Archives: Episode

#40 – Kevin Sanders (USMC/Army National Guard) -Seaboard Foods

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#40 - Kevin Sanders (USMC/Army National Guard) -Seaboard Foods
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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

#39 – Bob Wample (USMC) – LandScan

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#39 - Bob Wample (USMC) - LandScan
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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

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

#38 – Brock Puffett (USN) – Seaboard Foods

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#38 – Brock Puffett (USN) – Seaboard Foods
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You have to understand your situational awareness. If something isn’t working right, you need to make a quicker call.

This the second interview in our series with military veterans at Seaboard Foods. This week’s guest is Brock Puffett – Multi-Site Supervisor at Seaboard, a top US pork producer/processor and leading global exporter. At Seaboard, Brock is responsible for everything that happens at multiple swine barns under his direct supervision – health and quality of life of the animals, facility maintenance, personnel issues…everything.

In this episode, we get into:

  • Brock’s childhood summers working on a farm in Iowa baling hay and picking rock
  • His decision to join the Navy which took him all over the world
  • A hard lesson he learned late one night on the flight deck in the middle of the ocean
  • How pigs are the easy part; it’s the people who need the most attention
  • Capturing mistakes from the military and bringing them forward into the ag profession

#37 – Will Clark (USMC) – Seaboard Foods

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#37 - Will Clark (USMC) - Seaboard Foods
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This is the first in a series of interviews we plan to do with a variety of military veterans at Seaboard Foods in an effort to showcase the diversity of careers possible within the animal protein space.

“You never know what someone’s influences are on the type of decisions they make until you really get to know them“

Our first guest is Will Clark – International Sales Representative for Seaboard Foods – a top US pork producer/processor and leading exporter to 30+ countries. Will is one Seaboard’s more than 5,000 employees across five states and specializes in exporting their products to the Japanese market. In addition to maintaining Seaboard’s relationship with their Japanese clients, Will is responsible for price tracking, inventory management, and new product development.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Will’s early career in the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan with a Police Transition Team
  • How he used these experiences to better understand how individual circumstances make a huge impact on personal decisionmaking
  • The nuances of the Japanese pork market and their focus on traceability
  • Labor shortages and the pros/cons of technology to solve these problems

#36 Andy Syrcle (USAF) – Raven Industries

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#36 Andy Syrcle (USAF) - Raven Industries
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“We’re probably at the most pivotal point in agriculture, since we went from horse and plows to tractors”

Our guest this week is Andy Syrcle – Strategic Initiatives Manager with Raven Industries – a leader in precision ag, aerospace, and defense technologies.

Andy’s role with Raven is to help guide them into new and promising markets through analysis, intelligence, and customer relationships. Since 1956, Raven has designed, produced, and delivered solutions to the agricultural market, earning a reputation as an industry leader in autonomous technology.

In this episode, we get into:

  • His family’s struggles growing up on a farm in the late 1980s
  • Ten years and a lifetime’s worth of experience as a linguist in the USAF
  • The current state of automation in agriculture and his thoughts on what the future holds
  • How Andy has translated his skills from the military to a place like Raven

#35 Evan Cohen (USMC) – SVG Ventures | THRIVE

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#35 Evan Cohen (USMC) - SVG Ventures | THRIVE
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“The most valuable thing that founders have, in the beginning, is there time.“

Our guest this week is Evan Cohen – Accelerator Manager for SVG Ventures | THRIVE – a leading agtech accelerator and venture investor based in Los Angeles, California.

After barely making it to his infantry unit before deploying to Iraq in 2008, Evan returned safely and was accepted as an intern with the Obama Administration, working in the Office of Legislative Affairs in the White House. He was eventually offered a full-time position in the department where he spent the next 2.5 years working on all manner of military and legislative affairs, including the use of force authorization plans for Syria.

He then spent another two years at the Department of Energy working on clean tech and renewable energy, where he moved back to California and was picked up by a Canadian Accelerator, also heavily focused on capital raising for clean tech. It was a culmination of these experiences that landed a job as the Accelerator Manager at THRIVE earlier this year.

Have listen as Evan pieces together this story and shares some of his perspectives in ag from a multidate of vantage points – corporate innovation, start-up accelerator, and venture investor. He shares an announcement about next year’s accelerator program you won’t want to miss.

#34 Steve Philpott (USMC) – Illinois Minority Growers Association

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#34 Steve Philpott (USMC) - Illinois Minority Growers Association
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“Let the plant science guide policy”

This encapsulates Steve Philpott’s motivation for pursuing a career in cannabis research and opportunity creation within his community.

Steve is a former US Marine, graduate student and cannabis researcher at Chicago State University and Co-Founder for the Illinois Minority Growers Association. Here, their mission is to close the disparity gap by addressing socio-economic related barriers for minorities. They’re educating growers by providing information services and partnerships that afford them increased access to Illinois’ agricultural industry.

Steve’s story is filled with:

– His experiences growing up in Chicago in the aftermath of the war on drugs

– Stories of camaraderie and loss in uniformed service

– His own struggles with opioids and cannabis alternatives

– Intentional opportunity-creation within his community

– Technical knowledge about cannabis breeding and cultivation

– Examples of the disconnect between cannabis plant science and public policy

Find out how Steven left Chicago a scared 19-year old kid and returned with a renewed sense of purpose and drive within agriculture.

#33 John Berlejung (US Army) – New West Genetics

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#33 John Berlejung (US Army) - New West Genetics
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Not one of us were trained or prepared for this…

John Berlejung is a former US Army Tank Crewman and currently the R&D Supervisor at New West Genetics – a Colorado-based company developing industrial hemp genetics for adaption to various regions of the US. They combine traditional breeding with modern genetics to create stable, optimized traits, and varieties adapted for large-scale production.

John grew up in an austere household in the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky in the 80s when kids could disappear for hours at a time, without a cell phone, and explore the boundaries of their environment, create adventures, and be exposed to risk without a safety net. His brother joined the Army when he was young and John lived vicariously through him, including his experiences during the first Gulf War. This and 9/11 were all the influence John needed to join the Army after high school, where he also served as a tank crew member. Like his brother, John was involved in an invasion of Iraq, this one in 2003. In this episode, he describes those experiences over a 15-month period and how there was a constant need to adapt to the changing mission, enemy, and environment. This ability to adapt is something concrete John continues to bring forward through his professional career.

Enjoy this episode as John talks about how he’s applied these skills to the private sector, from his being a Mud Logger on an oil rig, earning his Masters in Soil Science, and supporting hemp genetic development with New West Genetics.

#32 Ben Minden (US Army) – Bear Hug Cattle Company

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#32 Ben Minden (US Army) - Bear Hug Cattle Company
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I’ll support you in whatever decision you make; just know that you will get fired for it. This was one of the coolest 10 seconds…

Our guest this week is Ben Minden, former US Army Ranger and Founder of Bear Hug Cattle Company – a non-profit providing veterans with the resources, technical knowledge and network support for those interested in a career in the ranching industry. Through their 10-week immersive course, transitioning service members gain confidence in horsemanship, ranch tasks, basic ranch economics, and field training at historical operational ranches across the western US.

Despite growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey, Ben became an avid fisherman and hunter, although he admits he never ate the fish out of the New Jersey river. It’s not often a guest on this show has no connection to the military prior to joining, but in the few instances this has been the case, there is usually a common event that many cite as their catalyst for their joining the uniformed service – 9/11. At West Point, Ben fell in love with this idea of an being a part of a high-functioning team and deployed with those teams to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He shares a story from those experiences he cites as one of the coolest 10 seconds of his military career.

Have a listen to find what happened and also learn how Ben is transitioning these skills into other high-performing teams at Harvard Business School and with Bear Hug Cattle Company across much of the western US.

#31 Janet Bailey – No Chaff Group

Vets In Ag Podcast
Vets In Ag Podcast
#31 Janet Bailey - No Chaff Group
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Throughout my career, I’ve always tried to be somebody who will lay out the facts so there aren’t any surprises

Our guest this week is Janet Bailey, Principle at No Chaff Group. No Chaff Group is focused on providing consulting services to growers and agribusinesses in the areas of rural brand management and mental health, social governance, advocacy strategy, and other ag financial services.

In this episode, Janet shares insights and lessons learned from her three decades in the industry, spanning a childhood growing up on a diversified cropping operation and dairy farm during the 1980s farm crisis, Marketing Development Lead for the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, and nearly 20 years at Frontier Farm Credit as their VP for Marketing and Communications. We get into her thoughts on the value of mentorship, early technology adoption on their farm, the often dangerous way we dispense advice over social media today, and her story as a breast cancer survivor.  

Her developmental initiatives around the veteran community and ag labor needs is absolutely something you should reach out to Janet about if you’re interested in learning more or partnering to support.