The Washrack
Michigan Show Stock Industry.
The Washrack
Ep 3 : Jake Kelly "The Crooked Hay Trader From Bellevue"
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We sat down with Jake Kelly to talk about his sheep operation, along with some great stories!
Welcome to the live track. Welcome back, everybody. It's been a two whole weeks since we've done one of these. We got a full house tonight.
SPEAKER_03We do. We are uh got a uh a great lineup with us. We've got the honor of having Jacob. We've really branched out uh with our guest list here, and we've pushed all the way to the uh far southwest portion of Eton County to get Jake Kelly. Sooner or later, we're gonna get somebody from like a different county on here. And that's gonna be uh let's um small steps, Nick. I don't want to get too far out of hand here. But we've got Jake Kelly with us, he's agreed to come on with us tonight and we're excited to have him. Uh Danny Wears, who's become uh a large portion of that operation with Jake, and they'll get into that a little later. She's sitting in with us as well. Nick Thompson, as per usual, Trace Thompson. William Barnum is sitting corkside as well, and then myself, David Scales. And what I'm really excited about tonight is that we may for once have somebody on the wash rack that's louder than I am, so we won't have to be complaining about me as we're playing this back afterwards of how loud I'm getting. I'm gonna look pretty quiet. Yes, you will. Welcome, Jake. Good to have you.
SPEAKER_01No problem. Thanks for having us.
SPEAKER_03Jake, you're just back from uh from the brand, right?
SPEAKER_01Uh yes, we we got back uh early Sunday morning uh from from that, and then uh been a busy week getting ready for our live sale.
SPEAKER_03So right, we managed to get Jake on at kind of a crunch time for him. He's getting ready for what's kind of become, I think, one of the more popular uh maybe one of the last live sales left in Michigan for the on the club land side of things. I know it's very well attended, and people buy a lot of good ones out of there every year. So appreciate you making some time to sit down with us, Jake, because I can imagine uh the next couple days you're gonna be spreading straw like crazy.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, we I mean we're pretty busy. Um Danny helps a lot with the keeps keeps that going, uh, keeps us on pace. So we should be alright on time. But I I do appreciate you having us and uh we'll get into it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, why don't you go ahead, Jake, and just to to kick off with, tell us a little bit about about your upbringing, a little bit, uh how you got pulled into the to the livestock aspect of things. Tell us about a just a little bit about growing up. I think you you were just telling us a little bit here before we started recording that uh you grew up right on the Barrie County line. You've moved a few miles cumulatively in your in your life uh from there. So tell us just a little bit about your upbringing growing up, um, what you guys showed, what you raised, take us from there.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, me and my parents, we we always had uh some cattle running around. Um, but my my grandparents, um Harold Dingman and Velma, uh they had uh they raised sheep. Um they had uh Suffolk and Shropshears. And uh we I actually did not like the sheep when I was a kid. I despised them, but I always helped my grandpa just because it was my grandpa. And uh we uh I showed hogs and uh cattle when I was younger, um, had some success with the hog stuff when I was younger, and then when I was close to graduating here, just it just at the county level. Went to a couple junior nationals, um, but nothing, just low-key um type deal.
SPEAKER_03What uh what breed were you dealing with then, Jake, on the cattle side of things?
SPEAKER_01Uh Key and Mainz, mainly. Um Bob, my first show heifer from uh Duke Brandt. He also is from Bellevue.
SPEAKER_04Duke's still in the old uh Sullivan's trailer, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01Yep. Yep. Yep. He was from he was from our hometown and um in '91 bought a really good heifer uh from him and did some good things with her. Um but other than that, basically until the Club Lamb deal started in 2012, I was kind of a commercial kid, just kind of had some you know 2030 commercial cows, and uh grandpa you know had the sheep up until the early 2000s, but um that was kind of where we were at, and then we're just doing that until I decided I wanted something to do in the winter. So uh we started with six and then bought a flock of 20, and uh it's kind of snowballed from there.
SPEAKER_03Jake, by the way, for those of you that don't know him, number one, he needs something to do in the winter. I've never seen the guy sit still for very long. Uh this is probably gonna be the longest I've seen him in one spot. Um number two, he's also an expert at buying flocks of sheep, and so if you've got a group of something for sale, imitate Kelly in mind.
SPEAKER_01Well, I have bought three flocks. Actually, four if you count the first six. Then I bought a flock of twenty from Chad Greenman, which are basically all slack genetics. We went a while, but in 2020. I owned one of those here in 2020. We bought a flock from a buddy of mine and uh Bill Arthur of Minnesota. Made the deal in January, three weeks later, that whole COVID deal happened, and I thought I had uh screwed right up. But we made it through.
SPEAKER_03You guys drove out there in the right in the heart of COVID.
SPEAKER_01Right in the heart of COVID. Uh learn how to drive a trailer through fast food food drive-throughs pretty pretty good. I think Nick has a similar story to that deal. Um yep, drove out there. Um that's been a great addition. And then uh skill. Then I bought Jeff Gordonier's flock. Uh this will be our third year, lamb and lambing them. Uh, and I I don't know, somebody comes around and makes me a deal. I always said I like buying flocks, I'll buy the whole flock and I'll do the sorting.
SPEAKER_03That way you know you get the best one, right, Jake?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, you get the best one, and you just you sort them off, and you can usually get them a little better deal on them. And I'm I have pieced them out. I bought a few here and there from Wheatons and some other guys, but I do like buying flocks.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. How many got over there now, Jake? How many you laminate?
SPEAKER_01Uh anywhere between 90 and 100.
SPEAKER_03Um AI. How many would you say you tag in in a normal year?
SPEAKER_01Uh about 130. Depending. Last year was a little more, this year is a little less, but depending on everything. But so is that enough to do in the winter? That is enough to do in the winter.
SPEAKER_04If not, I got a little custom work for you. Funny how those little hobbies start to spile around of control.
SPEAKER_01Well, I have a problem. My mom would call it an addiction. If I have 20, oh what's 30, what's 10 more, what's 30, and then shit. And then I built I bought a place with a big barn on it, and it looked pretty empty, so you start filling it, I guess.
SPEAKER_04Well happened around here. We started with a shed, and then we built a barn, and then I built another barn. I gotta fill that up.
SPEAKER_01When I first started, I was le I was lambing in two lean twos at two different places with no cameras. Oh that really kept you busy. A lot of work back and forth. Yeah, sleep wasn't my friend, but yeah.
SPEAKER_04So kind of tell us a little bit more about uh the modern day Kelly Farms and you know where you're headed and like what's your uh I mean you you've touched on some of that as far as you know how many use your lamb and and kind of what you're doing, but where where do most of your lambs go and kind of what's your uh what's your goals as a as a producer?
SPEAKER_01So so like we kind of probably really really took off in this club deal probably oh five six years ago we kind of started. I bought that place in 2013 and then I probably wasn't lambing in it until 15. It you know, it takes a little it takes a little while. Um our sale that we've mentioned this will be our 10th annual sale, so them have all been in that facility. Um so we've kind of been been there. We're also uh you know, in our in our in our deal, been growing. Um in 2017 or 2016 we bought a little flock of Dorsets and started that program, had in 20 su 2017 had a reserve champion Dorset of MLE. Haven't been back to that promised land and the Dorsets for a while. Uh we're we're we're getting there though, and then uh but it's not for lack of good ones.
SPEAKER_03I mean I've been down there and I mean actually for for your your Dorsets have have been strong, Jake, for for several years.
SPEAKER_01I'd say the last three years we've definitely have definitely improved that. Um I I don't know if you know this, David. I'm a little stubborn. It takes me a little bit I I kinda I kinda have these deals where I'm gonna do something a certain way, but after a while I give in. Takes a little while, but um we started using some some different bucks and doing things different ways, and it really helped us um in that deal. This year, I would say our Dorsets are by far were the best I ever had. And same with the blackface, we just kind of kept building on the AI deal, and that's the good thing about AI is we've been able to, I think, go leaps and bounds in a short hurry, um, using different different things from all over and different groups of of people.
SPEAKER_03Um but yeah, so we've uh we've kind of just to ask you quick, Jake. What what year did you guys start AI in?
SPEAKER_01I did a few with Springport FFA when Pat Henney was there. Man.
SPEAKER_04Shout out to Springport FFA.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That would have been that would have been maybe maybe 17 or 18, maybe when we started.
SPEAKER_03I don't I didn't do it much earlier than that. I wasn't that one, I mean, because I've heard a little bit of stories about the lore of those olden days. Wasn't that one Terry Canuton came?
SPEAKER_01Oh, that was the that was Terry Knut. That was Terry Kanutsen came in there all Terry. Let me tell you. If you if you you walk into a sheet barn, he looks like straight out of Miami Miami Vice, with chess hair sticking out, and and I didn't I nobody introduced me to Terry. I picked him out of a crowd. I said, Well, that's Terry right there. Um, but you know, then for the for the day, them Bucks did us what we needed to. Um, but we we've definitely made relationships with other other places and done different programs. I mean, anybody know my program? I like muscle and power.
SPEAKER_03And uh that's Jake's really not such Jake Kelly is really not such a hard guy. I've learned anyway. Jake Kelly is really not such a hard guy to get to know or get along with. Number one, he's alluded to the fact he's a little stubborn. I've learned that if you're trying to convince Jake of something, the quickest way to do it is to quit trying to convince him. Because if you the longer you keep hammering at him, he's just gonna dig his damn heels in. And after a little while, you realize he's gonna be an arnery just for the just because he knows it's getting under your hide. So if you kind of just lay it all out there how you see it, Jake will say, Oh, well, uh, I don't know, I don't know. Uh, no, I don't think so. I don't think so. And you just well, that's fine, Jake. And you leave it alone, he'll think about it, he'll keep thinking about it, and maybe eventually he'll come back and say, you know, you might not have been all wrong about all of it. So that's easy way to get along with Jake right there, is um don't try to outstubborn him. And number two is Jake likes what he likes, and like you say, Jake, power, body, substance that stayed true in that flock all the way through, and you've made a lot of progress in terms of build and design since then.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know, let's let's be fair on that deal. A lot of that helps came, you know. I started using some of the wheat wheat and genetics, not always my my type and kind, but I was smart enough to know that them kind of sheep are gonna work with my ewes. And, you know, David and I have used a buck called High Point for numerous years, and that buck's done a tremendous job, and his females are just kicking out of the park. I mean, I bought another buck that probably when I first started I wouldn't have bought, called Blue Light. He's done us a tremendous job, but when I started I would have wanted nothing to do with them kind of bucks. But I was smart enough to know let's kind of we had to evolve a little bit, and um, and it wasn't just me. I mean, I like to talk to people all the time, and I'm talking other ideas and stuff, and we've been, you know, you talked we were just at Hildes at the brand. There's another group that's kind of helped us move around with their bucks. I mean, some of the better sheep that we've raised last year were out of them them bucks, and we're just kind of keeping moving in that progression, and and if I if I come across something I don't like, it's like David said, it's kind of hard to convince me. I I and then you know I'll I'll tell this story, and David's part of the story. They had weakens had a buck we weakens had a buck called Big Chill, and I told him I was not interested in that buck. It just I just wasn't. And then uh now I have a big chill you that I bought from Jeff Gordonier, and I tell you what, I wish I had a barn full of them dang things. And uh I had to eat a little crow once in a while. When you're stubborn, you have to eat a little crow once in a while. I don't like it, but I do it. Them big chill you's that I've seen for Wheatons, David, and numerous people around the country. I mean, I don't name using she's the big she's the big chill you. I mean, that's as everybody knows that you.
SPEAKER_03That's as close to a name as they're gonna get in California.
SPEAKER_01I mean, we got some, but usually that's not it's usually because they're a problem.
SPEAKER_03It might not always be a term of endearment, crazy bitch. Yeah, some belong to one.
SPEAKER_01We got one called the Raptor. Because she looks at you like the Jurassic Park Raptor.
SPEAKER_06But makes good ones.
SPEAKER_01Well, she makes she makes good ones. A funny funny story about her is first year I lambed her out, I bought them from Jeff. Nobody really warned me about these, but he had this group of 20, 20 uh 20 ewes, and he had some abortion in them, so he just kicked them up on the hill to get them out of the way. Didn't lamb them, just kicked them up on the hill. And these 2020s have an attitude.
SPEAKER_03And uh well, Gordon Earsheep were strong willed.
SPEAKER_01Well, they were strong anyway. And this so if anybody's been to my place, I got these these old calf pens that we use for lambing jugs, and you can't see through them. They're solid. It was 3:30 in the morning, she was lambing. I I get her, I get her in the lamb jug, I'm doing my thing, and she was like an Angus cow. She was on top of me, I mean, just making all sorts of hair. And I mean, had my glasses knocked off me, I mean, on top of me. I was by myself. It was 3 30 in the morning, and I finally got her off me and got in there and got the lamps going. But she would just sit there to this day. She'll sit there and just watch it with one eye and just move with you. But we can't get rid of her. She sells a lot of dollars worth of weathers. But to this day we call her the raptor you would. I mean, she'll hit you when you're putting her in the chute with the other ones, and you're doing she'll try to hit you through the in the working chute.
SPEAKER_03Well, I can believe that. I've seen we've got some of them, but Jeff had some you'd that were they were burly stout and they could be a little wild.
SPEAKER_01And strong-willed. I like that. They were very strong-willed.
SPEAKER_03That's just a good way to put it. That's just a good way. And I think if Jeff was sitting here with us, I think Jeff would probably say they could they could be a little edgy sometimes.
SPEAKER_01He did all that without a working shoe.
SPEAKER_03He was I don't know how to. Jeff Gordonier is one of the top ten strongest people I've ever met in my life.
SPEAKER_01I will tell you that, because I work these, and I'm like, oh I'm like, these make make me just want to quit someday.
SPEAKER_04Oh shoot. Hey Jake, so one of the things we like to ask people on here, and uh, I think David says it best, is you know, Lee had told him, like, well, a lot of times people look back and say, you know, when did you get your break? And uh, you know, you talked a little bit about how you got started and some of the flocks you bought. What do you think that your break was where you finally were like, okay, we got this, or we're we're getting somewhere.
SPEAKER_03Well, like, I mean, the way I always look at it is uh not necessarily like that the moment you thought you'd made it, but like in even in the time in the moment you might not have thought of it as well, this is a big deal for me, but like uh where things kind of hung in the balance and could have gone one way or the other, and maybe somebody gave you uh gave you some help or gave you some advice or gave you the opportunity to buy one that you wouldn't have had the opportunity to, maybe otherwise, or turned you in the right direction, that uh that sets you on your path to where you're at now. Was there a moment as you look back on that that was a a big break that's like if it if that hadn't happened, things would be tougher right now than they were. You wouldn't be as far along now as you were then.
SPEAKER_01So, to be honest with you, and I thought about this question, to be honest with you, I'm a young man, I hope my big break hasn't came yet. Um I I'm hoping, but to answer your question, I think there's a couple different small moments that I think has projected us um towards that. Um get getting a chance to buy them two flocks, definitely. Um buying a buck we called covert from Joe Hobbs. Um I'd say that was one of them moments. Um What was Covert? Covert was a happy days white rock trunk straight out of Alan Cover's out of California's flock. Um Joe bought Joe and Nathan bought him, sold semen on him. I don't know if they ever used him. Then the next year I got a chance to buy them. And as David knows, I'm a value shopper. And uh I I when they priced him, I couldn't I couldn't help myself. So uh Caitlin Henny and I actually bought him together. Um she's uh been a big part of this also. I mean, uh keeping me going in the in the right direction and and different differ being able to buy some bucks when I was just starting with and sharing them with people. Blue light we mentioned. Um I never thought I would have probably paid that much for a buck in my life, and I bought a third of them, and that buck is still we're still selling semen on that buck not as much as we used to, and we're still getting I mean I used them this year. We're gonna have seven of them in our sale, so many of them online. Um never thought I would get a check in the sheep deal for selling semen. And uh that that buck's really, really, really helped us. Had a chance to buy him with a good friend of mine, James Thompson. Um, probably wouldn't have had that opportunity without him. Um funny story about that is we were coming to the end of our budget, and I was on the phone, and all I told him was don't lose that son of a bitch over two grand. We will figure it out. Like I am, I am, we are once you get me in, I don't lose. But we were winning. Well he he because he was starting to waver, he's like, I don't know if the other people will. All I said was, don't lose. I I'll I'll buy that. I don't care. You get me on board, I'm on it. But I mean, we've had multiple little deals. Had some lamps, James has placed some lambs for us. Oh, East that's done well. My buddy Garrett's placed some lambs for us. That's done well around the country. Last year at Louisville, I won a class at Louisville. I I In the commercial in the commercial unit deal show, which is geez a beats.
SPEAKER_03There's like 600 and 700 sheep in that deal. Um I think there's a lot.
SPEAKER_01I think it's hard to do one break as as you I feel I'm hoping I'm still going up in the bell curve. Um to point that, David. But I I really I really think all them work, but when in a class and I mean even we had a second in that same show, second in class. So we had two in the champion drive out there. Um never thought in a million years I would I would uh be able to do that. I mean I'm a pretty humble humble guy on that type of stuff. And I I it was amazing. Um it still seemed unreal.
SPEAKER_03Well it's a it's a hell of an accomplishment to have two out there in consideration with that kind of company. Um and and you you know that there was, you know, I I'm not sure exactly how many commercial years there were in that show. There's usually like 600 or so. You know, just about all of them hopped them off the trailer thinking they had a shot to win a class.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that commercial U deal is wo I think way stouter than I mean there's a lot of good weathers, but you know, there's a lot of just Okay ones, too. But that you show, there's there might be a handful that don't have a chance, but they're most of them.
SPEAKER_03Most of the sheep that are in the commercial you show are slated to go back into somebody's breeding program somewhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03That's a show of keepers.
SPEAKER_01Um and that's where I mean these two, well, they've been living in Tennessee, living their best life, but they'll be they'll be back here this weekend, I guess. I'll get to look at them again. But um, some some of that stuff, big break. Some Danny coming along and putting her faith faith in me and sticking with me through the ups and downs and got her when she got moved to Tennessee, got her into some really good winning circles. She did a wonderful job down there with what we've won down there. We've won two champion youths in 23 and 24. 22 we had reserve weather. And in 24 we had champion weather or reserve?
SPEAKER_00Champion.
SPEAKER_01Champion weather.
SPEAKER_03So well, I think that's a good segue into maybe an introduction for Danny, which I'm afraid I I I'm all I always do this with whether I'm talking to people in person or not, I kind of glaze over introductions. This might be a good time to introduce Danny Wares and Danny, talk a little bit about your background and and and how you come to be alongside us tonight and your importance to Kelly's operation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I um grew up in the UP, so when I I showed cattle and I wanted to get into sheep, so I found Jake, and I was kind of loyal to a fault people call me. So I've been going with him for eight years now, I think, and I've been working with him over this winter, so it's been great.
SPEAKER_03And you live in Tennessee now?
SPEAKER_00Yep, we moved to Tennessee five years ago.
SPEAKER_03Okay. And by all accounts, I've had a lot of success since going there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and she last year she wanted to go to the Royal. She took four lambs to the American Royal and made the cut in every one of her classes. Um and I I'll give her credit on that part, is I think I get her really good lambs, but man, when when she gets done with them, she knows how to feed them and get them ready and and and does and does a great part, a great part with uh with that stuff. And I think between the both of us, we've taught each other a lot of different things. I mean, here's a funny story. Uh kid that uses uh helps me out quite a lot. Everybody knows Trent Neal. So we weaned we weaned we weaned a group of lambs this year, and uh I said, Trent, will you come help us? Yep, he's pretty good at that. And we get all said and done, and we're sitting in my heated office about a little smaller than this, and Danny looks at me and she goes, You know what you didn't do today? And I said, What? She said, You didn't yell at Trent once. And I said, Man, should I call him back? And I don't feel right, you know. Like me and Trent yell each other like father and son most of the time. I think what that my moral of that story is, I think she's taken a lot of the this mellowed me out a little bit, maybe not a ton, but I I just feel like it it's went a little it's gone pretty good this winter. Um, and she's helped out tremendous. Tremendous. Um she went out to the brand with us. Um another family that's helped me out a lot get my sheep ready for live sales would be the Nichols family. They went out together and um they they our sheep sold tremendously well. I mean, better than I've sold two sheep back to back in my life, and a very, very good trip. Very very good trip um on that deal.
SPEAKER_04Um well and and I don't know Danny very well, but I will say we we uh traveled up to the UP State Fair, oh, what was that, 2021? 18 it was before COVID. Oh was it before COVID? I think it was before COVID, yeah. And I remember this young lady showing cattle, showing sheep, and uh you could just tell, like I didn't I don't even think I ever introduced myself, but you could tell she was a hustler, and I think that that speaks volumes from a standpoint of getting paired up with somebody that knows livestock and works hard at it, and then taking those livestock to a family that that cares and works really hard. Um, and that's a great combination, and I think that's something that as producers we all strive to find is that that family or two or three or four that will bring those home and and take them to the next level. And I think you know, from afar and not knowing a lot about sheep, I think she's done that for for your program. Um and that's just a testament to Danny.
SPEAKER_03Danny's got a lot of showring presence, and that's something you can't teach. You can teach a lot of things, but there's a certain presence that some some folks have when they hit the ring that other folks just don't. It can never be taught, and uh and Danny has it, and so that's that kind of goes along with being a natural at it.
SPEAKER_01If she pays attention more to the smaller details than me, I'm kind of a broad, let's go. Big picture idea. I'm a big picture, but she'll actually slow it. It's been good. She's kind of slowed the operation, and we've did stuff a little different. And I mean, I've always said I'm it's I put the dick and dictatorship in my barn.
SPEAKER_03But uh Trent would probably agree with you.
SPEAKER_01But I uh I he would, uh, but it's it's my mom would agree with you. We we fight like cats and dogs. Never seen a father or a mother and son uh tell each other to F off more than we probably do, but we keep working hard in that we can say fuck on this. Well, we uh we I'm I'm trying to keep a G rated, I don't know why, but don't happen on Noah.
SPEAKER_04No, I mean we we have a great since I was eight years old.
SPEAKER_01I mean, we have me and my mom have a great she helps out a lot. We've had a great, great relationship. I mean, she taught me how to work hard and don't take shit from nobody, and sometimes she don't like it because I she she don't take shit off of her either. Yeah, she don't take shit off me. And uh we but we're we're good we're a good pair. And uh I think I think Danny's kind of mellowed that out a little bit, and and uh it's just it's a good I've had a lot of good young kids in my life help help me. I mean Williams helped me. I mean there's I I I shouldn't mention names because I'm missing somebody, but there's been a lot of young kids that have worked for me either bailing straw or doing the sheep deal or showing and I I I really I really enjoy them all and and very appreciative to all the all that in this deal.
SPEAKER_03So just building off of that a little bit, Jake, as you think back kind of as you're you were coming up, you were showing cattle, you were showing some hogs, as you started to break into the the Club Lamb deal, started to accumulate flocks and different genetics and break into the AI game. Who stands out maybe as your most influential person um that helped help guide you along through all this?
SPEAKER_01So when I was a kid, it was definitely my grandparents, you know, hard work and being around that, and I would say probably, you know, and there's multiple people. Um a guy that came around that I was a stop on his way home to drink beer and watch me do chores and help me out a lot in this sheep deal would be Robbie Chapman. Um and and David knows this. He's part of the reason my sheep started to get a little trendier and we got away from um he liked different sheep than me. Now, once in a while I just told him that this one's this U lamb staying, and I don't give a shit.
SPEAKER_03You can tell them where the bear shipped the buckle.
SPEAKER_01But but I mean he we all know that he's been a very influential part of this deal up and through.
SPEAKER_03Um well even last night, I think uh we were talking about trying to get together last night. I think last night you and Robbie were going through sale.
SPEAKER_01Me and Robbie and Danny were doing sale orders. William's been part of the sale order deal there. Um and he helped he helps uh you know go through the U lambs. Robbie goes through my barn and you know we we show these lambs, all of us, show these lambs, and these people come in and want them set up and this and that. Robbie will just walk through my barn as I do chores once a week, and when the year's over with and we're in the sale, he's uh he's picked up uh probably the top three to five sheep with just letting them look loose and just watching them and walk, and he's usually he's usually spot on before. And I don't always agree with him, and he'll tell you that, but uh he usually hits it, and he has been a big part um of this deal. Another guy that I've uh been friends with, we've mentioned James Thompson. I would say he's been a very big part of the last five to six years of this of this deal, you know, breaking me out of my comfort zone, getting me go to live sales. Um do you guys know I'm nervous at shows and sales? Has anybody ever heard that? I mean, I've and he just tells me you can't be scared your whole life. So I try not to, but man, I just don't like to fail that bad. But we've and and getting me out of my comfort zone is has been good. Like we've had opportunities to buy stuff together, and um we've definitely been been growing in that aspect, and been very been very fortunate with all the people that have been part of this. If I mentioned you're not, I mean, there's been a lot of people that have been part of this program, the Henny's, Barnums. I mean, we have our little have our little circle in this deal. Um, and you know, remember where we've all started. And um it's I love the I kind of a lot of these guys, I kind of think it's family, you know. I've really thought that we've grown together, and I mean I've seen William Barnum sitting here, but I mean they lambed in their garage when I first known them, I landed in the lean to, and now we both got nice big bars and nice big flocks, and hardly another one in the buildings. Oh, yeah, there's always room for one.
SPEAKER_03There's always well sheep lark, I don't always tell people sheep are like uh like potato chips. You can't have just one more. Um and I like to buy bread use in the fall, right, David? Jake does like to buy bread use in the fall. That's something he shares in common with Robbie because I'll concur with Jake. I don't Robbie's gonna listen to this, and then Kelly's gonna have a problem because he's not gonna be able to fit his head through the door when he gets home. But but Jake Robbie normally will show up and kind of do the same thing right around bread use sales season at Wheatons, and he'll stumble through all of them. Let's go to the drive. Yeah, just yeah, just walk around, never just kind of look at them, and when he's done, he'll he'll have the three or four very best ones lined up, and he's normally right. And uh he'll normally say to Leland, hey, I got a thousand dollars cash in the truck, which one can I buy? And uh, goodness gracious, Robbie, you have got champagne taste and red dog beer money.
SPEAKER_01And then at the next call when he leaves, that's right, he's gonna call his financial investor. But I will tell you, Robbie, Robbie has been a big, big part of our our growth as what I like like sheep and know smart enough to know to make them more trendy and what the industry wants, other than what I I want. I want them to look like little broody Angus cattle is what I want, but that that ain't gonna get it done in today's worlds.
SPEAKER_03Well, and he's starting to wear you down, Jake, because uh last year we had a pair of Trace Amigo sons there at Wheatons that were both pretty good. And there was Jake called and said he's gonna stop in, and I thought I knew for sure which one he was gonna tie into. And uh he got there and he liked that sheep, I think. But the one that he really tied into was the exotic long neck super shallow one, and uh I almost got a little choked up over it.
SPEAKER_01Well, that was the buck that I thought I needed to use use at my place. Obviously, he didn't didn't become fertile and we couldn't use them, so I used the other one that I was all out on the other one. I mean, all out, and we had a really good set out of that other other buck, and and very, very happy with him. But I I I do think that other buck, if he'd ever been fertile, we would have with what we wanted to breed to him, would have probably made some home runs.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. And of course the buck you're talking about that ended up working well was Motor City Muscle from from Lee and Brant Wheaton there. And then I can concur that was a good set of sheep there out of out of him at your place, Jacob. But George Buckham told me one time sometimes we make our best sheep by accident. And that was never on the agenda to breathe of that buck as heavy as you did that day. But in the grand scheme of things, it sure would be nice to look back on it and say, Yeah, I knew what I was doing the whole time.
SPEAKER_01We'll talk about making them on accident. Last year we had a that you that won the class at Louisville, and then her brother was we called Little Wayne. Kruegers had them here in Michigan, had won a class MLE, was never a big ship sheep, but was you know in the top five at numerous shows. Well, I have heard boss, never wanted that, but got it when I got Jeff's sheep, and it's been happy. And you can put your little what they ought bleed in there, and this you was FF, so I'd better to ride time. I'm like, shit this works. They came out and I'm like, oh man, what did I do? Like, uh the one ear was a little little little weird looking, and I'm like, and I'm like, man, so I'm like, I better go back and look. So I must have fat-fingered it when I when I entered it, but she was definitely FD. And I I'm not one for doing FD FD meet matings too much, but I tell you what, that definitely paid off. And we haven't tested her uh yet. Um if she isn't if she isn't uh she's heavy D, I would imagine. Um she she's uh heavy D, but both them sheep were were some of the some of the best ones that were running around for us last year, and I wouldn't have done that if that was put in my phone right, not even Coles.
SPEAKER_04Right. Jake, tell us a story that uh nobody would believe. That could be anything.
SPEAKER_01A story that nobody believed. We talked about this on the way over. No, I can't remember, Danny.
SPEAKER_03I've got something I think nobody would believe. Jake, you have a master's, don't you? I have a bachelor's.
SPEAKER_01It took me six years, but I do have a uh bachelor's and uh fishing and wildlife management, which I don't think most people um would would believe, but I I did graduate college. It took first two years were practice.
SPEAKER_04Last couple years were victory laps. I almost feel like a minority in here. There's more people in this room that have spent a fair amount of time in the UP than there are that haven't.
SPEAKER_03Uh, we're half and half right now. Which for me, I finally feel like I'm a little you know on an even playing field right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, David grew up next to the barbell post office. That's right.
SPEAKER_03The sprawling metropolis is a little bit more. You can hit it with a stone for the house. Yeah, I think a good country boy can take the window out. No doubt about it. But Jake, I'm gonna ask you to tell a story that you told me once, maybe you don't remember telling it. Um is when you kind of first got out of college, you had an opportunity to take a desk job, didn't you?
SPEAKER_01It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't a desk job. Um, I had an opportunity to actually go to work for GM where my dad retired from. And uh farming economy was taking off. Um, and I actually had the job, and it was coming into June. At that time, we were bailing a couple hundred acres of dry hay, and I just uh decided that they were gonna put me on a second shift, didn't know how I was gonna get it done. Um didn't make my dad the happiest with my decision at the time, but I I I told the lady on the phone I couldn't take the pay cut and I had to get to work, and uh I a couple months after I think GM went bankrupt, and I mean that's all worked out, but um I like to work outdoors, be my own deal. Um I there's there's definitely I had an old boy tell me once that there's two types of people. People that can work for somebody else and people that can work for themselves. And I always felt that I was a person that liked to work for myself and could get the stuff done and and d didn't need much much of that other stuff. And and nothing against the other deal. I just I don't by now I'm 44, I pretty much probably think I'm unemployable. Um I I kinda do beat by my own drum, but uh yes, I could've I could have went to work at GM and I doubt if that would've happened, any of this stuff would've happened. Right.
SPEAKER_04Um but well you'd have had something to do in the winter.
SPEAKER_01Well, I wouldn't have had something to do in the winter. Um but you know that uh that was just how how that rolled, and I never regretted that decision in a day of my life. And there was some there were some strong feelings between my father about it, but I I think he's also came to the conclusion that was we made the right decision. So um at that point.
SPEAKER_03So but so I I sorry I've killed it off of your question, Nick, but I there's gotta be uh there's gotta be a story that nobody, a good story no one would believe, Jake, um, that you've got to tell.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you don't remember what that was. We were talking in the truck. Oh put me on the spot.
SPEAKER_03Well, we can skip it and come back to it. Yeah, let me think I'll get it. We'll skip it and go along. Uh thinking back, Jake, over the years, starting to raise sheep, you were starting to have uh I mean, you got there for a while, you won an awful lot of county fairs in Michigan for about um Well, I you still get along really, really well at them, but there for a little while, I mean you kind of had a stranglehold on the things. What was the first one that you raised that you look back on and you were really proud of? And I don't mean to say that it even has to be the best one you've raised to date or anything like that, but what was the first one you looked at and you're like, man, that's a really good sheep. I'm I'm awfully proud to have had that one come out of the barn.
SPEAKER_01Well, Danny and I actually differ on this sheep. Um and and David um was part of helping me make this sheep. Um we called her the broken leg you. She uh broke her leg at Wheatons and AI day. Um joint effort and me and me and me and David. My my trailer at the time wasn't the best, and we probably shouldn't have sedated him on the trailer, but you know, that you got along. But she uh she produced a hindsight's always 2020. But she produced uh a natty you um and Trent actually showed the broken leg you and And then Wes Nichols showed this 2214 U. And that's actually little Wayne and Little Wayne and the Natty U's mom. That U and that U family, I've only sold one U out of that U family. And uh only have had a few males, and the males have been really good. Another sheep would be a U I bought from Bill Arthur. Her number was 710. Danny has most of the up till last year, both Us that she showed at Tennessee will go back to that 710 um U one. Do you remember what she was, that U you bought from Bill? Um she was a Quiet Riot. I can't remember on the on the other on the bottom side, but Quiet Riot would have kind of went back to some of the impact stuff, I think. I like older stuff. Um the broken leg you was a trump stump you. Trump stump was a buck that Kyle Smillen raised from uh out of drop the mic there. Um them U's were again a tremendous Us, but them are the two U families, other than the big chill you that I bought. But you know, that one that I raised and stuff, that that broken leg family has been very, very good to us. And that that 2214 U is definitely my favorite. She is. She never got too big, she was definitely thick enough and had enough pieces to her, but Danny's gonna say her show Lamb from 24, which was named Taunt. Um, that you I don't think lost very many shows, did she? I didn't like to see her show up in Michigan. Well, most people don't when Danny comes to Michigan.
SPEAKER_04You that came to her show there in Eaton County? Uh yes. And she won that too, I believe. Yep. Under Isaac Garrett, maybe.
SPEAKER_01Under Isaac.
SPEAKER_03And Danny's a triple threat. She can show up in Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia.
SPEAKER_01She's been to North, I think she showed North Carolina and Alabama. Yep. Um, she get she they like the show and we like to put some good ones in their hands. Um, but uh them are the them are the sheep that I think that I have been a part of that I've that have really put us put us there. Um I mean there's tremendous U's and other you families, but that broken leg you and 710 and the big two of you would be my top top three.
SPEAKER_03Um I did not raise 710 or or uh or the big two of you, but so those are kind of your favorites are your favorites maybe of the time that you've raised. Yep. Okay, but so go with so that's I mean that's interesting in of itself, but like so going back, like was there one that like you the first one you were proud of, the first one that like got you excited that kept you going in the in the sheep deal, you know, like can you think back to remember uh like well there was there would have been a sheep and I can't think of the year.
SPEAKER_01Um the first time uh I don't even remember the year, but Trent Neal showed it. It was our I think one of our first county fair wins in Barrie County.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um I can't tell you what that sheep was right off the top of my head. It was his last year. Um so special in a lot of ways. Yep, and there's a lot of good sheep in Barry County, you know, all the Dingerson grandkids, and and I think Robbie was showing Robbie's kids were showing there, and you had Gordon Ear stuff, and um I I'm gonna say that was a covert sheep. Probably the first year we had we used him, um, but that sheep kind of started that county fair street that you were talking about. Um, I mean, we've always had good runs in Eaton County. I mean, three years ago we two-hole that had Grand and Reserve, and then once in a while David comes in there and David's kind of biting his lip right now.
SPEAKER_03Kind of comes in there and and uh Well I always said at Eaton County the biggest obstacle you gotta get around is Jake Kelly, and he's a big one to get around.
SPEAKER_01Well, we only have a third of the sheep in the snow usually, but um we've had a good run, had some really good families in Eaton County.
SPEAKER_03Um that Eaton County sheep show can get hard. That can be a that can be a I think they call that accuracy by volume.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh well, I think it probably I mean if it works, it works.
SPEAKER_03That's no that's no discredit to you. We've been we've been beat we've been beat by good ones there plenty of times.
SPEAKER_01Well, it was uh us us too, and I mean you go there and you know I always know that David's gonna have one there, and you know, I my call on Sunday, have you seen the cords lamp? Well, it has blankets on it. Well, if they get them blankets off, I need a I need a I need an eye on that before I get down there. But we uh we definitely always have a good day at that show. Um David and I uh go back and forth.
SPEAKER_03I think he's got us the last two years, but um, it's probably about my time to take a tour in the bridesmaid position.
SPEAKER_01But you know, we always we always go back and forth, and it's it's it's enjoyable. Like I always tell David that day, we ain't friends, I'm gonna win. But when it's all said and done, we congratulate eat congratulate each other.
SPEAKER_03And uh I don't think win or lose, I don't think I've ever walked away from Eat County without a bear hug from Jake Kelly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's it's if we get beat and we get beat by a by the right one, that's you just gotta take your lumps and walk away and say, well, let's try not to do that again.
SPEAKER_03Um, hey, we're having a good conversation so far. We're gonna take just a quick break for a fast word to recognize our sponsors, uh Scale Farms and Thompson Brothers Showstock. Um Kelly Farms and Clublands. Kelly Farms and Club Lambs. And uh Barnum Club Lambs as well was generous enough to contribute this evening. Um so with that being said, we're gonna take just a quick break and we'll be right back.
SPEAKER_04You welcome back. Part two. Uh decided we wanted to put a little uh break in the action uh this time, mainly because uh we needed a break. So we had to check and make sure them heifers hadn't cabbed yet. Yeah, we're getting close, actually. Yeah, we are so Jake's. Jake's struggling with his head phones a little bit, but it's alright. It's pretty entertaining. Help him out the trick.
SPEAKER_03We've got our tactical support on hand, Jake's Thompson.
SPEAKER_04What do you got going on?
SPEAKER_02I don't have a clue.
SPEAKER_03I don't know what you got going on either.
SPEAKER_04Oh goodness.
SPEAKER_03Well, hey, uh nothing else we have. We don't have a lot here at Thompson Livestock and uh the watch rack podcast, but we do have fun. Yes.
SPEAKER_04That was the goal.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_04I actually told Jake's raised livestock. We're getting set up uh tonight, and of course, right on time, had everything, you know, not set up when Jake got here. And so we're on co unwinding cords and getting stuff around. They said, you know, the most important thing is we have a good time at this because we know nobody's gonna listen anyway. So at least if we have fun, that's what matters.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and that's what then I've enjoyed this conversation tremendously so far. And we just got done Jake talking about what some of your favorite animals to date have been, and went back and talked about one uh that that really kind of kicked off that county fair strong county fair run that you had, and even more special to have it come uh the with uh Trent's last Trent Neal's last year. You know, Trent was a big part of the operation for a long time. It sounds like he still steps in from time to time when needed. Um, but just switching gears a little bit, I wanted to ask you that um as you've been been coming up, or when you were young, you know, even young and growing up in the cattle deal and showing hogs and whatever else, was there a person or an operation that you admired as a youth, um, regardless of whether they directly mentored you or not, um, that you really looked up to?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I keep going back to them, but I had a lot of interaction with with my grandparents there, and you know, um, when they were raising sheep and and and stuff like that, and that they definitely uh was an operation that I've taken from. And when I when I started lambing, I actually lambed in one of my grandparents' barn, right from and my grandpa was gone, but my grandma was still there, and I'd go in the house and be like, grandma, I need help. Like, this is what's going on. She couldn't physically go out there, but she would talk to me on the phone when we were getting started, and and and you know, telling me how she did stuff and and remembering stuff that they did and how they they uh took took care of livestock and and wanted to do the best they could by the livestock, I guess. Um you know we tr we tried to do this thing, but we all gotta remember is them animals can't take care of themselves when we got them in a pen. We gotta do the best by them animals. And uh I've always I've always thought that. I've always tried to get I mean there's there's lambs that you have it, you probably should have just walked them out back and ended it, but I have a hard time doing that. And I we we we try to make every one of them go, and uh um and I do feel like they were a big part of this deal. Not so much um like me taking over. There was a big gap when there wasn't no sheep between the two farms, and um, you know, and and another one in the cattle side of it, you know, we talked about Duke Brandt. Well, he was right there, uh, did did a lot of showing and stuff with them, and uh um they were good friends of the family and were friends with my grandparents, and Duke, Duke had a heck of a rung run in the club calf uh world down down over the years, and I would say they were probably the two that really really when I was younger that I I was around. I mean, I didn't we didn't have big shows and and go all over. Them were the I was we were kind of just a small county fair family and didn't branch out out a whole lot like nowadays I mean we branch out all over. I mean, so it I I would definitely say them were the two that that I definitely think that I admired when I was younger.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I would echo onto that what Jake said. I I have very fond memories of Duke Brandt. Um I I knew him more from a standpoint of running the the show supply trailer, and um, but he was always friendly, he was always helpful, um, always a joy to see. I just I like I looked forward to going and visiting with him. Um, you know, I even if I just needed a can of glue and you'd go up there and you know 20 minutes later you'd walk away with the can of glue and just visit with him, and he always had something good to say. Um so just to echo that, I I knew him in a lot different capacity than you did, but um I always really enjoyed enjoyed uh just being around him and talking to him.
SPEAKER_01So another story about Duke is oh down there to Battle Creek they'd have brood cow sales, and I I was just out of college. I'd go down there every every year, gonna buy me a couple cheap bred cows. And Duke would always go to all them sales. Just he was out of the business, but would just watch, and we'd sit there, you know, get a hot dog at the little wagon and sit there. There was this group of limousine cows, and they weren't very expensive, but I don't know if any I'm pretty frugal. And uh and uh he I bit on three or four and he looked at me and he said, Jake, you know, you gotta be the last bitter to win them damn things. The next two I I want them. I mean they put a fire under my under my under my butt, but uh um you know I I tell you, I tell you a story. You asked me this and this just ring my bell that most people wouldn't believe.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I knew we'd get back to it.
SPEAKER_01Uh remember there is a there was a guy in this in the club calf deal and the cattle deal. You remember old Jeffrey Harwood?
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01So him and my uncle were good friends, and and uh my and Zach Kruger will still call me the crooked hay trader to this day.
SPEAKER_04That's actually a really good nickname for you.
SPEAKER_01Um but we my uncle Which uncle? Doyle. Okay. Uh we got we got into we got into uh selling Jeff Hay, and I mean we were this stuff was not real, I would say, looked should have been used more for straw than anything. We delivered most of them in the dark. I mean we were getting them out of every fence row, cleaning up everything we could. And uh, I mean, and I mean Jeff is just I mean, he's using them and the batch I took, they made my baler black when we bailed. And uh, he uh all I remember is every time I seen Jeff, he'd call me the crooked hay trader, and I said, Well, you know it was my uncle, and he's like, that's what your uncle says. That was you, and I uh I don't know how many loads we took up there, but we we had we had took a we took a pile pile of that hay, and all I remember, Jeff, them cows this boo at me when I put a bail out there. And uh we uh that was that's probably the only time I got anything over on Jeff, but uh but no, that was that was uh I was in high school. I mean I was pretty young when we did that, but I we started I started bailing and selling hay when I was 16.
SPEAKER_02So what year did you graduate high school?
SPEAKER_012000.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um but yeah, that's that's that story is we got one up uh up on Jeff, and if if I see him to this date, I'm pretty sure he would snarl at me, but hell, it's good for him.
SPEAKER_04Jake, what's the best decision you've ever made in the livestock industry?
SPEAKER_01Well, probably there's probably there's probably a couple. Um I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you in this in this deal, one of the best deals, and this might not be the answer you want, but uh we were probably the second in the state in the Club Lamb deal to start doing a showmanship clinic. Um Scott's John Scott and his family started doing it, and I'm like, well, that's a pretty good idea. So we started doing that. Actually, John's daughter did our first one, and then Caitlin Henney and Danny kind of do them now. And I tell you what, that that just we don't charge nothing for it. It's kind of our customers only. Um I just feel like some of these kids starting out don't want to go to a big fancy camper can or whatever. And um, I mean Danny even still partakes in them. Just it's a good it's a good way to get like a crash course or a tune-up game.
SPEAKER_04Yep, tune up well and everybody starts somewhere.
SPEAKER_01And uh so I think that's really helped us because I mean that's something now now most of them do it. And I don't take that away from. I think it's great. I think I think as a as a um seller of these things that we need to support our our people that do it um in showing them how to feed. They all want to learn. They um and we hope we all know a little trick here and there, um, but helping them helping them out there, um, and then you know, another thing that I that I that came um through tragedy is most people know that I lost my wife and um 21, um Melissa, and uh out of that deal we started a scholarship fund. Um not not to not to uh give for college, because I know if you handed me a $150 check, I know it wasn't gonna go for books. So um we uh we started stuff and we did it this week. We selected four young uh kids that will be announced at our sale. We buy we buy blowers, stands, we bought fencing for pens, buckets. Um, I think that was a great decision on trying to keep going forward in this deal. And then we also in part of that started a memorial show that helps fund that scholarship deal. Um, this will be our fourth year. I didn't think I'd like running a show. And truly, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Somehow I didn't think you'd be great at middle management, Jake.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh and and truly I don't run the show. Okay, Katie Boring runs the show on just a pretty face.
SPEAKER_02But oh boy, we're stretching our ribbon girl.
SPEAKER_01But you know what? I that one day it's right during planting two that whole week, and we do our clinic and that. I just ruined the whole week in a plant and I just know that I have that cheap stuff to do, and we do it. And you know, I sat there and I hand out money to them, to them kids in every class, and I true that I love it. I love I think we have one of the best jackpot shows in the state of Michigan, and I I I truly love that, and I think in them decisions, it's it's helping the kids. It's that's not really, you know, I'm I you know, we're trying to get more business to come back, but we're trying to do stuff to give opportunities to the kids that wouldn't have them otherwise with the scholarship and uh and uh the show. And we try to do so the show we try to pay out. I think we're probably one of the better show payouts in the state. We try to we when we do that we whatever we got, we kind of pay out half that day, and then the half goes in the scholarship fund.
SPEAKER_04Um So a hundred percent of it goes back to the kids.
SPEAKER_01A hundred percent of it goes. I I don't want to make any that's not where I make my money, but I tell you what, I enjoy that show. I enjoy I mean David had a you last year that won the you part. That was that was just that was a good that's a good show, and I have a lot of fun and never really thought I wanted to be part of one of them.
SPEAKER_04Well, and I think a very appropriate cause um to remember uh Melissa and uh I I I mean the one thing about Jake I will say is his heart is probably bigger than his voice. And if you know Jake, you know that. And uh and that's saying something because before we started the podcast, I could hear Jake from the pig bun. So to me it's just really cool. It it always ends up kind of evolving on this podcast. It's really all about the kids, and I think Jake embodies that from a standpoint of just um taking you know taking that show and giving it back to the kids and finding unique ways to do that. Um, and I just I really appreciate that about that. Um, you know, and we've talked on and off about different shows and running them, and you know, we run a show uh through our FFA, and it's uh it's not always an easy task.
SPEAKER_01Um no, I mean David's running a show, he ran MSU deals a couple years, right?
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_01I mean them them are them are tough, and I mean I have a Katie does a lot of the leg work, and I tell you what, I probably wouldn't do it without her. Sure. Um but the day of the show, it's it's a lot of work, and you're never gonna make everybody happy, and I don't really give a shit if I do.
SPEAKER_04But if kids are happy that's a great attitude to have to run a show.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I tell you the best, the best deals, like the pee-wee kids, we give out little banners, and the first year we give out juice juice boxes, and the little Kruger kid is he showed little Wayne and Jackpot's uh quitting. Uh and uh that little kid, I mean, he just had a smile from ear to ear and loved every bit of it, and um and uh and even Zach's mom came up and just like thanked us, and like that's cool, and these kids got these little bands. Running around and they're just having a heck of a time. You know, that's that's what's gonna keep us going, and uh we gotta keep doing that because that's without them, we ain't gonna sell no club lamps.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and it's it's easy to look at it as a business a lot of times from our seat. You know, we had a rough year this year, and uh, you know, you start penciling it out and things like that, but we really gotta we gotta turn back to the fact that we're doing this for the kids, and I think that you do a really good job of that, Jake. And I just I want to commend you for that. Um, because at the end of the day, yeah, it's a business, but at the end of the day, we're we're making youth better, and we're making them, you know, leaders, and we're making them a future. I mean, you got one sitting here with us that's an example of that.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, and I I mean hopefully someday. I mean, we're we're now she's kind of part in it, and she's probably gonna regret it someday, but we own a couple of you lambs together, and um I like to share it. I mean, uh, we did that when William was younger. He came over and helped would help us lamb, and and you know, it's and and the same with Caitlin and and Trent and different people. And I'm I'm I'm a hard ass, but I I do like to see it, and it's sometimes it doesn't show and in uh in my voice or my or my attitude. I have an Irish temper, but um both hard ass and a big heart.
SPEAKER_06We talked a lot about um people that sell Jake over the years, but there's nobody that gives youth a genuine opportunity more than Jake Kell. I know he's helped my sister get started uh in the scanning deal, but but Yes, we did.
SPEAKER_01I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_06But he sold my son in the hog deal. Exactly. But he gives he gives people real responsibility. I think there's no better gift than that. Um I think it's worked out for Jake, and I think it's worked out for everybody that that he's helped too. So I just I mean, doesn't get better than that.
SPEAKER_04Man, this is getting to be a little bit of a cheerleader session for Jake. I feel like we gotta turn the corner here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we better go. I just wanted to bring and he just asked that question, and you know to me never I mean, yeah, I could sit here and say it was this buck or this you or this or that, but I truly think the best decisions I did were them three things, and two of them were out of tragedy, and I I could have sat there and and and just gave up, and part of me wanted to, and I mean so, I mean. But and part of me just we kind of doubled right down and just like and just went right at it, and that's the only way I know how to do things is Well and we we we wheel that back to the stubbornness a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Well, and uh and that's good, and you know, I think you got a lot of things.
SPEAKER_03Well, and you done I mean you did exactly what what Melissa would have wanted you to do, I think, because uh, I mean I know firsthand she was competitive too. She wanted to win that Eton County Fair just as bad as you or I did. Um, you know, she and I laughed one time and says, you know, nobody wants to win the county fair worse until they lose it. And she and I used to have a good good time that way, and and I know you miss her, Jake, and she was a big part of the operation, but she's missed by many. Um and uh and it's it's fantastic to see the that scholarship fun grow like it has and see that show grow like it has, and I 100% agree. That's that's one of our favorite ones that we look forward to every year is is driving down to that one. It helps that it's usually kind of halfway close to our backyard, too.
SPEAKER_04So yeah. When is that this year, Jake? You got a date on that?
SPEAKER_01It's uh May uh May 17th. We've moved it. We we're gonna be at Eaton County, I think the weekend after, I think we're the weekend after your show. Yeah, no, that's um so we're gonna have two right back to back Eaton County, which is I we were at Calhoun, which ain't much different, but I like to stick in that you know I-69 corridor. You get more traffic and it's handy to get to. It's yep, it is for a lot of folks. Yep. Um, you get you know, and I'm not scared, you know. I've heard people over this, well, you get the Indiana people. Well, you gotta beat the best to be the best, so bring them on. Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_04I mean we had some Tennessee people at ours a couple years ago.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Everybody loves it when she comes up. We've already touched on that, but uh it's uh, you know, I think you I always said you just you gotta to be the best, you gotta beat the best. You can't be scared of them.
SPEAKER_04So no, we're looking forward to it. I and uh we've talked a little bit about that, and uh I'm uh I'm glad to see you guys coming up to Eaton County. You know, it'll be uh it'll be a good back-to-back weekend up there.
SPEAKER_03Jake, I want to ask you, and this kind of builds a little bit off what you said, but you know, we talk a lot about the best decision, the worst decision, so on and so forth. You know, was there ever a time, you know, you've been doing this, I think you told me before we started for about 14 years, was there ever a time you seriously considered packing it in and calling it quits?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, there, you know, right there, right there when Melissa passed away was a pretty gut-wrenching moment. Um but before that, um, probably before Trent Trent got got had won that, um, I didn't know if I didn't know if I wanted to do this or if we could do this anything, you know. It just was we were just the same results, you know, we'd win a class or um we didn't we didn't have a family that was really really pushing at the jackpot level and we we might not have had the sheep at that point either. I mean I'm honest. And uh, you know, probably before that it was it was kind of a you know gut check like um I tell this story back to my stubbornness. We you know we always started lambing in January and February, and I told Pat, Henny, I'd never I'm never freaking doing it in December. That is dumb. Don't need to do it. Can't lamb in December, get it, January, February, be done. Hell I don't want to have a lamb other than in December. I mean, this I mean, if I if I could have Mo in December, I would be I'd be tickled pink and never have a January or February. Um and you know it's it goes back it was just it was there were some years when we were getting started that was I wasn't progressing as fast as my competitive spirit wanted me to. And part of that was I'm a cheap ass. And and if if you're gonna sell me semen for a hundred, why would I buy semen for 200? That don't make no sense. Well, that buck at 200 probably was a little better quality and maybe what I needed, but um, that held me up a little bit. Um and, you know, probably rate in that, you know, I would say it was like 15 si I think it was 16 when Trent won that deal, if I remember right. And I I'm gonna tell you that was rate right where it was I needed that, or or I was gonna really wonder why we were why we were doing doing this uh stuff, but it's came. Um we kind of now we ai everything and we you know we're trying to use some of the best bucks from all different uh places. And and uh connections. I mean, let's be honest, I mean, the Wheaton Connection, I mean, that's a program that I've followed and and really have done well with. Hilde's is another one that has done is in the last few years has helped us out a lot. Beatty's out there, we've used bucks out of that deal. And I mean, them bucks have done us very, very good job. And kind of another one we mentioned, Joe Hobbs. I mean, that guy, you call him, he'll he'll talk you through, even even if it's not on something that that he owns or anything. And uh we kind of them programs have really helped us, and I've just decided that we're gonna have to kind of tie into them to keep this thing going, so we started AI a bigger group, start AI and that wheat and started AI and right down to RSG with my buddy Jimmy there and getting different bucks in and and spending more money than I like to in July, but we do it, and I think you still sell some of that questionable hay. I I still sell some questionable hay. Um not as questionable as that, but um I I'll still make a crooked hay deal if it comes right. So um, but no, that them that was that was a pivotal, you know, four or five years into this deal. That I could do it.
SPEAKER_03I know what you mean. I trust me, I I think there's more of us that have been to that stage than than would like to admit, and that's why I wanted to ask the question. Um looking back on it, Jake, and I know you talked already that you're still on the upward swing of this bell curve, and um so am I. Well always will be, right? I I if if I'm on the other end, I'm probably in a pine box because I like I'm gonna keep going. You're either growing or dying. But was there a moment, and you maybe have already alluded to it earlier here in the podcast, is was there a moment when you kind of knew you made it? Or or had do you think you've even made it yet?
SPEAKER_01I don't think I've made it. That's just my I I'm the best at wearing this little chip on my shoulder, and always will be. And um, but if we're gonna really, really, really make me answer that like I did make it, probably, you know, when we when we did two-hole the the Tennessee fair, you know, we we had champion uh Market Lamb, champion uh you. Um I think you won every class you were in that that day.
SPEAKER_03And uh so it was kind of a demolition jet.
SPEAKER_01And you know, and just be f you know, you know, you hear people that's not that's not Indiana, Ohio. I don't give a shit. It's still a state fair.
SPEAKER_03It's still a state fair. And I tell you what, you still have to beat everybody that showed up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, people still absolutely and and that and that and that deal um really really kinda uh projected that a lot, and and uh there's been numerous show families, and I've alluded to this. It's just not Danny. You know, there's the nickels have done a tremendous job here in Michigan for us. Um also. Um I'm probably missing some. Um we had uh but I would definitely say that 24 year, I mean, you go into that deal, and I'm the Yankee down there, and I love every minute of it. And uh and them old boys don't like don't like to lose at all. Definitely do a Yankee. And uh the first year they and they I think they thought I was a fluke, and then we kind of came back for vengeance.
SPEAKER_03Was there in 24 when you didn't leave a blue ribbon for anything?
SPEAKER_01I didn't we didn't, I think, I think she I do I do think we left one. She I think we had everything there, but she gave was it the receipt reserve you she gave to the white sheep Danny or something. I think she gave her that one, so I mean I think she was feeling the judges feeling pretty bad.
SPEAKER_02I think we pretty well were cleaning house that day. Um but had to move it around a little bit.
SPEAKER_01A little bit down just a little bit. I mean, it was a good south down for a south down, but I mean I I still thought we could have just swept the whole thing.
SPEAKER_04I'll never forget. We were at the county fair a couple years ago, and Trace uh we bought a steer and we drove, I don't know, 500 miles, thousand miles. We've been all over the county all over the three states, four states looking for another one. And we ended up buying one right over here across town with maybe one of our earlier guests on the on the podcast, and that steer went on to be uh champion at the county fair, and Trace pulled out of the county bread deal. And I remember uh you know, Jake was standing there by ringside and he says, Nick, he goes, That's a county bread steer. Why aren't you out there? And I said, Oh, you know, hey, we won the show. He says, Well, you got your foot on their neck. Why did you keep after?
SPEAKER_01Well, we kind of backed off when we two hold the Eaton County, and probably it was the little girl, uh the shoemaker girl, that it was her choice to back out of the pen deal. But I wanted to just I wanted to blood the pen because you were champion resistance. It was the same year.
SPEAKER_02Go there and collect your champion, collect your collect your bandage. I wanted to go for blood.
SPEAKER_04I mean, yeah, because that was the same year that we we pulled that steer from the County Red.
SPEAKER_02No, again, you got your foot on their neck, go for it.
SPEAKER_01I was I yeah, but you know what? That that was that little girl's decision. I didn't own the sheep at that point anymore. So I gave her a lot of ifs, but man, I wanted to go out there and live. You know, it just I mean, definitely in the sheep deal at Eaton County. If you go to Eaton County, you'll see my name on the hog deal. I don't I I might be on the heifer, I'm on the heifer deal, but you will definitely never see Jake Kelly on the sheep deal. Now you'll see kids that had Kelly lambs, but I showed lambs one year and I hated it.
SPEAKER_04And I was and I wasn't no good at it. And what Jake's referring to is the boards up on the on the walls, they they list the champions every year. Past champions. Yep, past champions for every year. And uh, yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, a lot of fairs probably do that, but it's uh it's a big deal locally to kind of you know see your name up there and like you. So ancient history, Audrey.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're we're we're he's a little older than me, but not back in 97.
SPEAKER_04Yep, I finally cracked it in '97.
SPEAKER_01I was in the early 90s with the pigs, and then we uh my last champion pen of pigs would have been in 2000. Um, and that set of hogs. We struggled in the middle of my career, and I won. And I tell you what I spent on them pigs, you can't even buy a pig anymore.
SPEAKER_04What'd you spend on?
SPEAKER_01I spent 300 apiece, and my parents thought I went crazy. And a good friend of David found me them pigs, Mr. Ron Dingerson. I didn't get to pick them, they just showed up at the house. I got two pigs.
SPEAKER_04300 bucks a pig today is a bargain. I don't even know if you can buy one. But I mean you can. We speaking of being cheap asses, you can. We're pretty good at that. We've found several stuff.
SPEAKER_01So and then I tell you that that was a that was a that was a great, great moment, and and that it kind of got me back to uh end out my career um at at at Eaton County, and that fair's always meant a lot. I mean, that was my home fair, and then to lose to a youper, I mean it it it's a little tough at first, but I came to terms with it.
SPEAKER_03Hey, if you had to lose to somebody, at least you lost to a youper.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I well, they're they got a s they got a soft spot in my heart too. I spent six cold winters in the UP.
SPEAKER_03Well, they were cold, it's just because you weren't trying hard enough.
SPEAKER_01Lake Superior State, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I could deal with the cold a lot better back then, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot more whiskey in my uh blood thinner.
SPEAKER_03I remember Jake Kelly coming to our place when I was a little kid. I couldn't have been more than five or six years old, seven years old maybe, coming and asking my grandpa permission to hunt geese.
SPEAKER_01Yep, we hunted a lot in that field. And at one first part time when I met David, he said, I was taking Lissa up to the UP and he said, Oh, stop by my parents. I said, Where does your parents live? And he's like, Oh, and barball. I'm like, well, Jesus, there's not, there's a post office. He's like, right next door. I pulled in and I said, holy shit. I think I called him right on the phone. I said, David, you realize I'm hunting all this shit when I was when I was in college. I didn't know. I mean, I we wouldn't have remembered.
SPEAKER_03Wouldn't put it together.
SPEAKER_01But um, I've been all over that country where where where David grew up and hunting hunting and doing other um recreational activities. Knew most of the true tracks, probably just as good as David's David does, but probably anymore.
SPEAKER_03And my dad would tell you I don't get around there often enough to know my way around anymore.
SPEAKER_01When I was up there with Melissa, I almost thought I had to crack a Budweiser just to kind of remember where I was at.
SPEAKER_02That brought you back to true north.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Re- re-home the uh I'm like, man, I don't remember this.
SPEAKER_01Hold on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, but you had a little bit of Budweiser in you, probably everything would sort of look more familiar.
SPEAKER_01If not, it actually pretended good.
SPEAKER_03That's like UP water, isn't it? Uh bushlight comes out of the tap.
SPEAKER_01If you find the old if you find the old school ones, it's hams and slits. If you get to the ones in the backwoods.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I had a roommate in college that had the cheap beer of the week, and Hams was one of them, and Schlitz was the other.
SPEAKER_01And then there would be blats once in a while.
SPEAKER_02I've never got any of those. Oh, they're they're you oh they're they're they're good, but you'll feel like shit.
SPEAKER_04I bet you they sound like it. You feel like shit when you taste the first set.
SPEAKER_01I mean, they came right out of Milwaukee's Milwaukee's best, right? Like it came right, all that stuff came right out of Milwaukee, I think.
SPEAKER_04Milwaukee's best leftovers.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. Well, I don't like Milwaukee's best, so these are the best of the leftovers. I'm not sure. Jake, I want to ask you before we wrap up here, um, who is the best? What's the best animal you've seen so far? That it sticks out in your mind. It doesn't have to be one you've raised, but one you've seen over the years that sticks out to you. Uminant. It does, yeah. It could be a pig if it if you wanted. I guess it would count those, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's preferably not a ruminant.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, you know, and in in that qu that's a great question. And you're gonna, you know, everybody has their opinion on this. And like I said, when we were younger, I I didn't pay attention. We were just small county. I didn't pay attention to to the great ones, you know. Um, and you know, there's been some there's been some great MLE sheep um throughout. There's a couple recent ones that have really stuck out to me. Probably probably probably one of my one of my favorite favorite market animals that I seen would have been the Kate Stewart's hilled sheep that won a few years ago. Tanner, I think they call it it. Tanner. Um I I love that sheep was a I mean that sheep, I don't care anybody's opinion on that deal, but that sheep was was a very, very good market sheep. Pretty close to my type, probably. Um I I really I really I really admired mired that sheep oh um there. Um there's been tremendous U families in this deal um over over the years. Um I'm not as up on that as as I'm getting um close to, but you know, um that that Tanner sheep was I think a really good sheep for the for that deal. And I was I mean we all walked in there figuring we were competing for the second person.
SPEAKER_03No, he and he'd been a good sheep all summer. I mean, I think he the the worst he ever finished was reserved one time prior to that. So he was a he was an awfully good sheep.
SPEAKER_01He he was, and I mean, and like I said, there's there's a tremendous U families over over this deal, and I don't know the names of them and all, but you know, um Wheatons have had some tremendous U's that uh have went back and made some really good, really good uh um sires that we've used. Um you know, and and that that that's a question that sometimes I I I was playing that question in my head and knew I probably would stumble on it a little bit on that deal, but I I do I did like that MLE sheet that they had. Hopefully Ian don't listen to this and get a bigger head than he already has.
SPEAKER_03Uh hopefully him and Robbie aren't riding in the same vehicle together with a little window. Although it could be an explosion on I-69.
SPEAKER_04But well, Jake, I wanna I wanna kind of wrap things up. We're kind of coming to a close here. Uh oh, speaking of closed, that door blew open. It's a little windy tonight. Closed no longer. Um holy cow. Uh we just kind of want to ask you like, what's the one thing that you Want people to know about you, um, the Michigan livestock industry, or just in general, as we kind of wrap up tonight, like, did we miss anything type of deal?
SPEAKER_03Like, well, this would be a prime opportunity, too, I think, is it you've got us, you know, and I don't know whether we'll have this quite up in time, but you've got a sale coming in two days.
SPEAKER_04I figured we'd get to that. I just wanted to let him yeah, like what do we need to know about Jake Kelly before we shut this down tonight?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, you know, going back to like the Michigan livestock industry and stuff, and and and I'm more into the sheep deal, right, than than I have been. But I feel like we have, as a whole, in the Club Lamb deal in Michigan, that we've we've closed the game. There's some really good breeders that have done some really good things in this, you know. Chapman's, I mean, had had had success at Louisville. David's had success at Louisville, and and you know, and I feel like we're the up-and-comers, and I feel like we're kind of the little country's little honey hole when it comes to this stuff, and I think we're making some uh gains um as a as a group. I mean, we're all we're we're all friends, we all want to win, but I mean I taught I talked to William's dad today, Pete. Um, I mean, I talked to we tried we kind of talked all these guys. I I went down and through Tommy Buckham said. I mean, I I go to Wheaton sometimes, you know, Timmy Hubbard's moved in the neighborhood, and and I think that we're that as a group, if we if we if we are still competitive but still work together, I think we can really make this club land deal in in in Michigan, you know, where guys are paying attention to us more and we're just not the we're just not north of Indiana and Ohio.
SPEAKER_04Right. And I would agree with you that and I would echo that in some of the other species. I think there's a lot of great breeders out here in the state. Um the the biggest challenge we have is you can't drive through it. You gotta come up into it. Yeah. And uh, you know, we we touched on that a little bit in some of the other podcasts, but I think there's some tremendous breeders, there's some tremendous genetics. There is a lot of opportunity in Michigan, and I think that's part of the reason we want to do this podcast, is we want to highlight some of that. We want to highlight local breeders, folks that we know that are doing a good job.
SPEAKER_03Too, is you know what I said this on the last last time we were on with Matt Miller, and I'll say it again, is that uh maybe you're gonna drive up up into Michigan and back out through it, but it's a wide heel at the bottom of that, and you can come up on the come up on the east side of it or the west side of it, and you there's a lot of good operations to hit all the way up and through, and you can go back out on the east side, and you won't get tired and you won't be sorry to have spent your day in Michigan because I think there's good ones to be seen at a lot of different places.
SPEAKER_01It it in in this, you know, I'm really familiar with with the with the land deal anymore. But the like Nick said, the pig deal. I mean, heck, we can rattle off up and comers in the pig deals, and you know, Albrights are right down there, and uh, you know, and the and you know, Tradles and them guys having that storm sales, I think brought a lot of good uh good publicity to all of the all of us.
SPEAKER_04Some of our good friends up uh Lane Mazak up north uh northwest area he's raising some good pigs. We had a heck of a nice guilt that uh was reserving her division at Expo last year, you know.
SPEAKER_01Mortensen or I I think there's a lot of a lot of people that were I think we're starting to and and in the Lambie, I think a lot of this, and definitely for the smaller operations, this AIing and flushing stuff has I think kind of made it where you didn't have to own or be part of the big name buck, you could buy five doses or ten doses, and and I think it's and I think in probably all the species have done that, I think it's kind of it's kind of narrowed the gap a little bit between the bigs and and and there's I wouldn't call any of the us here huge producers in Michigan, but I mean I always feel like we try to bring the best quality um that we can. And I think all of them, any size, um, our species. I mean, there's there's some really good goat. I mean, we haven't missed it, but there's some really good goat um operations in in this state. And um I've really this industry has made um, and this might be off topic of your deal, but this Yeah, we're we're good with that, Jake. This this uh There There's no rubric here we gotta follow. This uh this industry, depending, it don't matter what species, think of the opportunities this has opened up for all of us. I mean, we've mentioned it. I can I I text a guy from Kansas, Joe Hobbs. I mean, I bought sheep from California, you know, Danny shows in Tennessee. We I've got a good friend now in Indiana. Um, I mean, Minnesota got a lot of good guys. We just had an awesome weekend in Iowa, got treated like family at Front the Hills brothers. I mean, just think of all the opportunities. And not just me, but all you guys here that this that these this these sleepless nights and stuff has brought us. I mean, yeah, you look at your room, your your Rolodex, and it's it's full of guys, and if you go through there, other than a few neighbors that are I'm in the farming deal with, it's it's livestock people anymore, chic people.
SPEAKER_04You still run a Rolodex, Jake. Well, you know I was able to get uh a lot of people that don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_01Okay, my contact list.
SPEAKER_04Well, I just gotta have a little fun here. Yeah, dating yourself a little, but I mean that's how that's alright.
SPEAKER_01I have an old I have an old soul.
SPEAKER_03So does I mean I'm impressed that Jake's now got uh actual iPhone because for the longest time I knew him, it was flip phone all the way. Right in the front pockets of bibs.
SPEAKER_01And and then and then I had Android and and oh you gotta have an iPhone. I gotta have an iPhone. Daddy's mom finally finally convinced me I better get one. And no, I don't I don't want one. Don't need an iPhone, don't need an iPhone. They're pretty handy though. Yeah, you figure them out. They all have their problems. I want to throw this one just as much as I did my other one. But you know, that's that's I do feel like I've been super, super blessed with all the contacts that I've made through this deal. And and people that I call really good friends, and and I would do a lot of things for, and I think all you would say that in this deal, that you know, we do this, we do this for the kids, and and and we do this to to make money. I don't want to lose money at this deal. But in the end of the day, it's very, very great that of the people that I met through this deal that we can laugh and joke and have a good time and partake in some beers or a gummy once in a while. And it's it's been a it's been just a really good, really good experience, and there's been highs and lows, but but it's a pretty good lifestyle, isn't it? It's not bad. I mean there's some days in December I wonder why the heck we do it, but yeah, yeah, actually, amended up. But you know what, when it's all said and done, and we we just had a tremendous sale out in Iowa, and it and uh and we I'm hoping to have a great sale, weather's gonna be a little questionable, but you know, I drove through a snowstorm to the beer store more than once in the Sioux, so I figured they can come out and at least buy a lamb or two on one.
SPEAKER_03It's just snow, you aren't gonna do anything else other than send that sale anyway. Danny, do you want to segue us into it? Maybe you want to highlight on one or two of your favorites coming up here in this sale that's coming up a day or so?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, there is a 60 by three you. She is a different league black bomba, I believe.
SPEAKER_03Um different leagues of McClendon block, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I'm not sure why Jake is letting me put her in this sale, but I think it's gonna be a really good opportunity for someone if they want to get a good showyu and have one that'll produce back.
SPEAKER_01And yeah. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna say something before she moves to the weathers. I was told, I don't know if you guys know this, I am a U lamb hoarder. I love you to keep Ulams because I don't want nobody else to get one on me. And I had had a small uh a number thrown at me that I had to stay in, and it was not a very big number um for me. Um and so she she says that like I want to get rid of this thing. If it was up to me, she would stay, but uh you know, we sold a U Lamb last weekend that probably should have never left. But if you're gonna drive nine hours, you might as well take some good ones because they they heck makes it a hell of a lot better trip. But back to the weathers. I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that I would keep this one.
SPEAKER_00It's daddy's fault on the really good weathers that we kept back from the December group and uh a lot of early January that are really good. I think they're gonna do good at the county fairs and even bring them up to jackpot and stuff, and they'll be competitive.
SPEAKER_06You've got a full brother to the one that did all caught all the attention out in Iowa, right?
SPEAKER_00Yep, there's a full brother who wanted me to go to Iowa. He's a switchblade Sam Truce. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, very good, Shane. What time's that sale start, Jake? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, the barn opens at noon with lunch. If Brad knows me, I always like to do everything around a meal. Um I can appreciate that. And then uh rounds of shape. And then we uh the sale will be at two. Um having a little different look of it this year. The family that usually does it, the Casey's sell that sale for me um the last nine years, and uh Doug Sheridan's gonna step in there and a big rodeo out in uh uh Texas, and they won't be home yet. So um Doug's gonna fill in and Robbie will be ring man in there and parading around selling helping us sell sheep that day. Yeah, and even even if even if you even if I don't care if you come and buy one, if you just come and uh have a meal with us and hang out, look at the sheep. I mean, we have breeders come and do that all the time.
SPEAKER_03So no, I'm hoping to get down there and and see the see the group again. I got down and saw your earlier set, Jake, and haven't been back since. And um hoping to get down there and for taking some free hospitality. I mean, free's the best word in the English language, and so I can get lunch on the house, I'm all for it. Plus, see some pretty good sheep besides. Heck, I might even show up, and I'm not a sheep guy.
SPEAKER_01Well, you you kind of are. You're you're you're you're you're kind of trying to run that spring point.
SPEAKER_04I'm trying, but I'm not, I don't know. I mean, I the one thing of the one thing you and I have in common, I'm not a big fan of sheep, but I do like to win stuff.
SPEAKER_01So we'll uh you know, we'll we'll wander down there maybe and well this come come take a look, you know. Anybody's welcome. We we it's a it's it's it's a good it's a fun it's a fun day. Um try to get people in and out, um, get that sale done, get them loaded up on the road, and um in typical Bellevue mud fashion, it will be a muddy mess, but yeah, I guess what else we got to do.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, I know a good landscaper being your yard fixed.
SPEAKER_01I don't mow my yard, so that doesn't matter to me.
SPEAKER_04I don't guys can do that too. Closing thoughts, anybody? Other than I had a great time tonight, but a lot of fun. We really appreciate you coming, Jake. Thank you, Danny.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_04Thank you coming, and uh William, good to see you, buddy. Uh enjoying spring break? Yeah, absolutely. And sunny Charlotte, maybe. Sunny Charlotte.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I took him out to Iowa last week and I didn't know we were selling spring break.
SPEAKER_06Well yeah, we bought we brought it back with us, didn't we?
SPEAKER_01We brought your spring break with you. If you're going on classes, you should have only had about two hours of spring break, wouldn't you?
SPEAKER_04Oh well, once again, uh we we really appreciate you coming. It's been a good time. Trace, time to cut them heifers down.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Run out when you're oh you're out there, make sure nobody's calved yet, would you? Yeah, a little bit. Well, this has been the wash rack.