Kent Boucher (01:13.548) Lost my fingernail this weekend. Nicolas Lirio (01:17.346) Delicious. Please continue. Kent Boucher (01:19.566) That just it's been an ongoing development. I kinda took pictures. I've debated I've debated posting like like progression. And I'm like, no, I don't want to be one of those people who needs attention for my personal health journey. You know what I mean? Like there's to me there's very few people who should be allowed to do that. Like a like a truly a truly like life changing disease. Riley Rozendaal (01:29.838) Time lapse basically. Nicolas Lirio (01:41.486) Nicolas Lirio (01:46.858) Okay, not saying anything morally, but like on your social media of your preference, what kind of health journeys do you like seeing? Kent Boucher (01:56.448) if somebody has like well it's not that I like seeing them, but it's like it's good to know. It's good to be in the know, right? if somebody's had like a life changing injury and you know, you care about so you want to know, like, hey, how's so and so doing? Yeah. But if it's like, you know, got food poisoning last night, you know, I'm feeling a little under the weather, that kind of thing's like Need some call call your mommy. Nicolas Lirio (02:20.878) We make we make fun of it, but some people truly some people's community is the people Kent Boucher (02:28.556) Well we complain about Riley Rozendaal (02:30.452) Misery loves company. Yeah. Real. If if you ate some bad Taco Bell, I don't want to know about it. Nicolas Lirio (02:36.694) Okay, okay. What about someone who was like six hundred pounds and now they're two hundred pounds? You don't like seeing that? Yeah, that's Kent Boucher (02:43.788) That'd be cool. Riley Rozendaal (02:45.356) That's a major change in somebody's life. Yeah. Kent Boucher (02:47.842) I'm there for the b as long as it's not too much exposed, I'm there for the the before and after. Nicolas Lirio (02:52.398) Man, that's real. That's real. Kent Boucher (02:55.522) That's yeah, that's that's that's great. But yeah, I mean come on, a smashed fingernail and and you're like that just seemed Nicolas Lirio (03:02.914) Well, if it's really gnarly, then it's kind of cool. It's kind of interesting. Yeah. You know what I mean? The did you ever watch this show? There were only like four episodes ever on Animal Planet. Animal Planet was the king of like putting out four episodes of a show and then rerunning those episodes. And so as a kid I watched them all the time. I think it was called Untamed and Uncut. And it was like really gory, gruesome things that animals did, either to humans or to each other. Kent Boucher (03:07.585) Yeah, that's fair. Nicolas Lirio (03:32.854) And on camera. And when you're a kid you're like, Whoa, that's so cool. Kent Boucher (03:36.523) And you get older and you have like a sense of you no longer have your sense of immortality or Riley Rozendaal (03:43.806) Like, that's me. That lion's ear. Nicolas Lirio (03:46.062) That's how that's how you know how old you are. It's nothing to do with how many times you go around the sun. It's like if you see untamed and uncut, how do you feel about it? Or like Knoxville Raceway, they have sprint cars, right? And sprint has tons of crashes. Every every evening there's a crash and and how mature you are is directly correlated with Kent Boucher (03:57.004) Right. Kent Boucher (04:10.198) Yeah, if you're going yeah versus Nicolas Lirio (04:12.96) Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Just trying to see if they're okay and that's yeah, it's like trying to figure out if you're in the north or south. It's whether McDonald's has sweet tea or not. It's nothing to do with like actual lines. Yeah. You know? the here's what I really want to talk to you about today. gas stations. I've really been changing my mind about the best gas stations in the No, no, no, no. No, no, no, not in the main topic. I I mean this could be, I guess, the main topic, but Kent Boucher (04:16.299) That's a good that's a good little measure. Yeah. Kent Boucher (04:35.03) I was gonna say you haven't even done the intro yet. Riley Rozendaal (04:42.476) Print out four pages about gas station. Kent Boucher (04:46.55) And it's because he got like some little surcharge that he already tried fighting and doubled down. Actually, sir, we should have charged you an additional twenty five cents. Nicolas Lirio (04:51.291) And I lost and they Nicolas Lirio (04:56.84) Okay, if I told you a story that I had the best interaction with someone at a gas station, had a great conversation, it was really cool, and I left and I was like, man, the world's such a great place. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy there. What gas station would you think I was talking about? Kent Boucher (05:13.486) No. Nothing good happened. Nicolas Lirio (05:16.659) Not a not a BP, definitely not a BP. Kent Boucher (05:19.022) Riley Rozendaal (05:24.532) I'd say a Buckies. People seem enthusiastic about Buckeys. Nicolas Lirio (05:28.11) Have you ever been? Kent Boucher (05:28.854) That's yeah, I w I I would say Buckeys are quick star. Quick trip in in Wisconsin. Yeah. But I gotta say the quick stars in Iowa I think are even a little like they outdid their home turf, you know. Nicolas Lirio (05:42.958) That's true. Quick story or something else. I will say their chicken tenders are like meh. But their bone in chicken, really good. Yeah. Real and and very cheap for how good it is. so I'm excited for Yeah, all the Midwest to be fed by Cisco through gas stations. Yes. The okay, those are good ones. Now what if I told you I had a terrible interaction and that like their product was on the floor? Kent Boucher (06:00.725) Confinement chicken or something. Nicolas Lirio (06:12.59) The shell? What Kent Boucher (06:15.18) Shell or actually even though they've been around probably as long as Shell has, marathons are actually pretty clean. You go in there and they're not bad. BP probably would be my I can't do BP. Nicolas Lirio (06:26.638) P's terrible. What was the Valero in California? I c I hated those too. Kent Boucher (06:34.35) Out in Montana they have a Montana's version of Casey's is what I would liken it to is called Town Pump and they're pretty nice. Nice Nicolas Lirio (06:44.076) It was nice. Riley, where do you go? Riley Rozendaal (06:47.542) I'm gonna I'm gonna say any pre nineteen eighties Casey's. Nicolas Lirio (06:53.056) Those are the bad ones? Riley Rozendaal (06:55.384) Yeah. Kent Boucher (06:58.47) town with more than two Casey's you can guarantee all will suck. Yeah, it's like it's like 'cause who are we competing with, you know? Fair. I'm gonna call out the South Casey's in Pell. Nicolas Lirio (06:58.759) yeah. Nicolas Lirio (07:04.351) Really? Nicolas Lirio (07:08.396) Yeah, yeah, that's fair. Knoxville has Riley Rozendaal (07:15.414) Not impressed. Kent Boucher (07:16.48) I like Do not go there. Nicolas Lirio (07:18.346) the Casey's is pretty hit or miss 'cause some of are unbelievably nice. You know, they're Kent Boucher (07:24.916) If they're the only Casey's in town, they're good. Nicolas Lirio (07:27.751) interesting. No, Knoxville has one good Cases. Kent Boucher (07:31.646) How many other cases do they have? Three. They have three? They have three Nicolas Lirio (07:35.128) They have two they have two nice C Cs now 'cause they just built a new one. No, they have four Casey's, which is crazy. They need to tear one of those down and Riley Rozendaal (07:43.631) Take the oldest one and fold it in. Nicolas Lirio (07:46.018) Make into a McDonalds or something. or Dollar General. Love having Kent Boucher (07:51.618) I think I think Casey's got complacent. They were they were king of the hill for ten, fifteen years and then Quickstar came in and yeah. They got caught napping. Nicolas Lirio (08:01.634) Casey's is is interesting because they are carried by breakfast pizza. I mean carry I've never I've never seen something carry so much on their shoulders, you know? The specific specifically breakfast pizza. Yes, absolutely. Kent Boucher (08:15.258) Breakfast pizza? You don't How many slices of Casey's breakfast pizza do you have a year, Nicholas? How many do you think you have? Less than less than twenty, less than ten, less than five. Nicolas Lirio (08:23.369) Now not too many. Riley Rozendaal (08:31.872) I would say less than ten just because the individual breakfast pizza slices aren't nearly as good as like getting a breakfast pizza. That's always dry when you get there. Well Kent Boucher (08:40.851) you get a whole breakfast pizza on a kid? Talking slice. Riley Rozendaal (08:42.894) Yeah. Yeah. That's probably No, one time a year I'll probably get like a breakfast pizza, yeah. Nicolas Lirio (08:48.642) Man, no, that's just not true. You just need to know who's working Kent Boucher (08:52.446) Less than five I'm less than five slices a year. Nicolas Lirio (08:56.182) And they're probably all with me in the car. Yeah. You know, headed to places. No, I pass right by Casey's on the way to work. I go in there not once a week anymore. Honestly, it's like if I go, it'll be two or three times a week and then I won't go for two months. But when I when we were flipping the house and we didn't have a kitchen, didn't have water. Kent Boucher (09:13.032) That was breakfast. That was that was like the refrigerator. Nicolas Lirio (09:15.698) I in two years probably had two hundred and fifty slices. I mean it was like every day I'd go in and I'd get my slice. And for a while, when I still had a good metabolism w right after I got out of college, I'd get two. Get two slices. It's unbelievable. I like can't I I can't believe I did Kent Boucher (09:34.638) It'd be great if our metabolism's just stayed. Man, you can go and watch this recent episode of Nicholas and me at Skips and we just look like it's my six hundred pound life. Nicolas Lirio (09:44.64) Yeah. Yeah. The d Dilbury Pillsboy. Kent Boucher (09:51.259) A lot of people refer to us to Doctor, what's his name? Doc is it Doctor No? Nicolas Lirio (09:55.394) Doctor No, no, I don't know. Riley Rozendaal (09:57.162) is that the the the bariatric guy? Nicolas Lirio (09:59.628) Like Indian guy that says no to everything that you are fat because you Kent Boucher (10:04.007) That guy should be everyone's life coach. Nicolas Lirio (10:08.672) And I listened to a podcast recently and the guy on there was like, GLP ones are gonna change the world way more than AI. And then the dude listen listening or interviewing him was like, No way, you're crazy. And he's Well, think about it. If everyone overweight, lost a bunch of weight, and just felt 20% better, think about like how much they don't get done the two hours after lunch when they're digesting it, or they get tired sooner, or in the evenings they crash harder, like all this stuff, sugar crashes, all this stuff. He's like, if they just had an Like if everyone that was overweight increased their output by ten percent, like the economy wouldn't be ready for that boom. And it was interesting. It was an interesting take. It is interesting. but should we actually actually get started? Kent Boucher (10:53.56) You pass the breakfast pizza first, but Nicolas Lirio (10:55.342) We are not sponsored by there's one more thing I want to say. Cum and Go got bought by Maverick, right? And so now there's Mavericks all over Iowa. Well, Cum and Go was started by the the Krause company, which I think that was their flagship investment, but they like own a bunch of different companies. And they sold that one for a couple billion dollars. They love Prairie. They are the biggest donors to the water quality with Doctor Larry and and they Kent Boucher (11:21.261) Moders. Even above the the Walton family? Nicolas Lirio (11:27.458) The Walton family I think so. I I think it was like a few million bucks out of the five million dollars. I I might be wrong. I might be wrong. But yeah, it was like millions of dollars that they put towards donating. They didn't do all of it, obviously, but yeah, and they love prairie. The Krauss building in down near downtown Des Moines has a rooftop prairie. If you go to Hoxy Native Seeds Instagram, you can see a bunch of photos on it. Didn't call that one? John Judson put it in and get this. This Kent Boucher (11:53.346) John Judson. Supposed to go see him soon? Yeah, too. Next week. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (12:01.262) I said that at lunch. Gen doesn't listen to me. Kent Boucher (12:08.616) Well yeah, you don't listen to me either 'cause you asked where I was going and I told you twice. Nicolas Lirio (12:13.772) Wait, you're leaving? No, but I just wanted to give a shout out to the crowd. Yeah, yeah. I I told both Riley and Kent I said I was in a mood where I wanted a vacation. So I do a lot of projections. So I said, you guys have to go on a vacation this summer. we should get started. All right, everyone, look at the cameras. Welcome back to the Prairie Farm Podcast, Coffee Time Wednesday. I'm your favorite host, Nicholas Leroy. Kent Boucher (12:18.252) Mm on my vacation. Nicolas Lirio (12:42.924) With your favorite co-host Kent Boucher. And your favorite co-host to the co-host Riley Rosendahl. Man, again, once again, theprairyfarm.com has our forum. There are some really good niche questions. I just in the last week we've had several really awesome, very specific questions. Thank you to everyone who is doing that. And it's fun. Like I f sometimes I feel like I'm gonna run like, I just know so much about prairie, you what? But then you get those niche Kent Boucher (12:45.225) Hey hey hey. Riley Rozendaal (12:48.334) Howdy howdy. Kent Boucher (13:02.574) Yeah, keep on going over to the forum. Kent Boucher (13:13.036) You can you can track your likelihood of getting a personal response from me or Riley by just looking at the weather forecast for Lindville, Iowa. If it's gonna be a lot of rain or a lot of heat, I'll be in the office. probably still not checking my email, but responding to Riley Rozendaal (13:32.439) There may be some responses during this historic heat wave. Nicolas Lirio (13:35.79) Yeah. Yeah. Man, it's toasty. It is toasty. Man, you guys are listening to this Wednesday. Wednesday's a very hot day. We're recording this on Monday. We're actually at the Athene Watershed Conference while you're listening to this, likely. I'm on a panel about emerging voices for conservation. with joy. I'm hanging out with Joy. cool. So while you're listening to this, I'm probably with Joy. but we obviously we've talked about the farm bill so much, but the Senate got their hands on it. And they were hanging out with it last week, and we can't not talk about that, of course. Now I've got one more thing, which I'm sure you guys saw in the title. But Chair John Bozeman, Bozeman, the Senate Agricultural Committee chair, released a draft of the Agriculture Act of 2026, basically Farm Bill 2.0, which includes SNAP, food stamps, the Kent Boucher (14:30.968) That is food stamps. Snap and food stamps are the same. Nicolas Lirio (14:33.784) what's the school lunches and but this one also has like a bunch of defense stuff in it. We're not gonna get into that. I don't know about that stuff. I refuse to look into it. There are people much smarter than me that know about that thing. So we'll talk about the farm bill part of it. Kent Boucher (14:47.98) Wait, the defense stuff is Nicolas Lirio (14:51.79) Yeah. Kent Boucher (14:53.622) The same bill that that is proposing updated funding for the farm bill. Mm-hmm. It's also it's not included within the farm bill itself, the defense stuff. Nicolas Lirio (15:05.14) Well no, no, you're you're right, but the farm bill already got Kent Boucher (15:10.744) Bill, two subheadings. One is farm bill, one is defense. Nicolas Lirio (15:14.33) I to be honest, I don't know exactly how it works. Technically the farm bill was already passed and it had like all this stuff, but it was bare bones. It passed earlier. Kent Boucher (15:23.63) it was like a little it was a a little temporary Nicolas Lirio (15:26.754) Well no I and and so they're calling this the Farm Bill two point because it actually has what traditionally the Farm Bill had in it. Kent Boucher (15:33.792) I thought that the first thing that they were looking at didn't get passed. There was what was it was what was it didn't either get f fully like it made it through one one branch but not the next. But I could be wrong on that. Nicolas Lirio (15:48.814) I might also be wrong. We should look this up so you guys have real information. Nicholas, edit this out. We should actually know this. I'm I'm pretty confident like Nicolas Lirio (16:01.036) Wasn't a version of the farm bill already passed and they're actually just doing farm bill two point to cover all their bases that weren't included in the first version earlier this year? Or maybe last year? Kent Boucher (16:17.212) Survey says. Nicolas Lirio (16:18.094) Searching the web. Kent Boucher (16:23.638) Hey, right now Anthropic is featuring businesses that are using Claude to improve their companies. Really? You should reach out to Nicolas Lirio (16:34.676) I I should I should do that. Kent Boucher (16:40.674) Like they're telling like a brief little story. But they're like they're they're featuring it in ads on New York Times. They'll be like, This is so and so from so and so. That is so you could like end up on New York Times podcast. Riley Rozendaal (16:43.266) Tell don't tell them I use Gemini instead. Nicolas Lirio (16:54.926) Is that what you want though? Kent Boucher (16:57.344) New York you don't think New York Times people don't buy back air pollinator nick? Riley Rozendaal (17:00.89) The the three live visitors on the website at any time could go up to six and that would not be a bad bad problem to have. Kent Boucher (17:10.005) Get a good look at my finger. Okay. Riley Rozendaal (17:11.841) Yeah, you had the picture. Ready? Fingernail? Nicolas Lirio (17:13.123) Yeah. Kent Boucher (17:14.154) Yeah, it's actually smaller than Eden's thumbnail. Nicolas Lirio (17:17.932) All right, we are back from that short break. so what I f what I was remembering, and I we'd actually talked about this a couple months ago, so now I feel like an idiot. The big beautiful bill included a lot of the stuff the farm bill normally has. And so this go around is actually to cover all the stuff that is normally in the farm bill but wasn't included in the Kent Boucher (17:40.312) Yeah. Riley Rozendaal (17:41.696) The stuff that was missed. They're coming back around taking care of it now. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (17:44.568) Yeah. And we have a episode coming out with Kevin Kincaid about Big Beautiful Bill and what it's gonna do to rural hospitals. He gets really in depth about like whe what actually will happen to the money and what will happen to rural communities because of it. Kent Boucher (17:58.572) And we talk a lot about nuclear submarines, which is really interesting. That went like thirty five minutes. Nicolas Lirio (18:02.552) Was I was shocked how Riley Rozendaal (18:05.646) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (18:06.592) Yeah. I mean how often do you get asked someone about their time on a nuclear submarine? Kent Boucher (18:10.11) That guy spent like years on submarines. Nicolas Lirio (18:12.556) Yeah. Pre pre marriage. Pre marriage form. all right. So farm bill two point it does have things included like defense stuff, but here are the things that matter for us on CRP side. And this, in my opinion, is very good news. The bill reauthorizes CRP through 2031 officially, not just kind of a not just, you know, a temporary extension. And it maintains the twenty seven million acre cap nationwide, which we haven't hit. anyway. and I wish that would have been bumped up. But they are improving payment. They are raising payment limitation from fifty thousand or the this version of the Senate, like what was proposed, is raising it to a hundred and twenty five thousand per person. And the reason that's a big deal is because fifty thousand dollars in the eighties is about Kent Boucher (19:06.016) I heard you say that. And I was like, and deer hunters rejoice. Because there's a lot of people that own wreck ground that really have no interest in cropping a lot of the acres. They just potato. Nicolas Lirio (19:15.784) Absolutely. And just to get I mean, there's a lot of people who they max it out and they go, Okay, well then I guess I'll corn and bean the rest. Right. And now they're literally gonna be able to double it. Right. Now I think there will be a fight for the last two or three million acres, but Iowa corn and soybean acres often tend to get preference. Like general C Kent Boucher (19:33.646) I didn't think of that implication as far as we never hit like the full allowance of of what's what's provided by CRP and now there's probably enough rec land owners that are gonna put a dent in the I don't think it'll be enough to close close the gap probably, but I bet it takes a big chunk out of it. Nicolas Lirio (19:53.336) Well it brings it brings up an interesting point with with Grassland CRP. It doesn't pay well enough. No one in Iowa's gonna do it because it doesn't make sense on their land. They do it out west. Kent Boucher (20:03.668) Actually, I disagree with you on that. I think if people knew about grassland CRP, it would be gobbled up instantly because you literally have to do like nothing. You just have to have a stocking rate that is on there for enough months of the year, don't have to plant any seed. It just has to be in perennial cover. Yeah. And you get an extra hundred bucks an acre. Yeah. So like our neighbors over here that have cows out in their pastures, that qualifies. really? That Nicolas Lirio (20:26.69) How you're saying if people flipped over Kent Boucher (20:33.378) That ground qualifies for grassland as as I understand it. And I've talked to some pretty so either I have just like poor comprehensive stability. Yeah. Or yeah, I just drone out and start drooling while they while they while they're talking or zone out while they're talking. as I understand it, the the barrier to get in is very little and it's just like, yeah, there's literally an extra hundred or might even be a hundred and twenty bucks an acre. Nicolas Lirio (21:00.801) So you're saying if someone already has forty acres of pasture, they should be Kent Boucher (21:04.046) They they should I mean you do have to you have to have stocking rates that are what they you know approve of. Yeah. And and I think that's probably why like first of all people don't know about it, but then the people that do know about it that choose not to do it, it's probably just because I don't want the government telling me what to do, which is yeah, you know I Nicolas Lirio (21:26.946) We definitely have listeners who are in Iowa and have thought about Grassland C R P and did or didn't do it. Shoot us an email and why we'd love to know. Riley, did you look into Grassland C R P Riley Rozendaal (21:37.324) No, I I wasn't aware of it at the time, but I would assume what Ken said is correct is that stocking rate plays a lot into it and and like drought. I don't know how drought figures into it too. the strictness or lack thereof in in the rules is probably what would drive people away from it, would be my guess. Nicolas Lirio (22:02.241) well so that's one of the Grassland C R P versus a general Kent Boucher (22:03.15) I it's also fairly new, isn't it? I think I think it's like the last ten years, isn't it? Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (22:09.058) Yeah, I don't know if it's I don't know when it was implemented. It was before when we started here, but it was the general and continuous has been the main two for a long time. Kent Boucher (22:18.846) She talked to Matt Allen about it. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (22:21.262) propos the proposal includes also, this is really exciting, a fifty percent cost share for a lot of the mid-contract management, including burning. It's a big deal. That's very exciting. That means that there's gonna be more burning on the prairie and it cost share for grazing infrastructure. So fences and fencing. There would be cost share. I don't know how that is involved with the virtual fencing or the collars. I don't know anything like what they would do that with, but and it would allow or this proposal is pushing for grazing to be allowed on gen general and continuous ERP, which is only allowed now in emergencies, like stated emergencies. if basically it's up to the district conservationist or whoever's writing the plan. If it makes sense in the plan, they can write it in where you can graze it at a specific rate or you know, whatever makes sense for. what they're planning for. So if it's pheasant wildlife, they're gonna say, okay, you can graze it in a way that promotes pheasant wildlife, not so that you can have your hundred head of cattle on there and make a bunch of money off of CRP, which I think is makes sense and and helps build margin for the farmers and helps build better prairie. So big fan of that. but it they called the universal infrastructure cost share. So basically anything that they think cost share would help the overall ecosystem for the wildlife adaptive management. Riley Rozendaal (23:51.575) And that's in addition to equip money too. Yeah. That's already out there. So Nicolas Lirio (23:56.728) Can you get equip money can you get equip money for land and then get C or P payments on top of it? I thought No, like equip if you're you can Riley Rozendaal (24:09.44) If you wanted to put in like infrastructure Nicolas Lirio (24:11.918) I was thinking like pollinator plots. People have equip like programs and they come to us and they get pol pollinator seed, usually just an acre or two. Kent Boucher (24:20.172) doubling up on cost share. Yeah. I don't know. I would there are allowances though for like putting food plots into your CRP specifically. Riley Rozendaal (24:23.457) I think Nicolas Lirio (24:30.934) Yeah, that's true. I d would that be equal? Kent Boucher (24:33.211) And I don't know if I think equip pays for that, but you might be able might be able to pair it with like a state program like Reap or something. Nicolas Lirio (24:36.611) that. Nicolas Lirio (24:39.968) No, I think I think that's C R P because when people that's part of the wildlife CRP. Like if if you have CRP specifically for wildlife. so the big thing Kent Boucher (24:49.826) All this stuff is easily found out, but we're just sitting here not doing that. Sorry. Nicolas Lirio (24:53.582) The the big things are obviously the margin, the economic margin that this would help provide for people on their planting, getting more C RP out there, the allowing for fire to be cost shared, and then of course the the grazing to even if it's just on grassland C RP, building out the infrastructure, it's marrying CRP and grazing and it's heading Kent Boucher (25:10.702) that's a good one, yeah. Nicolas Lirio (25:22.37) Whether it fully allows it or not, it's heading in a direction that I we really like to see. So, yeah, those are the updates, the big updates coming up. Now, if we have a big influx of CRP, that would be good for us. It would not be good for NRCS employees who lost the like seventeen percent of their colleagues or whatever it was. that would be very overwhelming. And in the Midwest, there are a hundred and forty four counties. I'll repeat that again. A hundred and forty four counties, which is more counties than all of Iowa. Hundred and forty four counties have zero NRCS staff. So there so there's counties around them that are having to bear the burden of several of several counties. Not good. Kent Boucher (26:05.336) Yeah, and then, you know, the accountability element of it, right? Yeah. It's how do you check to make sure the practices are being implemented and everyone's following through with the their say they're gonna do. Yeah. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (26:17.324) really important to do. So all right. Any other thoughts on the before we move on? Kent Boucher (26:23.29) I I saw a post that's where I saw this. I saw a post from a large hunting magazine social media page, which was good. The only thing about it was and I actually commented on it. So you can go and find my Karen comment. nice. No, I tried to I tried to be nice and and and well worded. But I think so often myself included as a hunter or outdoors person can be so caught up in the habitat side of CRP. But I think it's important to think and and I think it was Hal who was Hal Herring in our recent interview with him was talking about some of the other purposes that come from CRP that apply to every American. And one that I had never heard of before, but it makes sense was CRP Yes, habitat is a part of it. First and foremost is water quality, air quality, soil retention. those are probably the first things, right? Then I would say wildlife habitat, but also on top of that is it helps it helps alleviate the problems associated with oversupply on the commodity markets. And there is ground held in reserve in an emergency food crisis situation, you know. now we don't really think of it that we don't really think of that being a realistic problem now as much as it would have been in the eighties with you know the tail end of the cold war. Yeah. but if if there was ever a time where America truly had to pull within itself and We're not getting we're not importing anything from our neighbors or or other places around the world. We have to truly provide all of our own, especially meat production, because we get so much of that from South America. we would have the acres available to do that. And I think that and then people also need to understand too, which I think our listeners probably understand this much better than the average American, but Kent Boucher (28:46.982) that because I I saw other another comment on there that was like, well, this is, you know, the average American just needs to get on board with conservation. We don't need to depend on the government to to do this for us. And sure, in a perfect world, yes, but we're never that's never gonna we're never gonna reach that that nirvana of being an American citizen, you know what I mean? And I think i to continue having CRP be around in perpetuity is a good thing. And if that's going to happen, then the average American has to see CRP as something beyond pheasant hunting. You know what I mean? They have to see it for all these other things that it gives us. And furthermore, as Carol used to say to you, this is this is CRP is a way for the average American to participate in having clean water. Better air quality, healthier climate, soil hanging on to our soils, and wildlife habitat, right? And so it is it is a way that allows somebody who's living in Manhattan to participate in in being a part of the solution to a very big I guess you'd say, issue more than problem. Yeah. And and so I think it's if if we're gonna hang on to that program, people gotta see it for what it for its entirety of of what it what it benefits them. Not just it's not just good for the pheasant hunters. And it's not just good for the farmers that they can get money on acres that aren't really that productive for them. Nicolas Lirio (30:30.624) Absolutely. Riley, if we all of a sudden there was an embargo from every country to us, what animals would we start sticking on C R P? 'Cause it couldn't be cattle, right? We we physically can't stock that Riley Rozendaal (30:41.9) Sheep. I think I think that there was there was a figure. I saw I'll butcher it just for the sake of somebody in the comments actually correcting me. I think it's like seven we had a deficit of like seven million sheep that were imported into America and consumed. Huh. Kent Boucher (31:00.992) Are those coming from Riley Rozendaal (31:04.172) I'm not sure where they're all coming from. But but regardless, it didn't say what what countries they were importing from. I'm sure you could find out if you looked in like the USDA, they probably have some sort of but the number of sheep producers has gone down and down and down since like the fifties. So Kent Boucher (31:06.446) Your Kent Boucher (31:21.953) That's really interesting. Nicolas Lirio (31:23.626) And is it just because you don't eat it? Riley Rozendaal (31:25.75) And sheep eat broadleaf stuff and would do great on CRP as compared to cattle who can be a little more finicky. Kent Boucher (31:33.238) I'm sure some of that too is is not just meat production that they have in mind. Like there's you know, Riley's talked about this, there's definitely arable acres that are currently in C Nicolas Lirio (31:42.754) Yeah, you can throw broccoli down on there and yeah, all sorts of stuff. And honestly, like at that point corn like edible corn or storable corn, storable calories of of some sort is becomes a much better option. Riley Rozendaal (31:59.086) Plus sheep multiply so much faster. If you're talking about a food emergency, what can take rough forage, which is what CRP generally is? It's rough ground in the first place, like if it's highly erodible, throw sheep or goats or something like that on there. Is it is it glamorous? Is it a a prime rib or a huge T bone? No, but in a food in a food shortage, I think it'd do the trick. Yeah. If that would be my my go to. Kent Boucher (32:21.474) That's not what you're looking for in an emergency Nicolas Lirio (32:28.212) If we're getting meat, seventy-five percent of it comes from if it's not from the US, seventy-five percent of sheep are from Australia and s twenty five percent of the pounds come from New Zealand. But if we're getting live sheep, the vast majority come from split between Canada and Mexico, according to the US DA. Yeah. Which is interesting. Wool almost fully comes from the US because you literally have to pay to get rid of your wool here in the U.S. So if they have sheep, they're trying to do that. But it it I Riley Rozendaal (32:54.668) That's why hair sheep or such a rising. Kent Boucher (32:56.494) And hopefully we would never I would I I'm not saying that I would hope this this could happen so we could solve this problem with an use one problem to solve another problem. but I wonder if in a food emergency if the feral hog problem of the south would would like Nicolas Lirio (33:11.531) interesting. Yeah, but don't hogs have like war terrible worm issues? Kent Boucher (33:16.46) Yeah, but if you again in an emergency situation, you just cook that Yeah you'd I think I think I mean it'd be interesting to see like if everyone's focus was s so hard on calories if man if the feral hogs would just like dry up to like Nicolas Lirio (33:20.078) It's a one hundred eighty five. Riley Rozendaal (33:22.678) Eat like eating shoe leather. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (33:34.735) Feral cattle would. Deer probably would, honestly. Kent Boucher (33:38.062) Yeah, 'cause we we have done that with other wild animals, you know. But yeah, I think and and I also want to remember this in the context of a year and a half ago. Remember when everyone was talking about p Project twenty twenty five? And there were some things that were done by this administration that that even though I think it was President Trump himself had said, I'm not doing Project Twenty Twive. But then when all the doge stuff started happening it seems like there was of course all the public land stuff that started happening, it's like it's starting to look like Project 2025, which called for a end to CRP if I remember correctly. Yeah. to me it is very encouraging to see that this farm bill two point is extending CRP because it takes away that fear that CRP was was going to be done away with. Nicolas Lirio (34:38.004) I I wanna say not defending Project 225. Separate from that conversation, I understand the argument. I don't agree with it, but I do understand the argument of fix your fiscal house first and then the rest of it like no, I but I I wanna follow this the this point through where a lot of the defenders of Doge and like a lot of the cuts that were made and then brought back in a very unofficient way. I if Kent Boucher (34:51.79) Well that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking Nicolas Lirio (35:04.916) If your house is drowning in finances, there's probably lots of the likelihood that there's health issues, you know, i issues of managing yourself and your household in general. they're probably a the same reason you have financial issues, you have the other ones. The I know this sounds stupid, but fixing the finances. I wrote a a paper in college basically asked this exact question. If you're if you're struggling in every area of your life, what what area should you fix first? There's been some pretty intense studies on it. Basically, the the one that lasts the longest is finances. So if you d it take that away from a household and and look at a country, which obviously is not the same thing, but you s I understand where people say, Hey, we just whatever it takes, we need to fix our finances, not ripping out public lands, because that's a very short-term Kent Boucher (35:54.944) Well that wasn't just what Pro Project twenty. Nicolas Lirio (35:57.058) No, no, no. Again, I'm separating from Project Twenty Twenty Five. I don't I'm not trying to defend that document at all. I I read it. but the but the second Nicolas Lirio (36:11.454) No, not even that. I would say more the sentiment on why so many people supported Doge going into it. Like why so many people were really excited about it. I I understand the like, hey, we gotta fix finance, but it's the way that it was done and what I would I would love I wouldn't love to say. It would be one thing if they like if they did a terrible job. Kent Boucher (36:35.136) It ended up being was man guys, we're we are running out of money. Yeah, what should we do here? I know. Let's get less oil changes. That's kinda that's kinda like what we that's kind of that's kind of what ended up happening when in reality it was like, well, let's maybe stop buying you know so much ice cream. You know, or or yeah. We were we were hitting at other necessity things that yeah trying to say like the NRCS conversation we had just five minutes ago. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (37:02.242) But I guess what I'm trying to say is like both conservation issues, total soil degradation, where the point where you can't farm in full states, or water quality causing cancer and killing people. Terrible, terrible issue that causes terrible suffering. Financial destitution that has happened to s many countries in the past, also terrible and horrible and leads to poverty and and a lot of suffering. So I don't agree with it, but I understand when people make the argument, Hey, w just no matter what, we gotta fix our finances first, then we'll come back to this other conservation stuff. which I hear that quite a bit. I I you know, when I'm talking about these things with with friends and other people. Kent Boucher (37:40.736) Yeah, I mean I understand where they're coming from, but I would say I think that's an unsophisticated way of of looking at it. Nicolas Lirio (37:48.29) Yeah, I agree with you. Riley Rozendaal (37:49.41) I think I think it just depends on the on the shade you put it in. I mean, does it make sense to sell public land to pay off debt? No. No. But Yeah, I think it's just a case by case thing. It's it's hard. Nicolas Lirio (37:57.784) Gotta stop the spending machine. Nicolas Lirio (38:02.294) Yeah. It too bad our case just happens to be the largest spender in human history. The seven trillion dollars that is the American economy that loves IKEA and fast food. all right. Speaking of money, let's talk about littering. The United States spends anybody a guess? Did you see Kent how much it was? No. Anybody how much do you think we spend on this is Kent Boucher (38:15.861) And ice cream before oil changes. Nicolas Lirio (38:30.562) The United States as a people group, not the government on litter cleanup. Kent Boucher (38:32.652) On litter cleanup. Riley Rozendaal (38:35.862) The American public. Kent Boucher (38:38.466) Thought they had like a lot of the adopt a highway and and the chain gang deal. Nicolas Lirio (38:43.774) So that's in this math and and yes, they're not paying those transport and so yeah, it's a cheap way to clean up litter, but it there is still money that is golf. But again, we're not talking about necessarily just government entities that's included, but also like like private companies. Like if we have to pay someone to clean up the trash along our roadside here at Hoxie kind of. Kent Boucher (38:47.054) But I guess technically they're paying the people Kent Boucher (39:04.534) Yeah. I'm gonna say Kent Boucher (39:14.776) Just because this is a number that's thrown around a lot. One billion dollars. Okay. Nicolas Lirio (39:20.418) Good guess. That's a really good guess, Riley. Five billion dollars according to the Keep America Beautiful 2026 National Litter Study. I didn't know that was a thing, but I stumbled upon it in some readings earlier this week and or last week, and I thought it'd be fun to bring up. eleven point five billion dollars. Whoa. and we don't spend that much on CRP, just in case you're wondering. Wow. Riley Rozendaal (39:22.606) I'd say five, at least five billion. Nicolas Lirio (39:49.23) And it but litter as a mass volume has gone down thirty four percent since twenty twenty, like dramatically down. but since twenty twenty. Kent Boucher (39:59.52) Since twenty twenty? Nicolas Lirio (40:04.392) I w I wonder. That's what I but I think that was. Kent Boucher (40:06.594) Remember all the masks you'd see all over the ground everywhere in twenty twenty? Nicolas Lirio (40:09.702) Well, and everyone was getting everything to go. There was plastic everywhere. I th I don't know if they do this study every year. It might have been they did it in twenty twenty and then they did it again in twenty twenty. Riley Rozendaal (40:13.386) Yeah. Kent Boucher (40:18.964) I know it's gone down significantly since the seventies. Nicolas Lirio (40:22.786) Well yeah. We don't have like rivers on fire anymore, you know. cigarette butts are the most littered thing in the world. Four point five Kent Boucher (40:24.524) Since we Kent Boucher (40:32.746) Come on, Sig Smokers, don't let me down like that. Nicolas Lirio (40:35.234) You just need to start you guys. Just don't be four point five trillion cigarettes get littered every year. Kent Boucher (40:38.83) Glittering, come on. Kent Boucher (40:46.202) I believe that's that crazy. Well, if you're like me and you don't have air conditioning in at least one of your vehicles, you're always driving with your window down. If you ever pull up at like an intersection in a it's gotta be like Des Moines sized city. Just look down on the ground right next to where you're sitting out of light, and you'll see like a mountain of of cigarette butts. Nicolas Lirio (41:08.578) That was one of my earliest memories is I was asking my grandpa what the little triangle in the front of the truck, like the front seat. Definitely wasn't supposed to be sitting in the front seat. asked him what it was and he like, It's so we can smoke and get the cigarettes out. I I don't know if that's true, but trucks don't anymore. The triangle There's like a little triangle in the front, you know what I'm talking about, Riley? it like it like turns like this instead of raising up and down. Riley Rozendaal (41:32.238) It's a it's a compartment for cigarette butts. Nicolas Lirio (41:36.0) Is that what you're talking about? No, no, it's a window. Kent Boucher (41:39.107) those windows. Yeah. Yeah. I think they used to call those wing wings. Nicolas Lirio (41:43.371) Whatever they used to call I was always told they're for cigarettes. Kent Boucher (41:47.086) Yeah, they're little vents. Yeah. I didn't know that they were for cigarettes. I always thought it was just another way to get airflow 'cause nobody had a working air conditioner in that era vehicle. You had one coming off the lot and then it was dead. Nicolas Lirio (41:58.84) That might be. I might I could see my grandpa just telling me a story for fun. He does that. Kent Boucher (42:03.514) You were about the hazard lights. I was like, no, that's that's for Nicolas Lirio (42:06.667) That's Riley Rozendaal (42:07.422) Talking those little like turnout compartments. Like no the little compartments that used to be in like the in the dash that had it was an asteroid built in, yeah. Nicolas Lirio (42:16.174) so Kent Boucher (42:17.612) I think EVs will have ashtrays in them. Nicolas Lirio (42:20.534) wow, that's interesting. I doubt. yes in the Kent Boucher (42:23.34) Man, you could have a high powered cigarette lighter in that E V. Nicolas Lirio (42:26.752) I'm telling you guys, cars w cars are gonna have like couches in You know what I mean? Kent Boucher (42:30.88) Yeah, but by the time I can afford an E V, you you'll like lighting your cigarette off of the sparking battery on the back. It's lighting off the positive terminal on the Riley Rozendaal (42:43.254) A C, stick your stick your cigarette down in the battery compartment. Nicolas Lirio (42:47.128) Kent's buying a twenty nineteen EV under the table in twenty fifty. Like doesn't wanna register it or anything. Nobody's gonna own a vehicle in thirty years. Most people won't own a vehicle in twenty. That's my guess. Kent Boucher (43:01.206) Except for like for recreational stuff probably. Nicolas Lirio (43:03.894) Recreational stuff and then basically like apartments, people will own swaths of them. They'll have hordes of vehicles that they'll own. Kent Boucher (43:10.614) Yeah. How how soon did you say? Twenty what? Nicolas Lirio (43:14.76) I think that it will be illegal to drive on the interstate in 10 years. I think that very few people, except the Midwest will kind of be late, the rural areas of Midwest will be late on this. Very few people will own cars in 20 years. Think about New York had no one owned a car has owned a car for 30 years, you know. and so 20 years, most the vast majority of people won't own a car. And in thirty like it's very likely that people buying car now, this is their last or second to last car. Kent Boucher (43:34.744) Twenty years. Riley Rozendaal (43:44.044) They buy. Hot take. Kent Boucher (43:47.126) That is a really hot take, man. I think I'm I think I'm I think I'm with you on the interstate thing. And a lot of people disagree with us on that, I've heard through per personal conversations. yeah. But I just think it Nicolas Lirio (43:48.718) I don't know if it's that hot I mean Nicolas Lirio (44:02.062) Just look at the graph. Kent Boucher (44:03.104) It would be an easy enough distinction. When you get on those interstates, they're already eighty mile an hour parking lots. it's interesting is Iowa just r is in the process of raising our highway speed limit. They did. From fifty fifty five to sixty. July one, maybe. Nicolas Lirio (44:16.526) Yeah. Riley Rozendaal (44:20.8) Do I want or do I second? Nicolas Lirio (44:21.966) Okay. Riley Rozendaal (44:26.744) Seventy I think it's seventy million dollars. They're putting stickers over all the the signs until they replace them. Kent Boucher (44:36.088) So if you got if you're planning on, you know, getting some some public signage shotgun shots off right now, which by the way, I noticed one of our the stop signs on the way to one of our old rental farms. I drove by this weekend. It they have to be shotgun slugs. I mean, they are huge. Punch through the head headed east. Riley Rozendaal (44:55.95) south? Yeah, I've seen that before. Yeah. Those are shotgun slugs. Those are I don't think they've been there? Yeah. Kent Boucher (45:02.07) New, aren't I've y maybe I'm just so stressed out that I'm Nicolas Lirio (45:07.342) Nobody's surprised. Nicolas Lirio (45:11.918) man. my the part of the reason I brought this up is my wife hates littering. She was dating this guy in high school. It was the only person she dated until we dated. dating this guy in high school, and it immediately ended when she saw him throw a McDonald's garbage bag full of garbage out the window of his car. That was it. Kent Boucher (45:32.886) I just don't understand that. I Nicolas Lirio (45:35.148) I mean he was like seventeen, you know what I mean? Kent Boucher (45:37.346) But still, I mean just like I I I don't understand that. Nicolas Lirio (45:42.242) Had a friend in high school who would like hang out in the parking lot and when he'd drive away there'd be a pile of trash under his car. Basically while he was hanging out there, he was like slowly putting stuff under his Riley Rozendaal (45:53.038) I only understand accidental littering. Like the thing is like there's a tag on a bang and you like go yeah, like it happens to the best of us, but yeah. Nicolas Lirio (46:02.722) Yeah, I I I can't there are other gray area things I would do before Kent Boucher (46:07.392) I could I could I have not done this, so I'm not trying to justify, but I could see if like you had a kid barf all over the car or something and you'd like wanted to get the offensive material out the window. I've not done that. No. Like paper towels or something, or like you know, someone crapped their pants or something, they tossed them out the window or something. I c I Riley Rozendaal (46:26.03) Very specific experience. Nicolas Lirio (46:34.55) Well clothes I close mostly. Kent Boucher (46:36.718) Yeah. Yeah, I I mean I could and again I haven't done any of those things, but if somebody if somebody did that I can be like, okay, I I get where you're coming from. But like just throwing the bag of garbage out because you don't want it in there anymore, come on. Nicolas Lirio (46:55.546) obviously endangerment to wildlife and it's actually a pretty regular endangerment to wildlife. I guess the the amount of rodents that ingest some of this stuff and then die because of it is is large. I didn't know that. microplaster Kent Boucher (47:09.332) They're just ingesting f fast food. Riley Rozendaal (47:11.97) Yeah. McDonald's is deadly after all. Nicolas Lirio (47:16.654) you wanna hear the part that might make you a little upset, might make you a little heated. Kent Boucher (47:22.434) The the beer the s the six pack rings getting around the sea turtles fit or flippers or whatever. That's That's what happens to every single one of those that gets littered. It finds it those things go together. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (47:29.598) That's that's definitely a thing. Nicolas Lirio (47:34.882) Finds a sea turtle. no, eighty seven percent of all litter in the United States is on the roadside of rural America. So you go to a city and you see all that litter, eighty-seven percent is in rural America. Riley Rozendaal (47:47.48) Doesn't surprise. Kent Boucher (47:50.478) Okay. S I don't know if you'd say a subcultural practice where there are certain people who I think are raised to believe that you get tired of your couch, get tired of your washing machine. I've even seen a couple toilets. You go find a ditch in the country and you throw that thing out there. Yeah. Because I have I have no idea why that happens so frequently. The only thing I can think of is like, Well, that's what grandma and grandpa always did, you know. And so people continue the practice because I have seen it many, many times. Nicolas Lirio (48:36.546) You know what what is interesting going back to talking about finances and fixing finances first. one, there's kind of the w broken window theory, right? If the windows are fixed, people tend to if there's broken windows, they'll break more windows. If there's litter, they'll litter some more. They feel like it's not a big deal. I remember one of the teachers in call Kent Boucher (48:55.032) you're saying like if I drive down a road and I already see a bunch of litter then I don't think it's a big deal. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Nicolas Lirio (49:00.735) Yeah, yeah. It's like, they already Riley Rozendaal (49:02.979) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (49:04.926) And actually the same thing happens for humans, by the way. If someone like kids, if they see one kid who has bad self esteem and treats themselves poorly as bad self dialogue, they'll pile on. you they you treat yourself. But anyway, so the the litter in the the roads, Ken, I think you were telling me this. It was a very interesting interview of a lady. Maybe it wasn't you, someone was it was an interview of a lady who was just rioting. It after the George Floyd stuff. And the interviewee or the interviewer was maybe I heard it on a podcast. The interviewer was like, How can you justify breaking other people's stuff and all these things? And the lady on there was like breaking property? What do you talk about? We don't have any property. And her she was saying we as in like black community, but I took it, I heard like impoverished people. Not because all black people are impoverished. The point being that all Kent Boucher (49:38.862) Familiar to Nicolas Lirio (50:02.678) Like people who are really poor and don't own anything don't have any ownership over anything. And if you don't if I don't have ownership of my stuff, I don't know how it feels when someone keys my car. So I'm who cares if I key your car? Why would why do I give a rip? I don't you know, I don't I don't know how it feels. There and then my professor, one of the professors in college, he was saying, like, if you want to love your city, go pick j go pick up trash in like a one hundred meter area. You will love your city. You like start to own it, quote unquote. Riley Rozendaal (50:31.95) If you if we made kids pick up garbage mandatorily for two days every year from you know fifth grade to to twelfth grade, I bet your littering would go through the through the floor. I did that as a kid. We'd we do adopt adopt a highway. Interesting with four age. And when you pick up garbage in a ditch and you see what gets thrown out and how much of a pain it is to pick up somebody else's inconvenience, you know. Nicolas Lirio (50:45.142) That is a great point Kent Boucher (51:00.782) Yeah. Riley Rozendaal (51:02.144) It sinks down. Nicolas Lirio (51:03.168) Yeah, and and then yeah, if they see litter on it again and they get that frustrated feeling, they'll have a little more owner. That is really interesting, Riley. That Riley Rozendaal (51:10.936) We w I mean, not from like a labor perspective. I mean, it would help from a labor perspective, but just from an informational perspective. Yeah you know. Nicolas Lirio (51:19.308) Yeah, that maybe that's why they do it with prisoners. You know, not just to pick up but to have some ownership over I don't know that's like Riley Rozendaal (51:25.974) Jury duty. We'll just call it garbage duty and you'll be given a section of road and Nicolas Lirio (51:31.84) Man. so here is the last to me is fascinating. In the 1950s, when we started making a lot of single use stuff, specifically Coke bottles, corporate America had to run ads to teach people how to throw things away because littering got so bad because nobody it wasn't a part single use items weren't a part of your life. Everything had a place in your house, you know. Kent Boucher (52:01.016) Dolores, what you're gonna do with this butter container is open your refrigerator, put some coleslaw in it, put the lid back on it, and put Nicolas Lirio (52:08.11) That Buzz Lightyear cup that you got at Sloppy Joe's is gonna go it's gonna sit in your cabinet until your great grandkids have to clean it out after you pass away. Riley Rozendaal (52:22.262) You're gonna keep it until it disintegrates one day in the sun. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (52:26.766) man, but that was very stark for me because I I thought there was an era where there was no single use anything. And it wasn't that long ago. Your grandpa was alive and kicking and farming during that time. You know? And so yeah, all that stuff that was that was good for me to read. It was like good for my my consciousness. Well, it's been a long podcast. Kent Boucher (52:34.158) Yeah, that is. Kent Boucher (52:50.092) Yeah it is. It's hot. Nicolas Lirio (52:52.876) Really? I wonder Riley Rozendaal (52:53.39) Yeah, yeah. Kent Boucher (52:55.992) Talked about Project twenty twenty five, George Floyd, anything else. Well, let's quick work in some data centers. Nicolas Lirio (52:59.48) Me. Nicolas Lirio (53:04.13) Working really hard to get our viewership to be low. the watershed, Athene watershed is where we're gonna be hanging out. But if you guys miss that, there are other really cool things going on with PFI, practical farmers of Iowa, that they have going on throughout the summer. If you guys are wanted to do that, I encourage you to go to live events, meet people, learn things, hang out, be a human. They're great. We like being at them whenever we can. So Kent Boucher (53:32.994) Yeah. Well You can all if you come and see us you can find out if we each weigh three bills or not. Nicolas Lirio (53:33.538) We appreciate ya. Nicolas Lirio (53:38.958) It's getting close. And we'll talk to you again next time. Nicolas Lirio (53:48.874) solid topics in there. Wow.