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Ever Onward Podcast
The Ever Onward Podcast is your go-to business podcast, offering engaging discussions and diverse guests covering everything from business strategies to community issues. Join us at the executive table as we bring together industry leaders, experts, and visionaries for insightful conversations that go beyond the boardroom. Whether you're an entrepreneur or simply curious about business, our podcast provides a well-rounded experience, exploring a variety of topics that shape the business landscape and impact communities. Brought to you by Ahlquist.
Ever Onward Podcast
What Farmers Know That the Rest of Us Are Forgetting - Matt Dorsey | Ever Onward - Ep. 139
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Matt Dorsey, President of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation and a fifth-generation Idaho farmer, joins Tommy Ahlquist and Zach Miller for a conversation about agriculture, heritage and the values that have shaped Idaho.
From growing up in Sunny Slope and moving hand lines to representing farmers and ranchers across the state, Matt discusses the grit, independence, humility and community that come with a life in agriculture.
They explore what it really means to “keep Idaho, Idaho,” what people without an agricultural background should understand about farming and ranching, and why generations of producers remain deeply invested in protecting the land they depend on.
The conversation also looks toward the future, including precision agriculture, AI-powered equipment and the technology helping producers become more efficient than ever.
It’s a conversation about farming—but even more about work, gratitude, community and the lessons agriculture can teach the next generation.
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Intro And Guest Welcome
SPEAKER_02Today on the Ever Onward Podcast, we have Matt Dorsey. He is the president of the Idaho Farm Bureau. Matt is an incredible guy. He is a husband and father, a multi-generational farmer from Sunny Slope, Idaho, fifth generation farmer. He has recently been elected as the president of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. The Farm Bureau Federation serves as an organization advocacy group here in Idaho. It is the largest service organization and voice for agriculture in Idaho. Matt has a long history of service as planning and zoning commissioner, a lot of community involvement. And now with his new role as the president of Idaho Farm Bureau, he is going to be a great guest to talk about all things in farming and the challenges and opportunities surrounding the industry. Today, Matt Dorsey with my co-host, Zach Miller. Matt Dorsey, welcome. Thank you. You're on the hot seat with well, this is a reverse, right? Right. Because you're usually on the hot seat with Matt, because Matt's the boss. You know what's funny about that is last night I went to a thing where um Adam Richens at Idaho Power was grilling um Lisa Grow, his boss. But he kind of he kind of didn't take it easy on her. He had a bunch of true and falses. He had done a deep dive on the internet about him and said, hey, is this true or false? I found this on the internet. So I it it might be a nice you might be able to just go after Matt here a little bit. Let's see how much be the road.
SPEAKER_03We'll hold this back a little bit.
SPEAKER_02No, Matt, thanks for coming on. You're the president of Idaho Farm Bureau. Thanks for having me. And uh it's gonna be fun to just sit and talk more. Um, me and me and Zach recorded a podcast that would be the week before this one, and um it went by like this. So I looked at him at the end of it, I'm like, hey, I'm glad we're getting to keep talking because there's so much to talk about, Matt. There is, there's a lot going on in your world and with the Farm Bureau and and everything else. But let's start
Matt's Farming Roots And Family
SPEAKER_02by just hearing a little more about you. Great guy. It's been fun getting to know you, but but uh thank you. But let's uh tell us about your past and and your uh your family.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah. Um kind of like I said before, um born and raised in the sunny slope area and um only left to go to college, met my wife, um, and um she's from Soda Springs. Her husband her her father was a county commissioner, so it's just kind of been a life of public service for us. She's a school teacher, and um we've just kind of grown our family and you know, farming and and trying to serve serve the fellow farmers and members of our community.
SPEAKER_02What was uh well I got lots of questions because I didn't know she was from Soda Springs. Soda Springs is an incredible place in the state. It is, it's unbelievable, right? Um, and the hunting over there is crazy good, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she would um growing up, um, you know, they're running cows up there and stuff. So for them hunting, you know, they would run the cows and they would, you know, see that and go out and do it. She she tells a story about her grandpa finally, finally got his moose tag when he was 80 some years old, but you know, he didn't have to spend a month out there. He knew right where they were. He knew right where it was at.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think that's where like a lot of the biggest moose and elk and everything else. It's incredible over there.
SPEAKER_01So unfortunately, I spent a lot of time working and not hunting. So I I I can't I can't tell you.
Sunny Slope Microclimate Explained
SPEAKER_02So that's first question. Second one is what is so unique about Sunny Slope? For for everyone, can you talk about that a little bit? Because I think it's almost embarrassing for people here in the Treasure Valley to not understand the beauty of right there. Is that I mean, I mean, if you don't go out there a lot, I mean, I I bet we could grab in my office, we have 50 employees. I bet you could grab 49 of them and say, Do you know where Sunny Slope is? Do you know anything about this? And and they would look at me like I was speaking, like, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01Well, um, I I don't know because I was born and raised there, so I don't know anything different. Um, it is it is quite a unique micro climate there. And so um, you know, I just hear, you know, my grandpa and my great grandfather, um, he didn't he didn't um homestead it, but he bought it from a homesteader.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so um the highway, highway 55 that runs through there, on the south side or the e west side of the highway was the frost line. And so, so great-grandpa had um sheep and and that sort of stuff. And then on the east side of the highway was the fruit. And so um when great-grandpa, you know, he gave my grandpa the the sheep and the farming side of the highway, and then another half sibling got the fruit side of the highway.
SPEAKER_02So and the the the what's known as sunny slope, what's kind of the definition, your definition as someone that's from there? What what what's what's the sunny slope area to you?
SPEAKER_01Um for me, it's you know, when highway 55 you're heading directly west, it'll bend to the south and you'll drop, you'll literally drop down in that little area, and so it's just kind of right there along the highway until you get to the bridge in Marsing. Yeah. It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_03I mean and and like you said, I mean, when you start talking about wine, which maybe not my forte, but it's one of the preeminent wine-producing areas in the country.
SPEAKER_02And I understand, Matt. It's because of soil and climate and those slopes. I mean, because of the way that the frost line, I mean, there's a lot of science behind it, but that's why it's just thrive there. Is that right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and it is it's pretty steep country. Yeah. You know, up on the bench before you drop down into sunny slope, it's flat. The dirt's the it's actually better dirt, but in the sunny slope area, it kind of it's more sandy, it's steep. So you get a lot of that drainage in the mornings and nights. Um trying to put up hay, a half a mile will make all the difference in the world. You gotta you gotta start down low and work your way up. And so it's just a it's a microclimate. And um, you know, just there were just a few of us families that have kind of uh chiseled out of living down there before before wine and all that stuff was was popular.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's a beautiful it's a absolutely gorgeous. I wish it when we were we lived in Eagle for a long time and when we were looking to kind of move and get away from things, but first of all, we didn't go too far because we went to Cuna and now it's like already surrounded by everything. But I would have gone out there because I think it's probably one of the most beautiful parts of our entire state right there. And it's still close enough, but um, that was overruled by Shannon. It was a little too far away from where our grandkids were gonna be.
SPEAKER_01And then, you know, we we grew up across the road from uh Senator Steve Sims. Yeah. And so, you know, politics was just kind of you know bred into us when my grandma first met Christy, my wife, um, she didn't ask her anything other than you are a Republican, right? So it wouldn't have mattered if she had a different religion or anything else. She just wanted to make sure that you know she was a Republican.
SPEAKER_02What a great line. Uh what did she say? She said yes. Oh, that's great. And uh tell us about your family.
SPEAKER_01Um, I've got uh three kids, two are married. Um we had a set of twins, and and they're all kind of busy working on the farm. My my daughter just recently got married to a farmer and rancher over in the Blackfoot Bone area. So now I just am upset that she doesn't run my haying equipment and runs her and her husband's haying equipment.
SPEAKER_02Any any grandkids yet? No, not yet. So that that magic's yet to come for both both of you. Your oldest is 21, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. My it's my it's my little granddaughter's second birthday today. So uh so you'll uh talking to you guys, you guys are like, what are you talking about? What but here in a few years I'll say you'll say, you were right. Like your world revolves around these little little guys once they come. So yeah, that's cool.
Agriculture Variety Across Idaho
SPEAKER_02Um, Matt, uh we talked a lot about Farm Bureau in the first podcast. Incredible organization because it's authentically genuinely built on Idaho heritage, right? And coming to those board meetings, just some of the best people in the state. It's a st you need a statewide sample. Um all parts of our state are a little different when it comes to ag. It's an in-we didn't talk about this. You you don't realize until you spend, and if I wouldn't run for governor, I would have never known this. But you spend literally I spent two years on the road and went to every nook and cranny, every school district, every hospital, every and I visited businesses literally from like Malad to boundary, you know, county to like you go everywhere. And you look at the variation in agriculture. I I guess that was the thing that really hit me, right? Even down where you are at Sunny Slope, you have a lot of the Treasure Valley and kind of all the way over to our Oregon border. Then you go into the Magic Valley, you get over in the eastern Idaho, your neck of the woods, you go up to Du Bois and everything around there, and then you go kind of Round Valley, Grangeville, and then you get up to Lewiston and then the Palouse, and then you get up to North Idaho. It's so well, and even over at Cameoe, and I mean you start thinking about all the different ag and you guys represent them all, but there's so much variety. Talk about the variety.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, in addition to the variety of the state and the ag each of our individual producers, there's that much variety with them as well. So you could go to eastern Idaho or Western Idaho, and our producers are that unique as well. So it's it's really in what they produce or or how they do it and what what works for them and what doesn't work for others.
SPEAKER_02And so I'm sure none of them are stubborn about how they do it.
SPEAKER_03No, and none of them have a definitive opinion of how everyone else should do that. Just to add on to that, Tommy, so Matt just got elected as the president. So I joke with him. You know, he leans on me quite a bit and we'll say, What do you think and whatnot? And there's my retort to him these days is Matt, no one knows Ag in Idaho better than you, because you've, like you said, he had to go to every one of those nook and crannies. And the personalities, and it's interesting to watch how the personality marries to sometimes the production they are, like, oh, I can tell you raised cheap before you told me you raised cheap, or I can tell you're a dry land farmer. And he sees that so well, like he's so in touch right now with just not just the production, but the people behind that.
How Farm Bureau Builds Consensus
SPEAKER_02How hard so so your organization is to represent industries, right? And it's you're the largest farm ag based industry uh representative in Idaho. Um how hard is it to get consensus? I mean, I've been to your board meetings for other reasons as we've kind of done this building together, but I'm just saying, I'm just I'm just thinking this, man. You got you got everything, and you're somehow going to have to come with policy that helps everybody. That's gotta be tough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so the one thing I I I didn't have to do that, I got to do that. I got to I got to go meet that. And the reason why the reason why I use the word I got to do that is because you can get consensus, but really mainly people just want you to understand what their struggles are and what they're going through. And if you can if you can spend time and you can get that through, then you can come to consensus because you can say, well, Bob over here is struggling with this, Joe is struggling with that. If Bob gets what he wants, it's gonna make Joe's life worse. And so they they can realize that and they can kind of come together. And so we we have the um right now in Farm Bureau, we're going through our resolution process where um individual counties have to put forth resolutions and they talk about it um in their county meetings, and so they'll say, hey, we we think we need to tweak, you know, tweak this, we need to have some help tweaking this or that, you know, policies. And so as you watch that situation come from the grassroots literally in each each individual member county, and you add in all of those personalities because every per the every county has the same type of personalities in there. I used the word chiseled before, there's a reason, right? I mean, they they are you know strong as strong as an ox or steel or rocks. But as they go through that process, you'll see them a really good resolution is when the county is arguing or debating back and forth and they tweak it, then it goes to a district resolution process. There's five of those in the state, and then you get different counties. So, you know, I'm in I in the Treasure Valley, and we have um those districts that go from McCall to Elmore County and everything in between, and so you you get a lot of different types of producers and production. And so when you get to those meetings, you have the same discussion, you know, a room full of, you know, probably 25, 30 people, and then you then it goes on up to the state. So it it it is a very good um process to get really good refined policy I I I'm gonna ask some really stupid questions.
SPEAKER_02So as I've as you're talking, I'm thinking, is are there because I've been to your board meetings, are there clicks amongst like those that have sheep and cattle and and potato producers?
SPEAKER_01Oh oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03So I'm curious to see how the president's gonna navigate this.
SPEAKER_01So um remember, I was just you know a little farm boy in Sunny Slope, you know, and I didn't know any better. And um so um my grandpa was um one my one grandpa was there, you know, dairy farmer and cattle feed guy, but my other grandpa was um potato farmer over in the Magic Valley. So I went to school at Rick's College, and um I just I I did it all, right? I farmed and I dair and and and we my grandpa had a some ranch, you know, ranch and some cows. And so when I went to Rick's College, I realized that there are definitely cliques. Right? You have the farmers, you have the dairymen, you have the cattle producers, and um, they all pick on the sheep guys. So you gotta be tough to raise sheep. That's a great So you know, in college, I mean, you know, and I took I took every one of those classes because it I was involved in every one of those things, and so I was able to, in college, you know, kind of navigate those different clicks, you know, right off the bat. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03Hey, um, I think one thing I'd just add, and Matt may or may not want to respond, but as a general farm organization, we represent everything from mint to dairy to everything in between. And they all all of our members are really on board with that as long as their industry is the most represented. And that's what Matt's always told. Like, you do it all, but don't you leave mine behind. Mine matters
Keeping Idaho Idaho Without Gatekeeping
SPEAKER_03most.
SPEAKER_02Hey, uh, I'm gonna look, can we can I I don't know where this is gonna go, but um a lot of times people will ask me or they come on here and they say, I want to keep Idaho, Idaho, right? You you're hearing that, you hear that everywhere you go, gotta keep Idaho, Idaho. And so I've I've reflected on that because I think I'm a developer, right? So it went, you know, back when I did Eighth Main and we were doing good stuff and people wanted jobs here and they wanted to keep their kids here. I I was like, oh, that's the guy that's doing good stuff. And now I'm a villain, right? No matter where we go. In fact, my daughter, she just she, I have I have one kid that's just a great kid, but she just loves giving it to me, right? So she'll like she'll come in and have like the top 20 comments on on a Facebook post about one of our developments. She just is laughing at all the things I get called and what we're doing. But development's not a good thing right now, right? And so you'll hear a lot in our hearings when we go in, hey, we got to keep Idaho, Idaho. So you're having this Idaho, Idaho. Ironically, most of the time, the people that are saying that are the Californians that are here that now are authorities on Idaho. So one of the discussions to have with you guys, because in my mind, and I'm 58, when I think about who really should be an authority on what Idaho is, both on values and heritage and legacy work, what made this place, it's you guys. I mean, it's it's what you represent, right? To me, I think so. I mean, you look at the history of Idaho, the settling of Idaho, how this place has been built on and that grit and you know just hard work and values. It's it's it's ag. Period. What does heritage mean to you guys? What does keeping Idaho mean to you? Because I think we got two authorities that really represent the people that could probably answer that question a lot better than almost anybody I know of that's here.
SPEAKER_03You want to go first? So we just heard uh Senator Anthony spoke to our group not too long ago. And he, and I I'm gonna butcher the numbers so I won't get too excited about it, but he said when he first came in, and I think he's been in 12 or 14 years now, he said when he first came in, like the Senate was like, I want to say maybe a third were farmers. And he said, I'm it's pretty much me and one other guy now. And you see the trends in the 30s. Um, you know, if you go back in time, everybody was in ag. And as time's gone on, there's less than 2% that are in ag now. So we have to hit way above our belt, uh way above our weight to be valid to be valid. You go into these meetings that Matt was talking about, it's very common to be sitting with those board members that are talking AG, that are also one of them's on the P and Z committee, one of them is a county commissioner, one of them is a school board. In agriculture, because there's so few of us, our members that are active, the ones that are active, I should say, they understand the need to have a voice be heard. And I think that they do a great job of being that bell cow to lead forward with what the heritage is and help the heritage of the past is important, but defining the heritage of the future is also important. And I think that our active farmers and ranchers do a really good job of of blending those two together. So I talked for a minute so Matt could give the better answer.
SPEAKER_01No, I I I I like it. I I got a little sidetracked because your answer is um was that good. It's true, our our members are active in everything. Um but the whole United States was was settled on agrarian, right? I mean, we were all immigrants, um, we you know, we had to eat. Um what makes Idaho Idaho to me? Um, remember I grew up across the street from Senator Sims, you know, involved in politics. But at that time it was okay to say, are you a Republican? Right? That was an okay thing to ask. And now in our culture, we don't ask about, we don't talk about religion, we don't talk about politics. What made Idaho Idaho is they did talk about that stuff. They didn't they didn't have to agree, they didn't have to push their, you know, agenda onto anybody, but they talked about that and they talked about how they were doing things. And like I said, everybody had a unique way of doing things. Um I also I I served on the planning and zoning board in Canyon County before I was elected. I just recently stepped down. And when people come in and try to define what Idaho is, you know, what Idaho is and what it should be, um, they're really slapping, you know, me and my family in the face because I grew up in Sunny Slope, right? I mean, we we farmed, we took care of that ground, we did, we did, you know, we provided that environment for people to love now. And so we need to get back to that a little bit more. Just, you know, um, I've had I have several small wineries move in next to me, and and it, it's it's great. Um it it doesn't, it it can it hurts my operation because they bring people out, right? And the and you know, and I've got dust and I've got manure and I've got stuff, you know. AG's a dirty job, right? And sometimes I'm out there on Sundays and always always Memorial Day, we're out doing something, you know. Um, but you know, he the the gentleman comes and says, Hey, I want to I want to put in a wine, you know, some wine grapes. Great, it's your property, you do what you want, right? But then the second I go to do something, it's like, hey, you should check with me to make sure that you're not gonna ruin my you know ecosystem or my environment. And I'm like, dude, I provided your ecosystem and environment. So we need to get back to more of that kind of thinking, you know.
SPEAKER_02I think those are good, good answers. Let me go one more foundational layer. So if I said traditional or heritage or Idaho values, what's what's Idaho? If if you had to define the characteristics of Idahoans that really make us Idaho, dot dot dot, what are they?
SPEAKER_01Uh grit, grit comes to mind, right? I mean, my grandparents lived through the depression, right? I don't know how many droughts they lived through, you know, and they were still there. Um so grit, I guess, would probably come to come to mind. And then the simple fact. That you're gonna do your best and you're just gonna do your best. And when you can't do any more, you just can't do any more. But you're not gonna go tell your neighbor what to do to help you. That kind of thing. Independence, right? Independence, a very grace. Independence.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um community, though, I think I think you hear stories of of taking care of each other. So there's this there's this balance, I think, between independence, fierce independence, and then caring for them. I hear that a lot. What else do you think, Zach?
SPEAKER_03Well, I I I mean, I'll defer to the president, and I love that. The grit, we we go to that a lot. But it's hard when your major partner is Mother Nature to be a fundamentalist. But you can be successful if you're a pragmatist. Because Mother Nature will determine and define the terms of you get to operate on. And if you're smart enough and flexible enough to adapt to what she's giving you, you can be successful. But if you're hell-bent on it's going to be a certain way because I believe fundamentally it should be this way, it's gonna be really hard to be successful because we talk about frost lines, we talk about I love ag, but sometimes these guys go on discussions about wheat and seed placement stuff, and I my mind just goes numb. But they love it, but it's the pragmatism of farmers. And that's what the pragmatism of all got there that a bunch of individual, stubborn, hard-headed people said, you know, if we all dig this canal together, this community can thrive. And so that's where the individualism comes to the community and builds that community. But I think it's the pragmatic attitude that farmers have of there's a problem and there's a solution. And let's chase the solution. I hear we hear this in our resolutions meetings a lot of what are we trying to solve? Are we trying to just make a statement so people hear it, or are we actually trying to solve something? And our conversations in our resolutions, in our policy book of what we advocate for at the State House, those are the best ones, those are the funnest ones to get to when we're like, here's the solution. Warts all, we get this, here's the details. I get you don't like this or this, but here's the pragmatic outcome we're chasing. That's what gets exciting about working for.
SPEAKER_02And don't you think we need to get back to more of that in America? I mean, you think about in to me, we talk so much about just sensational stuff on the fringes that really for me the foundational thing is how do we balance independence? We believe that sovereignty of us and God gave us our lives, and we have it's our land and it's our lives and it's our choices with that balance. And the canal example is a good one. We also need to work together. We need a community that works together where we're we're where we're independent, but we're also part of a community helping each other. And I think you hear these stories of these neighborly helps. And I I love the I love uh the book uh from Oakley where uh Lieutenant Governor Bedke's from when they had that canal, that flood go out, and they built that canal in some I can't remember the book, it's been five years since I read it. But like there's some great examples in probably every one of your farming communities of how neighbors came together to help each other during times of struggle, but there's also this fierce independence, and that tension's good. It's good tension.
Neighbors Show Up When Nature Hits
SPEAKER_03So maybe you just lived that out in Weezer not too long ago.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. There there's our our producers are fiercely competitive, but they would be the first ones to show up to their neighbor's door to help. And you know, like when Zach talked about the the weather, you know, went up to we we we ran up Sunday morning to to work on that tartar fire after it after it blew up Saturday night. And and when I got there, all of our producers had been up since, you know, a lot of them were Balin Hay and stuff like that. So they'd been up about since about three o'clock on Saturday morning, right? They went to their county fair, and then they got the call from the county fair, hey, you got to get back down here and we gotta start fighting fires. So when I showed up at nine o'clock on Sunday morning, you know, they were all 30, 36 hours straight, you know, going. And so they got a little bit of reprieve, and we went up and fought the fire, and back to Mother Nature. Um, when I'm fighting that fire, I I'd work my guts out, right, to try to, because I'd in my mind, I'm gonna get this fire stopped right here. And you can break shovels, you can sweat to death, and you're not gonna get it. But if you pick your pick your place to fight the fire, you know, fight weather, you can you can be much more successful. And but you know, just neighbors showed up. There was 20, about 20 or 25 of us showed up on a Saturday afternoon and said, hey, we got all the structures, you know, you know, safe. Now let's go try to put out the fire up in the hills. So and we did. We did, I mean Together, arm, arm together, arm in arm, you know. Um, you know, just we just each and none of us were, you know. I mean, I'm a pyro, so I can fight virus because I can start them really well. Um, but you know, a lot of people just were just there to help, and and you know, we did it, and it was it was a hard day's work, but it wasn't, you know, it was doable.
SPEAKER_02What a great recent example. Right. Community. Community coming together. Um can I ask you guys another question? Because
Control, Gratitude, And Entitlement
SPEAKER_02I'm dying to hear the answer to this one. So I my my mind, I'm I'm teaching a church lesson on Sunday, and it's on it's just on um uh appreciation really for the beauties of the earth and like God and everything else. And and one of the thoughts I've had all week is I've thought, you know, I miss, I grew up on a small farm, I grew up under the stars, I grew up in a day era where you didn't have devices and you didn't have video games and you spent all your time outside. So for me, it was that that was my connection, right? Laying under dark skies, looking at the universe, smelling, you know, cottonwood trees and smelling the earth when it rains, and just I mean, you some of the smells and feelings you get out there are just so unique and they ground you, they ground you to something bigger than you, right? And then you look at you look around and you're like, this is amazing. And and some of the closeness you feel to God is the fact that this thing is way bigger than I am, but yet somehow I'm here, and there's just a feeling you get, right? And then you get then you get growing and older and whatever, but but you get you look at our lives today and how technology's been good for so many things, and and the the pace of what we do is so big. But but part of the envy I have, I mean, Zach, I we talk about this a lot. You're still out and you're still out in, you know, you're in the beautiful part of the state under the stars on a horse, you're still doing these things, you're farming every day, you're you've got a connection with the earth and you're grounded. Don't you think that part of heritage is something that probably for your kids, for our next generation, how do we maintain some of that? Because I think I just look at my kids, the number of nights, and I try to teach them, but the number of nights my kids and my grandkids spend under stars or out smelling those smells or feeling those things, it's exponentially less than me. And and then I look at my life compared to my parents and my grandparents and my great-grandparents. Do you think we're missing something there? That connection to the earth, connection to God?
SPEAKER_03I think there's a yes and that's one of his favorite lines, is yes and. So I'm gonna set him up because there's a yes and there.
SPEAKER_01Um, so the other word that we probably ought to go back to is control, right? So being in ag, you realize that you're not in control of much. Our society with the technology and all that stuff, they they really feel like they have a false sense of control. They feel like, hey, if we can blast social media with our ideas, we can control this narrative, right? So, so back to your, I mean, I was raised the same way, Zach's a little bit younger, so he, you know, he probably he probably doesn't, you know, appreciate that as much. But but part of that learning that we're not in control does ground us. And for me and my kids, um, I didn't have them. Um, I had to raise bottle calves growing up, and my fingers are still numb because they would get so cold. Um so my kids never raise bottle calves because I didn't want to deal with that, if you will. And I could control it, right? And so part of that is is we're we're we're not in control. We we have to take what has been given to us and we have to appreciate it and not worry about what we, you know, what we think Idaho should look like or not, right? I mean, part of it is is we're not in control of a lot of that stuff.
SPEAKER_02I love what you just said, and I think there's uh there's also two contrary ideas of entitlement and gratitude, and they don't often exist in the same place, right? And if you're if you recognize that I'm not in control of the situation, you're more grateful, right? Yeah, and less entitled. Yep. And if you think you're in control, you're entitled. And I think uh I went to breakfast with one of my best friends yesterday, Poncho Romero, and we're sitting there talking about our own kids, and we're like, we had this long, lengthy discussion of like, we we're doing this to them because we're they think they're in control of everything because of the stuff we give them, therefore they're entitled and they're not grateful. And anytime entitlement creaks out, gratitude goes away. And as a society, like, and then think of your personal life. Every day you wake up, if you can be more grateful, less entitled, less in control, more and listen, I don't know what people have different beliefs on higher powers, but if you if you know that God's in control and you have some humility and gratitude towards that, it's a great way to live. But man, everything we have in our society is is kind of contrary to that right now. And you know, you get on these stupid devices and you have these artificial worlds that push control. And and man, we're up against it. For I think about my grandkids, and I'm like, what is it gonna look like? And how do I, in a small way, with my own like little sphere of my influence, uh, how do I help? How do I help? And I think it goes back to heritage. This discussion's a big, probably getting really philosophical here, guys, but but it all goes back to Idaho heritage, and then I think it's deeper than just like keeping Idaho, Idaho. It's it's bigger. How do we keep America, America? How do we stay on the rooted values that keep us um who we are and where we want to be? Anyway, that was a long soliloquy.
SPEAKER_01I love the entitlement because um and the kid analogy, right? Because sometimes I've just had this conversation about, you know, my kids, you know, they they feel entitled to have this, right? And when I'm not in control of it, right, and it goes away, then it's like, hey, why why don't I have this? Or why can't, you know, and so that's the beautiful part about um working with Farm Bureau though, is is our producers realize that they're not in control. And and and if they get going down a tangent like that, the process allows for, hey, wait, am I being entitled or am I am I trying to really help help things along and you know have some gratitude for the process and the part of it?
SPEAKER_03Love it. I was uh I was hiring a an individual to work for Farm Bureau, and their job was to interact directly with our members. And I said, give me an example of when you've had a hard time and where you learn from that. And she gave the example of losing a cult. And I'd heard that once in a in a church scenario too, was as I a missionary was leader was saying, I want everyone, I would I wish every one of my missionaries knows what it's like to lose a calf. Because they can know what it's like to work so hard and then see that die. And that was the example she gave was this cult, she was excited about it, it got sick and died. And just Paul Harvey talks about that too. You get yourself up, you dry an eye. We see that at our county fairs this time of year. You dry an eye and you move on, because that's what Mother Nature told you you have to do. That's you're working with things you can't control. You put all your heart and soul into it. And of course, she's one of our phenomenal uh regional managers. She works with our members because she has that's she was gonna get hired anyways because the interview is so good. But I love that analogy she had of in ag that loss sometimes teaches us the humility of the world.
SPEAKER_02But you guys like like that's what's beautiful about your industry. It's built-in process that teaches you humility, gratitude, it's an anti-entitlement loss. I mean, you think about if you if you could actually have your kids do the thing that you advocate for, it builds in, it's kind of cheating a little bit, Matt, because you have built in a way that you teach them a lot of lessons that only come through work. And you can't manufacture those lessons. You have to go put in the work to raise that calf, to, to, to, to, to watch it grow, to put all the time, effort, and energy. And then when you lose it to feel that, right? You can't, that doesn't get manufactured through a phone or through. You've got to have those experiences. And what I love about ag and farming and ranching and all the things that happen is it's real. Those are real experiences that can't be produced, they can't be manufactured. They have you have to live them and experience them. What a wonderful
Hand Lines And Teaching Work Ethic
SPEAKER_02thing. I want to transition. I listened to your your your uh podcast you did with Matt Todd. I love that guy. I love I'm one of his super fans, right? So I listened to your thing and I was fascinated by your discussion with him about your kids. And and he asked you, because you know, Matt's just very direct. He's like, why on earth? I think the comment was, why on God's green earth would you ever tell your son? It's hard as because your conversation with him was like, this is hard and that is hard, and this sucks, and that's hard. And you're like, okay, then why are you telling your kid to do it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. The I when you were talking about beautiful and built in, yeah, in my mind I'm like, yeah, if you can live through it, right? Because it is not beautiful and it it does not feel built in as you're going. But if you a lot of times, like um if you if you keep the purpose, the purpose, and you understand what you're trying to do, you can use you can use anything else to teach this same lesson. You don't need to have ag. But if you really focus on and make sure you're teaching the right lesson. So um my oldest son played football and was in sports a lot. And when it came time to doing farm stuff, in our house we have the term hand lines. And that is just that just means it's gonna be the worst, crappiest, hardest job ever, but it will get done. So when we start into a hand line job, right, we do we we focus on that.
SPEAKER_02And is the origin of this hand lines like hand irrigation?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, moving, moving literal hand lines, moving pipes, yeah, moving pipe. Yep. Yeah, but um, I was able to use sports.
SPEAKER_02I'm laughing because I I was in so we were at the rodeo with Bad Bedke, and and Ryan Park, who works for me, was there, and I introduced Ryan Park to him, and I said, Here, here's one of our young guns. He's really coming up in the world, and I he we're so excited to have him. He is he's an incredible kid that's gonna be an incredible leader. Ryan Park is. And he looked at him and and and Bedke said, So are you uh are you a hand line mover or are you an irrigator? And and Park looked at him like, What the hell are you talking about? But but I but I but but I but I love the analogy, right? Because I think you have to know what what it means to be a are you are you out there moving the handlines or are you are you seeing the big picture, right?
SPEAKER_01What and when you're out moving the handlines in my family, right? They didn't see the big picture, yeah, right? But they have, you know, so we've been able to to do that.
SPEAKER_02But you have to start moving those handlines.
SPEAKER_01Right? You gotta start. There's no cheating. There's no cheating, and it's it is gonna be a dirty, nasty, rotten job. But you know what? We're not gonna hire somebody to come in and do it, we're just gonna do it ourselves, right? Yeah, you know, kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02And you have to move those hand lines to appreciate the all the rest of it, right? To what what irrigation means. I love it. I love it. That's that's a that's a great analogy. Um
What Newcomers Should Know About Ag
SPEAKER_02talk about your members. Um, this is going by way too fast, and and just the things I wanted to get to, Matt. So uh I talked to Zach a little bit about the Farm Bureau and and his role, but as you, as the elected official um that represents so many people, how important are the members to you, those families? Um, I I've been around you long enough to know you have a servant's heart, you're doing it for all the right reasons, but how important are the members of the Farm Bureau to you?
SPEAKER_01I I couldn't be president without the members. And when, you know, a lot of times the members would say, Hey, what are you gonna do for us? Right? And it's like, you're the members, you have to tell me what you need me to do for you. So without the members, it there wouldn't be a president. That's how valuable they are. Um, they're great, they're they're great. I, you know, every one of them in their unique personalities and drive and and vigor, they're just they're just great, they're great people to be around. And quite frankly, those are the best people to try to represent at the national level, right? Because I I don't have any um concerns because they are just salt of the earth, just good people. Very, very busy though. Um, you know, a lot of conversations are I just don't have enough time to do this, and I'm like, that's the best, that's the best member ever, because you're you're doing whatever you can, however, you can do it. Love it.
SPEAKER_02I want both of you to answer this one. Um kind of as this comes to a close. If you so Idaho, your I loved your legislature example that like the number of the legislature that were in ag and now, and now you look in Idaho, the number of people that are in ag versus the population boom we've had. What are the top few things you wish Idahoans understood about ag that they don't, or people moving here that are relatively new to our state that are would understand? If you had like a what's your elevator speech of like what what what what do we want you to know about ag in Idaho?
SPEAKER_03I'll go first so he can he can have the better answer than I think if I were to have that elevator speech, the thing I would point out or try and really emphasize to anyone that doesn't understand what ag is, and I don't hold it against them, two percent. I really love everything that this world offers, and I'm grateful that people do more than ag. But I would just tell them that agriculture is not an extractive exercise, it's an additional exercise. Everything a good farmer or rancher does actually gives back more to the environment and more to the community. It's not extractive, it's enhancing, it gives more. It builds the soil, it builds the community, it builds the people. You can literally have your steak and your lifestyle as well. You can have your potato and healthy soil and healthy water. If it's done right, you get back more. And doesn't it put it?
SPEAKER_02Does no one care more about it than the farmer that's dependent on it? I mean, that's the thing that always has driven me crazy.
SPEAKER_03I think the greatest definition in my mind of sustainability is when you hear someone say I'm the fourth generation or fifth generation on this land. Well, something worked for generations to still be farming on that place. So I mean to me that's my answer, but we'll uh we'll tee this up for the president.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's that's a great answer because that is true. That's I mean, that's what I would want, right? Is I mean, sunny slope, right? It didn't, you know, it for a hundred years it's been there and it's been doing that, and that's what my forefathers did, and that's what I plan on doing. Um the other probably the other part, I just happened this morning. I was trying to get a calf back into a corral. The neighbor was coming up the road, um, and he was really trying to help, but he blocked right where I wanted that calf to go. And, you know, no harm, no foul, but that's part of AG that sometimes we have to push, sometimes we have to pull, sometimes we're quiet, sometimes we're yelling, but it all has to happen that way and just give us the benefit of the doubt. I mean, we're not trying to wreck your lives, we're not trying to, you know, we're just trying to produce food, protect the environment, provide the environment that you guys love so much that has people move into Idaho. And every one of our producers is doing exactly that.
SPEAKER_02So I love it. And and I I think a couple of other comments.
Precision Ag Technology And The Future
SPEAKER_02I mean, we feed the world too, right? I mean, it's not just if you look at Idaho technology. Oh, we didn't talk about, can we hit that quickly? The ag because I think people don't realize how technology has improved what what you do. I mean, there's the negative parts that we see of technology, but but ag is is on the forefront of technology. You're feeding the world, you're more efficient than ever before, you're using water better than ever before, the way you grow your crops. I mean, it's it's it's an amazing industry. Talk a little bit about the tech before we we close up.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're we're adaptive, right? And so the tech part's a little bit out of my I'll I'll give you an example of the tech part. My my son is building a C and C and C and spray sprayer in the shop right now. So I'm trying to help, and you know, and he's like, hey dad, I need you to go up and you know grab some nozzles for this. And so, and then he starts to tell me, like, you need this and that, and I'm like, what are you talking about? So I'm like, I got this. So I go up, I go up to the the the store, and and the first thing the salesman tells me is like everything you've known about sprayer nozzles, forget about it. And that's technology, right? That I mean it just it it it leaves you in the dust. But the benefits of that, you know, to where you're just using the tenth, you know, because quite frankly, he wants to use it on sugar beets. Sugar beets are not good right now, and so he's trying to figure out how to use less and less of that really expensive chemical. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So think about that. C and spray is AI because you've got a machine that can actually recognize a weed, shoot it with a jet of herbicide. We're not mass spraying anything, but that's that's a that is that is cutting-edge technology. Our tractors were driving themselves long before our Teslas were. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's got six cameras, six cameras on this thing that can, you know, don't spray a broadleaf or there's a kosher, spray it. I mean, it's it's crazy how how quick.
SPEAKER_03What a dairyman can tell you off their phone of what their herd of cows is doing, where they're healthy, who's not healthy, who's not walking. The technology is we and we get beat up on that a little bit saying, well, back to our labor, fix your labor with more technology. Well, literally, since the first human planted a seed with a stick, we've been increasing our technology. And it's fast, and we're moving fast. Uh, GPS, all these things that come in, we Matt said it really well, but our members are very quick adopters of technology. I mean, you're hearing in cattle now halters or collars that can move them just like your dog. They adapt as fast as the market comes to bear and economics come together. And producers get excited about new technology. That's one of the things you can always, when we have a conference, if we have a tick breakout on new technology, it's always packed. They're always hungry for what's the next new thing. And the young ones especially.
SPEAKER_01And I would this is a great yes and because with all of that technology, I like to, I like to, our members are like master musicians, right? They've got to have that artistic ability to take the new instrument and make it play, right? Because, you know, that nozzle doesn't mean anything to me, but to my son, right, he's an artist, he understands, and so he can use that technology to improve, but you have to have that master, master artist to begin with. And that's what our members are. They are they are master artists where they can take any instrument and play it, or they can pick up any paintbrush and paint a great mural because they've lived it, they've understood it, they're grounded, and they realize that.
Closing Thanks And Final Thoughts
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you for all you've taught me over the years. It's been great. And uh we I I just love the relationship and and what you do. Um I'm just proud, really proud to be associated with you and be your friends. And uh Matt, it's been great having you on. Thanks for all you do for the state and for your members and for the heritage of Idaho, and it means a lot to this place.
SPEAKER_01And um uh it's been fun having you on. Well, thank you, but I do not do it alone. I mean it takes it takes all of our members, it takes our community, and so thank you as well. All right, thanks everybody.