Our guest today is currently serving as the State FFA Reporter in Illinois. Lauren Mohr grew up in Illinois with a strong legacy of farming and the FFA in her family. In addition to watching her older brothers in their projects, she was working at home with the families sheep flock as well as their business of lambing out ewes for other owners. Over time she developed a love for the animal livestock industry, and it led her to leadership in the FFA.

Lauren just graduated from Normal West High School last spring. She is currently taking a gap year to serve as the state reporter and plans on attending Illinois Central College to study animal science and agricultural business next fall. She has her eye on embryo transfers and reproduction in livestock as a career and has already identified a business that she would like to conduct an internship with.

Lauren is involved in and developing a few different ag businesses currently. In the summer she shows dairy cattle for her grandparents, and the rest of the time she is developing her herd of cattle and maintaining her flock of sheep. Lauren has traveled as far away as Massachusetts to market wool and learn more about the wool and sheep industry. It is no wonder that she has been a state proficiency winner in both sheep production and diversified livestock.

Tip Of The Week

Get cameras and locks on your fuel tanks

Rural Crime In The U.S.

https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/usda-inspector-charged-accepting-bribes-texas-border

https://www.waaytv.com/news/madison-county-sheriff-s-office-seeks-public-s-help-after-baby-goat-her-mom-reported/article_fcdac612-a548-11ec-81d6-333f1bd8280d.html

Across The Pond, Down Under And Up Above

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-60754268

https://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/19993340.high-prices-drive-fuel-theft/

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/dozens-of-stolen-sheep-found-two-miles-away-on-uni-campus-264074/

https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/south-africa/alarming-upswing-in-green-maize-theft-threatens-food-security/

Africa

https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/letters/dairy-farming-is-a-means-to-an-end-to-cattle-rustling-3749932

https://www.kenyanews.go.ke/national-police-reservists-commissioned-in-baringo-north/

Chalk One Up For The Good Guys

https://www.aol.com/news/rare-wolverine-captured-utah-once-113518123.html

https://www.glosnews.com/articles/westbury-farmer-tracks-down-stolen-property-thanks-to-his-ipad

Pat Hanson is the owner and creator of "Memory Lane Crafting Retreat" in Northwest Illinois. This is a business that was built out of necessity and a love of the farming lifestyle. Pat's father had a lifelong dream of purchasing his own land farming it, which he made come true in his 50's. Pat and her family loved the lifestyle so much that they eventually moved out to her father's farm and built their own home on five acres that he had deeded to them. Then, Pat farmed with her father on a daily basis until he suddenly passed from a stroke at the age of 75.

Her father's sudden passing left Pat and her husband with the farm and the question of what to do, not only with the farm but her with her father's house. A lot of ideas were considered, and ultimately Pat followed her instincts and started a crafting retreat for women. Her farm is on a beautiful setting in a very rural area, and it draws repeat customers from all around. Rarely does Pat have any vacancies available on weekends. From my count she only has 25 nights available in all of 2022!

Today, Pat has turned her father's home into a great getaway for women who love crafts. And, it is also a very viable form of off-farm income. At the same time that she is operating this business, she is exposing people to farming and teaching them about rural and agricultural living. It is truly an inspirational story!

Today is a replay that I think you will enjoy very much. It is the story of a remarkable young man who was injured and worked hard to not only come back fully healed but better than ever. He is giving back to the industry he was injured in as a volunteer fire fighter all while serving as a missionary and running a custom haying operation with his brother.

Today's interview teaches us a lot of different lessons about entrepreneurship, and our guest is just 15 years old. Trever Montgomery has grown up loving to fish. Years ago, he had the thought that he might one day make his own "soft plastic" fishing baits. Like so many ideas, it came into his head, never left but got put on a back shelf somewhere waiting to be pulled off at some point in the future.

In 2020 Trever started high school, and with that he also started the FFA. His advisor let him know that he would need to have a supervised agricultural experience and explained what the options were. It was in that instance that he knew the time had come, and he was going to start making his own baits as an entrepreneurship SAE.

Trever started researching right away, and with in a couple of months he was creating his very own prototypes. He first began by purchasing a bait making kit from one company and learning the process. Soon, he knew how to make them, but he was noticing flaws. So, he purchased a kit from another company. He had the same experience again, seeing room for improvement in the baits that he produced with their recipe. It was at this point that Trever started taking the aspects of one companies baits that he liked and combining it with the aspects of another's that he liked in order to make a bait that was superior to both of the originals. TM Baits was born.

I really respect all of you that keep very tight calving windows and cull cows that fall outside of it. That is some serious business discipline, and it is well beyond what I have in my own farm business. My first potential due date for a calf was February 25th. The first calf born on our place was on March 5th. As of today, we have three calves on the ground, a bunch of cows that look like they will calve any day and morning after morning of no new calves.

There is no question in my mind that they are all settled and close to calving. All the physical signs are showing themselves, but I am always amazed at how for some cows they will start showing but still take weeks to calve. So, day after day, middle of the night check after middle of the night check, I wait for calves.

It seems like this time of year involves a lot of waiting. I've been waiting for it to warm up. Now I am waiting for it to green up. I am also waiting for it to start raining, which it is supposed to do this week. And, I am waiting for the canals to get filled. In April we will start having kids, and I will be waiting again.

In all honesty, it is a fun time of year. I like the surprise of going out to feed in the morning and finding a new calf, and the pressure that is relieved each time another cow calves, takes to her calf and gets it up and going. I am always hoping for a 100% calf crop and 100% weaned crop. Getting all the calves out and nursing is phase #1 of that.

Our guest today is just finishing up his sophomore year of high school, but the progress he has made in building his cow herd since beginning it during his freshman year is phenomenal. Stetson Shook is from a family with a deep farming background in Oklahoma and Kansas, going back to the Oklahoma Land Rush. His grandparents still farm the family ground in Oklahoma about 45 minutes away from the farm that Stetson and his parents live on.

Stetson has always had a passion for farming and agriculture, and this led him to know that he would one day be an FFA member. Then, at the end of his 8th grade year of school he was asked if he would be interested in becoming a Green Hand Officer, and he volunteered. This really piqued his interest in the FFA, and early in his freshman year of high school his FFA advisors saw something in him and encouraged him to take up a cattle business for his supervised agricultural experience.

Tip Of The Week

Protect your edible livestock, they could be taken for human consumption or entertainment…..

Rural Crime In The U.S.

https://www.pahomepage.com/top-stories/store-owner-claims-men-wanted-to-feed-live-chicken-to-alligators-at-exotic-pet-shop/

https://patch.com/california/murrieta/sheriff-targets-rural-crime-anza-aguanga-approved-grant

Across The Pond, Down Under And Up Above

https://www.farmweekly.com.au/story/7650584/missing-sheep-prompts-a-police-warning/

https://www.farminglife.com/country-and-farming/tractor-stolen-from-shed-police-are-appealing-for-information-3601425

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/crime/new-holland-tm165-tractor-stolen-from-shed-in-overnight-raid-3601433

Africa

https://www.myjoyonline.com/gunmen-on-motorbikes-kill-dozens-in-nigeria/

https://dailytrust.com/osun-man-making-pepper-soup-with-stolen-goat-arrested

Chalk One Up For The Good Guys

https://thatsfarming.com/farming-news/stole-sheep-court/

https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/local-news/2-iowa-men-arrested-for-farm-burglary-in-siouxland/

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/sligo-farmer-assault-3-men-arrested-on-suspicion-of-burglary/

Catherine Chmelka is an ag teacher and FFA advisor for the David City High School FFA Chapter in David City, Nebraska. As part of her duties she teaches floriculture and agribusiness. There was a time in her life that these courses were just necessary evils that she had to endure to move through the agricultural education that she was seeking, both in high school and college. However, that eventually changed.

Catherine's exposure to floriculture awakened a passion in her, that she did not know existed. She fell in love with both horticulture and floriculture and really got inspired to start putting together arrangements with her students that exceeded the bare minimums. Eventually, people in her community noticed this and started hiring her to make arrangements for a couple of different funerals. Catherine and her husband, Justin, also hired themselves by taking care of the flowers for their own wedding.

The attention they were getting and the exposure to entrepreneurship had both of them thinking about how they could continue to work this side business out of their home. But then, the local flower/coffee shop in David City came for sale. Catherine and Justin were thinking about purchasing it until they found out there was another buyer looking at it. That changed everything, and they decided that they had to purchase it. They wrapped up the purchase in June of 2020, changed the name to "402 Floral" and hit the ground running.

That was 18 months ago. Today, when Catherine teaches her student both about floriculture and agribusiness, she is teaching the lessons that she learned in her own business, possibly just moments before coming to class. She is also learning more and more about florists actually do, and she is bringing that real world experience into the classroom with her. Enrollment in both her floriculture classes as well as her agribusiness classes has increased, but of course people know that she isn't just teaching these subjects, she is living them.

In today's episode, I replay an interview I did with an extrodinary FFA student who started his own business and then went on to start another. Learn about Hadden Powell and his floral and landscape design business.

Original Show Notes:

INTRODUCING HADDEN POWELL!

As you have heard me say many times, I really like it when things are efficient, they compliment each other and you see win/win situations. In the case of today's guest and national star nominee in agribusiness, he has developed just such a business.

Hadden Powell started Powells And Company doing floral designs. But this isn't the beginning of the story. He first started out with his landscape design business. As that business developed he realized that he had flowers growing that he should repurpose. So, he started Powells and Company.