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This solo episode starts with a memory from 1978 on the tailgate of my grandfather’s Ford pickup and ends with the blunt reality of 2025 farm bookkeeping and modern USDA market reports. What connects those pieces is uncomfortable: farming profitability has always been fragile.

My grandparents scraped through the Depression with $12.34 a month in recorded farm income. My grandfather warned me that “there’s no money in farming.” And nearly fifty years later, I’m running numbers with disaster assistance, government payments, and market swings driven by noon WASDE releases. Different decades, different tools, different programs — same fragility.

In this episode I talk about:
• Why profitability remains fleeting across generations
• What USDA reports actually do to real farm margins
• How disaster programs distort our view of survivability
• The emotional weight behind farm financial decisions
• Why the “zeros” changed, but the struggle didn’t
• The uncomfortable continuity between 1930 and 2025

If you’ve ever felt the stress of bookwork, market reactions, or the silence that comes after a USDA report moves the board — you’re not alone. The tools and programs change, but the story is older than any of us.

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This solo episode starts with the simple act of closing out farm books and ends with a phone call that hits much deeper. A young professional in agriculture reached out after losing his job and facing a major crossroads: pursue an accelerated doctorate program out of town or stay close to home and fight for a place in an uncertain ag job market.

It was a conversation about choices, identity, timing, and how mentorship really works — especially in agriculture. Not the formal “assigned mentor” programs, but the quiet kind that happens when someone trusts you enough to ask for advice.

In this episode I talk about:
• Why ag professionals are facing tough career decisions
• The hidden value of lived experience in career guidance
• Informal mentorship vs. formal mentorship programs
• The role of friendship when the chips are down
• How the ag economy is impacting young talent
• Why listening matters more than having the “right” answer

If you’re between jobs, navigating the ag industry, or wondering where you fit next — you’re not alone. And if someone calls you looking for guidance, don’t underestimate the impact of simply showing up.

Keywords: agriculture careers, ag jobs, ag economy, mentorship in ag, informal mentorship, agricultural workforce, career crossroads, farm life, rural careers, ag professional development, ag education, PhD vs industry, ag unemployment, advising young farmers, agricultural roots, agriculture podcast

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In this episode of the Patio Pondering Podcast, Jim Smith is joined by Justin Fix, Ph.D., a swine geneticist with AcuFast, joining the conversation from Muscatine, Iowa.

This is a wide-ranging discussion about how agricultural roots shape perspective as careers evolve — especially in an industry that has shifted from family-run operations to large, integrated systems.

Justin shares his journey growing up in Southeast Iowa, his early exposure to agriculture through family farms, FFA, and livestock judging, and how those experiences carried him through Iowa State, graduate work at North Carolina State, and roles with the National Swine Registry, Smithfield, and The Maschhoffs before returning home to Iowa.

Together, Jim and Justin explore:

• What it means to grow up around “traditional” agriculture in the Midwest
• How working with small, family-run producers builds empathy that carries into large systems
• The transition from purebred and youth-focused genetics to integrated commercial pork production
• Why genetics, nutrition, health, and management can never be viewed in isolation
• How consolidation has changed decision-making, communication, and leadership in the pork industry
• The importance of listening, respect, and understanding context when working across silos

This episode is less about equations and data — and more about people, perspective, and problem-solving in modern agriculture.

Whether you work in pork production, animal genetics, nutrition, or simply care about how food systems evolve, this conversation offers thoughtful insight into where the industry has been — and where it may be headed next.