93
Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
93
Robinette Farms--Alex McKiernan and Chloe Diegel
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In this episode we dive into one unique area of agriculture--the world of farm-to-table production--with special guests Chloe Diegel and Alex McKiernan from Robinette Farms. Robinette Farms is a pioneering operation known for its commitment to improving local economies, developing more self-reliant food networks, and generating a greater appreciation for healthy food and healthy land. Also joining us is Rembolt Ludtke attorney Adam Prochaska, who co-leads the litigation team at Rembolt and also happens to be a longtime friend of Alex and Chloe's and an erstwhile farmer himself hailing from Nebraska's Bohemian Alps region.
Welcome to 93.
SPEAKER_03Welcome to 93, the podcast where we talk about Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, and the people who make it happen. I'm Mark Falson, your host for today's episode, brought to you by Nebraska's law firm, Rembrandt Lutke. Production agriculture comes in all shapes and sizes, serving different markets and different purposes. Today we're diving into one unique area of agriculture, the world of farm-to-table production with special guests from Robinet Farms. Robinet Farms is a pioneering operation known for its commitment to improving local economies, developing more self-reliant food networks, and generating a greater appreciation for healthy food and healthy land. Today, joining us for this episode is Chloe Diegel and Alex McKiernan from Robinet Farms, located near Martel, Nebraska. And also joining us is Rembolt Latia Attorney Adam Prahaska, who co-leads our litigation team here at Rumboldt, and also happens to be a longtime uh friend of Alex and Chloe's and an erstwhile farmer himself. So, everyone, thanks for joining us. Good to be here having us.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Chloe, I get to start with you. Uh tell our listeners about yourself, your background.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, my name is Chloe. I grew up in Lincoln, actually.
SPEAKER_03What high school?
SPEAKER_00Um, well, I was one of the first classes of zoo school back in the day. Um but originally uh from Northeast.
SPEAKER_03We usually ask guests what their uh license plate prefix is, but since you grew up in Lincoln, they got rid of the two, so there is no prefix anymore.
SPEAKER_00There's no prefix, and I have no idea what ours is now.
SPEAKER_03Well, you can take Pawnee County 54.
SPEAKER_00Oh, 54.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna take credit for that. Alex, how about your background? Um, I grew up in Illinois. Chloe and I went to college together in Minnesota and we're friends for a number of years before we started dating. And um I was into geology and more of the science world, and then found out that if I was gonna be with Chloe, I was gonna be on a farm and a ranch, and I enjoyed that more.
SPEAKER_03So we're gonna get into that. I want to find out how that interest came about, but let's not forget Adam Prahaska. Adam, uh your background.
SPEAKER_06Um, I grew up in Prague, Nebraska, Six County.
SPEAKER_03Um Are you offended if I refer to that as the Bohemian Alps?
SPEAKER_06No, it actually is the Bohemian Alps. What about Bohunk? Is that the term? The rolling hills in uh Saunders County are wonderful for but long bike rides. Yes, they are.
SPEAKER_03Chloe, uh you obviously have an interest in farming. How did that come about growing up in the city of Lincoln?
SPEAKER_00Well, when I was growing up, we had in the city, we had like a lot and a half. So we had kind of a big yard. And, you know, my mom moved here in the 70s. She's also a city kid, and my parents were kind of, you know, cowboy hippies. So my parents, my mom, more than my dad, we always had a giant vegetable garden in our like extra half lot. So I grew up going out and picking food for our family, working in the garden, you know, moving rocks, doing landscaping, stuff like that for my family. Um, and then went went to college. I mean, I never had any idea, um, any interest in farming at all. Wasn't on my radar. Went to college, uh, majored in environmental studies and geology. So clearly I wanted to do something outside. Um, and then a friend of mine gave me a book um written by one of the co-founders of Slow Food USA, Gary Paul Nobhan. Um, this book called Coming Home to Eat. And in that book, he talks all about, you know, his like test of a year of living in um the Southwest if he could eat within the 100 mile radius of his home. So he's growing food, he's, you know, um working with local farmers, he's working with native communities to see what they would harvest from the desert to survive on. And in that book, he talked about community-supported agriculture, which I hadn't heard about before. And I got really interested in that. And I didn't want to get a real job after I graduated in college. So uh that spring before I graduated, I started looking for farms to see if there was anywhere that I could work on, like a small community-based farm that, you know, sold directly to people, farmers markets. And I found one just outside of Boulder, Colorado. At that time, you know, there that you couldn't find a whole lot of stuff on the internet at that time. Um, so there just wasn't a whole lot out there. So I found this farm and uh worked out there for the summer and then did other stuff for a year and then kind of got sucked back in the following year. And I said, Oh, I actually am interested in this. I I do care about this. I really like the work. And that's kind of the end of the story.
SPEAKER_03What year was Robinet Farm started?
SPEAKER_002010.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, where's the name come from?
SPEAKER_00The name it Robinette is my mom's maiden name. So um, my mom is one of three sisters, and my grandfather was an only child. So that name wasn't really going anywhere. And when Alex and I got married, I kept my name. So we have different last names. And you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04We didn't really Yeah, we didn't want to pick one of our names, but then we had friends who'd picked some word to name their business or farm. Right. And then 10 years later that word meant something different.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so we decided that would be a cool way to keep that family name going. And and it's it's unique that people remember it, but you can still spell it. Yeah, it's phonetic.
SPEAKER_00You know, gave us a good logo with a bird. The logo was good. So yeah, it felt right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So where are your operations at?
SPEAKER_00We are southwest of Lincoln, um, in between two little towns, Sprague and Martel. So, you know, it we're real close. It only takes us maybe 10 or 15 minutes to get to I've been to the Sprig bar once or twice, or maybe 35 times.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. That actually got me through COVID uh because when you couldn't go into places, they literally were delivering adult beverages out to us while we were doing pigs, farming, and everything else. They had a delivery service, it was great.
SPEAKER_04Totally. Yep. They started doing that for a while. Yeah, we are in Lancaster County, and then we have another property in Pawnee County as well. And what do you grow?
SPEAKER_00We have gone through many iterations of things. We started the farm growing vegetables. Um, we had laying hens for eggs. At that time when we started, we had a tiny herd of cattle. I don't know how many it was. 10.
SPEAKER_04What breed? Uh Galloway, actually. When we first moved here from the Front Range of Colorado, we brought with us 10 head of Galloway, which are like in furry animals. Yeah, they're furry and they um they're much smaller frame and they're they're much better suited for grass finishing. They're kind of a you know, one of the original English breeds. So we brought those, finished those that first season, and then uh that second year we added uh grass-fed lamb. Lamb and we started adding a lot of we did pigs, pastured pigs for a while.
SPEAKER_00We've done pastured poultry, but always had vegetables.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and a wide variety of vegetables.
SPEAKER_00Wide variety of vegetables, you know. Basically, think of you know, anything you'd grow in your garden. I used to always say everything but sweet corn and melons, you know, is basically what we grew.
SPEAKER_03So do you still have livestock?
SPEAKER_00We do. Um, our vegetables, we since the pandemic, we've kind of pared down. We focus on um growing microgreens in a greenhouse year-round, and then baby salad greens type things is what our farm mostly focuses on in the vegetable realm. So we grow spinach and arugula and salad mix and things like that. Um and then we have um we own a few animals that we grass finish for beef and sell direct directly to people. And then Alex can talk more about the ranch property and all the animal animals that are now down there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So this other we live in Lancaster County and we grow vegetables there, and then we consolidate a lot of other local producers food as well. So it used to be that we grew everything. Um, and whatever you bought from us, 98% of it we grew at our place. Um, and we spent, you know, a decade trying to kill the middleman, and now we are the middleman to some degree. So we we work with once COVID hit, we were already trying to shift away from doing everything because it was just really hard to do profitably, and tried to shift more towards working with other local producers. And so now we have uh that worked well when COVID hit because the farmers markets shut down, the restaurants shut down, and we were already developing those relationships of kind of helping deliver more diversity from different farms to to producer to consumers. So um that's more of what our business has become is we produce some products the microgreens, the baby greens, grass finished beef, and then we work with lots of other producers to sell food directly to consumers. And then we have a ranch property in Pawnee County that's all custom grazing um of cattle. So every summer we'll bring in, if it would rain more, but uh somewhere like three to five hundred head of cattle, custom grazing the summer. And then we just added last week 400 goats hit the ground. Uh so there's 400 bread nanny goats down there.
SPEAKER_03So I've told the story uh before, but I'll tell you you weren't here when I told it. Um I someone reached out to us recently and they want to build a goat feeding operation in Nebraska because obviously goat uh for various ethnic reasons is uh it's booming, right? And they were looking at something to build for 50,000 head of goats. I'm like, I don't know where you're doing that in the state of Nebraska, but uh they're still looking. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, I I mean you can 50,000 head of goats, you know, they're about one to ten uh to cows, so that's only like a 5,000 head cattle feeding operation in terms of capacity.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just seems rather immense to me.
SPEAKER_04Well, and that doesn't, and that's not what we're doing. We're grazing these goats. These you know, goats will make use of woody forages, bushes, shrubs, small trees. And that's what we're also trying to do to improve grasslands is get rid of those things or at least minimize them. Uh, but cattle won't graze those those things. So we we've spent a lot of state and federal money and our money and time trying to kill those woody species. And my hired man finally just said, like, we can't call it woody encroachment anymore. This is woody forage, and we need goats to eat it.
SPEAKER_03So Adam Brahaska, as you well know, is uh of of Czech uh heritage and he's a big fan of sausages and rather weird things. Did you ever Adam? You would I mean you agree, right? You're you like things like head cheese and things like that?
SPEAKER_06I've I've brought it into the office before, and Mark, you have tried it, which is good. Um and Alex, Chloe, I don't know if you guys have been to Wilbur, um to one of the meat markets there that uh always seems to do a good job with Bohemian sausage and bohemian meats.
SPEAKER_03So you should maybe, if you're looking for a new market, that might be an opportunity there for the case. As long as it's fermented, Adam will eat it. Exactly, exactly for a long time. So, what little I know about marketing uh farm to table is often it is more successful if there is a story behind the product. That the the people see that and there's a they know the story. Do you have a story? What's your story?
SPEAKER_00Our story is great food that transforms people and the land. That's our mission statement.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_00So that's the story we try to tell to our customers. Um, the other story we try to tell is just the importance of, you know, our farm is really focused on community and building that and that relationship for people of knowing where their food comes from, knowing or at least having like even a couple steps removed connection to the land or a face that is growing the food. Um, and in that way, there's just a better understanding and a better respect for you know the time and the effort that goes into raising food and growing food, whether that's ranching or farming. Um, so those are the stories that we try to tell to connect with our community.
SPEAKER_03So the you have children, correct? We do. Do you put them to work?
SPEAKER_00They are employed by the farm. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Uh they they can work as much as they want and they are paid an hourly wage to do so. Uh do they get forced to work the way that I think farm kids talk about being forced to work? No. No. I don't think they do. You know, one thing that we try to work really hard on is our profitability. And if we build a business that's based on subsidized unpaid labor, then how's that farm going to work in the future when they leave? So we're really trying to build our labor supply around people we're actually paying. Um, they work a little bit, some of them more than others.
SPEAKER_00You know, they're very seasonal labor. They they complain a lot too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, is the father of three daughters. I can totally relate. Yeah. Hopefully they're hopefully they're listening.
SPEAKER_04But that's story, I mean, the story with kids on the farm, the story with people on the farm, I think the key for what what we the story we try to tell is that people should be part of land. They should be connected to land. Um, as in as our food has become more industrialized and things have moved uh into barns or into factory like settings, it further disconnects people from land and from the planet and the environment. And we really feel strongly that uh producing food well will build community, we'll build relationships, and we'll improve the land. And that's what we need to do. We we're not separate from the land, we should be interacting with it. And that's the story I think we try to tell.
SPEAKER_03So sustainability is a big word in agriculture as well as other industries. But what I've discovered is that everyone has kind of their own definition of what it means to be sustainable. What is your definition of sustainability?
SPEAKER_04I uh you know, I spoke to the is it Leadership Lincoln, like the kids that go to. Yeah. I spoke to their group a few years ago and it was all about sustainability. And I was telling them if someone mentions that they're sustainable, you need to ask them in what respect and over what time frame. Right. Right. I mean, I we both, Chloe and I both have a geology background. I studied geology for a long time, and the timescales you look at are immense. And nothing that we do as humans is sustainable over some immense timescale. So when you really cut it down and say, like, over what time period is this practice sustainable? Um that's when it starts to have some meaning. And I think that's why we've really um gotten more and more interested in some of the ranch operations, because on a ranch, a well-run, well-managed ranch, you can get the farthest right reddest of red rancher in the same room with the farthest left greeny tree hugger environmentalist, and they'll actually agree. Right. Because the management, when done right, is the most sustainable over a human time frame uh of that natural resource. If you graze those animals in a proper way and you manage how they move around the property, they will actually help increase the biodiversity, they'll increase the wildlife um habitat, they'll increase the the soil quality and and quantity. And that's those are all good things, and that comes from humans interacting positively um over our human timescale with that landscape. So sustainability is a tricky one. Um I think most everything we do consumes something. It's pretty hard to get away. There's no a perpetual motion machine, you know, every everything has a cost. And I think we need to be looking at minimizing uh our impact on the environment, minimizing what we take and using systems that that reinforce what the planet's already doing.
SPEAKER_03So one of those things that we desire to minimize minimize is transportation costs and and what goes into that. Well, what is your market? Let's let's focus on the microgreens. How far out do you go and to whom do you sell?
SPEAKER_00Microgreens go into Lincoln and Omaha. Yep. So we do sell into grocery stores in Lincoln and Omaha. Um, and then they they go also into our boxes that are direct to consumer. But we right now we just serve the Lincoln and Omaha area.
SPEAKER_03Does that include like schools and restaurants?
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Yep.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03Wait, the you have a subscription service, if I'm not mistaken. Can you explain for our listeners what that consists of?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we have um a year-round delivery of local food boxes. So it's basically like farm to table grocery store. Um, so we work with over 45 different local farmers, ranchers, but also local businesses that that have or create or sell food products. So, you know, an example of that would be like a local coffee roaster or a local bakery. Um, so in addition to kind of raw agricultural products, you know, like your carrots and your steak, um, we work with the bakers and coffee roasters and a local spice shop where the, you know, the spices aren't grown locally, but it's it's a local business. So um you can sign up for that subscription at any time during the year. Um, we offer a weekly or every other week boxes. It's a really flexible program. We kind of preload the box, but people can edit the box and put whatever they want in there. Um, they can also cancel a box if they're out of town. They can put vacation holds on. And then we have um we do some home delivery into Lincoln. Um, and then we have kind of pickup locations that are hosted by a lot of the people, the businesses that we work with will act as a pickup location host. Um, so then a certain time each week there they kind of open their doors for our members and they go there and pick up their boxes.
SPEAKER_03Do you spend a lot of time at farmers markets?
SPEAKER_00We used to. Um we started off at farmers markets in 2010 and then 2019 was our last year at farmers markets.
SPEAKER_04We were um I think we were kind of going through some big production challenges and changes at the end of 2019 and thinking about how to reinvent ourselves in 2020. And our kids were getting older too. At that time, our oldest was 10. And you know, Chloe was just like, you know, she'd been working on farms for a decade before Robinette started, and she was like, I I'm sick of going to market and I want to be free on the weekends to hang out with the kids and to have some downtime. And so we started really interrogating the numbers a little bit more, and quite honestly, it it didn't pay to be at farmer's market. So it paid from the sense the standpoint that we kind of invested in our name and our reputation um and got that out there for a decade. But the amount that we would need to sell um as we as we focused our production towards the baby greens and the microgreens, the amount that we need we would need to sell each week at market to make it worth our time to be there was really more than we thought that market was gonna bear um in any reasonable situation. And farmers markets are great. The challenge is that it's such unpredictable revenue. So, you know, we did this the Sunday market in Lincoln in particular, and it was like the Huskers would lose. Oh, all of a sudden nobody can buy vegetables anymore. It's like what if this doesn't have anything to do with it? You're like, you can still buy vegetables, it's cool, but but or if it rained, you know, you wouldn't have any revenue, and you'd already harvested all that food. So we um really tried to make sure that that was gonna pay if we were gonna spend time doing it, especially if we're away from kids. So we haven't been to farmers market in a long time.
SPEAKER_00We haven't. And and you know, there are markets around the country where it is absolutely worth your time. Time to go there and farmers are making good money. But for us and where we were at in our business at that time, it just didn't make sense for me to do that.
SPEAKER_03What's the biggest challenge that you face currently?
SPEAKER_04I mean, I think that the profitability, no matter what scale of farming or ranching you're involved in, um, we for we're not commodity growers for the most part. Uh we're starting to be more that way as a custom grazing operation and with the with the goats. Um but we are direct market and the things that we sell are expensive. And so people look at that and say, wow, they must be killing it. And obviously we aren't. Like those the costs of production are very high. Um and I think at this point our biggest challenge is is volume of sales, and we need a higher volume for us to reach a level of profitability that's more sustainable financially. Um and I think some of that is is apparent in the evolution of our business. So we started out with the the community supported agriculture program that Chloe described. Um where and Adam was one of our early customers. I think you joined in 2010, our first year, didn't you? Yeah, I did.
SPEAKER_06And in initial years of the CSA, um, you would get a lot of green onions and a bunch of beets and a bunch of things that you have to try to figure out how to grow. The difference today is that you can customize what you get from Robinette, which is very helpful.
SPEAKER_04And that that's exactly the evolution that I think has been a challenge for us is that the initial, the very traditional version of CSA, the customer doesn't get a lot of choice. The the whole idea is that instead of that farmer going to a bank and getting an operating loan, like a lot of farmers do on a commodity scale, you go to a community of 100 people and say, hey, 500 bucks a piece in the spring, then we have income in the spring when we need it. It's like an operating loan, but it's spread out across a community. And then each one of those people gets a share of our harvest, right? And so the very traditional early models was like, well, you get some massive amount of harvest that may mean nothing. Chloe's a really good farmer and can plan the cropping so that hopefully every week you have some roots and you have some greens and you have some some fruits and some uh tomatoes and whatever. But if if the weather doesn't work or the bugs are bad, then one week you may get more of something than you feel like you can use. And customers aren't used to that. And there's a very small choir that that works for. So I think that's been a constant challenge to appeal to customers and why Chloe has kind of redesigned the model so that we we maximize the um customization as much as possible. Convenience is huge, I feel like for Americans in particular, like if it's not convenient, people aren't gonna do it. Right. Even if it's cheaper, if it's not convenient, we're not doing it. And so we've that's been our biggest challenge, I think, is we really need to grow the volume of that and appeal to people because people are very used to the grocery store model. It works. And so, how can we get into that and make it um make it something we can access as well?
SPEAKER_03Who's the better farmer between the two of you? Me, Chloe. Right over there.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_03It's also awful kind of you to admit that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's I'm the better farmer, you're the better rancher.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's fair. And you know what's interesting? That was always our plan too. Like we in 2008, we uh we were living in on a farm in Vermont, and Chloe's mom had given us this book from the the Land Institute or no, some uh someone around administration.
SPEAKER_00Minnesota, sustainable agenda. Yeah, some.
SPEAKER_04And it was it was basically like a farm and business planning workbook, right? And so it had just worksheets, which sounds kind of silly, but there's really these big strategic planning tasks, et cetera. You nerd it out, didn't you? You got way into it. Yeah, and you got to break those down. And so, like, we would each, you know, what are your five-year goals? What are you what things do you have? What things do you like? And we went through that together. And at the end of it, we I don't think we had like uh We were like, we have no assets, yeah.
SPEAKER_00We didn't have any assets. We have no thing. We don't have nothing. It's easy to want a bunch of stuff.
SPEAKER_04But but we came out of that and we had three five-year goals. Uh uh start a family, start a farm, and buy land. And that was in 2008 and 2013. We had three daughters, uh, we had Robinette Farms three years in, and we we bought our property that we live on with an FSA loan. And we hadn't like dug in and really focused and built a plan to get there, but there's a there's real power in having like a positive vision for yourself, and we built that together, which is really powerful as well. Um, and and went through that whole process and kind of ended up where we wanted to be uh in that time frame. And at that time, Chloe was really focused on vegetables. I was okay being around it, but I wanted to be on land, I wanted to be grazing animals and working with livestock. And um we got to that point and our roles were kind of separate in that way, and that's when I got hurt and things changed a little bit then.
SPEAKER_03But what's the plan with the goats? Gotta tell me more about that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so goats, we're goat ropers now, apparently. Uh um, the plan with the goats, and I I have to say, starting out over all of this, Chloe and I didn't come from agriculture, and I know you you deal with a lot of farmers and ranchers, and you understand the difficulty of those relationships between dad and the boys when dad's 85 and the boys are 60 and they still can't run anything. You know, it's it's a big deal, those family relationships. We didn't have that. So we're be we've been totally freed to go the directions that we think are best and we want to, and that's been really freeing. And goats is one expression of that. That most people are like, goats? No, man, I we raise cattle. I'm not gonna have goats. What do you think I am? You know, but the reality is that um goats will prefer a totally different type of forage than the cattle. And in this day and age, with cedars and locusts and hedge and Siberian elm and uh mulberries and hackberries and on and on and on, sumac, buckbrush, all of these woody species are coming into grasslands. And we're not gonna keep them out. That's been my assessment. We've spent there's a lot of federal money, there's a lot of state money supporting clearing grasslands. So you go in and and cut all the cedars down, pile them up and burn them, uh, hack into other trees, cut them down, poison the stumps. And we've done lots of that. We at our at our ranch property, we have tried to remove a lot of those species because they're comp they're out competing the grasslands. Um and we're seeing that that's just it feels like a losing battle. It's a lot of effort to put in with no revenue coming out of it. And maybe it gives you a foothold to get ahead of those, but the goats will actually consume a lot of those things and hopefully generate some revenue. And if you think about grasslands evolving over many thousands of years, they did so with bison that eat grass primarily, but they also there was dozens of other species like elk and deer, et cetera, that would eat different things. And so we really need that diversity on the landscape in order to have productive um grasslands and and hopefully more revenue. So, in theory, we're gonna find out, but in theory, the goats, you can stock a property with quite a few goats before they start interfering or taken away from the cattle grazing. So, right there, you've already you're you're making better use of the resource.
SPEAKER_03You graze them together?
SPEAKER_04We I think we may at some point, this will be our first year with them. Goats obviously are notorious for getting out of fence, right? Whereas cattle are very easy to keep in with if the wire's hot. Yeah, you're correct. Yes. Long story. Um, a single hot wire will keep cattle in and you can move them really effectively. A single hot wire a foot off the ground, maybe would keep goats in, but not for very long. So we will probably start out moving them separately and then see if we can combine them. Uh, but in general, we want to kind of get a feel for how effective the goat grazing is before we combine with with the cattle.
SPEAKER_03Will you sell them as meat goats at some point?
SPEAKER_04So they they are meat goats. Yeah, it's not a dairy operation, Chloe. I have no interest in being dairyman, and Chloe said no dairy years ago.
SPEAKER_00Well, I always said no goats, no dairy. Did you say no goats? Oh, yeah. I didn't know that. But I've learned the never say never don't say that word anymore.
SPEAKER_04Um the the goats ultimately are meat goats. They're kind of a uh Spanish uh or Kiko breed. Kiko is a breed of um goat that was developed in New Zealand specifically for grazing. So they're they're really resilient out on pasture. We're not it's not a feeding operation. Um, we're moving them around every few days. They're into new areas. And the end the at this point, the goal, the plan would be through commodity markets, so selling those animals at auction.
SPEAKER_03Um, I think we will probably do Pal Palmyra has a fairly sizable uh goat and sheep auction each week, I think.
SPEAKER_04Yep, yep. They do one there. There's uh the biggest goat market in the country is in San Angelo, Texas, and the second biggest one I think is in north central Kansas and Clay Center. So that's not far away. But then, yes, there's lots of other small sale barns. Um, and then you know, we talked a little bit about the ethnic market for goats, Lincoln and Omaha. Um, we may move into that a little bit, we'll see. But obviously, there's more work involved there, uh, interacting with customers. And then we'll probably do a little bit um of direct market through Robinette. We had this product years ago called Merguez.
SPEAKER_02I feel like, did you did you ever try Merguez, Adam? I don't think I have. Adam, you try everything. Come on. I do. I think you would have.
SPEAKER_04I think you did. Um, but merguez is a is like a a sheep or mutton-based sausage out of northwestern Africa, like Morocco, um, that sort of area. And it's like really spicy, heavy, um, heavy on intense spice flavors, and it's a sausage. And I think we can make some things like that to try for our customers. Um, but primarily it'd be a commodity operation.
SPEAKER_03Alex, I think you've uh participated in the lead program. What value did you find from that?
SPEAKER_04So the Nebraska LEED program that runs through the university, I think is a great opportunity just to expand your horizons and meet more people. Um, it it was really set up and designed to uh expose people in rural Nebraska to professionalism and leadership growth so that when those towns need mayors, when those school boards need members, when uh NRDs need members, there are people who live and work in those communities that have been exposed to Lincoln and Omaha and international travel and the opportunity to take it to the next level so that we can bring some of that into rural Nebraska. Um, I was super fortunate before I came into the program that I'd had a lot of travel opportunities and things, but it was so amazing being with folks who, you know, we went to Chile and Uruguay and we went to the ocean one day to swim when we had like five hours of free time. Terry Haney would never give us free time, but we got five hours, I think, on our last day. And we walked to the ocean and I got in uh the water. And as we're walking in, one guy said, I've never seen the ocean, I've never even been here. And it's like, wow. You know, he's almost 40 and he'd never been in the ocean. And to have those experiences and meet those people, all those friendships have really launched us into the ranching world for sure. Um, and you know, as you guys know, it's all about relationships and just building those across the aisle is also really important. So um I did not come from a rural background. I did um, and meeting a lot of those folks, we ended up having these great conversations. I remember one night in Omaha, uh, over dinner, I think we we just had some light conversation about uh uh guns, race, and then we and then we just followed up with a little abortion. Yeah, just hop right in the non-controversial topics. Oh, or religion. We talked about religion then too, as well. And at the end of that conversation, I remember everyone was smiling and laughing and having fun. And the next day, this woman came up and she said, That was one of the best conversations I've ever had. I'd like to have that again. And when do you have a conversation about those topics with someone you disagree with and have people say, Can we talk about that again? So I felt like the lead program gives that opportunity that if you're open to it, you might hear some things that you don't understand or don't just don't agree with. And there's that opportunity to really build relationships. You know, like in college, you live with people and around people that you don't agree with, but you have fun with them, you build some community, and you move on with life. And then it kind of stops. And the lead program is another opportunity to dip your toe into that with people who are 30, 35, 40, 50 years old. And, you know, you share hotel rooms with them, you eat a bunch of meals with them, you meet their families, and it it humanizes people in a way that we don't do very well this day and age. So I can only say good things about the lead program. And um I wish there were more small producers like us, more alternative ag producers that were in that world, because it's primarily, you know, production commodity agriculture. And so they don't have the perspective that we do, and I think we need each other's perspectives for ag to survive.
SPEAKER_03Alex, you and I first met on the board of directors for Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. Uh, about a decade ago, I think you were involved in a really bad accident and uh that really impacted your family and yourself personally. How how has that uh affected your ability to continue to operate Robinette Farms? And how maybe has it taught you some additional grit and determination that maybe sometimes it's only those really tough circumstances before we learn that we actually had it in us?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, I definitely can't do the work that I used to do in the same way that I used to. Um I built some fence last spring, was it that I put up that fence? And I bob broke me. I came in and I was like, I am out of shape, probably. And uh, you know, I get around on a four-wheel.
SPEAKER_03Just so you know, I wasn't in that accident, I'd be saying the same thing. Right? I know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was 11 years ago that uh I got rear-ended at Saltilla in 77, um, long before it was reworked into what it is now. Um I was stopped at a light and got rear-ended from a guy going highway speed, and it it broke my back and I was paralyzed initially and um spent two months at Madonna uh inpatient and left there using a walker, but still to this day I walk with crutches or I use a wheelchair quite a bit. When I'm at home, I'm pretty much always in my wheelchair, it's just a lot easier. Um, I could walk all day, every day, but it's I sort of use the analogy. It's like you guys walking backwards. You could do it, you could do it all day, every day, but your body isn't made for it, so it's tiring, it's hard, you trip and fall more often, and so and it's just easier to walk forwards. Why would you walk backwards? So that's kind of how I am with crutches. I could be up all the time, but it's pretty exhausting. Um, and so it's limited what I can do work-wise. I use a four-wheeler to do most anything. There's a lot of processes on the farm and ranch that I'm just like, we need a different process, or I'm never gonna do that. So, like with the goats, my hired man Matt was like, Well, we could do this or we could do that. And I'm like, if you quit or you move on to another job, I don't know if I can find anyone to do the work the way you want to do it, and I can't do it that way. So I have to be more thoughtful about how I do things. I have a lot of systems laid out around that, you know, I get frustrated with Chloe or the kids when something's not right where it's supposed to be because it's harder for me to do it. Um, but ultimately we've had so much support. I mean, you know, Adam helped us a ton at that time. Um, our family came out, family and friends, and community. Um, I'm a volunteer firefighter and an EMT, and it was actually my my brothers and sisters at Southwest Fire and Rescue that cut me out of the vehicle and put me on the helicopter and then drove to the house and picked up Chloe and the girls and drove them to the hospital. And that really bonded them to my injury as well. And all of those folks, you know, they raised like $80,000 for us so that I could focus on rehab and not worry about like how are we gonna pay our bills? Um, and then they did chores and all these things, and uh our friends that farm and ranch and everybody came out of the woodwork. It was just amazing, and it showed you how important community is, and you know, it takes a village to do more than raise a kid. It's it takes a village to do most everything. Um and it it just I I'm I'm I don't know, I can't be thankful enough. Like we I was really fortunate in my recovery. A lot of my friends who have injuries didn't get the sort of recovery that I've had, and so I can still do a lot of things and go a lot of places and and be fully independent, which is huge. Um and really it just opened a lot of doors. If I hadn't gotten in that crash, I never would have been in the lead program because I was headed in a different direction. I was gonna get hired as a Lincoln firefighter. Um I never would have done lead, I never would have got back into climbing, you know, because I just was headed in different directions. So there's all these experiences and people I've met that never would have happened without that injury. And I I don't want to say like I'm glad it happened. Um, but it's one of those things when you look back at the hard things from your past and you say, Would I change that? And it's it's hard to do that because of all the wonderful things that happened since that wouldn't have, you know, and I can't imagine another future without that.
SPEAKER_00So it's complicated.
SPEAKER_03It's it's tricky. So one the one question we ask all of our guests, and it's not a trick question, but uh Chloe, I'm gonna start with you. You get one word. What is one word that to you best describes this great place in which you live, in which you operate, Robinette Farms, the state of Nebraska? What is your one word that describes Nebraska to you? One word.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's easy for me. Community.
SPEAKER_03And you've obviously described some of the reasons. It's it's fantastic, just the people who live here.
SPEAKER_00The people, I mean, I mean, what Alex was just saying with the I mean, we were so held and supported by all of our communities. You know, we have multiple channels of community that all came out of the woodwork for us. Um, the community that we've built with the farm, uh, the lead community, the ranching community, the conservation community. I mean, Alex is so good at being involved in so many things. It's like uh it's a very positive You are good. It's like a little bit of kryptonite, but you're really good at it. So um community. And and I I I just love that it doesn't take much conversation in Nebraska to find someone that you're connected to with with almost anyone. And and I love that about Nebraska.
SPEAKER_04Alex, would you agree or do you have a different word? No, I would say community as well. That's definitely the word that I was you use. I think it's amazing that you know every bill gets a hearing in this state in the unicameral. Anyone can go in and testify, and every bill gets a hearing. So you could testify on anything and everything. And then I've testified twice this this session. Both times I followed up with an email just saying, Hey, I just want to clarify X or Y or Z to the centers, get an email back. I mean, it's not detailed, but an email back saying, Hey, thank you. That doesn't happen in a huge state. And I think that community can can form in really powerful ways because you're so there's only a few degrees of separation, no matter where you are in the state. And um, we have absolutely been so supported by community um since since we got here in every way. So I would definitely use the same word community.
SPEAKER_03Adam Prohaska, you don't get out of this? What is your Word that best describes this uh place where you live. You grew up, you grew up in the Bohemian Alps. What's your one word for Nebraska?
SPEAKER_06So while this seems like a complete contradiction to your word, um, I would say independence. Um and and not because of lack of community, but because Nebraska prides itself, I think, on being different, whether it's the unicameral or you know, all the ways Nebraskans call a duck a duck and um sort of pride themselves on being a little different than the rest of the country.
SPEAKER_03If folks want to find out more about Robinette Farms, where should they go?
SPEAKER_00RobinetFarms.com.
SPEAKER_03There you are. Alex, Chloe, Adam, thanks for joining us for this episode. Folks, if uh you enjoyed this episode, consider sharing it on Apple, Spotify, or whatever your favorite podcast app is. Share it with anyone who might uh find it of interest, or perhaps someone who's just hungry for some locally grown food. And please keep listening as we release additional episodes on Nebraska. It's great communities, Nebraska's number one industry, agriculture, and the folks who make it happen.
SPEAKER_01Thanks. This has been Nighty Three, the podcast, sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Rembolt Ludkey.
