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[00:00:08] Mike Howell:
The Dirt. With me, Mike Howell, an eKonomics podcast, where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by eKonomics.com, farming’s go to informational resource. I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition research, news, and issues, helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in.
Well, hello again, everyone. Welcome back for season five of The Dirt. It seems like just yesterday that we got this podcast up and going, and glad everybody is tuning in for our fifth season. We’ve got some great things coming to you this year. Really excited to get started. I met a man in Starkville, Mississippi at the row crop short course this past December, and he was telling about a program that he got started here in Mississippi, as a matter of fact, last year, and it really got to me. I really thought it was a great program. I thought we would have him on and talk about some of the stuff he has going. Today, I’m pleased to have Jason Franklin with us. Jason is the pastor of Clarksdale Methodist Church. Jason, welcome to The Dirt.
[00:01:15] Jason Franklin:
Thank you. Glad to be here.
[00:01:17] Mike Howell:
Jason, if you will, kind of tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, where you come from, and how you ended up in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
[00:01:23] Jason Franklin:
Well, I’m a Mississippi boy. I grew up in North Mississippi, around the Tupelo, Mississippi area. I actually grew up in a small town, south of Tupelo, the big city of Okolona, Mississippi, and many people probably never heard of it, but if you’ve driven to Starkville in 045 over the years, you had to go through Okolona to get to Starkville. But anyway, Mississippi boy, born and raised. I was, uh, electrical lineman for about eight years, and I worked back in the ’94 ice storm. We’re just getting through an ice storm here. And so during that period of time, I began to feel like God was calling me into ministry and began to explore that. And so about 30 years ago now, I began a full-time ministry. And so I’ve served churches all over North Mississippi, from Starkville over to Fulton, Tupelo, New Albany, Jumpertown, Ripley.
So I’ve always been in North Mississippi. And went through a period of time over the last couple of years, where I really kind of stepped back from ministry. We’d gone through COVID. That was a tough time on churches and ministers. And then we went through denominational issue and then some other personal things happened. And so I stepped out of ministry for a little while and really thought that I was going to do some construction work, actually. A friend of mine owned a construction company, and so I decided to step away from the large church ministry. And I went to a little small church, and I was working in construction. And a friend of mine that’s over the Global Methodist Church calls me one day out of the blue and says, “Hey, I have a church who wants to interview you.” And I said, “Well, I appreciate that. Thank you for thinking about me, but I’m really just not interested in serving a large church right now.”
And kind of just brushed it aside. Well, he came back to me a couple months later and said, “Hey, I wanna talk to you again about this church.” And I said, “Well, again, like I told you the first time you asked, I’m not interested in that.” And he said, “Well, just pray about it and let’s talk about it, because they’re really interested in interviewing you. I think this church has been good for you.” And so I just finally said, “Okay,” long story short, “Okay, I’ll go for the interview.” But then I stopped and I said, “Well, where is the church?” And he said, “Clarksdale, Mississippi.” And I said, “The Delta?” (Laughs). He said, “Yes.” And my Delta people know this, but over the years of being in ministry, the Delta was not seen as a prime place to be sent as a pastor. (Laughs).
It was not notorious for having growing churches, if you will. And so I just said to him, “I’m not sure.” He said, “Well, just go for the interview.” I said, “Okay, I can do that.” So I went for the interview, I was sitting in this room around a table of probably 20 people that was asking me all these questions, and about 15 minutes into the interview, I went, “Okay, this is where the Lord wants me to be.” (Laughs). The Holy Spirit just said that. And so that’s how I got to the Mississippi Delta, that’s how I got to Clarksdale Methodist Church, and I’m actually starting my third year here.
[00:04:34] Mike Howell:
Jason, I really appreciate that story. I’m familiar with Northeast Mississippi. I went to Mississippi State. Not sure if you went to Mississippi State, but I see over your shoulder there, you’re still a Mississippi State supporter anyway.
[00:04:45] Jason Franklin:
Let me let you scan my office right quick.
[00:04:47] Mike Howell:
Okay. Yeah, you’re a Mississippi state man just like I am.
[00:04:50] Jason Franklin:
(Laughs).
[00:04:50] Mike Howell:
We’ve got a lot in common. I did a lot of work in the northeast part of the state when I was there and in graduate school. I traveled that highway 45 corridor you mentioned, did a lot of work there at the experiment station at Verona. I know those little towns you mentioned quite well, have a lot of fond memories there. And my first job out of college, I got stuck in Leland, Mississippi. So very similar place to where you are, right in the middle of the Delta. And it’s a different place. I had a lot of fond memories there, still love to go visit that area. But if you’re not from the Delta, it’s a little bit different place, and people have to get used to that.
[00:05:21] Jason Franklin:
It really is. It’s in Mississippi, but it’s much different than the rest of Mississippi. I’ll just say that. In a good way.
[00:05:27] Mike Howell:
Exactly. So let’s talk a little bit about Clarksdale. We have people listening from all over the world and may not know exactly what we’re talking about when we talk about the Delta in general. Talk a little bit about why Clarksdale is different and the Delta in general, how it’s different than other parts of the world.
[00:05:42] Jason Franklin:
So the Mississippi Delta is a place that has been known for having some of the most fertile soil in the world, quite frankly. It came about due to the flooding of the Mississippi River over many, many thousands of years. It’s a Louisville plane and it’s really just some of the richest soil ever. And so people have, since the early 1800s, come here and establish farms because, again, it was well known as a place that can grow great crops. And so the Mississippi Delta, from Memphis, Tennessee all the way down, I guess, to Vicksburg, and maybe even down into New Orleans a little bit, it encompasses the Mississippi Delta in the West Mississippi, and it hugs the Mississippi River, literally follows along the path of the Mississippi River. And so, the economy has always been based on the agriculture work and business, by a long shot.
In fact, history teaches us there are families that live here today that made so much money during the cotton boom of the late 1800s, that they’re still living off that money now.
[00:06:52] Mike Howell:
When a lot of people talk about the Delta, they think back to the cotton days. And when I was growing up, I didn’t think there was another crop. I thought cotton was king and-
[00:07:00] Jason Franklin:
(Laughs).
[00:07:00] Mike Howell:
… Everybody had to grow cotton to be considered a farmer. I know things have changed over the last 20 years, and we’ve discovered we can grow other crops there in the Delta, and I really miss walking those cotton fields like I used to. I think about the cotton fields in August, and I’m kind of glad I don’t have to walk them quite as much as I used to now. That was still some pretty rough days. Jason, talk a little bit about the program that we wanted to talk about today and how this lesson to crops program got started. What led up to that?
[00:07:25] Jason Franklin:
Yeah. So again, not being from Mississippi Delta, I really had no idea of the connection that communities have to the agriculture community, or the agriculture industry, rather. In Mississippi, agriculture is the number one industry, okay? And the Mississippi Delta is the number one source of all things. And so you don’t really know that. I don’t really know that, coming into the Mississippi Delta. I was interviewed a couple of months back for a production Mississippi State put out. And the question was, what did you think about farming before you came to the Mississippi Delta, to Clarksdale, Mississippi? And my honest answer was (laughs) I didn’t. I didn’t think about the Mississippi Delta. I didn’t think about farming in general. Listen, I sit down at my table, I eat a meal, I assume that meal came from somewhere, but never thought about where it came from. I put on a T-shirt every single morning that’s cotton pretty much.
You know, somebody produced that cotton, but I never really think about who produced the cotton and how it arrived at this package that I bought at Sam’s Glove. You don’t think about stuff like that. And so, when you move into the Mississippi Delta, it doesn’t take you very long to realize that everything that’s accomplished or done here, is all based on the rise and fall of the agriculture community. In other words, everybody in Clarksdale, Mississippi fully understands the importance of the farming community. And so, when you come to Mississippi Delta and serve as the pastor, what you realize really quick is everything that you do or want to do is directly connection to the agriculture community. I was here about three months and I had this couple come to me following worship one Sunday morning and said, “Hey, will you be in your office this week?” “Sure, Monday through Thursday, 9:00 to 4:00, love to talk to you.” “Well, good. We wanna come by. We’ve got something that we’re going through. We just want to share with you and invite you to be in prayer with us about this.”
And so they came in, this couple, probably my age, I’m 53, come in, sit down, and they begin talking about their entire family for the last 75, 80 years have been in farming. However, the last few years… Now, I didn’t know this. The last few years, they tell me, have been really hard on the farming community, to a point where they’re gonna have to file bankruptcy. They’re gonna lose all their land, they’re gonna lose their homes, they’re gonna lose their equipment, they’re gonna lose everything. And of course, uh, very sympathetic. They’re also very like, “Okay, how can I help you walk through this?” And so we began a conversation about what I could do to help them.
They leave and you think, well, that’s maybe a one-off. That’s an outlier that probably doesn’t tell a whole story. Well, another three months went by and multiple other conversations I’m having with my church members about the possibility of having to get out of the farming industry. And you go, okay, well, this is not just a one-off or an ally, this is a crisis. You begin having conversations with other farmers as you get connected to the community and they begin to share with you, “Hey, this is what we’re going through. This is what I’m having happen.” That was in ’24. So as we move out of ’24, start to move into ’25, I become so aware of this crisis that I go, okay, I’m a pastor in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, serving a Mississippi Delta congregation (laughs) who’s 85 probably percent of this congregation is in agriculture. Every single person, every single family in this community is experiencing a crisis. I’m aware of this right now, at this point.
[00:11:24] Mike Howell:
It’s not just in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I travel all over the world, and I’m seeing this in a lot of our small farming communities across the country. These same things are happening, people that’s been in farming for hundreds of years, they’re facing these same challenges. And last season on The Dirt, we talked about a lot of these challenges, what’s going on with the economy and how people are struggling. But it seems like a lot of your people are opening up to you and sharing some stories, and that’s one thing that I find really unusual about the farmers. Most of the time, farmers don’t wanna open up, they don’t wanna talk about this kind of stuff. How are you getting the people to open up and share what’s going on and so you can do something with them?
[00:12:01] Jason Franklin:
Well, obviously, I’m brilliant and very persuasive. No, that’s not (laughs).
[00:12:05] Mike Howell:
(Laughs).
[00:12:07] Jason Franklin:
That’s, that’s not it at all. So what I do, anytime I am going into a new community, I try to connect with my church for sure, but I always see myself as not just a pastor to the church I’m serving, but a pastor to the community. So people began to talk to me about the farming crisis, because I was interested in it. I pursued it. I said, “Okay, so I’m done when it comes to the farming community. Educate me. Tell me why this is a crisis.” And so I began to ask questions, not just of my own farmers, but of farmers that I have met through the rotary community or through other connections that I formed here. And people just began to talk to me, because again, I’m interested and I care about this community.
I care about the people that are struggling the way they are. And I think when you care and people know that you’re genuine about what you’re trying to accomplish, I think they’re more open to you than not. However, (laughs) farmers are still farmers, and like you said, they don’t notoriously open up and share their feelings with you. Another thing that I did, I went to people’s farms. I went and rode on people’s combines. I went and rode around in their pickup trucks, and they showed me their farms, they showed me their crops, and they were teaching me the difference between why one row of cotton looks better than another row of cotton. So again, I just invested myself in the culture of this community. And in those conversations, I’m learning, I’m listening, and I’m trying to figure out at this point, how can us, as a community of faith, how can we help this group of people that mean so much, not just to the Mississippi Delta, and not just to Clarksdale, Mississippi, but to America?
How can I support this group of people? And you’ve heard me say this at Starful. One of the things that I’ve often been frustrated with, with the faith community and churches, is we’re not always notorious for showing up in ways in which we should in the midst of crisis. We’re really good at throwing out platitudes like, “Oh, you’re in my thoughts and prayers. Oh, just know that I’m praying with you. And, oh, if there’s anything I can ever do, just let me know.” Well, when a family who’s been farming piece of land for over a 100 years has just lost the family farm, in other words, generations of farmers that have come before them were successful and kept the farm going, and now it’s gonna end with them, and they’re 55 years old, and they’re trying to find another job, another vocation, and they have a wife, and three children, and two grandchildren, and you say, “Well, just know you’re in my thoughts and my prayers.” Well, I can tell you what they think about your thoughts and prayers at that point.
You can keep them. (Laughs). And so that’s what I try to do. I said, okay, so how can we concretely, boots on the ground, support a group of people that mean so much to us? And so I was having this conversation in November 2024 with one of my young farming families, and we were talking about the 2025 year. And these are the exact words he said to me. He said, “I need a home run in 2025. I need everything to go great for me. I need the sun, the wind, the rain, the prices, the price points, the yields. I need everything to go perfect for me. I need a home run in 2025.” And he said, “If I have a home run, right now on paper, I will lose $400,000.” In 2024, we had the best yields the Mississippi Delta has probably ever had. We yielded better on soybeans, cotton, corn, rice, everything.
We yielded better. And one of my biggest farmers in this community, he probably farms eight, 9,000 acres, something along that line. He lost three million dollars in 2024.
[00:16:05] Mike Howell:
Right. It’s tough.
[00:16:07] Jason Franklin:
And 2023 was even worse, he says. I wasn’t here in ’23. So you’ve had multiple years, back-to-back years, where we have yielded more than we ever have, and we’re losing more money than we ever have. That’s a crisis.
[00:16:23] Mike Howell:
You can’t keep doing this forever.
[00:16:24] Jason Franklin:
(Laughs). You cannot. Listen, I’m no mathematician, but that don’t math out for me.
[00:16:28] Mike Howell:
No, sir.
[00:16:29] Jason Franklin:
Back to that young man that tell me he would lose $400,000. 2025 starts and we have the wettest spring we’ve had on record. At one point, he only had 15% of his cotton crop planted, and we’re going into almost May, so he didn’t have a home run.
[00:16:46] Mike Howell:
Right. For those that aren’t really familiar with cotton production, we like to have most of the crop planted by the 1st of May, and last year we had basically none of the crop planted by the 1st of May.
[00:16:56] Jason Franklin:
Right, absolutely. So you had a bad year in ’24, you’re in ’25, need a home run, and you hadn’t even got a base hit yet. And so I asked this young farmer, I said, “What can I do for you? What can, what can our community of faith do for you? What do you need right now?” And he said, “I just need somebody to be in my corner. I need somebody that’s gonna support me. I need to be encouraged. That’s what I need.” And he and I have become really good friends, so we have some really good open conversations, and that’s not normal for the farming community.
I was laying in bed one night, and I said, “Lord, how can I, as the pastor of a community that’s aggrellated, that is totally dependent on agriculture to succeed, how can I support them?” Well, one of the things I decided to do is, okay, let’s just see, let’s have a breakfast one morning, middle of February 2025, let’s just have a breakfast and let’s just invite all the farmers in the community to come, let’s have a short devotion, and let’s just let them know that, hey, this church is gonna support you. We’re behind you. So that’s a very concrete way.
And so we made up flyers, put them out around town, and we were hoping maybe 50, 75 people. We had nearly 200 people show up for that breakfast. And at that point, you go, okay, so this is a big thing. Not that the breakfast is a big deal, but the crisis is a big deal, and everybody in our community is feeling it. And so you go, all right, this is needed. And so we had this breakfast, and we had conversations that morning, and as I sat around, I watched all these farmers just chatting with each other. Now, what they didn’t know at the time, and I don’t know that they really realize it now or not, but they were taking care of their mental health in that moment. They were having conversations without really realizing that we created a space to have conversations with each other about what each other is going through.
[00:19:02] Mike Howell:
Jason, I appreciate you hitting on that mental health. We did a series a couple of years ago, talking specifically about mental health and the farming community. Suicide rates are going up every day in the farming community. It’s not easy for farmers to go out and get help. People think you can go see the psychiatrist and talk to them. In these small communities, everybody knows your pickup. And if your pickup’s sitting in front of the psychiatrist office, everybody’s gonna start talking, what’s going on here? And people are just real leery about doing stuff like that. So I’m glad you’re talking about the mental health aspect of this. It’s something that’s really important. I hope farmers will take advantage of these types of situations. And the more people talk about things, the more the problem is brought to the forefront, and maybe somebody else has some different ideas that can help people get through things. I’m a firm believer in talking to peers about issues and getting better ideas how to solve these problems.
[00:19:52] Jason Franklin:
Well, in these rural communities also, the pastor is the counselor, because we don’t really have the resources. A farmer by and large lives in isolated life, and so he’s not gonna pick up the phone and call Oxford Mississippi and say, “hey, I need to talk to a psychologist. I’m gonna drive over and talk.
[00:20:07] Mike Howell:
Right.
[00:20:07] Jason Franklin:
They don’t work that way. And so you have to be intentional. You have to be intentional about doing things to create opportunities for these guys to check in with each other and check in with people who care about them. We had that gathering and it was such a successful gathering that you go, okay, this is not enough. Obviously, we gotta continue doing this, because they needed this.
So after that meeting, I just sent a text message to about 10 farmers, 15 farmers in my congregation. I said, “Hey, send me every farmer that you know (laughs), send me their contacts, because I’m gonna create a text thread that I send out an encouraging prayer, encouraging scripture every week for our farming community.” So that started the process of thinking outside the box, what can we do? Well, one day, I leave the office and I’m driving into my neighborhood and I pull into my driveway and my next door neighbor, Zach and Anna Catherine Smith, have a little daughter, Lakin, that my wife and I just adore, by the way, they have a sign out front that says, “We’re a proud supporter of St. Elizabeth School.” And so, I had this epiphany.
I had this light bulb moment. I go, “What if we, as a church, purchased some signs that said this field has been prayed over by Clarksdale Methodist Church.” And we just randomly went out all over this community and put signs in the field saying, “Hey, a church member has been here. We have prayed over your field and know that we’re supporting you.” So I had 50 signs made. The following Sunday, after I got the signs in, I stood in the pulpit and I said, “Here’s some signs, and this is my idea.” Well, those 50 signs went out the door in a matter of a minute. And I had people just calling me, text me, “Hey, we need more signs. We need more signs.” So I had 75 more made and distributed them the following week. Well, then I still had people saying, “Hey, I need more signs, need more signs.” So I had 50 more signs made.
And what I said to people, I said, “Listen, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to find the most random field and the most random places, and I want you to go put a sign in that field. But here’s the catch, don’t just stop and put a sign in that field. I want you to walk out into that field, you, your wife, your children, and I want you to have a prayer over that field, a prayer with that farmer, and just ask God to bless that farmer.” And then I said, “If you want to sign your name to the back of it, tell them who you were and that you prayed for the field.” Well, within a couple of weeks, I started getting text, after text, after text, from farmers all around saying, “I showed up today at my farm, and I see this sign, and I’m gonna tell you, it was one of the most meaningful things I have ever experienced in my life.” For the first time, we really feel like people hear us and people are supporting us.
Now, this next story will get you in your heart. So I had this farmer, who I had no idea lives up in Tunica, Mississippi, about an hour away from me. And what I told my church members, “Listen, put a sign in your truck and when you travel outside of Clarksdale, just find a field in another town and put the sign there.” And so, I had this farmer from Tunica, Mississippi, he reaches out to me and he said, “Listen,” he said, “I was having one of the worst days of my life. I have no money. I’m on the verge of bankruptcy and I’m riding around by myself, just thinking about the future.” Now you do with that whatever you wanna do with that. And he says, “I decide I’m gonna go out to one of my furthest fields and I’m just gonna talk to the Lord.” He says he pulls up to this field and lo and behold, he says, he sees a wide sign and he goes, “What the heck is this?”
So he gets out and he sees this sign, it says, this field has been prayed over by Clarksdale Methodist Church. On the back, there’s a family that has all signed their name and they say, “We have prayed for you specifically today.” And he said, “I just dropped to my knees and I wept.” He said, “‘Cause that told me that God hears me, that God knows my need.” You can’t make that stuff up (laughs).
[00:24:17] Mike Howell:
So Jason, you talked about how many signs you’ve purchased and how many you’ve put out, and I’m sure you’ve bought more than the number you’ve just mentioned there. How wide an area do you think you’ve covered blessing these crops and, and praying over farmer’s fields?
[00:24:29] Jason Franklin:
Do you know the name JT Thompson?
[00:24:31] Mike Howell:
No, sir, I do not.
[00:24:32] Jason Franklin:
He is the ranking House of Representative member over the agriculture committee for the United States of America. JT has a picture of him standing in his corn field in Pennsylvania with one of our signs.
[00:24:45] Mike Howell:
Wow, that’s a long way from Clarksdale, Mississippi.
[00:24:48] Jason Franklin:
(Laughs). Yes, absolutely. So it really just took on a life of its own. And so, that was one of the concrete ways we did this. So back to the texting thing, I started out with 25 names. Right now, I have 290 names. Farmers, our farming families that I’m connecting with once a week, people in Macon, Georgia, people in Alabama. And so it’s a way to encourage farmers, but it’s also a way to say, hey, there’s a whole lot of people that care about you and care about what you’re doing. So long story short, we did the initial breakfast, we did the signs, we did the texting thread. Last year we had two more gatherings. We had one in July and then we had one at the end of the year, called Blessing of the Harvest. And so all of these are ways in which our church, our faith community, has set about trying to concretely boots on the ground say, “We’re supporting you.”
Because again, flatitudes just don’t do it when you’re in the middle of a crisis. Other people have heard about what our church is doing. And so I was invited to the Delta Council. The Delta Council is a council that’s made up of members from all the Delta regions, from Memphis all the way down to New Orleans. And the Delta Council is an advocacy group that goes out and tries to get support for our agriculture community. That’s the short of it. I had somebody reach out to me and said, “Hey, listen, we wanna invite you to come to the Delta Council annual meeting and we just want you to have opening prayer.” And then he said, Frank Howell was the guy that was reaching out. Frank said, “And would you just share with the group, probably two, 300 people will be there, what your church is doing.”
Because what I’m trying to accomplish through this podcast, and any chance I get to speak, is I’m trying to encourage other faith-based ministries, other communities of faith to get on board with this to help support the farmers in their area. ‘Cause I want this to be something that goes across the nation and just says, hey, you got people that are supporting you, that love you, and we recognize how important you are to our whole, not just a city and state, but our nation. And so, I was invited to come to the Delta Council to say a prayer and share five minutes of what I’m sharing with you. Well, I had no idea that there was a guy out there filming me, say this prayer. And then out of that five minute thing, I’m starting to get invited to Mississippi State to speak at the road crop.
I’m invited to come on podcast, just like I’m doing today, to share just kind of what we’re doing. I’m actually speaking next week in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to the BASF Annual Convention. And so, there are people that are hearing what we’re doing, that are interested in me trying to help other faith communities establish the same thing, if that makes sense.
[00:27:37] Mike Howell:
So Jason, I understand you’re trying to get this message out across the country, and hopefully we can get the word out to people across the country, help you share that word. How can somebody bring this to their community? If somebody hears this and gets interested in it, what can they do to bring this program to their area, small town in Iowa or Southeast Georgia? We wanna get to every part of the United States. How do we reach these people and how do they get started?
[00:27:59] Jason Franklin:
Well, the first thing you have to do is you have to invest yourself or become interested in what the farming industry, agriculture community is doing, because a lot of people are like me, I assume, really wasn’t interested in it, really didn’t care about it until you’re thrust into the middle of it. And so it’s been a really eye-opening thing for me. And really, if you think about it, the farming industry, the farmer’s life is a great parallel for our spiritual lives, quite frankly. You know, we go out there and plant seeds, and then we just trust that God’s gonna send what he needs to grow in us, what needs to be grown in us. I don’t know of any other occupation that is more faith-based (laughs) than a farmer, quite frankly.
[00:28:41] Mike Howell:
Exactly. You’ve gotta have faith to know that that seed’s gonna come up and grow. And I mean, who would go throw $1,000 an acre in the ground not knowing that something’s gonna happen? You’ve gotta believe that those seeds are gonna grow.
[00:28:52] Jason Franklin:
So what I would say to anybody that listens to this, whether you’re a pastor, whether you’re a counselor in the community, whether you’re just somebody that’s in a faith community that hears this and says, hey, we have farmers here. I wonder if they’re going through what Jason’s talking about his farmers are going through. Well, the answer to that is yes, they are going through this, because our agriculture community as a whole is struggling. So if you’re listening to this, what I would say to you is go to that farmer, go to his fields, find him or her, that family, and say, here’s what I wanna do. I want to help you. I can’t write you a check, but I wanna help support you in a way that I can. How can I pray for you? I think that’s one of the simplest questions you can ask anybody, farming or otherwise, how can I pray for you?
And then, once you connect with that farmer or that farming family, stay connected, send them a text, say, “I wanna encourage you today.” And what I’ve discovered is the Holy Spirit will lay on things on your heart like maybe today is the day you need to reach out to this family. But whether you do it individually or collectively, the signs that we had made up were about $20, $25 a piece. You go out, buy four signs, find four fields, and just say, hey, this field has been prayed over by our family, and put your family name on there. I mean, again, none of this stuff is rocket science, actually. It’s presence, being present for people. And I think that’s what most people going through Christ is need more than anything else. Again, your thought and your prayer is good, but be present. How can I be present in the life of this farming family, this agricultural community?
Again, it doesn’t even have to be a whole church. It can be individualized. But I think just doing something.
[00:30:44] Mike Howell:
Jason, we’ve talked an awful lot today, and I’m sure we could sit here and talk all day, but is there any closing comments you wanna leave us with? Anything that we haven’t touched on, that you think we need to talk about before we sign off today?
[00:30:54] Jason Franklin:
Let me just say this in conclusion. As you rightly pointed out early on in this conversation, there is about a 15% uptick in suicides among our agriculture community right now. And as you said, it’s a group of people that don’t notoriously share their feelings and wanna have conversations. But here’s what I wanna share this day. If you’re one of the people that is considering taking your life, know this. God took the time to create you. He created you for a plan, for a purpose, for a reason. And God has great things in store for your life. Don’t give up on him yet. Allow him the opportunity to do maybe new things in you. You are important, you matter, and there are people that love you and do not wanna do life without you.
[00:31:48] Mike Howell:
Great words of wisdom there, Jason. We really appreciate you taking the time to share this program with us. Glad you’ve got this going and anything we can do to help you keep things going in 2026, let me know. Be glad to help support any way we can. But great program and hope it just gets even bigger and better in the coming year. Farmers are still needing that help even this year and probably for several years to come.
[00:32:09] Jason Franklin:
Absolutely.
[00:32:10] Mike Howell:
Listeners, we appreciate you tuning in this year. As I said earlier, we’ve got some new and exciting things coming for you this year, but if you will hang around for just a couple of moments and we’ll be right back with segment two.
Farming isn’t farming without questions, and now, there’s a place to go for answers. At eKonomics, an entire team of agronomists is waiting and ready to help for free. No question is too big or too small. Visit nutrien-ekonomics, with a K, .com and submit your question with the ask an agronomist feature.
Listeners, welcome back for segment two. We’ve got Dr. Alan Blalock back in the studio with us this week. Alan, welcome back to the dirt.
[00:32:50] Alan Blaylock:
Thanks, Mike. I always enjoy these ask the agronomist questions that we’re going to deal with here.
[00:32:56] Mike Howell:
Alan, today’s question is about nitrogen use efficiency. And the question is, what does nitrogen use efficiency mean, and why does it matter?
[00:33:04] Alan Blaylock:
Well, Mike, there are different ways of describing nitrogen use efficiency, or really use efficiency of any nutrient. There are different ways it’s calculated, and we’ll talk a little bit about those. But generally, we’re talking about a concept of how much we get out for a certain amount that we put in. And again, there are different ways of expressing that. One of the measures that’s often used is something we refer to as recovery efficiency, and that’s intended to be an estimate of what percent of the applied fertilizer nitrogen we recovered or harvested in the plant. So, we have to have some kind of estimate of how much would have been taken up without fertilizer being applied, and then we take the amount of nitrogen taken up by a fertilized plant, subtracting off an unfertilized plant, and dividing by the amount of fertilizer that’s applied. There are other ways of expressing it.
We can express efficiency in terms of the amount of yield that’s produced for a certain amount of nitrogen. For example, bushels of corn for 100 pounds of nitrogen or 10 pounds of nitrogen, however you want to describe that. So these are some of the different ways we can measure that and express it. But again, it’s usually the concept of some amount of output for a given amount of input. Or some amount of recovery for a given amount of input. So we’re thinking in terms of getting the most we can for what we put into the system. So why does it matter? Well, it matters, because nitrogen’s a pretty expensive input, as are all of our fertilizers. And if we can produce more of the crop with the same amount of input, that’s better efficiency, and that’s economically better for the producer. So if we can do things in our fertilizer management that allow us to get more out of the nitrogen fertilizer that we apply, in other words, being more efficient, then that’s economically more profitable for the farmer, and it also reduces the potential for environmental impacts such as losses of nitrogen.
If we take up more of the nitrogen in the soil, more of the fertilizer that we applied, get more of it into the crop, there’s less that’s left in the soil that could be potentially lost.
[00:35:19] Mike Howell:
Alan, we really appreciate you being with us today. Listeners, we appreciate you tuning in this week. As always, if you need more information on anything we’ve talked about today, you can visit our website, that’s nutrien-ekonomics, with a K, .com. Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt. Hey, guys, if you like what you heard today, do us a favor and share this podcast with someone else. It could be your neighbor, your friend, your crop advisor, or whoever you think would enjoy it. Your support helps ensure future episodes, so please like, subscribe, share, and rate the show wherever you’re listening from.
