Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 322: Turning Veterans Into Cowboys — A Mission to Rebuild Agriculture with Jeremy Clark

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322: Turning Veterans Into Cowboys — A Mission to Rebuild Agriculture with Jeremy Clark · CattleUSA Daily

0:00
On the podcast today, we are welcoming Jeremy Clark on as our
0:04
guest. Jeremy is the founder of Vets to
0:07
Cowboys, a organization that has a commitment to take veterans
0:12
from active duty and make them into Cowboys, get them started
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in agriculture, and really give them purpose in life.
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Jeremy himself is a veteran and a first generation rancher down
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in Alabama, and Jeremy's story is really one that we'll stick
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with you. It's a story that was really
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meaningful to be able to hear, and I'm so excited to be able to
0:36
share with all of you guys today on why he started this
0:40
organization, what they're doing, and what the next year is
0:44
going to look like for them. Before we hop into today's
0:47
podcast episode with Jeremy, if you're watching on YouTube, make
0:50
sure you take a second to hit that subscribe button and like
0:52
this episode. If you're watching on any of our
0:54
other podcast platforms, make sure you take a second to go
0:57
follow the show, rate and review it and share it with a friend.
1:00
If you enjoyed today's podcast episode, without further ado,
1:02
let's go ahead and hear from Jeremy Clark.
1:07
Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast, your go to source for
1:11
the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the
1:14
updates shaping agriculture today.
1:16
I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate for
1:19
agriculture here to keep you informed and connected.
1:22
Now let's dive into today's episode.
1:30
Jeremy, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to have you on
1:34
today to share more about your story and what you are doing in
1:38
the world of agriculture and just a little bit about your
1:41
background and everything like that.
1:44
Before we hop in and really start talking about the impact
1:47
that you are focused on making right now, I would love if you
1:49
could share a little bit more about yourself, your background,
1:52
who you are, what you do, and kind of what brought you to the
1:55
life that you're living now. Absolutely.
1:57
Thank you for having me today. My name is Jeremy Clark.
2:00
I live in Grand Bay, AL, almost to the Gulf of Mexico.
2:04
I am a Army veteran. I retired out of the service
2:07
while I was on my last deployment.
2:09
My wife and I had a very long conversation about what we
2:12
wanted to do in life when I got home.
2:14
So I left the country again in November of 2020.
2:19
I came home November of 21. While I was gone, my wife was
2:25
selling everything. I told her, you know, if, if
2:29
we're going to have a reset on life when I get back, then we
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got to start now. So we sold our house, we sold
2:36
our couple of vehicles. We moved into, well, actually
2:41
she moved into a camper while I was still sitting in Syria.
2:44
But we, we completely reset our life because we wanted to get
2:48
into agriculture. And we use the time of me
2:51
leaving for this last tour as a way to hit the reset button.
2:55
And we came home and we started our operation on a 15 acre track
3:00
of land that we found. We're completely first
3:03
generation jumped right in, had no idea what we're doing.
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None of us had any family history in this.
3:09
We actually bought our their 4 cows and put them somewhere
3:13
because we didn't even have a fence yet.
3:15
We started from the bottom and worked our way up and that's
3:19
where our family operation C4 Cattle Company was born.
3:22
We got into agriculture as a new way of life and as a way to feed
3:28
our family. Our youngest son has a lot of
3:30
health problems and we realized that he couldn't eat protein
3:34
from the grocery store. So instead of what we were doing
3:38
in the beginning of we're taking veterans and our friends and
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we're going hunting and fishing. And we realized that kids with
3:44
these rare GI diseases, they could eat fresh meat that wasn't
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from the store, didn't have the preservatives, all that stuff.
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We, I got tiring. So we switched, jumped into
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agriculture. We started raising beef and lamb
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and we realized it worked. So as C4 Cattle Company
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continued to grow, you know, the people we were helping in the
4:04
beginning, they were like, how are you doing this?
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You know, what are you, you know, how did you get started?
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And I'm just like, jump in the truck, come help me catch these
4:13
cows. I'm going to need your help
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because I don't fully know what I'm doing.
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And I'll teach you something along the way.
4:18
And last year we helped about six other veterans get their
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farm numbers to get signed up with NRCS, an extension.
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And they're producing, they're selling animals, they're selling
4:30
meat. So we realized the program
4:32
worked and we didn't really have a name.
4:34
We didn't have a platform, we didn't know what to call
4:36
ourselves. We like to be very blunt and to
4:39
the point. So we we created vets to
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Cowboys. And what we're doing is we're
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relying on 3rd, 4th, 5th Gen. AG producers that know what
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they're doing. And granddad taught them to open
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their doors and teach people like us so we can make sure, you
4:57
know, agriculture is not disappearing.
4:59
We can create new producers. Hope that knocked it out in the
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short sweet version. Absolutely.
5:05
So going back to sitting around the kitchen table or on the
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phone with your wife, having that conversation of what am I
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going to do with my life when I get out?
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What walk us through a little bit more of the decision to step
5:18
into agriculture and kind of where that draw came from to
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kind of even get you into the shoes that you are in right now?
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So when I was a kid, we, we, we weren't in agriculture, but I
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lived in a place where the neighbor had horses and cows.
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You know, you played cowboy as a kid.
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You played Army as a kid. Always knew I wanted to go in
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the service. We have a long family line of
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being in the service. I didn't know what the time as a
5:44
kid that you couldn't be in the Army and be a cowboy at the same
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time. So I had to break it into
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pieces. I joined active duty.
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I was in 3rd Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning.
5:55
Had a wonderful time. I did several deployments with
5:57
them. I got hurt.
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I got off active duty. I joined the Guard, I got
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better, tried to do different things, caught another
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deployment and you know, we being in the National Guard
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versus active duty, we were, we were getting into small things
6:14
like poultry and waterfowl and sheep and goats.
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We were on a little three acre piece of land in Saraland, AL
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and that just wasn't enough. It wasn't the farm life or the
6:25
ranch life or the full AG vibe. It was a little hobby farm.
6:29
So when that call came to go to Syria and I left, me and my wife
6:33
had a serious talk about it. We're like, we've always talked
6:35
about doing this. Let's just do it like what are
6:40
we waiting on? We're obviously not getting any
6:42
younger, but we we got to sit down and make the decision at
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some point in time. And that last deployment and
6:50
with our current family needs, that was really the deciding
6:54
factor to take the leap and make a decision that you know, 15
7:00
acres isn't a lot in the AG world.
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We made it work and we we created a business out of it.
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And now in three years we've grown to 140 acres.
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So it was a jump. It's something we always wanted.
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We just had to get brave enough to do it.
7:16
Yeah. So you get home from Syria from
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your last deployment, your wife is living in a camper with your
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kids. And you're like, we're doing
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this thing, let's go. We're doing it.
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We were starting with these 15 acres.
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We're going all and we've sold our house.
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We've sold our vehicles. We have no other option at this
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point, right? Walk us through kind of those
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first few months and that first year or anything like that and
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just that journey of really diving in and what that looked
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like for you guys when you returned.
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So the first thing we did when I got home was we got a bigger
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camper while I was gone. Heather gotten one.
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The four of us realized we needed more room.
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So we immediately went from a bumper pool to a fifth wheel.
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We went on vacation. We started the search for the
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property. When I say we had a whole reset
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on life, we we had a whole reset on life.
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Sold everything, gotten out of debt.
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We're starting over. You know, the tiny home
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lifestyle. But I've just come off of the
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orders for the guard, but we'd actually both lost our jobs.
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So when I come home, normally you come back from deployment in
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the guard, you pick back up at your civilian job.
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We both worked for the same company at the time and the
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company just disappeared about 8 months in to my 12 month tour.
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So we had a complete reset on life and we're like, well, it's,
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it's time to do it. So we, we bought 15 acres.
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So that would have been November 21, that would have been in the
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summer of 22 going towards the fall when we closed on our
8:55
property and move the camper there and we had to start over
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with everything. The property wasn't completely
9:01
cleared. The property wasn't fenced and
9:03
there was a pond. It didn't have it drained.
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So the property would flood. We had to build a driveway.
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We had to do everything while we're running out of this 45
9:13
foot fifth wheel and at the same time was all right, you know,
9:17
it's been 6 months since I got home.
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I got to get a job, so I got a part time job while we created
9:24
our own construction company. So everything I did before I
9:27
left for other people, since they closed and moved away and
9:31
disappeared, we decided we'd create our own business.
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So while at the time of jumping into agriculture, we're trying
9:38
to start our small construction company because we're both
9:41
unemployed. That was a big life change and
9:44
another leap, but it's been successful and worked and our
9:48
company and our agriculture side both kind of go hand in hand and
9:52
we learned a lot the first year. We were very fortunate to.
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I called him my adopted grandpa. I met a lifelong cattlemen down
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the street named Norman Birch. He actually passed away last
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year. He was 95.
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But he ran cattle until the day he died.
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I kind of relied on Mr. Norman for three years to kind of show
10:12
me the ropes. And it worked out for him
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because, you know, he went from his Walker to a wheelchair to a
10:18
tractor, but he couldn't really do as much.
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But he was still running, you know, 60-70 head of cattle on
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his property. And he needed help.
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I needed help. And I got lucky to find somebody
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like that that that would teach me.
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And looking at what he did for me and the people I was bringing
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to help me, we realized that there's a need for this.
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They're first Gen. AG people getting started that
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don't know what they're doing and they they need a little
10:43
shove in the right direction. Yeah.
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So walk us through that journey of building what you have now of
10:50
bats to Cowboys and turning these people that are leaving
10:55
active duty, bringing them home and saying, hey, we're going to
10:59
give you a purpose. You're going to create a life
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for yourself. You're going to get involved in
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agriculture, which is a community that wants to have
11:06
you, that wants to have hard working individuals that want to
11:09
keep rejuvenating it and bringing new life in and
11:12
everything like that. Like walk us through the
11:14
creation of that, of having that conversation with Norman and
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then going into actually building what you guys have
11:23
established today. So it was a huge team effort on
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my family's part. You know, it wouldn't happen
11:30
without our family doing it. You know, me transition in
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agriculture from the service was a huge relief for me.
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My wife makes a joke about it all the time, about when we got
11:41
into chickens that, you know, I had a pet chicken that would sit
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on my shoulder and I'd walk around.
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And that was my transition from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, being
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in the infantry, all the stuff that we do.
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And our culture was peaceful. It was a new way of life.
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It's also a different version of selfless service.
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So we were able to connect those and a lot of the, you know,
12:05
military beliefs and values greatly transition over into
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agriculture. So we, we kind of realized that,
12:12
you know, if we, we get the assistance and introduce this to
12:17
people that it's going to help them in more ways than one.
12:19
So in the first year, we, like I said, we, we didn't know what
12:23
we're doing. We, we joined our cattlemen
12:26
association, we joined Alpha, we joined young farmers.
12:31
We started trying to find these organizations and events so we
12:34
can learn things. Because in the first year on 15
12:38
acres, you can't really run a lot ahead of catalog 15 acres.
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I learned some of that the hard way.
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I kind of knew better, but didn't know better at the same
12:45
time. But we were buying and selling
12:47
and flipping and moving and, you know, we had 25 cows at one
12:52
point. I was like, I got so, you know,
12:54
we got to figure out what we're doing because, you know, we're
12:57
overgrazing. We have too many cows and the
12:59
feed bill was going up. So having somebody like Norman
13:02
step in to show us these things. And Norman worked with my wife
13:07
Heather and IA Bunch. We did everything from helping
13:11
him haul his cattle to the market.
13:12
And we'd meet the vet over there and help the vet do things.
13:16
My wife helped with that do AC section in the middle of the
13:19
field one night. Anything that we could get our
13:21
hands on, we're getting our hands on.
13:24
And it was thanks to people like Norman Birch that stepped in and
13:28
were willing to teach us that we were able to pass that on to
13:32
somebody else. So in the 1st 12 months was
13:35
hectic. We were, I used to make a joke
13:37
about it to the, the local radio person that I was life alert for
13:41
the elderly farmers in Grand Bay because they all knew that if
13:45
something happened, because I was so eager to learn that
13:48
Heather and I jump in the truck and come over no matter what, if
13:51
they were stuck in a ditch or the tractor wouldn't crank,
13:54
whatever we were, we were seizing every opportunity we
13:57
could. And it's, it's been great for us
14:00
and great for other people because we're, we're, we're
14:03
really helping people. We, we weren't looking at it as
14:06
a way of helping people in so many ways.
14:08
But you know, we, we cover mental health, we cover food
14:12
safety and security. We cover workforce development
14:16
skill bridge type things and then we cover actually replacing
14:20
the dwindling number of farms that we're seeing in our state
14:24
and hopefully across the country.
14:26
Wow. I do want to talk a little bit
14:27
about the mental health aspect of it too, because your wife had
14:30
mentioned it, that it was your piece when you came back from
14:34
being overseas. And I'm sure that that is a big
14:37
aspect that you guys push onto your veterans as well, of
14:41
there's a lot of peace in this and it gives you purpose and all
14:44
of these other things. But a lot of them are probably
14:47
coming back with a wide range of different things that they're
14:51
processing and dealing with themselves.
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Whether it's just, hey, I've seen a lot of stuff and I just
14:55
have to process it, or whether they're coming back with
14:57
something like PTSD. How do you guys kind of walk
15:00
through that within your business and setting these
15:03
people up and setting them up with an agriculture on the
15:06
mental health side as well? So we have a lot of it that we
15:09
have a brochure that's on our Facebook page.
15:12
We have a website, obviously my phone number is floating around
15:16
everywhere. Mental health among veterans is
15:20
a big issue. You know, you hear the number
15:23
about 22 a day. It's actually much higher than
15:26
that. It's not recorded correctly.
15:28
You're looking more in the fees everyday of veterans that take
15:31
their own lives. Some of it's PTSD related, some
15:34
of it is masked and it is more of a TBI related, which is a
15:39
traumatic brain injury. I've dealt and struggled with
15:41
both. You see all of these programs
15:44
that are helping veterans in so many different ways.
15:47
There's vacations, hunting trips and peer-to-peer and group
15:52
therapy and there's retreats and gardening and equine therapy and
15:58
goat therapy and service dogs and there's all these different
16:02
programs out there, which is great.
16:04
And we, we need it. We have to have it because not
16:06
everybody can be treated the same or deals with things the
16:10
same. So not every veteran is going to
16:12
get help in the same way. So we need options with our
16:16
aspect of it. The cowboy way of life is a
16:20
different tool. I actually it, I kind of made a,
16:23
a funny joke about it, but we were, I didn't have a name for
16:26
it. I just, I told these guys I was
16:28
like, man, there's something different when I'm out working
16:31
with show calves or in the yearling pen and I've got a calf
16:34
that is, you know, like my dog and it won't leave me alone.
16:38
It's licking me, it's laying in my lap.
16:40
You know, I'm practically riding it.
16:42
It just there's something about it.
16:44
So I reached out to a program called Vets Recover, which is a
16:49
new medical facility in Mobile. And I told him, I said, hey, you
16:52
guys got people in need. I want to invite some people
16:55
over. I talked to my wife, you know, I
16:57
said, hey, what, what day can we do something?
16:59
They need help. And she was like, you know,
17:02
let's do Friday at 3:00. We'll get everybody together.
17:04
We'll go to the feet pin. I have some vets come out that
17:08
I'm working on training. They help me catch them all,
17:10
move them. And we called it Operation
17:12
Bovine Therapy, just, you know, a funny play with words.
17:17
And there was one guy that was like, man, I don't, he's like,
17:20
what are you talking about? Like, is this, is this like
17:22
equine therapy? You know what I was like, well,
17:25
technically you're supposed to have a therapist.
17:26
And there's a lady there that dabbles in it.
17:29
We're working with a lot of them.
17:30
But today it was her. Last Friday it was just us.
17:35
We had a 20 plus veterans and Gold Star family members come
17:39
out and I had five yearlings that are show cabs or show cabs
17:44
and training in a field. And I got a bag of cattle cubes
17:48
and I introduced myself. We went round Robin.
17:51
Everybody got to talk for a minute and I was like just just
17:54
pet them, just feed them, take a picture with them, ask
17:57
questions. And this is some peer-to-peer,
18:00
some camaraderie. Time.
18:02
Vets Recover spoke about their medical facility.
18:04
It was just about us all being together.
18:06
But the faces that you could see in the smiles and the laughter
18:10
and the relief from somebody standing there and getting
18:13
licked to death by my show calf, just it made it worth it.
18:17
And we realized that this is just another tool in the toolbox
18:22
that we can use to help veterans or anybody.
18:26
We go and do other events for our community that are outside
18:30
of the veteran community. But a lot of people in the in
18:32
the cattle industry may take it for granted.
18:34
You know, it just something that's really helping people
18:37
that didn't grow up around it. And it's it's a new Ave. that we
18:41
didn't know existed until we kind of experimented.
18:45
You know, I got cows and my life got better.
18:49
Our family got better. We breed Texas Longhorns.
18:52
Their temperament is just amazing.
18:54
We have our first cow we bought. We call her Grandma.
18:57
I can go up and just lay down in the field next to her and feed
19:02
her treats and we'll listen to the radio.
19:04
And, you know, the problems of the day are gone.
19:08
And it's something that we're just, we're unveiling it to the
19:11
public that we have a new idea that can help solve a lot of
19:15
problems and mental health issues can be one of.
19:19
Yeah, absolutely. I think that so many people that
19:22
grew up in the agricultural industry can share their own
19:25
stories of just the peace that you feel on the ranch or with
19:28
the livestock or different things like that.
19:31
I mean, not necessarily in the sorting pen when it's branding
19:33
day, do I feel a ton of peace, but I feel a lot of peace on all
19:37
of the other days. But.
19:40
What you. Guys are doing.
19:43
I got a picture on the front of our brochure that my wife took
19:47
of me and my face is lit up. I'm coming through the pecan
19:50
orchard. I'm riding my horse.
19:52
I was messing with the cows. You know, outside of I was
19:56
getting the same feelings like while I was jumping out of
19:59
planes or roping out of a helicopter, the the same level
20:02
endorphins, all the things that you love and want to do.
20:06
Just happened at the same time. Yeah, absolutely.
20:09
So when you're really moving forward with what you guys are
20:12
doing right now of connecting veterans to mentors and really
20:17
getting them involved in agriculture and saying, hey,
20:19
this is a path forward for you, this will give you purpose, we
20:22
have mentors for you, this is how you're going to go about it.
20:25
What is that? What is that kind of look like?
20:27
And then where are you guys building this into?
20:30
What is kind of the future of vets to Cowboys look like as you
20:34
continue to build? Hopefully, so.
20:37
I'll start at the end and work my way backwards.
20:39
Hopefully the future is that our program or something similar is
20:44
in every state you look at. The last survey they closed out
20:48
in 22, Alabama lost 8% of its farms, which was close to 4000
20:53
family owned farms. The country as a whole lost 7.
20:57
Every meeting you go to at a cattlemen, national cattlemen,
21:01
you know, your farmer federation, your young farmer
21:04
meetings, your extension offices, everywhere they're
21:07
talking about how we're losing farmers, we're losing farmland.
21:11
We're trying to show them that there is a group of people that
21:17
are 30s and 40s that are retired or maybe they didn't retire,
21:23
maybe they just did, you know, 4-8 years.
21:25
Whatever it is, there is a different group of people that
21:29
are willing to step in and fill those roles of the aging out
21:33
farmer. They just need guidance in the
21:35
right direction and some hands on training and we can slowly
21:39
replenish some of the numbers that we're losing.
21:42
That's the future goal is that we work with state extension, we
21:46
work with state cattlemen, we work with state farmer
21:49
Federation's, we work with any other military program that's
21:52
doing something like it. And we get into all 50 states
21:56
we, you know, get our name in with the USDA and the military
22:01
veteran agricultural liaison, which there's one guy doing that
22:05
job. We hope to see more, but we need
22:07
the country to know that there are people that want to fill
22:11
those roles that are diminishing.
22:12
We just got a point in the right direction.
22:14
I'm going to offer them a little bit of help.
22:16
They're willing to step up and answer the call just like they
22:19
stepped up and answered the call to serve their country.
22:22
It really is a different version of selfless service in the AG
22:25
business and veterans play right into that.
22:29
Our short term stuff and what we've been doing.
22:32
So that's the Cowboys. You know, we kind of unleashed
22:35
it the beginning of this year. Conveniently, it was an election
22:38
year at the same time, which honestly didn't realize because
22:41
we've been so busy and doing stuff with the mood and growing
22:44
and work. And that's the Cowboys and
22:47
calves. And, you know, I, I didn't
22:49
realize that Somebody told me the other day, they're like you,
22:52
you picked a good time to, you know, breach this topic to the
22:55
public. And I'm like, what do you mean?
22:56
They're like, it's an election year.
22:58
You know, you're a veteran that's helping with agriculture.
23:01
The politicians are going to eat you up.
23:03
And I'm like, well, you know, if, if they can help, yeah.
23:06
If not, they need to get out the way.
23:09
You know, it's we unveiled it. We've gotten a lot of traction
23:13
and thanks to people like you that have helped share our
23:16
story. We've been on the news, we've
23:18
been on podcasts, we've been on the radio, We've done newspaper
23:21
articles. We did RFDTV live and they're
23:24
doing another story with us. Western Livestock Journal is
23:27
putting an article out about us. Little me, I'm three years in
23:31
the cattle business and I'm like, holy crap, this is getting
23:34
some traction. This is working.
23:35
We're helping people every day. I just got off the phone with a
23:39
veteran that reached out from Florida and I told him, I said,
23:42
hey, I got to get off the phone and I got a podcast in 5
23:45
minutes. But here's my card, my link, you
23:47
know, we added into the group meet.
23:48
We're doing whatever we can. We, we have to campaign right
23:52
now because we need more teachers, We need more
23:56
volunteers. I just added a lady to the
23:58
group. Her and her husband are both
24:00
veterans. They bought 20 acres and live in
24:03
Montana and they're trying to learn from us.
24:05
So, you know, I, I jumped right in, said yes, ma'am, absolutely.
24:09
I'll help you. I'd love to.
24:11
Here's our online beef quality assurance training.
24:15
Here's the master of beef advocacy training.
24:18
Here's the USDA webinar that's in a couple days for veterans.
24:22
So I'm, I'm helping people anywhere I can remotely.
24:27
Plus, you know, if I, I don't know about right now, but if I
24:32
get the diesel money, I'll go to them.
24:34
We're, we're building that network to where now, like I had
24:38
a person reach out in Dothan, AL, 3 hours away.
24:42
I've got connections there. We're helping him.
24:44
He's got his farm number, he's working with extension, he's
24:48
doing the cattlemen, he's done some of his online training.
24:52
So we're we're connecting, the applications are coming in for
24:56
people that want help. They're finding us through
24:58
Facebook articles like we're doing podcasts, like we're doing
25:01
today, and they're reaching out, we're connecting them to every
25:04
resource we have and we're trying to build that team of, of
25:08
resources so we can help everybody.
25:11
Yeah, wow. It's so incredible to see the
25:14
amount of traction you've gotten over just the past few months of
25:18
really bringing this to the public.
25:19
And I think that it shows the need on the veteran side and
25:23
then the want to serve on the cattle producer side as well.
25:27
And I just cannot wait to see this continue to come to
25:31
fruition and everything that is going to come out of this as
25:36
well. Jeremy, as we we wrap up today's
25:39
podcast, is there anything else that you would like to leave
25:42
with our audience members today? Find us on Facebook.
25:45
That's the Cowboys. If you want to participate in
25:49
the program, shoot us a message. If you want to be a volunteer,
25:53
you want to be a teacher, you want to get involved, shoot me a
25:56
message. My cell phone number's there.
25:59
The email's there, you know, like share, follow, all that
26:02
stuff so we can get the word out that the last AG survey closed
26:06
out in 22. You know, America lost 7% of its
26:09
farms. That's not even covering all of
26:11
the COVID numbers in the last couple natural disasters.
26:15
The last survey is going to be even worse.
26:17
Average age of farmers is 58 and up.
26:19
I think it's honestly older than that.
26:21
We're we're losing farmers. And you don't have to just be
26:25
cattle. I, I just helped a Desert Storm
26:29
era veteran become a sheep farmer.
26:31
It's anything we've, we've got programs like Operation Grow,
26:35
they're helping with specialty crops and row crops.
26:40
We're trying to target livestock because of what we're seeing
26:43
with the food and with mental health and, you know, most
26:48
people they're, they're not going to be able to jump into
26:50
becoming a big, you know, successful row cropper, but you
26:54
can become a successful livestock producer on five
26:57
10/15/20 acres. It it can be done.
27:00
We'll, we'll help you every step of the way.
27:03
My wife's Heather, she will help you with all the paperwork side.
27:07
The you know, farm number LLC's your EIN.
27:10
We're we're here to help. We know the program works.
27:13
We, we need more volunteers. We need more teachers, whether
27:17
it's digital or remote or you want to come see us.
27:21
We're building a new catch pen. We're building a new working
27:25
facility. We're going to fundraise.
27:27
And by the end of the year, I'm hoping to have one of those, you
27:30
know, Wrangler shoot pen combos that's on a gooseneck.
27:34
So we can go to people not just to help them, but at the same
27:37
time it'll give us more locations to teach classes while
27:41
we're helping them. Because, you know, I only have
27:43
so many bull calves. We can only teach, you know,
27:46
castrating on Jeremy's bull calves so many times.
27:49
You know, we can only do that once if you're doing it right.
27:52
We want to get the word out. You know, we hope that people
27:55
receive our message and know that we're here to collaborate,
27:59
not compete. And we're here for veterans.
28:02
We're here for farmers and ranchers.
28:04
We're here, you know, for the little first Gen. guy getting
28:07
in. And, you know, my wife and I
28:10
want to help as many people as we can the way it helped us.
28:14
And we, you know, we don't want them to struggle the way we did
28:18
in the first couple years if they don't have to.
28:20
Absolutely wow. Well, Jeremy, this has been such
28:23
an amazing conversation and I really enjoyed getting to hear
28:27
more about your guys's mission and the vision that you have for
28:30
vets to Cowboys and where this next year is going to take you,
28:33
Lord only knows, but it is going to be something really amazing.
28:36
I, I absolutely know that and I can't wait to be able to
28:40
continue to follow along on what you guys are all doing and hell,
28:43
maybe have you on the podcast to hear next year and you get to
28:46
share all about the successes of what this past year has looked
28:49
like for you guys as well. So, but to all of our audience
28:52
members, Jeremy mentioned quite a few links, some sort of
28:57
Facebook, their website, all of those things I'm going to have
29:00
linked down in the show notes. So make sure you go check all of
29:02
those out and you can follow along with Jeremy and vets to
29:05
Cowboys and their mission and what they're doing and get in
29:09
contact with them. If you know of someone or you
29:11
are someone who wants to get involved, involved in this
29:14
amazing program. Jeremy, I cannot thank you
29:16
enough for coming on today, for sharing your story, for taking
29:20
the time out of your day. Thank you to be here and to
29:23
share everything that you're doing.
29:24
So thank you so much. And to all of our audience
29:27
members, we will see you all next time on another episode of
29:31
the Cattle USA Daily Podcast. Have a good one y'all.