Latest / Solving the World's Greatest Problems / Episode 14 - How a Top US Farm Survived the Virus That Killed 10M Pigs

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Episode 14 - How a Top US Farm Survived the Virus That Killed 10M Pigs · Solving the World's Greatest Problems

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_08: Whatever you have for me, I surrender.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_08: Not an audible word, but basically like, okay, go farm.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_08: We would have around 5,000 baby pigs born every day of the year.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_08: Probably around 400 semi trucks on a weekly basis to feed that.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_08: Probably around 12 million bushels of corn a year.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_08: It's a little bit ridiculous for me to even at times.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_08: Like it's only something God, a story guy could write.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Solving the world's greatest problems is an audacious proposal.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, no generation has more talent, capital, or tools than ours.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The time has come for entrepreneurs, investors, givers, ministry leaders to reclaim the church's ancient calling.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The scale of brokenness is too big for us to do this in silos.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Under his power, for his glory, together.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Solving the World's Greatest Problems podcast.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: When you hear the words family farm, you're probably picturing a small red barn.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the impact of this family business is far from little.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Horde family has been farming for over 100 years.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now in their fifth generation, Horde Farm spans 10,000 acres, six states, and has 5,000 piglets born every single day, making them one of the top 25 largest farming operations in America.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Behind the scale of this business is a talented team and a family, a people raising animals with care, utilizing modern, advanced technology and farming practices to be efficient and sustainable.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Pat Horde, the CEO of Horde Family Farms, leads with this question: how to use what God has entrusted to them for something eternal.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have a talk with Pat Horde, a farmer leading with stewardship.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But first, let's take a look into the Horde Family Farm story.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_08: We don't want this thing to end on my generation.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_08: Agriculture and generational business.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_08: It just becomes more than a career.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_08: It's it's who you are.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_08: If it came into your farm, it was high mortality.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_08: Killed somewhere around 10 million pigs in the U.S.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_08: We were trying to do everything we can to prevent it.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_08: And unfortunately, it did come to our place.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_08: You don't know.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_08: It's like, okay, is this the end?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_08: I'm the last generation in this.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_08: You start reflecting back and you're looking back, and you're going like, oh my goodness.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_08: Um I think what just happened here was uh God used that to say, I think maybe you had a little too much of your identity built around the farm.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_08: If you would have asked me, like I said before, I'd say, no way, like my identity is firmly in Christ.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_08: Anything else you build your identity in will demand everything you have and then ask for more.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_08: We have about 5,000 baby pigs born every day of the year.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_08: Operations in six states across the Midwest from Pennsylvania to South Dakota.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_08: Probably around 400 semi-trucks on a weekly basis.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_08: Probably around 12 million bushels of corn a year.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_08: It's only something God, a story guy could write.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_08: My earliest recollections are going to the field with my father and grandfather, so you learn way more by watching than you do to do what somebody tells you.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_08: He taught me a lot of things, a lot of people, how to interact with people, how to make the person in front of you feel valued.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_08: So I'm coming out of uh out of high school and I'm I'm feeling a tug really.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_08: I could go into agriculture, but at the same time understanding that I'm feeling this tug.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_08: Maybe I'm supposed to go into ministry.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_08: I thought it had to be one or the other.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_08: I got to the point where I said, okay, God, I whatever you have for me, I surrender.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_08: And as I as I went through that time and it gave me a uh perspective that I carry today, I just didn't realize that he had an idea of actually using business as a ministry.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_08: 2014, um, there was a virus that entered the U.S.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_08: swineherd.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_08: If it came into your farm, it was high mortality.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_08: Uh, it was very, very challenging.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_08: We learned some things, kind of figured out where um unfortunately was coming through the feed really.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_08: Um, and uh we learned some processes and changing, and we were actually part of the research, our team uh working on it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_08: We had some relentless guys that were like working with some of the experts around the country, and so um, and I think um our team, I want to take credit that we've solved it, but we were a part or piece of working on it, and so that uh that process was definitely uh a learning thing for me and really set me on a different trajectory in that time.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_08: We had one of our best years ever in 2014 on the backside of one that you thought you may lose the business.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_08: And God just, I think, just as a little explanation point, you know, to say, hey, hey, uh, this is what I'm trying to teach you.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_08: Um, trust me and trust uh 100% of me.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_08: God owns the business.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_08: He definitely owns the business, he also owns the fruit.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_08: So we're gonna start going down this path of what we've come to know as like tithing our business.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_05: The first step in that was to believe that and live out the fact that God owns everything.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_05: So when you resign to that fact, and we did early in our marriage, we didn't have a lot, but we purposefully still tithed and we purposefully still helped when we could, but we didn't have a lot of extra.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_05: And so once you get to that point, your business grows and you have more opportunity, funds, time, talents, whatever that might be, to give back, it's a purposeful decision.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_05: So we just incrementally add additive percentage each year and it's kept building up to where we are today.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_04: The family views that charity piece is a non-negotiable and in the way of it's in the budget, right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_04: It's not something that, oh, at the end that's what we do, that's how we view our purpose for the business, is uh to be able to do that.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_05: Our business isn't meant for us to consume everything that we've earned.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_05: We believe our business is a giving engine.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_08: We'd like to take care of our team first, somewhat like an upside-down funnel, um, where we're um our team, community, and and with the world, and it's disingenuous to say, well, we're gonna give to the local food bank and we have somebody on our team that's trying.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_05: There's been a lot of um disheartening things happening in our community in the last 20 years.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, manufacturing has left.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_05: So whatever we can do as a family and as a farm to make it a better place for people to want to live here, work here, and play here, that's that's our calling.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_08: The process of business is difficult, right?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_08: It's like it's it's a wrestle and a struggle, but um giving well and stewarding uh your giving well takes time and effort.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_08: And professionally managed organizations that are giving engines uh really help us in that, um, in that giving us some comfort that it's going to be stewarded well.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_08: Sometimes we can give too much to somebody that actually hurts them.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_08: So, how do we make sure that we're not that we're addressing structural issues and not just like putting a band-aid on it?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_08: And then all of a sudden, then it's kind of like, oh, we can bolt another one of those on and be a part of uh really learning about uh how do we s help solve hunger.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_07: And then what they've done is welcomed us into that process and said, How are we going to deploy those funds?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_07: What things are we passionate about?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen my grandparents do that, I've seen my parents do that, and I'm just encouraged that.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me and my siblings get to carry on that legacy.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: We all had a meeting and we did this exercise where we all put sticky notes next to the things that we're passionate about.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: And got to see, okay, who's actually passionate about what thing and what do we need to prioritize as a family when it comes to giving.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_05: It's been kind of fun to see how the kids have pulled in and started giving to things themselves that we wouldn't know anything about.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_07: As I think about succession planning, I think that has been a major differentiator for my parents is that they've been very open with us about what they're thinking and what they're planning.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_07: They have been welcoming uh of us to have those conversations and have them early to talk about hard things.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_07: Maybe from the outside looking in, it's the whole, oh yeah, this is the natural progression of things.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_07: But that really couldn't be further from the truth.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_05: Our farm is not going anywhere.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_05: You cannot pack up our dirt.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_05: You cannot pack up our farm, you cannot pack up buildings and move them.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_05: We're here.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_05: So while we're here, what difference are we going to make while we are here on earth?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: This is the art stuff.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: This is God's.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's there's no other way that I can think that unifies my family more than seeing that that's what it is.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's God's, and we get to um, you know, partake in the joy of giving it back to him and to be joyful givers.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: At risk of sounding redundant, like generosity.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's something I've seen um in my grandparents, and then down to my parents, and now down to kids.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_08: It's easy to transfer fast, and it's it's really hard to transfer holes.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_08: And it's really about uh even thinking about the next generation when you come into the business, because this is a long term.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_08: You're trying to make this, we want to move this to the sixth and the seventh and the eighth generation.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_06: So, Pat, when most people think of Family Farm, they think of a little red barn in these rolling fields.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_06: We have spent the last couple of hours making uh, I don't know, pickup trucks look small and semi-trucks look normal.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_06: Give us a size and scope of what is Horde Farms today.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, we uh yeah, first of all, thanks for being here.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_08: Um and and uh we're we have a uh diversified farming operation um that includes um many family members, um including my parents and my um wife, Janelle, and I have two full time uh two of my children, Phil and Colleen, full-time in the business, and then I have um uh Melissa who you've met is uh helping us um with some of our giving and those type of things, and then uh I have a uh another daughter that's not involved day to day in the business, but also is is is obviously involved with the family and things, and so um, and then I have a brother-in-law and uh I have uh uh two sisters and another brother-in-law, and so they're they're not my brother-in-law is a full-time employee, but I have uh my other the others aren't in there and their their own careers, but um, so yeah, so we have family and and uh what's neat, um we so we we have the opportunity to um operate a cropping operation, which would be corn, soybeans, wheat, uh hay, barley, um, and some other forages, and then uh and then all of that would in some way be driven for food, uh for feed, for uh animal feed, and then and then we would um that's about 10,000 acres that we operate, and then we have uh we also have some cattle, we uh feed out about 2,500 head of beef cattle.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_08: We also have some cow calf, a small cow calf operation.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_08: And then uh we would have um uh our pig operation or um swine operation would be the largest enterprise and we would um as we said earlier, we would we would have around 5,000 baby pigs born every day of the year.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_08: 5,000 and a day and a day, yeah.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_08: And uh and that would be um operations in six states across the Midwest from Pennsylvania to South Dakota.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_06: And uh we have uh pause from when you talk about feeding five thousand newborns every single day, what does it take to feed that?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_06: Like what I mean what we talk about operations, we talk about crops, and we kind of talk through that like it's just rolling off of our tongue.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_06: But that's a lot of mouth to feed if we would say it that cliche of a way.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_06: Like I I don't know, measuring it by semi-truck is like how much feed does it take?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, it uh it's probably uh yeah, probably around 400 uh semi trucks uh that would be on a weekly basis would uh would take to feed that.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_08: Um yeah, probably around 12 million bushels of corn um a year.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_08: Uh so yeah.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_08: So there uh yeah, it's it's it's even it's a little bit ridiculous for me to even at times like uh it's it's just uh it's only something God, a story God could write.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_06: It's crazy when you think about it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_06: I think one of the things that stood out to me, I mean, here we are um an hour outside of Columbus, Ohio, a place of college football.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_06: We think of the college football top 25 rankings, and maybe that somehow helps us kind of put and put in perspective or something.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_06: For you guys is a size of farm that you guys are.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_06: I think we were talking about this early, somewhere between 20 and 25 in an entire country, yeah.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_06: In the size and scope of what you guys are doing.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, yeah, that's uh yeah, that's it's yeah, it's it's that's the size we we are.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_08: And um it's a sometimes like yeah, I even when you say that I my my thought goes to our team and the people on the on the ground every day that we have a strategy of how you know we say like every pig every day and how we care for them and feed um air, care, um and uh water and all the things that go into to being a part of um really really making great great products that um that thankfully uh the US consumer and other consumers around the world enjoy and in uh in bacon and other uh sausage and ham and pork chops and all the things.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_06: I think that's an important thing that you talk about here is is as we tour the facility and we do the tour things here as you understand if you're investing so much of what it is is about the overflow and when it's into the operations that you guys are in farming, so much of it is about animal care and the intentionality that you guys go into this era.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I think in another podcast, Zach was interviewing some other friends and just talked about like we think of farming maybe just in decades ago, and we don't realize that it's as complex as uh running a Formula One race car, like the science that goes into it.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_06: But give us some perspective of like about how much science informs kind of what operations look like today.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I mean uh I think this is true in any any industry that you go into, um there has to be a source of truth.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_08: And obviously in in our lives every day, we have a source of truth and the Bible and kind of gives us that foundation, and without that foundation it just like you're on shaky ground, right?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_08: And so it's the same way with us and businesses is there's so much science that is involved in everything that we do.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_08: We have um we have um numerous animal science people that have animal science backgrounds, um, whether and it might be nutrition, it might be uh um research, it might be we we have uh and um there's so much biology that is involved from you know the birth and the the breeding process of animals to the birthing of them and the animal health.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_08: We have um we have employee staff veterinarians as well as as well as um consulting veterinarians that that very specifically work on um and so it's it's the health component, it's um and so there's there's uh you know we have the cropping side and there's so much uh so much from seed selection into um you know now there is um our uh our nutrient balance even with using the manure.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_08: It's kind of like we say farmers, farming's the original recyclers, and that we have we have farming, and so we we produce corn and we feed the corn to the animals, and then the animals um you know have manure, generate manure, and then that's cycled back, and we use that as a valuable fertilizer for the corn, and so you have a cycle of of grain uh being grown, and so all of that we balance that, we test the soil on the fields, and we have a we have a scientific way that we we test soil samples and we test those every three years in the same spot.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_08: We can go with GPS and go to the same spot, pick the same uh the same area of soil, and we do this and mapping of grids in the in the field, and then you uh you take and you submit that soil sample, and it tells us what the profile is and what we what that soil needs in order to grow a crop, and then we then we back into we sample the manure and then and we know what commercial fertilizer might be to supplement that manure, and then okay, this is what we need to grow the crop, and then and then we script a lot of that so we have an agronomist that help us, and they script uh how much the application rate should be and how much we should put on, and then we can upload that script into a tractor, and then the tractor like varies that throughout the field.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_08: Um, and so these tractors operate a lot off GPS, and so they're they're they're following um, you know, like patterns in the field, and so there's just like in and I think uh so many times in in you know in our culture today, people want to do away with and make truth kind of like whatever I believe.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_08: Well, I I that would that doesn't even compute for me in agriculture because we have to have these baseline things, and obviously as a as a follower of Jesus, um I understand there's truths and he's presented in his word, and we can see when we get outside of those guardrails, um we we we we pay the consequences and it's it's it's all correlated and in I think in a foundation of truth.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_06: As you talk about the business, I think one of the other things that you know it's a conversation that everybody talks about today of you know supply chains and cleanliness and standards and different things when we think of arm to the table and like what all that means.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_06: And I think that's another thing I'm struck by when we talk about technology, when we talk about science, like when you guys are truly living it and knowing that like you know, there are certain things, a disease, and other times we see that even in scripture where crops get wiped out.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_06: Just talk about some of the ways that like the cleanliness standards of the prevention, some of the things that uh technology has kind of uh been introduced into your business.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I think um what I was saying, you know, necessity is the mother of invention, but you learn it's like okay, well this is this is causing me a lot of a lot of sleepless nights in pain.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_08: I'm gonna try to figure out a better way.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_08: And so some of those things have evolved over time and and you learn that there's um just isn't any Any business people like innovate and figure things out, and they and I think uh I think sometimes consumers have this uh you you started out with the red barn and coincidentally we have a lot of red and white barns, right?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_08: They're just a little larger and and different style than than maybe uh you know people have a vision that they was at their grandparents or their great grandparents years ago, and and uh but we you we ultimately we have the safest, most nutritious food system in the world.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_08: Um and I get an opportunity to travel around the world and we have that in the U.S.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_08: And yet there's times where people uh I say human nature is that people fear things that they don't understand.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_08: And uh and we've gotten farther and farther away.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_08: There's less than 2% of uh of the US population has some connection to agriculture.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_08: And so as we do that, you know, we're sitting in an area that we call a visitor center, and so we can bring school groups in and people that can come in like yourself and we can learn and say, no, we we don't do anything any different than then maybe my um my as far as like we still raise raise uh animals um much like my grandfather did, it's just we do it in my generation or my son's generation's version of how that happens, and and so but we still care deeply.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_08: We still have we still have um everything is grown locally here that's raised and and is fed to the animals.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_08: So there's lots of things.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_08: So, but you know, there is a lot of technology that we've developed or or had or or purchased and and uh so don't you know whether that's from we've uh filter the air into our buildings to prevent viruses that may go through the air.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_08: As we've learned, a lot of people, you know, maybe didn't wasn't front and center, but we went through a pandemic, obviously, here uh six years ago, and it taught us all kind of how viruses move and what are the things that um what we do, and there's all those principles that we've learned through that are um are our piece or a part of of how we manage animals.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_06: So you talked about this, and so let's kind of turn to this as like one of the great I think one of the great lessons uh of this episode and this conversation is like we've seen farms, we drive past them.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_06: We have the picture of the red barn, and as you said, they're bigger and a lot more semi-trucks passing through here.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_06: But I think one of the other things is just this idea of family business, it's kind of a story as old as time of like an American kind of heartbeat of entrepreneurship.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_06: And you stepped into that, right?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_06: You're a fifth generation of this family legacy of it.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_06: And it started, I think, in 1905, is kind of like what you say in terms of the date.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_06: Take us back to kind of how it started.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_06: And what were some of your first core memories of being around and recognizing, oh, this is what this is what the family's done?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_08: You know, it's uh you know, it's it's something, you know, you're born into a um, you know, as we talked earlier, I I I didn't pick where I was born.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_08: None of us did.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_08: We happen I happened to be blessed to be born into uh um a family that took me to church, first of all, and then but they also um had agriculture in their blood and had that that peace.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_08: And it uh yeah, my earliest recollections are going to the field with my father and grandfather and spending lots of time with with uh with them uh learning and seeing.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_08: You learn, you know, they say you learn way more by watching than you do to do what somebody tells you.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_08: And so uh so I had an opportunity to to learn.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_08: I grew up, I loved every aspect of it, and I enjoyed uh being a part of it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_08: I yeah, I probably needed to pay a little more attention to school because all I could think about was getting back out and getting on a tractor and getting something.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_08: And so it it truly gets in your blood and something you enjoy and you like to do.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_08: And uh, but yeah, just they they tell a story about me when I was about three or four.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_08: They I was out helping um move some pigs.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_08: And of course, pigs are if if you've watched them, they move around if you're trying to move around fast, and and one went through my legs, threw me up in the air, and I landed on my back, and uh, and I ran out of the barn and uh crying and and uh and they said that you know when I um I came back in it, they said, Well, that's probably the end of this.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_08: And they said about five minutes five minutes later I came back in, I dusted myself, off, wiped my tears away, and I was right back in the pen, you know, wrestling, you know, with the pigs.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_08: And uh they said, well, maybe there might be a future here for him.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_08: So uh, but those are those are kind of the early stories and recollections, walking a cornfield with my grandfather.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_08: I've got a I got a picture over by my office that's uh kind of a life size of my grandfather and I standing in the field, and and uh you know it's it's uh you know a caption beside honor the past, you know, uh, you know, live in the future or live in the to live in today and and uh you know work uh work to steward the future or something like that.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_08: And so those really kind of like as as I as I think about it, those are the early memories that I have.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_06: So many people when we we grow up in family businesses and those opportunities, I think as you've alluded to, it's it's a job, it's something that's right there in front of you.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_06: It's maybe there's a lot of words that could be inserted here, an expectation, an opportunity.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_06: When did it for you go from the family business to a calling?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_06: When did that switch happen for you?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I had grown up, you know, as we had discussed in in the business, but I'd also like a parallel, I had been uh I was very involved in our local church and enjoyed being a part of it.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_08: Um my wife uh Janelle and and I uh met in high school and so we went to youth group and church together, and so I'm coming out of uh out of high school and I'm I'm feeling a tug really of like I I I'm being torn.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_08: I feel like I'm I could go into agriculture, and my dad, you know, told me as we were growing up, like I'm trying to build this large enough to where it can support another family.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_08: And so and so that's all in the back of my mind that it's kind of like preparing for the next generation, but at the same time understanding that I'm feeling this tug.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_08: Maybe I'm supposed to go into ministry, and and so I fought it for you know probably six months or better, maybe a year, as you know, as everybody comes out of uh school, and it's like, okay, what am I gonna do with my life?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_08: And and so I I I fought it because I I thought it had to be one or the other.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_08: And so finally I kind of got to the point where I was like, okay, God, I I can't, I I I don't know what to do.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_08: And and back then, you know, there was uh, you know, you you may remember, and it may be it's still a thing now, but I I remember going like, okay, as soon as I surrender the ministry, God's gonna call me to the jungle of Africa, and I'm going to have to go there.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_08: And I want to be in Crawford County farming.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_08: I'm not really wanting to be in Africa, but you know, as as as as it would happen, and so I I got to the point where I said, okay, God, I whatever you have for me, I surrender.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_08: And when I did that, uh, little did I know that he was wanting me to understand that I was willing to surrender, I think.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_08: Part of it was me, part of it was him knowing that I was that I was willing to surrender.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_08: And I felt like it was like almost like not an audible word, but basically like, okay, go farm, you know, go do this.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_08: And at the time I thought that meant um, well, I'm picking now, I'm I'm going to be um, I'm gonna be in agriculture, I'm gonna be a farmer, and I'm not going to be in ministry.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_08: But I always carried that with me, especially in the early years um when I was still developing how I thought might I might be able to participate in the kingdom.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_08: Um I would go to church and I would serve, and my wife and I were very active in our church, and I would always say, I was called into ministry.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_08: I chose to stay here, but I'm actually uh an unpaid staff member to help at our local church.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_08: And so that was formative for me.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_08: And as I as I went through that time and it gave me a uh perspective that I carry today, I just didn't realize that he had an idea of actually using business as a ministry, and uh and that was yet to come, but it's been a fun, fun journey.
• 31:53
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• 32:55
  SPEAKER_06: You go through that journey and you have that kind of calling, you have those early stages of it.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_06: All the while, I can imagine like many people that are listening to this and are growing up in a family business, there's a part and any part where you're coming from a long legacy.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_06: And something that you've certainly been a part of building together.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_06: I think you express it.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_06: Like when you started, there was five pigs per day being born, and we're talking five thousand.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_06: A lot has happened.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_06: There's gotta be something when you take a baton of leadership that you're trying to feel like you're improving yourself.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_06: Like, when do you kind of have that moment where you go from proving yourself to starting to kind of like being comfortable in an identity and then starting to even unpack, okay, what is my identity?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_06: When is the point where it tip for you like I gotta earn it, I gotta prove myself to my to my siblings, to my family?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_06: What did that tip for you and you had a comfort to say, okay, this is my calling.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_06: I you know, but God's given me some talent, some skills, and some drive and some work ethic to obviously scale this.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_06: But now I can really wrestle with this identity conversation.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I um there's a piece of me, and I'm smiling because there's a piece of me that always says, um I don't I I've not figured out yet whether I have the ability to do it or not.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_08: You know, it's like you're on this journey and you're climbing this mountain, and you never it you you you have and it's it's it's a unique thing.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_08: And if you read any about agriculture, it's a it's a pressure that we all carry because we're the gen, yeah, I we're in the generation of we don't want this thing to end on my gen my generation, and it it causes a lot of pressure on a lot of a lot of farmers um and can create a lot of a lot of issues.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_08: And so so we have to understand that there's times where you do you any at any point you ask me, it's like, well, I'm not building my identity in this.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_08: This is what I do, but I'm also a child of the king and and I'm I'm I'm I'm living for him.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_08: Um and uh but there over time uh there can, if if not um some safeguards in there, you can begin um as you see, there's uh agriculture is more than a you know more than a job.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_08: It's it's all consuming.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_08: Every day you're looking at every day, everything.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_08: Whether during the planting and harvest seasons and all those things, and it just becomes uh more than a career.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_08: It's it's who you are.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_08: And so and so if you allow um, I read something one time that um things that are uh that you know things outside of uh your relationship with Christ is the only thing, anything else you build your identity in will demand everything you have and then ask for more.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_08: And you'll never, it it just there's no satisf, you just can't satisfy.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_08: And through that process, I was um obviously have had some uh some success as anybody would look from the outside in, God has blessed us.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_08: Uh but you never, you know, kind of it's all there's always like uh there's one more mountain to climb.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_08: And so in about uh 2013, 2014, there was uh there was a virus that entered the US uh from China.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_08: Does that sound familiar about anything?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_06: So um I was gonna say you gave us some date reference that helped us sort the.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_08: This is 2013, 2014.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_08: Um there was a virus that entered the U.S.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_08: swine herd uh from China.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_08: And we had no idea of kind of how it was, it came with if it came into your farm, it was high mortality.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_08: Uh it was very, very challenging.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_08: You don't know where it's coming from, you don't know how it's getting into the farms.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_08: And it uh it was it was a it was a big deal in 2014.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_08: It kind of culminated with uh it I think killed somewhere around uh over 10 million pigs in the US.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_08: And unfortunately, we were it did come to our our our place.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_08: We were hoping that we were trying to do everything we could to prevent it.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_08: And through that process in early 2014, it was uh very challenging because you don't know, it's like, okay, is this the end of like I've worked over the last 20 25 years at this point, you know, and so is this gonna be the thing that takes and I'm the I'm the last generation in this.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_08: And you could look back on it and you go, like, well, that that was that was a dumb, that was a dumb thought process, but you're in the middle of it, you don't really know, just like the early months of of COVID, you know, we all had a fear of like, is this gonna wipe you know my family out?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_08: And you had new people that were dying from it.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_08: And so you had that, it was kind of that same fear.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_08: And I realized that through that process, as I got on the other side and got into the summer, and we learned some things, kind of figured out where um unfortunately was coming through the feed really.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_08: Um, and uh we learned some processes and changing, and we were actually part of the research, our team uh working on it.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_08: We had some relentless guys that were like working with some of the experts around the country, and so um, and I think um our team, well, I want to take credit that we've solved it, but we were a part or piece of working on it, but we kind of got into the and you start reflecting back and you're looking back and you're going like, oh my goodness.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_08: Um I think what just happened here was uh God used that to say, I think maybe you had a little too much of your identity built around the farm and yours.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_08: And if you would have asked me, like I said before, I'd say, no way, like my identity is firmly in Christ.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_08: And so he used that to to say, hey, you've got um you you you need uh you need to put some other safeguards or some things in, and so that uh that process was definitely uh a learning thing for me and really set me on a different trajectory in that time.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_06: One of the things we talk about like as faith-roofing entrepreneurs is finding those moments to stay grounded in identity, and certainly Sundays in church and Sabbath is an opportunity that when I think about the quintessential picture of a farm, um back then there was no work in your pocket, there was no build in your pocket, there was no nothing just a click or touch away.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_06: But I think in the farm it was steps away.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_06: The farm house was on the farm, you walk out to the back and the work is right there.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_06: Is there a moment for you guys that like even just physically moving or not being on the farm that's giving you kind of some of that space or like like how hard is it in such an all-consuming industry to find those moments of a break?
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_08: It's very challenging.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_08: Um I just live a couple miles north of here.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_08: Um my dad lives right over here.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_08: My son is building a house right across the road from us.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_08: It's it's difficult.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_08: And over the last couple of years, honestly, uh I I've I've just I've not done Sabbath.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_08: I've just not done, I mean, we have we care for livestock.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_08: It's 247-365.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_08: Every we're on all the time.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_08: And maybe I don't physically um go into a barn every day just from the like physical limitations of being there.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_08: Um I I'm still on, you know, there's my phone is on all the time.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_08: And so I've I've uh actually Melissa uh has been good for me.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_08: She's um gently, I've listened to uh uh John Mark Comer does a nice job, you know, and the Ruthless Elimination Hurry.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_08: Um read that in the last year or two, and really pushing into like what does Sabbath look like for me?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_08: Because I found myself um you know, there's principles in the word, that truth.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_08: Uh even though he doesn't make that, that's not a like in, you know, from the Torah, you know, we're not legally bound by it, but there's there's a principle there that uh is definitely our uh in our uh benefit, you know.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_08: And so I so I I have been I've been working on that.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_08: That's I'm not I'm not perfect at it, but I but I've been working on it.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_06: And I think that that's something that we recognize.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, you know, I certainly hope that if something tragic happens to my family and I'm calling 911 on a Sunday that there's somebody there to respond.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_06: And so there's there's certain industries and places where the day, the time, and what the rhythm and the cadence of all that's going to look like is gonna vary.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_06: And I think it's so much what we talk about in this movement is not being prescriptive, but necessarily saying, okay, how do we lead into those rhythms, those ideas?
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_06: And I think John Mark's book and principle in that, especially for us uh entrepreneurs that are always on and always building.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_06: Um there's a deep message that's there.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_06: So when you take about like this identity and this calling, and and I I think it's something that you're alluding to is that you know, when we we feel called and we separate that kind of conversation kind of from the family business, and we understand that it's not necessarily the mission field on the other side of the world, but but God put us right here and put us in that moment, and then we go through this identity wrestling of okay, like how do I balance all this?
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I think then we start kind of thinking, well, gosh, if God owns the business, He owns the fruit too.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_06: And I mean that's like an agricultural example played out right in front of us.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_06: You see it, we feel it.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_06: I kind of sometimes like match that with like I think some of the things in church history, like the words and language we've used that maybe were unintentional in the moment, but we look at decades later and we're like, man, that that took us down a wrong path.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_06: And I think, you know, maybe it was the nineties where there was this idea of like, man, if you're gonna be serving God, you're either you're either giving or going.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_06: But it felt like it was like.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_06: An either or choice.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_06: I think there's this moment as entrepreneurs we're realizing actually there's option C where it's all of the above.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_06: What's that journey been like for you?
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_06: Were you seeing, like, okay, God has certainly blessed this.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_06: You come from a place where, again, you know, using just a specific analogy of five to five thousand, how do you guys wrestle through that financial conversation of stewardship as a family?
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_06: What's that journey been like for you?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I think, you know, back to 2014 and then coming out of that, we we opened our first donor advice fund in 2014 because just the way the God works, I mentioned that there was uh there there we're in a supply and demand business, we're in a commodity business, and so we don't set our prices, and so we created a shortage of pork in the US because of this virus coming in, and we had one of our best years ever in 2014 on the backside of one that you thought you may lose the business.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, and uh and God just I think just as a little explanation point, you know, to say, hey, yeah, yeah, hey, uh this is what I'm trying to teach you.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_08: Um, trust me and trust uh 100% in me.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_08: So we opened a donor advice fund with NCF.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_08: Uh and I what uh the principle I started with was okay, and you mentioned like God owns the business.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_08: He definitely owns the business, he also owns the fruit.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_08: So we're gonna start going down this path of of what we've come to know as like tithing our business, or however you you know, that's probably a language that I've used with with other maybe non non-Christians or people that maybe don't would understand that term.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_08: And uh so we so as we went down that path, we and the key verse for me was moving, you know, where your heart, you know, the Bible says where your heart is, there you will be your treasure also.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_08: And so we um the concept of moving some treasure someplace else was was was really uh impactful for me.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_08: And so I kind of found out like, okay, I'm gonna move some things, and now I'm going to have this whole other process of like how to give and how to and it set us on a journey of of the of that side.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_08: And so we were we were just learning and trying to figure it out like everybody else, and we're still we're still on a journey, we haven't got it figured out yet.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_08: I don't I don't know that I ever will, but we're all on that journey.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_08: You know, we're all on that journey.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_08: And so then you start going like, okay, well, um, I I I think it I resonated with with um uh Pete Oakes um talked about this, but he said, you know, early on in my career, I I thought I needed to make as much money and my um maybe uh not maybe only pay my workers so much so that I had more to give, you know, and so you um and he said that and and I don't know that I intentionally did that.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_08: I was just like, okay, I'm trying to be frugal and and and do what we needed to make the business profitable so that we could but I get what he said.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_08: What he said resonated with me in that, and and so uh over that time, over the last 10 or 12 years, we've tried to figure out what holistically looks like to be able to say, uh I have so many different areas, whether that's uh excellence in the business and actually letting that be a testimony and a worship without saying a word saying we want to do things with excellence.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_08: When you pull on to our farm, we want you to look and go, like, wow, it looks like you know, look looks like um they're um really trying, you know, they're trying to um we want we we always people we always say we have this saying that people smell with their eyes.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_08: And so, you know, it's like we what we do, like pigs smell, like I'm not it's not a racket science, right?
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_08: So um, and so we but we we we we can't control that in a lot of ways.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_08: We do uh work on where we cite them and and all those things, but we also uh look at um we want to keep things well kept and clean.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_08: And and so, but then it's it's it's looking at all those things of of how we interact with our team.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_08: It's chaplaincy.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_08: So we started uh chaplaincy, I think right maybe 2016-ish area, and and like really trying to meet the holistic needs of our team, not just in a you know, EAP type, you know, formal thing, but actually um actually not have a 1-800 number, but actually somebody that's loving on our team, um, building relationships.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_08: And then um our our chaplain here in Ohio is is is uh chaplain Joy.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_08: She's fantastic because she gets like she loves interacting.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_08: You know, our our team is a microcosm of our culture.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_08: We have we have people that are unchurched.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_08: Uh there are people we have Christians that work in our business and are attracted to what we do, but we also have unsaved people that uh come and life is always gonna hit a bump, you know, and so how do we how should she be there, uh build the relationship, and then she's done funerals and weddings and and kind of in a way becomes uh an unchurch culture that uh that uh has a place to go with when uh a place to to get uh involved with that and and has been had the fortune of of leading people to Christ and baptize them and disciple them.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_08: And so there's so there's this whole component that you have of how do we steward that and how do we and so so all those things, so we've continued to think about like what is what does that look like and how do we how do we implement that.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_06: And I think it's been beautiful to see all those pieces, and I I think again it's hard to I know our team is gonna to try to do it justice with all the b-roll that we filmed kind of with the tour, but you see it.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_06: And I love that idea of like you kind of smell with your eyes, and like you can see the intentionality, you can see the details, you can see like, hey, there's uh efforts and safety and cleanliness and caring for animals, caring for team, caring for this, creating that culture.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_06: And and I think it's another challenge that we all face as entrepreneurs is like we start off with the small family farm and it grows.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_06: And as you're growing, you're trying to keep essentially that same essence of the small family farm.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_06: The other thing that that I want to pull back into is like this is a very capital-intensive business.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, you're showing us pieces of equipment like a million dollars each, I would be intimidated to touch the steering wheel of it, who knows what would happen.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_06: Um but when you look at all of those things, like there could be this logic that we could fall into as entrepreneurs to say, well, wait a second, the business is a calling, this is like literally feeding people, this is impacting life, this is doing all this good, I could I could put the ledger up and up and up and up and up and say, Well, gosh, you know what?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_06: That extra X amount of dollars, I I need it back in the business.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_06: I can do more, grow more, make more, make an impact.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_06: But with such a capital-intensive business, how do you reconcile those moments?
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_06: Where it's like, man, I should tithe.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_06: We should tithe, we should give.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_06: And yet you can see such of the direct capital needs right there in front of it.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_06: I don't think that's unique to you guys, but you guys stare at it because of how capital-intensive that is.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_06: Take us into those moments.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_06: How do you deal with wrestling?
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_06: How do you deal with the doubt?
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_06: How do you deal with the family complicated conversations of walking into that together?
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, that's that's a great, that's a great question.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_08: And I think, you know, I I read a book one time, I don't even remember the name of it, but um Andy Stanley talked talked about uh you know the giving part of and and he talked about like starting at a percentage and then increasing at like one percent a year, or one, you know, and he's yeah, he's talking about you know, it could be our personal finances, right?
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_08: And so, but I uh we've done that, we've taken that principle and we said, you know what, I said we're gonna, and uh we we worked or we've uh we've worked, you know, uh over the last number of years from up to this year was our we we set a goal we wanted to get to 20 percent.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_08: So so we had been working one percent a year, and and uh it's fun to it's it's it's a wrestle because we all have different risk profiles in our family, and uh some of us are more you obviously don't do what we've done over the last 30 plus years without taking on some level of risk.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_08: Uh but the the amazing thing, you know, is is that as we've went through this process, we've watched God be faithful and not in a prosperity gospel type sort of way.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_08: It's more like that we I think it's a foundational principle that Jesus called out with the widow's might to say she gave the most.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_08: It's a percentage, it was a percentage, not a dollar amount.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_08: Just because we give some dollar amount doesn't really matter.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_08: Um, but it's a it's he called out the percentage, and we've watched through that he like he's continued to fill the fill the bucket up, and he's taken care of us in the midst of very challenging times, seasonal, seasonality of agriculture, yeah, drought, drought, or low, low lower yields, or really high, high corn prices, which impact us um directly through maybe a government program or an ethanol like that, that type of industry where they're taking corn um and drives the price up.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_08: And I'm not we we've got great farmers we work with.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_08: I'm not like saying one's right or wrong.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_08: You're just talking about the risk.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_08: It's just the risk.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_08: I'm talking about the risk side of it and say, okay, um and you get in the middle of those and and you uh you say, okay, um God, yeah, that would be you know, that would be helpful to help.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_08: Um, but at the same time, I've watched him be faithful and honor that process.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_08: And he obviously has the opportunity.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_08: He's, you know, I don't know if Paul said it, you know, he gives he he gives and he takes away.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_08: I know how to be, what did he say, abase and I know how to bound in the old King James, you know?
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_08: It's like um he knows how to um in both ways, and and so we try to do our best to open hand it and say, okay, it's all yours.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_08: Um that's easier said than done in agriculture and a generational business.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_08: But he's teaching, he's teaching me and our family that.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_06: I want to finish our conversation here with this idea of just legacy.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_06: And just kind of when you think about this, obviously Phil and their other kids are very involved in the business, and you're looking at this kind of with a generational perspective that I think of that started decades ago when it was like, hey, would you help part-time with the business or rides in the pickup truck with grandpa?
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_06: When you think about passing this baton and you think about that generational stewardship to the next generation, how are you processing through that?
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I think we have, you know, I I may or may not have told you this, but we we work with Blue Trust on as a financial planner.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_08: We we think they're they're helpful, and then they also uh they they also get the kingdom aspect of what we're trying to do in our business.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_08: And the first time we sat down with them was 2015-ish.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_08: And the first question they ask us is are we getting this business ready to sell, or are we getting this to be a generational business?
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_08: Or we want to continue this on?
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_06: And one of those easy questions to start off with, right?
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, yeah, one of those easy ones.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_08: And I'm like, I never had anybody ask me that question before.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_08: You know, it's kind of like this in in uh one of our advisors has a has some history in agriculture, and so I think he probably knew the answer, but it but it was a good question, it was thought-provoking.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_08: And so the obvious question answer for me without after thinking about a little bit is I'm we're trying to make this a generational business.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_08: We think that I want to see this pass on.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_08: And so a lot of the work that you do, even at a younger age, even in my 40s, I'm thinking about like I'm I'm I'm thinking about what is it going to take to sustain this business.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_08: And uh it uh it it takes uh a lot of intentionality, and I watch some families do it better than others, and that's not not and and we're we're working on it, we're a work in progress again.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_08: Um but I've been intentional once.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_08: I I I I told I told Phil and Colleen uh and Mallory Melissa all all through, like there's opportunities for you to join join the business.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_08: Uh I want you here if you want to be here.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_08: I don't want you here if you don't want to be here because you're gonna make all of us miserable.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_08: And so let's just let's just keep it let's hold it with a loose hand.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_08: And they were very uh very good about taking and uh like understanding like if you're gonna come, come.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_08: We're gonna be all in, let's be in.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_08: And I I can't be more pleased with uh I watch some of my friends not have uh nearly as capable uh uh next gens as what I do, and I'm very blessed.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_08: And so, but it is a process, it's it's it's being intentional.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_08: It's like we're we're we're working in sometimes decades of what are we going to do in this process in this area, and what are we gonna do in this area?
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_08: And it's really uh it's really about like not only transferring, you know, uh another thing that I thought is very insightful is that uh it's easy to transfer assets, it's really hard to transfer wisdom, you know, because you you're uh we as you witnessed, we have a lot of assets, and uh it's just just the nature of agriculture.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_08: And so, but at the same time, uh we that takes a lot of uh a lot of wisdom to be able to understand what your piece of that is, and it's really about uh even thinking about the next generation when you come into the business, because this is a long term, you're trying to make this, we want to move this to the sixth and the seventh and the eighth generation.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_06: Double clicking on that comment of this idea of assets and wisdom.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_06: And I think so oftentimes we miss that.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_06: And I love Lane and the team at Blue Trust and so many that just really ask that provoking question of generosity questions, mindset questions, legacy questions, what are we stewarding?
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_06: And it's so interesting that we're so busy, we're so fast-paced, we're always analyzing risk and moving that sometimes the simplest questions have the deepest impact to reframing things.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_08: I agree.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_06: And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_06: And so, I mean, we're surrounded in a place here uh with just the walls of talk.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_06: There's so many different things here.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_06: We're you know, sitting here with these incredible, you know, timeless vehicles kind of behind us.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_06: I want you to just kind of picture this as this last question as we come to an end is when you think about this some years from now, you're riding in the car, riding in the truck with one of your grandkids, what is if you could distill it down to a couple of thoughts to leave them as they think about what stewardship, what entrepreneurship, what are some of the greatest hits of kind of what God has taught you, what would be the big thing that you would want to leave without Yeah.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_08: It's probably the the thing it's it's so neat that Jesus continues to pursue me.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_08: Like like I like I've been a Christian now for I'm fifty-six and soon to be fifty-seven.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_08: And I've been, you know, got uh, you know, accepted Christ when I was five and in a vacation Bible school, and and but he he continues to teach me and pursue me and allow uh allow me to to learn and and some of the things he's been teaching me recently have been very impactful.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_08: I read um like books have been impactful to me all along, Halftime by Bob Buford, and just so many of those were formative for me.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_08: But the the one of the one of the recent ones in the last couple of years is the Lead with Prayer Book.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_08: Uh and really just like so impactful to think about how do I like you know, we we we prayed and obviously we had devotions, but actually, what is a prayer strategy?
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_08: We're trying to trying to run a business without inviting people in to pray for this business, you know, and for the people in our business.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_08: And we had a prayer chain and we did different things, but but we use that the echo prayer app that's talked about.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_08: We we've implemented different levels, whether it's a uh a personal prayer list to uh we have an executive team that we can share more freely about details about people's lives, and then we have a full one uh that we can get permission from other people that we pray for.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_08: And but prayer has really been one that he's been impactful, that God's been teaching me personally on, and then we've been trying to implement.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_08: And I think I think it's the spiritual practices that are um that I'm learning in in through business, and I would challenge them to continue to stay on that journey um with uh with God and and and really learn um and let him teach, teach you and be willing to uh willing to be vulnerable and and uh just just build that relationship.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_08: That's probably the the thing that like jumps out to me as I think about it.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_06: Amen.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_06: It's a gift to be with you.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for giving us a chance.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for hosting us uh just an incredible way that God is using you and your family, and it's just been a treat to be with you.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_06: So thank you.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, you bet.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_08: No, same, same here.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_08: Um I'm humbled that you would want to come and hear our story.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_08: You know, it's just we're thank we're very thankful that you you've thought of us and willing to do that.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_06: Amen.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_06: Well, friends, you know at the end of every episode, we like to leave you with the next step.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_06: We don't want this to just to be hype.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_06: We hope the conversation is provoking in many ways.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_06: But a couple of things that I just draw out from today's conversation that I'd just encourage you to take a next faithful step on.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_06: I think one, uh inviting other people into the conversation of how do you steward the business, how do you steward the assets, how do you steward the fruit?
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_06: That's a complicated conversation, no matter if it's a first generation, fifth generation, or tenth generation family business.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_06: And getting a river guide, getting a partner just to ask those complex yet simple direct questions.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_06: And so you can find some of our friends at uh the faith-driven investor website where you can see advisors and people and some of the great friends at Blue Trust and others that that you can just invite into a conversation.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_06: And I hope that you do that with people that are like-minded, people that get your why, that understand that, and that can really kind of meet you at the same place and and chart a path to a shared place of understanding and mission and alignment.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_06: The other thing, I I love that book about prayer.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_06: I love Peter, I love Cameron, all the guys that are that are pushing into that.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_06: I think that's such a great place for us to really explore.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_06: It's a place we often overlook as entrepreneurs.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_06: We're so busy building, we're so busy doing that, taking those moments to reflect.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_06: And I just love the book that they put together.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_06: I think it's a great opportunity for us as entrepreneurs just on a consistent basis to recognize that we we have a design to be dependent on drawing God in and that the beautiful things that can come out of that.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_06: So maybe check out those two things.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_06: It's a gift to be with you, and we look forward to seeing you in the next episode.
• 1:07:50
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• 1:07:52
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• 1:07:56
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• 1:08:01
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• 1:08:05
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• 1:08:08
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• 1:08:10
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• 1:08:13
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• 1:08:17
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• 1:08:19
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• 1:08:22
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