SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Mike Koehne from Greensburg, IN 10-03-24
[Music] And welcome again to Shark Farmer Radio. Hey! I'm your host Rob Sharky. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. Studio powered by Bex Hybrid. William is just finishing up his last bit of his first crop. So you run it 100 acres this year so it's the first time he's been out on his own. Kind of exciting for me as a dad. Soybeans and it's exciting but a little bit annoying too because he's gonna be over 80 bushels an acre. Sure. Whatever. I'm happy for him but you know you could have started a little bit lower. That's the way it is around here. Soybeans are very very good corn also the same way. I know it's not that way everywhere. Believe me we have been in that boat before but yeah that's what's happening on our farm. We've got the hunters in. I had some success on opening day which we've never never had a buck taken on opening day before but lo and behold what they say that squirrel finds a nut. I don't know ever once in a while. I think that's where we are. Today we're gonna go out to Indiana, Greensburg, Indiana. We're gonna talk with Mike Caney. How you doing Mike? I'm doing good. We're in a great state of Indiana is a Greensburg. So we're in the southeastern park. We're almost exactly in the middle of Indianapolis and Cincinnati Ohio. Okay and you're farming out there? Is it a family farm? I am a first generation farmer so this is my farm that me and my wife built and we run it with our four kids. Rebecca Luke and Logan. Luke works at home with me and Logan he's in med school at Indiana University and Caroline. She's my youngest and she is at the University of Cincinnati in her first year. Gotcha. So first generation farmer how do you even get into it? Well I started when I was young my uncle farmed. My dad moved away from the farm. He was a contractor, a carpenter, built houses his whole life and we'd go help him on the weekends and we'd go back and help him and I just really enjoyed going and help him. When I got going and got into high school, got into FFA, met some good friends and had the opportunity to go help them a little bit and I just started falling in love with the farm in aspect. I co-opted out of a high school, got to work for a dairy hog farm, really enjoyed working with them guys, went off after high school to the University of Northwestern Ohio where I learned auto diesel mechanics. Oh good old UNOH, that's where my oldest went. Yep, I'm going to say that's a good school. It's grown a lot since I've been there last. That school was nothing but a couple dorms in one building when I was there so that was a long time ago. But no, I got home from there and the neighbor got talking with him and the farm come up for rent from there was 78 acres and kind of asked him if he had to take a chance on me and I'd like to get involved and so he said he would and that's where it all started. I rented that first farm, didn't own a tractor, didn't, I didn't own any equipment. Yeah, so I was going to say how did you even get it planted? Well, there just happened to be a farm auction went and bought an old 1240 plate type planner, 150 bucks. And I was like, well, you know, you had a local international dealership had an old 806 sitting there on the lot, $3,200 and I went and bought that and been old disc. I bought on that same sale for 300 bucks. The old Kowani disc is like an 18 foot disc and, you know, I just dusted, I planted the corn, I planted beans in 30 inch rows with that corn planner and just kind of got started. It was a cheap start but it's been a learning curve the whole time. I mean, I don't have a dad to go to to ask questions and get advice but I got to meet a bunch of guys over the years that I, you know, the guys that were co-opted out of high school from, I always picked their brain. There's another neighbor there. I always went and picked his brain and talked to him and, you know, learned a lot in FFA so I started, you know, applying some of that stuff that I learned back then and it's been a really good journey but it was, you know, I had an all farm job and it took a lot of money to get started. What were you doing? I was working for a trucking company, taking and working on semi-trups. Mainly, I was working on reefer units so I got working on reefer units and semi-trailers and trucks and worked there six to two-thirty and then two-thirty on. I went home and worked on the farm a little bit there and did the little bit I had and over the years I picked up another neighbor's farm and rented it on shares and then took and kept going with that and bought an old 4400 John Deere Combine. Okay, all right, we've got to go to break but yeah what better place of break than the old John Deere Combine. Today we're talking with Mike Caney from Greensburg, Indiana. We're going to come back, talk about his farm, talk about specialty crops. We'll be back after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too by the way. Go to commonground.io that's commonground.io Well, if you missed the short farmer TV, the brand new one, I guess that was last night. Don't worry, don't fret. Encore presentation is Saturday 130 on RFD TV. I did not watch the debates last night. Like I said, we had the hunters in, we got a buck. So when you get a buck, there's some traditions that I'm not going to talk about but yeah, we were not watching TV. So honestly, I don't know. The vice president, the debate, it's it's great to know because you know, well, they say they're one heartbeat away from being the president or whatever but I did not watch it so I guess I don't have anything to say. Mike, did you watch it? I did not. Yeah. Mike, Mike Caney from Greensburg, Indiana's first generation farmer, which I think is just unreal. I know how much I struggled like just getting going farming and I had so much given to me by my family and my dad, you know, plus his knowledge base and everything like that. I just couldn't imagine when you think back to that first year when you're you're farming with the the throwaways from the other farmers, right? Were you having fun or was it just stressful? No, I mean, I was having fun. I mean, I was I was just having the time of my life. I thought it was very good. You know, trying to figure it all out. It was it was a challenge. I love a challenge. So it was we were just having a ball getting started. You know, as and be honest with you, it's it's more complicated now than it was back then because it didn't have to actually, I mean, I tried to make money. First few years, I didn't. I mean, you know, but now when you make a living off of it, it gets a little more stressful. So, but we got, you know, back then we didn't have, you know, we'll fast forward a little bit here. You know, we bought the farm that we live on in 2000. So this is the first piece of property that I bought. It was 243 acres. That's that was a big, big chunk to take off, you know, and one with the start with. So, but, you know, at the time we were we were had a trucking company. We were running five trucks, a hole in livestock. I've been in 38, a lower 48 states hole in livestock. We were making pretty decent money. That was that was always a challenge to find good truck drivers to fill in seats in them trucks. And we were we were rolling pretty good. And so we ended up buying buying this place that I live on. And then we took and build up build our house that we live in now in 2002. And so we I finally stepped out of a truck in 2006. I had drivers yet, but I personally stepped out of a truck. And I ended up buying a farm drainage business off of a gentleman. Kids were getting involved in school and events. And so I was like, man, I got to get out of a truck and get home and and figure that all out. So I decided that we were going to take on an adventure of putting in field tile. So do you buy like the big trinter and everything? We started out with an old spiker 70 60 wheel machine is what we started out with. I don't know what that is. That's the big one. It's not a big one. No, it's it's a pretty small machine. We just we just bought a brand new Buckeye 73 40 wheel machine last year. So that's the big one. So that one there's that machine there. If you're familiar with a wheel machine, we cut a we cut a 22 inch trench all the time, basically excavates the soil out conveyor throws it to the side. Tile lays in the boot behind it. And we can we can go seven foot deep. And we can actually space that wheel out to put in 36 inch tile. So that's that's a big always it always cuts 22 even like I don't know if you're putting in a six inch tile. You always do that. Yep, always cuts a 22 inch trench. I know that. Gonna say they they make a slimline wheel that you can make and take it down to like a 16 inch trench or 14 inch trench. But but we're we're cutting the 22 all the time. I like I like the wheel machine. I personally prefer the wheel machine. We have a big commercial plow now too that that we run. We just do lateral work with that put all the mains in with the wheel machine. So we've been doing that for 18 years now. So but we've yeah that market has not gone down has it? No, no, not yet. So I hope not. I'm gonna say I enjoy I enjoy the farm drainage work. I mean it's it's a challenge every field laying it out designing the pattern tile. You know, it's it's always a challenge to get it all laid in there. I enjoy that. So but yeah, along with that, you know, we we grew our farm. We're running 900 acres. We only rent 240 acres the rest of it I own. That's fantastic. From starting for your first generation. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm going to say it's a it's a lot of hard work and sacrifice. I'll tell you what it's it's 14 16 hour days every day to week. So but you you have been taking advantage of specialty crops. Tell me that. Yeah, so so all the crops that we farm are specialty crops are the first roundup beans which the high lake or planish beans that we grow are roundup beans and we started growing them four years ago and that's the first roundup product that I have ever grown. So and we mainly switch to them because with our clear Highland food grade beans, we just can't get the weed control that we want. So we try to rotate these in to try to control some of the weed pressure that we have. It doesn't work anyway. Kills grass but other than that. Yeah, not like the old days. I was going to say our big problem is giant ragweed and it will take care of giant rags. So that's that's our big nemesis that we we have all the time but but the high leg beans they get we take them to ADM in Indianapolis and they get crushed up at Frank that bungie at Frankford, Indiana and then our food grade beans. They get their clear highlands. We go through a broker or a contractor IOM grain there in Portland. Okay, but I want to hear all about this. We do got to go to break though. Today we're talking with Mike Kaney from a Greensburg, Indiana. We'll be back right after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io that's commonground.io. All right listeners, my friends, I try to do a good job. Ben Emily doesn't even want to listen to me anymore. She comes in for the last segment just to listen to we're in the world as well. Well, have at it. Well, today I'm in Greensburg, which is a city in in the county seat of Decatur County, Indiana. Greensburg was laid out in 1822, the founder Thomas Hendrix senior's wife selected the name. She that's what she came up with. Yeah, Greensburg's founder Colonel Thomas Hendrix was a veteran of the war of 1812. When was that war? August. The first post office at Greenberg opened in 1823, but the name of the post office was spelled Greensburg with an H until 1894. Michigan Road was completed in 1837, bringing more people to settle and visit the growing town. After the Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis, railroad was completed in 1853, the town boomed. Agriculture, foundries, millenaries, wholesale grocers, and other businesses took advantage of Greenberg's strategic rail position. The Decatur County Courthouse in Greensburg is known for a tree which grows from the top of the courthouse tower, giving Greensburg its nickname Tree City. It's on top. Yes, they should probably cut that thing. Well, there have been one or more trees continually growing since the first tree was noticed in the early 1870s. Later, other small trees appeared on the clock tower. County officials were initially concerned that the trees would cause damage to the roof, and a steeplejack was hired in the 1880s to remove some of them. This is the kind of jobs they had in the 1880s. Two trees were left with one ultimately growing to a height of nearly 15 feet, but by the time it died, another tree had appeared. Today, there are two trees. There are two trees on the tower today. During a recent tree trimming, a piece of the tree was examined by several Purdue University foresters, and they positively identified the tree as a mulberry tree. Those ones, the birds eat them, and then their poo is purple. Right, right. John T. Wilder is a notable person from Greensburg, and he was a Civil War Union general known for commanding lightning brigade to success at the Battle of Chickamauga. We also got Rose McConnell Long, the third woman to ever serve in the US Senate, and we got Mark Griffin, the world's youngest judge. Oh, how are we young? In 1990. So, Mark Griffin, not Merve Griffin, Mark is 17 years old. What? Yes, but in 1990, Guinness World Records mistakenly awarded the world's youngest judge award to John Payton, who was elected as a judge in Collin County, Texas at the age of 18, but they overlooked Griffin, who had been appointed as a judge on February 19th, 1974 at the age of 17 years. And it was not until 2011 that the Guinness World Records became aware of Griffin's accomplishment and recognized him. But in 2024, Guinness World Records awarded the title of world's newest youngest judge to Henry Buckley, who was appointed as a justice of the peace and mass acoustics at the age of 16 years and seven days. Imagine going for a traffic ticket and there's a 16 year old up there. Right. Right. Okay. Is that it? Yes. That's it. Okay. Thank you. Well, Mike, did you know all that stuff? I didn't know all of it. No. Mike Haney from Greensburg, Indiana. There's trees on top of stuff. There's steeple jacks and all that. There is a tree on top of the courthouse. That is what we are known for. Yes. Well, we all have our little things. Mike is a first generation farmer. Amazing. And then he's we're talking about drainage companies, but you've been involved also in the soybean. So when did that all start? So I thought I went out for election for the Indiana Soybean Alliance that I've been in. It would have been eight years ago. This is my eighth year on the board started. I went out for election. I had a actually a guy that I hold a hug for. Talked me in the Salomon town one day and invited me to legislative breakfast at the state house and kind of talked about it. And we decided I was going to run. So I took and made my wife had a discussion about it. And we decided that that would be okay. So I ran and I won. And that was, like I said, that was eight years ago now. So enjoyed every moment of it. The Indiana Soybean Alliance is the check off board. And we managed to check off funds here in Indiana. And I'll tell you, it's amazing how much stuff soybeans is in. It's just amazing. I mean, anywhere from crayons to candles to tires to concrete sealer. I mean, it's, you know, you can eat them. Humans eat them. Animals eat them. You know, it's just amazing how many different uses it has. And what the check off does to promote that research that and make new uses for soybeans. It's just amazing. I've learned so much and I encourage anybody who's interested in that to run for a board. It's amazing what you can learn. Well, and you never know when you say yes to a board where it's going to take you. So you've probably traveled quite a bit to places like California and and working on establishing relationships with other countries as well. Yes, I've been to eight different countries and learned about their their uses of the soybeans, learned about projects that we have sponsored in these places and how they work and how it impacts their society. I've actually had the opportunity to follow my food grade beans around the world. I've been from when they leave the farm to the when they go to get on the container. I've been through the Panama Canal. I've been to Tokyo, Japan. I've actually met buyers over there that buy the beans. Well, you also just got appointed to a USEC. What's that? So I just got appointed to the US Soy Export Council, which they are in. I'll probably get this wrong. 38 countries and all you do. You could lie. We wouldn't know. I tell you what though, Mike, we we've run out of time. It's amazing. All the things you are doing for soybean appreciate all that. But what a story from first generation to up to 900 acres and full-time farm. It's amazing what you have accomplished. So Mike Kaney from Greensburg, Indiana. Mike, don't go anywhere. Sean Haney's coming up next. He doesn't like soil drainage. We'll catch everybody next time. ♪ Good girl ♪