Ag Tribes Report: Millennial Farmer Zach Johnson; Derecho, Rural VP Candidate July 18, 2024

About this episode

Vance co-hosts the Ag Tribes Report with Zach Johnson, the "Millennial Farmer," a farmer-YouTuber with millions of followers known for authentic, unpolished farm content. They open discussing why fertilizer (nitrogen/phosphorus) prices are running 10-20% higher than expected despite weak corn prices, squeezing margins to the point Johnson's operation isn't covering cost of production this year — echoing the tight 2014-2016 period. They dig into farm marketing strategy (selling forward vs. holding grain in storage, using the futures board to lock in profit) as an underappreciated gambling-like dimension of farming outsiders don't see. The conversation shifts to Section 230 and a right-to-repair angle: software originally protected to shield social platforms from liability is now shielding people who bypass emissions-control software on trucks, which could reshape tractor right-to-repair law alongside the Chevron deference ruling stripping bureaucratic rulemaking power. Johnson, notably, says right-to-repair is a non-issue for him personally — he's never wanted to crack tractor software and doesn't know farmers who do — framing the mainstream "farmers as sharecroppers to John Deere" narrative as overblown. They then cover Robby Starbuck's social-media pressure campaign that got John Deere to drop Pride parade funding and DEI hiring practices, with Johnson agreeing DEI overcorrection is swinging back toward merit-based hiring, and Vance drawing on his Monsanto experience to note DEI's real bite was concentrated near corporate HQ, not out in the field. The episode closes with Johnson's "Peter Thiel ag paradox" (he believes there's real opportunity for new farmers via consumer-direct niche markets, contra tribe consensus that breaking into farming is nearly impossible), a nostalgic vacation-road-trip segment tied to the Legacy Interviews sponsor, and Follow Friday shoutouts to attorney/succession-planning voice Clint Fischer and an anonymous manufacturing engineer.

“We're not meeting cost of production right now when we look at our cash flows short term... the margins are a lot thinner right now than what we've been looking at the last couple years.”

“This software that people are using is also the software that they're using to get around some of the smog protections that have been put on there... So now this law may change that along with some of the other stuff that's going on with the Chevron deference case.”

“Robby Starbuck has been going out and saying, Hey, I want to show you what John Deere is doing with their DEI... John Deere has committed to no longer funding Pride parades. Business resource groups will no longer be divided on identity lines.”

Key moments

• Johnson's origin story for Millennial Farmer — countering ag misinformation on social media by showing unvarnished daily farm practice.
• early ~10-25%: Fertilizer price spike (10-20% above expectation) squeezing already-thin margins amid weak corn prices; comparison to the 2014-2016 downturn.
• Johnson explains their grain marketing/storage strategy — using futures positions and on-farm drying/storage to lock in profit versus raw cash-price exposure.
• middle ~30-40%: Section 230 and Chevron deference tangent — software shielding emissions-bypass tools may reshape farm equipment right-to-repair law.
• Johnson says right-to-repair, as commonly discussed, doesn't actually affect him — he has no interest in hacking tractor software and sees the "sharecropper" narrative as overblown.