$27,000 in Fuel Savings, Precision Upgrades & the Future of Pulse Trade

[00:00:00] Speaker A: $27,000 in fuel savings for our farm. This week we're going to talk about that. We're going to also chat with Stu Lawrence from the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. Of course, Stu is the chair of sas. Paul scores. We're going to talk about trade with India in China. I've also got Alex Shock from John Deere joining me to talk precisions, precision upgrades, all that and so much more for those about to rock. We salute you, of course. ACDC in Edmonton, Alberta earlier this week. Let's go. Hey, folks, welcome to the what the Futures podcast, your quick guide to better farming decisions. All right, folks, welcome into episode 138 of the what the Futures podcast. Of course, my name is Ryan and I'm the host of this bad boy here. Welcome in to the show. Come on in. It's all nice and cozy in the UPL studio. Don't forget, folks, you may have applied all of the stuff that you're going to apply here for the 2026 crop, but don't forget to sign up for Grower Rewards. And if you are in Grower Rewards, you can just check with your retail, check with your UPL rep and just do a little update on where you stand when it comes to Grower Rewards. All right, Those are. Well, let's just, let's be honest. It's one of the most lucrat programs here in Western Canada when it comes to cam purchasing. If you are feeling up to it, go and hit that subscribe button. We, yeah, we hit over 1600 subscribers. So if you don't, if you're not a YouTuber then go follow us on your favorite podcast platform. You can also go to ryandeny Ca and sign up for the Friday email blast. We don't bug you that often. Try to stick to Fridays now and hopefully you got a good laugh in last week's. Last week's email. Shout out to producer Aaron who is behind the scenes this week. And a big hand to producer Aaron for his very first what the Futures episode last week. We've got Aaron, Tyler and Eli helping us out here in the background and heck of a job, Aaron. Very well done. I looked a lot better than I should have, so well done. On the editing side, this week's guest, we've got Alex Schock with John Deere to talk precision upgrades. I've also got Stuart Lawrence of Lawrence Farms and Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. Stu is the chair of Sask Pulse Growers and we're going to talk about what's going on with trade between Canada And India, Canada and China. What's going on on. On Lawrence farms here in 2026. They've got a great partnership with Boer malt and, and Labat wanted to talk about that as well here in episode 138. So let's get going. Let's move it along here. Positive moments for this week. Well, Willa and Finn, they. So their aunt, they're great aunts. She lives at the bottom of. Oh, what's the name of this hill anyway? Edmonton Folk Fest is on this hill. 14,000 people and there's. It's not a very big community within Edmonton. It's a, it's a river flap. Anyways, it's. You have to. You get a lot of foot traffic this weekend, right? It's a four day Edmonton Folk Fest event. Some great bands. Anyways, the kids, this is the second year where they've set up a lemonade stand and they got a little, little crafty this year because they set up on the front lawn, there's a pile of people walking by and they had this wonderful mix, wonderful drink mix. And Willa even got a little creative where she went and made pieces of art and made a little art gallery. So my near almost 6 year old colored, lots of pictures. She did Christmas ornaments, painted rocks. And you know, if you came in and you know, bought a glass of lemonade, you could also get some art or even purchase some art. And she gave away a bunch of art as well. And so a lot of fun. A lot of fun. And my little entrepreneurs, I gave them a little bit of a little tip and I said, okay guys, I know last year you were set on a price and I understand why you want to set your price. You know, you want people to know what a glass of lemonade is worth. You want people to, you know, maybe not be intimidated by the price point. You want to break down that barrier. But I said, you know what guys, for 2026, we're going to break down that barrier even more. That price resistance, we're going to break it down even more. All we're going to do is you're going to ask for donations and you're going to say, you know, whatever you'd like to give is great and we'll even trade you a glass of lemonade for a story or a smile or a dance or a joke. And that way if someone's walking by that, you know, doesn't have any money on them or, or can't afford to, to buy this glass of lemonade, they can still get one all they have to do is dance or sing or tell a joke or something like that. And so it went off really well because you have a bunch of. A bunch of old curmudgeons that come by and. And not just old, young curmudgeons as well, but, you know, there's some cranky people and they march by and say, hey, would you like a glass of lemonade? No, I'm not good. I don't want a glass of lemonade. I'm like, it's free. All you have to do is smile. And that got some smiles out of some of them. Not all of them, but some of them. The very best is that to get to this concert venue, this park, like, parking is ridiculous. So you got a hike down a hill, and it's a. It's a pretty big hike. So this husband and wife, they're walking and they're just kind of power walking. And he's huffing and puffing. And so you say, hey, guys, you know, have a great time at the folk fest. Would you like a glass of lemonade? And she gives us the coldest, deadest stare. [00:06:30] Speaker B: No. [00:06:31] Speaker A: And then proceeds to walk away. And her husband turns. Yes, we are thirsty. Two glasses, please. Pulls out the wallet, pays probably the biggest amount of the day for this lemonade. And then they just enjoyed it. He actually enjoyed both classes. She did not partake. But it was pretty funny to see that interaction. Now when you go to the donation side of this, like, give what you can. 10. The kids found a lot of success in that. The. The old average price for glass lemonade shot right up in 2026. So they had fun. The piggy banks are well stocked here for the rest of summer. And you know what, What I'm most proud about for my kids is in this experience, like Finn being, you know, three and a half, a little bit more reserved, a little shy, you know, but after the first hour, you know, he's the one pouring the lemonade. He engaging with the people. He's talking, you know, talking to strangers. And it's just great to see my kids with confidence to. To say, hey, I'm here. This is my offer today, and have, you know, a conversation with complete random people. So. So, yeah, it was. It was fun. I also got to see Brittany pop by with. With all bushel consulting, ABC consulting. She's a big folk fester, so. So that was great to see. And then Sarah Davis as well with Limit up, also a fantastic grain marketer of Lloyd Minster. So nice to chat a little. Markets as they were making their way up the hill and graciously donated and bought some lemonade off my kiddo. So lemonade sand was a lot of fun this week. And my second positive moment here is AC DC concert. U I didn't, I didn't go to the one in Edmonton. We we did a boys trip. My dad, my brother talked about it on the show before but we went to Minneapolis Minnesota in April of last year. They kicked off the North American leg of the tour in that, that great city and so that's where we went and enjoyed that concert. So I'm, I'm recording. It's Sunday night, it's 9:30. ACDC has been on the stage for not quite an hour and I know those folks that are that are sitting at Commonwealth tonight are enjoying a heck of a show because I tell you not sure how many 80 year olds can move like those guys do on stage. Absolutely unbelievable event and I'm sure tonight is is the same favorite AC DC song. If you want to hit me up in the comments with your favorite ACDC song or maybe your must have on your harvest playl man like for those about to rock like in live in concert is unbelievable. Obviously Hell's Bells thunderstruck all that stuff but man I think for me for my favorite AC DC song I'd probably have to go with something like who made who? Yeah we, we were ingrained you know as young kids, me and my brother, my uncles, everyone loved AC DC and we had our AC DC posters we all the cassettes at that time. Right. And yeah I'll go with who made who is one of my favorites there. All right, a couple updates for this week. Crop Marketing made cool. Those tickets are available. Ryandenee Ca come check out the the conference and Brandon Manitoba in December here use the code Unhinged to save a hundred dollars a ticket. We're continuing to run that promo here. I don't know when we're going to turn it off. Could be any time. I guess we're kind of at that point but we'll run it here for another week or so. Yeah what the futures we're going to have a. Well we're going to a lot of. We're going to have a lot of fun that week. We're going to learn a bunch of stuff about our crop marketing plans but we'll also have some fun and you know you can come have a drink on me at the what the futures opening night party. Lastly, cup of coffee. That Tuesday show is on the back shelf but instead you can sign up for the private podcast which we're calling calling Insiders. What? The Future's Insiders. I sent out a couple of episodes here so far and so if you're missing out on that extra 5 to 10 minute direct crop marketing sound bite or crop marketing strategy, just hit me up ryan at with TheFuturesPodcast CA. We already, we're learning some stuff over there. Already had to make some tweaks, change platforms, all this fun stuff in the background. But it's all good. It's just gonna be better and better as we find our momentum there. So completely free for now, Ryan with the futurespodcast ca. That's my email if you want to sign up for Insiders. Okay, crop marketing monologue here for this week. I'm actually going to kick it off with, well, not crop marketing at all, but we had a load of fuel dropped off at our farm this week from Fuel Nexus. Now we made this purchase just over a month ago. I suppose I don't have the exact date in front of me, but I do remember the price savings that day that, that we're certain we're, we're significant. Pardon me. We. We've got a little thing going on with the Lunchbox crew and, and Fuel Nexus where if we buy a little bit of volume we also unlock an additional savings with our group. So we booked for our farm. We booked so esso fuel at $1.06. It wasn't the cheapest offer we had received. There was actually some refineries were below that. But we were very specific that we wanted so for, for that load. And you know, as of recording here, even with the price of diesel dropping just a little bit lately, we saved 54 cents a liter. Diesel's coming in around a buck 60 for Dormy, Saskatchewan. So that's savings just north of $27,000 for our farm fuel this week. That is significant. Significant dollars and a significant, you know, decision to help lower our cost of production here just a little bit. We were going through an exercise with Fuel Nexus the other day a couple weeks back now I suppose, but our math on that day was a savings of north of $32,000. Like all of a sudden you put that together and you got 60 grand sitting there in fuel savings. Now of course like any market, you can't predict. You try to predict or guess what you think it's going to do, but you're trying to string together good decisions and yeah, I don't know for harvest of 26 at A$6I. Yeah I, I, we're certainly not going to complain about that on, on our farm. So again, you know, maybe I'm using extremes, but yet the other day our quote from esso was A$86. So A$86 a liter. So I'm, I'm not even using extremes in this example, folks. I could make it wider if I wanted to. Anyways, I just wanted to share my experience this week with that. Now, from a crop marketing perspective, you know, August can be a bit of a, a dull month. I look back at spring wheat over the last couple days because we'll get to this a little bit later on, but it's time to really think about yourself and your farm and your crop marketing plan right now. And I'll explain why a little bit later on. But August can be a bit of a D all month. It can be a month where markets maybe they don't fall. As I looked over the, you know, the last 10 years from a futures perspective, I didn't see a lot of downside. You know, there it was trending lower some years for sure, and there's a few years where we had some big declines. But generally speaking, August is a bit of a dull month. It doesn't go up, it doesn't go down. Now spring wheat in September can find reasons to rally or, or late September, early October, I could start to see a bit of an up, uptick there. But generally speaking, August is a, a little bit of a tough one. It can have wide moves during the month, but at the end of the day it, it tends to be neutral, to lower when it's all said and done. And so the reason I bring this up, like, will 20, 26 be different? You know, I guess time's going, gonna tell here. But August is, you know, we've got farms that are, are harvesting right now. I would say early harvest results are, are, they're okay for some, a little bit less for others. I certainly don't have, you know, the alarm bells going off saying, whoa, you know, as of August 9th, there's a whopper coming here. I don't, that's not happening yet. Maybe that will come, but it's not quite there yet. But harvest really determines, you know, what happens here with futures over the next few months. If we, you know, we've got a wet week ahead of us here or wet pattern here to finish off the middle of August anyway, you know, what does that do? It helps a few crops in a few areas. It certainly doesn't help, you know, as you'll See in a second here, chatting with Stu, not helping the lentil crop in Rosetown at this stage of the game. But if we have, you know, a smooth harvest, yields pick up. Obviously pressure's coming. If we have, you know, underwhelming yields, maybe a bit lower than expected, farmers not maybe bringing that grain to the elevators here in a large way adding to sales, you know, the markets can find reasons to at least show some support or find some support now. It's important for you. Like, when I look at this, like, I'm, as of this evening, markets are, are opening up here for the evening trade. We've got canola up seven bucks a ton. You know, the, the November contracts at 7:86 soybeans are up 7 cents. Casey wheat's up 18 cents. Chicago wheat's up 12. Minneapolis was up, I think it was 13 or 14 cents. It's telling me 10 right now. But you're, you may be sitting here saying, you know, I'd like to get something done or my crop marketing plan, my cash flow requirements. You know, I need to do something. This is a very important time for you because you've got resistance up ahead, you know, where we peaked a few weeks ago. And so you've got a path here to set some targets and to get some crop marketing done if your cash flow needs or bin space, you know, require it. So it, it may be a bit of a dull month overall, but for some of you, you're going to be, you know, you're going to stay pretty sharp here and, and try to figure out how to get something done as the market show a bit of strength here in August and try to get ahead of, you know, this harvest pressure or these harvest lows. I fully anticipate that the harvest lows are, are going to be a bit rough. You know, I told the lunchbox crew, I don't know, earlier, maybe a week ago or so, you know, that I expected a bit of a bounce here. Sometimes canola can bounce into the September long weekend. But if you're feeling undersold, if you're not caught up, if you need a bit more cash flow, you need some bin space, there's going to be a sweet spot here for you to take advantage of as crop marketers right now as, as analysts and advisors. Unless we see like a, a special, like a good example would be Cargill Camrose. They have a canola crops in their region quite poor in that immediate circle. Unfortunately, those crops are quite poor and they're late and so they have a premium right now, for September 1st to 15th, if you can pull off canola, there's a substantial premium available to you. So if you're farming and in like Provost or Mackley, and if Keith is listening to the show this week, he likes to get his canola off early. Like, he might grab that and say, geez, you know, I'm going to get an extra buck here to get this in right now. He might go and take advantage of that. Or you might get, you know, the first train of peas show up, and they don't have enough peas bought for this train, something like that, or wheat, and get those specials. But as crop marketers, you know, we tend to feel like our work is kind of done to this point. We've done our spring and summer sales. Right now we're executing on deliveries because we're meeting cash flow needs and we're trying to navigate quality spreads, premiums, discounts, looking for specials, trying to gauge and see if there's anything weird going on that we need to attempt to extract an advantage out of. You know, is there no malt barley showing up at all? There is. You know, I don't know. Whatever it is, you're trying to find that edge. And so not a lot of. Hey, Good morning. Sell 10 today for these reasons. That stuff gets very, very quiet at this time. Now, lastly here for the. For the old monologue for this week is that the yellow P market is very, very quiet right now. It's a little bit. I hope it's just yellow peas. There's a few other crops that are very quiet as well. And I've had this, like, the last two years, I've had this, like, feeling of, like, less demand and like, something weird going on, but that I was completely wrong. It's completely off base. Completely wrong. Demand was awesome. Completely fine. Like, generally speaking, right? Sure, maybe we had a canola issue last fall, but outside of that, that wasn't it. I was worried about less demand. And I'm trying to psych myself up, you know, just pump myself up, you know, get out a little bit. Because I. I don't think this yellow P thing is indicative of other crops or other things going on. I just think that it's slow and maybe Stu. Well, I know he'll shed some light on it here in just a few minutes. But the Lop market is very quiet. And if you're a farm that wants to move yellow peas, I said it a few weeks ago. I'm being patient, and I'm going to, you know, navigate this. These Premiums that show up to fill cars. Well, I'm eating crow here on August 9th, but we'll see how this develops over the next couple weeks now. All right, folks, we're gonna get into it here now with Alex Shock from John Deere. After that, we're gonna roll right into my interview with Stu Lawrence. Then we're going to come back and wrap it up with eating your veggies and closing comments here for episode 138. All right, folks, I've got Alex Schock joining me in the John Deere booth. We've been recording segments live from the stage here. Show just, just getting started. You can start to see the crowd filtering through, but just a really great setup here for us this week. Alex, welcome to the show and welcome to your podcast debut. [00:23:04] Speaker B: Thank you. I appreciate it. Happy to be here. [00:23:06] Speaker A: All right, so, Alex, why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about your role? What are you covering here for John Deere these days? [00:23:14] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So my, my role, actually, I just got a longer, more complicated title, but maybe to put it, the short version of it is I'm responsible for technology and then our precision upgrades platform when it comes to marketing. So official title is Global Product Marketing Manager or Job Step Technology. So that's a full mouthful. [00:23:35] Speaker A: That is a long business card. [00:23:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:36] Speaker B: There you go. [00:23:38] Speaker A: Well, this is one of them. Like, I don't know if I could say this out loud, but one of the more exciting things going on at John Deere, like, when I think about getting the. Getting my equipment on the farm upgraded, getting something new, getting some efficiencies going on, what I already have in the shed in the shop, this is the spot. Like, this is where there's lots of stuff going on. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah. I would tell you that our precision upgrade business exists to serve every farm, every acre, every field, every machine. We do our best to continue to think about compatibility and being able to go as far back as we possibly can to bring the latest technologies to your farm and field today without having to buy brand new equipment. Yeah. [00:24:17] Speaker A: So I'm going to make an assumption here that you hear a lot from farmers about, hey, it would be nice if we could do this. [00:24:25] Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah. No, we hear a ton from farmers on, hey, it would be nice if I can get this technology. And our precision upgrade portfolio honestly started many, many years ago with our planter portfolio. And then in last three years, we've really put an emphasis on continuing to grow our precision upgrades portfolio and really making more of a brand out of Our portfolio and continuing to grow. Like I said, that compatibility is for how far back we can go. So we offer compatibility on planters, air seeders now that's newer in the last couple years, combines, of course, and then sprayers as well. Those are kind of our three primary players. But compatibility back to 2005 in many cases, depending on the technology. We might be in the more later 2014 era of technology. But again, super excited to be able to offer some of these latest technologies on the equipment that farmers already own today. [00:25:15] Speaker C: Oh, cool. [00:25:16] Speaker A: That's awesome. So let's dive into it a little bit here at Egg and Motion. Is there anything that really stands out where you want to kick us off here for today? [00:25:24] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So we're excited to be in the Canadian market again. I mentioned last two years ago, we started to launch precision upgrades on air seeding equipment. So the accurate metering system we have that and compatibility for accurate goes back to 2005 and newer. So being able to bring that electrically metered seating component into the air seating market is super exciting and still, like I said, relatively new to the market. This year we're excited to launch relative flow blockage. So relative flow blockage is again, one of those technologies that we've offered out of the factory in the last couple years. But this year we brought it in our precision upgrades portfolio. And basically relative flow blockage allows you to detect that blockage detection, whether it's your fertilizer or your seed, down to the actual row unit that or I should say toolbar that, where it's actually blocked at. So being able to detect that and just be able to protect from any problems or seeding problems as you're going through the field. And for that you can go on any electric or hydraulically driven metering system that exists out there today. [00:26:28] Speaker A: Well, I was going to ask you, like, how does a farm, if they want to figure out if they're compatible or their equipment's compatible, like, where do you start? I guess you go to the dealership. Yeah, yeah. [00:26:36] Speaker B: The best place to start is always with your dealership. We do have a really great precision upgrades handbook that we have a few of them around here today. But yeah, always start with your dealer. We have a couple tools online that, that customers can get to that you can plug in your serial number and it'll start to pull up what. What your equipment's compatible with today. That exists on sprayers and planters only, but we'll continue to build that out. But yeah, best place to start is always the Dealer, they have a lot of local experts there of what are the upgrade options available for you when it comes to compatibility. [00:27:05] Speaker A: All right, awesome. Sounds good. So to my left here, we've got some beautiful combines, but I. I want to turn our attention over to the combine fleet and some of the upgrades from the precision side here. What are you guys looking at in 2026? [00:27:19] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So maybe I'll talk about what's new first. So we're super excited this year to launch our. Our harvest technology packages. So those started out of the factory two years ago. We now have them available through the upgrades option. So if your machine left the factory without harvest technology, being able to get that harvest settings automation or predictive ground speed automation, being able to automatically adjust as you go throughout the field based on what it's seeing from the camera detection. We now have that as an available upgrade path for you as well for those 25 and newer combines. So that's the latest and greatest when it comes to combine technology. Some of the stuff that has been in the market that we continue to see a lot of interest in, especially in the Canadian market, is auto unload. So again, being able to auto unload into the grain cart, being able to detect and kind of move your auger as you're going throughout the field and adjust based on where the grain cart's getting filled at. And then the last thing I would say from a combine perspective is remote separator grate and covers. So we see a lot of additional productivity being able to have that. Be able to remotely control those separator grate and covers from the convenience of the cab. [00:28:22] Speaker A: So, you know, it's towards the end of July here. Like, what. But what time of. Like what type of time commitment or how long would it take if you're interested in upgrading something on your combine? Like, is this a pretty quick process or does it take some time that you gotta. [00:28:37] Speaker B: No, great question. It all depends on the upgrade that you're going after. So maybe I'll start with the combine. Since we were just talking about them. Most of our combine upgrades are we stock a lot of them out of our Mountjoy facility down in the US So they're more readily available for dealers to be able to get their hands on. Some of our dealers are stocking them themselves too, just because of their compatibility. Is a little bit easier and more flexible to go across some of the machines that they're going on. So those ones will be a little bit easier when you start getting into. We haven't talked about yet our sprayer upgrades, but some of those get a little bit more complex and take a little bit more time for the install itself. So again, there's no similar answer across all of our upgrades path. But if you're thinking about it, I definitely recommend starting with your dealer to start that conversation, understanding what the install time is going to be for your specific or unique set of equipment and what the upgrade path is that you're looking at. Because that's another thing. Some of our upgrades also can stack upon one another and of course that will create some additional install that has to go with that as well. [00:29:36] Speaker A: Fair enough. Fair enough. [00:29:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:37] Speaker A: All right, well, let's go and talk about See and Spray. So you said second generation. [00:29:43] Speaker B: Yep, yep. So this year our factory launched see and spray gen 2. So we we have see and spray gen 2 coming out of the factory with that camera. Kind of a increased focus on our small grains customer being able to get into some of the small grains crops. So we're excited to really be able to get into. Canola, of course is probably one of the primary crops up here. Many of your wheat, barley. I've mentioned Canola already, broadleaf and wheat and barley this year with CN spray out of Gen 2 and then some other crops that the Canadian market largely does not care about, like peanuts as an example, and sorghum is another one in the US as another big crop for us. So super excited about that. But with that expanded compatibility with Gen 2 coming into the market, we're super excited to offer to our customers that all of those new crop models will also be available on our existing see and spray Gen 1 Precision Upgrade Kit. So today we offer a See and Spray. We call it See and Spray Premium in the market. But now with Gen 2, it often or commonly gets referred to as kind of the Gen 1 version of it. The new crop models will come in the 27th season for that. And then in addition to that, we also launched Variable Rate technology on See and Spray Premium and then with the gen 2 market. So for most of the Canadian market, especially Western Canada, they were familiar with Scene Spray select, which was the former iteration of See and Spray, a fallow pass basically. And in the last couple years we also launched Variable Rate on that. So we're bringing that variable rate technology into the newer systems and then also making it available on our Precision Upgrade Kit as well. So with Variable Rate technology, there's a couple primary passes that you would make with Variable Rate. You're using them in your desiccation pass or pre harvest Pass your fungicide pass and or your nutrient pass as you're going throughout the field. So we're super excited. About two weeks ago I was actually up over in near Calgary area. We had customers and dealers in kind of checking it out, seeing it firsthand for the first time. And it's amazing to see kind of customers like really their eyes light up as they see use cases come to life as they see it in the field, working across the fields and real crop. So yeah, yeah, we're really excited and again just because we're kind of in the next phase of see and spray generation. All of the new crop models and the variable rate technology will also be available on the current kind of system of see and spray premium as an upgrade kit as well in the 27 season. So one other thing that I'll mention too because I know this gets brought up a lot when it comes to see and spray in general there it does come with a subscription cost associated with that. So last year we launched for the first time an annual unlock for an unlimited path. So you can unlock everything that you can get with see and spray with an annual unlock. So you don't have to worry about that per acre fees. However, we also have options for those customers that might have a smaller farming operation that they can do. It's in the Canadian market, $6 per acre, not sprayed. That's only for the in crop herbicide application. So as you're doing that in crop herbicide, whether you're going through canola, wheat, barley, corn and soy, if you have it up here in this, this neck of the woods, that's where that would apply. But you're only paying for what you don't spray. So the easiest way to kind of frame that up is going to be you're either paying for the, the technology to do its job and save you on chemicals or for the chemical that you're putting out on the crop, you're never paying for both at the same time. So and then the last thing that I'll say is in the previous model there was a per acre fee for fallow. Just this year for the first time we'll have fallow will be in base. So at no additional cost you can do all of your fallow acres, your green on brown spraying at no additional cost to you as a customer. So I know that's big across this western Canadian market. So we're super excited to get people into the technology, allow them to try it across their farm and acres. [00:33:20] Speaker A: Awesome. Well that's great Alex. Appreciate that and I know you're probably not supposed to pick a favorite, but out of your portfolio there's a lawyer. Maybe the question is, what's the most popular precision upgrade out there with farmers? Or is there something that kind of stands out? Or what's your favorite? One or the other? [00:33:37] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe I'll put it two ways. One, I would tell you my favorite is see and spray. I've been around seeing spray for the last two years and a lot of different capacities. I was a product manager for precision upgrades, so I spent a lot of time around it in the last two years. However, it's fairly new to this market, so it's newer up here and we're just starting to get the word out about again. Finally getting into the small grains market, finally making kind of more suitable passes across many of the variable rate passes that we talked about. And then again the in crop herbicide and the acres and, and fields that you guys are farming up here. So I would say that's my personal favorite. Now what I'd say about the Canadian market. The Canadian markets has done the combine precision upgrades have taken off in this Canadian market. So we see a ton of those, those combine upgrades up here across those machines. [00:34:20] Speaker A: So yeah, awesome, Alex. Well, I appreciate that. Appreciate those answers as well. Have a great week at Egg and Motion and anything else for us before we let you go? [00:34:30] Speaker B: I don't think so. No. Like I would maybe bring it back to compatibility is probably the number one question that we get when it comes to precision upgrades. Talk to your dealer, get back to your dealer. Talk through what, what upgrade options do you have available for you? I'm certain that we have a means by which to try to get you upgraded or something in your fleet upgraded. The other thing is we do have a customs process through our precision upgrades team too. So even if compatibility does not work, it's worth having the conversation with our custom team to see if we can make it available for your, your fleet. Okay. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Awesome. Appreciate that. [00:35:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you. Nice meeting you. Thank you. [00:35:03] Speaker A: All right, folks, welcome into episode 138 of the what the Futures podcast. Here I've got Stu Lawrence, chair of the Sask Pulse Growers, joining us this week. Stu, I think it's the very first time I've had someone from, you know, one of the producer groups join the show. So you're, you're making some breakthroughs here with what the futures. [00:35:24] Speaker C: Well, thanks for having me, Ryan. It's a real pleasure to be here with you. [00:35:27] Speaker A: The very rare Sunday morning recording it's like we're having coffee on a rainy, rainy morning here. So thanks for doing this. [00:35:36] Speaker C: Yeah, a little, little drizzle here to start harvest. We, we should be out desiccating LANLs here tonight, but I guess not now. [00:35:45] Speaker A: So I was going to ask like how, you know, we're recording this August 9th, but how's the growing season gone in the Rosetown area here for 2026 so far to date? [00:35:59] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, we kind of went into the start of the season. We had some fall rain in, you know, September, October last year, even as late. Yeah, we had some rain in November which is quite unusual. So we kind of went into the season with a full profile, which is kind of nice. We started seeding, you know, a couple of days late, but not, not terribly late. And, and then we got hit with a May monsoon. Like we had two and a half inches of rain May 10th or something like that. So we had a 11 day break, I think it was in May. So seeding went in really late. And then it became a challenge to, to get everything sprayed on time. In fact, I mean a lot of it was done, you know, on the late side. Not ideal because of, of late crop timing. You know, we did some flag leaf cereals with herbicide and you know it's. So we went right into fungicide season right after herbicide season and we had quite a bit of, of June rain as well. So I think, you know, right now I always look at April 1st to August 1st is my what I consider growing season precip. And sure we're sitting somewhere right around 8 inches, the tap turned off in July. June 30th I think was our last rain, something like that. We had a inch and a half rain and, and June. And I was joking with my son that you know, if even if the top turns off and we don't get anything in July, I think we'll still be okay. And that, that was kind of prophetic. And we got I think a whole two tents in all of July and then this morning Sunday here, it's, it's drizzly. We're supposed to have a week of, of kind of damp weather. Not a real lot of accumulation, but you know, some, some damp weather. I don't think that's going to really hurt quality too much, except maybe on the lentils because the lentils were ready to desiccate. But you know, unfortunately we've been, you know, most of July we've, we fought high humidity, right. So lots of disease. So we were sparing Fungicide. And then in August now when I want a little humidity to be going, going to put some diquat out and it's 30 humidity. Right. So I was kind of hoping that today the humidity would come up a little bit and I could get out tonight. But yeah, it looks like it's going to be raining. So all in all, I think we've had a relatively decent, I think almost kind of somewhat normal growing season. This is reminiscent of, you know, some of the years that we had in the mid-90s with, you know, decent growing conditions early. And then tap kind of turns off a little bit and you get the crop in the bin and it's all good quality. So I think we've had a decent year year here. [00:39:06] Speaker A: So yield expectations, you'd be thinking like average type crops potentially. Of course we got to get them in the bin yet. But as it stands, I, I would [00:39:15] Speaker C: say, yeah, I would say probably average. But then again though, I mean, what's average anymore, you know, compared to the 90s, you know, bumper crop for us, you know, would have been in the 40s on, on cereal grains, like on Durham say, if we'd had a 40 bushel Durham crop. Yeah, we're doing pretty good. Right. If we'd had a 40 bushel yellow pea crop, we were, we were pretty happy, you know, we were ecstatic. Selling 40 bushel yellow peas at five bucks in the 90s, we thought, oh man, we had the world by the tail. Right? $200 an acre. That was fantastic. Right. So yeah, you know it. And since then, like we've been able to crank up the yields, but then you throw in, you know, the 21 to 3 drought, you know, where we're getting single digit yields and then, you know, the next year you get 100 bushel barley. Yeah, I, I would say what is average? Yeah, yeah, right. Like that's, that's what's really tough to, to nail what an average crop is anymore because we're, we're boom or bust here. It seems like south of Rosetown, I think we'll have good yields. I'm, I'm kind of hoping that there's test weight, you know, that we don't have light cereals. But yeah, I think we should, we should be above our crop insurance averages. Put it that way. We should be increasing our crop insurance average after this year. [00:40:49] Speaker A: There you go. What about crop mix for 26? Did you put something new in that you hadn't done for a while or, or had you kind of stick to the usual suspects? Because you grow lentils, Durham, you put in some canola. [00:41:02] Speaker C: Yep. [00:41:03] Speaker A: Spring wheat canary. Are you canary seed or no? [00:41:08] Speaker C: No, I never got canary seed in this year. So yeah, I have generally a pretty diverse crop mix. Yeah, I'm one of those guys that likes lots of crops because it, when I say lots of crops, I'm, you know, five, six, seven crops that, that to me, you know, it, it makes it a little bit more complicated a seeding and harvest. But I think it does in terms of marketing it, it reduces some risk. You don't have all your eggs in, in a couple baskets. So, you know, this year we put in malt barley and something new. This year I, I'm growing Spanish brown lentils. I've never grown Spanish browns before. We used to be a large. [00:41:53] Speaker A: Heard of Spanish browns before. So you're gonna have to enlighten me for a minute here. [00:41:58] Speaker C: They're called pardina lentils. [00:42:00] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. [00:42:02] Speaker C: Pretty popular in the Pacific Northwest and these ones are, are destined to go to Spain. I'm growing them on a production contract. They're going to head over to the eu. So that's new this year. It's a new lima grain variety. So I was pretty excited to try that one out. But that's, that's probably the big new thing this year. So malt barley, Spanish brown lentils. We got some medium sized kabuli chickpeas. We got a, you know, half section of Durham. We're kind of transitioning out of Durham production. You know, no canary seed this year, which is kind of a first and in about 10 years for me. So. And then canola like everyone else. Right. So lots of canola went in. Unfortunately, we lost, we lost a few hundred acres of canola to flooding. We have some, some lower position ground and I got it seeded in early June and right ahead of a rain. Thought I was doing something, getting the stuff in late, right before rain, while that rain flooded it out. So a lot of it drowned. Never did come up. So yeah, that's, that's kind of the, the way it looks for this year is, is pretty, pretty normal except for the Spanish browns. [00:43:26] Speaker A: And you said you're transitioning out of Durham acres. Like that's been a part of the plan is to reduce those acres. Is that something that you're continuing to reduce moving forward or. [00:43:37] Speaker C: Yeah, unfortunately, you know, if we're in a bit of a, a transition and it's led by markets, you know, we don't always get to grow what we want to grow. And if I could, I'd be, you know, still the same kind of crop mix my dad had. I love to grow large green lentils and I love to grow Durham. Two of my favorite crops to grow. But you know, there's, there's marketing challenges with green lanols. You know, we overproduced the market last year. Literally small green lanos we could have put zero acres in and satisfied market needs this year. Right. So yeah, there was, you know, a big overproduction. Also with green lannels, you know, there's grading challenges too. Right. So I got out of green lannels when I had a buyer throw my sample down on the table and he picked out one salmon colored lentil and flicked it across the room and said, yeah, these are a three. And I said, that's it, I'm done. I've had enough. Yeah, that's, that's not a three. You know, those are still number two lantos. And so I just, I left the green market behind because of grading and, and switched to reds. Been growing red lentils for more than probably 15 years now. If I think it's five, it's probably 15. So, you know, it's this year. Switching to Spanish browns is just something kind of new. But Durham challenges with Durham that are, are again, it's a small market. You have to treat it like a special crop. It seems like it's not like the old days, you know, where Canada could produce 5 million metric tons and the world was happy and Durham carried a premium to spring wheat. Now, you know, there's not, there's not as much. Yeah, there's not as much premium there. And, and so it's a little bit challenging again with grading. Last year we had, we had just a touch of Fusarium and it put us at a three. And you know, typically, you know, the global trade now on Durham is kind of a two or a three. You don't really have much of a discount for from a one like you used to under the wheat board days. But yeah, trying to find a home for that. That Durham was a bit of a challenge. You know, instead of delivering locally in Rosetown, you know, I was delivering to Swift Current, I was delivering to Saskatoon. And you know, diesel fuel is not cheap anymore and time is not free. So we're, we're going working through some, some seed stocks that we've got sitting in a bin. And once those are gone, then we'll be, our cereal grains will be malt barley and, and spring wheat, I think with canary seed as well. It's a well saturated well, supplied market it right now. So I'm literally selling canary seed at half the price I was last year. Right. So I had a. I had a contract for 36 cents last year, and the last stuff's leaving the farm at 18 cents. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:04] Speaker C: Takes a little bit of the. [00:47:06] Speaker A: The fun out of it, Stu. Well, takes the fun out of it. [00:47:09] Speaker C: Right? Yeah. So, you know, and that's. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. [00:47:16] Speaker A: I was gonna say I want to talk about your Malt acres a little bit here, because am I like, I follow you on Instagram, I'm positive that I see a Labat deckled combine across your Instagram every once in a while. Is that. Are you cruising around with old, Old blue out there or what do you got? [00:47:33] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So this is kind of a fun story. I was approached in 2025 by the Bort Malt plant at Bigger Labat. Had contacted them in 2025, and they were looking to have a farm that would host a real quick field day. And so I said, sure, I'd love to host Labatt at my farm. And so they, they set up a tent on the lawn and cater to lunch. And we walked across the road from my yard and we stood in a barley field and I got tell 40 people about the Lawrence Farms story and, you know, how I produce malt on our farm. And then Labat, we had lunch and Labatte announced a scholarship. So that was the beginning of the relationship between Lawrence Farms and Labat. And part of that field day, they actually put a vinyl wrap on my combine and turned it from green to Labatte blue colors. And it's got a. The Labat logo, a Budweiser and a Busch logo on it as well. Yeah, so that was a real fun project. And, and stemming from that, this year they. They decided that they were going to take and wrap some bales up with vinyl wraps to make them look like bush cans. And so right beside Highway 4 on. On some. It's a. It's beside a Canola field, but it's. We got a little touch of salinity that I've seated down to grass. And so it's a perfect spot to put these six bales wrapped like bush cans. [00:49:24] Speaker B: And. [00:49:24] Speaker C: And so, yeah, it's been another fun project with Labat this year. [00:49:30] Speaker A: It. The campaign, I think launched here. I don't know if it was last week or a few weeks ago now, but I've been catching. Catching it on across social media. And it looks pretty cool from the air, especially seeing those. Seeing those bail Wraps and those bush cans lying on the side of the field there. So it's pretty cool. And bush. I, I was camping the other day and I, I picked up a limited edition case of, of Busch Light. And there's a little bit of a farmer influence design on, on the can and on the box that goes along with this, with this promotion here that you're doing. So from what I read, Labatte's, you know, investing some of their advertising campaign dollars in with farmers directly, and I thought that was, you know, pretty cool to see, like, especially to this level. Now you're, you're quite. You're almost like a mini NASCAR out there with things are getting deckled on the farm. [00:50:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I know it's. Yeah, I feel like I should be hold a can in my hand and have a logo on my shirt or something. But yeah, it's a, it's a different marketing campaign around the bush brand. You know, they're, they're saying thank you to the farmers that, that produce the. The barley that makes their bush beer. [00:50:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:00] Speaker C: You know, and for me, it's, it's kind of. It, it highlights, you know, it's. It starts with the farmers producing the barley, but then, you know, the malt plants involved turning it into. And then it goes to the brewery and they make the beer and then the consumer buys the beer. And it's, that's the whole circle in the value chain there. Right. And that's why I wanted to be involved is that it highlights everything that goes into the system. And some of the details that Labatt has put out is the amount of money that they put into local communities by buying the barley from us and buying the malt from the malt plant and, and then having the brewery. And so there's a lot of economic value in that that goes into the Canadian economy just, you know, so that consumers can enjoy, you know, a cold can of beer. And so, yeah, you know, it's, it's been a really fun campaign to kind of, you know, show that circle that, you know, starts with me and ends with the consumer. And, you know, some days I'm a consumer too, so 100i. [00:52:19] Speaker A: We're packing the camper up today. I will be a consumer this week as well, so. Yeah, but. And I want to give a little shout out to Boer Malt as well. Our farm is partnered with Boer Malt and it has been for a couple, well, a handful of years now. And, you know, they, they're, they're a good partner to have as well. They they're very transparent in their, in their business. And honestly, in this space, transparency goes a long way. So it's kind of rare. [00:52:49] Speaker C: It's. Yeah, it's fantastic to, to be involved with. With Port Malt. You know, it's great that they're fairly local. I mean, they're just up Highway 4 from Rosetown, up at bigger. So, you know, it works out really well for us. We're 45 minutes away from. From our market on, on malt barley. It's. Yeah. You know, dad has been a malt barley grower since the 60s, right. So we've always had. Not always, but quite often had malt barley on our farm. And, and so it's, it's really become. While we treat it like a special crop, we don't treat it any different than, than pulse crops. You know, we, we keep our acres a little bit on the lower side. We don't, we don't. We don't keep a whole lot in the rotation. We want to be able to manage it correctly. And. And so, you know, we, we treat it like a special crop. [00:53:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. For us, it might make up 8 to 10% of our acres. And it's something that we can go and. [00:53:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:56] Speaker A: And try to do a really good job of and extract that. That premium that's out there. [00:54:01] Speaker C: So that's how I look at it too. [00:54:04] Speaker A: So, Stu, I want to, I want to turn our attention to. See, we've got, you know, we talked about the farm and some of the things you're doing here in 2026 and some of those relationships, but you. You wear a. Another hat as the, the chair of the Sask Pulse Grower. So can you. Can you just maybe give us a. A quick update on. Because that's fairly new. Right. Earlier this year, was that January that you were appointed chair year? Yeah. [00:54:30] Speaker C: Yep. [00:54:31] Speaker B: Yep. [00:54:31] Speaker C: So, yeah, I've been been on Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. I was elected in the fall of 22. January 23rd was my, my first board meeting. And then, yeah, in January of this year, our board selected me as the, as the chair of the organization. So honored to have the support of the, of my fellow board members. And yeah, so since January been in that capacity and I wasn't, I wasn't expecting it. It was pleasant surprise. But I've had the opportunity to represent the 15,000 Saskatchewan Pulse Growers twice now internationally this year. [00:55:16] Speaker B: Okay. [00:55:16] Speaker C: February, late February, we. We took a delegation over to New Delhi, to India. And then in late June, we had an opportunity and we went to China to Represent Pulse growers there. So it's been awesome. Yeah, I mean, the old saying, drinking from the fire hose, that's, that's been it. It's a, it's a bit of a learning curve to become chair and then to, you know, a couple months later be headed overseas to, to represent your fellow farmers to the end users is, it's pretty special and very rewarding. [00:56:02] Speaker A: What does, like, what does a trip like that kind of encompass? Like, obviously there's a lot of planning and, and, you know, planning and thinking that goes into this before you head over there. But is there a specific kind of goal for each to be different depending on where you're going? You know, I guess we have two examples we can reference here. But is it kind of different depending on where you're going and, and who are you really spending time with when you get to India or you get over to China? [00:56:36] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Well, probably, fortunately for everyone involved, I'm not involved in the planning. You know, I, I go there and I, I represent the producers. That's, that's my role. The most of the missions, the planning is done by the national board, Pulse Canada. So they create an agenda and, and they set up all the meetings that, that I attend and. Okay, you know, and some of the meetings that are, that are on a trade mission, I'm not there. I don't attend the meetings. And then there's other meetings that I do. So, you know, my role is, is just to represent producers. And when there's a need for producers to be represented, I would participate in a meeting. [00:57:29] Speaker A: Fair enough. [00:57:30] Speaker C: You know, they'll bring technical staff with them when, when required. So there'll be certain meetings where technical technical staff will be meeting with processors and those get to be quite involved. So when you're talking about, you know, whether it's cleaning or milling processing pulses in foreign country, you know, that's where it gets really, really technical. And you know, that's not my area of expertise. I don't know how to decorate a lentil. I just. Yeah, it's not my thing. Right. [00:58:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:08] Speaker C: But if they want to talk about production pulses, that's where I'll step in and, and be involved in those meetings. Who we meet with, that depends on, you know, the nation that you're going to and the scope of the, of the mission. Most recently in, in China, we met with a government organization called gacc. And you know, they're involved with. I think probably the, you know, the parallel to Canada would be the CFIA I think, would be about the close, closest parallel between what we have for organizations and they do, you know, so we met with, with those people. You know, we also met with Canadian embassy staff while we're in, in Beijing, you know, and then, and from Beijing we, we traveled to a city called Jiaoyuan in Shangnan Province and we attended a conference of, of Chinese businesses that import Canadian yellow peas. So if you can imagine how important Canadian yellow pea is to Chinese pulse processors, they actually have a conference around importing pulses. And so there was representatives from Canada there, there was also representatives from Russia and Argentina as well. So okay, it's the market to China opened up in March, the tariffs came off. Since then, you know, 5 to 600,000 metric tons of yellow peas have been shipped from Canada to China. It's an important market. Big eye opener for me. Is that, yeah, helped by a lack of tariffs. But Russia imports more yellow peas or sorry, exports more yellow peas into China than what we do. [01:00:04] Speaker B: Right. [01:00:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:05] Speaker C: And you know, Argentina would also like to, to send more pulses to China. So we have a lot of global competition. That was a big eye opener for me. You know, we can't sit back and go, you know, rest on our Canadian quality. You know, we always like to, to say or think that we're the, you know, the best growers in the world and you know, we produce the best pulses. But I think there's a lot of global competition and we have to recognize that. And you know, so some of the, some of the communications that I've had surrounding that after I got home was, you know, I've been telling my fellow growers that yeah, Russia's happy to satisfy the market in China. They're willing to do it for less money than us. And you know, it's, we'd like to think that our, our pulses are better quality, but I happened to watch them unload a truck of Russian yellow peas into a plant while I was there. And yeah, you know what, it's, it's good looking piece. You can't tell Russian peas from Canadian peas. You know, they, I've always been told that there's a lot of foreign material in Russian product. I got there. That's not what I saw. You know, so they were aspirating the, the truck as they, as they brought the product in and they said out of a thousand metric tons, they had a mini bulk of aspirations. So you know, it's not dirty product. It's not full of weed seeds, it's not full of cracks, splits, hulls. No, it's good looking product. So we've got some good global competition and you know, I think we have to kind of step our game up in terms of marketing globally. And I think as producers, one of the things that we can do is recognize what it is that, you know, our global customers are looking for and provide them that. You know, one of the questions I was asked repeatedly is, and this stung a little bit, but why are your peas contaminated with glyphosate? And okay, I, I kind of bristled at that because of the word contaminated. Seemed kind of odd to me. It was an odd word to, to describe glyphosate use because, you know, I'd like to think that farmers are following the label and doing everything that, that they are supposed to when it comes to applying glyphosate to, to their yellow pea crop. You know, not using it as a desiccant but using it as pre harvest wheat control. And unfortunately that, that they notice. Right. And it's, I mean they're, yeah, pick your risk. I mean the, the guy that was asking me about glyphosate contamination, RPS had a cigarette and a drink in his hand, right. So clearly he's not against carcinogens, but you know, yet he, it, he's calling our peas contaminated with glyphosate. So you know, it's, it's a bit of a uphill struggle and I don't think we're in a place anymore where, where as growers we can say, ah, let them go hungry and let's just lock the bins for a few months and they'll come crawling to us. And I think we're a, a situation now where other nations have seen the success we've had with pulses and they want to copy it, right. And they're able to produce them, you know, at lower cost and, and get them to market quite often they're freight advantaged. So. [01:03:58] Speaker A: Yep. [01:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:59] Speaker C: You know, another, another thing I heard was Russian peas have higher protein than Canadian peas, right. So I think that that means that we've, we've got to look at some agronomics and see if we can figure that out. But also genetics too. So there's, there's lots of work ahead of us. [01:04:17] Speaker A: Well, proteins, both of those are kind of buzz, buzz themes right now, right? Like protein is a big thing. Everything's got protein in it. I think my, my Diet Pepsi the other day had protein, extra protein in it, right. Like it's the big buzz thing going on with the protein game and then, and then the you know, around the, the glyphosate and, and all that. We've talked about that for years and years now. But you know, the one thing I notice is you, you often will get a price for yellow peas. And here's the glyphosate applied. You know, this is the price for that. And no glyphosate. Here's the other price, here's the small premium or whatever for, for that one you. We didn't get, we didn't have that 10 years ago or not much of it anyway. So. [01:05:02] Speaker C: So. [01:05:02] Speaker A: Right, yeah, yeah. [01:05:03] Speaker C: And I think a lot of producers say that the premium's not high enough. So it, it's kind of curious, but it's, it's almost to me like where we're headed is, you know, the notion that we should have protein premiums for high protein peas or premiums for glyphosate free peas. I think those days are going away because I think our, our com, our global competitors, the reality of it is, is that they want to eat our lunch, they want to take our markets and so they're selling their product at lower price. They're not applying life estate somehow, they're getting higher protein. So, you know, it's, I think the world is changing and we've got to find our niche in that. And you know, and some of the work that we're able to do going back to who we meet with is when we have our technical staff. Some of the meetings that I was involved with was in China. We met with four processors that they're fractionation plants. So they knock the hull off the lop, that goes into the fiber market. Then they, you know, they separate the protein from the starch. The starch is going to go into noodles, the protein is going to go into protein supplements. So your, your Pepsi, you know, everything that's got protein in it, right. It's either going to be dairy or Pulse. Right? Yeah. So, you know, they, they're selling off, they're, they're fractionating the, the P and they're using individual parts of that. And so some of the conversations that were held were the technical staff from Pulse Canada working with the Millers on some of the challenges that they have with Canadian product or, well, product in general. But you know, here's a problem that they've got. And you know, our, our Pulse Canada staff, we're working really hard with them to, to solve them. And it was awesome to watch the staff at work to see the light bulbs going off with the people we're meeting with and they're going, oh, okay, this is how we fix this. So that's important work that we do. And I'd like to think that that's work that our global competitors aren't doing. We had a really good response from that. And, and similar also, you know, when I was in, in New Delhi and in India and we met with the president of the, the Doll Millers Association. So Doll is pulse. So we met with the president of the Millers association and he was describing challenges that he's got and you know, and, and so the, again the technical staff go to work and, and they start these discussions and, and you know, again the light bulbs go off and, and you know, what we heard from, from this fellow in, in India was, you know, they, they like Canadian pulses, they like Canadian lentils a lot. They like the red lentils that we, we have. But you know what? They, they also said the Australian red lentils are more uniform than ours. Ours are different shapes. You have thinner and you can have thicker ones. Right. And it's, it's the different varieties that we have. And Australian pulses are more uniform in shape. So they set their mill. Once they knock the hulls off, you know, they split them and, and it's easier for them. They have less loss. With Canadian product, we end up with, you get a fat one go through and it becomes dockage. [01:08:59] Speaker A: Right. [01:09:00] Speaker C: So, you know, we got some great feedback that we can bring back to growers and, and, and try to improve our, our market share in, in other countries. China and India are really important ones for us in my mind, because they're two large growing middle classes. And when you have 1.4, 1.5 billion people and the middle classes are becoming more affluent, that's, that's a market that, you know, those are two markets that we want to participate in. [01:09:36] Speaker A: And both have had, you know, applied tariffs on us recently as well. [01:09:42] Speaker C: Right. [01:09:42] Speaker A: Like India had. Does India still have a tariff on us for peace? [01:09:47] Speaker C: Yeah. One of the things that I learned about that is it's really interesting how India handles tariffs and tariff is, is, you know, all the rage. It's big buzzword, you know, in the last, since January 25th. Right. But you know, if you consider, think back to the Canadian Wheat Board days, and India has an organization that sets the prices for their farmers for pulses. And so what they do is they use tariffs to manipulate the domestic price. And the reason why they do that is if the price goes too low, so if they have tariffs too low, they bring in too much product, then what happens is the local price drops and then Modi's got to write a check to growers and he doesn't want to write a check to growers. So what they do is they'll throw a tariff on and that tariff will, well, just try to manipulate the supply just enough so that the price stays above that guaranteed government price. So that's, it's a little bit different once you understand that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I, I don't want any tariffs at all. I want, you know, I want the free flow of trade. You know, we're really good at growing pulses, they're really good at eating pulses. Hey, let's work together. But ultimately what, what it comes down to is they want nutritional security. In India, everyone's got enough calories. Now they're really, they're really proud of that fact that everyone's got enough calories. But what they're concerned about is does everyone have enough protein? And when pulses get too expensive, there's actually a segment of the Indian population. While they will have enough calories, they won't get enough protein. Okay. And so that's where the Indian tariffs come along and they, they manipulate the price. What they want to do is they want to take and get their growers to grow more pulses so that they're self sufficient. It's a noble goal. But what the president of the Doll Millers association told us is that, yeah, you know what, we can't do it. You know, we can supply four months of product and then we need Australia and Canada. So they're a long ways away from being able to supply their own market. But the, the tariffs will almost always be there and it's going to be a price manipulation. Now with China, it's a little bit different story as I understand it. You know, that is political. That's, you know, blocking product from entering a country just in, you know, retribution for whatever thing. Right. Something else again. Yeah, I don't, you know, I don't want to get involved in the politics of it. You know, I, I just want to take and, and produce pulses and, and ship them around the world. Right. Satisfy global demand. But yeah, but the tariff thing is difficult to negotiate. That's why we got great people at Pulse Canada that help us out with that and some of the work that's, you know, it's important to, you know, we're there in market in India, in China, they're extremely important. But you know what, the US market is also important to it. The South American Market eu, that's important. Southeast Asia, you know, so we're through Pulse Canada, I'm helping Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, you know, get more markets globally, around the world. We want to try and diversify our markets as much as we can and satisfy the markets that we already have. Like, that's important. We got to keep what we got, defend what we got for markets, but then find new ones too. [01:13:48] Speaker A: 100%. And, and especially, you know, you notice when, when China steps out of the, the yellow pea market in, in Canada that they, they were taking such a high volume of, of our exportable supplies that when that got turned off, that was a, obviously a very painful event price wise. So, you know, if we can expand and diversify our customers, that, that would be great as well. [01:14:13] Speaker B: Yeah, [01:14:15] Speaker A: so you covered a lot there, Stu, but I kind of want to tie that up in a little bit of a bow here with like, you know, we've, we've, obviously we've, there's always competition out there. You're trying to meet your, your customers needs, satisfies their needs. Protein obviously, being a big one right now. But how do you feel about, you know, the, the Pulse, you know, market or the demand for pulses, you know, moving forward here? Like, is there quite a bit of optimism? I know prices are depressed, but is there optimism brewing or continuing on in pulses, do you think we're kind of like sideways here momentum right now? Is there a decline coming? Like where are we at temperature wise? [01:15:03] Speaker C: Well, I think, you know, probably the best example I can come up with is you think about before the Chinese tariffs in the LP market. We were in that 10 to $11 a bushel, right? And then the tariffs come on and we haven't, you know, the tariffs have, have come off or for the most part, you know, and we're still at eight bucks. So why is that? Why didn't we go back to, you know, $11? Well, in my mind that, that shows that the global competition, there's other countries that want to take and satisfy that Chinese market. They can see what I see, that it's the largest or one of the largest, one of the two largest growing middle classes in the world, right? And they want a piece of that. So that's, that's why we haven't seen the price get back to 10, 11 bucks. I think for us, in my mind, prices aren't going to increase until we have a global supply issue. Right. We need, that's what it boils down to. We need someone else to have a bad day and then when that other nation has a bad day, then they have to come to us and the price goes up. So, yeah, again, I think it comes back to, you know, it's not your dad's pulse market where your dad could lock the bin for six months, walk away, and the price would go up and you'd sell into a higher market. Doesn't happen anymore. Too many other nations have seen our success. Okay. [01:16:52] Speaker A: And would you put lentils and, and peas in the same type of basket for. For that, like, competition wise, direction wise? Would you put them kind of together? [01:17:02] Speaker C: Okay, I think so. You know, just thinking about red lentils, you know, going off top of my head here. [01:17:11] Speaker B: Number. [01:17:11] Speaker C: Numbers might not be exactly right, but just off top of my head, think Australia produced 1.9 million metric tons of reds last year, something like that. And a bears is predicting like 2.2, 2.3 this year. Now sometimes, like me personally, I'm a little skeptical a bears will put out numbers saying that there's a record crop and they haven't even seeded it yet. Right. Like they. Sometimes they're fair enough. Yeah, right. They always seem to. To say that there's a big crop. [01:17:43] Speaker B: But. [01:17:44] Speaker C: So if you look at the red lentil market and they had a good crop last year, and if they have a good crop again this year. Right. That's. That's the lid on prices. [01:17:52] Speaker A: That's a headwind. Yep. [01:17:56] Speaker C: You know, and in Saskatchewan, we've got struggles with the phantom ices. [01:18:01] Speaker B: Right. [01:18:01] Speaker C: So you don't have to look very far. You can. My place, the neighbors. You know, every lentil field around here has got challenges with root rot. You know, so I think there's a tendency for growers in Saskatchewan to, you know, look across their fields, look across their, their neighbors fields and go, you know, we've got, we've got real production issues. So, yeah, prices are going higher. Wow. You know, other nations don't necessarily have the same challenges, so prices might not go higher. You know, I think it's a global market nowadays. I think we have to, as growers, we have to look at that. You can't look at your own challenges and think, well, you know, the price has got to go higher because I've got less bushels. There's other nations that are producing the same crops we have, and then you're [01:18:57] Speaker A: waiting for the next cycle, you know, who's going to have the next issue with production. And yeah, maybe storing them pays off waiting for that next cycle, but you might need a bit more time. [01:19:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Time is the enemy of business. So, you know, you can, you can store and get a higher price, but, you know, I stored canary seed for several months and got rewarded with a lower price, so. [01:19:26] Speaker A: Oh, 100%. It works both ways. And I was reviewing some spring wheat strategy from a couple years ago and yeah, moving everything off combine was a. Was a good move back in a couple of those years, but anyways. [01:19:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:46] Speaker A: All right, Stu. Well, I wanted to. We've talked about the farm. We've talked about your role with, with Sask Pulse Growers and, and some of the. The great things you guys are doing there. Lots going on, obviously, in, in the, the Pulse markets and with our customers. So some insights appreciated there. I want to wrap up today's conversation with one of your passions here. I want to completely flip the script on you, but you've got a deep passion for square body truck. So what do you got on the go right now in the shop? Because are you rebuilding? Do you have a project truck at the moment? Do you always have a project truck on the go? [01:20:28] Speaker C: No, not always a project truck. So, yeah. So square body trucks have come and gone for me. I mean, of course, I think most people can look at me and go, I'm not a spring chicken anymore. You know, I graduated high school in the 80s. You know, my first truck was a 72 GMC. My second truck was a 1981 GMC. Yeah, I still have. I still have my second truck. So if anyone looks at my social media, my handle. Do you remember when everyone, instead of using their name, they used used handles on social media? And so I was old blue 81, because my truck is old. It's blue. It's a 1981. That's the license plate. That's my social media handle. I've had that truck in January, 40 years. So it's. I've had kind of one project truck that's consistently with me. It's never gone. It will never go. [01:21:36] Speaker A: Yep. [01:21:36] Speaker C: I mean, literally, I. My wife's gonna see this, but I've had the truck longer than her, so it'll be. It's an heirloom piece. It's going to be passed down to my son. But yeah. So what do I have in the, in the shop right now? I'm working on rebuilding a different chassis. Be. It's going to be completely modern when I'm done. And. And so that. That truck, Old Blue is going to become its next generation, next iteration of it is. It's going to be on that chassis. Not the ex. The Original one. It's still a chassis from a 1981, but it's a different chassis, but it's, it's going to be different, more modern powertrain. I, I like to drive my truck. So I go to, I was going to add that. [01:22:37] Speaker A: Yeah, you go to the U.S. usually I do. [01:22:41] Speaker C: So I, I, I can't remember how many times now. Three, four times. I'm not even sure that I've driven down to Iowa. So after harvest, the car community in Iowa, Iowa, they have a, a cruise that kind of wraps up the whole summer season for them. It's called Cruise to the Woods. And they have six or seven different routes that come from different states, you know, all cardinal directions. And they meet in one little small town in central Iowa. And from that town, like they all park on Main street and then they flood Main Street. Main street becomes full and then, you know, they start branching off into side streets and there's like 1500 vehicles that show up and, and then from there they blow the siren at 10am in the morning. The, the old fire hall siren. They blow that and then you go cruise to the Fort Dodge, the city of Fort Dodge fairgrounds. And then they have another car show there. So I like to go that, that, that's, I don't know, off top of my head, 1200, 1300 miles one way. And I like to drive my truck to that. So that's why I'm building a chassis that I can swap the body onto. That way I, I can still drive and enjoy the truck while I'm modernizing another chassis. So, yeah, that, that project's on the go. And then also I'm, I'm helping out a, a friend from high school, guy that graduated high school with my sister a few years older than me, and he's fixing up a square body. And so he's an NHL hockey scope by trade and used to be, used to do auto body, but then became a school teacher, now as a NHL scout. And so I'm helping out with some mechanics on his truck when I can. So I helped him strip his truck down, got it down to, you know, the drivetrain all out and doing all the mechanical work because that's, that's my background at a high school. I, you know, went off to tech school to become a wrench twister. So, yeah, so I work on a couple of trucks. Square body trucks are a bit of a passion for me. Hence the social media handle. [01:25:12] Speaker A: You bet. You bet. Awesome, Stu. I love to see it, love to see what you got going on with, with the Sask Paul's growers and as well with Labat and. And Boer malt as well. So lots going on with. With Lawrence Farm. We've known each other now for what we met probably what, 20, 19, 2020, something like that? FBN, I was gonna say. [01:25:32] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah. 20. 2019, I think. Yes. [01:25:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:39] Speaker A: Yeah, you bet. Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate you taking the time here on a drizzly Sunday morning to join the show and have a great start to harvest and yeah, let's all get together for some higher pulse prices here this winter. All right. [01:25:53] Speaker C: Yeah, well, thanks for having me, Ryan. Everyone go buy your limited edition bush farm pack before they're gone. And that promotion is ending this coming week, so grab one while you can. [01:26:05] Speaker A: Awesome. Sounds good. Thanks, Steve. [01:26:07] Speaker C: Thanks. [01:26:08] Speaker A: Well, big thanks to both of my guests here for, for this week, of course, Alex making her podcast debut and doing that with what the future. So that, that was great. Precision upgrades again. When you can take new technology and put it into older equipment. I just think that is a huge, huge win. Even think of the. In the interview with, with stuff like he is practicing precision upgrades on his own farm with his rebuild of his 81 Chev. You know, like he's upgrading the, the chassis in that truck. That's, that's a version of precision upgrades. I, you know, I guarantee it. But you could take something that you like to drive, that you've familiar with that, you know, maybe is pay it off and yet give it some new, new technology. The latest technology and a big thanks to Stu as well. I've been chatting with Stu for, I don't know, six, seven years now. And always some great, great conversations and a good sport. I said, Stu, first thing I said to Stu is, hey, man, I'm drinking bush light here camping. What is going on with this, with this, this promo and this, this whole campaign here with farmers. And then I said, hey, I really, I need a guest here for this week. I'm going camping. Do you want to record on the weekend? And he said, absolutely, no problem. So that was a Sunday morning coffee for myself and, and Stu. All right, folks, crop marketing prices. I don't have anything really to report here. I did a little buzz around to see what was going on. Maybe if you want to look for some type of premiums out there, feed barley, premiums, fruit, combine those kind of continue to hang around. Feed wheat as well in some areas. Seems to show some strength for. For harvest years. But it's pretty quiet. Like nothing super notable. Nothing notable on. On My end. All right. Okay. Eating your veggies here for this week. Again, this is just the. It's all encompassing, but it's just the, the big statement of, of number one, executing your individual crop marketing plan. This is where it doesn't matter what everybody around you is doing. What matters is what you need to execute on. And it all starts with cash flow. You may say it all starts with storage, but it all starts with cash flow. Because if cash flow needs are met, then I really challenge you, you know, why would you sell more at the harvest lows? Like, why would you force yourself into this spot with additional sales if you have a storage problem? You know, that's one reason. Or, you know, you've just. You've got a quality issue. I guess that leads to a storage problem, but that could be another one. What really is frustrating is when, you know, someone just says, well, I'm just gonna dump it out of frustration, or I'm just going to dump it because I didn't do what I was supposed to do before. So I'm just going to get rid of this stuff. That's where that, that costs you big, right? That costs you big, big money. And of course, we can't, you know, predict with 100 accuracy what crop prices are going to do in 2027. But you know, as well as myself, you guys know even better than I do what storylines exist out there that are intriguing, that could lead to some interesting pricing opportunities for 2027. Like, you guys know what I'm talking about. And yeah, so this time of year, your individual crop marketing plan, you gotta really dig in on what you need to accomplish. I get all sorts of questions thrown at me right now. It's fun because it gets me thinking and grinding. And if you see smoke in the air, it could be from. From my studio here. Of all the doing. But, you know, I, I don't want to bag this. You know, I said these bags, I want to move this stuff. What do you think? Or, hey, I've got these four crops or five crops. Which one should I move first? I get that all the time. Which one should I move? Which one should I hold? Told my dad the other day, I'm like, dude, let's sell the feed barley. Like, let's sell. You know that if we're going to do anything, let's try to do some of that. [01:30:41] Speaker C: Let's hold the green peas. [01:30:43] Speaker A: Not that bullish green peas, but let's hold them a little bit, you know, let's hold some of this wheat. We'll see. Maybe there's a wheat pricing opportunity before before harvest really kicks off here for our farm number two. Again this ties into your crop marketing plan but just a storage calculation guys. What do you have for storage? What is your yield expectation and do they meet? Do they align? All right. And if not, what's the plan? And then lastly here I guess this kind of segues in from one to three targets. You know, targets especially on on wheat if you need to meet a cash flow requirement, if you need to get some space, you know. You know, maybe you just like moving stuff off the combine. I I'd get those targets dialed in, give that merchant something to aim for to fill help help them fill their cards course this fall. Give them something to aim for and from a levels perspective. I'm gonna leave that one alone for now, but I will talk about that on insiders here in the next day or so. Anyway, that's it for eating your veggies for this week. All right folks, episode 138 was a vacation episode so most of this stuff was pre recorded August 9th or at egg in Motion. So just mind here. Prices can change, strategy can change. Seek out the advice of a professional. This next episode here. For next week I'm going to count down my top 10 crops. We're gonna go lowest so number 10 will be the lowest price gain expected. So the crop that's not gonna do much in my expectation for price gains to the highest which crop drop could show us the highest price gains and why. I'll try to give a little bit of reasoning and not just talk out of this side of my mouth. For the the next episode we're also going to have Western egg. We're going to review our mid cast discussion and what that led to here for opportunity on our farm in 2026 for the what the Futures podcast. My name is Ryan. Have a great week weekend. I'm out of here.