Tag: military

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

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
#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.

#30 Luke Crumley (USMC) – Ohio Corn and Wheat

Vets In Ag Podcast
#30 Luke Crumley (USMC) - Ohio Corn and Wheat
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I think before you ever consider elective service, you should serve first.

These words from the father of this week’s guest – Luke Crumley – Director of Public Policy and Nutrient Management at Ohio Corn and Wheat – an organization working to create opportunities for long-term Ohio corn and small grain grower profitability. They do this through several checkoff groups and associations that expand markets, fund research, provide education, and advocate for supportive public policy on behalf of farmer members.

Despite being surrounded by ag growing up in Ohio, it wasn’t an intimate part of Luke’s upbringing, particularly because he grew up in the mid-80s towards the end of the farming crisis where his parents were forced to sell. Much of the culture and it’s surrounding were, however, very much imparted to Luke, particularly this sense of service. For Luke, it was first military service in the Marine Corps then public service with several Congressional offices before joining Ohio Corn and Wheat. His time as a Battalion Adjutant in the Marine Corps taught him things like the gravity of a situation, how to operate in what he calls a “pressure cooker” environment, and the need to prioritize. This ability to prioritize is something he’s brought forward to Ohio Corn and Wheat. Essentially, helping growers put resources where they need to be to affect mission critical issues.

Have a listen as Luke connects the dots between these different times in his life. We also get into his experiences with carbon markets and how these programs are, or are not, addressing the primary concerns of their growers.

#27 Ben Alfi (Israeli Air Force) – Blue White Robotics

Vets In Ag Podcast
#27 Ben Alfi (Israeli Air Force) - Blue White Robotics
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I understood that I needed to create a company that is dealing with how to be part of the revolution of unmanned systems in the ag industry.

Ben Alfi is a veteran of the Israel Air Force and Managing Founder for Blue White Robotics -an Israeli-based agtech company providing what they call Robots-as-a-Service. Blue White’s software platform plans and operates multiple tasks for autonomous air and ground fleets, integrating aftermarket autonomous capabilities into a variety of OEM ag equipment.

Over the course of his military career, Ben spent 25 years in the Israeli Air Force, flying a variety of F16s and unmanned systems. The last 10 years of his service were spent developing and managing the Israel Air Force’s unmanned systems, anything from two pounds to six tons. You’ll hear throughout this episode how influential this time was to the founding of Blue White Robotics and their decision to tackle the agricultural space first. This conversation comes at a great time as much of the talk today in autonomous vehicle operations is around John Deere’s recent acquisition of Bear Flag Robotics and what it means for the industry. We get into Ben thoughts on this as well and how they’re differentiated.

We begin our conversation with Ben at a diner in California as Blue White is currently seeking to build out a footprint in the US. We’ll go anywhere to get our listeners a great story, including a restaurant with some background noise. Our apologies for that, but I think you’ll find this conversation so fascinating that it won’t be an issue.

#26 Willie Hines (USN) – Farmer Veteran Coalition

Vets In Ag Podcast
#26 Willie Hines (USN) - Farmer Veteran Coalition
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Farmer Veteran Coalition is at an intersection – farmers and veterans – where mental health is extremely important.

Willie Hines is a US Navy veteran and Director of Operations for Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC), a nationally recognized non-profit focused on mobilizing veterans to feed America and transition support for military service members to a career in agriculture. This is our third interview with FVC’s leadership as we seek the highlight their work with vets in ag.

Willie’s early life growing up in a small town in the Midwest resolved him to want to get out and experience the world, so he joined the Navy and become a SEAL, specializing in communications. To hear his description of how far radio communications have come since the early 80s and what we’re able to do both in the military and ag today was fascinating, especially how they used to transmit voice message from places like Kenya back to Virginia.

This episode is filled with stories about submarine lock-outs, public sentiment for service members from Vietnam and today, challenges surrounding the future of plant genetics, and so much more; all from a man who has truly experienced a life’s worth of events in a short period of time.  

The work Willie continues to do with the veteran and ag communities at FVC is truly admirable. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

#24 Jeanette Lombardo – Farmer Veteran Coalition

Vets In Ag Podcast
#24 Jeanette Lombardo - Farmer Veteran Coalition
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One of my farmers, a very large dairy in California, committed suicide. And it was at that moment that my life completely changed.

This week, we’re continuing our interview series with the leadership team from Farmer Veteran Coalition. Our guest today is FVC’s Executive Director, Jeanette Lombardo. Jeanette was raised on a dairy farm amongst a military family and spent more than a decade as a military spouse, including supporting her former husband through Operation Desert Storm. Her professional career began in commercial ag lending where an experience with a client dairy farmer caused her to completely rethink the way she approached supporting the farmer community.

Even with an intimate knowledge of the complexities of the ag environment gathered through many decades in the industry, including advisory assignments at Federal level with the USDA and EPA, Jeanette never lost sight of her true purpose – supporting the farmer.

She continues to serve this community, though more specifically today the veteran farmer, as FVC’s Executive Director. Have to listen to find out how Jeanette ultimately got connected with FVC and some of fantastic programs they’re working on today.

#22 Andrew Patrick (USMC) – Deveron

Vets In Ag Podcast
#22 Andrew Patrick (USMC) - Deveron
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I wouldn’t say it’s a distrust, but rather potential customers not understanding who we are and what we do

Our guest this week is Andrew Patrick, Marine Corps veteran and Sales Development Representative at Deveron, a Toronto-based agtech company using proprietary algorithms, third-party data collection platforms, and teams of agronomists and data scientists to provide insights to growers and ag enterprises.

Throughout this interview, you’ll hear Andrew describe the intention with which he made some early decisions in his life – from joining the Marine Corps, to forgoing deployments to continue to pursue his education, to finding a passion early in agriculture through FFA. The thought with which he made some of these difficult decisions early in life has to have some relation to his time in the Marine Corps.

His understanding of the current challenges agtech companies face around trust and education within the farmer community is an important one to recognize and appreciate for client-facing representative like Andrew. While he is new to his career in ag, I hope the freshness of his transition from military service and the decisions he’s made around his chosen career path can be an inspiration to other vets who might currently find themselves in the same place.

#20 – Rachel Petitt – Farmer Veteran Coalition

Vets In Ag Podcast
#20 - Rachel Petitt - Farmer Veteran Coalition
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“It’s not the bird songs or the warm soil. It’s the early days, constant problem solving, grit…”

This from our guest this week, Rachel Petitt, as she describes the types of things veterans look for as they seek to ease the burden of transition by trying to match their new professional lives with their former lives.

Rachel is Farmer Veteran Coalition’s Fellowship Program Manager, which administers grants for tools, equipment, infrastructure and even livestock that support veteran farmers in their new careers. After earning a degree in Food and Ag from UC Santa Cruz, Rachel worked in small-scale farming for several years, including flower, vegetables and egg production in central California before joining FVC in 2015.

The passion for agriculture is evident as Rachel describes the formidable nature of these experiences and how they conditioned in her a sense of purpose that can be found in agriculture. Through her college network and word-of-mouth, the opportunity to work for FVC’s former founder, Michael O’Gorman, came across her radar and she jumped at it. As FVC’s longest standing employee to date, Rachel talks about FVC’s growth over the last 14 years, her experiences working with veterans for the first time, and their herculean efforts support the veteran farmer community with a wide variety of services that extends beyond simply funding opportunities.

If you’re a veteran or active-duty service member who will soon transition and are considering production agriculture, this is a must listen episode.

Episode 3: John “Glad” Castellaw (USMC)

Vets In Ag Podcast
Episode 3: John "Glad" Castellaw (USMC)
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From driving mules to mechanization, from stuffing fresh-picked cotton in his shirt to keep him warm at night to enclosed, climate-controlled tractor cabins, it was impressive to see how far agriculture had come over the years through John’s stories.

My guest for this episode was John Castellaw – Co-Founder and CEO for Farm Space Systems and retired Marine Corps 3-Star General. For 36 years, John led Marines around the world from a unit of 40 young men and women to a Marine Aircraft Wing of over 7,000. He flew over two dozen different aircraft during his tenure, served on the UN staff during the Siege of Sarajevo, executed humanitarian operations in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and commanded the American forces in stability and security operations in East Timor. John also served as the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Central Command during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even more impressive than reliving the evolution of agtech through the stories of a single man was to see John’s realization that we can’t keep beating the dirt into submission. He fundamentally understands that we need to adopt more regenerative and sustainable practices, a sentiment not always shared by multi-generational farmers.

John takes me through his upbringing on the same cotton farm in W. Tenn where we reside now and how these experiences drove him into service and ultimately led him back to the farm after nearly 40 years. This interview is filled with words of wisdom about life and business tied up in stories such as ag as a component of national security, the importance of servant leadership, and the military’s advances in technology which are being more widely adopted within ag.

My favorite story involved a well drilling unit and a veterinarian in East Africa.

Have a listen to find out how it ends!