Vets In Ag Podcast

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.

Enjoy!

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 experienceThe 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 RanchRockside's mission of “talking life into a group of rough men” using agriculture as their medium for changeThe principles of stewardship and the values that can impart on young men who have taken that for granted most of their life

Enjoy!

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 ArkansasThe realities of starter farms as sources of family incomeThe linkage between NCAT and the Farmer Veteran CoalitionThe origins of NCAT’s Armed to Farm program and all its detailsCommon missteps veterans make starting a farm for the first timeHow to image your way through taking the next step to scaling your farming business

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 followingHis difficult transition out of the ArmyHis trial and error with a variety of different jobs and interestsHis foray into homesteading and eventually Rake ForceRegenerative agroforestry, biochar creation, hügelkultur, and fuel reduction activities

Enjoy!

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

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

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 rockHis decision to join the Navy which took him all over the worldA hard lesson he learned late one night on the flight deck in the middle of the oceanHow pigs are the easy part; it's the people who need the most attentionCapturing mistakes from the military and bringing them forward into the ag profession

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 TeamHow he used these experiences to better understand how individual circumstances make a huge impact on personal decisionmakingThe nuances of the Japanese pork market and their focus on traceabilityLabor shortages and the pros/cons of technology to solve these problems

"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 1980sTen years and a lifetime's worth of experience as a linguist in the USAFThe current state of automation in agriculture and his thoughts on what the future holdsHow Andy has translated his skills from the military to a place like Raven

"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.