Replay: Everything is Possible, Interview with Benji Campbell, Cal-Maine Foods, Episode 1

Episode 37 is jumping back to where it all began: Episode 1 with Benji Campbell of Cal-Maine Foods:

What does it take to lead in the poultry industry during times of unprecedented challenges? General Manager Benji Campbell of Cal Maine Foods opens up about his journey in egg production management, sharing how family entrepreneurship shaped his leadership approach from the very beginning.

The conversation takes us deep into the current biosecurity challenges facing poultry operations nationwide. Campbell explains how avian influenza has evolved to become more contagious since 2021, leaving the United States approximately 12 million laying hens short of meeting domestic egg demand. His practical insights reveal why proper protocols are critical and how most disease outbreaks can be traced back to human activity on farms.

But this episode goes beyond industry talk when Campbell shares a deeply personal story that reveals the true character of the poultry community. After his wife suffered severe injuries in a catastrophic car accident in December 2020, the industry rallied around his family with prayer and support. Three years later, colleagues still check on her recovery—demonstrating how professional relationships in this field often become meaningful personal connections.

For those navigating leadership positions, Campbell offers invaluable wisdom on balancing the 24/7 demands of poultry management with family life, building strong teams through effective communication, and embracing change when faced with the common resistance of "we've always done it this way." His parting message comes from Mark 9:23: "Everything is possible for those who believe"—a philosophy that has guided him through both personal tragedy and industry transformation.

Whether you're new to the poultry industry or a seasoned professional, this conversation provides a roadmap for leadership with integrity, resilience, and faith during challenging times.

Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction and Reintroduction
• 0:54 Meeting Benji Campbell of Cal Maine Foods
• 4:32 Biosecurity Challenges in Poultry Industry
• 7:26 Overcoming Personal Tragedy
• 14:28 Work-Life Balance and Industry Challenges
• 19:16 Faith, Leadership, and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Brandon Mulnix: 0:00

Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix, and this week we're doing something different. I'm not available to create another episode this week, so I'm going back in time and releasing episode one, because it's still one of everybody's favorites, and definitely one of mine. There's so much positive feedback we get from this episode. I know that not everybody's heard it, so let's go back and interview Benji Campbell from Calamine Foods.

Brandon Mulnix: 0:54

Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix. This is a podcast all about poultry leadership. Whether you're one day in the industry or third generation in the industry, this podcast is for you. The idea of this podcast is to share stories from industry leaders to the next generation of poultry leaders. I have the amazing pleasure today of this being the kickoff edition, and with me, live in person, I have Benji Campbell, general manager of calamine foods. I invited Benji along on a little trip here and we're just enjoying some time together in venice, louisiana, and Benji's going to help by sharing his story. Benji, welcome to the podcast. How you doing today bud, I'm good.

Benji Campbell: 1:38

How are you? Thank you right in for for having me on this. Uh, be your first guinea pig, I would say for this. It's hard to believe it's been four years since we met each other, but it's been good doing business. Like Brandon said, I'm Benji Campbell. I'm the general manager for Cal Maine Foods at our Pittsburgh, Texas location. I grew up in a small town of Flora, Mississippi, where I graduated from Tri-County Academy. I went on from there to receive a bachelor's in business management from Delta State University and that's where I met my beautiful wife and life partner. We also have two beautiful daughters, Bricklin and Oakley.

Brandon Mulnix: 2:15

Very cool. Have they gotten in the industry? Yet we have.

Benji Campbell: 2:19

You know they both are farm girls. You know living on the farm and growing up on the Calamity farms that we were at in Louisiana and Edwards, mississippi, and they both have experienced the whole packing eggs and what it takes to process eggs in our industry. That's really cool.

Brandon Mulnix: 2:40

As we kick off this podcast, any shout outs to anybody who, in your career, who helps you along the journey like you're looking to help somebody else along the journey um were.

Benji Campbell: 2:49

My grandpa, adams, was an entrepreneur himself, started a communication business after he got out of the navy and went on to run that business until his passing um and then my, my grandpa, you know, campbell, was a mechanic for the ford motor company and he was there for 40 plus years and went on to to be a mechanic at a local butane um supplier in yazoo county mississippi. And um, as well as you know my dad um. He taught me a lot of a lot of hard work. My dad is an entrepreneur himself. In 1983 he started his own company, uh, in air conditioning and heating. Um and just the just the benefit that I got from watching him run a business as well as be a family man, yeah, really got me to where I am today. Just the hard work, the dedication that it takes uh to be a successful you know, not really a a you know um, but so your dad had.

Benji Campbell: 4:04

Your dad had pretty big influence on you then yeah, yeah, he uh definitely did um just teaching me the right and wrongs, the what to do, you know, from the aspects of running a business.

Brandon Mulnix: 4:16

Um so, with your dad being an incredible influence on you and the industry going through, you know, quite a bit over the last couple of years. There's a lot of big topics like avian influenza and COVID stuff like that. What are some of the greatest lessons learned in the last 12 months or?

Benji Campbell: 4:36

maybe a little longer. Yeah, lessons learned in the past 12 months from a challenge that the forums is. You know, our biosecurity practices. Um, obviously, we went through a, yeah, a pretty big challenge in 2015 and this, this challenge that we've been faced since, you know, 2021 and 2022, um, just the the disease itself is evolving right, um, and it's becoming more contagious, whether it it's through, you know, turkeys, it's through broilers, breeders, it's through, you know, even commercial layers. That in itself has just become a challenge to our farms, and you know, just, a daily way of life that we practice biosecurity throughout our farms is to prevent that disease from coming to us.

Brandon Mulnix: 5:26

Looking at someone that's up and coming in the industry. What does that biosecurity mean to them? Why is this that?

Benji Campbell: 5:34

important. What's our way of life? For one thing, without our hens we don't have a job. We don't take care of our hens, we don't take care of the health of our hens. You know there's no job for us in the industry. It's you know we would basically be rebuilding a complex or re-housing a complex of hens. So that's what we stress to our employees as management the importance to practice good biosecurity, because we never know what's on on our doorstep. You never know what's what's outside our doorstep. You know what can be brought onto the farms is easily contracted and most of the um you know outbreaks have been. You know they're back to, you know humans bringing it into your farm.

Brandon Mulnix: 6:26

Wow, it just seems strange that you know just some poor practices. You know. Driving down the road, you know not cleaning your stuff, walking in a barn, you know, and just the impact that can have on a farm. You were talking earlier about the number of hens and the fact that we're still not recovered. Can you tell me a little bit more?

Benji Campbell: 6:44

about that. So, Brandon, with the United States, we've got roughly 330 million people in the United States. Our USDA hash numbers reported a 318 million hen number a couple months ago and that leaves us about about 12 million hens short of being able to supply the United States with the adequate number of eggs that is needed.

Brandon Mulnix: 7:17

Okay, interesting. So I'm going to change this a little bit and get a little bit more deep into who Benji Campbell is. I'm going to ask you you the question what's the most difficult thing you've gone through and how did you overcome?

Benji Campbell: 7:28

it. So you're digging deep here, probably a little bit yeah that's how we are, oh yeah.

Benji Campbell: 7:34

So, um, probably the most difficult thing that I've ever had to go through in my life currently um was my wife was involved in a, you know, a car accident in uh, december, december 31st of 2020. Um, yeah, and everybody knows that 2020 was bad enough, with the covid uh spill there and everything that the industry and you know just the industry as a whole, but, as you know, the poultry industry as a whole, but the entire united states went through during 2012 and you know we decided we'd just uh send 2020 without with a bang, you know, literally. And you know her accident um, you know it left her with, um, you know, broken femur on her left side. That was was broken in two spots, um, the femur bone was actually protruding out from her leg. The emergency brake pedal of her vehicle went through the lower portion of her leg, which actually broke her tibia into, obviously tearing all the muscle tissue with that. She suffered two pelvic fractures um lacerated liver, uh torn, you know, acl and pcl in her, in her right knee, just from the impact of the. The dashboard hitting her. She was. She was hit head-on. She was driving a chevy tommy was hit head-on by an f-450 um which had a, uh, ranch style flatbed that you know, was overhanging on her side, with a guy crossed over to sit alone in a curve and, um, pretty much you know side swiped her and the bed of the truck is what did the damage to her vehicle in her as well.

Benji Campbell: 9:23

Um, you know, and the worst part of that was, you know, I was the the third person on the on the scene because I was we just left work it was shortly behind her and home to um, we were actually getting ready to go spend christmas with our family. We were heading on the back and go go see family when this happened. The worst part about the whole deal was when I pulled up on the scene and I couldn't help her because there was no way that I could get her physically out of the vehicle because of the way that the, the door was smashed in and all from the vehicle. So I had to just sit there and watch my wife in pain, trying to calm her as well and waiting on paramedics and the fire department to get there. I waited for over an hour before they finally got her cut out of that vehicle. Going through that was probably one of the most difficult things I've ever had to go through. We got through it.

Benji Campbell: 10:33

Um, you know there was a lot of prayer, reached out to a lot, of a lot of people. Um, you know all of our family, um, you know our co-workers, even people that we know across the the poultry industry, reached out to me and was asking me what can we do for you, what can we do to help you and your wife through this situation? And you know, and biggest thing I could tell them was just pray. You know pray that she'll be through. You know, recover. You know 100%, yeah, and still to this day.

Benji Campbell: 10:59

And it just goes to show you how great this poultry industry is and the company that you know we work for. You know, uh, cal me foods, uh, just, I constantly have people, to this day, every time that I talk to them, ask me how my wife is, how she's doing, how her recovery is going. You know, and we're three years out from this thing, um, so just that just goes to show you this the, the family that we have, you know, not just in cal me, because cal means a very family oriented company, um, just a great family feel and can't speak enough about that but just the, the family that the poultry industry in itself has just just the connections through the vendors that we have, um just just how much those people you know truly care about. You know the, the people inside the industry that are taking care yeah that, ah, man, I'm, I'm glad she's doing really well.

Brandon Mulnix: 11:57

I got to see her here in texas and not that long ago and she's, you know, seems to be doing pretty well. Girls seem to be doing pretty pretty good. You know family. So, yeah, glad, glad you came through all that. So, going off script a little bit with our topic here, talk about work-life balance. As a leader in this industry, how do you prioritize, when work is 365 days a year, cause the chickens never stop versus that family time? Right?

Benji Campbell: 12:26

yeah and that and that goes back to, uh, you know kind of what I mentioned a little bit earlier about my dad. You know just um, yeah, on, and I was on his own business, that's. You know anybody that knows. Uh, you know a single business owner. You know an entrepreneur that's trying to be I mean, it's a 365 day a year job and the, the balance that you have to have, um, for work versus family. You know it's. You know something, just just as a person, that you have to figure out all your own. You know there there's just sometimes you have to say, hey, I'm at a ball game or hey, I'm at a function, but what can I do to help figure out a certain problem or situation that you can do? And it's just a fine balance of family and company time that you kind of have to figure out personally, really.

Brandon Mulnix: 13:19

Yeah, I struggle with a lot of the same challenges being on the vendor side, because our customers never sleep.

Brandon Mulnix: 13:26

It'll work nine to five and you know we understand that there's issues middle of the night, christmas, and you know, the ones I know really have I've really grown to like are ones that will treat customers the same way they treat their family and a lot of ways where they're willing to give up, you know, an evening to talk to a customer when their farm has had, you know, been hit with AI and you mentioned, you know, the poultry industry is a pretty special place and I'm glad to be part of that for that reason alone is just because I know that there's a lot of people that will reach out and you know whether there's a fire or whether there's a, you know, wind storm or a family emergency, you know how many people reach out and say, hey, how can I help? Whether it's just prayer, whether it's, you know, you know they just want to help. So now, that's what I love about this industry as well. Now, you know you're a general manager of a farm and you've got a job to do.

Benji Campbell: 14:28

What's a win for you? So obviously, uh, a win for me is the fact that, you know, my wife never still here with us, you know, just just to to go back on that last question I had for but yeah, I mean a a daily win, you know, is obviously waking up every day and getting to go to a job that I love to do. Yeah, and that's another thing, kind of kicking back, you know, to the grandparents. Uh, you know, my grandpa Campbell told me. He said, if you find something that you love to do, it's never work. Yeah, you'll never work a day in your life If you find something that you love to do, and I have.

Brandon Mulnix: 14:57

I have found that in the poultry industry and I truly do love getting up and going to work every day and that's a win okay, you and I are going to jump in a time machine and go back to a day much, much earlier in your career where it's a younger Benji Campbell. Yeah, and you're just getting started in this industry. What's one piece of advice you give that young Benji Campbell? Don't be afraid to take chances wow yeah, why do you give that advice?

Benji Campbell: 15:23

just, you know it's, you know we've been, we've been. I've been reading a book here lately that's, uh, it's, it's called, it's your ship, um, and the biggest piece of advice that, uh, that's given in that book is no matter what you know, adversity comes, you know, towards you is to not be afraid to take a chance and go outside of not necessarily a company's you know comfort zone, but don't be afraid to take the chance to make a situation better what's the worst thing they can do?

Brandon Mulnix: 15:58

take away your birthday, yeah, yeah, that's what I hear a lot. Um, and I just goes back to one of my philosophies always been. You know I wouldn't be married unless I asked. You know you got to take those guesses. You know they can't. What's the worst thing that could happen? They can tell you no, and until they tell you no, then you don't know what really really the answer is. And so, yeah, that's great advice. That really is Yep, and I'm sure that young Benji Campbell would appreciate you telling him that Hell, yeah, because it is afraid.

Brandon Mulnix: 16:29

Yeah, you know, in these industries, when you're working through these challenges and you're afraid because they've always done it this way, you know, as we talked about, you know with these young guys this week, you know this last day or so, and you'd hear, well, they've always been doing it that way.

Brandon Mulnix: 16:43

Or you know, change is hard and all of these different things, but how that process got put in the first place was someone had to step up and say, hey, I think we should do it this way and that's the way that worked, whether that was yesterday or 10 years ago, that's the way that worked. But also be willing to make that change again, you know, and always be working on the next thing or, you know, looking at it from a new perspective or with new technologies, or or just different, different opportunities as they come up. So let's look at the industry as a whole. Right now, you know, ai is, you know, one of the biggest, biggest problems out there. But let's, let's look at one of the other challenges. What's the biggest challenge for you in the poultry industry?

Benji Campbell: 17:24

I would say it's, um, just the, the requirements that we're, you know, seeing from not necessarily just just customers, but just the overall industry itself, just the different requirements that we're having to do, whether it's caged versus cage-free, as well as just the audits that we are being asked to go through.

Brandon Mulnix: 17:53

So what do you mean by audits? I mean, if I'm new to this, I'm an upcoming person what is an audit? It's kind of that question. Is no questions too dumb here? You know, sure, let's keep some of the basics, but what's an?

Benji Campbell: 18:04

audit. Yeah. So, um, you know, in an audit, you know we, we go through, you know all of our um. Your SQF is obviously our, our, one of our big ones, which is our, our safe quality foods audit. Um, yeah, that makes sure that we're practicing all GMPs in the process of planning and make sure that we're doing what we say we're doing, as well as not only our bird health, our hen health with our UEP, our AHC requirements From a cage-free standpoint, the AOC audit. Now we're being did with a California, you know, prop 12 audit, which is a new audit this year that we'll be going through.

Brandon Mulnix: 18:48

Yeah, I mean, that's the challenges that just keep, you know, keep coming as the world continues to change and you guys, you know, seem to be able to get through it. I mean it's a lot of work, more man hours, more everything, but yeah, that's definitely a challenge. So if you could solve one problem for your team, what?

Benji Campbell: 19:06

problem would you solve? You know it's that's, that's a really that is a tough question, Brandon. Um, you know I've I haven't created a team. You know, in a few years that I've been, you know, five years going on now being a general manager. We've created a team that has good camaraderie. There's good communication, you know, between our processing and production teams. You know I've developed a good strong group of leaders as well as employees. Yeah, they work hard and they work on a daily basis. Um, they're dedicated to making things better. Um, so I guess really, the you know, the biggest, biggest thing, biggest problem is just that continue, uh, to continue the momentum that we, we've established and, you know, in the vision, um know, just to be the most sustainable and high quality producer of shell eggs. You know that we can be, you're how old are you, Benji?

Brandon Mulnix: 20:04

I'm 35. 35. So, as you look forward, what's next for you in life and your career?

Benji Campbell: 20:09

You know, I take every day as a learning opportunity. Every day that I come to work I try to learn, try to get better. So the the continue learning, uh, to better improve myself as a leader, um and further in my future. You know, in in the poultry industry.

Brandon Mulnix: 20:27

Are there anything you do like to help help yourself grow and learn? Any tools out there that you'd you know, take advantage. Well, I I.

Benji Campbell: 20:35

I like to, to listen to. Uh, you know everything I. I take everything that our upper management in our company, things that they speak about and talk about. I take that to heart and try to learn the best that I can from them.

Brandon Mulnix: 20:49

Okay, is there anything that I didn't ask you that you believe is important to share with the next generation of leaders?

Benji Campbell: 20:56

Yeah, it's really not a. You ask really good questions and some difficult ones, right, but you know, really the only message I guess that I could leave behind and it actually comes from a Bible verse that you know I wrote. You know every football game that I played in my entire high school and college career it comes from Mark 9, 23. You know it says if you can, jesus said everything is possible for those who believe, and during that passage Jesus is actually speaking to a father whose son was possessed by a demon and through the father's beliefs, that demon was actually casted out from the son. Uh, through jesus and his beliefs.

Benji Campbell: 21:42

So the biggest thing I guess I can leave behind, and you know, is no matter, you know what trial or tribulation that you experience, you know whether, whether it's personal, um, or it's you know, through your career yeah, every career has its own challenges. So through that career or in just life in general, you know, if you believe that you can do something, everything is possible. Everything is possible for those who believe, and that's probably the greatest thing that I can leave mind right now. Wow.

Brandon Mulnix: 22:11

I mean, if you go back and just listen to Benny's story throughout this and the you know trials, tribulation that he's been through, I can understand why he has a good team. You know, I've had to meet um, have met many of my team members, um, in fact I spent super bowl sunday for three and a half years ago with Benji and when I met him he invited me into his home and that that's a lot to me about this industry and that's just something I can't ever say. Thank you enough. You invited me in. I was young and I was new to the industry. I was inexperienced and you didn't care. You said hey, come break bread with me at my family's house. I'm going to introduce you to my wife, I'm going to introduce you to my kids.

Brandon Mulnix: 22:53

You better pick my wings, otherwise as a guest judge otherwise as a guest judge, otherwise you know you're out the door. Oh, you just included me and it just felt so much, you know, it just brought me in and just gave me, you know, helped me understand why I like the industry so much. So, Benji, I appreciate your time. This has been a great, great adventure. Absolutely. I couldn't ask for somebody that you know would come on, come on the show with me and and get this thing started for the industry. So I hope this isn't the last time the industry hears from you on this podcast.

Brandon Mulnix: 23:26

Sure, hopefully in the future we can get you back on and, you know, share about another, maybe one of your favorite topics, probably around deer hunting or something, yeah, and events outside of work. That's right, but just appreciate your time and events outside of work. But just appreciate your time and as guests. Please share this podcast with up and coming leaders or others in the industry that are just trying to learn and grow. This is a tool that can be used just to help people grow. When you're in a situation in life and you haven't experienced it, these stories might be able to come back through and the things that Benji's been able to overcome may inspire others. So please share this podcast. We appreciate you and look forward to serving you as we move forward.

Benji Campbell: 24:09

Good deal. Thank you, Brandon.

Brandon Mulnix: 24:15

Hey, I hope you enjoyed that episode as much as I did. Before we go, I want to thank our sponsors, prism Controls. They have been the main part of why this podcast exists. They really feel that growing great leaders in this industry is valuable, and so they continue to support this show. So I really want to thank you as listeners and I encourage you to share this episode so folks understand that the Poultry Leadership Podcast is the way to grow in the industry.