid there. Um, the second way, there's second way we get paid is we actually harvest those sunflowers and we sell it for bird seed. Um, and then the third way is we actually feed some of it to our cattle as well.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Huh. So how do you how do you hard are you running those just through a conventional combine or I just put the corn head on and go to town on it.
SPEAKER_01Okay. He's got a lot of shatter. I mean, there's we got double crop sunflowers the next year, but it it uh it does a pretty decent job.
SPEAKER_05Now, do you rotate that that field or you just just pick okay?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. We and that's what our problem is now is we're we're trying to rotate 15 acres of sunflowers, and then with everything else that we have, so it's kind of became a little bit of a challenge to make that happen, but we uh we're having to get a little creative with it. Ain't no hill for a climber.
SPEAKER_02I think y'all got it.
SPEAKER_05Uh back to just buy another farm, all the problems can be solved.
SPEAKER_00So tell our banker that, please.
SPEAKER_05Just call your neighbor, you know. You're probably like everybody else. I don't want to own it all, but I just want to own what touches me.
SPEAKER_02So uh I think somebody mentioned watermelons earlier. I think uh we when we were talking before we recorded here, you mentioned that's that's kind of a new crop for you all, right? So what's um what what was the I don't know what what got you into watermelons?
SPEAKER_00Um sometimes when it's early in the spring and I'm ambitious, I just order seeds.
SPEAKER_01So um then hands them to me and is like, hey, go do this.
SPEAKER_00No, I planted them. Me, so Carlos and I planted them and I hired the spray guy, so it's fine. I basically did it all. That's a lie. Um, but yeah, so I just get excited sometimes, and I was like, what is something else we can do? Well, let me back up there. We were in Florida in February, and I went to a UPIC strawberry farm, and I was like, this is so great. There's a lot of strawberries growing around us, but no you pick. And I was fired up for this. I called people the entire way home from Florida talking about strawberries, like I was in. Then I watched some farmer friends of ours pull um frostcloth on these things on and off a hundred times in 50 mile an hour winds. And I was like, actually, that is not for me, JK. So then I was like, what fits in with our season that we already have that we'll have soul and Carlos here, so we have help, and watermelons fit in. And then Drew and Aunt Sally were like, Well, how are you gonna sell these watermelons? And I said, I don't know, we'll figure that out. And then I was I'm a Drew's an excessive planner and I'm an excessive doer, and that's how we make this work. And so I was listening to the radio one day and watermelon crawl came on, and I was like, We're gonna have us a watermelon crawl at Ruby Branch Farms. So that's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_05Is Tracy Bird coming? Please tell me you've reached out to him.
SPEAKER_00Uh um, no, I made a joke. Somebody asked me that on Facebook, and I said, no, but Macy Pigeon is coming. Tracy Bird.
SPEAKER_06Burban Pigeon. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna, I'm gonna we're we're gonna work on that this week. We're gonna Drew, I need you to work on some videos and we're gonna trag, tag, trag, tag Tracy Bird.
SPEAKER_00Okay, get him there.
SPEAKER_05Try to get him there.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we're really close to Nashville. Maybe he lives with it maybe.
SPEAKER_05He actually lives, I I just looked it up. He actually lives in Texas, but who knows? Maybe. I mean, I don't know. He could be in maybe maybe he'll be driving through Franklin late August.
SPEAKER_00So no, he won't. Yeah, he won't drive.
SPEAKER_05He'll do the watermelon crawl.
SPEAKER_00He'll be doing the watermelon crawl. Your joke was better than golly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so no, that's um when she uh we were on the way home from Florida and she kept talking about strawberries. I'm like, Laney, I love you so much, but February is our only month that we have to do something like this. If we have strawberries, that's not gonna happen. And she was then went over the the whole frost cloth thing came into play, that went away, and then two days later she's like, watermelons, we're doing it.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, cool, let's go.
SPEAKER_04So how big is the watermelon patch?
SPEAKER_00Oh, just an acre. Okay. So nothing too crazy. And we got some different watermelons and uh cantaloupes and honeydews. And but my other brainchild with this is like I really wanted to raise them without um pesticides or fungicides. And we have a friend here, shout out Josh Thurman, ClearPoint Ag, that he is into all of that stuff, and I call it the voodoo juice, and we were able to do it, and it looks phenomenal out there. So just trying different things.
SPEAKER_04So is this is your watermelon crawl, is it gonna be a one-day deal or a weekend, or how and is that you planning on them all being gone once that's over? Or how's that all work?
SPEAKER_00No, so we'll sell some up to it, but I just needed I I wanted to plan an event I would want to go to. So I'm a huge 90s country fan. Daniel would know that from our karaoke nights. So um uh so I wanted to have this event, but um no, we'll sell some up to that, and then I think by the event we'll be kind of towards the end of picking melons. But sunflower season, I think we'll we'll be able to move the melons while people are here for sunflowers.
SPEAKER_04And so you mentioned the sunflower maze. You may have said this before. Do you have a corn maize in the fall as well, or is the sunflower maze it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then we also do a soybean maze for kids um because we figured out pretty quickly that little kids and um like uh special needs classes that come, the corn maize is just way too much. So we do the sunflower or the um soybean maze for them.
SPEAKER_05That's a good idea. Really good idea.
SPEAKER_04Mark would like that idea.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I won't get lost in there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so get lost.
SPEAKER_04Uh so you've mentioned several things here. Uh, you know, you mentioned you're running out of room. How many acres do you know off the top of your head how many acres this whole agritourism section covers?
SPEAKER_01Uh probably with our mums and everything. We've probably got 30 acres tied up in it. Okay. And about four different spots kind of around the central hub here. We can go a little further, but people are just gonna have to walk more if we do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, that becomes the issue with trying to rotate everything, and weed pressure becomes a big issue when you're growing a bunch of specialty crops. But yeah, like you can't ask Mima to walk three miles out to the to the sunflower mace. So it is it's a Tetris game every year.
SPEAKER_04And so that leads me to another question. Uh, you're talking about your you know, growing a bunch of different specialty crops. What have been some challenges equipment-wise? You know, obviously, you're not pulling a bunch of equipment that you're also using on the corn and soybean side and using that on these specialty crops. Have have you all had to invest in different equipment? And is there stuff that you can share between crops, or how how have you managed all that?
SPEAKER_01It's we we bought a little four-row 7,000 to plant sunflowers, and we had a company specially make the sunflower plates where they kind of filed off the fingers of the finger pickup. Um, and then we kind of get creative with pumpkins too. We just take all the units off, I slap a couple seats on the unit, put some tubes down the uh opening disc, and that's have to count so many seconds and just drop one. So that's that's a little challenging. The the the sprain and the weed control is probably the toughest thing we battle. We have this wonderful weed called Palmer Pigweed, and it's just you can't you can't kill it unless you've got a hole in your hand and you go chop it. But um we've we've recently purchased a drone to start helping with the sprain because I have two like little sprayers that I've got, and I was having to rotate one between fungicide and one between, you know, what we spray herbicide wise, and I got tired of dealing with both those sprayers, so I was like, you know what? So we could spray corn and soybean fungicide, and then I can spray. Whatever with all the specialty crops, a drone really fits in well for us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And vining things. It's you know, when you start running over vines with the tractor, that's that's tough too.
SPEAKER_05So I haven't seen the latest update on Facebook. Maybe I just missed it. But what name did we decide on for the drone? Are we allowed to drop it here? I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_01This is actually where we're gonna drop it at. So you guys are first to know. We've got an exclusive exclusive build.
SPEAKER_05Great time for your bell, Matt.
unknownYeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So my my pick, my pick was spray Charles, which thought was hilarious. Laney's was Misty Elliott. And so I like that one too. Those are both freaky. And so we put we we couldn't, we argued back and forth like like that's our biggest argument is like, what are we going to name our spray drone?
SPEAKER_00Oh, honorable mention, little Lil Nozzle X.
SPEAKER_01Little Nozzle X. Yes. Snoop Fog was in there, but it just didn't make it to the top. So Facebook decided we had we had to take it to Facebook to a vote, and and my boys didn't come for come out for me. So uh I even I even have a uh uh a logo that I'll send you uh Mark that uh we're gonna put on the drone.
SPEAKER_05Awesome. Yeah, we'll uh we'll try to put that out whenever we uh share this episode on Facebook. So that's that's great. That's I've got one too, and it it doesn't have a name, so I'm behind that. Now I'll just spray Charles copying. I might have to do that. I might have to name it Spray Charles just just for you.
SPEAKER_01Since since my name didn't work out, it maybe maybe I can live vicariously through you and Spray Charles.
SPEAKER_05There you go.
SPEAKER_04So I know one more event that I've seen uh since following you all that that you do there on the farm is your touch a tractor event. Uh talk a little bit about that and how that came to be and what you all do uh through that, because that's a really neat way that you all are bringing some of the non-farm public in to experience agriculture.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so a lot of our clientele is kids, is you know, we're here to be family friendly and we want to create family memories. And with that, um, every time a little kid comes out to the farm and they see a tractor parked across the way that they are not supposed to get in, that's where they want to be. Um, you know, and I don't blame them. We have an almost four-year-old. That's the only place he wants to be. Um, so we started it a few years ago, and I think last year HR Agropower got in it with us. So they usually bring out a couple really cool tractors. Um, and then we pull all of our equipment out. Our spray guy brings his sprayer, um, and we just let the kids and the adults, honestly, I think it is the greatest, the largest percentage of just dads bringing their kids to any event that we have at Ruby Ranch. It's a big daddy daughter and daddy Sunday at Ruby Ranch. So um, but we let them climb up in them, see what it's like. Um, a lot of these kids have never had the opportunity to see something like that, let alone climb up in a combine. So that is really fun, and all you hear all day is horns honking. It's the best.
SPEAKER_05Lights are flashing.
SPEAKER_00Lights are flashing, horns are on the bottom.
SPEAKER_05How many dead batteries do you have at the end of the day?
SPEAKER_01All of us is fine. It's terrible. We have to run everything at night after everybody leaves just to charge the battery for the next day.
SPEAKER_00But it's so cool, it's so much fun.
SPEAKER_02So I can tell you all, you know, you all have a lot of joy for agriculture, and you're really good spokespeople for agriculture. Um, but like what what is it, what do you think like your experiences on the farm and through your agritourism, what brings you the most joy? Like what do you enjoy more than anything in in what you all do at the farm?
SPEAKER_00My favorite thing is seeing families come back year after year after year, um, and spending that time together. Like we've seen couples that they really we've had multiple couples get engaged in the sunflower field. And so, like, we have seen progressions from like people dating to married to having kids, and then they're like bringing, you know, their parents, the grandparents with them. So, and it really is a family tradition for a lot of families to come, especially for the sunflowers in the fall. Well, and even the Christmas trees. I mean, that's that's what we wanted to do. I feel like that's something that we have lost, um, just as a society, is you know, a lot of these family things, like doing things as a family that isn't going to a sports event or, you know, going to your kids' t-ball, whatever. So that's my favorite part is the people that come out. And and you a lot of times you'll hear, you know, the grandparent, they'll see the silos in the dairy barn, and they'll talk about stories about hey, how they grew up because a lot of our grandparents are great grandparents. They did have a farm or their parents had a farm. So um they get to tie, they're tying their families to agriculture just by being here, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01You still mind. I'm sitting here, I'm sitting here going, okay, the hamster's having to really run hard right now to think of one. No, I I think I think since being eighth generation on the farm, um, I think what I get the most joy out of is being able to see what the farm was and what it's transitioning to. Um you know, seeing how the farm is still growing, how it's still becoming a family name around here. Um, I think that's what I enjoy. Then I then I really enjoy growing stuff. Like I really enjoy like the sunflowers because my nightly routine right now is to drive up here and go through the sunflowers to see how many blooms we have and see what the pumpkins are doing and all that good stuff. So I I think growing the stuff is probably where I find the most joy out of all of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would agree. That's and watching our little boy love it too is the coolest.
SPEAKER_05Train in the ninth generation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Just think if you had the Christmas trees, they'd be perfect. You said he was four. He'd be 16 when they're ready when they're ready to are.
SPEAKER_02It would be his burn car.
SPEAKER_01He could buy his burning car with Christmas tree money. I I'm gonna go ahead and tell y'all a little I'm I'm getting sidetracked here about this farm. So in 2000, we used to background like 400 head of cattle a year. We used to be a huge cattle operation. Well, I mean for our area, okay. Right. Let me tell my story anyway.
SPEAKER_00So huge cattle operation, guys.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it was big for us. Okay. Okay. Okay. So we got out of the cattle business and we took down all the fences, we did all that stuff, and I was like, you know what? I hated raising cattle, and I never want cattle on this farm again. I will not have another fence on this farm. We're going to row crop it, all that other stuff. And then I got married, and now we have cattle fences and cattle and all that stuff back here on the farm. So now it's like, okay, as long as we don't get back into debacle and dairying, I'm good. Like, I'm I'm okay with this.
SPEAKER_00So I heard green light for the Christmas trees. That's about it. That's what I just thought.
SPEAKER_01So where I'm going with this is yeah, no, no Christmas trees.
SPEAKER_05That is also another case of Drew said no Christmas trees. We will revisit this. No raising Christmas trees. Uh no, we will revisit this in the future because I bet minds get changed.
SPEAKER_00No, they're not. And I have a friend. Listen, that's another thing. I have a friend that's raising Christmas trees. I'm like, that's a lot of work in the summer trimming those trees. I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_01Nope.
SPEAKER_00There has to be a limit somewhere, right?
SPEAKER_01See, the deer would get them, you know. It just that just all the hard things.
SPEAKER_05Well, there's good products out there to repel deer away.
SPEAKER_00So just build more fences, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Just build just build more fences.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Again. Something I said I was never gonna do again.
SPEAKER_04Here we are. So on a serious note, here you all you know talking about the future. Where do you all see the future of the farm going? Do you see any expansion and adding any new crops or anything like that? Or where do you you know you all came a long way in the last 10 years? Where do you see the next 10 years going?
SPEAKER_01This is a this is a hard subject for us right now because um where we are located, not a mile and a half away. They're trying to put a data center in. Um, a Kroger distribution is center is being put in. Um you can't buy ground around here. Uh and anything that's around us right now, you can't buy for less than 20, 25,000 an acre. And then you start getting on it in the county a little bit, it's still 15,000 an acre. So expansion is gonna be really tough for us. So, you know, when Mark says by the next farm, you know, I mean, if we got 30,000 an acre, I mean, we could do that, but that's that's what's gonna be tough. Um, so that's our focus, like especially with row crops, um, we really buckled down the past three years on really focusing focusing on making what we have produce more. Um, and that is focusing more on soil health, that's focusing more on um, you know, we're kind of getting into the non-GMO market a little bit, um, doing things like that to make what we have produce more because I don't I personally don't see us expanding by buying ground. I I just don't.
SPEAKER_05It's a good plug for our sponsor this week. If you want to make more out of what you have, look up Helena Agra Enterprises.
SPEAKER_01There we go.
SPEAKER_06Got it.
SPEAKER_01There you go. He found the bell. He found the bell. So that's that's the tough that's the tough thing that's going on now. Um we're we're getting subdivisions put in all around us.
SPEAKER_00I mean Which is it's great for Ruby branch, you know. That's where it's just about to say, you know, it's it's such a like uh catch 22 of every time a subdivision goes up, you're like, frick, and then you know, you sell three mums to them. So, you know, it's like what do you it's it's really this is a really tough spot to be in right now with the growth that we're having.
SPEAKER_01We are pretty much right off I-65 in between Bowling Green and Nashville, and they are trying to come together, and we're stuck right in the middle of it. And so um that that is that's the tough spot that we're we're having to battle is you know, once you start bringing subdivisions in, once you start bringing, you know, like the Kroger distribution that's gonna have 400 trucks a day coming in and out, moving equipment down the road, it's um it's gonna be a challenge. And so um we've had a lot of discussions here lately on where do we see this going, and we really don't know.
SPEAKER_05Do you have any roundabouts yet that you have to travel through with farm equipment?
SPEAKER_01Not yet. And when they do, I quit because I hate roundabouts anyways. But there's more traveling, there's roundabout. I'm going, I'm not doing it.
SPEAKER_05Well, you can't come see me then, I guess. Yeah, you won't be coming down. I don't think you can get to you can probably get to Matt's house without going through a roundabout, but I don't know if you can get to mine and Daniel's.
SPEAKER_04So we appreciate you all joining us today. Uh we've learned a lot. We uh encourage everybody to go on down and do the watermelon crawl. Do you have a date on that yet?
SPEAKER_00Uh yes, it's the last weekend of August. Friday night's family night, and then Saturday night is tickets only. 18 plus. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then when uh so the sunflower patch is gonna officially open here pretty soon. Do you have do you have a day on that yet? Or do you have a good estimate on when that may be happening?
SPEAKER_00Probably next week, middle of next week, sometime, but we do not have a day yet. With this cooler weather, I think it's gonna slow them down a little bit.
SPEAKER_02So be looking for that like end of July, first of August time frame.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04Yep. And if people want to keep up with you all on Facebook or social media, where can they find you?
SPEAKER_00You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. It's Ruby Branch Farms. Uh, we have a YouTube channel that's Ruby Branch Farms, or you can look us up. Our website is RubyBranchFarms.com.
SPEAKER_04And y'all have got it trademarked.
SPEAKER_00We just got it all all bases covered.
SPEAKER_04Consistency, not that's right. All right. Well, thank you all again, and we'll talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_05So if y'all are down in Franklin or want to want to make a trip to Franklin, check out the watermill and crawl, and maybe uh maybe dirt the dollars ought to make a visit down there to.
SPEAKER_04I was kind of thinking about that. That could be like to the watermill and crawl.
SPEAKER_05We do a watermill and crawl date night.
SPEAKER_02And and is it so Alex Miller, hasn't he been doing a lot of stuff with Tracy Bird? Have I is is it Tracy Byrd that you've been doing some things with? We may have we may have like a what is it, seven degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of like something moment here where you know we might can can make some connections.
SPEAKER_05Uh we're we're gonna work on that this week and try to get some get some videos out there into the the stratosphere and see if we can get Tracy Byrd to at least comment on Ruby Branch Farm's watermelon crawl weekend.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just as long as we don't get them like in trouble for copyright.
SPEAKER_05I think watermelon crawl's trademark.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_04Oh no.
SPEAKER_05We might it might turn into the watermelon brawl.
SPEAKER_04I think that might be another revenue. Drew and Tracy Tracy Bird.
SPEAKER_02One one of the things that uh sort of of a topic with our interview there was uh, you know, progress and uh, and I say that with air quotes like you can see me, but uh progress and and and city improvements and things, city expanding and things going on like that. We did get tagged in a post um in uh that included some of the road infrastructure issues in Hodginville area in front of um, I guess it's Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, uh that whole four-lane stretch of road there and got redesigned to narrow it down to one lane, which was extremely narrow. Um almost had to be a mess up. But I, you know, even though they have all these plans and do all this work and have people that that design those things and get paid money, tax money to do those, but um, you know, they they they definitely had a mix up and uh there was a lot of farmers, a lot of non-farmers, um, just a lot of community members that really speaked up um and and made a big fuss about it. Um and it seems maybe to have done something. I think they tore the the the concrete curves out. Already torn out. Yeah, and uh came through there yesterday and they were tearing some of the concrete out. So yeah, so not sure. I think they're gonna put it back and maybe make it wider now, but um at least uh it was good to see that some changes were made and there was people who accepted some blame and and were gonna fix it. Uh, but I don't know. I I still think it's a it's kind of a joke to begin with.
SPEAKER_05Well, my question becomes we've had bike lanes forever. They they've been on on on roads, and I can't think of a good example, you know, right offhand, but until the last six months, they've never had to be separated by a concrete barrier. So I do we have to separate them now.
SPEAKER_04So I'd never noticed until today driving through the police station in front of the police station, that bike lane has a curbboard around it. I'd never paid attention to this.
SPEAKER_05So all the way up, now that I think about it, all the way up 62 out towards, heading out towards Boston until you cross, or well, I guess until you get up towards French Street, there's a bike lane on that road, not separated. So when you move through there with wide equipment or wide load or trailer that you need more room to spin, you just you get in the bike lane and you take up that area, which is a great power. Right. And I don't think I've ever seen a bike in those lanes.
SPEAKER_02No, and I mean, and here's why. Go ahead, Daniel. I mean, they're they're out where I live exactly all the time. And that is the most and what is it about, I'm gonna rant a little bit. What is it about bicyclers? And if you're a bicycler listening, I'm glad you enjoy that. That's fine. But why do you all drive on the worst roads? Why, why is it that you will I mean there are roads that I I'm not gonna scenery be on in a on a bicycle. I'm afraid to drive on them sometimes, and you're riding on them in a bike. I would argue less traffic.
SPEAKER_05You know, would be my argument is they ride on the on the country roads because there's less traffic. Now, where we live, there's roads, there's bikers on our road all the time. I have seen it's the road people would not ride a bike on.
SPEAKER_02I have seen more people on a bicycle on Highway 86 and Howe Valley Road than I have in front of the E Town Police Department, where they have a bike lane with a curb on it.
SPEAKER_05I agree.
SPEAKER_02And another thing is do these bikers pay road tax? How many times are we trying to find all these ways to fund road infrastructure? And we say that we have to tax things. We have we had to put a even with electric vehicles, they had to find some way to tax them to get some money. So are we going to start taxing bikers now to make all these improvements? I don't understand why the bikers get all this attention when there are literally a minuscule amount of people doing this, and it is ridiculous. It is a waste of money, and I'll tell anybody that to their face, I'll say it here on the radio, but it is ridiculous. We don't have to because there's a federal grant that'll pay for it, whether we need it or not. Yeah, just like the roundabouts. That's right. Federal grants. Oh, we didn't do that. This was a federal program. We didn't have anything to do with that. Oh, yeah, you did. And I just because there are funding for that stuff doesn't mean you have to do it.
SPEAKER_05The argument on roundabouts is that they're safer and there's less. You know, wrecks, I will agree with that. That's 100%. Because when you're stopped at an intersection waiting on somebody to get through, you're not going to have wreck. And that's, you know, waiting to get in the roundabout or whatever. You know, I can't argue that. But but the problem with the roundabouts is, and and I might get rantish too, is that somebody sitting in an office who's never been to that intersection, who's never seen that, who's never traveled in a tractor trailer or a piece of farm equipment, or even a pickup truck pulling a lawnmower trailer, is designing these things without ever having to physically drive through them. And that's where the problem becomes.
SPEAKER_04What got that changed was a picture. That's right, that's exactly parked in the middle of it, showing that a round baler, which is one of the most narrow pieces of equipment that we can move down the road, just barely fit in between those two curves. And having that visual there and being able to uh have that post go out somewhat viral, locally, locally viral, I guess. We can use that term. Uh and sharing some phone numbers out there and some people voicing their concerns, even though maybe they hadn't been through there and seen that yet yet, but they would have had to have dealt with it later on this fall if they needed to move equipment through there. And by then it was too late, but that got it torn out. And so that just kind of stresses the importance of if you have an issue with something, you gotta speak up on it. And sometimes it takes a visual representation like that to to uh drive the point home. Because Mark, you know, you and I sat at uh State Farm Bureau resolutions a few years ago, uh trying to get a resolution right out about roundabouts and how they're designed and being able to get equipment through them, and had somebody from from the highway department claim that by law and by design they can't. Have anything in the middle of them. Well, I started taking pictures every roundabout I saw with signs and uh landscaping and monuments and curbs and everything in the middle of them that are on state highways that you know what that engineer sat there and said was dead wrong. And sometimes you have to have uh proof, I guess bring the receipts to be able to prove that. But how many times, you know, we've dealt with what's going on in Hodginville and Harden County two or three times since they've started a lot of these traffic changes of nobody knows what the implications are going to be until it goes in and you can see it, or you try and get something through it, you can't get through it, and then you fuss and say, Oh, okay, yeah, we see what you're saying, we'll tear it out and build it new. Well, how we're using tax dollars here, how efficient is that? Yeah. Uh and then completely redo a project that was probably costing 25% more than it should have to begin with for something that nobody asked for.
SPEAKER_05Fixing a solving a problem we didn't have with money we didn't need or something, money we didn't need to spend.
SPEAKER_02But hopefully it has a good resolution to it or a good um outcome there. And uh, but yeah, uh you know, it's important to go whenever they have a lot of times they have sessions where they announce these uh things, so it's you know, try to go to those. Honestly, I don't think that really does much. I think once they spend the money to have the plans drawn up, they're not gonna really they're not, I mean, they couldn't, they wouldn't admit anything wrong until they were finally wrong this time. So I don't know what they'll change in the future, but at least you can say, well, you know, I was there and I told you this. Um, yeah, and and at least try to do something um, you know, constructive there that may help in some of those meetings.
SPEAKER_05And even if they, you know, before they do all these projects, they put out these these counters to to do some kind of formula and and count and see the vehicles that are on the road. Well, depending on the time of year you put it out to do that count. If it's not spring planting or fall harvest, there's not a lot of equipment going up and down that road. So they don't think about, oh, well, yeah, but they don't move down that road.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, but it wouldn't just know the tires crossing it. Um but but even then with this with this thing in in in Hodgeville, it started in May. Like this was a really quick, like it went like it had all the it started like May 7th, and by the end of May, they've gone through all the things and and it was happening. Um so it was very, very sudden. And I do think it was a it was considered a dangerous stretch of roads. They were trying to address some safety issues. I just think they really went about it in a very bad way.
SPEAKER_05So well um coming around, they're doing some changes, so yep. It's good that they admit it.
SPEAKER_02So running out of time. Uh we want to give our sponsor another another plug.
SPEAKER_05Thanks again to Helena Hagra Enterprises. I got tongue tied again. Um that's rough. So with products like Full Scale, Coron, Metro Fulbore, and Viathon, just to name a few, they can help you maximize your farm's potential. This spray season. Contact local Helena Rep, Greg Thomas at 270-723-6019 to learn more.
SPEAKER_02All right. Have a good show.
SPEAKER_05See you next week.
SPEAKER_02See y'all next week.