Episode 28 - Farm Rescue Interview

Thanks to the Farm Rescue group for visiting with us. Learn more at www.farmrescue.org. 

Thanks to Misty, Cyrus, Avery, and the Gentlemen from LaRue for sponsoring this week's episode that they purchased at the LaRue County FFA Chili Supper and Auction.  

Thanks also to our studio sponsor Biotech Innovations.  Learn more about them at www.biotechinnovationsag.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to Dirt the Dollars, where we cover everything from the dirt on your land to the dollars in your hand.

SPEAKER_04 0:15

We're talking all things agriculture in central Kentucky, from the field to the farm office. Join your hosts, Daniel Carpenter, Matt Adams, and Mark Thomas as we dig into current ag news, practices, and more. And now, coming to you from the Biotech Innovation Studios, here's Dirt to Dollars. Now let's get innovative.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

All right, welcome back to another episode of Dirt to Dollars. Matt, Mark, how are y'all? Good.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Cold.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Cold. It's warm back up.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

It's warm back up today, but we're recording this on Wednesday. Yep. It was pretty nice this evening out working on the farm. Yesterday and Monday was quite miserable.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

And it's just like when these cold spells happen after it's warmed up some, it just feels that much colder.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

I froze Monday. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

And you already put your warm winter clothing away. Mine never go away. I just go in the closet.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Well we we better not get too far into this before we mention our show sponsors for this week.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

Who we got this week?

SPEAKER_02 1:26

So this is our um our winner from uh our LaRue County. Yeah. So we gotta say a big thanks to uh Misty Bivens and Cyrus and Avery and and the whole squad over there. Oh, and the gentleman from LaRue and uh rest of the squad over there at Fresh Start Farms. Thanks, thanks for sponsoring this week's episode. They paid big money.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Where's my bell? Hang on. They paid enough money. We gotta get one ding. He didn't they didn't bid high enough to get two dings. Oh not a double dinger.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Maybe we can get a double dinger this week at the uh at the uh central hardened FFA alone knocked the bar has been set for what our basket brings. Yeah, don't say what that bar was because we don't want we don't want somebody to price a tridem and just go like one dollar over.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

That's right. We we got the bar set. So if you're coming. We don't want them don't want them to come in thinking they're gonna lowball it either, though. There's enough people that they're probably beat it up. Yeah. Hopefully. So it's for a good cause. It's for scholarships, Central FA alumni scholarship fund.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

So and there's a there's a hat in there too. We've been getting some messages about hats. Um if you want, go to the auction and buy one.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

I got a message today asking if uh if we were want to have hats and shirts available other than FFA auction. And we told them your best bet right now is probably to bid on it at the FFA auction, and then we'll see you later on.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yeah. Right. We we we want to raise money for the kids.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

And also notice we did have uh, I think our one of our auction winners was sporting the hat at the Extension Expo um in LaRue County over the weekend, so appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

And it was a 112.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

Sorry, Matt. Hey, I'll keep all the good hats to myself. That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

You know, we talked we talked last week about the uh uh Central Harden um FFA Chili Supper, and uh Avery Miller came on, did a great job talking about all that, but we did have some things that have changed with that. Um the location got changed. I think the times and everything are still the same, uh, but it's gonna be at East Harden, um East Harden Middle, right?

SPEAKER_04 3:53

East Harden Middle School, 810 to Glendale Road, Lisbettown, Kentucky. If you've been going for the past couple years, it's it's back in the same spot it's been uh since they started the remodel there at Central Harden. Uh you can enter from the back of the school or the front of the school, they'll have all the doors open and get in there. Uh 530. Um the meal starts, and when the meal's over, they'll start the auction. So um they were really excited, I think, to to get back to to Central, back to their roots. But um the reason they had to move was um to to honor somebody really close to the community and and close to the school. So uh Saturday afternoon uh the funeral for staff sergeant Benjamin Pennington will be held there at Central Harden. So they moved it out to allow that to happen, to have plenty of space for the community to come support that family through this time.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

So yeah, and also as a um a neat, I guess, an opportunity to honor them as well. If you look up, I think uh the U.S. Army Fort Knox Facebook page put up the procession schedule for the route that that's gonna take and the times that it'll be going through there. So uh check that out too and uh participate in that if you can. And we may talk a little bit more about the auction uh later on in the show. We did have we talked about the weather um kind of being weird this week, cold and hot. We did have some uh storms come through the area. It uh got a little western.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

It it got real western, kind of close to Daniel's house, and and he almost slept through it. No, are you a clean you are an answer and like I was trying to check on you?

SPEAKER_02 5:44

You didn't call me. I didn't call you, but I were texting it now. Yeah. So it was uh I had I was it was one of those things where you try to stay awake for it, and it's like and it's like when you're tired, but you try to stay awake for a show, you just get that much sleepier, right? Like it's just about that the way your brain works, you just fall asleep. But the uh I had the uh um my phone right next to the bed, and of course those alarms that go off now, you don't sleep through those. If you do, you've got problems uh because they go nuts.

SPEAKER_04 6:14

That's I was trying to stay up and watch the weather, and it was looked like it was still a pretty good ways from us, and I was about to hang it up and go to bed and just let it wake me up when it got here because it really kind of looked like it was weakening as it got towards us, and uh was sitting in the living room and that siren alarm thing on my phone went off. And I just about had to go change my shorts.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

It's like when it goes, it's so loud, it's like you just you just get you in the uh I don't know, like the adrenaline and everything. It's like, oh right, let's fire flight down there.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Well, and it happened, it wasn't even raining or anything when it at home yet when that happened. I've never seen them at a time. I've never seen them put a tornado warning out that far in a dance like a boss was yeah, which which was great. Um that they're given that much warning, you know, that that something's happening. And as they no matter which meteorologist you watched, they were kind of watching the the debris ball, they were calling it that started down around Litchfield, and and they called it, they said it's about to move north out of that first uh tornado warning area, and then they put in a second one, and that's when they kind of started mentioning Pierce Mill and Howl Valley and Ronnieville and Vine Grove, Redcliffe, all up through there. So um so I was watching Ryan Hall on YouTube, and uh he was picking up on it when it moved out of the tornado original tornado warning and was talking about how like this is the most dangerous part of the storm right here, and he was like, There's probably a tornado here, and we don't even have a warning. And it was a good three or four minutes before they issued the warning after it moved out of there. Yeah, that's right. But yeah, once it uh kind of got here, we grabbed the kids and went to the basement. We actually ended up losing power, and it was a little eerie because like you could hear the wind blow, like the gust. And as it would pick up, as it would pick up, the power, the lights would dim. And then it let off and the lights would come back on. And it did that three or four times, and then it just went out. And my wife told me later, she said when it went out, she was just waiting for like the house above us to just like gone. But yeah, we didn't didn't really have any damage here. I've got a door on a barn that got jacked up a little bit, but other than that, we were pretty lucky. Not far down the road from us, though, there was a barn on the ground and several trees down and a pretty narrow swath that I'm surprised they didn't come survey any of that damage because you can look one direction and look the other from that swath and see just a path of trees blown down. So I don't really know what the criteria is for the weather service to come out and and assess that. But yeah, I'm not sure either, but they they were going to assess three different storm tracks, I think, and and the one that went uh through Grayson and into Harden County, they they did deem that one an EF1. So it was on the ground for like 48 miles or something. I don't think it was uh yeah, 40 something miles. I don't know that it was technically on the ground that long, but it it probably up and down, you know, through that um through that much.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

I I drove through the area um the day after I guess that went on, and there was big trees down, but it wasn't like a path, if that makes sense. Like you couldn't look there and say, oh, there's where the tornado went through, like you can sometimes. It I think it was one of them deals where it was like up and down, probably, and um, probably borderline, straight line winds, but I don't know, the way that there were some big trees uprooted, um, especially like that 920 right there where the sharp curve is, after is that Ronnieville Big Springs Road? Mm-hmm. Big big trees down right around in there. And then over into like was it Davy Beeley's over in Mead County? Yeah, um, I think he had some barn damage. And I don't was he still milking? I I don't remember how much. He's still been milking for a few years. Um but then uh, and I think we had uh was it the crutchers there in on had some damage in that area?

SPEAKER_04 10:38

I had uh tool shed completely gone. The pictures I got sent was just the equipment sitting there in the building gone, uh, and had another barn partially blown down. And I know it's fence blown down, I think.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

Another name a lot of people may remember Wayne Hayden. I think he had some damage too. Um so yeah, several several people in that area dealing with some some storm damage.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Uh speaking of storm damage, so I know we talked about this a little bit coming off of Commodity Classic, but we've got one last interview we need to share from Commodity Classic that Mark and I had an opportunity to do. Uh, and that was with the the bunch from uh farm rescue, and I actually had a chance to sit down with our executive director, and you know, things could have been a whole lot worse here Sunday night. Uh, don't think we have anybody that's going to be putting a vine, getting any field work done this spring, but uh we'll learn a little bit more about what farm rescue does here. But you know, one of the their big thing is to help people in crisis. So if it had been a more widespread event, kind of like we had in what was that, 2021 with the Mayfield tornadoes, uh something like that that would have destroyed some infrastructure and destroyed some equipment and put somebody in a bind at a time of year like this going into going into planning, they could have rolled in here and and helped some people out. So uh without giving too much away, let's just go on and roll into that interview and learn a little bit more about Farm Rescue and their team. All right, we're here at Commodity Classic with Tim Sullivan, the executive director for Farm Rescue. Thanks for joining us today, Tim.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you for stopping.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

So uh we've had several people reach out to us, uh, understand that farm rescue has been expanding into the state of Kentucky uh within the last year. Uh a lot of a lot of our people, a lot of our listeners don't understand exactly what farm rescue is, may have never heard of it before. Could you just give us kind of a quick overview of what you all do and what your organization's all about?

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Yeah, my pleasure. It's uh, you know, farm rescue is 21 years old. We started in 2005. Um, you know, it was uh um it came from our founder, Bill Gross. He's a 1980s farm kid in North Dakota, Central North Dakota. He couldn't stay on the farm because uh his family lost everything in the farm. And so cattle, land, everything. So he knew how devastating it was. He was the last of his family to graduate high school, so there was really nothing left for him. So he put himself through aviation school, and what Bill does today is he flies for UPS, and he uh has been an airline captain all his life, and and uh he lives on Bakery, Alaska. But at 30,000 feet in 2005, he was talking to his co-pilot on one of his long trips, and he said, you know, I want to just help farm families that are going through a tough time. Maybe I can rent a tractor and help them in the field, whatever. And uh co-pilot said, Don't wait until you're retired, Bill. Just do it. So that he went right to work and got his 501c3 certification from the state of North Dakota, and he started helping people. That spring of 2026, five volunteers with Bill included, they helped 10 families out here. And then the next fall, they added Harvest, and then he started well, we have a livestock eating case. Okay, so they added that. So we've been connected to John Deere the whole time as far as uh you know a support system, and it's grown from RDO, which is um one of their franchises, to many franchises over 11 states now that um so we have the support with equipment, policing, rental, all of that. We have a volunteer base of 700 plus. So we use those folks in different varieties depending on their skill set. So some are agronomists, some are um John Deere people, some are uh just farmers, you know. I mean, and I don't say just farmers, they're active and they're supporting farm rescue in so many ways. So it's just uh one of these things that everybody comes together and and serves that family that they're that's interrupting at that time. So on an average year now, we're serving over 100 families in all states combined. And when we entered Kentucky in um July of 2005, it takes a while to get known. So we have promotional opportunities, commodity classic, like we're here today. It's a big deal, you know. So it gets media attention, like you folks just wanted to know more about us and spread that word. Um we're funded is in four different ways. Um, it's through donations, um, individual donations, but we also have corporate industry partnerships. And that's a big part of what we do is we have to build trust with the families that have never heard about us. They might work with a C dealer or um an implement dealer or um an astronomist that knows about us or their company partners with us. That's important because we're co-branding together to uh work with that family, get referrals because they're off in the front line with uh hearing about somebody that is going through a crisis of illness, injury, or natural disaster in the family, and then we can um work with them on that referral to get the family to say yes or and what we do is reach out.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

How would somebody contact you if they wanted to donate or they had a family that they thought they needed help? Who would they reach out to to yep?

SPEAKER_00 16:34

So, Mark, it's it's very simple. We have our our website, armscue.org. And right from our landing page, you'll see um apply for assistance. You'll see volunteer or donate. Okay, and then there's updates. We have weekly updates on there as well. But you can go to any of those um on that website and it takes you directly into it. With the families that need assistance, that's number one. Um when they apply, it's seven basic questions to get in the system. When they hit submit, that comes directly to myself and our operations team. We're looking at that uh application right away, and our operations team, they're reaching back out to that family immediately. Um, if it comes in overnight, it's first thing in the morning. And so we're trying to get an uh uh idea of what their need is, how we can best support them with the resources that we have. And we have people stationed in different areas of the country, volunteers coming from 49 to 50 states, and uh so it's it's a lot of uh communication and uh just figuring out. But we our goal is to make sure that we're doing it their way. Okay, how they want to uh plant or harvest or pay an operation or feed the lifestyle. We want to understand so that we can do the best job possible, and in many ways, um a lot of times some people say they do it better than what I would do. So which is a great compliment to our part here.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Well, I love how you said you want to do it their way. Um back in 2009, my dad was in a pretty serious farm accident in the fall, and right at harvest time, and we have great help from local uh friends, family, all across our farming community. And that was one of the hardest things, is trying to get them. This is how I want to do it, but I'm I'm so glad that you're helping me, you know, and and so thankful, but I really like it kind of done my way. So I've kind of been there before, you know, I understand where you're coming from and what you guys have helped.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

So yeah, no, that's it's it's great to hear those stories, you know. Everybody's got a story about a family that you know ignore or personal, and uh so I mean uh here we've talked to several people, uh, we've actually helped, which is really kind of surprising because you don't often hear that. And uh so it's it's neat to hear that they do that because they're they're still in operation, and that's our goal, is to get them to the next generation so that they can continue and have agriculture and uh protect their livelihood. Um going back to the funding, uh there's four different ways. So it's it's individual donations, it's business corporate partnerships, but it's also um when we get into fundraising activities uh throughout the different areas. Every area's gotta be funded separately. Um so uh Missouri, Kentucky, all these new states, we we find local partnerships within those states. In Kentucky, Heaven Hill Distilleries is our major partner there, and that's what's helping us get into the state and then we build from there. So um, you know, we uh we love that type of partnership. It means so much to us, and uh, most folks have wrapped their arms around us uh to help us come into the state. Well that's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

You mentioned Heaven Hill, Heaven Hill's right in our back door, really where we're at, so that's a perfect connection. Uh I know you you mentioned illness, injury, and natural disaster. So when I think of somebody needing help on the farm, it's like a situation Mark went through where dad got where his dad got hurt or somebody terminally ill or came down with cancer or something and and needs some help with the the natural disaster part, really I wasn't expecting. So I guess that's if somebody had a bad storm or tornado or something come through and wreck infrastructure or equipment, you all can come in and help, or is that all of those.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Okay, and uh, and even more wildfire, floods, okay, everything that can affect uh the livelihood on that farm, what's going on. Um and we'll take it one step further. You know, mental health has been a big thing, and um, you know, this afternoon a commodity um at the successful farmer uh stage, we're on a uh mental health crisis panel there, and we're actually uh sponsoring that. And it's such an important topic because um, you know, with the commodity prices being what they are, tariffs, all these things that affect the you know the financial part of farming, and you know, it goes farmers are proud folks and they're they're independent and sometimes isolated. So these are all things to not cover but to talk about. And um, you know, we're there to support, unfortunately, uh, we see a lot of suicides, and so we're helping the family after the fact. Uh, but we want to be proactive and try to help with the solution. And is there a solution? Yes, we just have to talk about it. And uh, if you see a neighbor where they have the plant to their crop on a timely basis, you're wondering, okay. What's going on? It's people just paying attention or stopping by and saying, Hey, how are how are things going? You might know they're going through something.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

In Kentucky, our Department of Agriculture has started uh a challenge point program to do exactly what you all are talking about. And it's uh you know, you get with a farmer, you shake your hand, you give them a coin and say, you know, if you're ever feeling down, feeling bad, you know, call me, call the number, call somebody. I love that you guys are doing that too.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Absolutely. You know, um, so we see the need ever since uh even before 2020, um that is just one state, it's over there. All the states that we serve.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Very much.

SPEAKER_04 22:51

So you mentioned earlier you all are volunteer driven and volunteer supported. Uh if you're uh how do you all find volunteers? I know I think I came across a video back earlier in the winter uh on YouTube of a YouTube guy jumped in the combine and rode with a volunteer. I think the volunteer was in Minnesota and was actually from Kentucky, uh, was a retired farmer that it went up there. Is that a lot of what you all get? Is like retired farmers? I guess how long is the commitment if you want to if you want to volunteer and go out and help out in the fall or the spring, or just some details on that?

SPEAKER_00 23:28

No, great question. So, yeah, that was one of our wonderful volunteers out of Kentucky. His name is Kenny, and he uh he really um he's lost two wives through three seconds. So he knows what it is that these families are going through, so he gives, and he gives. And he he comes from Kentucky and he'll come into all of our other states wherever we need him. He's a great resource for planting or harvest or feeding livestock. But we ask of our volunteers a minimum of seven consecutive days. Okay, and it's a very simple process when they go into our website, they fill out all this information that we have, and uh how many days can you give us? What area of the country would you like to serve? What specialties do you have for um equipment operating? Um and not all volunteers have to operate equipment. They can be food runners, they can be people transporting teams back and forth to the field and the hotel, they can be a trade show. We have the gentleman right here that uh does it all, you know, he helps out a trade show. So I mean it's just uh however they want to get back. Now seven days seems like a commitment, and it is because those folks are running hard. Uh and uh and it it's it's the goal is to get on to the next family. So weather plays a role in what we do, you know, all these types of things. Sometimes it's no fun to set in a hotel while it's pouring rain outside, you know. Um but they're helping out other local food pantry or something like that, or they're going to the local church and they're trying to find out how they can assist during that downtime. So they're making the most of that. And that's on the volunteers, they do that all on their own. We are not advertised as a faith-driven organization, but you see it in our volunteers. It's wonderful. And they're not, you know, we have pastors and counselors, they're not certified to us, but they're helping their family. And a lot of times they'll stay in contact in contact with them Christmas cards, birthday cards, all these things, and and just to make sure that they stay operated. And our our track record over 21 years is 97% of those folks we help are still in operation today. That's all you know. There might be a change of the guard, you know, on the family, but there's still that arm is still going.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

That's the goal to have that change of the guard eventually and to be able to carry on long enough to have that operation. Might be eighth or ninth generation. You don't ever know.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

No, I appreciate this time, guys. This is wonderful. If you have any other questions, I'll take them.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Um so you mentioned earlier that uh you know farmers can be isolated, they can kind of keep to themselves, and they're usually not the type that are looking for help. Right. Uh is there an opportunity there if uh if a neighbor knows a farmer is running through a tough time, can they nominate on behalf of somebody?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

They can they can do that. They can do it anonymously as well. Okay. Okay, so some people they want to distance themselves from that. I understand that. Um, at least we know about the family and we can reach out to them. Um, you know, some of these things they might not know who we are, so we might say you you do business with uh local co-op or somebody that might know us, you know, a partner. And uh that helps because then they're going, okay, I trust my association if uh if they're supporting the program at Farm Rescue, then you must be legit and you must be somebody that knows what you're doing. And that helps start the conversation. When our team actually goes and visits that farm, because every application we're sending somebody there just to look over the field, talk to the family, how do you want it done? That's when they know who we are. And uh and that's where we need to get is uh that invitation, and then get to the farm, they understand, and then it's easier to say yes or yeah, thanks for your time again today, Tim.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

And if anybody is in need or knows of anybody in need, again, just visit the website farmescue.org. All right, and we'll make sure we put that website in our uh description if you're listening on the podcast version as well. Uh so you've got there. And thanks again for your time.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Thank you, Mark and Matthews, Tim. Yep, appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 28:15

All right, so thanks again to uh to Tim and the crew at Farm Rescue there. Uh don't remember if we talked about this on our post-commodity classic show or not, but Mark and I actually ended up spending what about an hour after that interview in the booth with the whole Farm Rescue crew and the whole team and getting to know them a little bit better and learning a little bit more about what they do. Uh and then we ran into them Friday night, like dinner, and talked to them for probably another 30 minutes. So really good people. And they're excited about trying to get into Kentucky. And it's kind of a different way to put that. I mean, you don't want to be excited for, and I think they even said that, you know, you don't want to wish disaster on anybody, but uh, but they're they're eager to help and they're really there to help. Uh and I know Terry even made the comment uh Friday night when we ran into them about I don't care if somebody sprains their ankle, call us and we'll come out. They they want to get their name out there, they wanna they want to help as many people as they can in the state. And uh they've got a lot of things going. They they can bring equipment of their own. Uh they got volunteers that that can run your equipment. Um they carry insurance. I think what did he call it? Intake insurance? Ingestion. Ingestion insurance. Injection. So if if they're uh one of their volunteers is running your combine and and brings a a rock into it and does fifty thousand dollars worth of damage, they they have insurance that'll cover that. So um really good program. It's something we hope that nobody ever has to use, but it's there in the event somebody needs it. So yeah, it's a really good program.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

It's it's one of those things that makes you think there's a catch. Like there's a guy, truly there's a catch. Yeah, like truly they're getting something out of that, but but no, it's it's not.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

Well, and it's speaking on the insurance thing there, real quick. It's that when we brought that up and we're talking in the booth, uh, Mark and I both made the comment we've been fortunate around here. Anytime something happens, there's 15 neighbors jump in. Like I think about the Haydn's crop when Mr. Hayden passed away two or three years ago. How many combines showed up to harvest that? I think there's a couple pictures of that. Five, I think, in that one picture, and and that was not all of them. And that's all well and good, but you know, usually when something like that happens, everybody's got their own crop to run too, and everybody likes to come help, but it puts everybody else in a little bit of a strain. Uh, and like we mentioned with the insurance deal, if you're over there running for somebody trying to help and you do$50,000 worth of damage to your combine, that's on you. Yeah, uh, if farm rescue comes at in and does it, then you're not putting anybody out. And uh and you have that peace of mind that if something does go wrong, that you don't have somebody's machine down for the rest of their season all of a sudden either. So if going into the spring season or through the summer and fall, I know they do hay work as well. Uh, if anybody out there in the state of Kentucky listening knows of a case, uh reach out to Farm Rescue or reach out to one of us, reach out to us on our Facebook page or email or whatever, and we'll get you in touch with them. Uh because I know we're excited about helping them as well and seeing where this can go.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

So absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

We uh got a special delivery today. I guess technically it wasn't delivery because I stopped and picked it up.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Wasn't nobody delivered nothing to me. I can't sit here and look at it much longer.

SPEAKER_04 32:11

Me too. Me too. So last week we teased about the Central Harden FA alumni auction and some of the items that have become um staples, maybe, in fundraising. Um and we talked about Becky French's pumpkin rolls, and we kind of kitted and said, you know, maybe there's an extra one. And there was. So you're getting it here from two-thirds of dirt's dollars.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Yeah. Matt Matt couldn't drive to town to pick up his part, so he's gonna have to do our he's gonna have to narrate our reactions.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

Listen, you all have seen what the ag economy is right now, and you've seen what fuel prices have done the last two weeks. Adam's Family Farm is in Adam's Family Farms is in full fuel conservation mode, and there are no non-essential trips to town happening when you live 30 miles away.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

We'll we'll decide here in just a second if this was essential.

SPEAKER_04 33:07

It may have been essential. From from the from the looks and the the feel of holding it and just the quality, like yeah, I'm gonna say it's probably worth it.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Like it's it smells really good and it smells really good.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Maybe there'll be some leftovers. I know Mark and I have a meeting tomorrow morning. Maybe he'll bring me a we'll about to determine how good it is if you're gonna get any leftovers.

unknown 33:34

All right.

SPEAKER_04 33:35

Let's do it. Mark took a small bite. Daniel went just went for it. Daniel's got a mouthful. Mark was nibbled.

SPEAKER_03 33:46

That would have been that would have been worth the drive.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

That's worth worth the drive. I think Mark was scared at first.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Did you notice that, Daniel? He just kind of nibbled it. I noticed it. That's worth, I mean, like, that's six dollar diesel. Huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

Yeah. Well, yeah. Mistakes may have been made. They have that was that was that was very well worth it. And uh, so I got a little more information on the on the process of kind of how Becky does this. And so she's been doing it and she's been making them. Katie said they're her and Jonathan their whole life and and probably beyond that. But um she said when Jonathan started it in high school, I think in 2004. No, not 2004, 2014. Um she started making them for the auctions, been making them ever since. So Daniel's gonna they are definitely dirt to dollars of. I don't know what it's Daniel's out the rest of the show. But she bakes them one at a time. There's only uh two pans she can use, I think Katie said. And uh she mixes up the the filling while they're while they're being prepared in the oven. And it's yeah. There's only ten available. There would have been eleven, I guess, but only ten now, so there's they're early, but there's ten in the auction. There's ten in the auction, so I might have to buy another one. So Katie asked me, she said, I can't believe you never had one. And I said I haven't, but Mall always buys them, buys one and holds it out for Christmas or holiday of some sort. And I told Katie, I said, I come in. They're laying there. Well, by the time I get back to dessert, they're all gone. So all right, well, maybe I'll just have to show up and bid on one for myself if Mark's not gonna share any. You got a meeting tomorrow, I guess you can stop by and get your third of it if there's any left. You can just bring it, you're going to the same meeting.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

We'll see.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Have you all seen the the video of the guy that goes through the car wash with the fence wire? Yes. What is that about? That has to be like that has to be something that somebody just did on purpose, right? You ever dealt with high tensile wire and a spinning genny very much? I've dealt with that. I've dealt with high tensile wire without a spinning genny, buddy. So yes, I know what it can do.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Did you also walk to school uphill both ways in the snow? Yeah. I would say it got it was in the back of the truck and he forgot about it. So I think it's been a little bit since I've seen that picture, but I'm almost wondering if there wasn't a top on that truck similar to what you have on yours, Matt. And it came open or he forgot it was open.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

I mean, it was all wrapped up in there.

SPEAKER_04 37:17

There's no telling what.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

I saw somewhere it was like$50,000 worth of damage to the car wash.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

I think from what I saw, it looked like his auto insurance was gonna have to kick in and pay the car wash, which is something you never would have thought. That's almost like a is it Allstate, the insurance company that has the commercials? Oh the We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. That same actor is a problem. No, that was farmers, wasn't it? Yeah, maybe it is. We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. Yeah. Yeah, they ain't seen that. They ain't seen that now, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

That may make a commercial.

unknown 38:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Surely that's the only time that's ever happened, right? Like, I mean, I know now, I mean it has to be. Yeah, I just I just it seems like it's one of those things that just you wouldn't do, but I don't know. But now a lot of things. Usually they'll tell you if they got too much stuff in the bed of your truck, and they say I've had them they can get out and take my receiver itch out before that, or if there's like a two by four or something in the back, you're like, oh, you gotta get that out of there. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

It's probably gonna get worse now. Maybe it was uh maybe there was a little fault on the air traffic controller guy there. You know what I'm talking about? Y'all don't feel like that. You feel like does the top gun theme song play in your head when you line up at a car wash? No.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Oh yeah, man. Yep, they did kind of like uh like you're on a U.S. naval ship.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

You'll never be able to look at it the same way. I won't be able to now. That's that's for true. For sure. Yep. Uh a little bit of sad news in the uh ag industry this week. Orion Samuelson passed away. One of the probably one of the pioneers of farm broadcasting.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

So they pronounce it Orion or Orion? Orion. Okay. Because it spelled like Orion, so I didn't, I wasn't sure how they'd be either that or not. I haven't I don't know if I I just don't do like the RFD TV stuff, and I just I don't remember this guy.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

Orion Samuelson was before RFD TV.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Way before RFD TV. Seems like he's very well known, but uh, I I just nothing he wasn't ringing a bell to me.

SPEAKER_04 39:45

He began on WGN Radio in Chicago as their head agriculture broadcaster in 1960, from 1960. I believe 2020. He was station's head agriculture broadcaster.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

That's a long time.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Traveled to 43 countries. He'd met and interviewed every U.S. president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Donald Trump. So was he uh did he go completely off the air in 2020? I was kind of thinking he had been on the air a little more recently than that, but maybe you're right. No, I did I think he went uh his final broadcast was the Noon Business Report on December 30th, 2020. Okay. Oh yeah, and he was 91 years old, so he would have been 85 when he retired. Yep. That's a pretty good one. That's a good run. So Daniel doesn't didn't know who he was, but that's kind of one of those farm kid childhood staples. Like I can remember, I don't remember what network it was, but one of the major networks around here locally played this week in agribusiness at like four o'clock in the morning. Like when nobody was on like a was it every morning or was it Saturday morning? I'm thinking it was maybe a couple times a week. Yeah. Because I can remember like if I'd wake up super early for some reason, or for some reason I remember my sister and I used to always wake up early on Christmas morning before anybody else did at like four o'clock, and we'd go downstairs and turn the TV on and wait on everybody to get up. And that was something I'd always was excited to watch because you think back in those days in the 90s, we didn't have RFD TV, you didn't have a smartphone, we didn't have really the internet, uh, so you didn't have YouTube or anything like that to watch any kind of agriculture content. All we had was farm magazines, so I thought it was cool to be able to sit down and watch a watch a farm show and keep up with what was going on. But apparently Daniel had a terrible childhood.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

I listened to a lot of there's a lot of Paul Harvey that that rings a mail that I can I can I can remember, but for some reason that just that name I seen, I was like, I don't I really don't know this guy. Uh nobody I completely missed. I'm sure if I listened to it, I might be like, oh yeah, I just don't remember the name doesn't ring a bell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:29

They didn't uh they didn't get that channel in Texas. Yeah, we didn't get that in Texas, Kentucky. Right. So yeah, sad news there, but yeah. Oh before we wrap up here, I think we've got an accomplishment we need to acknowledge on this show. We do. Mark, we're in the presence of greatness. A master, if you will. Some might say. Not even just a somewhat master, a full-on.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Full-on master. So bow down. Bow down to the conservationist master conservationist.

unknown 43:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:13

Yeah, Daniel just tonight, I think, was named Master Conservation.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Is that why you were late getting back on? Were you having to sign autographs after? I was signing some autographs. Yeah, taking some pictures with some babies. Yeah. Yep. It was it's I guess that's what Mark has to go through being somewhat famous. Uh pretty much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:33

Now you now you know what it feels like.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

Yeah, it's a burden. But one of these days might we'll experience that, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

That's right. Congratulations, Daniel. That that really is a a big accomplishment and and kind of a small list of the people that have received that award over the years. So kind of an elite list. It is a very elite list. Think about the people that are on that list in Harden County. The uh Mobley Family Farm has has gotten that award. Um actually I don't know if Ed Mobley or or if uh Mr. Joe Mobley is the one that got that. But anyway, Mobbleys have gotten that award. Uh Don Summers, um, Daniel. Richard, I think, has gotten that award. So yeah. Very, very elite group of of Harden County farmers. So you might be one of one of or the first sheep farmer to get that.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

So they didn't when they were when they were reading off the credentials or whatever, and it was really it was it was very they did a very good job. But I did notice they they mentioned livestock and they didn't really say sheep. So I don't know if they were one to get it out there that I'm a sheep farmer, but um the practices are still the same. You know, there's still uh conservation practices and a lot of programs that we've done with uh in RCS on the farm. And and then now my job, I'm working with farmers and working on conservation plans and and efforts and kind of looking at it in new ways. So uh so yeah, I appreciate appreciate that. Appreciate being mentioned for that award, and yeah, it was it's neat. So thanks to all those folks at the Harden County Conservation District. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 45:15

All right, well, I think we're about out of time this week, but thanks again to our legendary sponsor, Fresh Start Farms, the crew with Misty, Cyrus, and Avery, and the gentleman from Rekand. We'll see you next week. See you next week.