(upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

I started with a podcast which led into an XM radio show, which led into a national television show, which led into me being right here today.

But today has nothing to do with me.

Today is all about Mike Newland.

How're you doing, Mike?

- I'm very well, Rob, how are you?

- Good, thanks for coming.

You came a ways.

- Yes, wasn't that bad of a drive.

Just a nice stroll today.

- You are from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

- How about I help?

Wapakoneta.

- Wapakoneta.

- West Central Ohio.

- West Central Ohio.

- So anybody that's been through Ohio on I-75 goes right through the middle of Wapa.

We're 50 miles north of Dayton.

- [Rob] Could you fit more consonants into a name of a town?

- I didn't name it, but it is a mouthful to be honest with you.

- Do you abbreviate?

- Wapak.

- Wapak?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- We get it down to five letters.

- Okay, let's talk more about abbreviation, shall we?

(Mike laughs) Director of Agriculture Business Development at the Propane Education Research & Council.

Come on, Mike.

(Rob laughs) - That's the true title.

So, how about we go with PERC?

- PERC.

- Propane Education & Research Council.

- Okay, so what do you do?

- Our organization, we're an industry organization, much like the National Corn Growers the Soybean Association.

So we're funded by our industry.

We really have three primary tasks.

So our organization's responsible for safety training.

So we develop all kinds of training modules for propane professionals around the country that they're able to use and use in their organizations.

We do the outreach for the industry or promotion of our fuel within various markets, kinda like what we're doing today.

And then we also, we do invest in some product development projects with private industries.

So if we have a company that's looking to develop a new engine, for example, we may invest some money in them, some of the money from our industry to further promote our industry.

- Gotcha.

Now, it says on here, "Do not make any Hank Hill jokes."

(Mike laughs) - Yeah, I hear those a lot.

- You probably hear your share of 'em, don't you?

- Every trade show that I go to.

Multiple times a day.

- Yeah, but the one line from that whole show you gotta love is where he goes, "Bobby, butane is a bastard gas."

- That's true, I hear that a lot.

It's not the most quoted, but should be up there.

- [Rob] The propane and propane accessories.

- Correct, that's the one.

You bet.

- A lot of people probably don't realize how much they use propane.

- Absolutely.

I mean, I think as you get to the center of the country where we are today, where I'm from, most folks have a pretty good handle of what propane is.

You get to the coast and they understand that it may run a barbecue grill, but I don't know that they understand much beyond that what propane can do.

So that's what our organization does.

And I spend my time in the ag space obviously, and I'm not sure everybody in ag understands how much more we could do with propane around the farm.

- [Rob] I don't.

- Well- - I mean, it heats my house, it heats my shop, I use it to dry corn with, odd stuff like the grill and the forklift.

Besides that, what else could I be using it for?

- So, we run a lot of irrigation engines around the country with propane.

Think about getting an electric line to a center of a section.

It's tough to do as you get to the middle of the country.

It's pretty easy to put a 500-gallon or a 1000-gallon propane tank out there next to an engine.

So we do a lot of irrigation with propane.

Some of the new things that we're looking into and doing that are over the last few years, I guess are called new, we do weed flaming with propane.

And I know we're gonna go there.

- Hold up though, because we need to talk about this.

It is the coolest say on a history of the coolest meter.

Weed flaming, tell me what that is.

- So we take a toolbar behind a tractor.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- We mount row units essentially for inner row open flame, if you will.

So we've got a torch and a hood to keep that flame from coming in contact with a growing crop.

So we can do it pre-plant and take care of any weeds that are there, or we can run it early post-emerge and actually weed between the rows of corn and soybeans.

- Okay, so basically, for people that don't speak farmer ease, what you're talking about, you're taking a blow torch, a flame thrower, and you are burning living weeds until they are no longer burning.

- We're doing that times 16 rows in some cases.

So the biggest one commercially available today is a 16-row.

So it's a big unit.

So we can do 16 rows at a time.

And you're exactly correct, we're disrupting the weed cells and killing that plant with an open flame.

- You're burning a living cred out 'em.

- I can't say that.

You can say that, I can't say that.

- Because of what?

I mean, it is what you're doing, right?

- We like to think it's a little more scientific than that.

But when you boil it down, I mean, it is kind of a... - We don't have weed activists here on the show.

(Mike laughing) No, one's gonna be, "I can't believe you are burning weeds to death."

- No.

- We're all good with that.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- There are no good weeds, only dead weeds.

- Yeah, tell me the benefits of this over like spraying herbicides.

- Well, I think it fits the organic space incredibly well, obviously.

It's proved organic.

So there's the easy one.

This spring, there was some uncertainty about chemistries.

Could we get what we wanted?

There were a number of units.

In fact, the folks that are making these units were sold out.

I think part of that was a result of that fear, if you will.

But also I think where it has an application for maybe a traditional pesticide guy is if you've got a lot of weed resistance, I think it's an option at least to explore, to take care of some of that resistance.

And maybe you do it on a rotating basis and just clean up a farm or two a year to try to keep those resistant weed populations down.

- Yeah, well, let's take a, there's a weed called water hemp, right?

- Yep, yeah.

- It's getting to where you cannot kill it with any herbicide out there.

- Correct.

- Roundup, won't touch it.

I mean, you can go down a list.

You can still burn the hell out of it.

I mean, you could burn it to a crisp.

- This tool does not care what it touches.

It's going to take care of it.

If it's a growing plant, it's going to kill it.

Which is why we've gotta be pretty careful.

Corn's not as sensitive as soybean because of the growing points.

But when we start talking about post weed flaming in soybeans, we've gotta be pretty careful in understanding what's going on and how to do it because of the growing point.

- You've been around one of these?

- I have.

- It's like Top Gun, isn't it?

- It's pretty cool.

It does make some noise.

- It is loud.

I mean, it's like a jet going off.

- Yeah.

- It's pretty cool.

- When you've got 16 torches or, well, you know, they come in eight, 12 and 16 row.

I mean, it's a big unit.

We're burning a lot of fuel, yeah.

- So, the guy in a tractor cab is running all this, right?

He's got a flame thrower times 10, times whatever, right behind him.

He's burning weeds to death.

What song is he listening to on the radio?

- Wow, it's gotta be some type of...

It could be "Top Gun."

- That would be a good one.

- Could be a Kenny Loggins.

- Kenny Loggins?

- Or could be something heavy metal.

- Could be.

Yeah, I think Kenny Loggins is probably- - Okay.

- Yeah, except for Footloose.

That wouldn't fit, would it?

- It would not.

It would not.

- Now I gotta cut.

Okay.

(Rob laughing) Footloose.

Is this something that's picking up?

Because it's been around for a while.

- It has been around for a while.

We're seeing interest pick up.

Obviously we're doing everything we can to speed that progression.

This year, like I said, the guys are sold out.

At least when I talked to 'em earlier in the year, they were pretty close.

Now some of that may have been supply chain issues, but the sales of them are going very well.

- We had a late spring, right?

In planting.

So we're looking towards fall already.

When we have a late spring, generally means a late fall, which means a guy like myself is going to have to buy a lot more propane to dry his crop than usual.

- Yeah.

- What are we looking at as far as price?

- Well, the good news is, we were talking a little bit before we started taping, but the spread, we normally have a spread to the other energies in our favor, in the favor of propane.

That spread is bigger today than it historically has been.

So we're at a historically large spread versus gasoline and diesel.

So that- - Just 'cause they're so high.

- Yeah, I would say that that's some of it.

We've really done pretty darn well, our industry, in the prices, for whatever reason versus the others.

And you know, we could do a whole nother show on why that I think they've ran up so much, but that's neither here nor there.

But as you get into fall, what I can tell you about dryer fuel is we've got an abundance of fuel.

We only consume about 40 to 50% on an annual basis.

So the propane that's available for us here in the U.S.

So we're exporting a decent amount of it, 50-plus percent every year.

So supply is not an issue.

I would encourage anybody that is thinking about drying corn to have a conversation with your local propane supplier today, as early as you can.

Not driving down the road with the combine on the way to the first field of corn.

- That's when I'm gonna think about it.

- Yeah, well, that's when everybody will, but I'd rather have those conversations today when nobody's under pressure.

We don't have to lock anything in today, but as soon as you can, have those conversations, they're a lot easier to do not heading to that first field from a planning standpoint.

- We've gotten to a place where we're used to things not being available.

We're used to things being a really high price.

You're saying we do have enough propane for this fall.

- We do.

It's now, can we get into a situation?

From a logistics crunch, we can.

Because all those gallons have to come on a truck to the farms, to the grain dryer.

So that's still a possibility.

Do I think we're looking at a 2019 scenario where we really pinched our logistics?

I don't think we are.

The crop is not as late as 2019 in any part of the country.

So I think we're in a better spot today than we definitely were in 2019.

The good news is we have an internal tool that I manage and run.

We make all that information available to our internal industry that looks at the entire corn crop across the Corn Belt.

And we can look and see how this year's crop's progressing to like 22 years worth of data now.

So we know kind of where we're sitting, we know what that crop's doing, we know it's progressing from a- - And which I did.

- From maturity standpoint.

(Mike laughing) And so we're watching that every single week.

And that gives us chances to plan and get ready for what we face in the fall.

- Let's talk about you a little bit.

Wapakoneta, Ohio.

You've got- - Fifth generation.

I'm gonna go right there with you.

- Fifth generation what?

- In Wapakoneta.

- You are?

- I am.

It's the first time I've lived there in my life, but yeah, that's my hometown of my mother and my mother's family.

So yeah, fifth generation.

I didn't want anybody to just hear your intro fifth generation 'cause- - [Rob] You're fifth generation.

- I'm trying to one up you.

- What do he call it, Wapakonetees?

- I would say Ikes, but I don't know that.

- Ice?

- I don't know that.

I don't wanna speak 'cause I'm pretty young to the town.

I don't wanna take any liberties.

- In Bradford, it's called a Bradonian.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Nice.

- I don't know, I just made it up.

- So I was gonna tell you a little bit about this little town of 9,500 people on I-75.

- That's pretty big.

- Well, it is.

- It's 400 in my hometown.

- Okay, so it's big.

- Okay.

- It's home to the birthplace of a very well known, worldwide-known individual.

- Madonna.

- Not, no.

I would say bigger.

In my opinion, he could be the most known person worldwide.

- Bigger than Madonna.

- Neil Armstrong, birthplace of Neil Armstrong.

- Never heard of her.

- Where could you go in the world and not have anybody know who Neil Armstrong is.

- I guess in Russia.

- Yeah, I bet they do.

I bet they do.

So anyway, today I brought you a copy, a reproduction of the copy of the Wapakoneta Daily News the day after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

- That's really cool.

- Yeah, so there you go.

- So it's like the kids, they don't even know.

This is what they did before the internet.

Look at the size of that thing.

- That's nice, isn't it?

- Yeah.

I mean, it even unfolds.

It's the whole paper.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- You're gonna catch up on all kinds of town history.

- Nixon Resorts.

Wow, this was very cool.

So, I mean, are they proud of that there in Wapak?

- You would not believe?

So we have a Moon Fest every July.

Gosh, I hope that's right.

Every July.

- Does it involve taking your pants down and showing the moon?

- No different moon.

So it's everything obviously celebrates the landing, the Armstrong Air & Space Museum is in Wapakoneta.

You oughta put it on your short list of places to visit with the family.

- Okay.

All right.

- It's a great little museum, so.

- All right.

- Very proud of the heritage that they have with the space program.

- Very, very cool.

(Rob laughing) You're married how long?

- Oh, '94.

- It was not a trick question.

- 28 years.

- I'm not gonna get out a calculator for... - My wife's gonna watch this though, I've gotta be right.

28 years.

- No, nobody watches.

28 years, huh?

- 28 years.

- Okay, congratulations.

How many kids?

- Two.

Boy and a girl, 23 and 21.

- Okay.

And we talked very prominent in their growing up was showing livestock.

- Yeah, they've got a crazy dad.

So, yeah.

4-H was big in my life and my wife's life.

So it was important to us when we had children, I think there's a great lesson to be learned in 4-H. And it was important for us to raise the kids and give them the opportunity to do the same things that we did.

So yeah, we had early on rabbits.

Interesting little critters.

- 4-H rabbits.

- 4-H rabbits.

But then we migrated to spending a lot more money doing show pigs.

- So rabbits were like a gateway- - Drug, yeah.

- For livestock.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

Is there much showing to live?

I mean, do you like lead them like you do a steer?

- No.

You walk up and put 'em in a box.

- [Rob] put the rabbit in a box.

- And then the judge takes it out the other side of the box and does everything.

So literally you're just a transport vehicle from your pen to this little box.

- What can you judge on a rabbit?

Ear length?

- You would not believe it.

- There's certain things.

- It's another show.

I mean, honestly, it's another show to get into, but.

- Okay, so what did you migrate to?

- No, seriously, you raised hogs.

- I did.

- Think of what makes a good production hog.

- How they taste.

- Well, but it's bigger than that.

It's the cuts, it's the, you know... - Yeah, you want the big loin, the big hands, yeah.

- It's the same thing on a smaller scale.

- I still think you just looked at the ears.

(Rob laughing) - Yeah, no.

- So what did rabbits lead your kids into?

- Well, we got down the path.

They did great.

Too well, made it in my opinion.

Too easy wins.

- [Rob] Really you guys were owning the rabbit- - We were doing a lot of traveling buying stock.

- [Rob] Showing circuit.

- Yeah, so anyway- - I thought you just caught 'em.

- No, no, come on, Rob.

- They're in every yard.

- They are, not these kind.

- Okay.

- So anyway, they wanted to get into showing pigs.

They had been around them with me and my friends.

And let's just say the rest is history.

- Pigs don't hop like the rabbit.

- No.

They will run but not for very far.

- So with hogs, you're talking extremely competitive in the showing world.

- We were not as- - You weren't.

- Not like today.

I mean, we've only been out for five or six years, but it seems like an eternity based on how things have really amped up.

- Oh, yeah.

- Even since we got out.

- You know there was a show on like Discovery or TLC or I don't know, whatever it was, about showing pigs?

- I did not see it.

- Have you seen that?

- No.

- They're all the drama and their snapping fingers and stuff like that.

(Mike laughing) Was that you guys?

- No.

- No.

- But I can't tell if you're serious enough.

- No, I'm actually serious.

I don't know the name of it.

I don't know, like Queen Pig or so, I don't know what it was.

- Man, I've gotta go check that out.

No, that was not us.

We were couple jackpot shows a year and the county fair and the state fair type stuff.

- Okay.

There is some of some pushback.

You see it on social media about people complaining about the showing of animals and that, because it's just too much pressure.

The kids don't really get anything out of it.

They don't really do anything.

What's your opinion?

- I think it's great for the youth of the day to invest time in something that is meaningful to 'em and have a direct impact on how hard they work and the outcome that they get at the end of the project.

I think it's one of the best things our kids did.

They participated in Junior Fair Board, which in our county meant, they had a group of young people that actually had some input on how the county fair was ran.

Not 100%.

4-H camp counselors, which I think was invaluable for them to mature as younger people and have some leadership skills developed.

So I think all those things are really cool.

- Yeah.

I think it's very cool, the story of yourself and your family.

I mean, you went from rabbits to pigs and the whole showing of the pigs, and then at the end of the pigs life, you use propane.

- How about that?

Right to the grill.

(Rob laughing) And those animals came home with us, just like I'm sure that if your kids were in 4-H, and I think they probably were.

- Yeah.

- Well, you were different, you had a barnfull, but they were used to eating the ones from the farm, I'm sure at your house too and that's- - Oh yeah, they taste better.

- That's exactly right.

That's a life lesson for our kids that they learned as well.

- All right.

Tell me about the propane motors, the engines.

Anything new on that?

- Yeah, we've talked in the past once or twice and I danced around an engine that we were very excited about and now we're able to talk about it, so- - [Rob] Yeah, the interviewers hate that.

- I know.

So February 14th- - [Rob] It's a Valentine's day.

- This company, little company called Cummins.

announced that they were gonna make some spark-ignited engines which a is departure from their diesel platform, obviously.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And they're coming out and gonna release a propane-powered 6.7 liter, which most folks around the Midwest may know what that base engine is.

That's the Ram engine that you see the Cummins badge on all the Rams.

So there's gonna be a propane version of that motor too.

- Well, how do you like fill?

I mean, there's not a gas station.

- Well, I think where this is gonna fit and where we're targeting first, this isn't my market, but I can tell you what the strategy is.

It's gonna be with a lot of fleets.

So think of maybe a beverage delivery truck, big truck.

Single-axle type semi that delivers all day and then goes back to the same spot.

So we see a lot of that fleet type application first, but that way they can have an on-site fueling station.

And it makes it pretty easy.

They just fill up as needed or every night if needed and they're ready to go the next day.

- With like the Top Gun hoses.

- As you're going down the road?

- No, like, you pull 'em in and they clamp it on- - Oh, yeah, absolutely.

- Like you're absolutely fueling a jet.

- It's super easy.

The equipment is... - [Rob] It's cool.

- It's made for non-leaking type applications.

So we've got those exactly style of refueling equipment for propane.

- I can't remember if it's one of the gas.

Do you put an odor into... - There is an odor in propane.

That's correct.

- That's so you can smell it.

- That's correct, smells like sulfur.

- Otherwise it'd be odor-free?

- That's exactly correct, which is a bad thing.

- How long have you been doing that?

Like forever?

- As long as I can remember, but I would have to ask and I don't wanna answer without having the exact date.

- Okay, do you hate natural gas?

- No.

- [Rob] You don't like it though.

- Well, as- - Do you bet you didn't think you were gonna be asked that question.

- I did not.

(Rob laughing) We have similar spaces we all like to play in.

We have a little more energy in propane than natural gas does.

So as you get into greenhouse applications, when you're thinking about heating your house, we can hold a constant temperature a little easier than the natural gas application can.

- [Rob] They were talking smack about you.

- Were they?

- Yeah.

- Man, I wish I'd had been here the same day though.

Anyway, but no, we've got some other common enemies together, let's say it that way.

- [Rob] Charcoal.

- Not charcoal, no.

- You don't like get together with a natural gas guy and start ripping on charcoal?

- No, no, we don't.

- Need the little starter fluid too.

- No, we don't.

- Best way to start charcoal is with a propane.

- It is, torches make everything go fire.

- They do.

- Yeah, they absolutely do.

(Rob laughing) - Well, if people want to learn more about propane and propane accessories, where do they go?

- Our website at PERC is propane.com.

It's pretty simple.

All things, residential, commercial applications, agriculture, on road, off-road applications, all the things that propane can do can be found at propane.com.

- [Rob] And PERC is P-E-R-C. - Yeah, the Propane Education & Research Council.

- And you're the Director of Agriculture Business Development at Propane... (Rob laughing) - Stuff to fit in on a business card.

- Have you ever talked to them about maybe shortening the whole thing?

- No, I like it.

It's awesome.

- You like it long?

- Sure.

- Okay.

- Yes.

(Rob laughing) - Anything new coming up with propane?

Anything with that guy that owns Twitter now?

- Oh, Elon?

- Yeah.

- I don't think so.

- You should we call him.

- But we need to reach out to him.

- Yeah.

- We're the cleanest combustion fuel on the planet.

He should be all over and supporting us.

- [Rob] You would think so.

- Yeah.

- I mean, I could see if I could line- - You wanna hit him up?

- Something up.

- Yeah, that'd be awesome.

- You can direct message him on Twitter.

- He does respond pretty well too, I think.

- He hasn't to me.

- Oh, you've been hitting him up?

(Rob laughing) - No.

- Okay.

- But I kind of want to though.

Any other place to find like yourself, social media?

- LinkedIn, obviously.

I'm on Twitter as well.

You can find me on both of those channels @Ag Mike Newland.

- @Ag Mike Newland.

- Yep.

- I like that LinkedIn.

- Do you?

- Yeah, it's more professional.

- We try to keep it that way.

I'm not on some of those other platforms like you are, but.

- The TikTok.

- You won't find me there.

- Natural gas is on TikTok.

Mike Newland, (both laughing) thank you very much.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.