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5. Farm Foundation's Meet Your Farmer Podcast with Hannah Borg
22 Plays30 days ago
Farm Foundation’s Meet Your Farmer podcast featured Hannah Borg in season1, episode 5.
Hannah is a sixth-generation farmer from Wakefield, Nebraska. In 2019, she returned home to the family business, Borg Farms. She and her family raise crops, cattle, and chickens for Costco. She holds a degree in agricultural communications from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is in the 2024 cohort of Farm Foundation's Young Farmer Accelerator program.
In the episode, she discusses what it was like to grow up on the farm, navigating the transitions between generations, how she came to be raising chickens for Costco, among many other topics.
Find Amanda on Instagram: itshannahborg
Music: "Country Roads" by Sergii Pavkin from Pixabay
Reach us at communication@farmfoundation.org.
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Transcript
Introduction to Meet Your Farmer Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Meet Your Farmer, a podcast by Farm Foundation. I'm your host, Naomi Mijan. If you don't know Farm Foundation, we're a nonprofit located in the Chicago area, working to promote understanding at the intersections of agriculture and society.
00:00:22
Speaker
We've been accelerating solutions for agriculture since the 1930s and we're excited to have you join us for this episode. The goal of this podcast is to help you get to know just a little bit more about the American farmers who are producing the food, fuel, and fiber we all use every day.
Meet Hannah Borg: Sixth-Generation Farmer
00:00:41
Speaker
I'm excited to welcome Hannah Borg onto the show. Hannah is a sixth generation farmer from Wakefield, Nebraska. She's at Borg Farms and they raise crops, cattle, and chickens for Costco. After attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and studying agricultural communications, Hannah returned home to the family business in 2019.
00:01:03
Speaker
She's also an accomplished photographer and is currently in the 2024 cohort of the Farm Foundation Young Farmer Accelerator Program. Thanks for making the time to chat with me, Hannah. Thanks so much for having me.
The Role of Photography in Farm Life
00:01:16
Speaker
I was looking around on your on your Instagram and looking around on social media. I love your photography style. The celebrity quality that you bring to the photos. So you call me accomplished. I'm not I'm not sure what you had to do to use that word. I'm not sure if I'm accomplished, but it's just kind of a side hobby, creative hustle off the farm revenue making project that I do that has just organically grown over the years. Well, I'll say you're a really good photographer. OK, thank you. I like that better.
Growing Up on a Farm: A Unique Experience
00:01:49
Speaker
um So you grew up on the farm, you say with a feedlot out the front window and a cornfield out back. um And that's probably not how most people listening to this podcast grew up. ah So I was just wondering, as you know you went to university, you've spent time off the farm. I'm just curious, what have you noticed sticks out to non-farmers about how you grew up?
00:02:13
Speaker
So my family hosts a lot of people on the farm that aren't around farms know nothing. In fact, this weekend, my mom hosted um my mom has a bad habit or maybe good habit of anyone she meets. She's like, you can come out to the farm. We'd love to give you a tour. And some people take her up on that. And this weekend, a couple from Omaha, they're entrepreneurs.
00:02:37
Speaker
um They've lived in Nebraska their whole life and they took my mom up on the offer to have a tour of the farm on Sunday. So we've done that a lot over the years. And I think the feedback that we get, well specifically this couple on Sunday, they were saying like, I've lived in Nebraska my whole life and I had no idea this is what farms are.
00:03:01
Speaker
And I think that's often like people just don't know. And like it goes both ways. You know, a lot of times there's people coming out to the farm and I have no idea their world. And so we all kind of get um into our own lanes. We don't lift our eyes that often. And so when people do get to come on the farm, they're just so amazed. They look they're amazed about how big the equipment are. They're amazed at all the details.
00:03:28
Speaker
um and systems that go into raising livestock. um They're amazed about just the generational aspect because we're really proud of that. I'm sixth generation on the farm like you mentioned. And so I think it's just been fun to see people's reactions, just their eyes are open. They're like, whoa, I had no idea. and I called it my mom's bad habit of opening opening up our farm doors, but it's probably a good one over the years. We just, you know, we love to show off what we have because we know it's pretty unique. Yeah. Yeah. I was listening to another podcast that you had recorded.
00:04:04
Speaker
And um you were talking about how growing up, you it sounded like you have a lot of liberty to just, because your family is nearby. um I'm not sure how that distance is, but you were talking about, I don't know if it was an ATV, you were just hopping on it and you could go over to visit grandma. And I was like, wow, that's so different from anything that I experienced growing up.
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's really a core memory from my childhood. So my grandparents live ah about three, four miles from our home place. And my grandpa passed away 14 years ago. and My grandma's 90 years old and she still lives on the home place. But some of those early childhood memories of freedom is getting on the four-wheeler and going down the road to go to grandma's house. There's a minimum maintenance road and kind of a back way to get there. so the likelihood of meeting anyone on the road was really slim to none. um But yeah, those are our first, you know, kind of chances at freedom and mom would just say go over to grandma's and we'd hang up, hang out at grandma and grandpa's all day and then be home before it got dark out before you had to turn the lights on the four wheeler.
00:05:13
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, we, we drive a lot of four wheelers and side by sides. That's, you know, oftentimes the main mode of transportation. And especially in the summer, we just go on rides. Like you could easily take a vehicle, but there's something about going down the road on a four wheeler that is just a little bit sweeter. And yeah, I've gotten to do that for my childhood. And that's another thing. Like that's, ah that's a normal for me. Uh, And to have that freedom, to you know go down the road a few miles, and I know that's not normal for everyone, but it really worked out for us. It gave us the freedom and there was safety nets within. you know mom Mom knew where we were at and where we were going and grandma knew that we were heading back home. And yeah, just it's it was a really sweet childhood growing up on the farm. if but sounds That sounds um like as a kid, I would have been all about it.
00:06:02
Speaker
um so And I don't realize that's not normal until I talk to other people, right? because we ah Even at my grandparents' place, like we had the run of a whole section. like we could go We could go across the road into the pasture. There's a pond there. We could go to the crook and play.
00:06:22
Speaker
um They would check in on us every once in a while, but I think that freedom is just really essential to a childhood where you get to explore through creative play. ah my I'm one of 10 cousins. I'm the oldest out of 10 cousins. And we all grew up close. And so, um you know, there's always cousins around to play. It was just, I don't want to over romanticize it, but I'm romanticizing it because it was a really sweet childhood.
00:06:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. So you mentioned and and I mentioned the sixth generation. um You're the sixth generation on the
Generational Farming and Family Pride
00:06:57
Speaker
farm. So the farm was started 135 years ago. Is that the farm you're on now like the actual farm or was that your grandparents farm?
00:07:06
Speaker
my grandparents place. um It was 140 years ago that it was started. um And that is still in the family. And that's the few miles away that I was referencing earlier that I take the four wheeler too. So my grandma, 90 years old, she still lives there. She is actively involved in all of our lives. She kind of knows what's going on every day. She is starting to slow down a teeny tiny bit, which is kind of you know, it's a hard step to go into as a family. um But she still makes meals for the guys, so right now we're in the harvest, or we're in the field harvesting, and they all have lunch boxes in their um tractors and trucks today, and those were all made by grandma.
00:07:45
Speaker
So grandma gets up, she loves to have a job to do. She claims she doesn't like making meals. And I don't think she likes making the meals, but I think she likes having that to do. um And yeah, so another ah layer of explanation of how the family works is my dad is one of four brothers and the four brothers all farm individually, but together. And I know that does not make sense, um but there's four board brothers all within a few miles and we all have our own separate and um operations like at my mom and dad um our place here we have our feedlot we have our livestock um and each brother has that separate place but right now there's four brothers working together and two nephews working together in the field and I know that's unique um I got to stay around and be on the livestock side right now so that's why I'm not in the field
00:08:43
Speaker
Um, but it is, uh, I'm starting to ramble a whole thing because I just love talking about my family. Um, but at that home place, that is a home base for the Borg brothers. And if something breaks down, you know, that shop is full of things, that's where we go to. Um, but then there's also four different individual brother places and that's where I'm at today. Got it. Got it. So it's, I've just been reflecting on, um, farmers always,
00:09:13
Speaker
tell you what generation farmer they are. I'm just curious about that dynamic and especially being a sixth generation. That's such a long tradition. So what does it mean to you? Like, how does that inform how you think about yourself to be the sixth generation farmer on the farm that was started, you know, over 100 years ago?
00:09:34
Speaker
I love that question because I didn't get to be the sixth generation on this farm by accident. you know I think farmers, when we do, you know it's it's pretty common for me. I'm sixth generation on my family's farm. It's common for me to say that. and it's My dad's the fifth generation. That didn't happen by accident. It didn't happen by accident that my grandpa um was the fourth generation.
00:09:58
Speaker
And you know it it won't happen by accident if there's a seventh generation on the farm. So there's a sense of pride that goes into passing that that land down generation to generation because it is so hard to do it. It takes so many intentional conversations, hard conversations sometimes, planning ahead.
00:10:18
Speaker
um just managing all the different things that come into um estate planning and you know successfully planning passing down the land from generation to generation. So right now the land is only in fifth generation or well fourth you know my grandma she there's land in her name and there's land in my dad's name. So in reality, I'm only sixth generation to work on this farm. I'm not sixth generation to own this farm. And there's a difference in that. ah But someday my brother, sister and I will own this farm and that you know that won't happen by accident. And I'm really proud to say that
00:10:59
Speaker
We do have those hard conversations. Just yesterday, I was riding with my dad in the grain cart. I don't see my dad much right now because he leaves for the field about 7.30, gets home at dark. like I'm not seeing him much unless I go to the field, which is totally fine. um But we were having conversations at the grain cart yesterday of, you know,
00:11:18
Speaker
and I'm not even sure we got how we got on the topic, but it was it's within casual conversations, us thinking about someday it will look like this, or this is what's going well today. These
Farm Operations and Sustainability Practices
00:11:30
Speaker
these are things that we can't change today, the different dynamics that we can't change today.
00:11:35
Speaker
um so i I think we've gotten to a better place about that. It used to be kind of a bigger deal to talk about, you know, what does someday look like? um But it happens in kind casual conversations of like someday I'll look like this, someday we'll do this.
00:11:52
Speaker
and I think that's why my family's been able to pass it on from generation to generation. Because I actually asked my dad yesterday, and it's so random we're having this conversation today because i I wasn't thinking about this when I was talking to my dad, but I was like, do you remember having conversations with your dad? Like how we're having conversations today?
00:12:13
Speaker
And he said no, but he said grandpa talked about estate planning and transitional through his actions more so like he was really intentional about um planning that generational tra ah transition more through his actions and his words. My dad and mom, you know they talk about things you know more than just showing things. And so every generation is different. My generation will look different when we you know hopefully, God willing, and pass it on to the next generation.
00:12:46
Speaker
um So it just it just happens with a lot of work and a lot of effort. And there's a lot of pride. There's just so much pride that goes into building something and maintaining it. And I think that's why a lot of farmers are just so prideful about, hey, I'm third, even to be second generation on a farm is a big deal. And I don't take that lightly that I can say that I'm sixth generation. Yeah, for sure. I just i as you were talking about that, I was just thinking about all the challenges that farmers and the United States have
00:13:17
Speaker
you know, faced within that time and um like the farm crisis in the eighties and the fact that you guys pulled through all that and you're still, you're still doing it. I still hear stories about my family from the families from the eighties. I think that will always be in the back of the minds of people that were farming through the eighties. I hope that me and my siblings don't have to live through something like that. And I think there's probably a,
00:13:45
Speaker
ah you know, or things in place that it won't ever get that bad. I choose to believe that. But um there's my dad makes references to the 80s quite often. Well, I guess depending on the subject. But yeah, it's something that haunts him. Like my family did almost lose some land and he doesn't know how grandpa was able to make it work. um And his stories like that, like they, my grandparents did everything they could to keep the land um to keep the bank away from taking away their land. And that is something that is in my bones that I know that I can do the same someday too. of Like I will do everything in my power to work hard to make sure this land stays in my family. Yeah. So at your current operation, it's um you raise cattle and chickens.
00:14:40
Speaker
and I'm assuming the crops that you raise are to go to feed the cattle and chicken? Yeah, so we have about 1,000 head feedlot and we've actually, ah we have it full of calves right now. We've gotten like 10 loads within, 10 and a half loads and within the last two weeks. And so all all the feed, let me back up. In our feedlot, we get them about 550 to 650 pounds, 700 pounds.
00:15:07
Speaker
um um Actually, I can see the chart in the background. like One group came in at 635 pounds, another group came in at 710 pounds. So we get them as wean calves. All of our cattle come in from South Dakota and Montana. some We got a group in from Wyoming this year. But anyways, all of our cattle come in as wean calves and then we feed them to 1,000 pounds and we take them to another feedlot to be finished there and then we buy yearlings to fill the feedlot again and then we finish them to finishing or like fat fatening weight and then send them to the processor from here and all the feed that we feed the cattle we grow within a few miles of the farm um so
00:15:49
Speaker
viewer to look at um out this window over here that no one can see. I can you know see the feed pile and there's ground alfalfa from a hay field just a few miles from here. We have earlage, silage and then right now we're feeding our ween calves. When they come in for the first few days grass hay that came from a pasture not that far from here. um We have rolled corn and then the only thing in their diet that we don't grow ourselves is the liquid protein um and that's in a tank and that comes from a town a little ways away. So yeah, we feed all of our cattle, um you know, the ingredients that we grow ourselves and then the manure from the cattle yards go back out to the field to fertilize the field. And then we also have a small cow calf herd. My brother and I, mostly my brother has ownership of it, but I have a few
Diversification Strategies in Farming
00:16:41
Speaker
cows as well. But I insert myself into the conversation more with cows because I do a lot of the labor with my brother.
00:16:47
Speaker
um We have a few pears that we calve out every year, and you know we're growing that herd. And I love calving season. Calving season is pretty intense, but it's really fun to bring new life into the world. So we have you know we have feedlot cattle, we have cows, um and then we also have chickens. So that's the livestock side, and then the crops, the corn, soybeans, and alfalfa.
00:17:12
Speaker
to keep going on more on that point, we're very diversified um for our area. Like a lot of people have livestock and crops, um but not necessarily to the scale that we do. And when I say scale, like we have, you know, feedlot, cows, chickens, like that's pretty diversified. um But, you you know, earlier we were talking about me being the sixth generation.
00:17:39
Speaker
To get to this point, like you have to understand what traditions are valued. And a tradition that we value as a family is diversification. And so generally when we're making money off of crops, we're generally not making as much money off of cattle and vice versa. When we're making cattle off of, we're making money off of cattle, we're probably not making as much money on crops. It's, you know, not quite that simplified, but it's a way to deliver it a little bit easier. And so we value a tradition. We value just diversification. um And that works really well for our family. That kind of leads into my next question really well, because I'm thinking about traditions. So I'm assuming you're the operation has always kind of I think the chickens are the newest addition, right?
00:18:29
Speaker
The chickens, yeah, kind of really random thing. um Costco, we all know the company Costco. Do you shop at Costco? I do shop at Costco. Okay. Do you raise my chickens?
00:18:41
Speaker
Well, you're on the if you're in Chicago um or on the eastern side of the Missouri River, we do not. um So Costco is based out of Seattle. And they said to themselves, like we want to um we want to produce a very consistent product. And that's that $5 chicken. And they landed in Nebraska. And so in Nebraska, they built in Fremont, Nebraska, which is the eastern side of Nebraska, just north of Omaha. They said to themselves,
00:19:10
Speaker
um they They built a system that's fully integrated. So they have a feed mill, a processing plant, and a hatchery. They're in Fremont. And then they work with a hundred about 100 partners like my family, but then 60 miles of Fremont. And so we're considered um Yeah, partners, contractors, contract growers for them. So we get 60,000 chickens twice a year. And we have them for five months at a time. And they're called pullets. And when the pullets leave our place, they go to another farm and they lay eggs. When those eggs
00:19:47
Speaker
um Or they go to the hatchery in Fremont to be hatched. Those hatched chicks go out to broil their barns and they get about six pounds in six weeks and then go back to Fremont to be processed. And then they process about a million birds a week in Fremont and that fills about 20% of Costco's needs for chicken and that's mostly on the western side of the United States.
00:20:09
Speaker
And so my family ah knew about this pretty early on and was a cheerleader for it because Rise and Tide raises all boats. So people were resistant for Costco to come to Fremont and that's like old news at this point, but um because we were early cheerleaders, my dad, went he just brought up like, what if we built chicken barns? um And it was a way to expand and diversify um at a lower risk.
00:20:40
Speaker
So it costs a lot of money to build our barns, but we also know that we're getting paid every week for the next 15 years. If we had put that same amount of investment into building a bigger feedlot, it would be a higher risk. And so it was a way to expand and diversify and take a medium risk instead of high risk. And at the time I was in college and my dad said to me one day, hey, you want a job?
00:21:10
Speaker
And I was like, okay, what does that mean? And he was essentially offering me a job on the farm. So they had decided to build the barns before they had any kids input. It was a decision that they made on their own. And, you know, they offered me the job to come back home. And I said yes, because I have really understood my family's history in traditions and I really value our lifestyle and I want to be a part of that and so that yes was pretty easy. um Saying yes to coming home to the farm to help raise chickens was not on my radar but it's worked well for our family. The first few years were really tough um but we got a way bigger handle on it now and then also you know all the litter from the chicken barns goes onto our land as well so you know another big big circle of things.
00:21:59
Speaker
um But yeah, it's it sometimes I still have moments of like, man, what am I doing in these chicken parts? Like, this is crazy. I'm i'm a cattle person, not a chicken person. um But there's just a lot of things that it really, really fits for our family. And that was, you know, within within the values of diversity on the farm, you know, raising chickens fits that. And ah five years, almost six years later, like, it's it's been a good expansion for us.
00:22:33
Speaker
Excellent. um I think you've been talking to this throughout, but um what's something that particularly makes you proud about what you're doing on your farm?
Family Dynamics in Farming Decisions
00:22:48
Speaker
I have a sense of warmth when I think about like being proud. Because again, like we don't we don't get to this point of mom and dad and brother and sister working multiple years on the farm together on accident. I've been home for almost six years now, and it was rough the first few years. And my brother's been home.
00:23:10
Speaker
um he's a few years younger than me. um And he graduated high school in 2020. We all know what happened in 2020. So he he didn't really leave because college looked really different for him. And so in reality, my brother's been home on the farm full time, just as as long as I have. um And what makes me proud is that we have made it work, right? there's There's lots of instances that I could bring up of like big fights of disagreements. And it was like, ooh,
00:23:43
Speaker
That was not fun to be a part of or like, oh, we should maybe not do, you know, say those things again. um But we've gotten to a point where we can address conflict in a little bit more casual way. um And again, I keep saying this, but that doesn't happen on accident. Like it takes intentional effort to have the four of us working together. um I have a sister that's two years younger younger than me and she married a farmer from about 45 minutes away and he He gets to be ah they help as often as they can. We see him almost weekly. And so he brings new ideas, too. um You know, that doesn't happen on accident that we you know can welcome in someone else in their new ideas. And so that was that's what makes me really proud is like the intentional family.
00:24:31
Speaker
aspect of our operation because I see other businesses that look like they're booming and the family aspect just doesn't look as strong. um We choose family over a lot of things but we can also discern when we have to choose make business decisions over family.
00:24:47
Speaker
And those are tough, but um if you're if you have intention behind your how you're making those decisions, you can say, OK, I'm choosing family here. I'm choosing business here. And at the end of the day, like got to do best for yourself. And so when I think of being proud, I think of.
00:25:05
Speaker
that warmthiness of family and choosing each other and still being able to celebrate holidays together. And so like my mom makes dinner on Sundays quite often. Like we can work together all week long and we can still sit down together on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy each other company and talk about other things off the farm. And again, that doesn't happen by accident. And I'm really proud of that. ah Can you give an example of what it, cause it's, it is unusual for, I'm sure most listeners don't work with their family.
00:25:36
Speaker
like like you you like farmers do. um So what is what is an example of have of choosing family or intentionally choosing family or so intentionally choosing business?
00:25:48
Speaker
um This fall, we my dad had to make a decision where he hired out a job that generally could have been done by the family by another family member. um And so he had to make a decision of, I'm choosing business because I want this done at a certain time.
00:26:07
Speaker
versus waiting for it to be done by family. um And that was a hard call because he my dad my dad doesn't like making those kind of decisions, but he knew like it was best for the for the business for him to have something done by a certain date. And he we hired that out versus doing it in-house. So that was a recent example of business over family. um But there's a lot more examples of family over business. um My parents are very generous in how they help my brother and I out.
00:26:42
Speaker
um in terms, you know, not only financially, but also like with time. ah So my parents are intentionally choose like maybe they ah aren't going to. um How should I say it like I don't ah we we don't get handouts, but, you know, when I have count on the feed lot, some of my labor is paid for by feed. And so or like my feed bill is paid for my labor.
00:27:12
Speaker
um That's more of a trade, but they my parents could be like No, we want this money from you um But we will also pay for your labor and feed you know, that's That's something that they're choosing family over business to help my brother and I get started because, you know, we're not starting from much, but we are starting with a lot of opportunity for my parents and that opportunity again is intentional from them. if We want to help our kids out, just like we were helped out.
00:27:44
Speaker
um And that's, you know, their own conversations of how they make those decisions. um And so, yeah, there's lots of examples. I think we have more examples of choosing family over business, but every once in a while business decisions have to be made over family. And we talk about it and we know why those decisions are made. is this Thanks for that. So you're sixth generation.
Preserving the Farm Legacy for Future Generations
00:28:11
Speaker
What would you want your I don't know how many generations in the future, or six generations would be, but what about your great grandchildren that far into the future? What would you want them to know about you as a farmer? I want them to know me first. um I got to know my great grandma. She lived till she was 102. And two um and she was she lived by herself till she was 100. And I got to know her stories. We have a lot of them recorded.
00:28:41
Speaker
um My mom and dad own the land that she grew up on. And so I like have memories of of her, you know, showing us around that place. So through the lens that I know my great grandma and I have really good memories of her, I hope that I'm afforded to know my great grandchildren as well.
00:29:02
Speaker
And something I've mentioned, like we value documentation in our family. um like my grandpa has taken My grandpa took a lot of photographs. My grandma did all the organization organizing of them. She labeled everything. She dated everything. And now I'm doing the same. like I'm taking photos.
00:29:23
Speaker
um throughout the year you know ah of the upgrades that we're making or of the changes and I'm printing them off so I hope that I'm doing a good enough job today of memory preservation that my great-grandchildren can sit in a home someday and look through the photos that I'm taking right now and in fact so our Our harvest crew hopes to be done today. We hope we're on our last day of harvest um if all goes well. And right now it's my dad and his three brothers. So it's four brothers and my brother and cousin. So there's six boards working together.
00:30:03
Speaker
And I desperately want to get a picture of all six of them working. But to do that, I have to stop the operation. And I'm not sure if I can get that done today because they want to get done before the end of the day. And so even though I was talking to my dad on the phone before we started this, i my dad will not be excited if I stop the crew. But even though it's such a hassle to stop and take the picture,
00:30:28
Speaker
Like I hope that's a picture that's worth, I know that's a picture worthwhile taking so that my great grandkids someday can be like, oh, that's, you know, that's Hannah and all the guys um in the picture and they know who they are just through photo documentation. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.
00:30:47
Speaker
and Because I'm looking um in our office there's a picture my grandma and her the four brothers one of them being my dad and I took this picture maybe three year two or three years ago and I all harvest I said okay on the last day of harvest I'm bringing grandma out to the field and we're gonna take this picture and everyone like rolled their eyes and it was They were, you know, and pretended like they were annoyed to take the picture. And I sucked my guns. I said, we're going to take this picture. And sure enough, after I got the picture, everyone's like, oh, can we see the picture? They all liked it. um And it's funny, right? We started this conversation saying, like, I do a photography for other people. And it's way easier for me to take pictures of other families than my own. ah Because well, other families, they're paying me to be there. And so they're, you know, bought in a
00:31:40
Speaker
stopping to take the picture, whereas my family's not necessarily bought in for me stopping the combine to take the picture. um But I take what I can. you know i I try to take as many pictures as I can throughout the year and get them printed off. um And I hope i'm doing i'm hope I'm doing the right thing so that my grandkids and great grandkids will know the life that I lived and the traditions and people that they came from. Yeah, no, that stuff is important.
00:32:09
Speaker
yeah Well, Hannah, those were the questions that I had prepared. But as you were thinking about this conversation that we were going to have, is there anything that I forgot to ask you or anything that you cannot want to share about um you know being a farmer here in the United States in this current moment?
00:32:27
Speaker
You kind of pitch the conversation of like letting people know, meet farmers.
Connecting Farmers and Non-Farmers
00:32:32
Speaker
And it's so interesting to me because I live in a world of farming, you know, that's, that's all I know. ah And so to think about people not knowing a farmer blows my mind. So I, I guess if you're listening and you don't Noah Farmer, like just trust that there's people like me out there that are growing a really good product for you to eat. um I think there's some bigger conversations happening right now um that make farmers not look super great in terms of like the health of our country. And I want you to know that you know talk to farmers. you know Look on social media. It's so easy to find people that are doing what I'm doing.
00:33:17
Speaker
um Like if you want to know about your food, go directly to the source, right? If you want to learn about the beef that you're consuming from a grocery store, you can reach out to someone like me. So we, the beef that I'm raising with my family that we're feeding from um feed that we're growing within a few miles of the farm is going to a big processor called Tyson, um not that far away from here. So right now, like big,
00:33:49
Speaker
companies are, you know, generally under attack that they aren't as healthy as smaller ones. And I don't always agree with that because we're a small family farm selling our product to a big company and our beef is going to end up in a grocery store next to another company, you know, next to another farm's beef.
00:34:09
Speaker
We open this conversation like we invite people out to the farm all the time like you can find me on social media and I would love to show you around the farm. It's literally my favorite place in the whole wide world. um I'm proud of what we do here and I really believe in what we do and we can back up everything that we do and I think majority like you're not in this business if It's not working, right? You're not in the business of farming um because you are trying to raise unhealthy cattle or trying to make your soils better. Because alright if you're not trying to make your soils better and if you're not trying to raise healthy cattle, like you're not going to be in this business.
00:34:50
Speaker
ah And I don't think that narrative is out there because um sometimes it's uncomfortable to put the conversation of money next to farming, but we we have to make money um so that we, you know, this is a business. um But the better our soil is, the healthier our cattle are, the more money we're going to um be able to make. And, you know, we can grow through that way, you know.
00:35:17
Speaker
we have to make money so we can expand and diversify um and continue the, you know, all these traditions and values that we've been raised on. um So i I just think that if there, yeah, like what you said, I think the narrative is being shifted a little bit and it worries me a little bit because it's like, you know, we're a small farmer and we sell it to a big packer. I think I think I trust all the food that's going to that packer because of the systems that are in place. um Anyways, I could ramble on and on. But I'm just proud of what we do, who we are, um and thanks for talking to me today and being curious and you know asking me some questions. And hopefully I didn't say anything that I get myself in trouble with. I'm with my family. Well, from my perspective, I thought you were spot on. So thank you so much, Hannah. This has been a really great conversation. I really appreciate you making the time. And and again, thank you so much.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. And thanks to you for listening to this episode of the Meet Your Farmer podcast from Farm Foundation. Be sure to check out the other episodes in this season. If you have recommendations for farmers we should have on the show or have any other feedback, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you.
00:36:39
Speaker
If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe and share the podcast with your network. Farm Foundation is all about creating trust and understanding at the intersections of agriculture and society. You can learn more about our work at farmfoundation dot.org. Until next time.