WEBVTT 00:00:02.786 --> 00:00:04.873 Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast. 00:00:04.873 --> 00:00:19.969 In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true. 00:00:19.969 --> 00:00:22.344 Here's your host, Aaron Alejandro. 00:00:30.251 --> 00:00:37.576 Well, good morning, good afternoon or good evening, or whenever you may be tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast. 00:00:37.576 --> 00:00:41.530 Hey, listen, number one, we want to say thank you for stopping by. 00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:43.463 You know time's the only thing. 00:00:43.463 --> 00:00:44.588 We can't save it. 00:00:44.588 --> 00:00:45.765 All we can do is spend it. 00:00:45.765 --> 00:00:50.371 So the fact that you're willing to share a little of your time with us, trust me, we're honored. 00:00:50.371 --> 00:00:54.451 We're also honored because this show brings on some incredible guests. 00:00:55.420 --> 00:00:56.542 You know Abraham Lincoln. 00:00:56.542 --> 00:01:03.290 Lincoln used to say that the philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. 00:01:03.290 --> 00:01:04.902 Now, let that sink in. 00:01:04.902 --> 00:01:07.147 The will be the philosophy of government in the next. 00:01:07.147 --> 00:01:07.769 Now, let that sink in. 00:01:07.769 --> 00:01:11.938 The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be philosophy of government in the next. 00:01:11.938 --> 00:01:19.980 So when I think about the future, I think about agriculture and I tell people, if agriculture has taught me anything, it's taught me this If you want to know what the future is, grow it. 00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:21.641 Well, how do you grow it? 00:01:21.641 --> 00:01:27.987 You got to plant the right seeds, you got to nurture those seeds and then you got to harvest it and share it with others. 00:01:28.820 --> 00:01:42.268 The reason I enjoy this show is because we get to bring on incredible guests, guests that share their experiences, their insights, their seeds of greatness that we can put in place in our lives and share with others. 00:01:42.268 --> 00:01:45.388 I am so excited for today's guest y'all. 00:01:45.388 --> 00:01:53.590 I got to tell you I'm going to try not to fanboy it here, but I may fanboy it a little bit because I am in awe of this man's career. 00:01:53.590 --> 00:02:01.605 I'm inspired by his passion for agriculture and I'm taken by his incredible heart for others. 00:02:01.605 --> 00:02:06.030 Ladies and gentlemen, legendary rodeo announcer, bob Tallman. 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:09.955 Bob, thank you for being with us today, thank you. 00:02:09.974 --> 00:02:10.435 Cowboy. 00:02:10.435 --> 00:02:14.263 Thank you, I like it. 00:02:14.263 --> 00:02:16.387 I love it, I love it. 00:02:16.387 --> 00:02:21.754 You know I'm big on Jesus, big on agriculture, big on America. 00:02:21.754 --> 00:02:31.270 So God bless America and God bless Texas and I know this will go outside Sure Texas, and I was born and raised in Nevada, nevada. 00:02:31.290 --> 00:02:31.692 Nevada. 00:02:32.032 --> 00:02:32.413 Nevada. 00:02:33.699 --> 00:02:40.253 And there's some pictures behind me of my great great uncle, 1903 in Denial, nevada. 00:02:40.253 --> 00:02:56.211 He came, he raised horses for uh the cavalry in butte montana and there was a uh scuffle so he left with about 150 mares and 20 studs and 10 dogs 1600 miles. 00:02:56.211 --> 00:02:58.641 He drove them horses to nevada. 00:02:58.641 --> 00:03:05.294 I was raised in a place called four vada, nevada, 55 miles outside of Winnemucca. 00:03:05.294 --> 00:03:20.254 W-i-n-n-e-m-u-c-c-a stands for one moccasin, because Chief Winnemucca is a Pied Indian chief there and he was in World War I and he got his foot shot off so he only had to wear one moccasin. 00:03:20.254 --> 00:03:25.546 Cool people, pied Indians, you said about raising kids in agriculture. 00:03:25.546 --> 00:03:26.830 We're ready to go. 00:03:28.862 --> 00:03:29.103 Okay. 00:03:29.103 --> 00:03:41.567 So before I get you wound up, let me ask you one question, because every one of these episodes, every episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, I ask all the guests the same question. 00:03:41.567 --> 00:03:42.729 I'm going to ask you the question. 00:03:42.729 --> 00:03:43.070 You ready? 00:03:43.070 --> 00:03:45.800 Here it is Bob Tallman. 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:48.567 What are you grateful for today? 00:03:50.149 --> 00:03:53.175 Oh, life, life, God's abundance. 00:03:53.175 --> 00:03:58.364 Family, my family, my friends, we're in agriculture. 00:03:58.364 --> 00:04:04.514 My grandkids now are seventh generation agriculture, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. 00:04:04.514 --> 00:04:28.100 As you well know, I'm not very technical and had help setting up this podcast with you, with Jordan Jo Hollibaugh, who does all my social media stuff and she's a pretty cool lady Mary Doream and Hollibaugh rodeo people and breakaway ropers and horse people and so forth, but seven generations of us. 00:04:28.100 --> 00:04:38.903 The next room, in the tack room, I've got brands that go back to 1894 246, which was the cavalry brand for those horses he raised in montana. 00:04:38.903 --> 00:04:46.454 Je, my mom and dad's brand, three-quarter circle T and now 3T, our brand. 00:04:46.454 --> 00:04:49.848 It's like Rodeo Houston, everybody's got a brand. 00:04:49.867 --> 00:05:19.264 Okay, where I was raised, aaron, I went to a one-room schoolhouse, no electricity, two-hole route house out in the back, eight, nine, 10 kids every year, mostly girls, and when the bus ran, ran, we went to school and the teacher lived with us and had eight grades and so if you're going to go on to high school, you had to go to winnemore, mcdermott or someplace like that. 00:05:19.264 --> 00:05:31.370 I can remember as a kid, school got out in April because we had to take the cattle to the mountain. 00:05:31.370 --> 00:05:32.665 No fences, no fences. 00:05:32.665 --> 00:05:46.406 15 ranches all put their cattle together and went to the mountain for the summer and school didn't start till October because after Labor Day by the time you got all the cattle separated and everything had been branded in the spring and you got your cattle home. 00:05:46.406 --> 00:05:48.454 Kids had to go as a hand. 00:05:48.454 --> 00:05:52.725 They paid them in those days $2 a day to buckaroo Pretty good deal. 00:05:52.725 --> 00:05:57.473 But gas, if you could find it, cost 15 cents a gallon. 00:05:57.473 --> 00:06:34.310 So I can remember I used to love to go to the chicken yard with my grandmother and we had, oh I mean probably 100 chicken, around 500 head of sheep and 800 head of cows, and I can remember going in that chicken yard with a stick and drawing pictures of pastures, corrals, places to work cattle, because every place you build a set of crows on that ranch and those other ranches always had a creek running through it so you had water in it and the milk barn, milking barn, was right there. 00:06:34.310 --> 00:06:37.709 Normally the slaughterhouse was right over there. 00:06:37.709 --> 00:06:48.903 Being in the beef business today, I've been watching cattle, lamb, hogs, deer, trout All my life. 00:06:49.526 --> 00:06:55.947 You lived off the land so I didn't know the word agriculture, had no clue about it. 00:06:55.947 --> 00:06:58.988 Nobody ever talked about agriculture. 00:06:58.988 --> 00:07:03.290 We talked about ranching livestock horses. 00:07:03.290 --> 00:07:06.266 Everything we did was big horse m mules. 00:07:06.266 --> 00:07:07.269 I hated them. 00:07:07.269 --> 00:07:16.384 They were mean, they bite you, kick you, strike you, and we did everything with sickle bar, mowers and dump breaks and my mom drove them just like everybody else. 00:07:16.384 --> 00:07:35.612 And so when we'd sit down at the table there might be 15 men me and my little sister then she's just a baby and my mom and my grandmother and they were swiss, italian came from the old country to ellis island 1911 and there they were in their dresses. 00:07:35.612 --> 00:07:42.471 My mom and my grandmother always wore dresses and they had a rosary and they prayed while they cooked. 00:07:42.471 --> 00:07:45.682 They prayed while they made cream, prayed while they make butter. 00:07:45.682 --> 00:08:06.598 It was just something that you got used to in life, and sometimes on Sundays my grandmother would drive me to Winnemucca 54 miles A lot of it was a gravel road then church where I was born, baptized, confirmed and married 54 years ago now. 00:08:06.598 --> 00:08:13.687 So the history in all of that agriculture was not discussed Wrenchy. 00:08:15.690 --> 00:08:17.033 Then I moved to town. 00:08:17.033 --> 00:08:22.932 My dad broke his back horse bucked him off and he broke his back and he tried it for a year in a body cast. 00:08:22.932 --> 00:08:25.880 I remember cutting green willows and running them up and down. 00:08:25.880 --> 00:08:28.206 That back of his cast, couldn't take it. 00:08:28.206 --> 00:08:28.567 No more. 00:08:28.567 --> 00:08:30.500 He couldn't drive a team, couldn't run. 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:32.004 You know, put hay up with a dairy. 00:08:32.004 --> 00:08:33.687 So we moved to town. 00:08:33.687 --> 00:08:35.711 We moved to town. 00:08:35.711 --> 00:08:36.972 I joined 4-h. 00:08:36.972 --> 00:08:41.225 We didn't have ffa, it's great, 2,500 people. 00:08:41.225 --> 00:08:54.924 Kirk day, my first 4-H leader and he was, as you and I know, thousands of them he was the head of the agricultural district in Humboldt County, nevada Changed my life. 00:08:56.101 --> 00:08:57.548 I didn't know what record keeping was. 00:08:57.548 --> 00:08:59.106 I didn't know what a record book was. 00:08:59.106 --> 00:09:01.769 I didn't know what making a speech in public was. 00:09:01.769 --> 00:09:13.068 But being an old BSer now I was a bsr as a kid got one fist fight by accident, knocked a guy out with a cast ahead on a broken arm. 00:09:13.068 --> 00:09:15.520 So I wasn't a big guy, I was a little kid. 00:09:15.520 --> 00:09:17.562 But 4-h changed my life. 00:09:17.562 --> 00:09:24.032 I did everything, everything you could do in 4-H, including home ec. 00:09:24.032 --> 00:09:31.971 Well, as time went on and I got into high school, I tried football for three days. 00:09:31.971 --> 00:09:32.652 That didn't work. 00:09:32.652 --> 00:09:43.566 So I started to rope because I was raised doing that kind of stuff and as I got ready then later to go to college, I went to Cal Poly. 00:09:43.566 --> 00:09:45.510 I was going to go to Sol Ross. 00:09:46.221 --> 00:09:47.567 I had a girlfriend change my mind. 00:09:47.567 --> 00:09:51.904 I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, california, for a year. 00:09:51.904 --> 00:09:53.100 Yeah, what did? 00:09:53.160 --> 00:10:00.129 I do when I got there Agriculture I got the cap contract, steer contract, took care of all of the livestock at the Poly arena. 00:10:00.129 --> 00:10:07.100 Worked in a feed mill on Monday nights all night cleaning. 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.053 Worked in a feed mill on Monday nights all night cleaning it so we could have all the free feed pelletized that we wanted to feed our cows and steers. 00:10:11.053 --> 00:10:23.245 And on Tuesday nights we worked in Buelton, california, south of Cal Poly, um, in a sale barn so we could buy all the killer horses first and go to the and do that kind of thing. 00:10:23.245 --> 00:10:42.283 So agriculture took over and I learned, I think, in my early days, about agriculture because every pamphlet I looked at, read, talked about or was lectured by, had to do with agriculture, didn't just say farming or ranching, it said agriculture in its entire sphere. 00:10:42.283 --> 00:10:59.754 Pardon me for taking so long to get to all of that, but I mean that was, you know, 20 years of my life and from that point on until I came to Texas oh, by the way, I've been in FFA 45 years. 00:10:59.835 --> 00:11:03.743 You're a great supporter, by the way, and we appreciate you more than you will ever know. 00:11:03.743 --> 00:11:09.394 When you talked about what you were grateful for your family, your country I'm with you. 00:11:09.394 --> 00:11:22.554 I love the fact that we have this incredible liberty, and the reason that we do that, bob, the reason we start every podcast with that, is because you know the great, you remember the great Zig Ziglar, the motivational speaker. 00:11:22.615 --> 00:11:26.370 Oh yes, his son, tom Ziglar, is on my board of directors. 00:11:26.370 --> 00:11:35.431 And so Tom and I were talking one day and he was up on the East Coast and he was talking to these kids and he asked them this question. 00:11:35.431 --> 00:11:40.831 He said how do you feel when you're grateful about things? 00:11:40.831 --> 00:11:49.533 And the kid said well, you know, I feel good, I feel positive, I feel hopeful, and he goes through all of these words and emotions associated with the word grateful. 00:11:49.533 --> 00:11:52.384 And then he asked him this question. 00:11:52.384 --> 00:11:56.432 He said what is the opposite of gratitude? 00:11:56.432 --> 00:12:00.419 And the room got quiet and the kids were thinking. 00:12:00.419 --> 00:12:09.344 And finally he said and the kids were thinking, and finally he said the opposite of gratitude is entitlement. 00:12:09.344 --> 00:12:11.167 And watch what happens to your attitude. 00:12:11.167 --> 00:12:12.910 Well, that's not fair. 00:12:12.910 --> 00:12:16.461 That's mine, give that to me. 00:12:16.461 --> 00:12:29.885 You go from a place of being hopeful, optimistic and visionary to a place of a little bit of self-centeredness, a little bit of negativity, a little bit of anger, maybe even some hatred. 00:12:29.885 --> 00:12:35.062 So I think, when we can teach young people to that, bob Tomlin, look at this. 00:12:35.062 --> 00:12:36.407 This is an accomplished man. 00:12:36.407 --> 00:12:37.919 I mean, he's a legend, I mean he's. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.988 There's no way we could give you all of his awards. 00:12:40.988 --> 00:12:42.412 But what did he start off with? 00:12:42.412 --> 00:12:43.601 Gratitude. 00:12:43.601 --> 00:12:49.708 And so, bob, part of these dialogues that we have on this show and you're already doing it. 00:12:49.708 --> 00:13:02.114 So, as you were telling your story, one of the things that I like about bringing people on and letting them share their story is you find all these little tidbits in their testimonies, call them seeds of greatness. 00:13:02.114 --> 00:13:05.250 And as you were sharing, you were talking about that. 00:13:05.873 --> 00:13:09.326 I sure hope people heard some things, because I'm gonna tell you what I heard. 00:13:09.326 --> 00:13:13.981 Number one you were willing to sign up for something. 00:13:13.981 --> 00:13:15.625 You stepped out on on a limb. 00:13:15.625 --> 00:13:17.809 That limb was called 4-h. 00:13:17.809 --> 00:13:21.245 You probably had to stir up a little confidence to get up and say something for the first time. 00:13:21.245 --> 00:13:22.811 Let me tell you something life is that way we we've got to sometimes. 00:13:22.811 --> 00:13:24.778 You know one of the things that I've confidence to get up and say something for the first time. 00:13:24.778 --> 00:13:27.488 Let me tell you something Life is that way We've got to sometimes. 00:13:27.488 --> 00:13:36.174 You know, one of the things that I've written about, bob, is I tell people life is like a calf scramble and there's a lot of people don't even sign up. 00:13:36.174 --> 00:13:44.908 And then those that sign up, when you show up, you better chase, you better run and you better not quit running until the final calf's caught. 00:13:44.908 --> 00:13:49.253 But if you catch, that's when the real work begins. 00:13:49.874 --> 00:13:50.315 You bet. 00:13:50.815 --> 00:13:51.735 Life's the same way. 00:13:51.735 --> 00:14:04.549 There's some people I don't even know if they really sign up, and then there's some that sign up but they don't hustle, they don't run, and then some people chase their dreams and they catch them, and that's where the work begins. 00:14:04.549 --> 00:14:11.275 And your story that already we're going to get into it more, but your story already is already an example of all that. 00:14:11.275 --> 00:14:15.903 So that's why I like to start with gratitude. 00:14:15.903 --> 00:14:25.946 So thank you so much for sharing, you know, your faith, your country, your family, because those are all things that I'm grateful for as well and they make me hopeful. 00:14:27.302 --> 00:14:27.461 Can. 00:14:27.501 --> 00:14:28.466 I ask you a question. 00:14:28.466 --> 00:14:30.024 Just let me make a statement. 00:14:30.024 --> 00:14:31.269 Two things Sure. 00:14:31.269 --> 00:14:35.892 Number one time is a non-renewable natural resource. 00:14:35.892 --> 00:14:39.028 Once it's gone, you don't get it back. 00:14:39.028 --> 00:14:48.831 So in that frame, be positive, be grateful, be leading for somebody's career if it's not your own. 00:14:48.831 --> 00:14:59.734 The second thing is you don't understand winning if you lose the first time and you don't try again. 00:14:59.734 --> 00:15:00.835 Know what a winner is. 00:15:00.835 --> 00:15:02.136 Know what a winner is. 00:15:02.136 --> 00:15:18.437 A winner is a person, a horse, turtle that becomes a winner because they lost, they lost, they lost and they tried again. 00:15:18.437 --> 00:15:18.798 Never give up. 00:15:18.798 --> 00:15:24.961 Never give up and the gratefulness that we all need to have. 00:15:24.961 --> 00:15:26.105 That's how you earn grace from our Lord and Savior Jesus. 00:15:26.125 --> 00:15:33.537 Christ man, I'm writing notes, because that was really good that was good. 00:15:33.557 --> 00:15:40.874 I think about it every day you have this incredible kickoff. 00:15:40.934 --> 00:15:43.599 It sounds like you learned some work ethic early on. 00:15:43.599 --> 00:15:45.951 You learned you know something else that you said. 00:15:45.951 --> 00:15:48.167 I wanted to mention this to you because this is a. 00:15:48.167 --> 00:15:50.413 This is a little tip that I use with the kids. 00:15:50.413 --> 00:15:53.847 I don't necessarily personally, I don't like it. 00:15:53.847 --> 00:16:01.514 When I get into discussions and the kids will say the word ag, they'll say the words ag, industry, and I always tell them. 00:16:01.514 --> 00:16:02.618 I said, let me tell you something. 00:16:02.618 --> 00:16:13.187 Number one I don't know any industry, but I sure know a lot of farmers and ranchers that raise some good food, and so I like to personalize it all the way down to farmers and ranchers. 00:16:13.187 --> 00:16:20.370 And here's the reason why when you use the word agriculture, back in about 2017, they did a survey of Americans. 00:16:20.370 --> 00:16:24.846 Did you know that 79% of Americans did not know what agriculture was? 00:16:25.668 --> 00:16:30.715 I believe that Now, if you use the word food, now get it. 00:16:30.715 --> 00:16:48.168 So a lot of the times, what I challenge the kids with is, I said, start a discussion by let's talk about food, because then it won't matter if it's sushi or barbecue or steaks or baked potato, but if we can start with food, we can start having a dialogue about where that food came from and that food came from. 00:16:48.168 --> 00:17:03.317 And that food came from agriculture and it came from farmers and ranchers who did exactly what you did as a young man that put in the toil, sweat the tears and lived a brand of bringing a product to the table. 00:17:04.665 --> 00:17:08.835 Have you ever cut three, three or 400 trout in? 00:17:08.954 --> 00:17:10.458 one day no sir. 00:17:12.445 --> 00:17:14.752 Where I was raised the cricks would go dry. 00:17:14.752 --> 00:17:21.307 The 4th of July, snowpack springs, they just dry it. 00:17:21.307 --> 00:17:27.055 And on that ranch we had beautiful, beautiful rainbow trout. 00:17:27.055 --> 00:17:35.788 And if you told somebody today that you ground sluiced a bunch of quail they'd say well, that's not right. 00:17:35.788 --> 00:17:53.766 You'd say if you went down an irrigation ditch with one or two gunny sacks and pushed them fish together and somebody was coming the other way and you turned, somebody else got in the middle of it and filled those gunny sacks full of trout, some of them might be six, eight inches, some of them were a foot and a half. 00:17:53.786 --> 00:17:54.645 Would that be poaching? 00:17:54.645 --> 00:17:57.468 No, sir, that's conservation. 00:17:57.468 --> 00:18:08.816 That is a part of agriculture that doesn't happen anymore, and so when I see things spill in creeks and rivers and lakes and you know, kill fish. 00:18:08.816 --> 00:18:17.122 I'm big on fish, I like fish, but I like steak, I like mutton, I like pork, I like everything. 00:18:17.122 --> 00:18:18.782 You can tell by my waistline. 00:18:18.782 --> 00:18:23.621 I got a lot of scar tissue here. 00:18:23.621 --> 00:18:32.554 The thing with agriculture, I'm afraid today that 79% in 2017, you said, I believe that was when it was taken. 00:18:33.394 --> 00:18:43.288 I'm afraid, with the world population the way it is today, and even here in the United States of America, that it might be closer to 89% today. 00:18:43.288 --> 00:18:48.219 That don't understand, because we don't represent it right, often enough and meaningful enough. 00:18:48.664 --> 00:18:49.911 Yep, I agree with you. 00:18:49.911 --> 00:18:55.613 By the way, you know Wayne Gretzky, great hockey player, and they asked Gretzky one time. 00:18:55.613 --> 00:18:57.746 They said what makes you such a great hockey player? 00:18:57.746 --> 00:19:01.653 And he said most players scaped where the puck is. 00:19:01.653 --> 00:19:04.086 I scaped where the puck is going. 00:19:04.086 --> 00:19:13.686 Now, when you said what you did just a second ago, Bob Tallman, you said something really good and that is where's the puck going? 00:19:13.686 --> 00:19:16.032 I can tell you where it's going. 00:19:16.755 --> 00:19:18.077 It's going to a hungry world. 00:19:18.077 --> 00:19:27.932 And to think that in the next 25 years we're going to need 60 to 80% more food than we have today, there will not be 60 to 80% more land. 00:19:27.932 --> 00:19:31.019 There will not be 60 to 80% more resources. 00:19:31.019 --> 00:19:34.707 60 to 80% more land. 00:19:34.707 --> 00:19:37.310 There will not be 60 to 80% more resources. 00:19:37.310 --> 00:19:52.134 That means we're going to need the brightest minds that we can cultivate to pursue careers in food and agriculture and science and technology, because the challenges that this whole world are going to face when people get desperate, they do desperate things. 00:19:53.506 --> 00:20:12.888 When countries get hungry and we're very fortunate to live in the United States, we're very fortunate to live in a country that has the natural resources that if, to your point, we use conservation and take care of them we have the capacity to not only feed ourselves but to feed a lot of our friends around the world. 00:20:12.888 --> 00:20:33.229 But we're going to need young people to step into those leadership roles, to step up and say I want to pursue this career and learning how to build a bridge to get food over this river, I want to learn how to use a drone to get food into this other village and I want to learn entomology where I can help with the pest control. 00:20:33.229 --> 00:20:46.375 I mean, it is so many things, but it's exciting to think about all the opportunities that are coming down the line for our young people if they will consider looking at a career in agriculture and food. 00:20:48.381 --> 00:20:49.865 I'm glad you brought up Wayne Gretzky. 00:20:49.865 --> 00:20:51.288 I'm glad you brought up Wayne Gretzky. 00:20:51.288 --> 00:20:53.074 I met him when he was 19 years old. 00:20:53.074 --> 00:21:01.798 Oh wow, one of my dearest, dearest friends, michael Barnett, played for Calgary Flames. 00:21:01.798 --> 00:21:05.550 He used to go to Edmonton watch the Oilers play. 00:21:05.550 --> 00:21:06.314 I'm a hockey fan. 00:21:06.314 --> 00:21:11.228 I met Gretzky in a restaurant with Michael Barnett. 00:21:11.228 --> 00:21:15.375 Michael Barnett built Wayne Gretzky in a restaurant with Michael Barnett. 00:21:15.375 --> 00:21:17.780 Michael Barnett built Wayne Gretzky. 00:21:17.780 --> 00:21:19.644 Michael Barnett has built a lot. 00:21:21.326 --> 00:21:25.755 I don't get to see him as often as I'd like to, but first time I met Wayne Gretzky I looked at him and I went. 00:21:25.755 --> 00:21:27.396 That skinny little kid what can he do? 00:21:27.396 --> 00:21:28.900 You know what he did. 00:21:28.900 --> 00:21:34.307 He outsmarted him as a little kid right here. 00:21:34.307 --> 00:21:39.076 I had to be quicker and get there sooner because I wasn't big enough to outrun the big ones. 00:21:39.076 --> 00:21:40.759 You know what gretzky did. 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:48.906 He saw where his shot was going to go and he let his feet carry his butt so that he can stand that shot. 00:21:48.906 --> 00:21:51.297 But he played beyond that shot. 00:21:51.297 --> 00:21:55.289 This is not the first quote I've heard that you just gave me about him. 00:21:55.289 --> 00:22:05.931 As another point, you're talking about we as a society in agriculture am I still correct, because I'm on a lot of different television shows and radio podcasts and so forth. 00:22:05.931 --> 00:22:13.257 I still say that less than 2% of us in agriculture raise the food for the 98%. 00:22:13.257 --> 00:22:15.152 Am I fairly correct still? 00:22:15.452 --> 00:22:15.713 Yes, sir. 00:22:16.164 --> 00:22:19.355 And I'm not so sure that 20 years ago you didn't give me those numbers. 00:22:19.355 --> 00:22:25.546 You've given me a great lead in so much of this, aaron, as we've done it With. 00:22:25.546 --> 00:22:29.876 That said, we need to teach something besides agriculture. 00:22:29.876 --> 00:22:31.330 I'll get back to that in a moment. 00:22:31.330 --> 00:22:33.868 We need to teach people agriculture. 00:22:33.868 --> 00:22:35.973 I'll get back to that in a moment. 00:22:35.973 --> 00:22:38.160 We need to teach people the average consumer about waste. 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:38.760 Oh yeah, yeah. 00:22:38.760 --> 00:22:43.094 Portion portion serving clean your plate. 00:22:43.094 --> 00:22:46.971 Portion serving waste. 00:22:47.813 --> 00:22:49.134 Have you been in a restaurant lately? 00:22:49.134 --> 00:22:52.019 You watch what those waiters pick off the tables. 00:22:52.019 --> 00:22:57.355 There is enough food in a restaurant. 00:22:57.355 --> 00:22:58.460 Pick the one you want. 00:22:58.460 --> 00:23:01.708 Every night at midnight it goes in a dumpster. 00:23:01.708 --> 00:23:14.277 I used to slop hogs so I know how that works because we went to restaurants and grocery stores and heads of lettuce threw them in a garbage truck and slopped dogs with a guy named Pete Pedroli when I was a kid. 00:23:14.277 --> 00:23:16.279 No waste. 00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:21.336 But today we waste and that all goes to a landfill or something somewhere. 00:23:21.336 --> 00:23:23.090 We've got to quit wasting. 00:23:23.090 --> 00:23:26.855 We've got to learn to produce on 10 acres what we used to produce on 100. 00:23:26.855 --> 00:23:34.205 We need to think about water on 100. 00:23:34.205 --> 00:23:34.848 We need to think about water. 00:23:34.888 --> 00:23:55.141 Water conservation is the number one thing in my mind in the real estate business today and in the ranching business, livestock business, agriculture business that if we don't start conserving our water because our snow packs less and our runoff is less, we waste water by letting it run in different directions to where it does no good. 00:23:55.141 --> 00:23:59.055 And if we learn how I've got a little place here. 00:23:59.055 --> 00:24:00.829 Have you ever been to my house? 00:24:00.829 --> 00:24:08.433 Well, we manage with lease places about 800 acres and I have a little D5 Caterpillar. 00:24:08.433 --> 00:24:10.291 Now this is going to kick your bottom. 00:24:10.291 --> 00:24:12.308 You know how I shoot grade? 00:24:12.308 --> 00:24:14.355 Watch this. 00:24:14.355 --> 00:24:18.472 My grandfather was an engineer. 00:24:18.472 --> 00:24:24.017 This is how I shoot grade Right here, this pencil. 00:24:25.125 --> 00:24:42.258 So you take this and you either focus where you want to go which way do you want to move that water this way or this way and then you find a way to go and you find out what you're going to do to do this, or come back and do this looky there all it is. 00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.006 Well, I packed a stick for my grandpa as a kid. 00:24:46.006 --> 00:24:48.628 I've done a lot of things I I just thought about this. 00:24:48.628 --> 00:25:08.997 But catching rainwater and I was in a continuing education class the other day in real estate that just really brought it to a head that we catch rainwater and it's the purest form of water that you can have, full of nitrogen, awesome, clean. 00:25:08.997 --> 00:25:10.759 And what do we do with it? 00:25:10.759 --> 00:25:12.003 We let it run out on the ground. 00:25:12.003 --> 00:25:19.402 If you learn how, as a hydrologist will teach you how to collect it, use it. 00:25:19.402 --> 00:25:27.236 Water, cattle water, garden water, yard water, your house there's so many things. 00:25:27.236 --> 00:25:28.939 Be careful about waste. 00:25:29.219 --> 00:25:43.778 That's the end result of cooking and producing food, but you better don't waste your natural resources going into making you know, bob, one of the things that you said and I know we probably have talked about this over the years. 00:25:43.778 --> 00:25:49.571 I live in North Texas, I live in Wichita Falls and we were on the verge. 00:25:49.571 --> 00:25:56.132 Our city was on the verge of becoming the first major MSA ghost city in the state of Texas. 00:25:57.074 --> 00:25:58.196 Really, I didn't know that. 00:25:58.477 --> 00:26:04.939 During the drought, our three combined lake levels three combined lake levels was down to 17%. 00:26:04.939 --> 00:26:17.454 The Texas FFA officers happened to be traveling through Wichita Falls one day and I said I'd like to take you all on a little field trip and I drove them out in the country, out to a little rural bridge. 00:26:17.454 --> 00:26:20.634 We went across the bridge, we parked and I said follow me. 00:26:20.634 --> 00:26:27.152 And we started walking and we walked, and we walked and we walked and I looked at these two young men. 00:26:27.152 --> 00:26:28.912 I said I want you to look around you right now. 00:26:28.912 --> 00:26:31.190 They said where are we? 00:26:31.190 --> 00:26:32.227 I, these two young men. 00:26:32.247 --> 00:26:33.471 I said I want you to look around you right now. 00:26:33.471 --> 00:26:34.295 They said where are we? 00:26:34.295 --> 00:26:36.763 I said you're walking on the bottom of a lake and I want you to look at the ground. 00:26:36.763 --> 00:26:38.468 I want you to look at the cracks in the ground. 00:26:38.468 --> 00:26:45.790 And I want you to look around because in my lifetime I've heard people talk about droughts but I'd never experienced one. 00:26:45.790 --> 00:26:50.858 And I said I want y'all to look around as far as your eye can see that there is no water. 00:26:54.884 --> 00:26:56.487 How much water is it going to take to fill this lake back up? 00:26:56.487 --> 00:26:56.807 And when? 00:26:56.807 --> 00:27:00.670 You understand just to your point, bob, how precious our resources are. 00:27:00.670 --> 00:27:05.393 That's why we love working with Texas Soil and Water Conservation. 00:27:05.393 --> 00:27:08.935 Matter of fact, rex Isom, their executive director, is on our board of directors. 00:27:08.935 --> 00:27:16.321 We work with American Water Works Daniel Nix, their new executive director, is a former FFA member. 00:27:16.321 --> 00:27:34.208 We work with Ducks Unlimited, another great conservation group, which is working with Certified Angus Beef, which is another collaboration on conservation, because, you said it a while ago, we're going to have to manage this land that we've got. 00:27:34.208 --> 00:28:03.016 We've got to manage this water, because people are going to get hungry and we need people that are smart, that can stand up and say let me help figure this out, let me be part of the solution here, and I think that our 4-H and our FFA kids I have a feeling they're the ones that can stand up and lead this opportunity that's going to be presented them are some pretty heavy names. 00:28:03.056 --> 00:28:06.886 You just dropped the people of what they're doing and where they came from. 00:28:06.886 --> 00:28:15.940 Sometimes I get preached back at for preaching. 00:28:15.940 --> 00:28:27.549 I am ordained, by the way, I have a license, okay, and I have a God gift on this property. 00:28:27.549 --> 00:28:30.315 It's a hand-dug well. 00:28:30.315 --> 00:28:37.344 It's 512 feet from the county road, hand-dug 21 feet. 00:28:37.344 --> 00:28:41.693 Down in a hand-dug well is 25 feet of water. 00:28:41.693 --> 00:28:48.641 We've pumped it twice with a full horse pump for 24 hours and reduced it maybe an inch. 00:28:50.042 --> 00:28:51.705 It's above the Paluxy. 00:28:51.705 --> 00:28:52.867 It's groundwater. 00:28:52.867 --> 00:28:57.641 It's as clear, clean and safe to drink as you could have. 00:28:57.641 --> 00:28:59.125 I don't use it. 00:28:59.125 --> 00:29:00.367 There's an old windmill on it. 00:29:00.367 --> 00:29:03.682 We shut it down and just let it turn because it's fun to listen to in the wind. 00:29:03.682 --> 00:29:13.926 If it ever comes going to follow what t boone pickens said, the day's going to come that a gallon of water will be worth more than a barrel of oil. 00:29:13.926 --> 00:29:18.141 The day comes, I'll put a solar pump on that front of pipeline. 00:29:18.141 --> 00:29:22.488 Out there, that street, tell people it's free, god gave it to me. 00:29:22.488 --> 00:29:25.311 It's free, god gave it to me. 00:29:25.311 --> 00:29:27.515 It's my right and deservency to give to them. 00:29:27.861 --> 00:29:52.328 I'm going to tell you when we were in that situation here in our community so I've experienced it you realize just how precious that resource is over in some of the arid land over in the Mideast that actually the billboard has porous holes in it and captures the moisture out of the atmosphere. 00:29:52.328 --> 00:29:58.727 I mean you have to try everything you can to grab that resource while you have the opportunity. 00:30:01.172 --> 00:30:05.501 I don't know what you know about wind or solar energy In the real estate business. 00:30:05.501 --> 00:30:25.616 My partner, phil Sanders, and I have got quite into the development for clients in solar energy and people say, well, there's miles and miles of solar panels, yep sun, second, condensation, third, rain when it rains. 00:30:25.616 --> 00:30:29.900 And where does that water go onto the ground? 00:30:29.900 --> 00:30:32.707 Capture, making solar panels. 00:30:32.707 --> 00:30:39.461 Now that capture that water in a trough, goes into a tube, tubes go into big pipes, pipes go into big rivers. 00:30:39.461 --> 00:30:42.125 It's picked up, you can turn it around. 00:30:42.125 --> 00:30:43.847 It's amazing. 00:30:43.847 --> 00:30:55.730 Well, you take 12 sections of ground, 9,600 acres, and you cover it up with solar panels and you catch that much condensation. 00:30:55.730 --> 00:31:00.590 You can build a lake in a day in a drought. 00:31:01.011 --> 00:31:01.252 Wow. 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:04.368 Now you know where my next love of life is. 00:31:04.368 --> 00:31:05.683 I'm 76 years old. 00:31:05.683 --> 00:31:09.287 Okay, I'm only going to live to be 101. 00:31:09.287 --> 00:31:18.130 And then I'm going to figure out what I'm going to do in the next quarter century, and it will be in agriculture, okay. 00:31:18.410 --> 00:31:19.211 We're going to. 00:31:19.211 --> 00:31:21.381 We've got to change topics or you and I. 00:31:21.381 --> 00:31:23.124 I knew this was going to happen. 00:31:23.124 --> 00:31:28.050 I just knew when we got on the phone we were just going to start and just go down this agricultural path. 00:31:28.050 --> 00:31:30.674 I want to switch back over to your career real quick. 00:31:30.674 --> 00:31:40.549 Okay, earned it. 00:31:40.549 --> 00:31:54.223 But I'm curious for some of our younger listeners that may not know Bob Tallman's story how did you find your way into this rodeo announcer space and how did that start lend itself into a career? 00:31:54.223 --> 00:31:57.311 Can you take us on a real quick journey of what that looked like? 00:31:58.500 --> 00:31:59.902 No, it's only been 55 years. 00:31:59.902 --> 00:32:02.826 I don't know how quick I can get through it, but here's the deal. 00:32:02.826 --> 00:32:09.296 I knew as a kid that I wanted to be a cowboy. 00:32:09.296 --> 00:32:16.146 When I was four or five years old, my dad took my mom to Elkville, nevada, to see Casey Tibbs ride a bucking horse. 00:32:16.146 --> 00:32:26.092 And I knew that day when he met my mother, he took his hat off, shook her hand, kissed her hand hand, shook hands with my dad. 00:32:26.092 --> 00:32:30.702 I said, dang, that's a pretty cool dude. 00:32:30.702 --> 00:32:34.809 It's still just bright in my mind. 00:32:34.809 --> 00:32:37.374 So I wanted to be a cowboy. 00:32:37.555 --> 00:32:38.401 Well, it wasn't very big. 00:32:38.401 --> 00:32:42.306 When I started high school I was five foot one weighed 105 pounds. 00:32:42.306 --> 00:32:44.068 That's when I played football. 00:32:44.068 --> 00:32:47.874 Three days All my friends weighed 150, 200, beat me up. 00:32:47.874 --> 00:32:50.941 So that didn't work. 00:32:50.941 --> 00:32:57.471 But when I graduated from high school I said six one weighed 135. 00:32:57.471 --> 00:32:59.714 Still not big enough to do anything. 00:33:05.743 --> 00:33:08.259 In that time frame I tried to ride bucking horses, bulls, rope calves, team rope, even tried barrel racing. 00:33:08.259 --> 00:33:24.726 Didn't have a good horse, but what I could do as an individual and if I didn't win I didn't have a team that lost and the coach would make me run 30 laps around a football field I knew that I had to try again. 00:33:24.726 --> 00:33:27.909 Get a better horse, get better cattle, try harder. 00:33:27.909 --> 00:33:33.227 I did not know that I wanted to be a rodeo announcer, except I loved telling stories. 00:33:33.227 --> 00:33:37.950 So I team roped with an old gentleman. 00:33:37.950 --> 00:33:53.339 His name was Vern Ryan, he lived south of Winnemucca there and he was a rodeo announcer and he had four great big university horns and these 50 pound drivers and a bunch of cables and a little 45 record player and a microphone. 00:33:53.339 --> 00:34:01.151 So when I started I had a $26 Windsor mic, four great big horns heavy big old drivers. 00:34:01.715 --> 00:34:09.128 I mounted them on two by twelves, put them on the, but twelves Put them on the hood of my truck. 00:34:09.128 --> 00:34:11.365 My wife and I programmed eight track carts. 00:34:11.365 --> 00:34:15.827 Because you didn't, it shoots, it moves and it ruins your music. 00:34:15.827 --> 00:34:19.028 I practiced and I practiced. 00:34:19.028 --> 00:34:23.250 I also was still trying to ride bugging horses and rode. 00:34:23.250 --> 00:34:26.509 They would have to hold that for me after the rodeo. 00:34:26.509 --> 00:34:31.431 Well, about two months into that, I said my God, I'm beat up, I'm sore. 00:34:31.431 --> 00:34:35.090 All the money I made announcing rodeo I had to pay over here for this. 00:34:35.219 --> 00:34:36.606 I said there's got to be a better deal. 00:34:36.606 --> 00:34:38.467 My wife said, yeah, you need to quit that crap. 00:34:38.467 --> 00:34:43.429 Remember now she'd been training on me 54 years. 00:34:43.429 --> 00:34:54.284 Remember now, she'd been training on me 54 years. 00:34:54.284 --> 00:34:56.248 So today I did what you should. 00:34:56.248 --> 00:35:10.695 I think I went through the right sequence of career living in nevada I went to idaho, oregon, never did go to california, utah, and nevada's a big state so I had plenty of work that I could go out and get and I didn't know if I was making enough money. 00:35:10.715 --> 00:35:13.347 But the first rodeo I ever announced, the guy gave me a hundred dollars a perk. 00:35:13.347 --> 00:35:16.039 I said, whoa, there'll never be another poor day. 00:35:16.039 --> 00:35:17.282 We're going to filet mignon. 00:35:17.282 --> 00:35:18.364 So much for them hamburgers. 00:35:18.364 --> 00:35:25.063 Well, if my mom and dad hadn't supported me and us and all the rest of it, I I'd have never made it. 00:35:25.063 --> 00:35:29.673 And my dad had a split personality about that. 00:35:29.673 --> 00:35:34.242 He wanted me to stay in business with him. 00:35:34.242 --> 00:35:38.827 My mom got tired of listening to him yell at me and she said you need to go over here and do this. 00:35:38.827 --> 00:35:43.534 And the guy that really convinced me was my father-in-law, harris Goodrich. 00:35:43.534 --> 00:35:50.431 He said you'll never know if you don't try. 00:35:50.431 --> 00:35:59.737 And he said you'll never fail if you don't try and you'll never make it at whatever level you want to go to if you don't persist and push. 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:08.146 So, just like we try to teach these kids for a career, the earlier we start on them, the better off we are. 00:36:08.146 --> 00:36:29.532 Well, I've been very blessed between the accolades and the halls of fame and Denver, fort Worth, houston, san Antonio Think about it Reno and the Calgary Stampede for 40 years and I have been from San Francisco in the Cal Palace, caltown, new Jersey. 00:36:29.532 --> 00:36:33.525 I've been from Seattle in the World's Fair with Larry Mayhem to Miami. 00:36:33.525 --> 00:36:53.061 I've been to Australia three different times Medmonton, alberta to now if I may pat their chest the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the ultimate, the biggest every time I drive by that gate where you and I did that interview that day I look up at nrg stadium and I go. 00:36:53.081 --> 00:36:56.527 Aaron alejandro and I did a big tv show right there. 00:36:56.527 --> 00:36:58.532 I think about it every day. 00:36:58.572 --> 00:37:01.043 I drive by boy, we didn't know what was coming that day. 00:37:01.043 --> 00:37:02.126 That we did that did we? 00:37:02.126 --> 00:37:05.632 That was right before covid hit us and yeah. 00:37:06.313 --> 00:37:13.271 So as far as a career, how many people want to do what they don't really know that they need to go? 00:37:13.271 --> 00:37:13.572 Do? 00:37:13.572 --> 00:37:19.771 I had so much support bob cook, jack roddy and jack sperrick when it all started. 00:37:19.771 --> 00:37:31.507 In those days I can go back to corky prunny diamond day rodeo company in elko, nevada, jarbridge prior to that, and then cotton rosser and then mike servey. 00:37:31.507 --> 00:37:36.422 Mike servey opened my big doors, took me to phoenix to the jc's rodeo one time. 00:37:36.422 --> 00:37:38.043 The next year I'm at denver. 00:37:38.043 --> 00:37:56.173 Two years later I'm at Houston and I'd branch off and go here and I'd branch off and go there In 1983, I did 303 performances in one year and 365 days. 00:37:56.293 --> 00:38:00.251