Aug 5, 2026 · 38 min · 13 segments
Join us as Ben and Haily Sand share their journey in agriculture, their involvement in Farm Bureau, and how they balance farming, consulting, and community service. Discover insights into rural life…
Haily SandGuest
Ben SandGuest
Amy EkelbergHost
Jim WrenHost
Well, I feel like that puts you in a really good position with how much you're dabbling in to be the local, the Dunn County Farm Bureau president.
I was also gonna ask just, I feel like you have a pretty good pulse on a variety of things of the challenges farmers are facing right now, whether that's just Mother Nature and what she's been giving us this year.
What's kind of like, what's people been talking about this year as far as challenges, whether that's weather or, you know-
I'd say the biggest thing, and when we were probably March-ish, March to April timeframe, was input costs, just fertilizer being one of them.
Quite a few people, including ourselves, d- Just try to hold out as long as possible, and then at some point you gotta, you gotta fertilize the crop.
If I only would've known, I would've bought it last year, but I wanted it in '20, [laughs] wanted it this year, so that's just the game we play.
And then it rolled right into fuel prices, and yeah, the amount of, amount of fuel guys were wishing they would've contract or, or people who were super excited that they contracted more than normal.
And we've been dry for the last two weeks in the high 90s where we're at, and fortunately two, three days ago we ended up getting about an inch and a half.
We're very fortunate that we got that rain, 'cause not too far from us it, it was only couple of tenths.
So I would say it is still fairly dry in our area, and it was definitely playing the game like, "Okay, what is this summer gonna be like? Are we gonna get that eight inches in June like we did last year?" Then I'm going to want to put on more top dress.
Do I pay for any sort of stabilizers and whatnot? Kinda figuring out where, where we put the, the money in which buckets.
Well, I feel like that puts you in a really good position with how much you're dabbling in to be the local, the Dunn County Farm Bureau president.
I was also gonna ask just, I feel like you have a pretty good pulse on a variety of things of the challenges farmers are facing right now, whether that's just Mother Nature and what she's been giving us this year.
What's kind of like, what's people been talking about this year as far as challenges, whether that's weather or, you know-
I'd say the biggest thing, and when we were probably March-ish, March to April timeframe, was input costs, just fertilizer being one of them.
Quite a few people, including ourselves, d- Just try to hold out as long as possible, and then at some point you gotta, you gotta fertilize the crop.
If I only would've known, I would've bought it last year, but I wanted it in '20, [laughs] wanted it this year, so that's just the game we play.
And then it rolled right into fuel prices, and yeah, the amount of, amount of fuel guys were wishing they would've contract or, or people who were super excited that they contracted more than normal.
And we've been dry for the last two weeks in the high 90s where we're at, and fortunately two, three days ago we ended up getting about an inch and a half.
We're very fortunate that we got that rain, 'cause not too far from us it, it was only couple of tenths.
So I would say it is still fairly dry in our area, and it was definitely playing the game like, "Okay, what is this summer gonna be like? Are we gonna get that eight inches in June like we did last year?" Then I'm going to want to put on more top dress.
Do I pay for any sort of stabilizers and whatnot? Kinda figuring out where, where we put the, the money in which buckets.
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