From the Farm to Purdue: What Josh Strine Wants to Understand About Farm Decisions

Audio Transcript:

Josh Strine: I think this is maybe something that I’ll chase forever, but looking at how farmers make decisions.

I worked on the farm. several springs I was in charge of planting the soybeans, and so I was always told “Hey, this is how, low we’re setting the closing wheels. this is the population we’re planting at.” And as a farmhand, I didn’t question really, like I just what I was told to do.

but obviously there was some thought process going into that,

using some of this field data that exists, all farmers that are using like precision technology now have it, but we don’t really explore it, I think, too much yet in like the ag economics.

So looking at this decision-making and maybe why they’re doing it and how it affects the economics of it, rather than just like the output, is something I would love to spend a lot more time looking

at Welcome to the Purdue Center for Commercial AgCast. It’s a time of transition here in the Center for Commercial Agriculture. We have a new person just onboarding today. First day. Today’s the day. But person’s been around a little bit. People that follow the Center closely, our biggest fans will be like, “Oh, this is not new.”

Todd Kuethe: My name is Todd Kuethe. I’m a professor here in the department and the Center for Commercial Agriculture, and I’m joined by my co-host…

Chad Fiechter: Chad Fiechter. I am an assistant professor of agricultural economics, and I work in the Center for Commercial Agriculture.

Todd Kuethe: Mystery guest, why don’t you introduce yourself?

Josh Strine: Yeah. Hello, I’m Josh Strine. Just finished up my PhD here in the department and starting my postdoc research assistant position, here in the Center for Commercial Ag.

Todd Kuethe: Josh, tell us some of the work you’ve been doing already at the center while you were a student.

Josh Strine: I think the biggest thing would probably be the crop basis tool. So I picked that up a couple years ago going into my second year here as a PhD student, when a professor moved on. And so I’ve been monitoring local crop basis in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Iowa, and updating that tool weekly for the past couple years.

And then a part of that became writing monthly updates and, with our transition last year when Joanna came along, started recording some videos, on basis updates and kind of the story around that.

Chad Fiechter: So I wanna talk about Josh’s background. can you walk us through how you got here?

Josh Strine: So specifically the work I’m doing now, the agriculture, the farm basis, all goes back to just growing up on a family farm, grew corn and soybeans in central Ohio. so agriculture has always been a big part of me and my curiosity and, what I’m interested in.

it led me to do an undergrad degree at Ohio State. but I didn’t start in agricultural economics. I actually started in animal science. That goes to raising some livestock at home and doing the thing that I think a lot of animal science undergrads do and wanting to be a veterinarian.

So did that for my undergrad. got into junior year and I, I think like a lot of undergrads, again, had some extra credits that I could pick up, and chose to add an ag econ minor. Went on a study abroad, with the animal science department, but our department head who, who went with us was an agricultural economist by training, had his PhD actually from here. And so I met with him.

Chad Fiechter: This is the animal science department head?

Josh Strine: This is

Chad Fiechter: Wow. Cool.

Todd Kuethe: The places you can go with a

Chad Fiechter: Man, no kidding.

Todd Kuethe: ag econ PhD.

Josh Strine: So met with him afterwards. I was enjoying my agricultural economics to talk a little more about the ag econ side of things and an interest in grad school. And so, met… He helped me make some connections for my degree after that. Actually connected me with Dr. Michael Langemeier when I was looking for my master’s, and then some others at other universities. I chose to go down to Texas A&M for a couple years.

Todd Kuethe: Which we should put a pin in this here because, we have to address how you did break Michael Langemeier’s heart, that he was like, “This dude is good. Him to come to Purdue.” And then you chose Texas A&M, which is a great department. They did great things for you. But like, we’re glad that you’re not the one that got ’cause we were able to draw you back. But anyway, sorry.

Chad Fiechter: The postdoc is like really this sort of the full

Todd Kuethe: Oh

Chad Fiechter: coming of Josh Strine at Purdue.

Todd Kuethe: So you went to Texas A&M. You studied ag, agricultural economics. What was your sort of area that you worked on?

Josh Strine: I worked on advertising, and demand. Specifically, I was working on generic fluid milk advertising, and consumers’ response to that, and how that affected demand for fluid milk.

Chad Fiechter: What… Can, can you tell us which campaigns you were checking out?

Josh Strine: Yeah. So it was, MilkPEP, and I probably should remember the acronym that stood for since I worked on it for two years.

Chad Fiechter: PEP. P-E-P?

Josh Strine: Yes.

Todd Kuethe: Let me guess, that was the one that was more forgotten by consumers.

Josh Strine: No, that’s the people that put the ads out.

So it’s– These are all of their ads. Their campaigns. So worked on or looked at three consecutive campaigns. I think the one everyone’s very familiar with, the Got Milk? So

Todd Kuethe: And that was you? You came up with the idea of Got Milk?

Oh, okay. I thought that…

Josh Strine: I wish I did.

Todd Kuethe: like, “He’s the Got Milk guy.”

Okay. Sorry. Yeah.

Josh Strine: I was like, “He’s the Got Milk? guy.” So that was the first one, and then they replaced it with Milk Life, and then the Got Milk? Challenge. So looked at those three and compared them in terms of response and how it actually affected milk demand.

Chad Fiechter: Okay. Then there was a moment… in your master’s were you like, “I’m definitely gonna go get a PhD”?

Josh Strine: I was planning on applying for a PhD. When I started there, I actually started in, their straight through PhD program, but decided I wanted to write a thesis first to get some, experience. So I switched and did a master’s to see if it was a good fit for me before committing to the full PhD. And then from then decided yeah, I’m gonna apply, and just see what happens.

Chad Fiechter: Okay. So then you apply and you come to Purdue.

So you just finished up your PhD You are now going to be a postdoc Tell us what that sort of is. Tell us your, how you describe it to your family back home. They’re like,

Josh Strine: “What the heck is a postdoc?”

So I think the biggest thing, as a student, I was a research assistant, in the CCA for the past three years, but that was as a half-time. So as a student, I’m a full-time student, half-time, research assistant for the Center. With the postdoc, student’s fully out of the way, so now I’m a full-time, like 40-hour workweek, doing research or extension, for the Center for Commercial Ag. So it’ll be a lot more of the stuff I’m still doing. I’ll keep doing the basis tool, the farm balance sheet data that I’ve been tracking, since the first roughly of this year. But then it’s spending more time on my research.

So I defended my dissertation. Doesn’t mean the research was perfect. I wanna take some time this semester to refine that and get that under review and start building my own research portfolio that’ll help me, I think, going forward into a more permanent position, wherever that or whatever that may be in the future, with a more defined research agenda.

Todd Kuethe: So if I can recap, when you were a student, you worked half-time, but now you’re working full-time, so we can expect you to be twice as good? Like, the basis is gonna be twice as good for Indiana farmers next year.

Josh Strine: I, I I don’t think I can make the promise that the basis will be twice as good. I wish I could.

Todd Kuethe: Okay. Well, I feel like you’ll try.

Chad Fiechter: Josh, why would you want a postdoc?

Great question

Josh Strine: I think it, for me, was a lot about timing and a period of transition. So just the academic job market and, currently looking for my next job. It starts in August. Last August or even September, maybe fall semester, I wasn’t ready to graduate, so I didn’t have everything I needed to start applying for some of those jobs.

I felt further along, this summer. So part of it was timing. I was ready and there was an opportunity to start a transition this summer. So then the option was do this postdoc or stay on as a fourth year for my PhD. And I think this gives me an opportunity to get more of that transition experience of doing more full-time research without all of the other things that I know that I don’t know about academia. So kinda starting to build that, transition period is what I’m hoping for.

Todd Kuethe: And then now we’re finally ready. Chad, from the Center’s perspective, why would the Center want a postdoc instead of a student? What do we get out of it?

Chad Fiechter: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a really good question. I think there’s a part of it that it’s also like Josh specific, you know what I mean? Josh has already demonstrated being extremely valuable to this team as a half-time, right? Half of your attention is still pretty stinking amazing.

So for us, it’s this idea that we can serve the people who do consume our things. So like this podcast, like the Farm Basis Tool, we’ve got other, you know, the Ag Economy Barometer, the other outputs that we have. So the idea of having someone on board who already knows our team, already knows the suite of activities that we do, but also is already an expert in all of those things and can extend and go further with it. So the opportunity to have Josh for a year is a huge, it’s a great opportunity for us.

Todd Kuethe: I feel like the worst thing about this job from my perspective, being a professor is students, like they come here, they do really good things, and then they’re just gone, right? And there’s a little bit of if you find a way to hang on just a little bit longer, for a lot of students. From my perspective, that’s the other thing with Josh specifically, but also kind of students generally of like, man, it does stink when it’s like this person’s so good and now they’re gonna be living some other part of the country doing stuff. Great stuff there, but it’s like, man, I kind of miss having them here to work with us, and whenever we have the opportunity, it’s sort of like, can we keep this person on a little bit longer?

Chad Fiechter: Yeah.

Tell us about the experience here at Purdue.

Josh Strine: it’s been great. I think my whole, journey in terms of the degrees that I got and where I got them is exactly how I would’ve drawn it up. If I could do it again, I’d do it in the same path. The research I’m doing here I think fits more with what I hope to do long term, working with the extension tools and some farm management, ag finance. So the classes that I’ve kinda made my PhD degree to be and then the work that I’ve been doing over the past three years, I just hope to continue to do.

Todd Kuethe: What about the PhD program and experience is different than you expected, like, when you were in the master’s program or, and even when, like, when you were an undergrad or before? Like, what, what surprised you or what is not what you thought it would?

Josh Strine: I think like, I, I wouldn’t say anything particularly surprised me. I think the PhD program, and from my experience is like, and those in my cohort kind of talking, it’s not whatever, but just broadly whatever you want it to be, it can be structured that way. I think being set up here with the Center for Commercial Ag and like the extension that I’ve been doing, that’s not something I expected. But having that opportunity to do some extension work, go to meetings, with Michael and manage the web tools and do my short extension write-ups, that wasn’t expected, but I think it prepared me a lot for what I hope to continue to do.

In terms of the non-surprising part, I think that you take classes two or three years, you write a dissertation. The classes are gonna be three steps above what I did in my undergrad and two steps above the master’s. Like it’s tougher, but I think that’s kind of what you sign up for when you get into it.

Todd Kuethe: It’s weird ’cause my experience, maybe not PhD. PhD is very hard. But, in going to graduate school to me was so much easier than undergrad. ‘Cause I could just focus on the classes I want. I wanted to study economics and, take these kinds of classes. I didn’t have to get, like, “Oh, I have to also do this,” or whatever, right? Like, the ability to kind of focus in.

Josh Strine: That’s fair. I’d agree with that, doing the animal science undergrad, doing a bunch of chemistries and whatnot. I think the econ classes I took now, like the PhD level econ classes are harder, but it’s more what I’m interested in. So maybe from that side of view, it’s easier to do the harder stuff just I wanna do it.

Chad Fiechter: Yeah, right.

Todd Kuethe: That’s a good way to say it. It’s easier to do the hard part, right?

Josh Strine: Yeah.

Chad Fiechter: Yeah. So what are you looking forward to transitioning from being a student to being a postdoc? Like, what, like, as you’re picturing today and what you’re gonna do over the next couple weeks, what, what makes you excited?

Josh Strine: I think it’s being able to kind of start like a research pipeline and collaborating. I think, like even on my dissertation I’ve worked with other– Like I’ve got two… Todd was my major advisor and Chad was on my committee, and I’ve gotten feedback and like worked with both of you on my dissertation. But learning more about like collaborating and working on projects together as opposed to kind of that advisor oversight relationship. I think for me the hardest part of the PhD was like the dissertation writing. It feels, I think Chad and I have talked about like uniquely lonely in that you can get that advice, but it’s your work.

So starting to do a little more collaborating and not just getting responses from others, but getting original ideas from others too and working on that together. I think will help me be a lot more productive, in terms of the research that I’m interested in doing and hope to do.

Chad Fiechter: Yeah, that’s good.

I love– That’s my– I don’t know if we as a group have talked about that fact, ’cause we like each other outside of this podcast, so we talk regularly.

Todd Kuethe: Yeah.

Chad Fiechter: Most…

But his statement about the dissertation can feel uniquely lonely is a really insightful, way to think through writing a dissertation, is we really, as educators, want it to be your work. And so we will give feedback, but in the work that we do post PhD, post grad school is very collaborative. And that’s a cool thing

Todd Kuethe: Yeah. I always tell potential students that like, and I probably told both of you this, that it’s like, there’s like a monastic element of your dissertation, right? Where it’s like you’re gonna go spend time thinking about this relat- I mean, you talk to people, you get feedback, but it’s not like, where, you know, like collaborating and stuff like, josh and I were doing this downstairs right before we started to record, where it’s like we’re gonna work on this paper together and it’s like we’re going word by word, sentence by sentence. Like, what do you think? Does this convince you? You know, I made Josh watch a clip from “The Music Man,”

Wow. That’s like aYeah, ’cause you know the song- are you a “Music Man”- fan? Do you know the song? Do you know the

Chad Fiechter: Gary, Indiana. Sure.

Todd Kuethe: So there’s the song, “Trouble” about the- So I was telling Josh, we gotta be like, “Dude, there’s a problem here, and this research is gonna address the problem.” Like, we gotta get to the, like, we gotta like hook ’em in, you know?

Capital T that rhymes with P, and that stands for pool.

Chad Fiechter: Stands for pool. My brother who doesn’t listen to this podcast, but I’m gonna send him this one because I’m gonna mention him, starred in, the local presentation in Bluffton, Indiana of “The Music Man” as the little kid who has the lisp-

Todd Kuethe: Oh … yeah

Chad Fiechter: And the, s- sings that, like the headline after he did it, I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something like, “The kid stole the show,” you know.

Todd Kuethe: Oh, of course he did.

Chad Fiechter: He’s so charming too.

Todd Kuethe: I know. too. I know. I, you know, I feel… Oh, c- do we have two seconds for this one? Did you know that there’s like a Hugh Jackman version- Two.

as The Music Man? How much do you wanna watch

Chad Fiechter: Yeah, I wanna watch that.

Okay. So we’ve defined the past, why you’re here sort of like for this specific role. So if you could define a couple of research areas that interest you, if you had no constraints and Todd wasn’t just breathing down your neck of like, “Josh, we got these deliverables that these Center for Commercial Ag people really want,” what would you be thinking about?

Todd Kuethe: And if you weren’t constrained ’cause you need funding to do it. Like you can you can just “I got all the resources. I can study this problem whatever I want.”

Josh Strine: Yeah, I think I wouldn’t– I don’t have it narrowed down yet, and I don’t know. I think I’ve got mixed advice on how narrow or how wide of things to focus on. But I’d say like three things that I’ve worked on in the past, and I just hope to continue to do that kind of research and spread it out.

Looking at markets, grain markets. So I’ve done already some research that I’m still working on looking at, evolving demand for soybeans. So push that a little further, looking at local soybeans, corn markets. Ag technology, investment in new ag technology. Have done some work already with autonomy, so e-evolving that more, looking at how people maybe think about that investment or coming up with ways to give more insight before that decision has to be made.

And then also ag lending, so looking at competition in the agricultural credit market, how that’s shifted. Looking at changing macro factors and how that affects loan affordability. I think kind of those topics are where I’ve started already and just wanna push them each further.

Todd Kuethe: Well, maybe sort of, I’m gonna push you a little bit here.

Okay.

So not just like the work that you’re doing to go on, but like if you like pie in the sky, like what is there something that you’re like, “I don’t totally understand this. I don’t think we all understand this. I’d like to like, for everybody to understand this thing.” You know what I’m saying? Like, it’s not just like a sort of a research topic, but like, man, there had to be something that like initially caught that spark, right? Where you’re like, I don’t think I know enough about this. And the answers I’ve heard haven’t satisfied me enough.”

Josh Strine: I don’t know exactly how to get there yet, and I think this is maybe something that I’ll chase forever, but it’s just looking at how farmers make decisions. So I think that’s like, it goes back to my background and like why I do this now, is growing up on the farm.

Like I worked on the farm. several summers or springs I was in charge of planting the soybeans, and so I was always told like, “Hey, this is how, low we’re setting the closing wheels. Hey, this is like the population we’re planting at.” And like as a farmhand, I didn’t question really, like I just what I was told to do.

But obviously there was some thought process going into that, and I think kinda combining the agronomy thought process, I think that’s a lot of like, hey, we’re doing things for yield, but then also all of these things have economic, meanings and, affect profitability. So looking at that a little more.

I went to a conference, last week and there was some discussion about using some of these like field trial data that I didn’t realize this discussion happened till after I got back, so I missed it. But like using some of this field data that exists, all farmers that are using like precision technology now have it, but we don’t really explore it, I think, too much yet in like the ag economics.

So looking at this decision-making and maybe why they’re doing it and how it affects the economics of it, rather than just like the output, is something I would love to spend a lot more time looking at.

Chad Fiechter: Who are you thinking about when you’re thinking about the audience of that research? Or further than that, like, who are you talking to, to, toget these

Todd Kuethe: Or who, who would you like to talk to? Maybe if you’re not reaching

Chad Fiechter: that’s a

Todd Kuethe: You know what I mean?

Josh Strine: I don’t know that I particularly, have anybody in mind. I think I can go back to the beginning again, It started from working on the farm with my dad, my uncle, and grandpa. So just the farmers who are making these decisions. I think that’s what I think about. I think that’s where my extension in the work, not necessarily presenting. I think it’s important to go out and present and show what we learn, but using extension, that same form maybe where you are presenting, to hear what they’re interested in, knowing more about. I think having earlier this year, sat in a meeting in January, and there was a lot of discussion about labor.

And so it’s, these like extension forums where the goal is to present and give information, but also hear what they’re interested in or think they need to know more about, I would hope to get more insight to drive what I wanna work on.

Chad Fiechter: I’m distinctly remembering that a paper we worked on, and you, texting me after talking to your dad. Yeah.

Josh Strine: Yeah

Chad Fiechter: I mean, that happens for me frequently, right? Where I’ll send you something, I’ll be like: “Hey, my dad said this. What do you think about this?” I think it’s interesting that I think that’s a shared thing that we have, is that you kinda have someone in the background who’s like: “Hey, Dad, I’m thinking about this. What do you think?”

It seems like we’ve gotten some pretty interesting responses.

Josh Strine: yeah. I don’t know what else- Sorry

Chad Fiechter: Sorry, I didn’t give you anything more than that.

Todd Kuethe: Yeah. Yeah. Great.

Josh Strine: Thank you.

Todd Kuethe: Yeah.

Chad Fiechter: Thank you. That’s

a good question.

Josh Strine: that’s a good question.

Todd Kuethe: I feel like you guys both are just doing great.

Chad Fiechter: We’re just doing stuff

Todd Kuethe: I feel like we’ve covered Josh’s role, right? for Like- Oh. Whoa

Josh Strine: bosses now, right? I like where you’re going with this actually. I’m here. I’m flipping the table. Yeah, do

Todd Kuethe: table. Yeah, do it.

Josh Strine: So now I’m gonna be here for the next year, and I’ve moved from the halftime to, like, the full-time position. What are some expectations or hopes from your side that you now more of me?

Chad Fiechter: I actually got this in spades, if I can go first.

Todd Kuethe: just go. Yeah. You just go.

Chad Fiechter: I think one of the most unique things is, so our listener knows that I farmed for a while, and in the farming, like I employed people, I hired people, I fired people. I was not good at managing people. And one of the coolest things I think of transitioning into the world where I’m working in academics and getting the chance to interact with grad students, my favorite thing is when the student is completely motivated, has their own ideas, and can do their own thing. And like, to me, like i- if, if I was your direct supervisor, which I am not-

Todd Kuethe: Neither am I,

Chad Fiechter: Which I would say is like, do whatever you wanna do, because you’ve already demonstrated that you have interesting questions and ideas. And the reason I say it, because I think that anyone could be like, “I’m just blowing smoke at Josh.”

But I think this is a unique thing about this role, is what you want, As a farmer, what I wanted people sitting in these seats to do is to have really thoughtful ideas and to go after them because they were motivated to do it, not because someone’s looking over their shoulder to say, “This is the thing that you need to work on now.”

And so I think like that’s one of the most unique and cool things about sort of like having that external perspective and then seeing it from this side. So, I don’t know. That may be a real, wishy-washy thing, but

Todd Kuethe: Mine is almost identical. Okay. what I would say is, like, you already hold yourself to a high standard, and so, like, just aim for that and keep going for it, and I feel like that’s fine. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like that’s part of, like, again, sort of who we work with. I feel like we, like, make choices about who we continue to work with. Like, like, people come in and, like, who you kinda keep working with. And the people that I continue to work with, it’s always just like, “Oh, I just wanna kinda be around somebody who’s working on stuff that’s interesting.

One of the things I think that’s, like, from my perspective, it’s it’s sad sometimes how there’s not as many people just actually thinking about stuff as I would like, right? Like, not just like- Yeah … not just, like, go through, like… W- I mean, with academics, we have sort of like a, like, oh, you know, they publish this much or work with these students or like, you know, teach this amount of classes that are sort of like quantifiable outcomes, right?

And I’m always like, I wanna just kinda move away from that and just be like, just think about stuff and, like, think about stuff interesting.

Chad Fiechter: Well, I just traveled, to go visit, a company in Germany specifically off of a research project that you and I did to- together, right? Like, so like I think that’s really interesting is that like we w- we’re already sort of hitting what I would hope in that like people outside of academics are asking the question of like, “Oh, what if we would think about it in this way because of that work?”

So that’s why I would say like, be free, Josh. Go out there and explore. which I feel like everyone who’s like a hard-charging industry type who’s listening to this podcast is like, “Oh, great.”

Todd Kuethe: Because I said I like people that think-

Josh, thank you for sticking around Purdue to do another year with us, and, I think we should do this every

Chad Fiechter: Probably, yeah.

Josh Strine: Sounds good

Todd Kuethe: All right. Thank you, Josh.

Chad Fiechter: Subscribe and download.

Todd Kuethe: Yeah, just, just come back.

Come back in a month. We’ll keep learning about the ag economy together. How about that?