AJ Wiechmann

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145 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2024 last heard Aug 2024

AJ Wiechmann’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Farm4Profit Podcast · F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine! · 22 Aug 2024 podcast

Now, they're making it so hard to do that because they've got all these computers hooked up to the trucks, and they've got an e-log in there, and it runs off your ECM, so it's pretty hard to cheat on them. There are still ways around it, but maybe I'm not supposed to say that, but... So is it the DMV or the DOT that's the hard portion, or is it like USDA and like some of the USDA requirements?

USDA is pretty laxed. I mean, they really are. They understand what's going on out here. The DOT is what... They're the ones that don't understand or maybe don't care. You know, that's maybe a better term. They don't really care. They're just supposedly... doing their job, you know, protect and serve or whatever, however they say that, but it's all about revenue. Yeah.

You know, so all they're doing is just looking to make a good name for themselves. On their setting, Rules and laws for more over-the-road type people than livestock. And then they expect the livestock guys to abide by the same rules. Well, it don't work. You can't stop on a 100 degree day or a 90 degree day with 100% humidity in Iowa.

You can't stop for a half hour break on the side of the road to load pigs on. It'll kill them. It's not just shockers, but the way that you deliver pigs and animals at the plant. It's changed a lot too, right? Yes, it has. Yeah, so we're not allowed to use our electric prods at the packing plants anymore.

And there's actually a big integrator now here in Iowa that will not allow us to use them while we're loading the pigs from the farm. They don't allow the load crews to use them in the barns. It's pretty wild. I mean, it can take a long time to load pigs at them places. Because Cory knows probably as much as anybody else that loading a pig without a hot shot, that can be pretty difficult. Right.

You don't use them all the time, but there's certainly times that you need it. Right. Hey, you got the one that's standing right there in the front of the line, not moving. Yep. Your phone's effing with his... It's fine. It's fine. Don't worry about it. I don't know if you noticed. The magnet spins the compass, so don't worry about it. As soon as I saw it spinning, I went, oh, there's a magnet.

We're going down. We're going down. The old school compass isn't working. No, this is only for if all this shuts off on me randomly. Yep. That would be called what? Flying by instruments or what? Well, actually, if all that shut off, then you wouldn't have instruments. No, you're just flying by sight and sound, I guess.

What would happen if we did come up on a storm, like you tried to fly above or around it? Flying by the seat of your pants, isn't that what it's called? That'd be pretty close, yep. Flying by the seat of your pants. How it feels in your seat. Yep. What other terms have come from airplane pilots that we use? Oh, boy, I don't know. I'm not trying to think either. Wasn't that balls to the wall?

Wasn't that a pilot? Oh, yeah. Because it used to be a ball for your throttle or something. Oh, yeah. Some of the old planes have a round ball or knob on the throttle and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So that makes sense. I've never heard that before. But yeah, that makes sense. Balls to the wall. Yep. Yep. Yep.

So back to the trucking side of things, you know, everything's continued to change and obviously everything's gotten more expensive. I remember one of the first pots that my in-laws bought compared to what a new pot costs right now. That's crazy. Have your fees for hire been able to follow that trend as well? Absolutely not.

It's been that way for since, I mean, you ask the guys like my dad, he's been trucking for 45 years now. So it was a family business that you kind of got into. Yep. Okay. Yep. It was I mean, I learned it from him so He started farming and he kind of quit trucking. Well, there wasn't enough room for me on the farm So that's when I picked trucking up and I love it.

I still do love it Obviously there's days that aren't great, but there's that way in anything, right? But no the equipment cost is definitely it's it's it's ridiculous or you know, we're all for the same rates we were on for and you know, back before the, before COVID, you know, and equipment is almost doubled in cost and parts and tires. I mean, everything is almost doubled. Yep.

You know, my first brand new livestock trailer I bought was in 2012 and I paid $81,000 for that trailer. I picked up a very similar specced trailer Sunday morning and it was $168,000. Holy crap. It was double the cost. So, it's kind of the same in growing the pigs. We've been paid the same rate since 2013. We've never had an increase. But yet, the barn costs.

Yeah, look at what it costs to redo your barn. Right? I mean, yeah. It probably costs about, just to remodel your barn, probably costs what it did to build them. So we're putting in gates and doing some solid sides and stuff right now. Yep. Probably should be looking at slots and that kind of stuff, even though they're not bad, but like, you know, you're doing all that stuff.

My barn's a 26 years old. So, I mean, yeah, we got a quote a year or two ago. I think 2022 we got a quote. It's three quarters of a million dollars to redo everything. We paid less than that for the site. Yep. Let's talk about this a little bit. So I went to the Western store yesterday, Western Edge, and got to talk with owner Melanie Edge.

We're under $4. So under $4. So we just cut every farmer's paycheck in half now and caught twice as much to borrow it. What do you guys think the next three years looks like? It feels negative. It doesn't look good. And I'm not probably a good one to ask because like I said, this is year four for farming for me. So I've seen nothing but good until this year. I feel like it's sideways.

There's nothing that seems like it's going to break a lot of news out up or down. I mean, you'd have to come up with a lot of demand for this to go up, or you'd have to come up with a crop failure. See, you know, like, I don't think, somebody asked me the other day, and I don't think new trucks are going to go back to $30,000. So everything costs more.

Now, I've tried to charge more, and yet I'm getting beaten up even more in price because now it's that competitive because everybody's worried about it so that they're all lowering their prices. I don't know what the right stance is. Do you just...

I think Cory's got a good theory on why truck costs are as high as they are based upon his most recent discoveries, or at least paying more attention to what he discovered. Well, we're looking at upgrading the wife's minivan, and we're looking at maybe going to an SUV. Yep. Well, if your wife does anything for the farm or the business, I mean, that's a business expense for a vehicle.

Well, you can't pull the bean head with the minivan? Actually, it's got a... See, you can ride that off. Yeah, but you can only... If it's under 6,000 pounds, you can only ride off $20,000 of it. Okay. If it's over 6,000 pounds, you can ride up to 80% of the value off towards your business. So I'm looking at SUVs, right? And they're more than dang trucks now. They're ridiculous.

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