Our guest this week is Reece Lodder, Head of Sales & Marketing at Friesla, a Washington-based company providing onsite, USDA- approved, fully customizable meat processing systems.
With consumer demands for locally raised meat products rising, Friesla’s customizable and modular systems allow farmers and ranchers to have complete control over onsite meat processing – from slaughter to sale.
Between serving in public relations with the Marine Corps, the loss of a friend in combat, and navigating his family through his wife’s battle with brain cancer, Reece has gained a clarity in his calling: caring for others. This drive to help cattle producers define opportunities and craft solutions best for their businesses is evident throughout our conversation.
Truly one of the finest people I’ve had the privilege of meeting in a long time.
“You just gotta do it. Do the research, do the best you can, then just go.”
A sentiment shared by many entrepreneurs as they manage multiple careers and the uncertainty of starting a new business.
This is the third and final episode in our three-part series in partnership with Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC). This series showcases partnerships between FVC and organizations offering programs in agriculture tailored for military veterans. We interview stakeholders within the organization as well as a military veteran who participated in its programs.
This week our guests are Keith King, Founder and CEO at the National Veteran Business Development Council (NVBDC) and Tyler Evans, US Marine Corps veteran Founder of Brookside Plant Farm. The NVBDC is a national non-profit focused on certifying veteran-owned businesses for the purposes of connecting them with their corporate members to pursue commercial opportunities. Tyler is currently working in cyber security but plans to leverage his certification from the NVBDC to grow his nursery business in the coming years.
You’ll hear a lot about the entrepreneurial spirit in this episode, which is of course important when starting a business, but the humility through which Keith and Tyler communicate their own personal uncertainties around starting businesses is as equally important.
Stay tuned for more on the NVBDC, how much it costs, how to quality, etc and learn from Tyler as he lays out his path into the nursery business in real-time.
This is the second episode in our three-part series in partnership with Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC). This series showcases partnerships between FVC and organizations offering programs in agriculture tailored for military veterans. We interview stakeholders within the organization as well as a military veteran who participated in its programs.
This week our guests are Dave Carter, Director of Regional Technical Assistance Coordination for the Flower Hill Institute and Marvin Frink, US Army veteran and Founder of Briarwood Cattle Farm and Briarwood Customs Meats. Both from humble beginnings in rural America, Dave found his passion for agriculture through journalism and an intentional choice to pursue non-commoditized meat production. He later found commonalities between the tight knit group of families he grew up with and the military veterans he’s fortunate to work with today through a partnership with FVC.
After a nearly 30 year career of service, Marvin’s life was almost cut short by his own hand before his father and a Vietnam veteran and cattle farmer turned him onto the healing properties and lifestyle of cattle rearing. The Farmer Veteran Coalition gave him his start and continues to provide the framework, support and branding required to take the Briarwood brand to the next level.
You don’t want to miss this episode where we talk about Briarwood’s unique strategy for making their beef stand-out and Dave’s lifetime of insights packed into a single episode!
For more information about the Flower Hill Institute and how to apply for technical assistance, visit www.flowerhill.institute or apply directly to the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Processing Capacity Technical Assistance (MPPTA) Program here.
We are thrilled to announce a partnership with Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) and the Vets In Ag Podcast! This is the first episode in a three-part series which showcases partnerships between FVC and organizations offering programs in agriculture tailored for military veterans. We will interview stakeholders within the organization as well as military veterans who participated in its programs.
In this episode, we cover everything from transitioning farm records from pen and paper to digital to how to find niche markets for products based on market trends and your own personal passions.
For more information about the Center for Farm Financial Management’s Virtual Business Management Program, contact Curtis Mahnken at cmahnken@umn.edu or visit https://z.umn.edu/VFBM-Interest. The pilot program is available virtually to qualified veterans and members of Farmer Veteran Coalition for only $100.
Our guests this week are Chip Perrin and David Billings, Owner and Executive Board member with Coastal Plains Meat Company based in Eunice, Louisiana. As the largest harvest facility in Louisiana with a growing direct-to-consumer ecommerce platform and customer processing capability, Chip and David are working to solve a processing bottleneck in the state of Louisiana for Louisiana producers. Their joint backgrounds in military service and cattle production provide them a level of leadership and practical experience not typically found in the localized meat processing/packaging sector.
In this episode, the three of us get into:
Their military backgrounds and serendipitous meeting at a young entrepreneurs’ conference in Houston
Consumer preferences pushing against the traditional business models of middlemen choosing what they can buy from the grocery story and more towards direct from the farm with specialized preferences like “grass finished” or “all natural”
The feedback loop from a facility like Coastal Plains to the producer regarding things like yield and quality data, which will help them make better decisions about their genetics and breeding programs
The educational role Coastal Plains is providing in helping their producers better understand consumer preferences, which will ultimately determine their process.
The origin of their ecommerce platform from a small pilot program in a targeted market segment to a reliable revenue stream shipping across the state.
Our guest this week took us to a place we don’t usually go on the podcast. Yes, he’s a veteran and yes he’s involved in agriculture, but his mission focuses on using agriculture as a means to heal men in crisis.
Kris Wilson is the Logistics Manager for Rockside Ranch, a working ranch in a rural community aimed at helping young men overcome crisis and live the life they were created to live. Kris served 23 years with the US Army National Guard where he led and supervised hundreds of soldiers over his career, including multiple combat theaters. Upon retirement, he and his family moved to Scott Valley after hearing a calling to ministry. At Rockside, Kris uses his background and training to develop leadership, organization, and effective teamwork . In addition, Kris is actively pursuing a Theological Seminary degree.
In this episode, Kris and I get into:
His military career spanning four deployments to two theaters of war and a near-death experience
The Hand of God at work in his life setting the conditions for his retirement from the Army and move back to California and into a mission at Rockside Ranch
Rockside’s mission of “talking life into a group of rough men” using agriculture as their medium for change
The principles of stewardship and the values that can impart on young men who have taken that for granted most of their life
Margo Hale is the SE regional Director at the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). Since 1976, NCAT has been helping people build resilient communities through local and sustainable solutions that reduce poverty, strengthen self-reliance, and protect natural resources. From 2011 to today, Margo has led NCAT’s efforts to train military veterans interested in agriculture through Armed to Farm, NCAT’s sustainable agriculture training program for military veterans. She has worked in the fields of sustainable livestock production, beginning farmer training, and regional sustainable agriculture outreach.
In this episode, Margo and I get into:
Margo’s upbringing on a dairy in northern Arkansas
The realities of starter farms as sources of family income
Our guest this week is Jake Dailey – Founder of Rake Force, a veteran-owned, non-profit focused on regenerative agroforestry practices like fuel fire reduction and biochar creation as well as providing a therapeutic environment for veterans to experience ag.
Growing up on public land in Idaho, Jake spent his early years outdoors- hunting, fishing, and working in environmental conservation.
His father and step-father both serviced in the military and he was born on July 4th in Pearl Harbor, so it was almost pre-ordained that Jake would also serve his country. He enlisted in the Army in 2007 where he later deployed to Iraq before leaving the Army several years later.
During this deployment, Jake was faced with an event that dramatically changed the direction of his life after service and moved him into agriculture as a way to cope.
In this episode, we get into:
The tragedy during deployment and how it affected his life following
His difficult transition out of the Army
His trial and error with a variety of different jobs and interests
His foray into homesteading and eventually Rake Force
Regenerative agroforestry, biochar creation, hügelkultur, and fuel reduction activities
This is the final episode in our series with military veterans at Seaboard Foods. Our guest this week is Kevin Sanders – Environmental Compliance and Maintenance Manager for Seaboard Foods in Iowa. In this capacity, Kevin is responsible for providing environmental compliance support for Seaboards’ operations in Iowa as well as Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Colorado.
Kevin grew up on a farm in West Central, Missouri. One of five with three brothers, his Mom often dispatched the three of them across the county as cheap labor baling hay all summer long. It’s not the first time either we’ve had a guest talk about bumping into the Marine recruiter first and then making a decision right then and there to join up. This is exactly what happened to Kevin and he spent the next six years in the Corps in places like Japan as a mechanic.
In this episode, we talk about:
– What it was like for him to stand in front of 100 Marines for the first time at 20 years old
– The idea of giving his employees the ability to own their decisions
– Taping college notes to the steering wheel of the tractor while he was working at the farm to put himself through school
– 20+ year career in environment management in the pork industry
– The roll technology is playing today with fertilizer management
– Why the younger generation is ideally suited to take up this new mantle
Work is not a problem. Focus on doing things right the first time. More information allows you to do it better the first time.
Three succinct phrases of wisdom from our guest this week – Dr. Robert ‘Bob’ Wample – Director of Science and Technology for LandScan – a company developing intelligence site characterization and analysis technology for applications in the agricultural sector. Dr. Wample is a plant physiologist by trade with 20+ years of experience in plant-related science and soil variability.
In this episode, we talked about:
– Lessons learned early in Bob’s life on the farm focused on doing things right the first time
– A Marine Corps career in places like Ethiopia and Nepal
– Navigating a military transition during the Vietnam War
– An impressive 20+ year career studying the relationship between soil variability and crop performance
– Aggregating data layers at LandScan to deliver a product capable of improving decisionmaking
– Balancing speed to market through sensor interoperability with proprietary sensor and software development
