{"podcast":{"title":"The Bullvine Daily Brief","slug":"the-bullvine-7024491","podcast_index_feed_id":7024491,"rss_url":"https://media.rss.com/the-bullvine/feed.xml","website_url":"https://www.thebullvine.com/","image_url":"https://media.rss.com/the-bullvine/20240922_080924_c7bdb3080b2c19cb0dbbcb0597a7001c.png","author":"The Bullvine","episode_count":621,"summary":"Every article from TheBullvine.com — read aloud so you can keep up with dairy while you're milking, hauling, or driving fence. Daily dispatches on genetics, milk economics, herd management, policy, and the stories the trade press won't touch. No fluff, no PR, no filler — just our journalism in your ears. New articles go live in audio within hours of publication. Subscribe and the day's Bullvine comes with you.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T02:17:31.748946+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bullvine-7024491"},"episode":{"title":"E558 The $427,500 Diesel Hole McCarty Locks Shut Before January 1","slug":"e558-the-427-500-diesel-hole-mccarty-locks-shut-before-january-1","published_at":"2026-05-14T16:50:54+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bullvine-7024491/e558-the-427-500-diesel-hole-mccarty-locks-shut-before-january-1","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bullvine-7024491","url":"https://rss.com/podcasts/the-bullvine/2825325","audio_url":"https://content.rss.com/episodes/290511/2825325/the-bullvine/2026_05_14_16_50_38_eab087aa-7240-448d-a9a4-005a43b80e04.mp3","summary":"A 50-cent diesel move costs a 19,000-cow dairy $427,500 a year. McCarty Family Farms books roughly 90% of next year's diesel before January 1 — and the playbook scales to 500 cows. With U.S. retail diesel at $5.64/gallon as of May 12, 2026 — up 61% year-over-year — fuel risk is now a lender conversation, not just a line item. This episode breaks down McCarty's three-pillar hedging system: proactive layering, historical benchmarking, and mitigation over speculation. We walk through the barn math on a 50-cent move ($11,250 on 500 cows, $112,500 on 5,000 cows), the hidden exposures a hedge doesn't cover, and the 30-day on-ramp you can start today with no working capital required. What You'll Learn: How a 50-cent diesel move translates to $0.09/cwt on a 200-cow herd — and why that tips marginal lenders from green to yellow The three exposures that leak through even a 90% hedge: hauling adjusters, the processing paradox, and embedded energy in feed and parts Why McCarty treats beating the spot price as luck, not skill — and books 20–25% layers across 18 months instead The Jan 1, 90% rule: how to layer forward gallons in quarterly increments without betting on one price point What lenders are starting to ask for before renewing a line of credit — and the one-page energy-risk plan that improves your profile Why pairing fuel hedging with DRP and LGM-Dairy is the only way to lock margin across all three legs: milk, feed, and energy The FMMO Make-Allowance 2025 update trimmed an estimated $0.85–$0.93/cwt off Class III–IV values. Stack that with a $1.00 diesel move and you're looking at budget derailment, not inconvenience. McCarty's system — built with Compeer Financial economist Dr. Megan Roberts — shows how forward-booking diesel at any scale shrinks the surface area of things…","meta_description":"A 50-cent diesel move costs a 19,000-cow dairy $427,500 a year. McCarty Family Farms books roughly 90% of next year's diesel before January 1 — and the pl…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1435,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-bullvine-7024491/episodes/e558-the-427-500-diesel-hole-mccarty-locks-shut-before-january-1/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bullvine-7024491/e558-the-427-500-diesel-hole-mccarty-locks-shut-before-january-1.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}